Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080306678?oq=7%2C094%2C863
Timestamp: 2018-05-26 05:26:22
Document Index: 520568443

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 14', 'art 15', 'art 11', 'art 14', 'art 11', 'art 14', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 11', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15', 'art 15']

US20080306678A1 - Travel History Collection System And Terminal Side Device Used For It - Google Patents
Travel History Collection System And Terminal Side Device Used For It Download PDF
US20080306678A1
US20080306678A1 US11571792 US57179205A US20080306678A1 US 20080306678 A1 US20080306678 A1 US 20080306678A1 US 11571792 US11571792 US 11571792 US 57179205 A US57179205 A US 57179205A US 20080306678 A1 US20080306678 A1 US 20080306678A1
US11571792
US8412446B2 (en )
A travel history collection system includes a terminal side device and a center side device capable of communicating with the terminal device. The terminal device includes the following components. A vehicle information acquisition part acquires a travel history of a vehicle. A short-range wireless communication means and a wide-range wireless communication means are used to transmit the acquired travel history to a center device. A travel history transmission part transmits the travel history to the center device via the short-range wireless communication means when the travel history can be transmitted via the short-range wireless communication means, and via the wide-range wireless communication means when the travel history cannot be transmitted via the short-range wireless communication means. The center device receives the travel history from the terminal device via the wide-range wireless communication antenna and the road side unit so as to reduce the load on wide-range wireless communication, and to accurately collect a travel history from each terminal device at real time. Thus, latest travel histories can be collected efficiently.
The present invention relates to a travel history collection system in which a terminal device mounted on a vehicle acquires a travel history of the vehicle and then transmits it to a center device via a wireless communication means, and the center device collects travel histories of vehicles. The present invention also relates to a terminal side device used for the system.
There is a known system as follows. A terminal device acquires a travel history of a vehicle on which it is mounted and then transmits the travel history to a center device via either a short-range wireless communication means used between the terminal device and a road side device or a wide-range wireless communication means such as a portable telephone. A center device collects travel histories of vehicles transmitted from terminal devices, thereby generating information such as traffic information and traffic congestion information based on the collected travel histories.
The present invention, which has been developed in view of these conventional problems, provides a travel history collection system that can efficiently collect latest travel histories, and a terminal side device used for the system.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic structure of a travel history collection system of an embodiment of the present invention.
1 travel history acquisition terminal device
A travel history collection system of an embodiment of the present invention will be described as follows with reference to drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a travel history collection system of an embodiment of the present invention.
Upon determining the presence of a congestion section (“Yes” at S205), congestion section determination part 14 acquires a travel history corresponding to the congestion section from travel history database 13 (S206), and transmits the travel history to travel history transmission part 15 (S207). After this, vehicle information acquisition part 11 again acquires latest vehicle information from vehicle sensor 2 (S201) and then the aforementioned operations are repeated.
On the other hand, when congestion section determination part 14 determines the absence of a congestion section (“No” at S205), vehicle information acquisition part 11 subsequently acquires latest vehicle information from vehicle sensor 2 (S201) and then the aforementioned operations are repeated.
In FIG. 3, when acquiring the travel history corresponding to the congestion section from congestion section determination part 14 (S301), travel history transmission part 15 first determines whether it is in the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (S302). When determined not in the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (“No” at S302), travel history transmission part 15 acquires the travel history corresponding to the congestion section from travel history database 13. Travel history transmission part 15 then generates short-range wireless communication transmission data based on the acquired travel history (S303); records the latest position information as the information of the last point and initializes a travel distance L and a travel time period T starting from the congestion section determination point (S304); and goes into the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (S305).
When determined to be in the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (“Yes” at S302), travel history transmission part 15 acquires the travel history corresponding to a new congestion section from travel history database 13, and adds it to the already generated transmission data (the transmission data generated at Step 303) (S306). Thus, travel history transmission part 15 continues to be in the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (S307).
In FIG. 4, travel history transmission part 15 acquires latest position information from vehicle information acquisition part 11 (S401) and determines whether it is in the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (S402). When not in the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (“No” at S402), travel history transmission part 15 goes into the state of waiting for short-range wireless communication (S410). On the other hand, when in the state of waiting to transmit traffic congestion information (“Yes” at S402), travel history transmission part 15 compares between the latest position information and the information of the last point to calculate a travel distance difference Ldif and a travel time period difference Tdif (S403). The travel distance difference Ldif and the travel time period difference Tdif thus calculated are added respectively to the travel distance L and the travel time period T from the congestion section determination point, and the latest position information is recorded to the information of the last point and updated (S404).
Travel history transmission part 15 determines whether the travel distance L and travel time period T starting from the updated congestion section determination point are within allowable values Llim and Tlim, respectively (S405). When both the travel distance L and the travel time period T are within the allowable values Llim and Tlim (“Yes” at S405), travel history transmission part 15 goes into the state of waiting for short-range wireless communication (S411).
On the other hand, when at least one of the travel distance L and the travel time period T exceeds the allowable value Llim or Tlim (“No” at S405), travel history transmission part 15 stops being in the state of waiting to transmit the traffic congestion information (S406). Travel history transmission part 15 then transmits the transmission data generated from the travel history corresponding to the congestion section to travel history collection center device 7 via wide-range wireless communication means 4 and wide-range wireless communication antenna 6 (S407).
In the state of waiting for short-range wireless communication, as shown in FIG. 5, travel history transmission part 15 always determines whether travel history collection terminal device 1 has reached the point where it can perform data communication via short-range wireless communication (S501). When the determination indicates that the short-range wireless communication is impossible (“No” at S502), travel history transmission part 15 performs the determination again (S501). When the short-range wireless communication becomes possible (“Yes” at S502), travel history transmission part 15 determines whether it is in the state of waiting to transmit the traffic congestion information (S503).
When not in the state of waiting to transmit the traffic congestion information (“No” at S503), travel history transmission part 15 immediately executes the subsequent processes (at and after S505). On the other hand, when in the state of waiting to transmit the traffic congestion information (“Yes” at S503), travel history transmission part 15 executes the subsequent processes (at and after S505) after stopping being in the state of waiting to transmit the traffic congestion information (S504).
In FIG. 6, when a vehicle “a” is detected to have passed through a congestion section “b”, the travel distance L and the travel time period T starting from a detected point “c” are calculated. When the vehicle “a” has not reached a point “d” where the vehicle “a” can communicate with road side unit 5 used for short-range wireless communication, the travel distance L and the travel time period T thus calculated are compared with the allowable travel distance Llim and the allowable travel time period Tlim, respectively. When the comparison result indicates that both the travel distance L and the travel time period T are within the allowable values Llim and Tlim, respectively, travel history transmission part 15 continues to be in the state of waiting to transmit the traffic congestion information via wide-range wireless communication means 4. On the other hand, when one or both of them exceed the allowable value Llim or Tlim, travel history transmission part 15 transmits the travel history of the congestion section to travel history collection center device 7 via wide-range wireless communication means 4 mounted on the vehicle “a”.
In FIG. 7, the vehicle “a” has reached the point “d” where short-range wireless communication means 3 mounted on the vehicle “a” can communicate with road side unit 5 when the calculated travel distance L and travel time period T do not exceed the allowable values Llim and Tlim. In this case, all the travel histories accumulated in the vehicle “a” including the one corresponding to the congestion section “b” are transmitted to travel history collection center device 7 via short-range wireless communication means 3 mounted on the vehicle “a”.
The terms “allowable travel distance Llim and allowable travel time period Tlim indicate a travel distance and a travel time period allowed to determine whether short-range wireless communication means 3 can be used to transmit the vehicle history of the congestion section detected by the vehicle “a” to travel history collection center device 7 before determining to use wide-range wireless communication means 4.
FIG. 8 shows the calculation of the distance and the time period of a section which starts at the point where the travel velocity “V” of the vehicle reaches a threshold value Vtraf for congestion determination and continues as long as the travel velocity “V” remains equal to or less than the congestion determination threshold value Vtraf. When the travel velocity “V” becomes equal to or more than the congestion determination threshold value Vtraf while the vehicle is not making a right or left turn, if either the distance or the time period of the section with not more than the threshold value Vtraf is equal to or more than a prescribed distance Llow or a prescribed time period Tlow, the section is determined to be a congestion section. When both the distance and the time period of the section with not more than the threshold value Vtraf are equal to or less than the prescribed distance Llow and the prescribed time period Tlow, this section is not determined to be a congestion section.
As described hereinbefore, the present invention enables a travel history acquired by the terminal device to be transmitted to the center device via a short-range wireless communication means when the short-range wireless communication means can be used, and in the other cases, via the wide-range wireless communication means. Thus, the travel history can be transmitted to the center device even when the short-range wireless communication means cannot be used.
the center side device includes a second wide-range wireless communication means and a second short-range wireless communication means for receiving the travel history transmitted from the terminal side device.
2. The travel history collection system of claim 1, wherein
the terminal side device further includes:
a congestion section detection means for detecting a congestion section of the vehicle based on the travel history, and
when the congestion section detection means detects the congestion section, the travel history transmission means transmits the travel history containing the congestion section to the center side device via one of the first wide-range wireless communication means and the first short-range wireless communication means.
3. The travel history collection system of claim 2, wherein
the travel history transmission means transmits the travel history containing the congestion section to the center side device via one of the first wide-range wireless communication means and the first short-range wireless communication means not immediately after the congestion section detection means detects the congestion section but after the vehicle travels a predetermined distance after the congestion section detection means detects the congestion section.
4. The travel history collection system of claim 3, wherein
when the congestion section detection means detects the congestion section and then detects another congestion section while waiting for the vehicle to travel the predetermined distance, the travel history transmission means immediately transmits the travel history containing the congestion sections detected so far to the center side device via one of the first wide-range wireless communication means and the first short-range wireless communication means.
5. The travel history collection system of claim 2, wherein the travel history transmission means transmits the travel history containing the congestion section to the center side device via one of the first wide-range wireless communication means and the first short-range wireless communication means not immediately after the congestion section detection means detects the congestion section but after a predetermined time period elapses after the congestion section detection means detects the congestion section.
when the congestion section detection means detects the congestion section and then detects another congestion section while waiting for the predetermined time period to elapse, the travel history transmission means immediately transmits the travel history containing the congestion sections detected so far to the center side device via one of the first wide-range wireless communication means and the first short-range wireless communication means.
7. The travel history collection system of claim 2, wherein
the congestion section detection means determines presence of congestion when a travel velocity of the vehicle remains not more than a predetermined threshold value for one of a predetermined distance and a predetermined time period.
8. The travel history collection system of claim 2, wherein
the congestion section detection means determines presence of congestion when an average travel velocity of the vehicle in one of a certain fixed distance and a certain fixed time period is not more than a predetermined threshold value, even when the travel velocity does not remain not more than the predetermined threshold value for one of a predetermined distance and a predetermined time period,
the certain fixed distance and the certain fixed time period being larger than the predetermined distance and the predetermined time period, respectively.
9. The travel history collection system of claim 2, wherein
the travel history transmission means transmits the travel history containing the congestion sections detected so far to the center side device via one of the first wide-range wireless communication means and the first short-range wireless communication means immediately after the congestion section reaches a predetermined allowable value.
10. The travel history collection system of claim 2, wherein
the travel history transmission means does not transmit the travel history containing the congestion sections detected so far to the center side device immediately after the congestion section reaches a predetermined allowable value, but waits for the travel history to become able to be transmitted via the first short-range wireless communication means and then transmits the travel history to the center side device via the first short-range wireless communication means.
11. A terminal side device used in the travel history collection system of claim 1.
12. A terminal side device used in the travel history collection system of claim 2.
US11571792 2004-07-07 2005-07-01 Travel history collection system and terminal side device used for it Active 2029-02-10 US8412446B2 (en)
JP2004200304A JP4843913B2 (en) 2004-07-07 2004-07-07 Travel history collection system and terminal equipment
JP2004-200304 2004-07-07
US20080306678A1 true true US20080306678A1 (en) 2008-12-11
US8412446B2 US8412446B2 (en) 2013-04-02
US11571792 Active 2029-02-10 US8412446B2 (en) 2004-07-07 2005-07-01 Travel history collection system and terminal side device used for it
CN104299415A (en) * 2014-10-13 2015-01-21 浙江警察学院 Distributed traffic state detection system and method based on Bluetooth technology
JP6023039B2 (en) * 2013-12-20 2016-11-09 本田技研工業株式会社 Program and the server
JP4635280B2 (en) * 1999-07-08 2011-02-23 株式会社Ｉｈｉ Multimedia information providing system and method to the mobile vehicle
JP3988921B2 (en) * 2001-12-18 2007-10-10 クラリオン株式会社 Traffic information available system using a terminal device and it vehicle
JP4843913B2 (en) 2011-12-21 grant
WO2006004029A1 (en) 2006-01-12 application
JP2006023897A (en) 2006-01-26 application
US8412446B2 (en) 2013-04-02 grant
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:MIYAWAKI, OSAMU;REEL/FRAME:019279/0454