JPH11150508A - Vehicle information providing system and vehicle information providing method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide appropriate service information to a large number of vehicles according to the trip content of each vehicle. Each data transceiver functions as a ground station and transmits service information to vehicles in a cell. The information acquisition control unit 22 of the information center 20 acquires two types of service information from the information providing network 40, that is, wide area information and detailed information. Traffic Census Database 2
Reference numeral 8 denotes a database of trip information of vehicles in each cell, and the trip information includes a starting point and a destination of the trip. The information distribution control unit 30 controls the transmission frequency of the wide area information and the detailed information based on the trip information. For example, in a cell having many long-distance trips, the transmission frequency of the wide area information is set to be large.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle information providing system, and more particularly to a system capable of providing appropriate information according to a trip of a vehicle to be provided with information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a so-called ITS (Intelligent Tr
As a part of the ansport systems, a vehicle information providing system in which an information center provides various useful information to a vehicle is being developed. In one aspect of such a system, the entire target area of the information providing service is divided into a plurality of areas, whereby a plurality of cells are set. Each cell has one or more ground stations serving that cell
Is provided. The ground station transmits information to vehicles in the cell by broadcasting or the like. Here, the information provided to the vehicle is hereinafter referred to as service information. The service information is, for example, map information, traffic information, and information on facilities such as restaurants.

For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-22246, a ground station transmits service information to an unspecified vehicle in an information providing area (corresponding to a cell) of the ground station.
Send a certain range of map information. The provided certain range of road map information is the range of road map information required by an average vehicle in the information providing area.

[0004]

By the way, there are many vehicles in one cell, and different trips are made depending on the vehicles. A trip means that a vehicle moves from a certain place (departure place) to another place (destination). It can be said that vehicles that make long-distance trips and vehicles that make short-distance trips are mixed in the cell. Conventionally, a certain range of uniform information is provided irrespective of such a situation. Therefore, it has been difficult for all vehicles to receive provision of appropriate service information according to their trip contents. For example, if information for a short-distance trip is provided, a long-distance trip vehicle cannot obtain useful information. There is no point in providing a nearby residential map to vehicles traveling on a highway. Conversely, the same applies when information for a long-distance trip is provided, and a short-distance trip vehicle cannot obtain useful information.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide vehicle information capable of providing appropriate service information to a large number of vehicles in accordance with the trip contents of each vehicle. It is to provide a providing system and a providing method.

[0006]

(1) An information providing system for a vehicle according to the present invention is a system for providing service information used in an on-vehicle terminal device to a plurality of vehicles. Ground station means for transmitting the service information to vehicles in a cell, and information acquisition for acquiring a plurality of types of service information, each of which is information of a different scale range, as service information to be transmitted to the ground station means. Means, trip information acquisition means for acquiring trip information including the departure and destination of trips of a plurality of vehicles in the transmission cell, based on the trip information,
Transmission frequency control means for adjusting the transmission frequency of the plurality of types of service information transmitted by the ground station means.

According to the present invention, a plurality of types of service information, which are information of different scales, are acquired as service information to be provided to a vehicle. Thereby, information suitable for each of a plurality of types of trip contents (for example, long distance and short distance) can be provided. Then, the transmission frequencies of the plurality of types of service information are adjusted based on the trip information. For example, when there are many long-distance trip vehicles, the transmission frequency of large-scale wide-area information is set to be large. For example, when there are many short-distance trip vehicles, the transmission frequency of detailed information in a narrow range is set to be large. As described above, the frequency of transmission of service information with a high need can be increased in accordance with the situation of what kind of trip has many vehicles. As described above, according to the present invention, by transmitting a plurality of types of service information and adjusting the transmission frequency based on the trip information, it is possible to provide appropriate service information suitable for the trip content to a large number of vehicles. can do.

[0008] Preferably, the transmission frequency control means changes the transmission frequency according to time based on a time change of the trip information. According to this aspect, it is possible to cope with a change in the trip content depending on the time of the day. For example, in a time zone where there are many long-distance trip vehicles, the transmission frequency of the long-range wide-area information is set to be large.

(2) In the vehicle information providing system according to a preferred aspect of the present invention, the service information having a common content is transmitted to a plurality of ground station means based on the trip information. Area control means for changing the area provided by the user.

According to this aspect, by providing the service information of the common content in a plurality of transmission cells, in particular, by appropriately changing the number and arrangement of the transmission cells providing the common content information, The shape and size of the providing area can be adjusted. For example, when many vehicles make a long-distance trip, the transmission frequency of the wide-area service information in each cell is set to be high as described in (1) above. In this aspect, the wide-area service information is further provided. The region (group of cells) to be adjusted is appropriately adjusted according to the long-distance trip. Information collection and transmission can be efficiently performed by such area control using the common information.

(3) The vehicle information providing method according to the present invention is a method for providing service information used in an in-vehicle terminal device to a plurality of vehicles. A plurality of types of service information, which are information of different scale ranges, are transmitted at a transmission frequency based on trip information including a departure place and a destination of trips of a plurality of vehicles in the transmission cell. According to this aspect, the above effects of the present invention are realized in the form of a method.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows an area where information can be provided by the information providing system of the present embodiment. As shown, a number of circular cells 1, 2,... Are provided adjacent to each other. The size of each cell is set to a radius of about 5 to 10 km. Each cell is provided with a ground station, and the ground station transmits service information to vehicles in the cell. As described above, the service information is, for example, map information, traffic information, and facility information (restaurants, shops, sightseeing spots, and the like). The ground station transmits information to the vehicle using a communication method such as FM multiplexing, a beacon device, and cellular. A plurality of ground stations may be provided to cover one cell (such as when a beacon device is applied). In addition, the area shown in FIG.
(Connecting city A and city B). The cells 1 to 8 exist along the highway, and the cells 11 to 14 exist at a location away from the highway.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the information providing system of the present embodiment. The cells 1, 2, 3,... Are provided with data transceivers 1a, 2a, 3a,. The data transceiver transmits the service information sent from the information center 20 to vehicles in the cell. Further, the data transceiver receives data transmitted from a vehicle in the cell and transmits the data to the information center 20.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the terminal device 50 mounted on the vehicle. The navigation ECU 52 controls the entire terminal. The GPS device 54 detects the current position and sends it to the navigation ECU 52. The user uses the input device 56 to input the destination of the trip. The navigation ECU 52 sets the current location as the departure point,
Then, the optimum route from the current position to the destination is calculated using the map information in the map information storage unit 62. In the route calculation, processing according to a known method such as the Dijkstra method is performed. The navigation ECU 52 performs route guidance using the display 58 and the speaker 60 based on the set route.

Further, in FIG.
The CU 52 includes a reception information storage unit 64 and a communication circuit 66.
Is connected. The communication circuit 66, as described above,
It supports communication methods such as M-multiplexing, cellular, and beacon devices. The service information sent from the ground station is received by the communication circuit 66 and stored in the reception information storage unit 64. The navigation ECU 52 performs various processes that effectively use the service information. For example, the service information is presented to the user using the display 58 and the speaker 60. Further, for example, route calculation and the like are performed with reference to the service information. In addition, the navigation ECU 5
2 uses the communication circuit 66 to send data to the ground station. In the present embodiment, as described later, during the route setting process,
Trip information including the origin and destination of the trip and the current date and time is transmitted.

Returning to FIG. 2, in the information center 20, the information acquisition control section 22 functions as the information acquisition means of the present invention, and acquires wide area information and detailed information as a plurality of types of service information. The information acquisition control unit 22 is connected to various information providing networks 40 via the network connection unit 24. The wide area information is provided to the network 40 by the wide area information provider 42, and detailed information is provided by the local area information provider 44. Wide area information
This is a wide range of information and is useful when making long trips. The wide area information is, for example, macroscopic traffic information relating to a large area including a large number of cells, and is, for example, distant traffic information beyond the service area of the present system (such as traffic information on an expressway). On the other hand, detailed information is information in a narrow range, and is useful when performing a short-distance trip such as movement in a cell. For example, a regional information provider 44 is provided for each cell, and each regional information provider 44 provides traffic information within its own cell. The information acquisition control unit 22 stores the wide area information and the detailed information obtained from the network in the service information storage unit 26.

In the information center 20, a traffic census database 28 is provided. The traffic census database 28 stores, for each cell, trip information of vehicles in the cell. The trip information includes a trip origin (O), a destination (D), and a time at which the trip is performed. Statistics of trip information of a large number of vehicles in the cell are determined and stored in the traffic census database 28. Further, this database includes OD distribution data (see FIGS. 4 and 5) created by totaling trip information. The OD distribution data in FIG. 4 represents the distribution of the OD (starting point and destination) of the vehicle in each cell for each time zone as follows.

For example, the cell 1 includes a highway AB (see FIG. 1). Therefore, during the midnight hours, many long-distance trip vehicles travel on highways, and few short-range trip vehicles travel on general roads. On the other hand, during commuting hours, more vehicles run on nearby general roads than vehicles run on expressways.

The OD distribution data in FIG. 4 reflects such traffic conditions. In the cell 1, in the time zone from 0:00 to 6:00, 50% or more of all the vehicles make a trip from the starting point = cell 1 and the destination = cell 8. Also, in the same time zone, 20 to 30% of vehicles make a trip (departure = cell 1) and destination = cell 1 (intra-cell trip). on the other hand,
During the time period from 6:00 to 8:00, many vehicles make short-distance trips within the cell, exceeding 50%. In FIG. 4, a vehicle that performs a trip over a longer distance beyond the section between the cells 1 and 8 is also counted as a vehicle that performs a trip between the cells 1 and 8.

The OD distribution data shown in FIG. 5 is created based on the data shown in FIG. 4, and represents the trip length distribution of the vehicles in the cell 1 at midnight and commuting time. In response to the traffic conditions described above, there are many long-distance trip vehicles at midnight and many short-distance trip vehicles during commuting hours.

On the other hand, in FIG. 4, the cell 11 has a midnight time zone (0:00 to 6:00) and a commuting time zone (6:00 to 6:00).
At 8:00), many vehicles make short trips. Since the cell 11 is far from the highway AB, the ratio of long-distance trip does not increase even in the late night time zone.

With respect to the other cells, the OD distribution similar to that of the cell 1 is observed in the other cells 2, 3,... Existing along the highway. In addition, cell 1 away from the highway
Regarding 2, 13,..., The same OD distribution as in the cell 11 is observed.

The above OD distribution differs depending on the day of the week and date, and also depending on whether it is a weekday, a holiday, or a holiday. The OD distribution also differs when an event (a trade fair, a sporting event, a concert, or the like) is held in the cell or a nearby cell. Therefore, trip information including the above-described various elements is collected, and trip information is classified in consideration of these elements, and an OD distribution is created.

As described above, the traffic census database 28 is a database created based on the results of past statistics. In the present embodiment, the database is reviewed using trip information sent from vehicles in the cell. That is, the vehicle-mounted terminal device (FIG. 3) sets the departure place and the destination at the information center 2 when the route is set.
Uplink to 0. The departure place and the destination are represented by nodes of map information in the form of link data. Further, even when the route is not set, when the vehicle makes a trip, the departure place and the destination of the trip are uplinked at the end of the trip. In this way, the trip information obtained from the vehicle actually traveling is totaled as shown in FIG. Then, the latest data is prepared in the traffic census database 28 by the reviewing process based on the aggregation result.

Further, the information center 20 is provided with an information distribution control unit 30. The information distribution control unit 30 controls overall distribution of service information in a cell. That is, the information distribution control unit 30 determines what information should be provided in which cell in the following manner, and sends the information to be provided to each ground station.

The information distribution control unit 30 reads service information (obtained from the network) stored in the service information storage unit 26, processes the read service information, and prepares service information to be provided. At this time, two types of service information of detailed information suitable for a short-distance trip and wide-area information suitable for a long-distance trip are prepared for each cell. The detailed information and the wide area information are stored in the data transceivers 1a, 2a,.
・ ・ Sent to

The information distribution control section 30 is provided with a frequency determination section 32. The frequency determination unit 32 refers to the OD distribution data in the traffic census database 28 and
The transmission frequency of the detailed information and the wide area information is determined based on the distribution data. The transmission frequency is determined for each cell. For example, in the example of FIG. 5, in the cell 1, many vehicles make a long-distance trip during the midnight time zone. Therefore, the transmission frequency of the wide area information is set to 90%, and the transmission frequency of the detailed information is set to 10%. In the cell 1, many vehicles make short-distance trips during the morning commuting hours. Therefore, in this time zone, the transmission frequency of the detailed information is set to 90%, and the transmission frequency of the wide area information is set to 10%. The transmission frequency is set for each day of the week (or for each date) and for each time zone. Holidays and public holidays are treated as special days, and transmission frequencies are set separately. A day with an event is also processed as a special day. The transmission frequency set in this way is stored in the frequency storage unit 34.

The information distribution control unit 30 reads out the transmission frequency corresponding to the current day of the week or time zone from the frequency storage unit 34.
As described above, the transmission frequency is set for each cell.
The transmission frequency depends on the data transceivers 1a, 2a of the corresponding cell.
... Sent to The transceiver transmits the detailed information and the wide area information to the vehicles in the cell according to the transmission frequency transmitted from the information distribution control unit 30.

FIG. 7 shows how the transmission frequency of the detailed information and the wide area information is adjusted. 7, A1 to A9 indicate detailed information, and B1 to B9 indicate wide area information. Detailed information and wide area information are sequentially transmitted in the order shown. In the example of FIG. 7, the transmission frequency of both the detailed information A and the wide area information B is 50% from 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock (1: 1). From 4:00 to 10:00, the transmission frequencies of the detailed information A and the wide area information B are 75% and 25%, respectively (3: 1).

As described above, in the present embodiment, the OD
The transmission frequency of the detailed information and the wide area information is adjusted according to the distribution (the transmission interval is variably controlled). The OD distribution is created from the trip information. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the transmission frequency is controlled based on the trip information.

In this embodiment, the information distribution control unit 3
With 0, the content of the wide area information is adjusted based on the trip information. Here, the direction of trip of the long-distance trip vehicle in the cell is taken into account. Referring to FIG. 1, vehicles in cell 1 often make long-distance trips along highway AB. This phenomenon can also be seen from the OD distribution data in FIG. Therefore, information on a long area extending in the direction along the highway AB is prepared and provided as wide area information. It is also preferable to provide information on distant places along the highway AB.

Further, in the present embodiment, for wide area information, the information distribution control unit 30 controls information distribution so that information of common contents (same contents) is provided in a plurality of cells. For example, cells 1 to 8 exist along the highway AB. Therefore, wide area information relating to the expressway AB is prepared so that the cells can be used in common in the cells 1 to 8. The wide area information is, for example, a road map of a highway and surroundings, traffic congestion information, and service area information. Such wide area information is sent from the information center 20 to the cells 1 to 8. On the other hand, the cells 11 to 14 are separated from the highway AB. So, to be able to use these cells in common,
Wide-area information not related to expressways is created and provided. As described above, by providing common wide area information to a plurality of cells, collection and provision of information are efficiently performed.

Here, in the present embodiment, in the above-described processing, an area composed of a group of cells for transmitting common wide area information is referred to as an information providing area. The information providing area is preferably determined based on the following criteria. A trip having a departure point and a destination in the information providing area is defined as an intra-area trip. Then, cells to be shared are selected such that the ratio of the number of trip vehicles in the region to the total number of vehicles in the region (trip ratio in the region) becomes a predetermined ratio (for example, 50% to 70%). For example, in the above example, the cells 1 to 8 along the expressway are selected as the cells to be shared, so that the ratio of the trips within the area becomes an appropriate value. The shape and size of the information providing area are appropriately changed according to the day of the week, the time zone, and the like based on the trip ratio in the area. By using the intra-area trip ratio as a reference in this manner, a plurality of cells providing common wide-area information can be accurately determined.

Here, an example in which an information providing area is set along a highway has been described. In addition, it is possible to set various areas based on the trip ratio in the area, such as setting an information provision area so as to connect the interchange of the expressway and the event venue.

In this embodiment, the service information (detailed information or wide area information) to be transmitted based on the trip information
Is adjusted. As described above, the information distribution control unit 30 processes the data in the service information storage unit 26 and prepares data for transmission for each cell. On this occasion,
For each cell, the average trip time in the current day of the week or time zone is referred to. The average trip time is obtained from trip information and OD distribution data. Then, the data amount is adjusted so that the transmission ends in a fraction of the average trip time (for example, 20% or less). In order to adjust the data amount, it is also preferable to perform selection in consideration of the importance of information. The vehicle receives and uses the service information of the data amount adjusted as described above during the trip.

In the above data amount adjustment processing, it is also preferable to obtain the average trip time of the long-distance trip and the short-distance trip, and separately adjust the data amounts of the detailed information and the wide area information. In this case, the data amount of the wide area information is larger than the detailed information, and as a result, the data amount may exceed the receivable data amount while traveling in one cell. Even in this case, as described above, since the common information is provided in the plurality of cells, the vehicle may receive the data while traveling through the plurality of cells. Thus, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide a large amount of data.
If information provision conditions such as frequency are different between adjacent cells, information on these conditions is provided to the vehicle together with service information.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. According to the present embodiment, the transmission frequency of the wide area information and the detailed information is controlled for each cell based on the trip information. The transmission frequency of the wide area information is set to be large in a time zone centered on a long distance trip, and the transmission frequency of the detailed information is set high in a time zone centered on a short distance trip. Therefore, it is possible to increase the transmission frequency of information with high needs. In addition, there is no waste of transmitting information with low needs at high frequency. In this way, appropriate service information suitable for the trip content can be provided to a large number of vehicles.

Further, according to the present embodiment, as described above, by providing the wide area information having a common content in a plurality of cells on the basis of the intra-area trip ratio, the collection and provision of information can be performed efficiently and accurately. It can be carried out.

In this embodiment, trip information obtained by past statistics is used. On the other hand, trip information of vehicles in the cell may be collected in real time, and a process based on this real time information may be performed. Real-time trip information is acquired by communication (uplink) with a vehicle. Further, it is possible to detect the occurrence of a traffic flow corresponding to a special event by using real-time information. For example, when vehicles heading for a certain place are concentrated, the occurrence of an event can be recognized, and information can be provided in consideration of the event.

Next, a specific application example of the present invention will be described.
It is assumed that the present invention is applied to an FM multiplex network covering the whole country. Each FM station has its own transmission area (cell)
Have. There are many trips in the cell on weekdays,
The transmission frequency of information (such as event information) in the cell is set to be high. In addition, during a holiday or a long holiday season, the latest map data of a wide area of the Tohoku area is mainly distributed to an area along the Tohoku Expressway, for example. By repeatedly transmitting common data at a plurality of FM stations along the Tohoku Expressway, a large amount of information can be provided.

Further, it is assumed that the present invention is applied to a communication network constituted by a number of relatively small cells and covering a certain city. Cells existing along major roads (such as arterial roads) mainly provide wide-area traffic information. In a cell in an area away from the main road, detailed information in the vicinity is mainly distributed. At this time, the purpose of the trip can sometimes be estimated from the trip information. For example, in the afternoon, it can be seen that there are many trips for housewives shopping in residential areas. Therefore, in this time zone, shopping street information is provided as detailed information. As described above, more accurate information can be provided by considering the trip purpose based on the trip information. Also, in this case, at midnight,
It is considered preferable to provide wide area information near the main road or at a location away from the main road.

It is assumed that a beacon device (local communication device) is provided on a certain road. In this example, the information provided by the beacon device changes depending on the time zone. For example, in the commuting time zone, the transmission frequency of wide area traffic information and parking lot information is set to be large. During the lunch break, the transmission frequency of information on restaurants existing along the road where the beacon device is installed is set to be large.

As described above, the information providing system of the present invention can be suitably implemented in a communication network having cells of various sizes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating an area where information can be provided by an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle terminal device using service information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing OD distribution data included in a traffic census database.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing OD distribution data included in a traffic census database.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing aggregated data of trip information uplinked from a vehicle.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing how the transmission frequency of detailed information and wide area information is adjusted.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 2a, 3a, 4a Data transceiver, 20 information center, 22 information acquisition control unit, 26 service information storage unit, 28 traffic census database, 30 information distribution control unit, 32 frequency determination unit, 34 frequency storage unit, 50
In-vehicle terminal device, 64 reception information storage unit, 66 communication circuit.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle information providing system for providing service information used in an in-vehicle terminal device to a plurality of vehicles, the vehicle information providing system having a predetermined transmission cell and transmitting the service information to vehicles in the cell. Ground station means, information acquisition means for acquiring a plurality of types of service information which are information of different scale ranges as service information to be transmitted to the ground station means, and trips of a plurality of vehicles in the transmission cell. Trip information obtaining means for obtaining trip information including a departure place and a destination, and transmission frequency control means for adjusting a transmission frequency of a plurality of types of the service information transmitted by the ground station means based on the trip information. An information providing system for a vehicle, comprising: 2. The vehicle information providing system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission frequency control means changes the transmission frequency according to time based on a time change of the trip information. . 3. The system according to claim 1, further comprising: providing a plurality of ground station means with the service information having a common content based on the trip information. An information providing system for a vehicle, comprising an area control unit for changing an area to be provided. 4. The vehicle according to claim 3, wherein the area control means adjusts the providing area according to the long-distance trip when many vehicles make a long-distance trip. Information providing system. 5. A vehicle information providing method for providing service information used by an in-vehicle terminal device to a plurality of vehicles, wherein the plurality of vehicles have information of different scales for vehicles in a predetermined transmission cell. A vehicle information providing method, wherein a type of service information is transmitted at a transmission frequency based on trip information including a starting point and a destination of trips of a plurality of vehicles in the transmission cell.