Chargeability presenting method and chargeability presenting system

• US 10,140,866 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2018
• Issued: 11/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nishida, Yoichi, Sawai, Tetsuro
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T
• Application Number:
  US15/901,215
• Publication Number:
  US 20180253972A1
• Time in Patent Office: 279 Days
• Field of Search: 3409322, 340937, 340942, 340943, 340927, 3404261, 705 13, 705 32
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/124 Detection or removal of foreign bodies
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/126 Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/145 where the indication depends on the parking areas
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

A chargeability presenting method that uses an information terminal having a display device and connected to vehicle parking places having charging spaces in which vehicles including an electric vehicle are parkable and chargers for wirelessly charging the vehicles are installed. The method includes a display outputting an image indicating chargeability in each vehicle parking place in a predetermined form, the image being generated based on vehicle presence information indicating whether or not a vehicle is present in each charging space and foreign-object information indicating a result of an attempt to detect a foreign object on each charger.

Claims

1. A chargeability presenting method using a vehicle parking place system, the vehicle parking place system including:

a management apparatus that is connected to one or more vehicle parking places through a network to manage the one or more vehicle parking places and an information terminal that is connected to the management apparatus through the network, each vehicle parking place having a charging space where a vehicle including an electric vehicle is parkable and a charger for wirelessly charging the vehicle is installed, the method comprising;

a search indicator outputting search indication information indicating that the vehicle parking place where the charging space is vacant is to be searched for;

a vehicle detector outputting vehicle presence information indicating whether or not a vehicle is present in each charging space, upon obtaining the search indication information;

a detection indicator outputting detection indication information indicating that presence of a foreign object, other than a vehicle, in a wireless power-supply region in each charging space is to be detected;

a foreign-object detector attempting to detect a foreign object and outputting foreign-object information indicating a result of the detection, upon obtaining the detection indication information; and

a display displaying, on a display device included in the information terminal, an image that is generated based on the vehicle presence information and the foreign-object information and that indicates a degree of chargeability in each vehicle parking place in a predetermined form.

2. A chargeability presenting method for one or more vehicle parking places each having a charging space, the method using an information terminal that is connectable to a network and that has a display device, the method comprising:

a search indicator outputting search indication information indicating that a vehicle parking place where the charging space is vacant, a vehicle including an electronic vehicle being parkable in the vacant charging space, is to be searched for;

a detection indicator outputting detection indication information indicating that presence of a foreign object, other than a vehicle, in a wireless power-supply region in each charging space is to be detected; and

a display outputting an image indicating a degree of chargeability in each vehicle parking place in a predetermined form onto the display device, the image being generated based on vehicle presence information and foreign-object information, vehicle presence information being obtained as a response to the search indication information and indicating whether or not a vehicle is present in each charging space, foreign-object information indicating a result of an attempt to detect a foreign object in the wireless power-supply region, the foreign-object information being obtained as a response to the detection indication information.

3. The method according to claim 2,

wherein, when the charging space where neither a vehicle nor a foreign object is present and wireless charging is possible is not available in each vehicle parking place, the display unit outputs a first image indicating a first use state in association with the vehicle parking place;

otherwise, the display unit outputs a second image indicating a second use state in association with the vehicle parking place.

4. The method according to claim 3,

wherein, when a predetermined condition in a range in which the number of charging spaces where wireless charging is possible is neither zero nor all is satisfied in each vehicle parking place, the display unit outputs a third image indicating a third use state in association with the vehicle parking place.

5. The method according to claim 2,

wherein the display unit outputs a vehicle parking place image with which the one or more vehicle parking places are identifiable in ascending or descending order based on the number of charging spaces where charging is possible in each of the one or more vehicle parking places.

6. The method according to claim 2,

wherein the detection indicator determines whether or not the detection indication information is to be output, based on an operation on an operating device included in the information terminal.

7. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

an observation indicator outputting observation indication information indicating that removability of a foreign object by using human power is to be observed, when it is determined that the foreign object is present, based on the foreign-object information; and

receiving, as a response to the observation indication information, removability information indicating a result of an attempt to observe the removability of the foreign object,

wherein the display unit outputs an image indicating a degree of chargeability in each vehicle parking place in a predetermined form, the image being generated based on the removability information in addition to the vehicle presence information and the foreign-object information.

8. The method according to claim 7,

wherein, when the removability information includes difficulty-level information indicating a difficulty level of removing the foreign object,

the display unit outputs a difficulty level image corresponding to the difficulty-level information.

9. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

a reservation indicator outputting reservation information indicating a reservation of the charging space in the vehicle parking place corresponding to the second image, based on an operation on an operating device.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

a removal indicator outputting, upon receiving the removability information indicating that the foreign object is removable, removal information indicating that the foreign object is to be removed, based on an operation on an operating device.

11. A chargeability presenting system for a vehicle parking place system including a management apparatus that is connected to one or more vehicle parking places through a network to manage the one or more vehicle parking places and an information terminal that is connected to the management apparatus through the network, each vehicle parking place having a charging space where a vehicle including an electric vehicle is parkable and a charger for wirelessly charging the vehicle is installed, the chargeability presenting system comprising:

a search indicator that outputs search indication information indicating that the vehicle parking place where the charging space is vacant is to be searched for;

a vehicle detector that outputs vehicle presence information indicating whether or not a vehicle is present in each charging space, upon obtaining the search indication information;

a detection indicator that outputs detection indication information indicating that presence of a foreign object, other than the vehicle, in a wireless power-supply region in each charging space is to be detected;

a foreign-object detector that attempts to detect the foreign object and that outputs foreign-object information indicating a result of the attempt, upon obtaining the detection indication information; and

a display that displays, on a display device included in the information terminal, an image that is generated based on the vehicle presence information and the foreign-object information and that indicates a degree of chargeability in each vehicle parking place in a predetermined form.