Status notification system, status notification apparatus, and response apparatus

• US 20020041240A1
• Filed: 06/26/2001
• Published: 04/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Kiyokazu, Kamon, Yoshiyuki
• Granted Patent: US 6,573,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/993
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

The invention is intended to detect a status of a movable body having a status notification system from information supplied by a plurality of sensors installed on this movable body, selectively transmit, on the basis of the result of the detection, the sensor information to a response apparatus connected to another network in a wireless manner, and, when the response apparatus requests additional sensor information, the status notification system transmits the stored sensor information selectively, thereby executing only the communication necessary for movable body rescue and support activities.

Claims

1. A situation notification system for automatically wirelessly communicating, on the basis of information supplied from a plurality of sensors installed on a movable body, a status of said movable body through a response unit and a communication unit connected to a network, having:

a status sensing unit for transmitting, if said movable body is found in a predetermined situation on the basis of data obtained from said plurality of sensors installed on necessary portions of said movable body, predetermined data to said response unit through said communication unit and selectively transmitting, if an additional information transmission request is received from said response unit through said communication unit, the data obtained from said plurality of sensors;

a communication unit for wirelessly communicating with said status sensing unit and communicating with said response unit; and

a response unit for receiving said predetermined data from said status sensing unit through said communication unit, determining whether the acquisition of said additional information is necessary on the basis of said predetermined data, and, if the acquisition of said additional information is necessary, requesting, through said communication unit, said status sensing unit for the transmission of said additional information;

said status sensing unit comprising;

an input means for inputting sensing information sensed from said plurality of sensors;

a storage means for storing said sensing information inputted by said input means;

a sensing means for sensing whether said sensing information is within a predetermined range;

a communication means for wirelessly communicating with said response unit; and

a control means, if said movable body having said status sensing unit is found by said sensing means that said movable body is in a predetermined status, for selecting predetermined sensing information from the sensing information stored in said storage means, controlling said communication means so as to wirelessly transmit the selected sensing information to said response unit, and, if the request for the acquisition of said additional information is subsequently received from said response unit, reading the requested additional information from said storage means to transmit the read additional information;

said communication unit comprising;

a wireless communication means for wirelessly communicating with said status sensing unit;

a network communication means for communicating with said response unit connected to said network; and

a conversion means for converting a data format of the wireless communication and a data format of the network communication; and

said response unit comprising;

a communication means for communicating with said status sensing unit through said network;

an evaluation means for evaluating a status of said movable body having said status sensing unit from the predetermined sensing information supplied from said status sensing unit; and

a control means, if the request for said additional information is found necessary on the basis of an evaluation result obtained by said evaluation means, for controlling said communication means so as to transmit acquisition request information for requesting said additional information to said status sensing unit.

2. The status notification system according to claim 1;

wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is positional information about said movable body.

3. The status notification system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is a result of sensing an acceleration applied to said movable body.

4. The status notification system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is a result of sensing a speed of said movable body.

5. The status notification system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is at least one of internal and external images of said movable body.

6. The status notification system according to claim 5, wherein said additional information is said at least one of internal and external images.

7. The status notification system according to claim 1, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is at least one of internal audio information and external audio information of said movable body.

8. The status notification system according to claim 7, wherein said additional information is at least said one of internal audio information and external audio information.

9. A status notification apparatus for automatically wirelessly communicating with a response unit connected to a network a status sensed on a movable body through a commutation unit for wireless communicating data with said network, comprising:

an input means for inputting sensing information sensed from said plurality of sensors;

a storage means for storing said sensing information inputted by said input means;

a sensing means for sensing whether said sensing information is within a predetermined range;

a communication means for wirelessly communicating with said communication unit; and

a control means, if said sensing information is found within said predetermined range by said sensing means, for selecting predetermined sensing information from the plurality of pieces of sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors, controlling said communication means so as to transmit the selected sensing information to said response unit as initial information through a communication unit and, if an additional information request signal is received from said response unit, controlling said communication means so as to selectively read the requested sensing information from said storage means to transmit the read sensing information to said response unit.

10. The status notification apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is positional information about said movable body.

11. The status notification apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is an acceleration applied to said movable body.

12. The status notification apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the sensing information sensed by said sensing means is an acceleration applied to said movable body.

13. The status notification apparatus according to claim 12, wherein a status sensed by said acceleration is a collision of said movable body.

14. The status notification apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is a speed of said movable body.

15. The status notification apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is at least one of internal and external images of said movable body.

16. The status notification apparatus according to claim 15, wherein said additional information is said at least one of internal and external images.

17. The status notification apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the sensing information inputted from said plurality of sensors into said status sensing unit is at least one of internal audio information and external audio information of said movable body.

18. The status notification apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said additional information is said at least one of internal audio information and external audio information.

19. The status notification apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said status notification system further comprises an image display means and a map reproduction means for reproducing map information, and said image display means displays the reproduced map information.

20. The status notification apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said map information includes a current location of said movable body.

21. The status notification apparatus according to claim 20, wherein, when predetermined sensing information has been transmitted to said response unit, a current location of another movable body moving to said movable body is displayed on said image display means.

22. The status notification apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the positional information of said another movable body displayed on said image display means is received by said communication means.

23. The status notification apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

an operation means which is operated by a user of said status notification apparatus, said control means transmitting the sensing information to said response unit when said operation means is operated by the user.

25. The response apparatus according to claim 24, further comprising:

a storage means for storing the additional sensor information supplied from said status notification apparatus in response to said additional information transmission request signal.

26. The response apparatus according to claim 24, wherein, if the evaluation result of the sensor information supplied from said status notification apparatus is within a predetermined range, said response apparatus issues a command for moving another movable body to the current location of said movable body having said status notification apparatus.

27. The response apparatus according to claim 24, wherein, if the evaluation result of the sensor information supplied from said status notification apparatus is within a predetermined range, said response apparatus selectively transmit the sensor information supplied from said status notification apparatus to another unit.

28. The response apparatus according to claim 27, wherein said another unit to which the sensor information is transmitted is a rescue request acceptance unit controlled by police.

29. The response apparatus according to claim 27, wherein said another unit to which the sensor information is transmitted is a receiver installed at an insurance company which manages an insurance policy covering said movable body.

30. The response apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the sensor information requested by said additional information transmission request signal is image information.

31. The response apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the sensor information requested by said additional information transmission request signal is audio information.

24. A response apparatus for communicating, via a network, with a status notification apparatus which selectively transmits information supplied from a plurality of sensors installed on a movable body by wirelessly communicating with a communication unit, comprising:

a communication means for network-communicating with said communication unit;

an evaluation means for evaluating predetermined sensing data selectively supplied from said status notification apparatus; and

a control means, if the reception of further sensor information from said status notification apparatus is found necessary on the basis of a result of the evaluation made by said evaluation means, for controlling said communication means so as to transmit to said status notification apparatus an additional information transmission request signal for requesting the transmission of additional sensor information.