Terminal apparatus

• US 20040253965A1
• Filed: 04/13/2004
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Takao, Sato, Junichi, Itoh, Tomoaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,103,369 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

The present invention is to store a content list that stores at least one pair of content related to a position and the position in relation to the content, determine a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on a current position, select content in relation to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list, acquire part of the selected content in advance, determine whether remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to the part of the selected content being acquired, thereby determining whether or not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, and when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

Claims

1. A terminal apparatus that is mounted on a mobile unit and presents content related to a position, comprising:

a storing section that stores a content list storing at least one pair of the content and the position in relation to the content;

a position detector that detects a position of the mobile unit;

an acquisition region determiner that determines a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on the position of the mobile unit;

a selector that selects content in relation to the position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

a prefetcher that acquires part of the selected content;

an acquisition determiner which determines whether remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position of the mobile unit subsequent to acquisition of the part of the selected content, and thereby determines whether or not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

an acquiring section that acquires the remaining part of the selected content, when the acquisition determiner determines to acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

2. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position detector further detects moving speed of the mobile unit or a moving direction of the mobile unit, and the acquisition region determiner determines the content acquisition region based on the detected position and at least one of the moving speed and the moving direction detected.

3. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition determiner calculates time required for acquiring the remaining part of the selected content, determines whether the mobile unit will exist in a range of a predetermined distance from the position in relation to the selected content after moving for the calculated required time, and when determining that the mobile unit will not exist in the range of the predetermined distance apart, determines to acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

4. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a presentation controller that determines whether or not to present the selected content based on the position of the mobile unit.

5. The terminal apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the part of the selected content is presented, when the acquisition determiner determines not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content and the presentation controller determines to present the selected content after the prefetcher acquires the part of the selected content.

6. The terminal apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the presentation controller determines to present the selected content when it is predicted that the mobile unit reaches a position of the selected content after moving for a predetermined time.

7. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage that stores the part of the selected content acquired; and

a storage manager that assigns a deletion priority to determine a priority for deleting the part of the selected content stored in the storage from the storage, wherein the storage manager determines the deletion priority to assign to the part of the selected content corresponding to a result of determination in the acquisition determiner.

8. The terminal apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the storage stores the remaining part of the selected content when the remaining part of the selected content is acquired, and the storage manger assigns different priorities to the part of the selected content and the remaining part of the selected content after presenting the part of the selected content and the remaining part of the selected content.

9. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the part of the selected content and the remaining part of the content is encrypted.

13. A content distribution system comprising:

a terminal apparatus according to claim 1;

a list server that stores the content list; and

a content server that stores the content,

wherein the terminal apparatus acquires the content list from the list server using wireless communications, and further acquires the content from the content server using wireless communications.

16. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the content includes video and audio.

17. The terminal apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the prefetcher acquires an audio portion of the content, while the acquiring section acquires a video portion of the content.

10. A terminal apparatus that is mounted on a mobile unit and presents content related to a position, comprising:

a storing section that stores a content list storing at least one pair of the content and the position in relation to the content;

a position detector that detects a position of the mobile unit;

an acquisition region determiner that determines a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on the position of the mobile unit;

a selector that selects content in relation to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

an acquiring section that acquires the selected content;

a storage that stores the selected content acquired; and

a storage manager that assigns a deletion priority to determine a priority for deleting the selected content stored in the storage from the storage,

wherein the storage manager determines a deletion priority to assign to the selected content corresponding to whether the position of the selected content is included in the content acquisition region determined based on the position of the mobile unit after the acquiring section acquires the selected content.

11. The terminal apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the storage manager determines a deletion priority to assign to the selected content corresponding to whether the position of the selected content is included in the content acquisition region determined based on the position of the mobile unit after the selected content is presented.

12. The terminal apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the storage manager determines a deletion priority to assign to the selected content corresponding to whether the position of the selected content is included in the content acquisition region determined based on a relationship of a predetermined moving path of the mobile unit.

14. A method of acquiring content related to a position of a terminal apparatus mounted and used on a mobile unit, comprising:

storing a content list storing at least one pair of the content and the position in relation to the content;

detecting a position of the mobile unit;

determining a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on the position of the mobile unit;

selecting content in relation to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

acquiring part of the selected content;

determining whether remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to acquisition of the part of the selected content, and thereby determining whether or not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

acquiring the remaining part of the selected content, when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

15. A program for acquiring content related to a position of a terminal apparatus mounted and used on a mobile unit and having a computer execute processing of:

storing a content list storing at least one pair of the content and the position in relation to the content;

detecting a position of the mobile unit;

determining a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on the position of the mobile unit;

selecting content in relation to the position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

acquiring part of the selected content;

determining whether remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to acquisition of the part of the selected content, and thereby determining whether or not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

acquiring the remaining part of the selected content, when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content.