Communication system

• US 20050227620A1
• Filed: 05/29/2002
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)
• Inventors: Morimoto, Hiroyuki
• Application Number:
  US10/513,782
• Publication Number:
  US 20050227620A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.200
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management

Abstract

A taxi user 1 specifies a taxi company or a driver through a browser phone 2, and transmits a car-allocation request message to a wireless local access point 3 by using short-distance wireless communications for which a fee is not charged, the transmitted car-allocation request message is received by a taxi company server 7 via a local portal server 4 etc., in the taxi company server 7, a taxi to be allocated is selected based on the contents of the car-allocation request message and a position of the wireless local access point, the browser phone 2 of the taxi user 1 is notified of the selection result, a car-allocation instruction is transmitted to a local portal server 10 inside-the-car of a selected taxi, and the selected taxi is allocated to the taxi user 1.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising:

a mobile communications terminal apparatus to transmit a car-allocation request message which requests car allocation, by using short-distance wireless communications;

a plurality of relay apparatuses, each of which is located at a predetermined geographical position, to receive the car-allocation request message transmitted from the mobile communications terminal apparatus in a certain case, and to perform relay processing of the car-allocation request message received;

a plurality of car-installed communications apparatuses installed in a plurality of cars; and

a vehicle management apparatus to manage the plurality of cars by performing communications with the plurality of car-installed communications apparatuses, to receive the car-allocation request message relayed by one of the plurality of relay apparatuses, to detect a placed position of the one of the plurality of relay apparatuses, which relayed the car-allocation request message, to select a specific car, as a selected vehicle, from the plurality of cars based on the car-allocation request message and a detected placed position of the relay apparatus, and to transmit a car-allocation instruction message that directs to allocate a car to the detected placed position of the relay apparatus, to a car-installed communications apparatus installed in the selected vehicle.

2. The communications system of claim 1, wherein

the communications system includes a plurality of vehicle management apparatuses, and the mobile communications terminal apparatus selects a specific vehicle management apparatus from the plurality of vehicle management apparatuses and transmits a car-allocation request message addressed to a selected vehicle management apparatus.

3. The communications system of claim 1, wherein

the vehicle management apparatus sets driver identification information for identifying a driver of each car in the plurality of cars,

the mobile communications terminal apparatus transmits a car-allocation request message including specific driver identification information, and

the vehicle management apparatus, when receiving the car-allocation request message including the specific driver identification information from one of the relay apparatuses, selects a car corresponding to the driver identification information included in the car-allocation request message as the selected vehicle.

4. A car-allocation system of claim 1, wherein

the mobile communications terminal transmits the car-allocation request message, by using short-distance wireless communications for which a fee is not charged.

5. A communications system, comprising:

a plurality of relay apparatuses, each of which is located at a predetermined geographical position, to receive a car-allocation request message transmitted from a mobile communications terminal apparatus, in a certain case, and to perform relay processing of the car-allocation request message received;

a plurality of car-installed communications apparatuses installed in a plurality of cars; and

a vehicle management apparatus to manage the plurality of cars by performing communications with the plurality of car-installed communications apparatuses, to receive the car-allocation request message relayed by one of the plurality of relay apparatuses, to detect a placed position of the one of the plurality of relay apparatuses which relayed the car-allocation request message, to select a specific car, as a selected vehicle, from the plurality of cars, based on the car-allocation request message and a detected placed position of the relay apparatus, and to transmit a car-allocation instruction message that directs to allocate a car to the detected placed position of the relay apparatus, to a car-installed communications apparatus installed in the selected vehicle.

6. The communications system of claim 5, wherein

the vehicle management apparatus sets driver identification information for identifying a driver of each car in the plurality of cars, and when receiving a car-allocation request message including specific driver identification information from one of the relay apparatuses, selects a car corresponding to the driver identification information included in the car-allocation request message as the selected vehicle.

7. The communications system of claim 5, wherein

each of the plurality of car-installed communications apparatuses keeps identification information of a driver of a car in which each of the car-installed communications apparatuses is installed, as its driver identification information, and when the mobile communications terminal apparatus has moved to the car in which each of the car-installed communications apparatuses is installed, transmits its driver identification information to the mobile communications terminal apparatus.

8. The communications system of claim 5, wherein

each of the car-installed communications apparatuses keeps notice information predetermined, and when the mobile communications terminal apparatus has moved to the car in which each of the car-installed communications apparatuses is installed, transmits the notice information to the mobile communications terminal apparatus.

9. The communications system of claim 8, wherein

each of the car-installed communications apparatuses keeps advertising information as the notice information, and when the mobile communications terminal apparatus has moved to the car in which each of the car-installed communications apparatuses is installed, transmits the advertising information to the mobile communications terminal apparatus.

10. The communications system of claim 8, wherein

the vehicle management apparatus keeps user attribute information which shows an attribute of a user of the mobile communications terminal apparatus, and transmits a car-allocation instruction message including the user attribute information to a car-installed communications apparatus installed in the selected vehicle, and

each of the car-installed communications apparatuses keeps a plurality of notice information, and when receiving the car-allocation instruction message including the user attribute information from the vehicle management apparatus, selects at least one of notice information from the plurality of notice information based on the user attribute information, and transmits a selected notice information to the mobile communications terminal.

11. The communications system of claim 5, wherein

each of the car-installed communications apparatuses, when the mobile communications terminal apparatus has moved to the car in which each of the car-installed communications apparatuses is installed, relays connection of the mobile communications terminal apparatus to the Internet.

12. The communications system of claim 5, wherein

each of the car-installed communications apparatuses keeps questionnaire data for a questionnaire, and when the mobile communications terminal apparatus has moved to the car in which each of the car-installed communications apparatuses is installed, transmits the questionnaire data to the mobile communications terminal apparatus, receives a response to the questionnaire data from the mobile communications terminal apparatus, and transmits a received response to the questionnaire data to the vehicle management apparatus.