WIRELESS COMMUNICATION APPARATUS

• US 20150296243A1
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Published: 10/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Ikeda, Kumiko, Murayama, Shu, Abukawa, Masahiro, Yoshida, Michinori, Ujiie, Junya
• Granted Patent: US 9,456,239 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/214 Specialised server platform, e.g. server located in an airplane, hotel, hospital arrangements specially adapted for local area broadcast systems H04H20/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2146 located in mass transportation means, e.g. aircraft, train or bus flight-deck installations for entertainment or communications B64D11/0015; arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62; moving wireless networks H04W84/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/462 Content or additional data management, e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end, controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass

Abstract

A wireless communication apparatus which performs wireless communication with onboard information equipment installed in a vehicle includes: receiver that receives media data from the onboard information equipment; playback processing unit that outputs the media data the receiver receives; communication state retaining unit that retains a communication state between the onboard information equipment and wireless communication apparatus; usage situation deciding unit that decides a usage situation of the wireless communication apparatus from the vehicle surrounding information and generates usage situation information; quality deciding unit that decides the quality of the media data using communication state information retained in the communication state retaining unit and the usage situation information generated by the usage situation deciding unit; and transmitter that transmits the quality generated by the quality deciding unit to the onboard information equipment as media data quality information.

Claims

1. :

A wireless communication apparatus that carries out wireless communication with onboard information equipment installed in a vehicle, the wireless communication apparatus comprising;

a receiver that receives media data from the onboard information equipment;

a playback processing unit that outputs the media data the receiver receives;

a communication state retaining unit that keeps communication state information between the onboard information equipment and the wireless communication apparatus;

a usage situation deciding unit that decides a usage situation of the wireless communication apparatus from vehicle surrounding information, and generates usage situation information;

a quality deciding unit that decides quality of the media data using the communication state information retained in the communication state retaining unit and the usage situation information generated by the usage situation deciding unit; and

a transmitter that transmits the quality generated by the quality deciding unit to the onboard information equipment as quality information of the media data.

2. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the quality deciding unit alters the quality of the media data received from the onboard information equipment in accordance with the usage situation information when a packet error rate contained in the communication state information is not less than a threshold.

3. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the usage situation deciding unit collects in-vehicle sound with a microphone as the vehicle surrounding information, and generates the usage situation information on whether to be in conversation or not from the in-vehicle sound.

4. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the usage situation deciding unit generates the usage situation information on whether noise is taking place or not from the vehicle information received from the onboard information equipment as the vehicle surrounding information.

5. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the usage situation deciding unit generates the usage situation information on whether a user watches a screen or not from an image taken with a camera as the vehicle surrounding information.

6. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising;

an operation information retaining unit that retains operation information of the wireless communication apparatus, wherein

the quality deciding unit decides the quality of the media data using not only the communication state information and the usage situation information, but also the operation information retained in the operation information retaining unit.

7. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the operation information contains information on whether an alteration operation of volume occurs or not; and

the quality deciding unit does not alter the quality of the media data when the operation information contains information on the alteration operation of the volume.

8. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the usage situation deciding unit further generates, in addition to the usage situation information, user information by deciding a user; and

the quality deciding unit decides the quality of the media data using not only the communication state information and the usage situation information, but also the user information.

9. :

The wireless communication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the user information contains information on whether the user of the wireless communication apparatus is a child or not; and

the quality deciding unit does not alter the quality of the media data when the user information indicates a child.