VEHICLE TRAVELING SUPPORT COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20160140843A1
• Filed: 03/03/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: TOSA, Takatoshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,646,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/162 event-triggered
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/46 for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V]

Abstract

The start and end of the transmission of information is controlled by, depending on the situation, determining whether to stop transmitting position information on a vehicle-mounted terminal device transmitted by a vehicle-to-vehicle communication between a vehicle of interest and a surround vehicle and position information on a portable terminal device transmitted by a pedestrian-to-vehicle communication between the portable terminal device carried by a person who got off its own vehicle and a surround vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle traveling support communication apparatus comprising:

a communication unit for performing vehicle-to-vehicle communication between a vehicle-mounted terminal device for an own vehicle and a vehicle-mounted terminal device for a surrounding vehicle, and a pedestrian-to-vehicle communication between the vehicle-mounted terminal device for the own vehicle and a portable terminal device;

a position estimation unit for obtaining position information on the vehicle-mounted terminal device for the own vehicle;

a getting on/off detection unit for detecting that a person who has been riding in the vehicle gets off it; and

a control unit for causing the communication unit to transmit the position information obtained by the position estimation unit to the surrounding vehicle when the getting on/off detection unit detects the person who got off the vehicle, and to terminate the transmission of the position information by the communication unit, upon receiving mobile position information from the portable terminal device carried by the person who got off the vehicle through the pedestrian-to-vehicle communication of the communication unit.

2. The vehicle traveling support communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position estimation unit has a function of obtaining position information on the portable terminal device in addition to position information on the vehicle-mounted terminal device for the own vehicle, and the control unit controls to terminate the transmission of the position information on the vehicle-mounted terminal device for the own vehicle when a distance between the vehicle-mounted terminal device and the portable terminal device becomes more than or equal to a predetermined distance.

3. The vehicle traveling support communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the getting on/off detection unit detects that the person who got off the vehicle gets on the own vehicle again within a predetermined time, the control unit causes the communication unit to terminate the transmission of the position information on the vehicle-mounted terminal device for the own vehicle through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

4. The vehicle traveling support communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the portable terminal device is previously registered with the vehicle-mounted terminal device, and when the getting on/off detection unit detects that the person who got off the vehicle gets on the own vehicle again within a predetermined time, the control unit exercises control by identifying that information is from the previously registered portable terminal device, and causes the communication unit to terminate the transmission of the position information on the vehicle-mounted terminal device for the own vehicle through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication.

5. A vehicle traveling support communication system, comprising the communication apparatus according to claim 1 and a portable terminal device associated with the vehicle-mounted terminal device of the communication apparatus, wherein the control unit of the communication apparatus exercises control by identifying that information is from the previously registered portable terminal device.

6. The vehicle traveling support communication system according to claim 5, wherein the portable terminal device includes a communication unit for performing a pedestrian-to-vehicle communication with the vehicle-mounted terminal device;

a position estimation unit for obtaining position information on the portable terminal device;

a terminal distance calculation unit for calculating a distance between the vehicle-mounted terminal device and the portable terminal device based on the position information on the vehicle-mounted terminal device and the position information on the portable terminal device; and

a control unit for controlling the communication unit based on the distance between the vehicle-mounted terminal device and the portable terminal device, wherein the transmission of the position information on the portable terminal device is started when the distance between the vehicle-mounted terminal device and the portable terminal device becomes more than or equal to a predetermined distance.

7. The vehicle traveling support communication system according to claim 6, wherein the vehicle-mounted terminal device obtains the position information transmitted from the communication unit when detecting a person who got off the vehicle to update the position information on the portable terminal device.