On-vehicle emergency report apparatus, emergency communication apparatus and emergency report system

• US 6,724,321 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2002
• Issued: 04/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Sato, Kazuhiko, Kojima, Takao, Minowa, Toshimichi, Yoshikawa, Tokuji, Kuragaki, Satoru
• Primary Examiner(s): POPE, DARYL C
• Application Number:
  US10/244,540
• Publication Number:
  US 20030117274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 581 Days
• Field of Search: 701/301, 701/213, 701/117, 701/45, 340/573.1, 340/928, 340/539.1, 340/825.49, 340/825.36, 340/539.13
• US Class Current: 340/928
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

An on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, an emergency communication apparatus and an emergency report system are disclosed. The emergency report apparatus includes an emergency situation prediction unit for predicting the possibility of a vehicle involved encountering an emergency situation, a report control unit and a communication unit. The communication is established based upon the determination of the emergency situation prediction unit, which predicts the possibility of the vehicle encountering an emergency situation a predetermined time later, based on at least one of the feature quantities including the distance between the vehicle involved and the vehicle running immediately ahead, the relative speed, the relative acceleration, the speed of the vehicle involved, the brake pedal stroke, the steering wheel angle and the expression of the driver.

Claims

1. An emergency report system for a vehicle comprising:

an emergency report service station for receiving an information from a vehicle;

a vehicle position detection means for detecting the position of said vehicle;

an emergency situation prediction means for predicting that said vehicle encounters an emergency situation, based on a driving state of said vehicle; and

communication means for communicating with said emergency report service station, wherein;

the prediction whether said vehicle encounters an emergency situation in a predetermined time later is made, and

the result of the prediction is transmitted to said emergency report service station through said communication means, together with the vehicle position information detected by said vehicle position detection means.

2. An emergency report system according to claim 1, wherein said emergency situation prediction means makes a prediction by using information on the driving state of said vehicle, including at least one of:

the distance from an object with which the vehicle may collide, the relative speed, the relative acceleration, the speed, the brake pedal stroke, the steering wheel angle and a feature quantity of a facial expression of the driver of the vehicle.

3. An emergency report system according to claim 1, wherein:

said emergency situation prediction means predicts position of the vehicle and position of said object with which said vehicle may collide, as of a predetermined time later, based on the distance between said vehicle and said object, and the speed, the acceleration and the steering wheel angle of the vehicle, and

the prediction means estimates the possibility of collision based on the prediction of the relative positions of said vehicle and said object.

4. An emergency report system according to claim 1, further comprising an internal power supply charged by an on-vehicle power supply,

wherein the on-vehicle power supply is used normally, and in the case of failure of power from said on-vehicle power supply, power is supplied from said internal power supply.

5. An emergency report system according to claim 1, further comprising self-diagnosis means for making a self-diagnosis of the vehicle,

wherein the result of the self-diagnosis of the vehicle by said self-diagnosis means is transmitted to said emergency report service station through said communication means.

6. An emergency report system according to claim 5, further comprising an emergency report testing apparatus for testing an emergency report in which the result of the self-diagnosis is received from said on-vehicle emergency report system, and the acknowledgment of the receipt is transmitted to said on-vehicle emergency report system.

7. An emergency communication system comprising;

an emergency report system for a vehicle, the emergency report system detecting the portion of said vehicle, predicting that said vehicle encounters an emergency situation, based on a driving state of said vehicle, and reporting an emergency information including the result of the prediction of the emergency situation, together with said position of said vehicle;

a service station for receiving the emergency information from said emergency report system;

a first aid center for receiving information from said service station;

a notifiee data base for storing information on a notifiee person associated with an occupant of said vehicle; and

communication means, wherein an emergency report is received from said emergency report system through said communication means, the information is transmitted to said first aid center, the information on the prospective destination of the occupant of the emergency-reporting vehicle is received from the first aid center, said notifiee data base is searched for the notifiee person associated with the occupant of the vehicle, and the information on the destination of the occupant is transmitted to the notifiee persons concerned.

8. An emergency communication system according to claim 7, wherein said first aid center is an emergency hospital and emergency transport means.

9. An emergency communication system according to claim 7, wherein information as to whether the occupant is safe or not is transmitted to the notifiee person, in addition to the information on the destination of the occupant.

10. An emergency communication system according to claim 7,

wherein information on position of the vehicle is received together with the emergency report from said emergency report system through said communication means at predetermined time intervals, and the information on the latest position of said vehicle is transmitted to the notifiee persons concerned, through said communication means, at predetermined time intervals.

11. An emergency communication system according to claim 7,

wherein in a case where a transferee from an original telephone of the notifiee person is determined, the telephone number of said transferee is acquired from selected one of said original telephone and the transferee telephone, and the notifiee person can be contacted directly communication with said transferee telephone.

12. An emergency communication system comprising;

an emergency report system for a vehicle, the emergency report system detecting position of said vehicle, predicting that said vehicle involved encounters an emergency situation, based on a driving state of said vehicle, and reporting an emergency information including the result of the prediction of the emergency situation, together with said position of said vehicle;

a service station for receiving the emergency information from said emergency report system;

a first aid center for receiving the information from said service station;

a notifiee data base for storing information on a notifiee person associated with an occupant of said vehicle involved; and

communication means, wherein an emergency report is received from said emergency report system through said communication means at said service station, said first aid center and a notifiee are selected from said notifiee data base according to said received emergency report, information from the received report is transmitted to said first aid center, information on a prospective destination of the occupant is received from the first aid center, said notifiee data base is searched for the notifiee person associated with the occupant, and the information on the destination of the occupant is transmitted to the notifiee person associated with the occupant.

13. An emergency communication system according to claim 12, wherein said first aid center is an emergency hospital and emergency transport means.

14. An emergency communication system according to claim 12, wherein information as to whether the occupant is safe or not is transmitted to the notifiee person associated with the occupant, in addition to the information on the destination of the occupant.

15. An emergency communication system according to claim 12,

wherein the information on the position of the vehicle is received together with the emergency report from said on-vehicle emergency report system through said communication means at predetermined time intervals, and the information on the latest position of said vehicle is transmitted to the notifiee person through said communication means, at predetermined time intervals.

16. An emergency communication system according to claim 12, wherein in case a transferee from the telephone of the notifiee person is determined, the telephone number of said transferee is acquired from a selected one of said original telephone and the transferee telephone, and the notifiee person can be contacted directly by communication with said transferee telephone.