Broadcasting system, broadcast receiving hardware systems, and navigation terminal

• US 6,759,970 B1
• Filed: 08/28/2000
• Issued: 07/06/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Fushiki, Takumi, Yamane, Kenichiro, Yokota, Takayoshi, Kawamata, Yukihiro, Yamaashi, Kimiya, Horita, Masato
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent A.
• Application Number:
  US09/649,682
• Time in Patent Office: 1,408 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/995, 340/988, 701/208, 701/211, 701/213
• US Class Current: 340/905
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09675 where a selection from the received information takes place in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/62 for transportation systems, e.g. in vehicles

Abstract

To ensure that of all information transmitted through broadcast communications, only the information corresponding to the traveling route of a mobile body will be efficiently displayed at the information terminal of a car navigation system or the like, the information terminal is provided with: a means for receiving the spot or area information being transmitted, and receiving information that has been linked to the spot or area information being transmitted, a means for judging whether the spot or area information that has been received above is included in part of the spot or area information corresponding to the traveling route of the mobile body, and storage media for retaining the received spot or area information that the above-mentioned judgment means has judged to be included in the spot or area information corresponding to the traveling route of the mobile body.

Claims

1. An information broadcasting method comprising:

adding, to each of a plurality of information contents to be broadcast, location information specifying spots or areas for which the information content is intended, and timing information specifying the effective time-of-day/available hours of the information content;

broadcasting the information contents with the added location information and timing information;

receiving the broadcast information by a mobile unit;

retrieving first information that specifies a spot or area where the mobile unit currently exists, or spots or areas where the mobile unit is likely to exist in the future;

retrieving the location information for each information content in the received broadcast information as second information;

retrieving third information that specifies time-of-day corresponding to the spot or area where the mobile unit currently exists, or corresponding to spots or areas where the mobile unit is likely to exist in the future;

retrieving the timing information for each information content in the received broadcast information as fourth information;

comparing the first information and the second information, and comparing the third information and the fourth information;

selecting among the received broadcast information contents on the basis of the comparison results; and

displaying the selected information contents.

2. The information broadcasting method of claim 1, wherein a coverage area is segmented into areas not overlapping each other, and intended areas are specified by designating the segmented areas.

3. The information broadcasting methods of claim 1, wherein intended areas are specified by designating defined areas.

4. The information broadcasting method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step includes prioritizing among multiple received information contents, and the displaying step includes displaying the received information contents either in a defined order of priority or together with information relating to priority of the displayed information contents.

5. A broadcast transmitting apparatus comprising:

equipment for providing information contents describing a plurality of destination spots or areas;

equipment for adding, to the information contents, location information specifying spot or area for which each information content is intended;

equipment for providing timing information specifying the effective time-of-day/available hours of each information content;

equipment for adding the timing information to the information contents; and

transmitting equipment for broadcasting the information contents with the added location information and timing information.

7. The broadcast transmitting apparatus of claim 5, wherein the equipment for providing timing information provides traveling route information of a mobile body by treating the traveling route as information transmission spots, and sets the effective time-of-day or available hours of information of the mobile body on the basis of scheduled time of day present at the spots on the traveling route of the mobile body.

8. A broadcast transmission apparatus of claim 5, wherein an information content describes an event, and wherein a range of influence of the event is specified as the location information of the information content, and a duration of the event is specified as the available hours of the information content.

6. A broadcast receiving apparatus for a mobile unit for receiving broadcast information, the broadcast information including information contents together with location information specifying spots or areas for which each information content is intended, and timing information specifying the effective time-of-day/available hours of each information content, the receiving apparatus comprising:

receiving equipment for receiving the broadcast information;

equipment for retrieving first information specifying a spot or area where the mobile unit currently exists and spots or areas defining an intended travel route of the mobile unit;

equipment for retrieving the location information that has been added to the broadcast information as second information;

equipment for retrieving third information that specifies time-of-day corresponding to the spot or area where the mobile unit currently exists, or to the spots or areas where the mobile unit is likely to exist in the future;

equipment for retrieving the timing information for each information content in the received broadcast information as fourth information;

comparator equipment for comparing the first information and second information and for comparing the third and fourth information;

information selection equipment for selecting among the received information contents on the basis of an output of the comparator equipment; and

equipment for displaying the selected information contents.

9. A traffic information editing equipment comprising:

a means for inputting traffic regulation information including road regulation information and event regulation information, wherein road regulation information includes regulation information shown as road signs and road markings and static cautionary information for specific zones on the road, and event regulation information includes event-associated traffic limit and cautionary information occurring in real time, and for specifying information-providing conditions including location, direction, and time period conditions required for presentation of the traffic regulation information; and

a means for storing the inputted traffic regulation information.

10. A traffic information providing system comprising:

the traffic information editing equipment of claim 9;

a communications base station that retains all or part of the traffic regulation information stored within the traffic information editing equipment;

a mobile unit; and

a means for communicating between the communications base station and the mobile unit,

wherein the mobile unit has a means for receiving traffic regulation information from the communications base station and a means for presenting the information to an operator of the mobile unit.

11. The traffic information providing system of claim 10, wherein the mobile unit includes:

absolute location measuring equipment;

a means for deriving a traveling direction of the mobile unit from the absolute location information;

a means for acquiring a current time of day;

a means for deriving a traveling speed of the mobile unit;

a storage means for retaining road regulation information; and

a means for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator if the specified information-providing conditions of location, direction, and time period are met, or a means for calculating a timing of information presentation based on the specified information-providing conditions and for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator in the calculated timing.

12. A traffic information providing system comprising:

the traffic information editing equipment of claim 9;

a communications base station that retains all or part of the traffic regulation information stored within the traffic information editing equipment;

a mobile unit equipped with absolute location measuring equipment; and

a narrow-area radio communications means for communicating between the communications base station and the mobile unit,

wherein the mobile unit further includes;

a means for deriving a traveling direction of the mobile unit from the absolute location information;

a means for acquiring a current time of day;

a means for deriving a traveling speed of the mobile unit;

means for receiving traffic regulation information from the communications base station;

a storage means for retaining road regulation information; and

a means for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator if the specified information-providing conditions of location, direction, and time period are met, or a means for calculating a timing of information presentation based on the specified information-providing conditions and for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator in the calculated timing.

13. A traffic information providing system comprising:

the traffic information editing equipment of claim 9;

a communications base station that retains all or part of the traffic regulation information stored within the traffic information editing equipment;

a mobile unit equipped with absolute location measuring equipment; and

a means for connecting the communications base station and the mobile unit via bidirectional mobile communications,

wherein the communications base station has a means for selectively extracting traffic regulation information from information received from the mobile unit, and transmitting the extracted information to the mobile unit,

wherein the mobile unit further includes;

a means for deriving a traveling direction of the mobile unit from absolute location information;

a means for acquiring a current time of day;

a means for deriving a traveling speed of the mobile unit;

a means for transmitting the absolute location, traveling direction, and mobile unit type information;

a means for receiving traffic regulation information from the communications base station;

a storage means for retaining the traffic regulation information; and

a means for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator if the specified information-providing conditions of location, direction, and time period are met, or a means for calculating a timing of information presentation based on the specified information-providing conditions and for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator in the calculated timing.

14. A traffic information providing system comprising:

the traffic information editing equipment of claim 9;

a communications base station that retains all or part of the traffic regulation information stored within the traffic information editing equipment;

a mobile unit equipped with absolute location measuring equipment; and

a means for communicating from the communications base station to the mobile unit by multi-channel broadcasting,

wherein the communications base station has a means for sorting the traffic regulation information retained within the base station on the basis of the location, direction, and time period specified using the traffic information editing equipment, allocating the information to each channel, and transmitting the information,

wherein the mobile unit further includes;

a means for deriving a traveling direction of the mobile unit from absolute location information;

a means for acquiring a current time of day;

a means for deriving a traveling speed of the mobile unit;

a means for receiving the traffic regulation information transmitted from the communications base station by changing channels according to the absolute location, traveling direction, and type of the mobile unit;

a means for retaining the traffic regulation information; and

a means for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator if the specified information-providing conditions of location, direction, and time period are met, or a means for calculating a timing of information presentation based on the specified information-providing conditions and for presenting the traffic regulation information to the operator in the calculated timing.

15. The traffic information providing system of any one of claims 12, 13, and 14, wherein the traffic information editing equipment further includes a storage means for retaining a current version of traffic regulation information,

and wherein the mobile unit further includes a storage means for retaining previously obtained traffic regulation information, a storage means for retaining the current version of the traffic regulation information, and a means for comparing the current version and the previously obtained traffic regulation information, and if they differ, replacing the stored previously obtained traffic regulation information with the current version of the traffic regulation information.

16. The traffic information providing system of any one of claims 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, wherein the means for presenting traffic regulation information to the operator further includes either a visual display means or an audio notification means, or both.

17. An information broadcasting method comprising:

adding, to each of a plurality of information contents to be broadcast, location information specifying spots or areas for which the information content is intended;

broadcasting the information contents with the added location information;

receiving the broadcast information by a mobile unit;

retrieving first information that specifies a spot or area where the mobile unit currently exists and spots or areas defining an intended travel route of the mobile unit;

retrieving the location information for each information content in the received broadcast information as second information;

comparing the first information and the second information;

selecting among the received broadcast information contents on the basis of the comparison results; and

displaying the selected information contents;

wherein the selecting step includes prioritizing among multiple received information contents, and the displaying step includes displaying the received information contents either in a defined order of priority or together with information relating to priority of the displayed information contents.