Vehicle-mounted apparatus and method for outputting information about articles in vehicle

• US 7,084,767 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2004
• Issued: 08/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Arie, Takumi, Amano, Hiroshi, Hasegawa, Shinichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Pope, Daryl C
• Application Number:
  US10/822,067
• Publication Number:
  US 20040263334A1
• Time in Patent Office: 845 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.1, 340/539.13, 340/933, 340/902, 340/572.1
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisious for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence

Abstract

A vehicle-mounted apparatus includes a radio frequency identification (RFID) reading unit for reading an RFID signal from an RFID tag attached to an article placed in a vehicle, a system controller for determining the nature of the article in the vehicle on the basis of the read RFID signal, and an user interface unit for outputting the nature. The system controller determines whether the article placed in the vehicle is dangerous or not. If the article is determined to be dangerous, the system controller outputs information for warning a user via the user interface unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted apparatus comprising:

location information measurement means for measuring the location information of a vehicle;

map data storage means for storing map data;

map data reading means for reading, from the map data storage means, the map data corresponding to the location information;

communication means for communicating with an identification tag on an article in the vehicle;

tag identification means for recognizing the identification tag using the communication means;

article information storage means for storing information about an article;

article identification information output means for outputting article information from the article information storage means;

display means for displaying information output from map data reading means and article identification information output means; and

information control means for controlling the output of article information and map data.

2. The vehicle-mounted apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information control means emits a warning sound to warn a user about an article.

3. The vehicle-mounted apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information stored in the article information storage means is at least one of the product name, the manufacturer'"'"'s name, the manufacturer'"'"'s serial number, the type, or the region.

4. The vehicle-mounted apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said communication means transmits to the identification tag and receives an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) identification signal transmitted from the identification tag.

5. A vehicle-mounted apparatus comprising:

article information acquiring means for acquiring article information corresponding to an identification signal read from an identification tag attached to an article placed in a vehicle;

location information acquiring means for acquiring location information about the current position of the vehicle; and

outputting means for outputting the location information and the article information in combination.

6. The vehicle-mounted apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising identification signal reading means for reading the identification signal from the identification tag attached to the article in the vehicle.

7. The vehicle-mounted apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising storing means for storing the article information associated with the identification signal.

8. The vehicle-mounted apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

geographic data acquiring means for acquiring geographic data based on the location information, wherein the outputting means outputs the geographic data and the article information in combination.

9. A vehicle-mounted apparatus comprising:

article information acquiring means for acquiring article information corresponding to an identification signal read from an identification tag attached to an article placed in a vehicle;

geographic data acquiring means for acquiring geographic data that is used for indicating a current position of the moving vehicle; and

display means for displaying the geographic data and the article information in combination.

10. The vehicle-mounted apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

location information acquiring means for acquiring location information about the current position of the vehicle; and

delivery route selecting means for selecting a delivery route for delivering the article on the basis of the location information,

wherein the display means displays the geographic data and the selected delivery route in combination.

11. A method for outputting information about an article placed in a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

acquiring an identification signal from an identification tag attached to the article placed in the vehicle;

acquiring article information from the identification signal;

acquiring location information of the vehicle; and

outputting the article information and the location information in combination.

12. The method for outputting information according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

acquiring geographic data on the basis of the location information; and

outputting the article information and the geographic data in combination.