System and method for obtaining content relating to a predicted location of a terminal apparatus

• US 7,103,369 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2002
• Issued: 09/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Yamaguchi, Takao, Sato, Junichi, Itoh, Tomoaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Balaoing, Ariel
• Application Number:
  US10/491,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20040253965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,420 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/456.1, 340/995.24, 701/201
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3679 Retrieval, searching and output of POI information, e.g. hotels, restaurants, shops, filling stations, parking facilities G01C21/3611 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map

Abstract

The present invention is to store a content list that stores at least one pair of content related to a position and the position in relation to the content, determine a content acquisition region to acquire the content based on a current position, select content in relation to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list, acquire part of the selected content in advance, determine whether remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to the part of the selected content being acquired, thereby determining whether or not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, and when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

Claims

1. A terminal apparatus that is associated with a mobile unit and acquires content related to at least one position, comprising:

a storing section that stores a content list that stores data representing at least one position corresponding to content;

a position detector that detects a position of the mobile unit;

an acquisition region determiner that predicts at least one road on which the mobile unit will pass, based on the detected position of the mobile unit, the at least one predicted road defining a content acquisition region;

a selector that selects content corresponding to at least one position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

a prefetcher that acquires a first part of the selected content;

an acquisition determiner which determines whether a remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position of the mobile unit subsequent to acquisition of the first part of the selected content, and thereby determines whether to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

an acquiring section that acquires the remaining part of the selected content when the acquisition determiner determines to acquire the remaining part of the selected content,

wherein the acquisition determiner calculates a time it will take to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, determines whether the mobile unit will be located within a predetermined distance from a position corresponding to the selected content after a period of time corresponding to the time it will take to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, and when determining that the mobile unit will be located within the predetermined distance from the position corresponding to the selected content after the period of time corresponding to the time it will take to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, determines to acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

2. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position detector further detects at least one of a moving speed of the mobile unit and a moving direction of the mobile unit, and the acquisition region determiner predicts the at least one road on which the mobile unit will pass based on the detected position and at least one of the detected moving speed and the detected moving direction.

3. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a presentation controller that determines whether to present the selected content based on the position of the mobile unit.

4. The terminal apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first part of the selected content is presented, when the acquisition determiner determines not to acquire the remaining part of the selected content and the presentation controller determines to present the selected content after the prefetcher acquires the first part of the selected content.

5. The terminal apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the presentation controller determines to present the selected content when it is predicted that the mobile unit reaches a position corresponding to the selected content after moving for a predetermined time.

8. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first part of the selected content and the remaining part of the content is encrypted.

12. A content distribution system, comprising:

a terminal apparatus according to claim 1;

a list server that stores the content list; and

a content server that stores the content,

wherein the terminal apparatus acquires the content list from the list server using a wireless communication, and further acquires the content from the content server using the wireless communication.

15. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the content includes video and audio.

16. The terminal apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the prefetcher acquires an audio portion of the content, while the acquiring section acquires a video portion of the content.

6. A terminal apparatus that is associated with a mobile unit and acquires content related to at least one position, comprising:

a storing section that stores a content list that stores data representing at least one position corresponding to content;

a position detector that detects a position of the mobile unit;

an acquisition region determiner that predicts at least one road on which the mobile unit will pass, based on the detected position of the mobile unit, the at least one predicted road defining a content acquisition region;

a selector that selects content corresponding to at least one position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

a prefetcher that acquires a first part of the selected content;

an acquisition determiner which determines whether a remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position of the mobile unit subsequent to acquisition of the first part of the selected content, and thereby determines whether to acquire the remaining part of the selected content;

an acquiring section that acquires the remaining part of the selected content when the acquisition determiner determines to acquire the remaining part of the selected content;

a storage medium that stores the acquired first part of the selected content; and

a storage manager that assigns a deletion priority to determine a priority for deleting the first part of the selected content from the storage medium,

wherein the storage manager determines the deletion priority to assign to the first part of the selected content based on a determination result of the acquisition determiner.

7. The terminal apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the storage medium stores the remaining part of the selected content when the remaining part of the selected content is acquired, and the storage manger assigns different priorities to the first part of the selected content and the remaining part of the selected content after presenting the first part of the selected content and the remaining part of the selected content.

9. A terminal apparatus that is associated with a mobile unit and acquires content corresponding to a position, comprising:

a storing section that stores a content list storing data representing at least one position corresponding to the content;

a position detector that detects a position of the mobile unit;

an acquisition region determiner that predicts at least one road on which the mobile unit will pass based on the detected position of the mobile unit, the at least one predicted road defining a content acquisition region;

a selector that selects content corresponding to at least one position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

a prefetcher that acquires a first part of the selected content;

an acquisition determiner which determines whether a remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position of the mobile unit subsequent to acquisition of the first part of the selected content, and thereby determines whether to acquire the remaining part of the selected content;

an acquiring section that acquires the remaining part of the selected content when the acquisition determiner determines to acquire the remaining part of the selected content;

a storage medium that stores the selected content acquired; and

a storage manager that assigns a deletion priority to determine a priority for deleting the selected content from the storage medium,

wherein the storage manager determines the deletion priority to assign to the selected content based on whether the position corresponding to the selected content is included in the determined content acquisition region, after the acquiring section acquires the selected content.

10. The terminal apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the storage manager determines the deletion priority to assign to the selected content based on whether the position of the selected content is included in the determined content acquisition region based on the position of the mobile unit after the selected content is presented.

11. The terminal apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the storage manager determines the deletion priority to assign to the selected content based on whether the position of the selected content is included in the determined content acquisition region based on a relationship of a predetermined moving path of the mobile unit.

17. The terminal apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the storage medium assigns different deletion priorities to the first part of the selected content and the remaining part of the selected content.

13. A method of acquiring content corresponding to a position of a terminal apparatus associated with a mobile unit, comprising:

storing a content list storing data representing at least one position corresponding to the content;

detecting a position of the mobile unit;

predicting at least one road on which the mobile unit will pass, based on the detected position of the mobile unit, the at least one road defining a content acquisition region;

selecting content corresponding to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

acquiring a first part of the selected content;

determining whether the remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to acquisition of the first part of the selected content, and thereby determining whether to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

acquiring the remaining part of the selected content, when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content,

wherein determining whether to acquire the remaining part of the selected content comprises;

calculating a time it will take to acquire a remaining part of the selected content;

determining whether the mobile unit will be located within a predetermined distance from a position corresponding to the selected content after a period of time corresponding to the time it will take to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

when determining that the mobile unit will be located within the predetermined distance from the position corresponding to the selected content after the period of time corresponding to the time it will take to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content.

14. A computer-readable medium comprising a program for acquiring content corresponding to a position of a terminal apparatus associated with a mobile unit, the program comprising code for:

storing a content list storing data representing at least one position corresponding to the content;

detecting a position of the mobile unit;

predicting at least one road on which the mobile unit will pass, based on the detected position of the mobile unit, the at least one road defining a content acquisition region;

selecting content corresponding to a position associated with the determined content acquisition region from the content list;

acquiring a first part of the selected content;

determining whether the remaining part of the selected content will be referred to based on a position subsequent to acquisition of the first part of the selected content, and thereby determining whether to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

acquiring the remaining part of the selected content, when determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content,

wherein the code for determining whether to acquire the remaining part of the selected content comprises code for;

calculating a time it will take to acquire a remaining part of the selected content;

determining whether the mobile unit will be located within a predetermined distance from a position corresponding to the selected content after a period of time corresponding to the time it will take to acquire the remaining part of the selected content; and

when determining that the mobile unit will be located within the predetermined distance from the position corresponding to the selected content after the period of time corresponding to the time it will take to acquire the remaining part of the selected content, determining to acquire the remaining part of the selected content.