Road traffic information providing system, road traffic information providing device, road traffic information providing method, and program

• US 8,289,188 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2008
• Issued: 10/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JVC Kenwood Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Kenwood (JVC Kenwood Corporation)
• Inventors: Ueno, Masahiro, Nagatomo, Hideyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, TOAN NGOC
• Application Number:
  US12/808,420
• Publication Number:
  US 20110148659A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 Days
• Field of Search: 340/905, 340/995.1, 340/995.12, 340/995.13, 340/996, 340/901, 701/201, 701/400, 701/428, 701/441
• US Class Current: 340/905
• 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 1/096783 where the origin of the information is a roadside individual element
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

An utterance type road traffic information providing device (system) provided with a roadside apparatus (100) set on a road where a vehicle travels, at a parking lot or a place adjacent to the parking lot for transmitting alarm information by wireless communication, an utterance type vehicle-mounted device (200) mounted on a vehicle for receiving the alarm information from the roadside apparatus by wireless communication and outputting the alarm information, a administration server (300) that exchanges various information with the roadside apparatus (100). The utterance type vehicle-mounted device (200) is comprised of a predetermined operation unit and a control unit. The control unit cancels a part or all of the utterance voice output of the alarm information supplied from the roadside apparatus (100) in accordance with a predetermined operation of the operation unit. An output of the same alarm information or alarm information irrelevant to its own vehicle is prevented.

Claims

1. An utterance type road traffic information providing device which receives alarm information from a roadside apparatus installed on or near a road with a vehicle traveling or a parking lot through wireless communication and which outputs the alarm information, the road traffic information providing device comprising:

a communication unit configured to receive the alarm information from the roadside apparatus at timing at which a link is set up with the roadside apparatus;

a storage unit configured to temporarily store the alarm information;

an audio processing unit configured to convert the alarm information into audio information to output the audio information in utterance;

an operation unit configured to control the utterance output as needed; and

alarm information transfer unit configured to read out the alarm information stored in the storage unit according to a priority to transfer the alarm information to the audio processing unit when an operation of the operation unit is not performed and for transferring a received utterance output stop signal and the alarm information to the audio processing unit under a predetermined condition according to the operation content when the operation of the operation unit is performed,

wherein when the utterance output stop signal is transferred by the alarm information transfer unit, an output is conducted in accordance with the priority of the alarm information or stored alarm information succeeding the alarm information whose utterance is intended to be stopped.

2. The road traffic information providing device according to claim 1, wherein

when a predetermined operation is performed by the operation unit, the alarm information transfer unit transfers the utterance output stop signal to the audio processing unit and does not transfer alarm information excluding disaster information as one of the alarm information stored in the storage unit to the audio processing unit for a predetermined time or for a predetermined number of pieces.

3. The road traffic information providing device according to claim 1, wherein

when a predetermined operation is performed by the operation unit, the alarm information transfer unit transfers the utterance output stop signal to the audio processing unit, further interrupts transferring the alarm information being transferred and stored in the storage unit, skips the transfer position of the interrupted alarm information to a next punctuation mark of Text To Speech (TTS) or to next alarm information, and then resumes transferring the alarm information to the audio processing unit from the skipped transfer position.

4. The road traffic information providing device according to claim 1, wherein

if a predetermined operation is performed by the operation unit when the alarm information transfer means transfers high-priority alarm information, the alarm information transfer unit transfers the utterance output stop signal to the audio processing unit and does not transfer low-priority general traffic information as one of the alarm information stored in the storage unit subsequent to the high-priority alarm information.

5. The road traffic information providing device according to claim 1, further comprising

an ID storage unit configured to store an ID of the roadside apparatus;

and

ID registration unit configured to register the ID of a predetermined roadside apparatus to the ID storage unit,

wherein if a predetermined operation is performed by the operation unit when alarm information received from the roadside apparatus and not related to the vehicle is outputted in utterance, the ID registration unit registers the ID of the roadside apparatus to the ID storage unit, and the alarm information transfer unit does not transfer, to the audio processing unit, alarm information received from the roadside apparatus with the ID registered in the ID storage unit after the registration in the ID storage unit.

6. A method for providing road traffic information for receiving, by a road traffic information providing device, alarm information from a roadside apparatus installed on or near a road with a vehicle traveling or a parking lot through wireless communication and of outputting the alarm information, the method comprising the steps of:

communicating to receive the alarm information from the roadside apparatus at timing at which a link is set up between the road traffic information providing device and the roadside apparatus;

temporarily storing the alarm information;

converting the alarm information into audio information to output the audio information in utterance;

controlling the utterance output as needed; and

transferring the alarm information by reading out the stored alarm information according to a priority of the alarm information to output the alarm information in utterance when an operation is not performed and outputting a received utterance output stop signal and the alarm information in utterance under a predetermined condition according to the operation content when the operation is performed,

wherein when the utterance output stop signal is transferred in the alarm information transferring step, an output is conducted in accordance with the priority of the alarm information or stored alarm information succeeding the alarm information whose utterance is intended to be stopped.

7. A program causing a computer to function as:

a communication unit configured to receive alarm information from a roadside apparatus at timing at which a link is set up between a road traffic information providing device and the roadside apparatus;

a storage unit configured to temporarily store the alarm information;

an audio processing unit configured to convert the alarm information into audio information to output the audio information in utterance;

an operation unit configured to control the utterance output as needed; and

alarm information transfer unit configured to read out the alarm information stored in the storage unit according to a priority of the alarm information to output the alarm information to the audio processing unit when an operation of the operation unit is not performed and for transferring a received utterance output stop signal to the audio processing unit under a predetermined condition according to the operation content and further transferring the alarm information to the audio processing unit when the operation of the operation unit is performed,

wherein when the utterance output stop signal is transferred by the alarm information transfer unit, an output is conducted in accordance with the priority of the alarm information or stored alarm information succeeding the alarm information whose utterance is intended to be stopped.