Method of diagnosing operating characteristics

• US 9,449,437 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2015
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Izumi, Yoshifumi, Kiyama, Noboru, Sobue, Tsuneo, Takahashi, Toshimitsu
• Primary Examiner(s): Badii, Behrang
• Application Number:
  US14/594,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20150279128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06G 7/76 for traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/017 identifying vehicles G08G1/015, G08G1/054 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• 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

A method of diagnosing operating characteristics of a vehicle by a server device includes: obtaining operating characteristics information relative to the operating characteristics of the vehicle; and diagnosing the operating characteristics of the vehicle based upon feature information relative to a feature of a driver of the vehicle registered in advance in the server device and the operating characteristics information obtained from the vehicle.

Claims

1. A method of diagnosing operating characteristics of a vehicle by a server device, the method comprising:

obtaining, by the server device, operating characteristics information relative to the operating characteristics of the vehicle, wherein the operating characteristics information is detected by at least one sensor mounted to the vehicle;

determining, by the server device, a driver of the vehicle based upon a captured image of the driver;

obtaining, by the server device, feature information relative to a feature of the driver of the vehicle registered in advance, wherein the feature information is stored in a database in association with the driver; and

diagnosing the operating characteristics of the vehicle based upon the feature information and the operating characteristics information, including

classifying the driver into one of a plurality of categories based upon the feature information;

setting an operating characteristics curve corresponding to the classified category of the driver;

correcting the set operating characteristics curve based upon the feature information and the operating characteristics information; and

diagnosing the operating characteristics of the vehicle based upon the corrected operating characteristics curve.

2. A method of diagnosing operating characteristics according to claim 1, wherein:

the vehicle is shared by a plurality of drivers; and

the server device;

diagnoses the operating characteristics of the vehicle for each of the drivers; and

diagnoses the operating characteristics of the vehicle based upon a result of the diagnosis of the operating characteristics of each of the drivers.

3. A method of diagnosing operating characteristics according to claim 1, wherein:

the vehicle is shared by a plurality of drivers; and

the server device;

classifies each of the drivers into any one of the plurality of the categories based upon the feature information of each of the drivers of the vehicle;

sets an operating characteristics curve corresponding to the classified category of each of the drivers for each of the drivers;

corrects the set operating characteristics curve of each of the drivers based upon the feature information and the operating characteristics information of each of the drivers; and

diagnoses the operating characteristics of the vehicle based upon the corrected operating characteristics curve of each of the drivers.

4. A method of diagnosing operating characteristics according to claim 1, wherein:

the feature information includes at least one of a plurality of pieces of information about attribute, driving career, resident area and duration of residence of the driver; and

the operating characteristics information includes at least one of a plurality of pieces of information about a driving tendency of the driver, a condition or state of the vehicle and a traveling position of the vehicle.

5. A method of diagnosing operating characteristics according to claim 1, wherein

the result of diagnosis of the operating characteristics of the vehicle is presented to the driver.

6. A method of diagnosing operating characteristics according to claim 3, wherein

the corrected operating characteristics curve of each of the drivers and the result of diagnosis of the operating characteristics of the vehicle are presented to each of the drivers.