Inter-vehicle communication system

• US 9,853,729 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2015
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koito Manufacturing Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Koito Manufacturing Company Limited
• Inventors: Endo, Osamu
• Primary Examiner(s): Edwards, Jerrah
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gordon, Matthew Franklin
• Application Number:
  US14/718,609
• Publication Number:
  US 20150349885A1
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1123 Bidirectional transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/116 Visible light communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an inter-vehicle communication system configured to detect a vehicle as a communication target of DSRC to properly establish an automatic driving system. In the inter-vehicle communication system configured to perform communication between a plurality of vehicles using DSRC, each of vehicles includes an identification code (ID) of the vehicle in information to be transmitted by a DSRC unit. Each vehicle includes: an individual communication unit (optical communication unit) for optical communication, which is configured to transmit/receive IDs of vehicles through communication between individual vehicles; and a unit configured to detect information having a corresponding ID by collating the ID received by the individual communication unit with the ID included in the information received by the DSRC unit. Through ID collation, a communication counterpart vehicle of DSRC is detected.

Claims

1. An inter-vehicle communication system configured to perform communication between a plurality of vehicles using dedicated short range communication (DSRC), the inter-vehicle communication system comprising:

a DSRC communication unit configured to transmit vehicle information associated with an identification code of an own-vehicle and receive vehicle information associated with an identification code of another vehicle through the DSRC;

an optical communication unit including an optical transmitting unit and an optical receiving unit each configured to transmit the identification code of the own-vehicle and receive the identification code of the another vehicle, respectively, by performing communication between the own-vehicle and the another vehicle to which an optical signal is projected from the own-vehicle; and

an information detecting unit configured to compare the identification code of the another vehicle received by the optical communication unit with the identification code of the another vehicle associated with the vehicle information of the another vehicle received by the DSRC communication unit, and obtain the vehicle information of the another vehicle received by the DSRC communication unit when the identification code of the another vehicle received by the optical communication unit and the identification code of the another vehicle received by the DSRC communication unit are identical,

wherein the optical transmitting unit and the optical receiving unit of the optical communication unit are integrally embedded in at least a head lamp and a rear lamp of the own-vehicle.

2. The inter-vehicle communication system of claim 1, wherein the information transmitted by the DSRC communication unit includes at least travel information of the own-vehicle and road information where the own-vehicle is running.

3. The inter-vehicle communication system of claim 1, wherein the inter-vehicle communication system is employed in a vehicle provided with an automatic driving system configured to perform an automatic driving control with reference to the vehicle information received by the DSRC communication unit.