Agent apparatus

• US 20040172172A1
• Filed: 12/29/2003
• Published: 09/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushikikaisha Equos Research
• Original Assignee: Kabushikikaisha Equos Research
• Inventors: Matsuda, Manabu, Hirano, Tadashi, Adachi, Kazuhide, Hori, Koji, Kubota, Tomoki, Kondo, Hiroaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,079,925 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

On a vehicle, a device for estimating a present position such as a GPS device and a communication device such as a cell phone are installed. The vehicle transmits a detected present position to an information center at specified intervals. On the other hand, the information center sets a plurality of areas in a region to which information is transmitted, and sets information for transmission for each area. When receiving data indicating the present position of the vehicle from the vehicle, the information center specifies, by using the data, an area where the vehicle is located, and transmits the information set for the area to the vehicle.

Claims

1. A driver information collecting apparatus, comprising:

a load-on-driver detector to detect a load on a driver;

a question outputter to output a question on the driver when a low-load state is detected by said load-on-driver detector; and

an information obtainer to obtain driver information based on a reply by the driver to the question by said question outputter.

2. The driver information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a driver information storage to store driver information;

a question information storage to store a question for obtaining said driver information, wherein

said question outputter reads out, from said question information storage, a question which corresponds to the driver information not stored in said driver information storage, and outputs the question.

3. The driver information collecting apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein:

as a state of a driver detected by said state detector, at least one of a state of driving operation and a state of equipment manipulation is detected; and

the load on the driver determined by said load-on-driver determiner is at least one of a load on the driving operations and an extent of vexation felt by the driver.

4. The driver information collecting apparatus according to claim 1, claim 2, or claim 3, further comprising an agent presenter to present an artificial pseudo-living organism in the vehicle, wherein said question outputter poses a question through at least one of a display screen and voice output.