OPERATING CONDITION NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

• US 20090021395A1
• Filed: 11/15/2005
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Isuzu Motors Limited
• Original Assignee: Isuzu Motors Limited
• Inventors: Koshizawa, Toshifumi, Maesono, Noboru
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,004 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/901
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/002 with telemetering systems telemetering in general G08C

Abstract

In an in-vehicle terminal (2), an operation data acquisition unit acquires operation data of a vehicle. Notification condition information specifying one of pieces of the operation data to be transmitted to the outside is stored in a storage unit. A notification determination unit reads out the latest notification condition information from the storage unit, and determines whether the operation data acquired by the operation data acquisition unit satisfies notification conditions specified by the read out notification condition information. An in-vehicle terminal transmitter-receiver transmits operation data determined to satisfy the notification conditions by the notification determination unit to an operation management terminal (3). At the time of updating the notification conditions, the operation management terminal (3) generates notification condition information according to settings from a user, and this information is transmitted to the in-vehicle terminal (2) via a center unit (4). With the in-vehicle terminal (2), a notification condition updating unit stores the notification condition information generated by the operation management terminal (3) in the storage unit.

Claims

1. An operating condition notification system in which an in-vehicle terminal equipped in a vehicle is connected to a user terminal provided on the user side via a predetermined network, wherein

the in-vehicle terminal comprises an in-vehicle terminal transmitter-receiver, which transmits and receives information to and from the outside via the network, an operation data acquisition unit, which acquires operation data regarding operating conditions of the vehicle, a notification condition storage unit, which is stored with notification condition information specifying one of pieces of the operation data to be transmitted to the outside, and a notification determination unit, which reads out the notification condition information from the notification condition storage unit and determines whether the operation data acquired by the operation data acquisition unit satisfies the notification conditions specified by the read out notification condition information;

the in-vehicle terminal transmitter-receiver transmits operation data determined to satisfy the notification conditions by the notification determination unit to the user terminal;

the user terminal comprises a user terminal transmitter-receiver, which transmits and receives information to and from the outside via the network, and a user terminal annunciation unit, which annunciates to the user, operation data received from the in-vehicle terminal transmitter-receiver by the user terminal transmitter-receiver;

the user terminal comprises a user terminal input unit, which receives settings for the notification conditions from the user, and an information generation unit, which generates notification condition information according to the settings for the notification conditions received by the user terminal input unit;

the user terminal transmitter-receiver transmits the notification condition information generated by the information generation unit to the in-vehicle terminal;

the in-vehicle terminal comprises a notification condition updating, which stores the notification condition information, which is transmitted from the user terminal transmitter-receiver and received by the in-vehicle terminal transmitter-receiver, in the notification condition storage unit; and

the notification condition information to be read out from the notification condition storage unit by the notification determination unit to make the above-described determination is updated notification condition information stored last in the notification condition storage unit.

2. The operating condition notification system of claim 1, further comprising:

a relay management unit, which is connected to the user terminal and the in-vehicle terminal via the network, and relays information between the user terminal and the in-vehicle terminal, wherein

the relay management unit comprises a relay transmitter-receiver, which transmits and receives information between the user terminal and the in-vehicle terminal via the network, and relay management memory, which is prestored with notification condition item information corresponding to notification condition items that can be set as the notification conditions;

the user terminal input unit receives from the user an instruction to begin to set the notification conditions by the user;

the information generation unit generates setting begin information when the user terminal input unit receives an instruction to begin setting;

the user terminal transmitter-receiver transmits the setting begin information generated by the information generation unit to the relay management unit;

the relay transmitter-receiver transmits the notification condition item information stored in the relay management memory to the user terminal upon reception of the setting begin information from the user terminal transmitter-receiver;

the user terminal annunciation unit annunciates to the user, notification condition items corresponding to the notification condition item information received from the relay transmitter-receiver by the user terminal transmitter-receiver;

the user terminal input unit receives the notification condition items entered by the user, and the information generation unit generates notification condition information according to the notification condition items received by the user terminal input unit;

the user terminal transmitter-receiver transmits the notification condition information generated by the information generation unit to the relay management unit; and

the relay transmitter-receiver receives the notification condition information from the user terminal transmitter-receiver and transmits the notification condition information to the in-vehicle terminal.

3. The operating condition notification system of claim 2, wherein

the relay management memory is stored with multiple pieces of transmission destination specifying information including at least transmission destination specifying information, which specifies the user terminal, and transmission destination specifying information, which specifies a terminal other than the user terminal capable of receiving information via the network;

and

the relay transmitter-receiver transmits operation data transmitted from the in-vehicle terminal transmitter-receiver to multiple terminals specified by the transmission destination specifying information stored in the relay management memory upon reception of the operation data.