Vehicle communication device and memory product

• US 7,633,407 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2007
• Issued: 12/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Yamada, Hiroshi, Kawai, Jun, Yano, Katsutoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): BLOUNT, ERIC
• Application Number:
  US11/902,844
• Publication Number:
  US 20080158009A1
• Time in Patent Office: 811 Days
• Field of Search: 340/903, 340/904, 340/937, 340/463, 340/475
• US Class Current: 340/903
• 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 1/096791 where the origin of the information is another vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication

Abstract

There is provided a vehicle communication device and a computer program that can avoid a dangerous situation generated when a driver performs an operation such as selection of a vehicle to which notification information is to be sent when communication is made between vehicles and improve safety. A plurality of imaging devices are arranged around a vehicle. The vehicle communication device detects the circumstance of its own vehicle, and refers to a predetermined table based on the detected circumstance, to determine the notification information to be sent and the direction to confirm the existence of other vehicles, and transmits the notification information to the other vehicles detected by the imaging device for detecting the vehicle in the detected direction.

Claims

1. A vehicle communication device to be mounted on one vehicle provided with a plurality of vehicle detection devices for detecting other vehicles, comprising:

a communication device for transmitting information to the detected other vehicles and receiving information from the other vehicles;

an output device for outputting the received information; and

a control unit for performing the operations of;

obtaining a piece of information containing information regarding a driving operation;

detecting a circumstance of the one vehicle corresponding to the obtained piece of the information, based on a table previously relating the circumstances of the one vehicle to the obtained pieces of the information;

determining at least one of the plurality of the vehicle detection devices corresponding to the detected circumstance, based on a table previously relating the respective vehicle detection devices each of which faces in each direction to recognize presence or absence of the other vehicles, to the detected circumstances of the one vehicle;

detecting vehicle identification information of the other vehicle to/from which the information is transmitted/received by the communication device, based on vehicle detection information obtained as a result of detection by the determined at least one of the plurality of the vehicle detection devices; and

determining a piece of the notification information to be notified to the other vehicle, the piece of the notification information being in accordance with the detected circumstance, based on a table previously relating the pieces of notification information to be notified to the other vehicle, to the detected circumstances of the one vehicle,

wherein the communication device transmits the determined piece of the notification information to the other vehicle, regarding the detected vehicle identification information as a communication identifier of the other destination vehicle.

2. The vehicle communication device according to claim 1, wherein the pieces of information comprising the information regarding the driving operation further comprises information regarding a traveling condition and information regarding a traveling road.

3. The vehicle communication device according to claim 1, wherein

the plurality of vehicle detection devices are a plurality of imaging devices arranged to take images around the one vehicle, and

the control unit detects a vehicle number on a number plate of the other vehicle as the vehicle identification information, based on the image taken by the determined vehicle detection device, in the operation for detecting the vehicle identification information of the other vehicle.

4. The vehicle communication device according to claim 1, wherein the information regarding the driving operation comprises information regarding at least one of operations of direction indicators and headlamps.

5. The vehicle communication device according to claim 2, wherein the information regarding the traveling condition comprises information regarding at least one of a traveling speed and the distance to a vehicle in back.

6. The vehicle communication device according to claim 2, wherein the information regarding the road comprises information regarding at least a traffic lane position, a road segment and a positional relation to another road.

7. The vehicle communication device according to claim 1, wherein the notification information comprises message data to notify the other vehicle of the circumstance of the one vehicle.

8. The vehicle communication device according to claim 1, wherein the notification information includes at least a piece of data of the vehicle identification information of the other vehicle, a piece of data of the vehicle identification information of the one vehicle, and pieces of data regarding the position, speed, direction indicator state of the other vehicle.

9. A computer-readable memory product which records a computer-executable computer program for causing a computer to generate notification information, the computer being to be mounted on one vehicle provided with a plurality of vehicle detection devices for detecting other vehicles and the notification information being transmitted to the other vehicles, the computer program comprising the steps of:

obtaining a piece of information containing information regarding a driving operation;

detecting a circumstance of the one vehicle corresponding to the obtained piece of the information, based on a table previously relating the circumstances of the one vehicle to the obtained pieces of the information;

determining at least one of the plurality of the vehicle detection device corresponding to the detected circumstance, based on a table previously relating the respective vehicle detection devices each of which faces in each direction to recognize presence or absence of the other vehicles, to the detected circumstances of the one vehicle;

detecting vehicle identification information of the other vehicle to which the notification information is transmitted, based on vehicle detection information obtained as a result of detection by the determined vehicle detection device; and

determining a piece of the notification information to be transmitted to the other vehicle, the piece of the notification information being in accordance with the detected circumstance, based on a table previously relating the pieces of the notification information to be transmitted to the other vehicle, to the detected circumstances of the one vehicle.

10. A vehicle communication device to be mounted on one vehicle provided with a plurality of vehicle detection devices for detecting other vehicles, comprising:

a communication part which both transmits information to the detected other vehicles and receives information from the other vehicles;

an output part which outputs the received information;

an information obtaining part which obtains pieces of information containing information regarding a driving operation;

a vehicle circumstance detecting part which detects a circumstance of the one vehicle corresponding to the obtained piece of the information, based on a table previously relating the circumstances of the one vehicle to the obtained pieces of the information;

a vehicle detecting device determining part which determines at least one of the plurality of the vehicle detection devices corresponding to the detected circumstance, based on a table previously relating the respective vehicle detection devices each of which faces in each direction to recognize presence or absence of the other vehicles, to the detected circumstances of the one vehicle;

a vehicle identification information detecting part which detects vehicle identification information of the other vehicle to/from which the information is transmitted/received by the communication device, based on the vehicle detection information obtained in accordance with detection by the determined vehicle detection device; and

a notification information determining part which determines a piece of the notification information to be notified to the other vehicle, the piece of the notification information being in accordance with the detected circumstance, based on a table previously relating the pieces of notification information to be notified to the other vehicle, to the detected circumstances of the one vehicle,

wherein the communication part transmits the determined piece of the notification information to the other vehicle, regarding the detected vehicle identification information as a communication identifier of the other destination vehicle.