Information processor

Abstract

To provide a technology allowing a user of a vehicle to track the vehicle that has been stolen without being accompanied by an external factor.SOLUTION: An information processor includes a control unit. When it is determined according to a connection situation of communication between a communication machine at a user's home and a communication machine of a vehicle owned by the user that communication between the communication machine at the user's home and the communication machine of the vehicle is disconnected, the control unit acquires schedule information concerning a use schedule of the vehicle by the user. According to the acquired schedule information, the control unit determines whether the disconnection of communication is derived from the user's use of the vehicle. When determining that the disconnection of communication is not derived from the user's use of the vehicle, the control unit acquires a current position of the vehicle, and gives a command, which instructs to continuously report the acquired current position to the user's user terminal, to the vehicle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an information processing device. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 proposes a vehicle theft prevention device characterized by an intrusion detection process that is configured to turn on when an intrusion into the vehicle is made by touching the vehicle door, window, etc., and to emit vehicle theft information accompanied by sound and video of the current situation. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-054370 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] One of the objectives of the present disclosure is to provide a technique for a vehicle user to track a stolen vehicle without involving external factors. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The information processing device disclosed herein includes a control unit that determines whether a communication connection is established between a communication unit at a user's home and a communication unit at a vehicle owned by the user, based on a communication connection status between the communication unit at the user's home and the communication unit at the vehicle, and acquires schedule information regarding the user's planned use of the vehicle when it is determined that communication between the communication unit at the home and the communication unit at the vehicle is disconnected. The control unit also determines whether the disconnection of communication is due to the user's use of the vehicle based on the acquired schedule information, and when it is determined that the disconnection of communication is not due to the user's use of the vehicle, issues a command to the vehicle to continuously acquire a current location of the vehicle and report the acquired current location to a user terminal of the user. [Effects of the Invention]

[0006] According to the present disclosure, a vehicle user can track a stolen vehicle without external factors. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example of a situation to which the present disclosure is applied. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example of the hardware configuration and functional configuration of each of the information processing device, the vehicle, and the user terminal. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 shows an example of a procedure for information processing by an information processing device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] [1 Application example] FIG. 1 schematically shows an example of a situation to which the present disclosure is applied. The information processing system 1 is a system for processing information related to a vehicle 20. The vehicle 20 is owned by a user 40. The user 40 owns a user terminal 30. The vehicle 20 is parked near a home 10. As will be described later, a short-range communication device (hereinafter also referred to as a home communication device) installed in the home 10 and a short-range communication device (hereinafter also referred to as an in-vehicle communication device) mounted on the vehicle 20 are connected via short-range wireless communication.

[0009] In the information processing system 1, a home 10, a vehicle 20, and a user terminal 30 are interconnected by a network N. As the network N, for example, a Wide Area Network (WAN), which is a global public communication network such as the Internet, or a telephone communication network such as a mobile phone, is adopted. may be used.

[0010] [2 Configuration Examples] FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating the hardware configuration and functional configuration of each of the information processing devices of the home 10 and the vehicle 20 and the user terminal 30. As shown in FIG.

[0011] (one's home) Home 10 is a house where user 40 resides. Home 10 has a parking lot for vehicle 20. Home 10 has a short-range communication device 11, a changeover switch 12, and a communication device 13. Short-range communication device 11, changeover switch 12, and communication device 13 are interconnected by wired or wireless communication using a predetermined communication standard.

[0012] The short-range communication device 11 connects the home 10 to internal and external devices via short-range wireless communication. Examples of short-range wireless communication include Wi-Fi (registered trademark), Bluetooth (registered trademark), and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) (registered trademark).

[0013] The changeover switch 12 is a switch for switching whether or not to monitor the connection status of communication between the home communication device and the in-vehicle communication device. Here, the mode in which the connection status is monitored is referred to as the "monitoring mode," and the mode in which the connection status is not monitored is referred to as the "non-monitoring mode." The user 40 may set the changeover switch 12 to the monitoring mode when the vehicle 20 is parked near the home 10. When the user 40 moves the vehicle 20 from the home 10, the user 40 may switch the changeover switch 12 from the monitoring mode to the non-monitoring mode.

[0014] The communication device 13 connects devices installed in the home 10 to the network N. The communication device 13 is compliant with a predetermined wireless communication standard such as 4th Generation (4G) or Long Term Evolution (LTE). The system communicates with the vehicle 20 and the user terminal 30 using the protocol.

[0015] (vehicle) The vehicle 20 may be a vehicle driven by a driver or an autonomous vehicle. The vehicle 20 may include an engine vehicle and an electric vehicle (including a hybrid vehicle). The vehicle 20 includes a GPS receiver 21, an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) 22, a short-range communication device 24, and a communication The vehicle 20 is equipped with a device 25. The vehicle 20 can communicate with each other using a predetermined in-vehicle communication standard. Examples of the predetermined in-vehicle communication standard include a Controller Area Network (CAN) and a Local Interconnect Network (LIN). In this embodiment, the ECU 22 is an "information This is an example of a "processing device."

[0016] The GPS receiver 21 is a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, which is an example of a satellite positioning system. As a signal transmitted from the GPS (PS), for example, the current position information of the vehicle 20 (hereinafter also referred to as the current position) is received from the GPS.

[0017] The ECU 22 is a computer for controlling various devices mounted on the vehicle 20. The ECU 22 has a processor 220 and a memory unit 23. The ECU 22 may have a clock. For example, the clock can measure the current time when the ECU 22 acquires the current position of the vehicle 20 from the GPS receiver 21. In this embodiment, the processor 220 is an example of a "control unit."

[0018] The processor 220 is, for example, a central processing unit (CPU) or a digital signal processor (DSP). The processor 220 includes, as functional units, a connection information acquisition unit 2 21, includes a connection determination unit 222, a schedule information acquisition unit 223, a schedule determination unit 224, a location information acquisition unit 225, and a notification unit 226.

[0019] The processor 220 operates as a connection information acquisition unit 221, and acquires information (hereinafter also referred to as connection information) relating to the connection status of communication between the home communication device (short-range communication device 11) and the in-vehicle communication device (short-range communication device 24) when the changeover switch 12 is in the monitoring mode. The connection information acquisition unit 221 can store the acquired connection information in the storage unit 23 in association with the time measured by the clock of the ECU 22.

[0020] The processor 220 operates as a connection determination unit 222, and determines whether communication between the home communication device and the in-vehicle communication device is connected or disconnected, according to the connection information stored in the storage unit 23. If the connection information indicates that communication is not connected, the connection determination unit 222 may determine that communication is disconnected. If the connection information indicates that communication is connected, the connection determination unit 222 may determine that communication is connected.

[0021] The processor 220 operates as a schedule information acquisition unit 223, and acquires information regarding the planned use of the vehicle 20 by the user 40 (hereinafter also referred to as planned use information) when the connection determination unit 222 determines that the connection between the home communication device and the in-vehicle communication device is disconnected. Examples of planned use information include the following: (1) Information indicating the setting status of the selector switch 12 The schedule information acquisition unit 223 can acquire the information (1) (monitoring mode or non-monitoring mode) from the changeover switch 12 via the network N. (2) Information indicating the setting of the selector switch 12 stored in the user terminal 30 The schedule information acquisition unit 223 can acquire the information (2) (monitoring mode or non-monitoring mode) via the network N from a storage unit 33 (described later) of the user terminal 30 that can remotely operate the changeover switch 12. (3) Information about User 40's schedule The schedule information acquisition unit 223 may acquire information relating to the schedule of the user 40 (hereinafter referred to as schedule information) from the user terminal 30 via the network N. Note that the schedule information may be stored in a server (hereinafter also referred to as information server) that is connected to the vehicle 20 via the network N and installed outside the vehicle 20. In this case, the schedule information acquisition unit 223 may connect to the information server via the network N and acquire the schedule information. The schedule information acquisition unit 223 may store the acquired usage schedule information for (1), (2), and (3) in the storage unit 23.

[0022] The processor 220 operates as a schedule determination unit 224 and determines whether or not the user 40 plans to use the vehicle 20, based on the usage schedule information stored in the storage unit 23. For example, when communication between the home communication device and the in-vehicle communication device is disconnected, the schedule determination unit 224 refers to the time (hereinafter also referred to as the disconnection time) stored in the storage unit 23 and associated with connection information indicating that the communication has been disconnected. For example, at the time of the disconnection time, the usage schedule information related to (1) or (2) above may indicate that the selector switch 12 has been set to the monitoring mode. In this case, the schedule determination unit 224 determines that the user 40 does not plan to use the vehicle 20. If the usage schedule information indicates that the selector switch 12 has been set to the non-monitoring mode at the disconnection time, the schedule determination unit 224 determines that the user 40 plans to use the vehicle 20. Furthermore, the usage schedule information related to (3) above may include a schedule (hereinafter referred to as the usage schedule) indicating that the user 40 plans to use the vehicle 20 at the disconnection time or a time period including the disconnection time. In this case, the schedule determination unit 224 determines whether the user 40 It is determined that there is a plan to use the vehicle 20. If the plan information does not include the plan, the plan determination unit 224 determines that there is no plan to use the vehicle 20 by the user 40.

[0023] The processor 220 operates as a position information acquisition unit 225 and acquires the current position of the vehicle 20 from the GPS receiver 21. The position information acquisition unit 225 can acquire the time at which the current position was acquired from the clock of the ECU 22. The position information acquisition unit 225 can store the acquired current position of the vehicle 20 and the time in the storage unit 23 in association with each other.

[0024] The processor 220 operates as a notification unit 226 and continuously notifies the user 40 of the acquired current location of the vehicle 20. Specifically, the notification unit 226 acquires information associating the current location of the vehicle 20 with the time from the storage unit 23. The notification unit 226 generates information (hereinafter referred to as notification information) to notify the user 40 based on the acquired information. The notification information may include a message indicating that the vehicle 20 may have been moved, i.e., stolen, by a third party. The notification unit 226 may transmit the generated notification information to the user terminal 30 via the network N. The user terminal 30 may receive the transmitted notification information via the network N. The user terminal 30 may output the received notification information. Thus, according to the present disclosure, when the vehicle 20 is stolen without any external cause, the notification unit 226 can quickly output the notification information to the user terminal 30. The user 40 can check the output notification information to know that the vehicle 20 may have been stolen, as well as the current location and time of the vehicle 20. Therefore, the user 40 can quickly respond to theft of the vehicle 20. Furthermore, the present disclosure determines whether the user 40 plans to use the vehicle 20. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a case where the user 40 simply departs from the home 10 in the vehicle 20 from being mistakenly determined as theft of the vehicle 20.

[0025] The storage unit 23 includes a main storage unit and an auxiliary storage unit. The main storage unit is, for example, a Random Access Memory (RAM). The auxiliary storage unit is, for example, a Read Only Memory (ROM), a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), a The auxiliary storage unit is a removable disk drive (HDD) or flash memory. The removable medium may include, for example, a USB memory, an SD card, or a disk recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a DVD disk, or a Blu-ray disk.

[0026] The auxiliary storage unit stores an operating system (OS), various programs, various information tables, etc. The processor 220 loads the programs stored in the auxiliary storage unit into the main storage unit and executes them, thereby realizing the information processing of this embodiment. Some or all of the functions of the ECU 22 can be realized by hardware circuits such as an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The ECU 22 does not need to be realized by a single physical configuration, and may be made up of multiple computers that work together.

[0027] The auxiliary storage unit stores, for example, information in which the connection information acquired by the connection information acquisition unit 221 is associated with the time when the connection information was acquired.

[0028] The short-range communication device 24 connects the vehicle 20 to an external device via short-range wireless communication. The short-range wireless communication may be the same as that of the short-range communication device 11.

[0029] The communicator 25 connects the vehicle 20 to the network N. The communicator 25 communicates with the communicator 13 and the user terminal 30 using the same predetermined wireless communication standard as the communicator 13.

[0030] (user terminal) The user terminal 30 is a terminal carried by a user 40. Examples of the user terminal 30 include a smartphone, a tablet computer, a personal computer, and a wearable terminal. The user terminal 30 includes an input / output unit 31, a processor 32, a storage unit 33, and a communication unit .

[0031] The input / output unit 31 receives, for example, information input by the user 40 instructing the mode (monitoring mode or non-monitoring mode) of the selector switch 12. The input / output unit 31 also outputs, for example, notification information that the user terminal 30 receives from the vehicle 20 via the network N.

[0032] The processor 32 is, for example, a CPU or a DSP. The processor 32 includes an acquisition unit 321 and an output unit 322 as functional units.

[0033] The processor 32 functions as an acquisition unit 321, and acquires (receives) notification information from the vehicle 20 via the network N, for example.

[0034] The processor 32 functions as an output unit 322, and can output schedule information of the user 40 stored in a schedule information DB 331 (described later) to the vehicle 20 via the network N. The output unit 322 can output a message to the home 10 via the network N instructing the user 40 to switch the mode of the selector switch 12 in accordance with information input to the input / output unit 31 by the user 40.

[0035] The storage unit 33 includes a main storage unit and an auxiliary storage unit. The storage unit 33 is similar to the storage unit 23, and therefore a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0036] The storage unit 33 has a schedule information DB 331. The schedule information DB 331 stores, for example, a schedule for the user 40 to use the vehicle 20 (hereinafter referred to as a usage schedule) as schedule information of the user 40. The usage schedule can be expressed, for example, by the time when the use of the vehicle 20 starts and the time when the use of the vehicle 20 ends.

[0037] The communication unit 34 connects the user terminal 30 to the network N. The communication unit 34 has the same functions as the communication device 13.

[0038] [3 Example of operation] 3 shows an example of information processing by the processor 220 according to this embodiment. The following processing procedure is an example of a control method executed by a computer.

[0039] In step S101, the connection information acquisition unit 221 acquires connection information for communication between the home communication device and the vehicle-mounted communication device.

[0040] In step S102, connection determination unit 222 determines whether the communication is connected or not, based on the acquired connection information. If connection determination unit 222 determines that the communication is not connected (determined as NO in step S102), the process proceeds to step S103. If connection determination unit 222 determines that the communication is connected (determined as YES in step S102), processor 220 ends the process.

[0041] In step S103, the schedule information acquisition unit 223 acquires information about the planned use of the vehicle 20 by the user 40.

[0042] The schedule determination unit 224 determines whether or not the user 40 has a plan to use the vehicle 20 according to the acquired usage plan information (step S104). If the schedule determination unit 224 determines that the user 40 does not have a plan to use the vehicle 20 (NO in step S104), the process proceeds to step S105. If 224 determines that the error is correct (YES in step S104), the processor 220 ends the process.

[0043] In step S105 , the position information acquisition unit 225 acquires the current position of the vehicle 20 from the GPS receiver 21 .

[0044] The notification unit 226 continuously notifies (transmits) the acquired current position of the vehicle 20 to the user terminal 30 via the network N (step S106), and the processor 220 ends the process.

[0045] [Features] Conventionally, devices for dealing with vehicle theft caused by external factors have been known. Patent Document 1 and other proposed vehicle theft prevention devices turn on when a vehicle door, window, or other trespassing is attempted, and issue vehicle theft information accompanied by audio and video recordings of the current situation. However, the present inventors have discovered the following problems with these conventional methods. For example, in recent years, there has been an increasing number of cases in which a thief impersonates the vehicle owner and breaks into a vehicle parked at home, unlocking it as if it were a legitimate smart key, thereby stealing the vehicle. In such cases, the thief may disable the vehicle's anti-theft and tracking functions. As a result, the owner is unable to detect the intrusion and is unable to track the theft triggered by the intrusion detection. Therefore, there is a need for a method for tracking a stolen vehicle without external factors.

[0046] In this embodiment, when it is determined that communication between the home communication device and the in-vehicle communication device has been disconnected and it is determined that the user 40 does not plan to use the vehicle 20, the processor 220 acquires the current location of the vehicle 20 and notifies the user 40. Therefore, according to this embodiment, the user 40 can track the stolen vehicle 20 without any external factors.

[0047] [4 Variations] In the present embodiment, as an example, the ECU 22 executes the information processing from step S101 to step S106. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a computer having the same functions as the ECU 22 may be installed in the home 10 and execute the same information processing as the ECU 22. Note that a computer (server) having the same functions as the ECU 22 may be installed outside the home 10 and execute the same information processing as the ECU 22.

[0048] (Other embodiments) Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail above, the above description is merely an example of the present disclosure in every respect. It goes without saying that various improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. [Explanation of symbols]

[0049] 1. Information Processing System 10··Home, 11··Short-range communication device, 12··Switch 20··Vehicle, 22··ECU, 220··Processor, 24··Near-field communication device 30··user terminals, 32··processors, 40··users, N··network

Claims

[Claim 1] determining whether or not communication is connected between the communication device at the user's home and the communication device at the vehicle owned by the user, based on a communication connection status between the communication device at the user's home and the communication device at the vehicle owned by the user; When it is determined that communication between the home communication device and the vehicle communication device is disconnected, acquiring schedule information regarding a planned use of the vehicle by the user; determining whether the disconnection of communication is due to the user's use of the vehicle according to the acquired schedule information; and when it is determined that the disconnection of communication is not due to the use of the vehicle by the user, issuing a command to the vehicle to continuously acquire a current location of the vehicle and report the acquired current location to the user terminal of the user; a control unit configured to perform Information processing device.

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