Information processing methods

Abstract

To improve the reliability of transmitting event-related information, such as emergency calls, when an emergency event occurs in a vehicle. [Solution] The in-vehicle device 10 acquires vehicle information about vehicle 1. Next, the in-vehicle device 10 estimates the status of vehicle 1 based on the vehicle information. Then, the in-vehicle device 10 dynamically switches between a single communication path and multiple communication paths according to the estimated status of vehicle 1.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to an information processing method.

BACKGROUND ART

[0002] Conventionally, technologies used when an emergency event occurs in a vehicle are known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses an emergency notification device that transmits an emergency notification when an emergency event occurs in a vehicle.

PRIOR ART DOCUMENTS

PATENT DOCUMENTS

[0003]

PATENT DOCUMENT 1

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION

[0004] There is room for improvement in the reliability when transmitting information related to an event such as an emergency notification when an emergency event occurs in a vehicle.

[0005] An object of the present disclosure made in view of such circumstances is to improve the reliability when transmitting information related to an event such as an emergency notification when an emergency event occurs in a vehicle.

MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS

[0006] An information processing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is an information processing method executed by an in-vehicle device mounted on a vehicle, the method including: acquiring information related to whether an airbag of the vehicle is activated, acceleration, and communication quality; presuming that an accident has occurred in the vehicle when the airbag is activated and the absolute value of the acceleration is equal to or greater than a first threshold; and switching and transmitting information related to the accident from a single communication path to a plurality of communication paths when the communication quality is less than a second threshold.

[0007] An information processing method according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is an information processing method performed by an in-vehicle device mounted in a vehicle, and includes acquiring vehicle information relating to the vehicle, estimating the status of the vehicle based on the vehicle information, and dynamically switching between a single communication path and a plurality of communication paths according to the estimated status. [Effects of the Invention]

[0008] According to one embodiment of this disclosure, it is possible to improve the reliability of transmitting event-related information, such as emergency calls, when an emergency event occurs in a vehicle. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0009] [Figure 1] This block diagram shows the schematic configuration of the system related to this disclosure. [Figure 2] This is a flowchart showing the operation of the in-vehicle device related to this disclosure. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0010] The embodiments of this disclosure will be described below.

[0011] (Summary of the embodiment) Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of an in-vehicle device 10 according to one embodiment. The in-vehicle device 10 is mounted on a vehicle 1. The vehicle 1 is any vehicle, such as an automobile or a motorcycle. The in-vehicle device 10 is an information processing device equipped with communication functions and is composed of, for example, a DCM (Data Communication Module), a car navigation system, a drive recorder, an ECU (Electronic Control Unit), etc.

[0012] First, an overview of this embodiment will be described, and details will be described later. The in-vehicle device 10 acquires vehicle information about vehicle 1. Next, the in-vehicle device 10 estimates the status of vehicle 1 based on the vehicle information. Then, the in-vehicle device 10 dynamically switches between a single communication path and multiple communication paths according to the estimated status of vehicle 1.

[0013] In this embodiment, "vehicle information" includes information on the vehicle's acceleration, speed, and position, as well as information on the communication quality of cellular communication, wireless LAN, etc., and information on whether or not the airbags are deployed. "Status of vehicle 1" refers to any situation of vehicle 1, such as when an accident has occurred in vehicle 1, or when the cellular communication reception sensitivity in vehicle 1 is weak. For example, if the in-vehicle device 10 can only use a single communication path, such as cellular communication only, communication may be delayed or interrupted in weak signal conditions. On the other hand, if the in-vehicle device 10 is made to be able to use multiple communication paths, such as cellular communication and wireless LAN, problems such as increased costs may arise. In contrast, according to this embodiment, it becomes possible to make multiple communication paths available only when, for example, an accident has occurred in vehicle 1 or when there is a weak signal, thereby improving the reliability of transmitting event-related information such as emergency calls when an emergency event occurs in the vehicle.

[0014] Next, the configuration of the in-vehicle device 10 will be described in detail.

[0015] (Configuration of in-vehicle equipment) The in-vehicle device 10 includes a communication unit 11, a storage unit 12, a control unit 13, and a sensor unit 14.

[0016] The communication unit 11 includes two or more communication interfaces that enable cellular communication, wireless LAN, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The communication interfaces include, for example, mobile communication standards used for cellular communication such as 4G (4th Generation), 5G (5th Generation), and LTE (Long Term Evolution), wireless LAN standards such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) and Bluetooth (registered trademark), or short-range wireless communication standards used for vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The communication unit 11 communicates with devices such as terminal devices, server devices, and other vehicles via the network.

[0017] The storage unit 12 includes one or more memories. The memories are, for example, semiconductor memories, magnetic memories, or optical memories. Each memory included in the storage unit 12 may function as, for example, a main memory, an auxiliary memory, or a cache memory. The storage unit 12 stores any information used for the operation of the in-vehicle device 10. For example, the storage unit 12 may store system programs, application programs, and embedded software. For example, the information stored in the storage unit 12 may be updatable with information obtained from a network via, for example, the communication unit 11.

[0018] The control unit 13 includes one or more processors, one or more programmable circuits, one or more dedicated circuits, or a combination thereof. The processor is a general-purpose processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or a dedicated processor specialized for a specific process, but is not limited to these. The programmable circuit is an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), but is not limited to this. The dedicated circuit is an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), etc. The control unit 13 controls the operation of the in-vehicle device 10.

[0019] The sensor unit 14 includes a plurality of sensors installed in the vehicle 1 necessary for acquiring vehicle information, such as a steering angle sensor, an acceleration sensor, a vehicle speed sensor, a position sensor, and a gyro sensor. The sensor unit 14 may be compatible with, for example, GPS (Global Positioning System) or the like.

[0020] (Operation Flow of In-Vehicle Device) The operation of the in-vehicle device 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to Figure 2. The procedure of Figure 2 is executed at any arbitrary interval, for example, every 1 second or every 5 seconds.

[0021] S100: The control unit 13 of the in-vehicle device 10 acquires vehicle information.

[0022] Specifically, the control unit 13 acquires information that can be acquired using the sensor unit 14, such as the acceleration, speed, and position of the vehicle 1. The control unit 13 also acquires information related to the communication quality and / or throughput of each communication path such as 5G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication used in the communication unit 11. The control unit 13 also acquires, for example, information related to whether an airbag has been activated.

[0023] S101: The control unit 13 estimates the situation of the vehicle 1 based on the vehicle information.

[0024] Specifically, the control unit 13 may estimate that an accident has occurred in the vehicle 1 when the airbag is activated. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may estimate that an accident has occurred in the vehicle 1 when the absolute value of the acceleration of the vehicle 1 is equal to or greater than a first threshold value such as 15G. Alternatively, the control unit 13 may estimate that an accident has occurred in the vehicle 1 when the airbag is activated and the acceleration is equal to or greater than the first threshold value. The first threshold value may be set based on, for example, collision acceleration obtained through a collision test at a predetermined speed or the like.

[0025] S102: The control unit 13 determines whether or not the situation of the vehicle 1 is an accident occurrence.

[0026] Specifically, if the vehicle 1 is in an accident state (S102-Yes), the control unit 13 proceeds to S103, and if it is not in an accident state (S102-No), it terminates the process. Alternatively, if the vehicle 1 is in an accident state, the control unit 13 may skip S103 and proceed to S104.

[0027] S103: The control unit 13 determines whether the communication quality of the communication unit 11 is below the second threshold.

[0028] Specifically, the control unit 13 determines whether the communication quality of the communication currently being used by the communication unit 11, such as 5G, is below a second threshold, such as -100 dBm. If the communication quality is below the second threshold (S103-Yes), the process proceeds to S104, and if no fault has occurred (S103-No), the process ends. Note that the communication quality may be expressed in units indicating the strength of radio waves, such as dBm as described above. Also, the second threshold may differ depending on the communication standard, for example, -100 dBm for 5G and -85 dBm for 4G. Furthermore, the control unit 13 may use the throughput of the communication unit 11 instead of the communication quality of the communication unit 11.

[0029] S104: The control unit 13 switches from a single communication path to multiple communication paths.

[0030] For example, if the communication unit 11 is equipped with communication interfaces for 5G, 4G, LTE, Wi-Fi, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and 5G is being used for communication, the control unit 13 will switch to enable the use of not only 5G, but also 4G, LTE, Wi-Fi, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The control unit 13 may also detect available communication path candidates when switching from a single communication path to multiple communication paths. For example, if the communication unit 11 is equipped with communication interfaces for 5G, 4G, LTE, Wi-Fi, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and 5G, Wi-Fi, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication are available, the control unit 13 will detect 5G, Wi-Fi, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication as available communication path candidates. The control unit 13 may then select two or more communication paths from the detected communication path candidates according to the status of vehicle 1. For example, if the status of vehicle 1 is an accident, it is important to reliably transmit information about the accident to the server device 20, etc. Therefore, the control unit 13 will select two or more communication paths from the communication path candidates in order of highest communication quality. For example, if 5G, Wi-Fi, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication are candidate communication paths, and the order of highest communication quality is vehicle-to-vehicle communication, Wi-Fi, and 5G, the control unit 13 will select the communication paths in the order of vehicle-to-vehicle communication, Wi-Fi, and 5G. Also, for example, if the amount of data to be transmitted outside the vehicle is large, the throughput of the communication path becomes important. Therefore, the control unit 13 may select two or more communication paths in order of highest throughput, depending on the amount of data to be transmitted outside the vehicle. For example, if 5G, Wi-Fi, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication are candidate communication paths, and the order of highest throughput is Wi-Fi, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and 5G, the control unit 13 will select the communication paths in the order of Wi-Fi, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and 5G.

[0031] The procedure in Figure 2 has been explained in isolation, focusing only on the case where an accident has occurred with vehicle 1. However, the estimated condition of vehicle 1 in S101 is not limited to accidents involving vehicle 1, but can include any condition of vehicle 1 that can be estimated using vehicle information. For example, the control unit 13 may estimate that a malfunction has occurred in vehicle 1 if vehicle 1 is located on the shoulder or roadside, its speed is 0 km / s, and the time at 0 km / s exceeds a predetermined time, such as 10 minutes. For example, the control unit 13 may estimate that vehicle 1 is in a weak electric field if the communication quality of the communication currently being used by the communication unit 11 is below the second threshold. In this case, the control unit 13 may perform the same processing in S102 as when an accident has occurred with vehicle 1.

[0032] Furthermore, if the status of vehicle 1 changes, the control unit 13 may revert the multiple communication paths switched in S104 back to a single communication path. For example, if the estimated status of vehicle 1 is a malfunction, the control unit 13 will revert from multiple communication paths to a single communication path when vehicle 1's location becomes a road and its speed is no longer 0 km / s. Also, for example, the control unit 13 will revert from multiple communication paths to a single communication path when the communication quality of the communication used by the communication unit 11 exceeds a second threshold.

[0033] While this disclosure has been described based on the drawings and embodiments, it should be noted that those skilled in the art may make various modifications and alterations based on this disclosure. Therefore, it should be noted that these modifications and alterations are within the scope of this disclosure. For example, the functions, etc., included in each component or step can be rearranged in a logically consistent manner, and multiple components or steps can be combined into one or divided into two.

[0034] For example, in the embodiment described above, it is also possible to have an embodiment in which the configuration and operation of the in-vehicle device 10 are distributed among multiple computers that can communicate with each other.

[0035] Furthermore, it is also possible to implement an embodiment in which a general-purpose computer functions as the in-vehicle device 10 according to the above-described embodiment. Specifically, a program describing the processing content that realizes each function of the in-vehicle device 10 according to the above-described embodiment is stored in the memory of the general-purpose computer, and the processor reads and executes the program. Therefore, this disclosure can also be implemented as a program that can be executed by a processor, or as a non-temporary computer-readable medium that stores the program. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0036] 1 Vehicle, 10 On-board equipment, 11 Communication unit, 12 Storage unit, 13 Control unit, 14 Sensor section

Claims

1. An information processing method performed by an in-vehicle device installed in a vehicle, To acquire information regarding the deployment status of the vehicle's airbags, acceleration, and communication quality. If the airbag is deployed and the absolute value of the acceleration is greater than or equal to a first threshold, it is presumed that an accident has occurred in the vehicle, and If the communication quality is below the second threshold, the information regarding the accident is transmitted by switching from a single communication path to multiple communication paths. Information processing methods, including those mentioned above.

2. An information processing method performed by an in-vehicle device installed in a vehicle, To obtain vehicle information relating to the aforementioned vehicle, Based on the aforementioned vehicle information, estimate the status of the vehicle, and Dynamically switching between a single communication path and multiple communication paths depending on the estimated situation. Information processing methods, including those mentioned above.

3. The information processing method according to claim 2, When switching from the single communication path to the multiple communication paths, detect available communication path candidates. Selecting two or more communication paths from the aforementioned candidate communication paths according to the circumstances, An information processing method that further includes the above.

4. The information processing method according to claim 3, The aforementioned situation includes the occurrence of an accident, The vehicle information includes the communication quality of each of the candidate communication paths. The in-vehicle device, in the event that the situation is an accident, selects two or more communication paths from the candidate communication paths in order of highest communication quality, as an information processing method.

5. The information processing method according to claim 3, The vehicle information includes the throughput of each of the candidate communication paths. The in-vehicle device is an information processing method that selects two or more communication paths in order of highest throughput according to the amount of data to be transmitted outside the vehicle.

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