Vehicle operation management system

Abstract

To provide estimation of passenger's behavior or status relative to a vehicle while determining an operation route and a stop position according to a request of the passenger.SOLUTION: A system for managing an operation of a passenger-carrying vehicle comprises: a depot short-distance wireless communication part 34 capable of wirelessly short-distance-communicating with a communication terminal 90, that is arranged at each depot for each vehicle; a vehicle short-distance wireless communication part 30 capable of wirelessly short-distance-communicating with the communication terminal 90 that is arranged in each vehicle thereof; and a management server 50 capable of wirelessly long-distance communicating with the communication terminal 90 in between. The communication terminal 90 and / or the management server 50 comprises a get-off determination part for making it possible to determine that a passenger is in a get-off phase of getting off the vehicle, when the communication terminal 90 performs signal-receiving from the vehicle short-distance wireless communication part 30 as a previous signal-receiving, and signal-receiving from the depot short-distance wireless communication part 34 is performed as a subsequent signal-receiving.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 17

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technology for managing the operation of passenger vehicles, and more particularly to a technology for estimating the behavior or status of passengers relative to the vehicle or vehicle operation facilities using a short-range wireless communication unit and a passenger's communication terminal. [Background technology]

[0002] Technologies for managing the operation of multiple passenger transport vehicles have already been proposed. Here, "vehicles" include, for example, public buses, chartered buses, public taxis, chartered taxis, trains, tramways, and rail-based transportation (e.g., monorails, cable cars, and trolleys). Furthermore, "vehicles" may operate, for example, along fixed routes or along routes that are determined as needed in response to passenger requests.

[0003] Patent document 1 discloses a technology for managing the operation of a public bus as the vehicle, in which location information of the user's desired bus boarding location is sent from the user terminal to a server, thereby making a bus boarding reservation.

[0004] Patent Document 2 discloses another technology for managing the operation of a public bus as the vehicle, in which a server remotely monitors the current location of a user using the GPS function of the user's terminal, thereby determining the boarding and disembarking location when the user gets on or off the bus. In this technology, the server calculates the fare for the user based on the positioning results, and the user electronically pays the fare using the user's terminal.

[0005] Patent Document 3 discloses yet another technology for managing the operation of public buses as the vehicles, in which a two-dimensional code is displayed adjacent to the name of each stop on a route map, and a user reads the two-dimensional code with a user terminal, accesses a server based on the link information obtained by reading the code, and the user terminal downloads operation information from the server. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-056498 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-217194 [Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-268392 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] The present inventors have conducted research into conventional vehicle operation management systems and have obtained the following findings as a result.

[0008] In other words, in general, in a vehicle operation management system, the relative position between a vehicle (e.g., a moving object) and a station (e.g., a stationary object) changes from moment to moment during operation, and the position or behavior of passengers (e.g., a moving object) changes in synchronization with this change.

[0009] Specifically, for example, the status of the vehicle operation equipment including vehicles and stops and the passenger behavior status may be in a waiting phase where the vehicle is waiting for the next vehicle to arrive at a stop, in a boarding phase where passengers are boarding a vehicle that has arrived at a stop (reclassified into three phases, for example, boarding start, boarding in progress, and boarding completed), or in a disembarking phase where passengers are disembarking from a vehicle that has arrived at a stop (reclassified into three phases, for example, disembarking start, disembarking in progress, and disembarking completed).

[0010] Furthermore, with the recent dramatic advances in information and communication technology, the majority of potential passengers carry communication terminals, such as mobile terminals, with communication capabilities. These communication terminals generally have advanced communication capabilities, such as the ability to selectively perform short-range or long-range communication depending on the communication characteristics of the other communication device.

[0011] If passengers use such user terminals to access the vehicle operation control system, the burden on the vehicle operation control system in terms of both hardware and software resources will be reduced.

[0012] In contrast to this, as mentioned above, technologies that allow passengers to use a vehicle operation management system via a user terminal have already been proposed in Patent Documents 1 to 3.

[0013] However, Patent Documents 1 to 3 do not propose a technique for estimating the behavior of a user relative to vehicle operation facilities using a user terminal.

[0014] In response to this, the inventor proposed a new hardware configuration for estimating user behavior, in which vehicles and stations as vehicle operation equipment are each equipped with a transmitter that emits a unique signal, which is capable of short-range communication with a user terminal, and which enables the user terminal to measure the distance from the transmitter based on the strength of the signal received by the user terminal from the transmitter.

[0015] The inventor further proposed a novel software configuration for estimating user behavior, in which the user terminal identifies the receiving object (e.g., which vehicle or which station) based on the signals received by the user terminal from these transmitters (e.g., whether or not a signal is received, the receiving strength, etc.), and then references the identified receiving object to thereby estimate the user's behavior in relation to time.

[0016] Against this background, the present invention has been made to have the following objectives: a first objective is to provide a technology for controlling the operation of passenger transport vehicles, which determines the vehicle's operating route and stopping positions in accordance with passenger requests and estimates the passenger's behavior or status relative to the vehicle; a second objective is to provide a technology for managing the operation of multiple passenger transport vehicles, which uses a transmitter and a user terminal to estimate the status of the vehicle operation equipment or the user's behavior or status relative to the vehicle operation equipment; a third objective is to provide a technology for managing the operation of passenger transport vehicles, which uses a short-range wireless communication unit and a passenger's communication terminal to estimate the passenger's behavior or status relative to the vehicle or the vehicle operation equipment; and a fourth objective is to provide a technology for managing the operation of the vehicle, which uses a short-range wireless communication unit and a passenger's communication terminal arranged in the passenger transport vehicle. [Means for solving the problem]

[0017] The aforementioned 1st to Fourth Challenge At least one of To solve this, According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle operation management system that manages the operation of a plurality of vehicles for transporting passengers by using passenger communication terminals capable of short-range wireless communication and long-range wireless communication, comprising: a station short-range wireless communication unit that is installed at each of a plurality of stations for each vehicle and that is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a vehicle short-range wireless communication unit that is installed in each vehicle and is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a management server capable of long-distance wireless communication with the communication terminal; Including, The communication terminal and / or the management server a vehicle / stop selection unit that selects, prior to boarding, one of the plurality of vehicles as a current vehicle that the passenger plans to board and one of the plurality of stops as a current stop where the passenger plans to disembark from the current vehicle; an alighting determination unit that enables the communication terminal to determine that the passenger is in an alighting phase in which the passenger alights from the current vehicle when the communication terminal has set the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit corresponding to the current vehicle as a target of a reception attempt and performed reception from there as a first reception, and when the communication terminal has set the station short-range wireless communication unit corresponding to the current stop as a target of a reception attempt and performed reception from there as a later reception; A vehicle operation management system including the following is provided.

[0018] Also, According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle operation management system that manages the operation of a passenger transport vehicle by using a passenger's communication terminal capable of short-range wireless communication and long-range wireless communication, comprising: a station short-range wireless communication unit that is installed at each station for each vehicle and that can communicate with the communication terminal by short-range wireless communication; a vehicle short-range wireless communication unit that is installed in each vehicle and is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a management server capable of long-distance wireless communication with the communication terminal; Including, The communication terminal and / or the management server a disembarkation determination unit that determines that the communication terminal is in a disembarking phase in which the passenger disembarks from the vehicle when reception from the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit is performed as an earlier reception and reception from the station short-range wireless communication unit is performed as a later reception, The alighting determination unit enables the communication terminal to determine that the passenger is in the alighting phase when the communication terminal receives signals from both the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit and the station short-range wireless communication unit between the earlier reception and the later reception.A vehicle operation management system is provided.

[0019] Also, According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle operation management system that manages the operation of a passenger transport vehicle by using a passenger's communication terminal capable of short-range wireless communication and long-range wireless communication, comprising: a station short-range wireless communication unit that is installed at each station for each vehicle and that can communicate with the communication terminal by short-range wireless communication; a vehicle short-range wireless communication unit that is installed in each vehicle and is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a management server capable of long-distance wireless communication with the communication terminal; Including, The communication terminal and / or the management server a disembarkation determination unit that determines that the communication terminal is in a disembarking phase in which the passenger disembarks from the vehicle when reception from the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit is performed as an earlier reception and reception from the station short-range wireless communication unit is performed as a later reception, The dismount determination unit enables the communication terminal to terminate a reception mode in which the communication terminal is capable of receiving the previous signal when the strength of the signal received from the vehicular short-range wireless communication unit decreases over time. A vehicle operation management system is provided.

[0025] The present invention provides the following aspects. Each aspect is divided into paragraphs, each numbered, and described by citing the numbers of other paragraphs as necessary. This is to facilitate understanding of some of the technical features and combinations thereof that may be employed by the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the technical features and combinations thereof that may be employed by the present invention to the following aspects. In other words, it should be understood that technical features that are not described in the following aspects but are described in this specification may be appropriately extracted and employed as technical features of the present invention.

[0026] Furthermore, describing each paragraph in a format that refers to the number of other paragraphs does not necessarily mean that the technical features described in each paragraph cannot be separated and made independent from the technical features described in other paragraphs, and it should be interpreted that the technical features described in each paragraph can be made independent as appropriate depending on their nature.

[0027] (1) A system for managing the operation of multiple passenger transport vehicles, comprising: a communication terminal of a user who may be a passenger in one of the vehicles; At least one stop transmitter installed at each stop for each vehicle, transmitting a unique stop signal by a short-range wireless communication method; At least one vehicle transmitter installed in each vehicle and transmitting a unique vehicle signal by a short-range wireless communication method; a management server used to centrally manage the operation of the plurality of vehicles; Including, The communication terminal a station identification unit that, upon receiving a station signal from any one of the station transmitters, identifies any one of the stations at which any one of the station transmitters is installed based on the station signal and transmits the identification result to the management server; a vehicle identification unit that, upon receiving a vehicle signal from any one of the vehicle transmitters, identifies any one of the vehicles on which the vehicle transmitter is installed based on the vehicle signal and transmits the identification result to the management server; a vehicle stop determination unit that, when receiving signals from both any one of the vehicle station transmitters and any one of the vehicle transmitters simultaneously, determines that any one of the vehicles having any one of the vehicle transmitters installed therein is currently parked at any one of the vehicle station transmitters installed therein, and that the user is located in the vicinity of the vehicle and the vehicle, and transmits the determination result to the management server; Including, The vehicle operation management system includes a storage unit that, when receiving the determination result from the communication terminal, stores the received determination result in memory in association with the time of reception.

[0028] (2) A system for managing the operation of multiple vehicles for transporting passengers, a communication terminal of a user who may be a passenger in one of the vehicles; At least one stop transmitter installed at each stop for each vehicle, transmitting a unique stop signal by a short-range wireless communication method; At least one vehicle transmitter installed in each vehicle and transmitting a unique vehicle signal by a short-range wireless communication method; a management server used to centrally manage the operation of the plurality of vehicles; Including, The communication terminal a station identification unit that, upon receiving a station signal from any one of the station transmitters, identifies any one of the stations at which the station transmitter is installed based on the station signal; a vehicle identification unit that, upon receiving a vehicle signal from any one of the vehicle transmitters, identifies any one of the vehicles in which the vehicle transmitter is installed based on the vehicle signal; a linking unit that, upon receiving a station signal from any of the station transmitters and a vehicle signal from any of the vehicle transmitters, determines based on the signals whether the identified station and the identified vehicle share the same space and / or the same time, and if so, links the identified station and the identified vehicle to each other and transmits the linking information to the management server; a status estimation unit that estimates a status of a vehicle operation facility including the identified stop and the identified vehicle and / or a user based on a stop signal received from any one of the stop transmitters, a vehicle signal received from any one of the vehicle transmitters, and the linking information, and transmits the status information to the management server; Including, The vehicle operation management system includes a storage unit that, when receiving the linking information and / or the status information from the communication terminal, stores the received information in memory in association with the time of reception.

[0029] (3) The vehicle operation management system described in (2) above, wherein the status estimation unit estimates the user's status, including at least one of the user's position relative to the vehicle operation equipment, the user's behavior phase, and the user's movement speed, based on at least one of whether or not the communication terminal receives a station signal and a vehicle signal at each time, the reception strength of the station signal and the vehicle signal at each time, and the temporal change characteristics of the reception strength of the station signal and the vehicle signal at each time.

[0030] (4) A vehicle operation management system as described in (3), wherein the user's phase is classified into at least two of a waiting phase in which the user waits at a bus stop, a boarding phase in which the user boards a vehicle, and a disembarking phase in which the user disembarks from a vehicle.

[0031] (5) A vehicle operation management system described in any of (1) to (4), in which the sizes of the first reception area and the second reception area, which are ranges within which the communication terminal can effectively receive station signals and vehicle signals from the station transmitter and the vehicle transmitter, respectively, are set to be different from each other.

[0032] (6) A vehicle operation management system as described in any of (1) to (5), wherein the communication terminal changes the size of the first and second reception ranges, which are ranges within which the communication terminal can effectively receive station signals and vehicle signals from the station transmitter and the vehicle transmitter, respectively, depending on whether the transmitter is a station transmitter or a vehicle transmitter, and changes the reference value of the actual reception strength or actual reception distance for determining whether effective reception occurs depending on whether the transmitter is a station transmitter or a vehicle transmitter.

[0033] (7) A vehicle operation management system described in any of (1) to (6), wherein the communication terminal sets the sizes of the first reception range and the second reception range, which are ranges within which the station signal and the vehicle signal can be effectively received from the station transmitter and the vehicle transmitter, respectively, so that the first reception range and the second reception range at least partially overlap each other when the vehicle is stopped at the station.

[0034] (8) The communication terminal sets the sizes of the first reception area and the second reception area, which are ranges within which the station signal and the vehicle signal can be effectively received from the station transmitter and the vehicle transmitter, respectively, so that the first reception area and the second reception area at least partially overlap each other when the vehicle is stopped at the station; The vehicle operation management system described in (2) above, wherein when the communication terminal effectively receives a station signal and a vehicle signal from both a station transmitter installed at one of the stations and a vehicle transmitter installed at one of the vehicles simultaneously, the linking unit links the station ID represented by the station signal received from one of the station transmitters and representing the current station with the vehicle ID represented by the vehicle signal received from one of the vehicle transmitters and representing the current vehicle.

[0035] (9) A vehicle operation management system as described in paragraph (2), wherein the status estimation unit includes a boarding reservation unit that, when a user touches or holds the communication terminal over a station transmitter installed at one of the stations, allows the user to make a reservation to board a vehicle scheduled to arrive at that station and transmits the boarding reservation to the management server.

[0036] (10) A vehicle operation management system as described in paragraph (2), wherein the status estimation unit includes a boarding completion determination unit that, when a user touches or holds the communication terminal over a vehicle transmitter installed in one of the vehicles, determines that the user has completed boarding one of the vehicles and transmits the determination result to the management server.

[0037] (11) The communication terminal sets the sizes of the first reception area and the second reception area, which are ranges within which the station signal and the vehicle signal can be effectively received from the station transmitter and the vehicle transmitter, respectively, so that the first reception area and the second reception area at least partially overlap each other when the vehicle is stopped at the station; The status estimation unit an alighting determination unit that, when the communication terminal transitions from a state in which a vehicle signal is predominantly effectively received from any of the vehicle transmitters or a state in which the strength of the vehicle signal effectively received from any of the vehicle transmitters gradually decreases to a state in which a station signal effectively received from any of the station transmitters is predominantly effectively received from any of the vehicle transmitters, determines that the user is in an alighting phase in which the user alights from the current vehicle identified by the vehicle ID represented by the vehicle signal effectively received from any of the vehicle transmitters, at the current station identified by the station ID represented by the station signal effectively received from any of the station transmitters, and transmits the determination result to the management server, on condition that the communication terminal at least temporarily experiences a state in which a station signal and a vehicle signal are effectively received simultaneously from both a station transmitter installed at any of the stations and a vehicle transmitter installed in any of the vehicles; a drop-off stop recognition unit that recognizes the current stop as the user's actual drop-off stop and transmits the drop-off stop to the management server; The vehicle operation management system according to claim 2, including:

[0038] (12) A vehicle operation management system according to any one of (1) to (11), wherein the vehicle includes a public bus, a chartered bus, a public taxi, a chartered taxi, a train, a streetcar, or a rail-based transportation system.

[0039] (13) A vehicle operation management system according to any one of (1) to (12), in which the vehicle operates along a fixed route or along a route determined on an ongoing basis according to passenger requests.

[0040] (14) A program for causing a computer to function as a communication terminal according to any one of (1) to (13).

[0041] Throughout this specification, the term "program" may be interpreted to mean, for example, but not limited to, a combination of instructions that are executed by a computer to perform its functions, and may also be interpreted to include not only the combination of instructions, but also the files and data that are processed in accordance with each instruction.

[0042] Furthermore, this program may be executed by a computer alone to achieve its intended purpose, or may be executed by a computer together with other programs to achieve its intended purpose, but is not limited to these. In the latter case, the program according to this paragraph may be, but is not limited to, one that mainly consists of data.

[0043] (15) A program for causing a computer to function as the management server according to any one of (1) to (13).

[0044] (16) A recording medium on which the program described in (14) or (15) is recorded in a computer-readable manner.

[0045] Throughout this specification, the term "recording medium" may be interpreted to mean various types of recording medium, including, but not limited to, magnetic recording media such as floppy disks, optical recording media such as CDs and CD-ROMs, magneto-optical recording media such as MOs, and non-removable storage media such as ROMs.

[0046] (17) A system or method for managing the operation of a fleet of passenger-carrying vehicles, comprising: a communication terminal of a user who may be a passenger in one of the vehicles; at least one stop transmitter installed at each stop for each vehicle, transmitting a unique stop signal via short-range wireless communication; At least one vehicle transmitter installed in each vehicle, which transmits a unique vehicle signal by a short-range wireless communication method; a management server used by a vehicle operation management center that centrally manages the operation of the plurality of vehicles; Including, The communication terminal a station identification unit that, upon receiving a station signal from any one of the station transmitters, identifies any one of the stations at which any one of the station transmitters is installed from the transmitter ID represented by the station signal in accordance with a predetermined relationship between the transmitter ID and the station ID; a vehicle identification unit that, upon receiving a vehicle signal from any one of the vehicle transmitters, identifies any one of the vehicles in which any one of the vehicle transmitters is installed from the transmitter ID represented by the vehicle signal in accordance with a predetermined relationship between the transmitter ID and the vehicle ID; Including, A vehicle operation management system or method including a status estimation unit in which the communication terminal and / or the management server determines whether the identified stop and the identified vehicle share the same space and / or the same time based on a stop signal received by the communication terminal from any stop transmitter and a vehicle signal received from any vehicle transmitter, and if they do, links the identified stop and the identified vehicle to each other in association with time, thereby estimating the status of vehicle operation equipment including the identified stop and the identified vehicle in association with time.

[0047] (18) The vehicle operation management system or method described in (17) wherein the communication terminal and / or the management server further includes a user behavior estimation unit that estimates a user behavior status, including at least one of the user's position relative to the vehicle operation equipment, the user's behavior phase, and the user's movement speed, in association with time, based on at least one of whether the communication terminal receives a station signal and a vehicle signal at each time, the reception strength of the station signal and the vehicle signal at each time, and the temporal change characteristics of the reception strength of the station signal and the vehicle signal at the communication terminal.

[0048] (19) A system or method for managing the operation of a fleet of passenger-carrying vehicles, comprising: a communication terminal of a user who may be a passenger in one of the vehicles; At least one stop transmitter installed at each stop for each vehicle, transmitting a unique stop signal by a short-range wireless communication method; At least one vehicle transmitter installed in each vehicle and transmitting a unique vehicle signal by a short-range wireless communication method; a management server used to centrally manage the operation of the plurality of vehicles; Including, The communication terminal a station identification unit that, upon receiving a station signal from any one of the station transmitters, identifies any one of the stations at which the station transmitter is installed in association with time based on the station signal; a vehicle identification unit that, upon receiving a vehicle signal from any one of the vehicle transmitters, identifies any one of the vehicles on which the vehicle transmitter is installed in association with time based on the vehicle signal; an estimation unit that estimates a relative positional relationship between the user, the identified stop, and the identified vehicle based on the content of each identification result and the simultaneity and temporal precedence of each identification time; A vehicle operation management system or method including the same.

[0049] ( 20 ) A system or method for managing the operation of a plurality of vehicles for transporting passengers, comprising: a communication terminal of a user who may be a passenger in one of the vehicles; At least one stop transmitter installed at each stop for each vehicle, transmitting a unique stop signal by a short-range wireless communication method; At least one vehicle transmitter installed in each vehicle and transmitting a unique vehicle signal by a short-range wireless communication method; a management server used to centrally manage the operation of the plurality of vehicles; Including, The communication terminal a station identification unit that, upon receiving a station signal from any one of the station transmitters, identifies any one of the stations at which any one of the station transmitters is installed based on the station signal and transmits the identification result to the management server; a vehicle identification unit that, upon receiving a vehicle signal from any one of the vehicle transmitters, identifies any one of the vehicles on which the vehicle transmitter is installed based on the vehicle signal and transmits the identification result to the management server; Including, The management server includes an estimation unit that estimates the relative positional relationship between the user, the identified stop, and the identified vehicle based on the content of each identification result received from the communication terminal and the simultaneity and temporal order of the respective reception times.

[0050] ( 21 ) A system or method for managing the operation of a plurality of vehicles for transporting passengers, comprising: a communication terminal of a user who may be a passenger in one of the vehicles; At least one stop transmitter installed at each stop for each vehicle, transmitting a unique stop signal by a short-range wireless communication method; At least one vehicle transmitter installed in each vehicle and transmitting a unique vehicle signal by a short-range wireless communication method; a management server used to manage the operation of the plurality of vehicles; Including, The communication terminal a station identification unit that, upon receiving a station signal from any one of the station transmitters, identifies any one of the stations at which any one of the station transmitters is installed based on the station signal and transmits the identification result to the management server; a vehicle identification unit that, upon receiving a vehicle signal from any one of the vehicle transmitters, identifies any one of the vehicles on which the vehicle transmitter is installed based on the vehicle signal and transmits the identification result to the management server; a fault diagnosis unit that diagnoses whether or not there is a fault in each station transmitter and / or each vehicle transmitter; a positioning unit that measures the current location of the communication terminal as the current location of the user; a user behavior estimation unit that estimates the user's behavior by using the user's current position measured by the positioning unit and / or the user's speed or acceleration acquired by the speed acquisition unit or acceleration acquisition unit of the communication terminal, whether the user is standing still or walking at any of the station transmitters, or whether the user is in any of the moving vehicles and traveling together with the vehicle; an alternative stop identification unit that, when it is diagnosed that any of the stop transmitters is faulty, identifies the stop where the user is located based on the measured current location of the user and the estimated user behavior, instead of the stop identification unit, and transmits the identification result to the management server; a substitute vehicle identification unit that, when it is diagnosed that any of the vehicle transmitters is faulty, identifies the vehicle in which the user is riding based on the measured current location of the user and the estimated user behavior, instead of the vehicle identification unit, and transmits the identification result to the management server; A vehicle operation management system or method including the same.

[0051] ( 22 ) The fault diagnosis unit identifies, from the current position measured by the positioning unit, which transmitter should be installed at the current position, in accordance with a predetermined relationship between the installation location of each transmitter and the transmitter ID of each transmitter, which is stored in the memory of the communication terminal or the management server, and if the communication terminal does not receive a signal from any of the transmitters, diagnoses that any of the transmitters is faulty ( 21 ) A vehicle operation management system or method according to the above item.

[0052] ( 23 ) A method for diagnosing whether or not there is a malfunction in each of a plurality of transmitters installed at a plurality of geographically different locations, using a communication terminal of the user while the user is at the installation location, comprising: a positioning step of measuring a current position of the communication terminal by a positioning unit of the communication terminal; an identification step of identifying, from the measured current location, which transmitter should be installed at the current location according to a predetermined relationship between the installation location of each transmitter and the transmitter ID of each transmitter, which relationship is stored in a memory of the communication terminal; a diagnostic step of diagnosing that any of the identified transmitters is faulty when the communication terminal does not receive a signal from the identified transmitter; a transmission step of transmitting the diagnosis result to a management server; A transmitter fault diagnosis method comprising:

[0053] This method relates to a technique for diagnosing whether or not a transmitter has a malfunction (for example, malfunction, low battery, etc.).

[0054] According to this method, when a user approaches the location where one of the transmitters is installed, either as planned or by chance, the user can use the user's communication terminal to diagnose whether or not one of the transmitters is malfunctioning, and the diagnosis results can be notified from the user's communication terminal to a management server located in a remote location.

[0055] As a result, with this method, when the management server centrally manages a plurality of transmitters located geographically dispersedly, it is possible to have the user, sometimes unknowingly, perform the work required for fault diagnosis for each transmitter without having to dispatch a worker to the location where the transmitter is installed, and furthermore, to notify the management server in real time by sending the diagnosis results from the user's communication terminal to the management server. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0072] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a system diagram conceptually showing the hardware configuration of a bus traffic control system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[0073] [Figure 2]FIG. 2 is a system diagram conceptually showing a comprehensive communication network in the bus operation control system shown in FIG. 1, which interconnects bus stops, buses, user terminals, and a bus operation control center as multiple nodes.

[0074] [Figure 3] Figure 3 is a plan view showing an example of a user's behavior in the bus operation management system shown in Figure 1, in which the user approaches a bus stop and touches a bus stop transmitter installed at the bus stop with a mobile terminal because the bus is in a waiting phase.

[0075] [Figure 4] Figure 4 is a plan view showing an example of an action in which a user, in the bus operation management system shown in Figure 1, boards a bus at one of the bus stops from its boarding entrance and touches the boarding entrance transmitter installed at that entrance with a mobile terminal because the user is in the boarding phase.

[0076] [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of a behavior in which a user gets off at an exit of any bus at any bus stop because the user is in the alighting phase in the bus operation management system shown in FIG.

[0077] [Figure 6] Figure 6(a) is a graph conceptually showing an example of the time history of the relative reception strength Ir of the signal received by the mobile terminal from the bus stop transmitter at the desired boarding bus stop during the waiting phase, Figure 6(b) is a graph conceptually showing an example of the time history of the relative reception strength Ir of the signal received by the mobile terminal from the boarding entrance transmitter during the boarding phase, Figure 6(c) is a graph conceptually showing an example of the time history of the relative reception strength Ir of the signal received by the mobile terminal from the disembarking entrance transmitter during the disembarking phase, and Figure 6(d) is a graph conceptually showing an example of the time history of the relative reception strength Ir of the signal received by the mobile terminal from the bus stop transmitter at the desired disembarking bus stop during the disembarking phase.

[0078] [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a plan view partially showing an example of a bus route map to which the bus operation control system shown in FIG. 1 is applied.

[0079] [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram conceptually showing the bus stop transmitter, the boarding entrance transmitter, and the exit entrance transmitter shown in FIG. 2, all of which have a common configuration.

[0080] [Figure 9] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a table for managing a plurality of transmitter IDs for a plurality of bus stop transmitters installed at a plurality of bus stops in the bus operation control system shown in FIG.

[0081] [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a table for managing multiple transmitter IDs for multiple boarding entrance transmitters and multiple exit entrance transmitters mounted on multiple buses in the bus operation management system shown in FIG.

[0082] [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a table for managing a plurality of effective reception radii (reference values ​​for determining whether or not effective reception occurs) for a plurality of transmitters in the bus operation control system shown in FIG.

[0083] [Figure 12] FIG. 12 is a functional block diagram conceptually showing a mobile terminal of a user, i.e., a potential passenger of the bus shown in FIG.

[0084] [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is a graph conceptually showing the signal characteristics in which the absolute received signal strength (RSSI), which is the strength of the signal received by the mobile terminal shown in FIG. 1 from each transmitter shown in FIG. 1, decreases according to the distance D between the transmitter and the mobile terminal.

[0085] [Figure 14] FIG. 14 is a functional block diagram conceptually showing the management server shown in FIG.

[0086] [Figure 15] FIG. 15 is a flowchart conceptually illustrating the programs executed by the mobile device and management server of the bus operation management system shown in FIG. 1 to detect the waiting phase and book a ride for the user.

[0087] [Figure 16] FIG. 16 is a flowchart conceptually showing a plurality of programs executed by the mobile terminal and the management server of the bus operation management system shown in FIG. 1 to detect the boarding phase.

[0088] [Figure 17] FIG. 17 is a flowchart conceptually showing a plurality of programs executed by the mobile terminal and the management server of the bus operation management system shown in FIG. 1 to detect the disembarking phase.

[0089] [Figure 18] FIG. 18 is a diagram conceptually showing an example of a status management table created by the management server shown in FIG. 1 in the bus operation management system shown in FIG. 1, which shows the time history of the status for each user.

[0090] [Figure 19] Figure 19 is a front view conceptually showing an example of multiple virtual buttons displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal in the bus operation management system shown in Figure 1, which can be selected and operated by a user to select and activate multiple secondary functions. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0091] One of more specific and exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0092] 1 is a conceptual system diagram showing the hardware configuration and communication network configuration of a bus traffic control system (hereinafter simply referred to as the "system") 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention. This system is an example of a vehicle traffic control system according to one embodiment of the present invention, and executes an example of a vehicle traffic control method according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0093] <System hardware configuration overview>

[0094] Generally, the system 10 is configured to manage the operation of a number of buses 12 for passenger transport.

[0095] To achieve this purpose, the system 10 includes (a) a mobile terminal 90 of a user who may be a passenger on one of the buses 12, (b) a bus stop transmitter 30 installed at each bus stop 14, (c) an entrance transmitter 32 installed at the entrance 16 of each bus 12 and an exit transmitter 34 installed at the exit 18 of each bus 12, (d) a management server 50 used by a vehicle operation management center 40 that centrally manages the operation of the multiple buses 12, and (e) an in-bus communication device 20 installed in each bus 12.

[0096] The bus 12 is an example of the aforementioned "vehicle for transporting passengers," such as a public bus or a chartered bus. The bus 12 may operate along a fixed route (e.g., a route), or may operate along a variable route determined as needed according to passenger requests.

[0097] The user's mobile terminal 90 is an example of the aforementioned "user's communication terminal." The bus stop 14 is an example of the aforementioned "bus stop," and the bus stop transmitter 30 is an example of the aforementioned "bus stop transmitter." Another example of the aforementioned "bus stop" is a train or tram (e.g., tram, subway) station. Yet another example of the aforementioned "bus stop" is a taxi stop.

[0098] The boarding entrance transmitter 32 and the exiting entrance transmitter 34 are each an example of the aforementioned "at least one vehicle transmitter." In this embodiment, the boarding entrance transmitter 32 and the exiting entrance transmitter 34 are both installed inside the interior of the bus 12, but instead, they may be installed inside the exterior wall of the bus 12 or on the exterior wall surface of the bus 12.

[0099] In this embodiment, bus 12 has boarding entrance 16 and disembarking entrance 18, so that passengers pass through different gates when boarding and disembarking bus 12, but instead, passengers may pass through the same gate. In other words, bus 12 may have at least one boarding and disembarking entrance.

[0100] The bus stop transmitter 30, the boarding entrance transmitter 32, and the exit entrance transmitter 34 have a common configuration. Specifically, each of the transmitters 30, 32, and 34 (a) transmits a unique signal, (b) is capable of one-way short-range communication with the mobile terminal 90 as shown in Fig. 2, and (c) is capable of measuring the distance D (i.e., the actual receiving radius) between the transmitter 30, 32, and 34 and the mobile terminal 90 based on the strength of the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from the transmitter 30, 32, and 34, RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator), as will be described later with reference to Fig. 13.

[0101] For ease of explanation, the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from the bus stop transmitter 30 will be referred to as a bus stop signal, the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from the boarding entrance transmitter 32 will be referred to as a boarding entrance signal, and the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from the exit entrance transmitter 34 will be referred to as an exit entrance signal. Here, the "bus stop signal" is an example of the aforementioned "station signal," the "boarding entrance signal" is an example of the aforementioned "vehicle signal," and the "exit entrance signal" is another example of the aforementioned "vehicle signal."

[0102] 2, the mobile terminal 90 is capable of long-distance two-way communication with the management server 50 via a communication network. Similarly, the in-bus communication device 20 is also capable of long-distance two-way communication with the management server 50 via a communication network.

[0103] The bus communication device 20 has a transmitting unit 22 that transmits traffic information and requests to the management server 50, a receiving unit 24 that receives traffic information and requests from the management server 50, and an output unit 26 that outputs the received information to the driver or passengers.

[0104] The output unit 26 outputs to the driver of the bus 12 information received by the receiving unit 24 from the management server 50, such as operation-related information for the bus 12 (for example, traffic congestion information or accident information for the route, weather information around the route, predicted time fluctuation information for the occupancy rate (degree of congestion) of the bus 12, etc.).

[0105] The output unit 26 further outputs information for passengers on the bus 12 received by the receiving unit 24 from the management server 50, such as operation-related information (e.g., traffic congestion information, accident information, weather information, predicted information on temporal fluctuations in the occupancy rate (degree of congestion) of the bus 12, etc.), guidance information (e.g., information related to tourist spots in the vicinity of the route of the bus 12, etc.), and advertising information (e.g., advertising information related to the operating company of the bus 12 or other companies, etc.) to multiple passengers on the bus 12.

[0106] The output unit 26 may output an image to the driver or passengers, output an audio signal to the driver or passengers, or wirelessly output the signal to a mobile terminal 90 for the driver or passengers. Thus, one example of the output unit 26 is a display, another example is a speaker or earphones, and yet another example is a transmitter.

[0107] <System software configuration and algorithm overview>

[0108] When the system 10 receives a bus stop signal from any bus stop transmitter 30, it identifies the bus stop 14 in which that bus stop transmitter 30 is installed based on the bus stop signal, and further, when it receives a bus signal from any in-bus transmitter 32, 34, it identifies the bus 12 in which that in-bus transmitter 32, 34 is installed based on the bus signal.

[0109] The system 10 further determines whether the bus stop 14 and the bus 12 share the same space and / or the same time based on the bus stop signal received from the bus stop transmitter 30 and the bus signal received from the on-bus transmitters 32, 34, and if so, links the bus stop 14 and the bus 12 to each other in relation to time, and estimates the status of the bus operation facility including the bus stop 14 and the bus 12 in relation to time.

[0110] The system 10 further estimates the user's behavior status, including at least one of the user's position relative to a bus operation facility having multiple buses 12 and multiple bus stops 14, the user's behavior phase, and the user's movement speed, in association with time, based on at least one of whether the mobile terminal 90 receives the bus stop signal and the bus signal at each time, the reception strength of the bus stop signal and the bus signal at each time, and the temporal change characteristics of the reception strength of the bus stop signal and the bus signal at the mobile terminal 90.

[0111] Here, the user's behavior phases are classified into a waiting phase in which the user waits at any of the stops, a boarding phase in which the user boards any of the vehicles, and an alighting phase in which the user alights from any of the vehicles.

[0112] The waiting phase is defined as, for example, a phase in which the user of the mobile terminal 90 is waiting for the next bus 12 to arrive at one of the bus stops 14. The boarding phase is defined as, for example, a phase in which the user of the mobile terminal 90 boards a bus 12 because the bus 12 has arrived at one of the bus stops 14. The disembarking phase is defined as, for example, a phase in which the user of the mobile terminal 90, who is a passenger on the bus 12, disembarks from the bus 12 because the bus 12 has arrived at one of the bus stops 14.

[0113] <Standby phase determination algorithm>

[0114] As illustrated in Figure 3, when a user approaches one of the bus stops 14 with a mobile terminal 90 and enters the first reception range of the bus stop transmitter 30, the reception strength I1, which is the strength of the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from the bus stop transmitter 30, increases with time t, as illustrated in Figure 6(a).

[0115] At this time, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user is in a waiting phase at the current bus stop 14, waiting for the next bus 12, and transmits the result to the management server 50.

[0116] Here, the term "reception area" refers to the range in which the mobile terminal 90 can effectively receive a bus stop signal from the bus stop transmitter 30, as will be described in detail later. Other reception areas, the second reception area and the third reception area described later, also have similar meanings.

[0117] As the user approaches further towards the bus stop transmitter 30, he or she eventually reaches a position closest to the bus stop transmitter 30, at which point the reception intensity I1 reaches a maximum value Imax.

[0118] At this position, when the user touches or holds the mobile terminal 90 over the bus stop transmitter 30 (approaching the bus stop transmitter 30 within a distance of, for example, 50 cm), the mobile terminal 90 transmits a boarding reservation signal to the management server 50 to request that the user make a reservation to board the next bus 12 scheduled to arrive at that bus stop 14 at that bus stop 14.

[0119] <Riding phase determination algorithm>

[0120] As illustrated in Fig. 4, bus 12 approaches current bus stop 14 and eventually arrives and stops. In this stopped state, in order to board bus 12 from boarding gate 16, the user approaches boarding gate 16 of current bus 12 from current bus stop 14 together with mobile terminal 90 and enters the second reception range of boarding gate transmitter 32. As illustrated in Fig. 6(b), reception strength I2, which is the strength of the signal received by mobile terminal 90 from boarding gate transmitter 32, increases with time t.

[0121] At this time, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user is in the boarding phase for boarding the current bus 12 (for example, in the boarding start mode in which boarding has started), and transmits the result to the management server 50.

[0122] As illustrated in FIG. 4, the first reception range of the bus stop transmitter 30 and the second reception range of the entrance transmitter 32 of the bus 12 parked at the bus stop 14 partially overlap each other.

[0123] Therefore, as illustrated in Figures 6(a) and (b), during the boarding phase, there is a simultaneous reception section in which the same mobile terminal 90 of the same user simultaneously receives the bus stop signal and the boarding gate signal from both the bus stop transmitter 30 and the boarding gate transmitter 32.

[0124] When the mobile terminal 90 experiences the simultaneous reception section, the mobile terminal 90 links the bus stop ID (an example of the aforementioned "bus stop ID") represented by the bus stop signal received from the bus stop transmitter 30 with the bus ID (an example of the aforementioned "vehicle ID") represented by the boarding gate signal received from the boarding gate transmitter 32, determines that the current user, the current bus stop 14, and the current bus 12 are associated with each other in the same physical space, and transmits the result to the management server 50.

[0125] Here, the phrase "the current user, the current bus stop 14, and the current bus 12 are associated with each other in the same physical space" can be interpreted geometrically to mean, for example, that the three objects are associated with each other in the dimension of location rather than in the dimension of time (for example, the distance between bus 12 and bus stop 14 is less than a predetermined distance).

[0126] Furthermore, if interpreted phenomenally, this wording means, for example, that the current passenger is waiting at the current bus stop 14, and the current bus 12 that the passenger is about to board is about to stop at the current bus stop 14, or is stopped there, or that the current passenger has boarded the current bus 12 and the bus 12 has just departed.

[0127] If the user continues walking in the same direction, boards the bus 12 from the boarding entrance 16, and approaches the boarding entrance transmitter 32 located at the boarding entrance 16 of the bus 12, the user will eventually reach the position closest to the boarding entrance transmitter 32, at which point the reception strength I2 will reach its maximum value Imax.

[0128] At this position, when the user touches the boarding gate transmitter 32 with the mobile terminal 90 or holds the mobile terminal 90 over the boarding gate transmitter 32 (approaching the boarding gate transmitter 32 within a distance of, for example, 30 cm or 50 cm), the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user has completed boarding at the bus stop 14 and transmits the result to the management server 50.

[0129] <Algorithm for determining disembarking phase>

[0130] 5, a bus 12 carrying a passenger holding a mobile terminal 90 approaches the current bus stop 14, and eventually arrives and stops. In this stopped state, a user approaches an exit gate 18 on the bus 12 together with the mobile terminal 90.

[0131] When the user enters the third reception range of the exit transmitter 34 while inside the bus 12, the reception intensity I3, which is the strength of the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from the exit transmitter 34, increases with time t, as shown in Fig. 6(c) . Thereafter, the reception intensity I3 reaches a maximum value Imax.

[0132] Thereafter, when the user moves away from the exit transmitter 34, the reception strength I3 decreases. Because the exit transmitter 34 is located near the exterior panel of the bus 12 inside the exit 18, the decrease in reception strength I3 likely reflects the user's behavior of getting off the bus 12 from the exit transmitter 34.

[0133] Therefore, at this time, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the current user is in the disembarking phase where they are disembarking from the current bus 12 (for example, in the disembarking start mode where disembarking has begun), and transmits the result to the management server 50.

[0134] When the bus 12 is stopped at the bus stop 14, as the user moves away from the exit transmitter 34, the user approaches the bus stop transmitter 30. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6(d), the reception strength I4, which is the strength of the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from the bus stop transmitter 30, increases with time t.

[0135] As illustrated in FIG. 5, the first reception area of ​​the bus stop transmitter 30 and the third reception area of ​​the exit transmitter 34 of the bus 12 stopped at the bus stop 14 partially overlap each other.

[0136] Therefore, as illustrated in Figures 6(c) and (d), during the disembarking phase, there is a simultaneous reception section in which the same mobile terminal 90 of the same user simultaneously receives the bus stop signal and the disembarking exit signal from both the bus stop transmitter 30 and the disembarking exit transmitter 34.

[0137] When the mobile terminal 90 experiences the simultaneous reception section, the mobile terminal 90 receives the signal from the exit transmitter 34. rain The bus ID represented by the entrance signal and the bus stop ID represented by the bus stop signal received from the bus stop transmitter 30 are linked to each other, and it is determined that the current user, the current bus stop 14, and the current bus 12 are associated with each other in the same physical space, and the result is transmitted to the management server 50.

[0138] Here, the phrase "the current user, the current bus stop 14, and the current bus 12 are associated with each other in the same physical space" can be interpreted phenomenologically to mean, for example, that the current bus 12 that the current passenger is about to get off is about to stop at the current bus stop 14, is stopped there, or has just departed (for example, the distance between the bus 12 and the bus stop 14 is less than a specified distance).

[0139] If the user continues walking in the same direction and moves away from the exit transmitter 34, the reception intensity I4 will eventually decrease to 0. In response to this phenomenon, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user has completed disembarking from the bus 12, and transmits this result to the management server 50.

[0140] As the user continues walking in the same direction and approaches the bus stop transmitter 30, the user eventually reaches a position closest to the bus stop transmitter 30, at which point the reception intensity I4 reaches a maximum value Imax. If the user then continues walking in the same direction and moves away from the bus stop transmitter 30, the reception intensity I4 decreases.

[0141] <Example of bus route and assigning IDs to each element>

[0142] As shown in Fig. 7, in a bus route to which this system 10 is applied, multiple routes A and B share a single bus stop 14. Therefore, a bus 14 operating on route A and a bus 14 operating on route B stop at the same bus stop 14 at different times.

[0143] As shown in Figure 7, the bus stop 14 itself, the bus stop transmitter 30 at that bus stop 14, the bus 12 itself, and the boarding entrance transmitter 32 and the exit entrance transmitter 34 within the bus 12 are each assigned a unique identifier, i.e., ID, in advance.

[0144] In particular, the boarding entrance transmitter 32 and the exiting entrance transmitter 34 are assigned both an ID portion (e.g., a main ID) that is unique to the bus 12 on which the transmitters 32 and 34 are commonly installed, and an ID portion (e.g., a sub-ID) that is unique to each of the transmitters 32 and 34. In the example shown in Figure 7, when the sub-ID of a certain transmitter is "1", it indicates that the transmitter is the boarding entrance transmitter 32, while when the sub-ID of a certain transmitter is "2", it indicates that the transmitter is the exiting entrance transmitter 34.

[0145] <Transmitter>

[0146] FIG. 8 shows a functional block diagram of the bus stop transmitter 30, the boarding entrance transmitter 32, and the exit entrance transmitter 34 shown in FIG. 1, all of which have a common configuration.

[0147] The bus stop transmitter 30, the boarding entrance transmitter 32, and the exit entrance transmitter 34 have a common configuration, so the common configuration will be explained below by referring to Figure 8, focusing on the bus stop transmitter 30 only.

[0148] First, conceptually, the bus stop transmitter 30 is a contactless or contact (proximity) communication device that locally emits an identification signal that can identify a unique transmitter ID.

[0149] Next, in terms of operation, the bus stop transmitter 30 actively transmits a unique identification signal locally without the need for an external trigger signal, and continuously as long as there is no shortage of power supply.

[0150] The bus stop transmitter 30 is generally known as a beacon device, a radio beacon, or the like, that transmits a beacon signal as an identification signal. In one example, the bus stop transmitter 30 generates an identification signal representing the corresponding transmitter ID by modulating an original signal, and locally transmits the generated identification signal as an IR signal, a Bluetooth (registered trademark) signal, an NFC (near field communication) signal, or the like.

[0151] Next, the hardware configuration will be explained with reference to Figure 8. The bus stop transmitter 30 is mainly composed of a computer 104 having a processor 100 and a memory 102 that stores multiple applications executed by the processor 100.

[0152] The bus stop transmitter 30 further has a replaceable disposable battery 106 as a power source. Instead of the battery 106, a rechargeable battery can be used, or a commercial power source or a solar cell can be used as an external power source.

[0153] When a solar cell is used as an external power source, the surplus electrical energy generated by the solar cell during the day can be stored in a battery, and at night, battery energy can be extracted from the battery to operate the bus stop transmitter 30.

[0154] The bus stop transmitter 30 further includes a transmitter 108 that generates and transmits an identification signal. The transmitter 108 is powered by a battery 106 and controlled by a controller 110. The controller 110 is controlled by the computer 100.

[0155] To explain the software configuration of bus stop transmitter 30, processor 100 outputs a signal to controller 110 to modulate an original signal (e.g., a carrier signal) so that the transmitter ID is reflected. Controller 110 controls transmitter 108, which then generates an identification signal to be transmitted. The generated identification signal is then transmitted from transmitter 108.

[0156] Next, the bus stop transmitter 30, the boarding entrance transmitter 32, and the exit entrance transmitter 34 will be described individually with reference to FIGS.

[0157] Each bus stop transmitter 30 transmits a unique signal, and this unique signal represents a unique transmitter ID. For each bus stop transmitter 30, it is known which bus stop 14 it is installed at, and the spatial coordinate values ​​(x, y, z) of that bus stop 14 are also known. Therefore, if the signal received from the bus stop transmitter 30 is converted into a transmitter ID according to a predetermined signal (for example, a binary signal sequence)-ID relationship, the transmitter ID can be used to determine the ID of the bus stop 14 where the bus stop transmitter 30 is installed, So The geographical location of bus stop 14 is uniquely determined.

[0158] 9 shows the bus stop transmitter ID management table in tabular form. This table is stored in the memory of the management server 50, and when accessed from the mobile terminal 90, the table is downloaded from the management server 50 to the mobile terminal 90 and stored in its memory 132. In this table, the relationship between the transmitter ID of the bus stop transmitter 30, the bus stop ID of the bus stop 14 where the bus stop transmitter 30 is installed, and the bus stop name of the bus stop 14 is defined for each transmitter ID.

[0159] Each entrance transmitter 32 transmits a unique signal, which represents a unique transmitter ID. For each entrance transmitter 32, it is known which bus 12 it is installed on, and it is also known which of the entrances 16 and the exits 18 of that bus 12 it is installed on. Therefore, if a signal received from an entrance transmitter 32 is converted into a transmitter ID according to a predetermined signal (e.g., binary signal sequence)-ID relationship, the transmitter ID uniquely determines the ID of the bus 12 on which the entrance transmitter 32 is installed and that the entrance transmitter 32 is an entrance transmitter and not an exit transmitter.

[0160] Each exit transmitter 34 emits a unique signal, which represents a unique transmitter ID. For each exit transmitter 34, it is known which bus 12 it is installed on, and it is also known which of the boarding entrance 16 and the exit entrance 18 of that bus 12 it is installed on. Therefore, if a signal received from an exit transmitter 34 is converted into a transmitter ID according to a predetermined signal (e.g., a binary signal sequence)-ID relationship, the transmitter ID uniquely determines the ID of the bus 12 on which the exit transmitter 34 is installed and that the exit transmitter 34 is an exit transmitter and not an entry transmitter.

[0161] 10 shows the bus transmitter ID management table in tabular form. This table is stored in the memory of management server 50, and when accessed from mobile terminal 90, the table is downloaded from management server 50 to mobile terminal 90 and stored in its memory 132. In this table, the relationship between the transmitter IDs of boarding entrance transmitter 32 and exiting entrance transmitter 34, the bus ID of bus 12 on which boarding entrance transmitter 32 or exiting entrance transmitter 34 is installed, and the route ID representing the route applied to that bus 12 is defined for each transmitter ID.

[0162] 11 shows the effective reception radius management table in tabular form. This table is stored in the memory of management server 50, and when accessed from mobile terminal 90, the table is downloaded from management server 50 to mobile terminal 90 and stored in its memory 132. In this table, the relationship between the transmitter IDs of bus stop transmitters 30, boarding entrance transmitters 32, and exiting entrance transmitters 34 and the effective reception radius (described below) is defined for each transmitter ID.

[0163] According to this effective reception radius management table, the mobile terminal 90 variably sets the effective reception radius depending on the type of transmitter 30, 32, 34 it is receiving (whether for bus stop 14, boarding entrance 16, or disembarking entrance 18), and as a result, it becomes possible to set the effective reception radius individually for each transmitter 30, 32, 34.

[0164] To explain in detail the variable setting of the effective receiving radius, in the example of the waiting phase shown in Figure 3, when the mobile terminal 90 receives a signal from the bus stop transmitter 30, the first effective receiving radius R1 defining the first receiving area forming a circle centered on the bus stop transmitter 30 is set to 5 m (see Figure 11).

[0165] In the example of the boarding phase shown in Figure 4, when the mobile terminal 90 receives a signal from the boarding gate transmitter 32, it sets the second effective receiving radius R2, which defines a second receiving area forming a circle centered on the boarding gate transmitter 32, to 1 m (see Figure 11).

[0166] In the example of the disembarking phase shown in Figure 5, when the mobile terminal 90 receives a signal from the disembarking exit transmitter 34, it sets the third effective receiving radius R3, which defines a third receiving area forming a circle centered on the disembarking exit transmitter 34, to 1 m (see Figure 11).

[0167] <Mobile device>

[0168] The mobile terminal 90 is a device carried by a user and having a wireless communication function, such as a mobile phone, a smartphone, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a PDA, etc. The mobile terminal 90 is also an example of a user's communication terminal.

[0169] Next, referring to FIG. 12, the hardware configuration of the mobile terminal 90 will be explained. The mobile terminal 90 is mainly composed of a computer 134 having a processor 130 and a memory 132 that stores multiple programs (also called "applications") executed by the processor 130.

[0170] The mobile terminal 90 further has a display unit (e.g., a liquid crystal display) 136 that displays information, a receiving unit 138 that receives signals from the bus stop transmitter 30 and the management server 50, and a transmitting unit 140 that generates signals and transmits them to the management server 50. Here, the receiving unit 138 also detects the identification signal from the bus stop transmitter 30.

[0171] The mobile terminal 90 further includes an input unit 150 for inputting data and commands from the user. The input unit 150 includes, for example, an operation unit operable by the user to input desired information (e.g., commands, data, etc.) into the mobile terminal 90. The operation unit may be, but is not limited to, a touch screen that displays icons (e.g., virtual buttons) operable by the user, a physical operation unit (e.g., a keyboard, keypad, buttons, etc.) operable by the user, a microphone that detects voice, etc.

[0172] The mobile terminal 90 further includes a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver 152. As is well known, the GPS receiver 152 receives multiple GPS signals from multiple GPS satellites and determines the position (latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the GPS receiver 152 on the Earth by triangulation based on the GPS signals.

[0173] This mobile terminal 90 further has a built-in acceleration sensor 154 that detects its own acceleration. Because acceleration sensor 154 is mounted on mobile terminal 90, it vibrates integrally with mobile terminal 90, and as a result, it detects the acceleration acting on acceleration sensor 154 itself as being equivalent to the acceleration acting on mobile terminal 90 and the user carrying it.

[0174] The acceleration sensor 154 may be of a semiconductor piezo-resistance type, a capacitance type, a thermal detection type, etc. In one example, the acceleration sensor 154 can be designed to detect accelerations Gx, Gy, and Gz in three axial directions, namely the X-axis, the Y-axis, and the Z-axis, respectively, and output one representative acceleration as a composite value Gr of the three detected values ​​Gx, Gy, and Gz.

[0175] When the user is carrying the mobile terminal 90, the acceleration sensor 154 detects an acceleration that is similar to the acceleration acting on the user, and when the user is in a vehicle, the acceleration sensor 154 detects an acceleration that is similar to the acceleration acting on the vehicle (for example, longitudinal acceleration, longitudinal deceleration).

[0176] Theoretically, the acceleration acting on the mobile terminal 90 can be calculated by calculating the velocity by time-differentiating the position measured based on the GPS signal described above, and then further differentiating the velocity by time. However, in terms of accuracy, the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor 154 may be superior. In any case, the acceleration sensor 154 is an example of an acceleration acquisition unit that acquires the axial acceleration of the vehicle by detecting or estimating it.

[0177] Here, one function of the user's mobile terminal 90 will be explained in relation to the bus stop transmitter 30. When the mobile terminal 90 receives an identification signal from the bus stop transmitter 30, the mobile terminal 90 activates (logs in to) a program pre-installed on the computer of the mobile terminal 90, i.e., a dedicated application for guide transmitter processing (hereinafter referred to as the "transmitter application"), and demodulates the received identification signal, thereby deciphering the transmitter ID.

[0178] Furthermore, when the portable terminal 90 starts the transmitter application while receiving an identification signal from the bus stop transmitter 30, the portable terminal 90 detects the identification signal based on the received identification signal (for example, the strength of the identification signal). Receiving The distance between the location of the bus stop transmitter 30 when the identification signal was received and the location of the mobile terminal 90 when the identification signal was received is also measured.

[0179] In other words, based on the identification signal received from the bus stop transmitter 30, the mobile terminal 90 acquires both the transmitter ID unique to that bus stop transmitter 30 and the distance to the bus stop transmitter 30 at that time.

[0180] <Transmitter reception range>

[0181] Two types of reception areas are apparently assigned to each of the bus stop transmitter 30, the boarding entrance transmitter 32, and the exiting entrance transmitter 34: a receivable area and an effective reception area (hereinafter also referred to as a "reception range" or "reception zone").

[0182] Each of these areas is generally defined by a sphere centered on the location of each transmitter 30, 32, 34. Some examples of coverage areas are shown in Figures 3-5, as discussed above.

[0183] The coverage area of ​​each transmitter 30, 32, 34 has a maximum reception radius (e.g., approximately 50 m), while the effective reception area has an effective reception radius (e.g., any value within the range of 0 m to approximately 50 m). While the maximum reception radius is a fixed value, the effective reception radius is a variable value that can be set at any time by the mobile terminal 90, as described below.

[0184] The receivable area means an area in which the identification signal from each transmitter 30, 32, 34 can reach when the power supply to each transmitter 30, 32, 34 is normal, i.e., an area in which the mobile terminal 90 can receive the identification signal as long as it is within that area.

[0185] In contrast, the effective reception area has an effective reception radius that is smaller than the maximum reception radius of the receivable area. While the maximum reception radius cannot be set arbitrarily, the effective reception radius can be set arbitrarily using software in the mobile terminal 90.

[0186] That is, it is possible to say that the maximum reception radius means the reception limit determined by the hardware, whereas the effective reception radius means the reception limit determined by the software.

[0187] As described above, the mobile terminal 90 measures the distance to each of the transmitters 30, 32, and 34 based on the strength of the identification signal it receives. In Fig. 13, the received signal strength RSSI, which is the strength of the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 from each of the transmitters 30, 32, and 34, is used to calculate the distance between the mobile terminal 90 and each of the transmitters 30, 32, and 34. Measurements The graph illustrates an example of how the signal decreases as D increases. By referring to the characteristics shown in this graph, the mobile terminal 90 can convert the received signal strength RSSI into a distance measurement value D.

[0188] The distance measurement D may or may not exceed the effective reception radius r0, which is a variable setting. Valid receptionWhen the radius r0 is not exceeded, the mobile terminal 90 is within the effective reception area, whereas when the distance measurement value D is Valid reception When the radius exceeds r0, the mobile terminal 90 is present within the coverage area but not within the effective coverage area.

[0189] In Figure 13, the distance measurement D Valid reception A graph showing the strength of the signals received by the mobile terminal 90 from each of the transmitters 30, 32, and 34, regardless of whether the radius r0 is exceeded, and a distance measurement value D are shown for convenience of explanation. Valid reception 6(a) to 6(d) are graphs obtained by shifting the graph of absolute reception intensity Ia downward so that the reception intensity exists only in the area not exceeding the radius r0. The former graph can be called a graph representing absolute reception intensity Ia, and the latter graph can be called a graph representing relative reception intensity Ir. Each of the graphs in Figures 6(a) to 6(d) is created using relative reception intensity Ir.

[0190] <Administration Server>

[0191] Next, the hardware configuration of the management server 50 will be explained. Fig. 14 shows a functional block diagram of the management server 50. The management server 50 is mainly composed of a computer 164 having a processor 160 and a memory 162 that stores multiple applications executed by the processor 160.

[0192] The management server 50 further has a display unit (for example, a liquid crystal display) 166 that displays information, a receiving unit 168 that receives signals from the mobile terminal 90, a transmitting unit 170 that generates signals and transmits the signals to the mobile terminal 90, and a clock 172. The management server 50 does not receive information from the transmitter 30 directly, but in fact receives information via the mobile terminal 90.

[0193] <Software configuration of bus operation management system>

[0194] <Overview>

[0195] The system 10 has a bus operation management program as its software configuration. To explain the bus operation management program by categorizing it by phase, Fig. 15 conceptually shows a flowchart of a waiting phase determination program based on the waiting phase determination algorithm described above, which includes a module executed by the mobile terminal 90 and a module executed by the management server 50. Fig. 16 conceptually shows a flowchart of a boarding phase determination program based on the boarding phase determination algorithm described above, which includes a module executed by the mobile terminal 90 and a module executed by the management server 50. Fig. 17 conceptually shows a flowchart of a disembarking phase determination program based on the disembarking phase determination algorithm described above, which includes a module executed by the mobile terminal 90 and a module executed by the management server 50.

[0196] <Standby Phase Judgment Program>

[0197] When the bus operation control program is started, first, in step S1301, the mobile terminal 90 transmits a request for logging in to the management server 50 together with the user ID to the management server 50, as shown in FIG.

[0198] In response, in step S1351, the management server 50 receives the request together with the user ID and registers the user ID in memory 162 as the current user of the system 10. Next, in step S1352, the management server 50 reads from the memory 162 the bus stop transmitter ID management table shown in Fig. 9, the in-bus transmitter ID management table shown in Fig. 10, the effective reception radius management table shown in Fig. 11, and an operation management table (not shown) for managing the multiple buses 12, multiple routes, multiple bus stops 14, and timetables (such as a bus timetable, a route timetable, and a bus stop timetable) that are centrally managed by the system 10, and transmits these to the mobile terminal 90.

[0199] In response to this, in step S1302, the mobile terminal 90 downloads these tables from the management server 50, and then in step S1303, stores these tables in the memory 132. Thereafter, in step S1304, the mobile terminal 90 attempts to receive signals indiscriminately from any of a plurality of transmitters 30, 32, 34 without restricting the source of the signals.

[0200] Subsequently, the mobile terminal 90 executes step S1305. This step is divided into a first stage, a second stage, and a third stage.

[0201] In the first stage, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether it has received a signal from at least one of all bus stop transmitters 30 at all bus stops 14 and all in-bus transmitters 32 and 34 at all buses 12. If a signal has been received, the mobile terminal 90 determines, from the transmitter ID represented by each received signal, whether the mobile terminal 90 has received a signal from any of the bus stop transmitters 30. If a received signal exists, it determines whether the signal is from any of the bus stop transmitters 30.

[0202] In this first stage, the determination result is provisional because the next stage determines whether the reception is within the coverage area, i.e., ineffective reception, or within the effective reception area, i.e., the first coverage area, i.e., effective reception.

[0203] If it is determined that the mobile terminal 90 has received a signal from any of the bus stop transmitters 30, in the second stage, the mobile terminal 90 measures the strength RSSI (absolute received signal strength Ia) of the received signal and converts the strength measurement value into a distance measurement value D as described above.

[0204] Then, in a third stage, the mobile terminal 90 reads from memory 132 the effective reception radius r0 corresponding to the transmitter ID represented by the received signal, and if the distance measurement value D is equal to or less than the effective reception radius r0, it determines that the user is located at one of the bus stops 14, and therefore the mobile terminal 90 is within the first reception range of one of the bus stop transmitters 30, and as a result, the mobile terminal 90 has validly received a signal from that one of the bus stop transmitters 30. This determination is final.

[0205] If it is determined that the mobile terminal 90 has validly received a signal from the bus stop transmitter 30, the determination in step S1305 will be YES; otherwise, the determination will be NO and the process will return to step S1304.

[0206] In step S1304, the source of transmission is not limited to a specific transmitter, and the mobile terminal 90 attempts to receive signals from any transmitter indiscriminately. In other words, a random reception attempt is performed.

[0207] However, in this case, although the mobile terminal 90 uses only the signal from one of the bus stop transmitters 30 in step S1306 described below, the signals from the bus transmitters 32 and 34 of an unscheduled bus 12 that happens to pass by one of the bus stops 14 will also be processed in step S1305.

[0208] To prevent this, for example, prior to executing step S1304, multiple bus stop transmitters 30 may be selected as target transmitters, but multiple in-bus transmitters 32 and 34 may not be selected, and then, only if the signal received by the mobile terminal 90 in step S1304 is a signal from a target transmitter, processing using the received signal may be performed in steps after step S1305.

[0209] The reception attempt in step S1304 in this manner is called a targeted reception attempt, in contrast to the above-mentioned promiscuous reception attempt. This targeted reception attempt allows for more efficient signal processing than promiscuous reception attempts in a communication environment where call sources are inherently restricted.

[0210] However, in this manner, although the range of transmitters is limited in the reception attempt in step S1304, the bus stop transmitters 30 at all bus stops 14 are the reception targets, or in some cases, the bus stop transmitters 30 at multiple bus stops 14 located near the current location measured by the mobile terminal 90 among all bus stops 14 are the reception targets, and the number of target transmitters is not limited to one or two.

[0211] Therefore, in relative terms, the reception attempt in step S1304 in this manner may be classified as a random reception attempt. However, as long as it is compared with the case where all transmitters 30, 32, and 34 are targeted for reception, there is no problem in calling the reception attempt in step S1304 in this manner a targeted reception attempt.

[0212] If the determination in step S1305 is YES, in step S1306, the mobile terminal 90 converts the signal received from the current bus stop transmitter 30 into a bus stop ID by referring to the table in FIG.

[0213] Then, in step S1307, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user is in a waiting phase, and then, in step S1308, associates waiting phase information including the fact that the user is in a waiting phase waiting at the current bus stop 14 (for example, a combination of the bus stop ID, user ID, and waiting phase flag) with the user ID and transmits it to the management server 50.

[0214] In response to this, in step S1353, the management server 50 receives the standby phase information from the mobile terminal 90, and then in step S1354, measures the current time using the clock 172 and assigns this time to the reception time t1 at which the management server 50 received the standby phase information from the mobile terminal 90. Thereafter, in step S1355, the management server 50 associates the user-specific status management table, i.e., the phase history list (user time-series behavior list) illustrated in Fig. 18 and allocated to the memory 162, with the reception time t1 and updates it so that the current standby phase information is reflected.

[0215] After executing step S1308, in step S1309, the mobile terminal 90 converts the current bus stop ID into the name of the current bus stop 14 by referring to the table shown in Figure 9 and displays the bus stop name on the screen of the mobile terminal 90, thereby notifying the user that the mobile terminal 90 and the bus stop transmitter 30 have recognized that the user is currently at that bus stop 14 through the cooperative action of the mobile terminal 90 and the bus stop transmitter 30.

[0216] Thereafter, in step S1310, the mobile device 90 displays on the screen all of the multiple routes that pass through the current bus stop 14. Next, in step S1310, the mobile device 90 supports the user in inputting a destination. Thereafter, in step S1312, the mobile device 90 selects, from all of the routes, those that match the input destination as multiple candidate routes, and displays these candidate routes on the screen.

[0217] Next, in step S1313, the mobile terminal 90 assists the user in selecting one of the candidate routes as a desired route, and then in step S1314, displays the selected desired route on the screen.

[0218] Next, the mobile terminal 90 assists the user in inputting the bus stop at which the user wishes to get off, from among the plurality of bus stops 14 on the desired route, as the desired alighting bus stop.

[0219] According to this embodiment, the user is requested to input the desired bus stop for disembarking before boarding the bus. Meanwhile, information regarding the desired bus stop for disembarking is transmitted from the management server 50 to the in-bus communication device 20. This is convenient because the driver of the bus 12 can know the bus stop 14 where the bus 12 needs to stop earlier than the time immediately before the bus 12 stops. In addition, it is convenient because the user does not have to press the disembark button installed on the bus 12 before disembarking each time.

[0220] Thereafter, in step S1316, the mobile terminal 90 assists the user in inputting whether or not the user needs assistance from the driver of the bus 12 when getting on and off the bus due to circumstances such as the user being physically weak.

[0221] Next, in step S1317, the mobile terminal 90 assists the user in selecting a time to board the bus 12 at the currently selected bus stop 14 from among the multiple boarding times displayed in the timetable. After that, in step S1318, the mobile terminal 90 displays on the screen the bus ID of the bus 12 that the user should board (hereinafter referred to as the "desired bus") 12.

[0222] Next, in step S1319, the mobile terminal 90 sets the current bus stop transmitter 30 as the target transmitter and sets the same transmitter ID as the target transmitter ID, and then, in step S1320, attempts to receive a signal from the bus stop transmitter 30 that is the target transmitter.

[0223] This attempt is called a targeted reception attempt in the sense that it is not a random reception attempt in which an attempt is made to receive signals indiscriminately as in step S1304 described above, but rather results in only receiving specific signals (e.g., if a signal other than a specific signal is received, further processing of that signal is stopped and that signal is excluded from processing).

[0224] Then, in step S1321, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether or not it has received a signal from the current bus stop transmitter 30, and if so, determines whether or not the mobile terminal 90 has been touched (or held over) the current bus stop transmitter 30.

[0225] Specifically, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether the distance measurement value D is equal to or less than a reference value that is shorter than 30 cm-50 cm, and if it is equal to or less than the reference value, it determines that the user has touched the current bus stop transmitter 30 with the mobile terminal 90. In this case, the determination in step S1321 is YES, but in any other case, the determination is NO, and the process returns to step S1320.

[0226] If the determination in step S1321 is YES, in step S1322, the mobile terminal 90 converts the transmitter ID represented by the signal received this time into a bus stop ID, and then in step S1323, confirms that a match is established between the bus stop ID and the bus stop ID obtained in the aforementioned step S1306.

[0227] Since the above-mentioned step S1320 performs a target reception attempt, in that step the current bus stop ID is identified as the only bus stop ID, and then only the bus stop transmitter 30 installed at the bus stop 14 having that bus stop ID is noticed as the source of the signal. Therefore, in the subsequent steps S1322 and S1323, it is not essential and can be omitted to obtain the current bus stop ID again and compare it with the bus stop ID obtained in the above-mentioned step S1306.

[0228] Thereafter, in step S1324, the mobile terminal 90 makes a reservation for the user to board the desired bus 12 from the current bus stop 14 at the desired boarding time. It wasNext, in step S1325, the mobile terminal 90 transmits to the management server 50 boarding reservation information including information that the user has made a boarding reservation to board the desired bus 12 from the current bus stop 14 at the desired boarding time (for example, a combination of the bus stop ID, bus ID, user ID, and boarding reservation flag) and information that the user has touched the bus stop transmitter 30 with the mobile terminal 90, in association with the user ID.

[0229] In response to this, in step S1356, the management server 50 receives the boarding reservation information from the mobile terminal 90, and then in step S1357, measures the current time using the clock 172 and assigns this time to the reception time t2 at which the management server 50 received the boarding reservation information from the mobile terminal 90. Thereafter, in step S1358, the management server 50 updates the user-specific status management table shown in Fig. 18 so that it is associated with the reception time t2 and reflects the current boarding reservation information. This completes the reservation for the current user to board the desired bus 12.

[0230] Next, in step S1359, the management server 50 increments the number of reserved passengers for the current bus 12 and stores the incremented number in the memory 162.

[0231] Thereafter, in step S1360, the mobile terminal 90 transmits to the in-bus communication device 20 a message indicating that there is a user who will require assistance from the driver when boarding the bus at the current bus stop 14 and when disembarking at the desired bus stop. This notifies the driver of the bus 12 whether assistance is required.

[0232] <Riding phase determination program>

[0233] When the execution of the above-mentioned waiting phase determination program is completed, as shown in Figure 16, first, in step S1401, the mobile terminal 90 sets the transmitter ID of the bus stop transmitter 30 of the current bus stop 14 and the transmitter ID of the boarding gate transmitter 32 of the current desired bus 12 as target transmitter IDs.

[0234] Next, in step S1402, the mobile terminal 90 sets the current bus stop transmitter 30 and the current boarding entrance transmitter 32 as target transmitters, and attempts to receive signals from these two transmitters 30 and 32, respectively. This is a target reception attempt.

[0235] Next, in step S1403, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether or not signals have been effectively received simultaneously from both the bus stop transmitter 30, which is the current target, and the boarding entrance transmitter 32, which is the current target.

[0236] Specifically, if the distance measurement value D calculated based on the reception strength RSSI of the signal received from the current bus stop transmitter 30 is less than the effective reception radius corresponding to that bus stop transmitter 30, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the signal has been validly received from the current bus stop transmitter 30.

[0237] Furthermore, if the mobile terminal 90 receives a signal from the current boarding gate transmitter 32 and the distance measurement value D calculated based on the received signal is less than or equal to the effective reception radius corresponding to that boarding gate transmitter 32, it determines that the signal has been validly received from the current boarding gate transmitter 32.

[0238] In this step S1403, if the mobile terminal 90 determines that it has effectively received signals simultaneously from both the bus stop transmitter 30, which is the current target, and the boarding gate transmitter 32, which is the current target, the determination is YES and the process proceeds to step S1404; if not, the determination is NO and the process returns to step S1402.

[0239] In step S1404, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user is in the boarding phase, and then in step S1405 determines that the user is in the boarding start stage. Thereafter, in step S1406, the mobile terminal 90 converts the transmitter ID represented by the signal validly received from the bus stop transmitter 30 into a bus stop ID, and further converts the transmitter ID represented by the signal validly received from the boarding entrance transmitter 32 into a bus ID.

[0240] Thereafter, in step S1407, the mobile terminal 90 links the bus stop ID and the bus ID to each other and determines that the current user, the current bus stop 14, and the current bus 12 are associated with each other in the same physical space. Next, in step S1408, the mobile terminal 90 associates boarding phase information with the user ID, including information that the user is in a boarding phase where he or she boards a specific bus 12 at a specific bus stop 14 (for example, a combination of a bus stop ID, a bus ID, a user ID, and a boarding phase flag), the combination of the linked bus stop ID and bus ID (linking information), and information that the user has touched the boarding entrance transmitter 32 with the mobile terminal 90, and transmits this information to the management server 50.

[0241] In response to this, in step S1451, the management server 50 receives the riding phase information from the mobile terminal 90, and then in step S1452, measures the time at that time using the clock 172 and assigns this time to the reception time t3 at which the management server 50 received the riding phase information (including the linking information) from the mobile terminal 90. Thereafter, in step S1453, the management server 50 associates the user-specific status management table illustrated in Fig. 18 allocated to the memory 162 with the reception time t3 and updates it so that the current riding phase information is reflected.

[0242] After executing step S1408, in step S1409, the mobile terminal 90 converts the current bus ID into the number (or name, symbol) of the current bus 12 by referring to the table shown in Figure 10 and displays the bus number on the screen of the mobile terminal 90, thereby notifying the user that the mobile terminal 90 and the boarding gate transmitter 32 have recognized that the user is currently on that bus 12 through cooperative action.

[0243] Thereafter, in step S1410, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether the bus 12 having that bus number is the user's desired bus for this time. Unless there are special circumstances, this determination will be YES. Next, in step S1411, the mobile terminal 90 displays on the screen a message (e.g., "Please board this bus") to encourage the user to board the bus 12 where the boarding gate transmitter 32 that transmitted the signal that the mobile terminal 90 validly received is installed, i.e., the bus 12 that is estimated to be stopped at the current bus stop 14.

[0244] Thereafter, in step S1412, the portable terminal 90 sets the transmitter ID of the current entrance transmitter 32 as the target transmitter ID. Subsequently, in step S1413, the portable terminal 90 sets the current entrance transmitter 32 as the target transmitter and attempts to receive a signal from that transmitter 32. This is a target reception attempt.

[0245] Then, in step S1414, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether or not it has received a signal from the current boarding gate transmitter 32, and if so, determines whether or not the mobile terminal 90 has been touched (or held over) the current boarding gate transmitter 32.

[0246] Specifically, the portable terminal 90 determines whether the distance measurement value D is equal to or less than a reference value that is shorter than 30 cm-50 cm, and if it is equal to or less than the reference value, it determines that the user has touched the current boarding gate transmitter 32 with the portable terminal 90. In this case, the determination in step S1414 is YES, but in other cases the determination is NO, and the process returns to step S1413.

[0247] Then, in step S1415, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user has completed boarding the desired bus 12, and then, in step S1416, associates boarding completion information with the user ID and transmits it to the management server 50, the information including the user's completion of boarding the desired bus 12 (e.g., a combination of the bus ID, user ID, and boarding completion flag) and the user's touching the boarding gate transmitter 32 with the mobile terminal 90.

[0248] In response to this, in step S1454, the management server 50 receives the boarding completion information from the mobile terminal 90, and then in step S1455, measures the current time using the clock 172 and assigns this time to the reception time t4 at which the management server 50 received the boarding completion information from the mobile terminal 90. Thereafter, in step S1456, the management server 50 associates the user-specific status management table illustrated in Fig. 18 allocated to the memory 162 with the reception time t4 and updates it so that the current boarding completion information is reflected.

[0249] Next, in step S1457, management server 50 registers reception time t4 in memory 162 as the user's actual boarding time, and then in step S1458, increments the actual number of passengers for this bus 12 and saves it in memory 162.

[0250] <Disembarkation phase determination program>

[0251] When the execution of the boarding phase determination program described above is completed, first, as shown in FIG. 17, the mobile terminal 90 sets the transmitter ID of the exit transmitter 34 of the current bus 12 as the unique target transmitter ID in step S1501.

[0252] Next, in step S1502, the mobile terminal 90 sets the current exit exit transmitter 34 as a target transmitter and attempts to receive a signal from that transmitter 34. This is a target reception attempt.

[0253] Next, in step S1503, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether or not a signal has been received validly from the exit transmitter 34 that is the current target.

[0254] Specifically, if the distance measurement value D calculated based on the reception strength RSSI of the signal received from the current exit transmitter 34 is less than or equal to the effective reception radius corresponding to that exit transmitter 34, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the signal has been validly received from the current exit transmitter 34.

[0255] In this step S1503, if the mobile terminal 90 determines that it has validly received a signal from the exit transmitter 34, which is the target this time, the determination is YES and the process proceeds to step S1504; if not, the determination is NO and the process returns to step S1502.

[0256] In step S1504, the mobile terminal 90 measures the reception strength RSSI of the signal received from the exit transmitter 34, and then in step S1505, it is determined whether the current measurement value of the reception strength RSSI is lower than the previous measurement value. The phenomenon in which the reception strength RSSI decreases over time is an example of a dynamic characteristic of the received signal, and is also an example of the aforementioned "temporal change characteristic." It is possible to estimate that this phenomenon reflects, for example, the user moving away from the exit transmitter 34.

[0257] If the current measured value of the reception strength RSSI is not lower than the previous measured value, the determination is NO and the process returns to step S1502, but if the current measured value of the reception strength RSSI is lower than the previous measured value, the determination is YES and the process proceeds to step S1506.

[0258] In step S1506, the mobile terminal 90 sets the transmitter ID of the bus stop transmitter 30 of the current desired alighting bus stop 14 and the transmitter ID of the alighting entrance transmitter 34 of the current bus 12 as two target transmitter IDs.

[0259] Thereafter, in step S1507, the mobile terminal 90 attempts to receive signals from the current bus stop transmitter 30 and the current exit transmitter 34, respectively, as target transmitters. This is a target reception attempt.

[0260] Next, in step S1508, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether or not signals have been effectively received simultaneously from both the bus stop transmitter 30, which is the current target, and the exit entrance transmitter 34, which is the current target.

[0261] Specifically, if the distance measurement value D calculated based on the reception strength RSSI of the signal received from the current bus stop transmitter 30 is less than the effective reception radius corresponding to that bus stop transmitter 30, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the signal has been validly received from the current bus stop transmitter 30.

[0262] Furthermore, if the distance measurement value D calculated based on the signal received from the current exit transmitter 34 is less than or equal to the effective reception radius corresponding to that exit transmitter 34, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the signal has been validly received from the current exit transmitter 34.

[0263] In this step S1508, if the mobile terminal 90 determines that it has effectively received signals simultaneously from both the bus stop transmitter 30, which is the current target, and the exit gate transmitter 34, which is the current target, the determination is YES and the process proceeds to step S1509; otherwise, the determination is NO and the process returns to step S1507.

[0264] In step S1509, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user is in the disembarking phase, and then in step S1510 determines that the user is in the disembarking start stage. Thereafter, in step S1511, the mobile terminal 90 converts the transmitter ID represented by the signal validly received from the bus stop transmitter 30 into a bus stop ID, and further converts the transmitter ID represented by the signal validly received from the exit transmitter 34 into a bus ID.

[0265] Thereafter, in step S1512, the mobile terminal 90 links the bus stop ID and the bus ID to each other and determines that the current user, the current bus stop 14, and the current bus 12 are associated with each other in the same physical space. Next, in step S1513, the mobile terminal 90 associates with the user ID and transmits to the management server 50, the information indicating that the user is in the disembarking phase where he or she disembarks from the specific bus 12 at the specific bus stop 14 (for example, a combination of the bus stop ID, bus ID, user ID, and disembarking phase flag) and disembarking phase information including the combination of the associated bus stop ID and bus ID (association information).

[0266] In response to this, in step S1551, the management server 50 receives the dismounting phase information from the mobile terminal 90, and then in step S1552, measures the time at that time using the clock 172 and assigns this time to the reception time t5 at which the management server 50 received the dismounting phase information (including the linking information) from the mobile terminal 90. Thereafter, in step S1553, the management server 50 associates the user-specific status management table illustrated in Fig. 18 allocated to the memory 162 with the reception time t5 and updates it so that the current dismounting phase information is reflected.

[0267] After executing step S1513, in step S1514, the mobile terminal 90 converts the current bus stop ID into the name of the current bus stop 14 by referring to the table shown in FIG. 9, and displays the name on the screen of the mobile terminal 90, thereby allowing the user to ,So Bus stop 14 Drop off at The mobile terminal 90 and the exit transmitter 34 Bus stop transmitter 30 and We are informed that recognition has been achieved through the collaborative action of

[0268] Thereafter, in step S1515, the mobile terminal 90 determines whether the bus stop 14 having that name is the user's desired bus stop for this trip. Unless there are special circumstances, this determination will be YES. Next, in step S1516, the mobile terminal 90 displays on the screen a message (e.g., "Please get off at this bus stop.") to encourage the user to get off the current bus 12 at the bus stop 14 where the bus stop transmitter 30 that transmitted the signal that the mobile terminal 90 validly received is installed, i.e., the bus stop 14 where the bus 12 is estimated to be stopping.

[0269] Thereafter, in step S1517, the mobile terminal 90 sets the transmitter ID of the current bus stop transmitter 30 as the target transmitter ID. Next, in step S1518, the mobile terminal 90 sets the current bus stop transmitter 30 as the target transmitter and attempts to receive a signal from that transmitter 30. This is a target reception attempt.

[0270] Thereafter, in step S1519, the mobile terminal 90 determines, in the same manner as in step S1503 described above, whether or not a signal has been validly received from the current bus stop transmitter 30. If the signal has been validly received, the determination becomes YES, and the process returns to step S1518, but if the signal has not been validly received, the determination becomes NO, and the process proceeds to step S1520.

[0271] In step S1520, the mobile terminal 90 determines that the user has completed disembarking from the desired bus 12, and then in step S1521, disembarking completion information including the fact that the user has completed disembarking from the desired bus 12 (for example, a combination of the bus ID, user ID, and disembarking completion flag) is associated with the user ID and transmitted to the management server 50.

[0272] In response to this, the management server 50 receives the dismounting completion information from the mobile terminal 90 in step S1554, and then in step S1555, measures the time at that time using the clock 172, and transmits the time to the management server 50 via the mobile terminal 90. rainThe disembarking completion information is assigned to the reception time t6 at which the disembarking completion information was received. After that, in step S1556, the management server 50 updates the user status management table illustrated in Fig. 18, which is assigned to the memory 162, so that the disembarking completion information is reflected in the user status management table.

[0273] Next, in step S1557, management server 50 registers reception time t6 in memory 162 as the user's actual disembarking time, and then in step S1558, decrements the actual number of passengers for this bus 12 and stores it in memory 162.

[0274] As is clear from the above explanation, in this embodiment, as shown in Figure 4, when the bus 12 stops at the bus stop 14, the second reception range of the boarding entrance transmitter 32 partially overlaps with the first reception range of the bus stop transmitter 30. Based on this, when the mobile terminal 90 detects that it is receiving signals from both the bus stop transmitter 30 and the boarding entrance transmitter 32, it is determined that the bus 12 is stopped at a certain bus stop 14 and that the user is present in the vicinity of the bus stop 14 and the bus 12.

[0275] In this embodiment, the user's location, the bus stop 14's location, and the bus 12's location all share the same space or location (signal processing by the bus stop transmitter 30 and the bus transmitters 32 and 34 is performed almost simultaneously (for example, typically within several tens of milliseconds, given the processing speed of the processor 130). ) From this perspective, they are spatially or geometrically related to one another.

[0276] Alternatively, the second reception range of the boarding entrance transmitter 32 does not overlap with the first reception range of the bus stop transmitter 30, and based on this, when the mobile terminal 90 transitions from a state in which it effectively receives signals only from the bus stop transmitter 30 to a state in which it effectively receives signals only from the boarding entrance transmitter 32 without any substantial time gap (for example, within 1 second or within 0.5 seconds, given the walking speed of a human), it is determined that a bus 12 is stopped at a certain bus stop 14 and that a user is present in the vicinity of the bus stop 14 and the bus 12.

[0277] In this embodiment, the user's location, the location of the bus stop 14, and the location of the bus 12 are spatially or geometrically related to one another in terms of sharing the same time or instant of time.

[0278] In addition, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, when the bus 12 stops at the bus stop 14, the third reception range of the exit transmitter 34 partially overlaps with the first reception range of the bus stop transmitter 30. Based on this, the mobile terminal 90 receives signals from both the bus stop transmitter 30 and the exit transmitter 34, and Bus Stop Transmitter 30 A state in which signals from Signal from bus stop transmitter 30 of Signal from exit transmitter 34 When the signal level transitions to a state in which the signal is received at a higher intensity, it is determined that the user has gotten off the bus 12.

[0279] Alternatively, the third reception range of the exit transmitter 34 does not overlap with the first reception range of the bus stop transmitter 30, and based on this, the present invention may be implemented in such a manner that when the mobile terminal 90 transitions from a state in which it effectively receives signals only from the exit transmitter 34 to a state in which it effectively receives signals only from the bus stop transmitter 30, it is determined that the user has alighted from the bus 12.

[0280] <Bus fare payment method>

[0281] In this system 10, bus fares can be paid for either in advance or after the fact. In the case of prepayment, a flat rate system is used, whereas in the case of postpayment, a pay-as-you-go system (for example, based on the distance of the route) is used.

[0282] In the case of advance payment, in this system 10, for example, when it is determined that the boarding has been completed, or when the user touches or holds the mobile terminal 90 over the in-bus transmitter 32 or 34, the user logs in to a payment server (not shown) via the mobile terminal 90 and the required amount of bus fare is paid electronically.

[0283] In contrast, in the case of deferred payment, in this system 10, for example, when it is determined that the passenger has disembarked, or when the user touches or holds the mobile terminal 90 over the bus transmitter 34, the user logs in to a payment server (not shown) via the mobile terminal 90 and the required amount of bus fare is paid electronically.

[0284] <Multiple secondary functions of the system>

[0285] FIG. 19 shows a plurality of virtual buttons 300, 302, 304, and 306 displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal 90 in the system 10, which allow the user to select and activate a plurality of secondary functions. R 10 conceptually shows an example of what can be selected and operated by the user.

[0286] 1. Bus Operation Status Information Service 300

[0287] According to this service, the operating status of the bus 12 that the user is paying attention to is provided to the user in real time via the mobile terminal 90. For example, when the user selects one of multiple buses 12 currently in operation on a map displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal 90, the operating status of the selected bus 12 (predicted arrival time at each bus stop 14, predicted occupancy rate or number of passengers on that bus 14) is provided to the user.

[0288] 2. Bus location tracking service 302

[0289] According to this service, the current location of a bus 12 in operation is displayed to the user in real time via the mobile terminal 90. For example, the current location of a bus 12 in operation that the user plans to board is displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal 90, and the estimated time of arrival at the bus stop 14 where the user is waiting is also displayed on the screen of the mobile terminal 90.

[0290] 3. Bus Occupancy Rate Fluctuation Prediction Service 304

[0291] To provide this service to users, the management server 50 calculates in real time, for each bus 12 and for each bus stop 14, and at discrete time intervals, the expected instantaneous number of passengers on that bus 12 at the time the bus 12 departs from each bus stop 14 by subtracting the total number of users who wish to disembark at the same desired bus stop (expected number of passengers disembarking) Y from the number of reserved passengers (expected number of passengers boarding) X.

[0292] Furthermore, when the management server 50 receives a bus occupancy rate fluctuation prediction request from the mobile terminal 90, it transmits to the mobile terminal 90 bus congestion data representing the predicted instantaneous number of passengers at each of the plurality of bus stops 14 for the selected bus 12 or the predicted instantaneous occupancy rate obtained by dividing the predicted instantaneous number of passengers by the maximum number of bus passengers.

[0293] The mobile terminal 90 that receives the bus congestion data displays the bus congestion data on the screen, and thus the user is assisted in knowing the congestion level of the bus 12 before selecting the bus 12, before selecting the desired bus stop for getting off, or before selecting the route of the bus 12, and in selecting a bus 12 with a low level of congestion based on that information.

[0294] 4. Optimal Bus Selection Support Service 306

[0295] This service automatically selects the optimal bus route based on the user's needs. For example, when a user inputs their current location, desired arrival time, and final destination into a mobile terminal 90, the optimal bus route, the optimal bus 12, the optimal bus stop 14, the travel time from the current location to the optimal bus stop 14, and the travel time from the optimal bus stop 14 to the final destination are displayed via the mobile terminal 90. When the user clicks on an icon representing the optimal bus stop 14 on the screen of the mobile terminal 90, the operating status of the bus 12 scheduled to stop at the optimal bus stop 14 is displayed.

[0296] <Backup function in case of transmitter failure>

[0297] In this system 10, a backup function in the event of a transmitter failure is realized through cooperation between the mobile terminal 90 and the management server 50. Specifically, the presence or absence of a failure in each of the transmitters 30, 32, 34 is diagnosed, and if a failure is diagnosed, the bus stop 14 where the user is located or the bus 12 the user is riding is identified using only the mobile terminal 90, without using the faulty transmitter 30, 32, 34.

[0298] More specifically, in this system 10, the mobile terminal 90 (a) has a positioning unit that measures its own current location as the user's current location. The positioning unit is, for example, a GPS positioning unit that uses a GPS receiver 152, or a positioning unit that uses position signals from multiple terrestrial base stations that the mobile terminal 90 uses as relay base stations.

[0299] The mobile terminal 90 further includes (b) a fault diagnosis unit that diagnoses whether or not there is a fault in each bus stop transmitter 30 and / or each bus transmitter 32, 34, and transmits the identification result to the management server 50.

[0300] In one example, the fault diagnosis unit knows that one of the transmitters 30, 32, 34 is installed at the current position measured by the positioning unit, and a predetermined relationship between the spatial coordinate values ​​representing the installation position of each transmitter 30, 32, 34 and the transmitter ID of each transmitter 30, 32, 34 is stored in memory 162 of the management server 50 and / or memory 132 of the mobile terminal 90. Based on this relationship, the fault diagnosis unit identifies which of the transmitters 30, 32, 34 should be installed at the measured current position, and if the mobile terminal 90 does not receive a signal from any of the transmitters 30, 32, 34, it diagnoses that one of the transmitters 30, 32, 34 is faulty (for example, the battery 106 is low, or the transmitter 30, 32, 34 itself is faulty), and transmits the diagnosis result to the management server 50.

[0301] In this example, the determination of which transmitter 30, 32, 34 the mobile terminal 90 receives a signal from may be made, for example, using the aforementioned maximum reception radius as the reference value in order to expand the area that can be diagnosed by the mobile terminal 90, or alternatively, using the aforementioned effective reception radius, which is shorter than the aforementioned maximum reception radius, as the reference value in order to reduce the possibility that the signal path between the mobile terminal 90 and the transmitter 30, 32, 34 to be diagnosed will be obstructed by other objects and thereby improve the accuracy of diagnosis by the mobile terminal 90.

[0302] The mobile terminal 90 further includes (c) a user behavior estimation unit that uses the user's current position measured by the positioning unit and / or the user's speed or acceleration acquired by the mobile terminal 90's speed acquisition unit (e.g., a unit that calculates the time derivative of the measured geographical position (spatial coordinate values ​​x, y, z)) or acceleration acquisition unit (e.g., acceleration sensor 154) to estimate the user's behavior as to whether the user is stationary or walking at any bus stop 14 (the speed measurement value is less than the speed reference value and / or the acceleration measurement value is greater than the acceleration reference value), or whether the user is on any moving bus 12 and traveling with that bus 12 (the speed measurement value is greater than the speed reference value and / or the acceleration measurement value is less than the acceleration reference value).

[0303] The mobile terminal 90 further has (d) a bus stop identification unit in case of failure that, when it diagnoses that any of the bus stop transmitters 30 is faulty, identifies the bus stop 14 where the user is located based on the measured current location of the user and the estimated user behavior, and transmits the identification result to the management server 50.

[0304] The mobile terminal 90 is further configured to include (e) a bus identification unit in case of failure that, when it is diagnosed that one of the bus transmitters 32, 34 is faulty, identifies the bus 12 the user is riding on based on the measured current location of the user and the estimated user behavior, and transmits the identification result to the management server 50.

[0305] It should be noted that in this embodiment, each bus stop 14 is configured as a building fixedly installed at a specific position on the ground, and a bus stop transmitter 30 is attached to the building.

[0306] Alternatively, the present invention may be practiced in such a manner that each bus stop 14 is configured as a pole or stand fixedly installed at a specific location on the ground, with the bus stop transmitter 30 mounted on the pole or stand.

[0307] Additionally, in this embodiment, a user is permitted to make a reservation and board the bus 12 on the condition that the user is located in the vicinity of a bus stop transmitter 30 at any bus stop 14, for example, by touching the bus stop transmitter 30 with a mobile terminal 90 or by holding the mobile terminal 90 over the bus stop transmitter 30.

[0308] Alternatively, the present invention may be implemented in such a way that a user is permitted to make a reservation and board the bus 12 at any bus stop 14 if the user arrives at any location within the aforementioned reception area of ​​the bus stop transmitter 30 without approaching the bus stop transmitter 30.

[0309] In this embodiment, the invention may be implemented such that the bus 12 stops at a defined location that is close to the bus stop transmitter 30, or at a location where the current user is waiting.

[0310] Additionally, in this embodiment, multiple bus stops 14 are located side by side along the road at regular intervals (e.g., intervals equal to the distance traveled by the bus 12 when traveling for approximately 10-20 minutes), and as a result, multiple bus stop transmitters 30 are located side by side along the road at regular intervals.

[0311] Alternatively, the present invention may be implemented such that multiple bus stops 14 are spaced apart at shorter than normal intervals, for example, at a distance equal to approximately 1-2 times the receivable radius of the bus stop transmitters 30, such that multiple bus stop transmitters 30 are spaced apart at a distance equal to approximately 1-2 times the receivable radius of the bus stop transmitters 30.

[0312] Additionally, in this embodiment, each bus stop 14 is configured as a permanent bus stop (which always functions as a bus stop and where the bus 12 stops).

[0313] Alternatively, the present invention may be implemented in such a manner that each bus stop 14 is configured as a temporary stop (which functions as a stop at times, but does not function as a stop at other times, at which time the bus 12 does not stop), and more specifically, each bus stop 14 is located at a potential starting point or destination of any user (e.g., a private home, apartment building, condominium, or other residence, hospital, school, airport, public facility, commercial facility, etc.).

[0314] In this embodiment, for example, if the user specifies his / her home as the departure point, the bus 12 will arrive at that location, and if the user specifies someone else's home, a specific hospital, school, airport, public facility, commercial facility, etc. as the destination, the bus 12 will arrive at that location.

[0315] Furthermore, in this embodiment, each bus stop 14 is configured as a dedicated building.

[0316] Alternatively, the present invention may be implemented in such a manner that each bus stop 14 is configured as a place where multiple users can gather and wait in one place, such as a public or private parking lot, which also serves as a bus stop 14.

[0317] Additionally, in this embodiment, each bus 12 is configured as an example of a manned vehicle operated by a driver.

[0318] Alternatively, the present invention may be implemented in a form in which each bus 12 is configured as an example of an automatically driven unmanned vehicle.

[0319] Furthermore, although the illustrated embodiment applies the present invention to the operation management of buses 12, it is possible to apply the present invention to the operation management of other means of transportation or to the operation management of other vehicles.

[0320] Additionally, in this embodiment, all or part of the processing that was executed on the mobile terminal 90 may be executed on the management server 50 instead, and conversely, all or part of the processing that was executed on the management server 50 may be executed on the mobile terminal 90 instead. This is because which device executes the processing that should be executed is usually determined by the circumstances at the time, such as the amount and type of data to be handled, the processing speed and storage capacity of each device, etc.

[0321] Although some exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the drawings, these are merely examples, and the present invention can be embodied in other forms that incorporate various modifications and improvements based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art, including the embodiments described in the "Summary of the Invention" section above.

Claims

1. A vehicle operation management system that manages the operation of a plurality of vehicles for passenger transportation by using passenger communication terminals capable of short-range wireless communication and long-range wireless communication, a station short-range wireless communication unit that is installed at each of a plurality of stations for each vehicle and that is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a vehicle short-range wireless communication unit that is installed in each vehicle and is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a management server capable of long-distance wireless communication with the communication terminal; Including, The communication terminal and / or the management server a vehicle / stop selection unit that selects, prior to boarding, one of the plurality of vehicles as a current vehicle that the passenger plans to board and one of the plurality of stops as a current stop where the passenger plans to disembark from the current vehicle; an alighting determination unit that enables the communication terminal to determine that the passenger is in an alighting phase in which the passenger alights from the current vehicle when the communication terminal has set the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit corresponding to the current vehicle as a target of a reception attempt and performed reception from there as a first reception, and when the communication terminal has set the station short-range wireless communication unit corresponding to the current stop as a target of a reception attempt and performed reception from there as a later reception; Vehicle operation management system including

2. A vehicle operation management system that manages the operation of passenger vehicles by using passenger communication terminals capable of short-range wireless communication and long-range wireless communication, a station short-range wireless communication unit that is installed at each station for each vehicle and that can communicate with the communication terminal by short-range wireless communication; a vehicle short-range wireless communication unit that is installed in each vehicle and is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a management server capable of long-distance wireless communication with the communication terminal; Including, The communication terminal and / or the management server a disembarkation determination unit that determines that the communication terminal is in a disembarking phase in which the passenger disembarks from the vehicle when reception from the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit is performed as an earlier reception and reception from the station short-range wireless communication unit is performed as a later reception, The disembarking determination unit is a vehicle operation management system that enables the communication terminal to determine that the passenger is in the disembarking phase when the communication terminal receives signals from both the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit and the station short-range wireless communication unit between the earlier reception and the later reception.

3. A vehicle operation management system that manages the operation of passenger transport vehicles by using passenger communication terminals capable of short-range wireless communication and long-range wireless communication, a station short-range wireless communication unit that is installed at each station for each vehicle and that can communicate with the communication terminal by short-range wireless communication; a vehicle short-range wireless communication unit that is installed in each vehicle and is capable of short-range wireless communication with the communication terminal; a management server capable of long-distance wireless communication with the communication terminal; Including, The communication terminal and / or the management server a disembarkation determination unit that determines that the communication terminal is in a disembarking phase in which the passenger disembarks from the vehicle when reception from the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit is performed as an earlier reception and reception from the station short-range wireless communication unit is performed as a later reception, The disembarkation determination unit is a vehicle operation management system that enables the communication terminal to terminate a reception mode that enables the communication terminal to receive the previous signal when the strength of the signal received from the vehicle short-range wireless communication unit decreases over time.

4. A program for causing a computer to function as the management server according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. A program for causing a computer to function as the communication terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

6. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 4 is recorded.

7. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 5 is recorded.

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