Denso Corporation

Nippondenso Co., Ltd.

Kyoji Oda

Atsushi Hayashida

Michio Shamoto

Tatsuya Shintai

Hiroyasu Ogino

Toshihiro Takeuchi

Masahiro Ohba

Kenji Miyake

Hideo Miyauchi

Masao Tsujii

Hitoshi Takeuchi

Koji Shinoda

Tsutomu Natsume

Yutaka Ninoyu

An in-vehicle apparatus changes icon appearance of gadget-associated icons according to travel impediment information associated with respective gadgets during the travel of a vehicle. The icon appearance has an improved recognizability if the icon is associated with a gadget that does not impede the travel of the vehicle, or has a worsened recognizability if the icon is associated with a gadget that impedes the travel of the vehicle. As a result, the in-vehicle apparatus allows a user to easily recognize whether a gadget-associated icon has impeding operation steps or non-impeding operation steps for the execution of the respective gadgets, thereby enabling a safer travel of the vehicle.

In-vehicle apparatus and method for controlling same

An in-vehicle apparatus is disclosed. The in-vehicle apparatus is configured to perform a timer operation, acquire vehicle state information, and control the timer operation of the timer means in such manner that: the in-vehicle apparatus starts the timer operation when determining based on the vehicle state information that a condition for starting the timer operation is satisfied; and the in-vehicle apparatus stops the timer operation when determining based on the vehicle state information that a condition for stopping the timer operation is satisfied.

In-vehicle apparatus

A vehicular wireless apparatus continues a standby state even after an ACC switch of the vehicle is turned off. In the vehicular wireless apparatus, when it is determined that the ACC switch is turned from on to off, paging area information stored in a RAM (volatile memory) is stored in an EEPROM (nonvolatile memory). When the ACC switch is then turned from off to on, a power-on-reset is done for the whole of the vehicular wireless apparatus and paging area information stored in the RAM is reset. The paging area information stored in the EEPROM is then read. Whether a location registration should be newly done is determined based on the read paging area information.

Vehicular wireless apparatus

A mobile communications terminal has a transmitter for transmitting a specific identification code of a reference base station as a time reference for network position determination. Therefore, a position server connected with a CDMA network can distinguish the reference base station from the other base stations regardless of positioning relationship between the mobile terminal and the base stations.

Mobile communications terminal with position determination

A wireless terminal is designed to prevent the user from having to wait a long time in case fetching of search data takes a long time. The wireless terminal, if it determines the need of long time for the search of GPS satellites by a GPS transceiver, inhibits the GPS transceiver from searching GPS satellites and operates on a CDMA transceiver to search for CDMA base stations. The wireless terminal fetches only CDMA base station data pertinent to the CDMA base stations and sends to a position data server, and the position data server points the location of the wireless terminal based solely on the CDMA base station data provided by the wireless terminal. Based on the inhibition of search of GPS satellites by the GPS transceiver, the time needed until the reception of positioning result can be reduced, and the user is prevented from being subjected to long time waiting.

Wireless terminal

In a mobile station, a period for receiving a GPS signal from a predetermined satellite based on data for satellite reception is set up by a timer, and the GPS signal whose reception level is higher than a threshold value is awaited. Until elapsed time reaches a preset time, indoor counter is incremented if the GPS signal is unable to be received or outdoor counter is incremented if the GPS signal is able to be received. When each counter reaches a specified value, each mode is determined. If the mode is different from a previous mode, a mode shift is executed and setups of user interfaces, display, speaker and others, are altered for the updated mode, indoor or outdoor.

Mobile station having indoor/outdoor mode shifting function

A mobile communication terminal stores positioning information including global positioning system signals and base station information required by a position server in a communication network to calculate the terminal position. When the position server calculates the terminal position based on these positioning unit information, the position information is not reported to the user if the indefinite information equivalent to a positioning error contained in the average value calculated for the terminal position information exceeds a predetermined threshold value. When the average processing count exceeds a maximum positioning count, that average value is reported to the user.

Mobile communication terminal and method having calculated terminal position uncertainty check function

A mobile station requests a start of positioning and receives a response of positioning from a positioning server, following which it informs the positioning server of its own station information and neighboring base station information gathered through searching the neighboring base stations. Thereby, the mobile station receives assistant information regarding GPS satellites to be captured based on a station location designated by the positioning server and then it measures a GPS signal and a base station signal such as an apparent signal delay. In the case that the positioning information collected as described above is sufficient for location computing, it displays the location computed by the positioning server. In contrast, in the case that the positioning information is insufficient, it displays 'positioning impossible' without sending the positioning information to the positioning server.

Mobile station and its program

A cellular phone receives a position measurement result, which indicates a position of the cellular phone determined based on both GPS satellite information and CDMA base station information, from a location information server. Then, when a value indicated by uncertainty information of the position measurement result is greater than a first threshold value, the cellular phone receives another position measurement result, which indicates the position of the cellular phone determined based only on the CDMA base station information, from the location information server and displays it on a display device.

Wireless communications terminal, computer program executable by wireless communications terminal and method for outputting positional information from wireless communications terminal

A method of and system for controlling the speed of a motor vehicle based on a control characteristic so that the speed of the vehicle follows a target speed. The system estimates a dynamic characteristic of the motor vehicle to adjust the control characteristic when the motor vehicle is under a cruising control. The system includes a sensor for detecting a speed of the motor vehicle and a sensor for detecting an operating position of an actuator which adjusts a travelling speed of the motor vehicle. In the system, the detected vehicle speed and actuator operating position are converted into data in terms of an imaginary operating point. The imaginary operating point remains constant because it is not affected by variations of a static characteristic of the motor vehicle. The dynamic characteristic of the motor vehicle is estimated on the basis of the conversion data. This arrangement can accurately estimate the dynamic characteristic of the motor vehicle.

Method of and system for controlling the speed of a motor vehicle based

An automotive cruise control system equipped with an actuator to regulate the state of an automobile in accordance with a control signal indicative of an actuator control amount so that the vehicle maintains a target speed, the actuator control amount being determined on the basis of the speed of the vehicle and the operation state of the actuator. The automotive cruise control system is arranged so as to divide the vehicle into first and second systems: the first system on-line-identifies a model corresponding to the state of the vehicle; the second system on-line-identifies a model corresponding to the actuator used in the vehicle. The actuator control amount is calculated on the basis of the first and second system models to produce the actuator control signal in correspondence with these models. By identifying two models, the time lag normally associated with this type of automotive cruise control system is reduced because this arrangement allows simplifying the identification of the model relating to the vehicle concurrently with realizing accurate control of the vehicle.

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Gamagori, Japan

Kyoji Oda