Kabushikikaisha Equos Research

Satoshi Kitano

Naoki Gorai

Yasuo Ito

Takashi Sugawara

Hiroyuki Yamakawa

Shoji Yokoyama

Tomoki Kubota

Hiroki Ishikawa

Hideaki Morita

Koki Hayashi

Koichi Kishida

An apparatus for sending and receiving information to and from a plurality of other apparatuses with wireless communications is disclosed. The apparatus includes: information storage means which stores various information; summary creating means for creating a summary of each of the various information stored in the information storage means; summary information delivering means for delivering summary information including at least a part of the summaries and identification data of the apparatus to the plurality of other apparatuses; request information receiving means for receiving request information including the identification data of the apparatus, identification data of the other apparatus and a request to send entire information of one or more summaries from any one of the plurality of other apparatuses; and entire information sending means for sending the requested entire information of the summaries to the other apparatus in response to the request using the identification data of the other apparatus.

Apparatus for sending and receiving information with wireless communication

Communication navigation system

A communication route guidance system provides exchange of data between an information center and each of a plurality of mobile units such as vehicles. The information center has the latest road data and searches it to prepare recommended route guidance data in response to a request from the mobile unit. The reccommended route guidance data is divided into a plurality of data segments, each usable as an independent guidance instruction in the mobile unit. The mobile unit has stored therein road data similar to the road data in the information center and determines if data communication with the information center is available. In a case where the mobile unit can not communicate with the information center, the mobile unit prepares route guidance based on the road data stored in the mobile unit. It thereby becomes possible to guide the user even in the case that the mobile unit can not communicate with the information center. Even in a case where a communication link is disrupted during transmission of route guidance data to the mobile unit, the mobile unit can effectively prepare whole route guidance data in combination with already-received route guidance data and additionally prepared route guidance data by reference to the road data stored in the mobile unit because the already received route guidance data is structured to be usable independently.

Communication route guidance system

A navigation system includes a navigation center and at least one moving body. The navigation center of the navigation system comprises memory means for storing navigation information; updating means for constantly updating the navigation information stored in the memory means; route searching means for setting a route from a current position of the moving body to a destination on the basis of the newest navigation information updated by the updating means; dividing means for dividing the searched route into at least two portions; extracting means for extracting navigation data concerning at least a head portion of the divided route from the memory means; transmitting means for transmitting to the moving body the extracted navigation data; and control means. After transmitting the navigation data for the head portion to the moving body and before transmitting navigation data for a remaining route, the control means controls each of the route searching means, the dividing means, the extracting means and the transmitting means so that each means performs the respective processes. This arrangement enables a user of the moving body to be provided with route guidance which is conducted using the navigation data formed based on the newest navigation information that reflects various road conditions.

Navigation method, navigation system, and information communications apparatus used in the navigation system

In a communications navigation system, data is transmitted and received between a navigation base apparatus provided at a navigation base and each of a plurality of navigation apparatuses provided in moving bodies such as vehicles using communication. A determining section of the navigation base apparatus determines untraveled route portion by comparing user's information stored in a user information storage with information of a recommended route provided by a route search section. The navigation base apparatus extracts necessary route/guidance information for untraveled route portion determined by the determining section from route/guidance data stored in a database, and then transmits the extracted route/guidance data to the navigation apparatus identified by the identification information. The route/guidance information may be transmitted to the navigation apparatus in the form of segmented data. In this way, it becomes possible for the navigation apparatus to extract only the route/guidance information needed by the user from the route/guidance data stored in the database.

Communications navigation system, and navigation base apparatus and navigation apparatus both used in the navigation system

A navigation system includes a navigation center and a plurality of navigation apparatuses each of which has a data storage that stores various information. In this navigation system, data (coordinate data of each of traveling intersections) concerning a recommended route is transmitted from the navigation center to the navigation apparatus, and then route guidance is carried out in the navigation apparatus using the data received from the navigation center. In the case where the navigation apparatus has intersection data for an intersection specified by the data received from the navigation center, the navigation apparatus extracts the intersection data for the intersection from the data storage. Further, in the case where the navigation center does not have intersection data for an intersection specified by the data received from the navigation center, the navigation apparatus establishes the intersection as a newly-built intersection on the recommended route. Then, the navigation apparatus produces route guidance data (which is used for providing route guidance to a user) using the extracted intersection data, and/or intersection data concerning the established newly-built intersection in addition to the information in the data storage.

Navigation system and navigation apparatus used in the navigation system

Disclosed is a communicatory navigation system including an information center (,), at least one navigation unit (,) each mounted on a vehicle and communication means for allowing bi-directional data communication between the information center and the navigation unit. Data transmission from the navigation unit to the information center is made during a period of communication that begins when the navigation unit become communicable with the information center and ends when the bi-directional data communication therebetween is disconnected. The navigation unit is provided with a drive route history memory area (,) and an instrument operation history memory area (,), and data in these memory areas are transmitted to the information center, together with the vehicle current position data and the destination position data. The information center determines a recommended drive route from the current position to the destination, not only with reference to its own database (,) but also taking into consideration the history data. For example, if it is determined that there is a traffic accident or heavy traffic jam in some route, a bypass route is determined and transmitted back to the navigation unit. When the previous drive route indicated by data in area (,) is not found in the database (,), it can be recognized as a newly constructed road for inclusion in the database.

Communicatory navigation system

A commucations navigation system in which data is transmitted and received between a navigation base apparatus provided at a navigation base and a vehicle navigation apparatus provided in a vehicle using communication. The vehicle navigation apparatus is adapted to transmit at least data concerning the current position of the vehicle and the destination thereof to the navigation base apparatus, and the navigation base apparatus stores navigation data in its data base and is adapted to determine a recommended route based on the transmitted data of the current position of the vehicle and the destination thereof and then extract data of the recommended route from the navigation data stored in the data base and transmit the extracted data to the navigation apparatus. The navigation base apparatus is adapted to be able to extract detailed navigation data only for a surrounding areas of a specified point on the recommended route from the navigation data stored in the data base and then transmit the detailed navigation data to the navigation apparatus. The specified point includes a departure point, a destination and a course-change point which are located on the recommended route. During traveling other places on the recommended route such as intermediate sections, the navigation apparatus transmits simple navigation data such as a simple map to the vehicle, thereby enabling to reduce an amount of data to be transmitted from the navigation base apparatus to the vehicle navigation apparatus.

Communications navigation system, and navigation base apparatus and vehicle navigation apparatus both used in the navigation system

Disclosed is a communicatory navigation system including an information center (,), at least one navigation unit (,) each mounted on a vehicle and communication means for allowing bi-directional data communication between the information center and the navigation unit. Data transmission from the navigation unit to the information center is made during a period of communication that begins when the navigation unit become communicatable with the information center and ends when the bi-directional data communication therebetween is disconnected. The navigation unit is provided with a drive route history memory area (,) and an instrument operation history memory area (,), and data in these memory areas are transmitted to the information center, together with the vehicle current position data and the destination position data. The information center determines a recommended drive route from the current position to the destination, not only with reference to its own database (,) but also taking into consideration the history data. For example, if it is determined that there is a traffic accident or heavy traffic jam in some route, a bypass route is determined and transmitted back to the navigation unit. When the previous drive route indicated by data in area (,) is not found in the database (,), it can be recognized as a newly constructed road for inclusion in the database.

Growing community of inventors

Hokkaido, Japan

Satoshi Kitano