Kabushikikaisha Equos Research

Other

Nec Corporation

Tomoki Kubota

Koji Hori

Kazuhide Adachi

Manabu Mazda

Shoji Yokoyama

Hideaki Morita

Kouji Mukai

Koji Sumiya

Naoki Gorai

Yasuo Ito

Takashi Sugawara

Satoshi Kitano

Hiroki Ishikawa

Hiroaki Kondo

Tadashi Hirano

Seiichi Hiratsuka

Kazuaki Fujii

Wataru Ito

Manabu Matsuda

Hidefumi Okabe

Public-key cryptography is realized by means of PKI in which biometrics data, in which biological information of users is converted to numerical values, are used to authenticate users that transmit and receive data, and based on the biometrics data, identical secret keys (common secret keys) are generated in each of the user terminal devices that are used by the users without releasing the secret keys onto the network.

Data communication method and system

Apparatus for collecting information pertaining to a driver of the vehicle includes a unit for determining if the current load on the driver is a 'low-load' in terms of satisfaction of one or more specific conditions. Driver information is stored and supplemented by answers to question scenarios communicated to the driver only when a 'low-load' state is determined. A question information storage unit contains various question scenarios correlated with different items of driver information and from which a question scenario, corresponding to driver information not yet obtained, is retrieved for output when a &#x201c;low load&#x201d; is determined.

Agent apparatus

An emergency reporting apparatus is provided which is capable of easily acquiring passenger information necessary at the time of an emergency report and reporting as deputy for a passenger in the case of an emergency. The emergency reporting apparatus, in a training mode, simulates questions from an emergency rescue facility which will be addressed when an emergency situation occurs, and learns and stores the reply contents and response procedures. From the questions and replies, the emergency reporting apparatus automatically acquires the necessary passenger information. Then, the emergency reporting apparatus reports, as a deputy for the user, the passenger information acquired in the training mode when there is no reaction from the user at the time of an actual emergency.

Emergency reporting apparatus

Information communications apparatuses used in an information communications system between at least two vehicles. Each of the information communication apparatuses comprises position measuring means; transmission channel setting means for setting an information transmission channel by utilizing the positional information of the vehicle; information transmission means for transmitting information; reception channel setting means for setting a reception channel for receiving information; and information reception means for receiving information transmitted from other vehicle or an information center using the established reception channel. According to the apparatus having structure described above, the transmission vehicle transmits the information by means of the established transmission channel set by the transmission setting means and the reception vehicle receives the transmitted information by means of the reception channel established by the reception channel setting means.

Information communications apparatus for vehicle

Disclosed is a destination input device for use in a vehicle navigation system that determines a drive route from a current position to a destination. The device includes a CD-ROM disc storing a plurality of destinations which are categorized into several groups. The user inputs his or her own behavioral schedule or purpose of travel today through a microphone or a touch panel on a display. The display is controlled by a CPU to provide a group selection menu representing a predetermined combination of the groups, in accordance with the inputted user's behavioral schedule. The user selects a specific one of the groups appearing on the displayed group selection menu, so that the display is controlled to provide a destination input menu representing a plurality of destinations included in the selected group, so that the user may readily select and input a desired destination from among those appearing on the displayed destination input menu.

Destination input device in vehicle navigation system

Disclosed is a device for assisting designation of a specific destination in a vehicle navigation system that guides a driver along a scheduled drive route from a current position of a vehicle to a designated destination. A menu selection table describes correlation between current status data (date-and-time-related data, purpose-related data, location-related data, vehicle-related data and user-related data) and &ldquo;events&rdquo; such as invitation to restaurants or sightseeing spots. When a specific event is determined by reference to the menu selection table, a personified agent questions the user to confirm if the detected event is to be executed. When the user inputs an affirmative answer, a specific condition to be applicable to retrieval of destination is determined by reference to a condition selection table.

Assist device in designation of destination

An interactive navigation system includes a navigation processing unit, a current position sensor, a speaker, a microphone and a display. When it is preliminary inferred, based on receipt of a detection signal from the sensor, that a vehicle has probably been diverted from a drive route determined by the navigation processing unit, a machine voice question is produced through the speaker for confirmation of the inferred probability of diversion. A driver or user in the vehicle answers the question, which is input through the microphone and analyzed to be affirmative or negative, from which a final decision is made as to the vehicle diversion. In a preferred embodiment the question is spoken by a personified agent who appears on the display. The agent's activities are controlled by an agent processing unit. Communication between the agent and the user improves reliability and accuracy of inference of any vehicle condition which could not be determined perfectly by a sensor only.

Interactive vehicle control 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 device is mounted in a vehicle which allows one or more of personified agent or imaginary living body to appear before a driver or passengers in the vehicle for communication therewith. A current status sensor (,) detects predetermined vehicle current status data, and a memory (,) stores study data in response to entry of the latest current status data. One of a plurality of communication programs stored in a program table (,) may be selected in accordance with the current status data and/or the study data. An agent control unit (,) controls activity of the agent in accordance with the selected communication program. The determined agent activity is outputted through a display (,) and a speaker (,) for communication with the driver.

Device mounted in vehicle

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.

A steering sensor is installed in a vehicle by utilizing a clearance between a steering wheel and a turn signal switch assembly. This makes it possible to provide a steering sensor having a high degree of universality, since the sensor can be simply retrofitted on an existing vehicle not already having such a sensor. The steering sensor can be utilized widely in navigation or other systems requiring such a sensor.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo-to, Japan

Tomoki Kubota