Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Yukio Ichikawa

Hiroyuki Maeda

Shinya Adachi

Naoki Yamada

Satoko Miyama

Takashi Kawasato

Kenji Yoshioka

Akifumi Miyano

Arata Kurosawa

Masaru Mizuno

When transmitting an on-road location on a digital map, an information provider transmits, as on-road location information, string of coordinates information representing the road shape of a road section including the on-road location having a predetermined length, additional information including at least one information item chosen from a group of the attribute information on the road including the road location and detailed information on the nodes in the road section, and relative information indicating the on-road location in the road section. Receiving party receiving this on-road location information performs shape matching to identify the road section on a digital map and uses relative data to identify the on-road location in this road section. The receiving party can identify the road shape with high accuracy even when only a small amount of string of coordinates data is available. This makes it possible to reduce the data transmission amount and identify an on-load location with high accuracy.

Method for locating road shapes using erroneous map data

The invention provides an on-vehicle communication terminal that secures a report to a center and safety of a crew by providing short-range radio communication means in the on-vehicle communication terminal, separately configuring a mobile terminal provided with a part of the functions of a conventional on-vehicle terminal detached therefrom, and letting the crew who are escaping carry a mobile terminal. That is, an on-vehicle terminal () according to the invention includes location information detecting means (), state sensor () for detecting an abnormal state and outputting the state information, first radio communication means () for transmitting predetermined data including state information, location information on a plurality of locations and a terminal ID to the information service center () on occurrence of a predetermined event, and second radio communication means () for providing radio communications between the on-vehicle terminal () and the mobile terminal (). The mobile terminal () includes second radio communication means () and further location information detecting means () and a state sensor (). Thus, by configuring an on-vehicle communication terminal with a combination of the on-vehicle terminal () and the mobile terminal (), the crew can report to the information service center () while securing safety in the event of an accident.

On-board communication terminal and information service center communicating with on-board communication terminal

When a mobile terminal transmits information to an information service centre, the terminal stores positional data of plural points detected by a positional data detector such as a GPS satellite into a memory. The mobile terminal transmits an instant status data, positional data and the terminal ID when an emergency such as an accident, sudden illness occurs. At this time, an appropriate data compression is conducted responsive to a travelling status, such as using relative information, a data-(non-) existing-flag, and a number of points, so that the data volume to be transmitted can be reduced. As a result, the accuracy of positional data is maintained and yet the data transmission time is shortened.

Mobile terminal and emergency reporting system

An emergency reporting apparatus for a vehicle includes a memory storing information representing a telephone number of an emergency report receiving center. Connection with the emergency report receiving center is implemented in response to the telephone number represented by the information in the memory. An emergency can be reported to the emergency report receiving center. The information in the memory can be updated to change the telephone number represented thereby.

Emergency reporting system and terminal apparatus therein

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Kanagawa, Japan

Yukio Ichikawa