Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-10
2004-05-18
Nguyen, Tan Q. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle subsystem or accessory control
C701S200000, C340S994000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06738698
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of controlling an electronic system for a movable body, which includes an information outputting apparatus for a movable body installed within a car, such as a car audio system and the like, and a navigation apparatus for a movable body, such as an on-vehicle type. It also relates to an electronic system for a movable body, as well as a program storage device and a computer data signal embodiment in a carrier wave, which allow a computer to function as the above-mentioned controlling apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An on-vehicle information outputting apparatus, such as a car audio system, a car stereo, a car television and the like, is designed so as to reproduce a signal from a CD (Compact Disc), a DVD, an MD (Mini Disc), a cassette tape or the like, and perform an audio-output and/or a video-output inside the car by using a speaker, a display device and the like which are installed within the car. Or, it is designed so as to receive an electric wave for a radio and a television, and demodulate it, and then perform an audio-output and/or a video-output inside the car.
On the other hand, the on-vehicle navigation apparatus is designed so as to display map data, current position data, various guide data and the like on a display device, and/or output a voice of a guide message, an alarm message or the like for the navigation by using a speaker installed within the car.
The information outputting apparatus and the navigation apparatus, which are intended to be installed within the same car, are typically designed so as to share the display device, the speaker and the like.
However, the information outputting apparatus and the navigation apparatus which are installed within the car have only the functions independent of each other. Input data for navigation (for example, destination data) and output data for navigation (for example, a time and a route required to arrive at a destination and the like) cannot be reflected in the audio and/or video output in the information outputting apparatus. For example, a driver or a fellow passenger, who inputs a destination and looks at a scheduled arrival time, a scheduled necessary time length or the like in the navigation apparatus, investigates appropriate audio information and/or video information corresponding to the necessary time length required to arrive at the destination or the like, and further sets or operates the information outputting apparatus so as to output the investigated audio and/or video information. Finally, it is possible to output the audio and/or video information appropriate to a traveling state or a scheduled traveling state of the self-car. However, it is very troublesome and difficult for the driver or the fellow passenger already riding in the car to select a series of audio information (for example, a music album, a collection of songs of the same artist, one radio program and the like) or a series of video information (for example, one movie, one electronic book, one television program and the like) that ends a little before the arrival at the destination. Thus, the human work itself, such as the above-mentioned selection of the audio and/or video information appropriate for the traveling state of the self-car, is hardly carried out in reality.
As mentioned above, there is a problem that if the various electronic apparatuses in the recent years are commonly used, or even if the navigation apparatus and the information outputting apparatus for the movable body which are established within the electronic system for the same movable body are used, the audio information and/or the video information appropriate for the traveling state of the self-car cannot be outputted.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is proposed in view of the above mentioned problems. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for and a method of controlling an electronic system for a movable body, which can control the electronic system for the movable body which includes an information outputting apparatus for the movable body and a navigation apparatus for the movable body so that audio information and/or the video information appropriate for the traveling state of the movable body can be outputted, and an electronic system for a movable body having such a control apparatus, as well as a program storage device and a computer data signal embodiment in a carrier wave, which allow a computer to function as the controlling apparatus.
The above object of the present invention can be achieved by a first controlling apparatus for controlling an electronic system for a movable body, the electronic system provided with (i) an information outputting apparatus having an output device which outputs a content information including at least one of an audio information and a video information and (ii) a navigation apparatus having an input device through which a destination in a movement of a movable body can be inputted and a calculate device which calculates a necessary time length required for the movable body to arrive at the destination inputted by the input device from a current position of the movable body, the first controlling apparatus provided with: a selecting device which selects the content information to be outputted during the movement of the movable body until the arrival at the destination, on the basis of an output time length information indicative of a time length required to output the content information, in response to the calculated necessary time length; and an output controlling device which controls the output device so as to output the content information selected by the selecting device during the movement of the movable body until the arrival at the destination.
According to the first controlling apparatus, in the electronic system for the movable body, the content information including the video information is displayed on a picture plane of a display device, which is equipped in the information outputting apparatus such as a car audio system, a car stereo system, a car TV system, a portable TV system or the like. Alternatively, the content information including the audio information is sound-outputted from a speaker mounted on the car, a headphone of the portable audio system or the like. At this time, as the video information, there are movies, dramas, animations or the like, which are reproduced from a record medium such as a CD, a DVD, a hard disc etc., or which are radio-wave-received and demodulated, as well as the text information etc., which are image-formed to be displayed. As the audio information, there are the music compositions, which are reproduced from a record medium such as a CD, a DVD, a hard disc etc., or which are radio-wave-received and demodulated, as well as the audio information accompanying the video information, the text information which are made into the sound or the like. Incidentally, in the present invention, the information which can be outputted in an arbitrary form to the driver or the fellow passenger or the moving person by the information outputting apparatus, including those video information and audio information, is called as the “content information”. Also in the present invention, the “movable body” has a broad meaning, which means a not only a car, auto mobile or vehicle, a ship, an airplane or the like, on which the information outputting apparatus and the navigation apparatus for the movable body is mounted, but also a human being which walks and carries the electronic system for the movable body or the information outputting apparatus and the navigation apparatus for the movable body.
On the other hand, in the electronic system for the movable body, the navigation apparatus measures the current position by the GPS (Global Positioning System) measurement and/or the self-sustained or dead-reckoning positioning measurement. Then, it may calculate an optimum route to a destination from the current position t
Amano Hideki
Gayama Shinichi
Ichihara Naohiko
Shibasaki Hiroaki
Nguyen Tan Q.
Pioneer Corporation
Tran Dalena
LandOfFree
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