Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-07
2001-03-27
Nguyen, Tan (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
C701S036000, C714S015000, C714S005110
Reexamination Certificate
active
06208918
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system designed such that, in the event that some program data, map data or the like fails and becomes impossible to use, the system executes data recovery by requesting a remote information center to send that data. The present invention also relates to such equipment for motor vehicle use, and a medium for recording a data recovery program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. Hei 3-270446, a technique was disclosed in which, if some portion of the data stored in a facsimile machine should fail, the facsimile machine would detect the data failure and request a remote backup center, which previously backed up all data including system data and telephone numbers stored in that facsimile machine, to send the original data to replace the failed data.
In this previous technique, however, because the facsimile machine was designed to issue a request for data transmission to the remote center immediately upon the occurrence of data failure, regardless of whether or not the facsimile machine requires the failed data promptly, such a problem arose that its normal communication function had to be disabled during the period from data transmission request until data recovery.
Therefore, if, for example, the above-mentioned technique is applied to a navigation system installed on a motor vehicle, and whenever any portion of the map data used in the navigation system has failed and has been put into the unusable state, the request for map data transmission is issued to the information center, even if there is no prompt need of that portion of the map data (for instance, the requested map data relates to an area that is a long way off from the current position of the motor vehicle). Such data recovery work for the data of less importance increases the idle load on a navigation controller and related devices and there is a possibility of affecting the inherent navigation function of the controller.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a data recovery system and a data recovery program recorded medium that enable data recovery, while suppressing the influence of the data recovery on the normal communicating operation condition, in the event that any set of the stored data is put into the unusable state because of data failure or any other reason.
In order to achieve this object, the present invention offers a data recovery system that comprises storage means for storing data, an information center for detecting backing up of the data, detection means for detecting unusable data stored in the storage means, request means for requesting the information center to send the original data to replace the unusable data, and adjustment means for adjusting the timing of a request made by the request means, according to the urgency of recovery of the unusable data set. This data recovery system can execute data recovery without affecting normal operation by adjusting the data request timing in accordance with the urgency of data recovery and delaying the request of data transmission for the lower priority data in terms of the urgency of recovery, for which data transmission is requested at an appropriate delay timing.
In the above-mentioned data recovery system, preferably, the storage, detection, request, and adjustment means should be mounted on a motor vehicle. In addition, the adjustment means evaluates the urgency of recovery, based on the type of unusable data, which includes at least programs and data. If the unusable data is a program, the adjustment means will evaluate the urgency of recovery by determining whether the program that has just become unusable was running up to now. If that program was running up to now, the adjustment means sets the request timing at no delay; otherwise, the adjustment means sets the request timing at a given delay time instead of no delay.
Furthermore, the adjustment means should preferably evaluate the urgency of recovery, based on a geographical location attribute of the unusable data. The geographical location attribute means the location information included in the data, which typically represents, for map data, a geographical area covered by the map data. The adjustment means evaluates the urgency of recovery by determining whether the data that has just become unusable is for the peripheral area of the current position. If the data that has just become unusable is for the peripheral area of the current position, the adjustment means sets the request timing at no delay; otherwise, the adjustment means sets the request timing at a given delay time instead of no delay.
In order to achieve the object, furthermore, the present invention offers a data recovery system for motor vehicle use that comprises storage means mounted on a motor vehicle for storing data, detection means mounted on the motor vehicle for detecting unusable data stored in the storage means, request means mounted on the motor vehicle for requesting an information center to send the data to replace the unusable data, locating means mounted on the motor vehicle for locating the current position of the vehicle, and adjustment means mounted on the motor vehicle for evaluating the urgency of recovery of the unusable data, based on the relationship between the geographical location attribute of the unusable data and the current position of the vehicle, and for adjusting the timing of a request made by the request means, according to the evaluation result.
In order to achieve the object, furthermore, the present invention offers a computer readable medium on which a data recovery program is be recorded to execute data recovery by obtaining original data to replace failed data from an information center. This program causes the computer to perform a step of detecting the failed data, a step of determining the urgency of recovery of failed data, and a step of requesting the information center to send the original data to replace the failed data at a timing in compliance with the urgency of recovery.
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Ando Kouichi
Ito Toru
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Nguyen Tan
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
Tran Dalena
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