Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-11
2001-05-08
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
C701S035000, C701S209000, C701S211000, C180S272000, C180S273000, 36
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230082
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-use data backup system which backs up and stores in a center outside a vehicle the vehicle-use data used by an on-vehicle terminal apparatus. In the present invention, the vehicle-use data indicate the data used for execution of the program and the program data itself.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer system mounted on a vehicle as an on-vehicle terminal apparatus has been proposed as a part of the so-called ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) technology. The proposed on-vehicle terminal apparatus has navigation and other functions and connects with an information center via a communication means, while the information center connects with many vehicles and sends useful data to each vehicle. The on-vehicle terminal apparatus may in some cases have other network terminal functions.
The vehicle-use data used by the on-vehicle terminal apparatus is stored in an appropriate storage medium, such as a hard disk or the like. As mentioned above, this vehicle-use data may include program data such as applications or the like, as well as the information (navigation map data and the like) used by this and other programs. The on-vehicle terminal apparatus has an advantage that it can obtain a variety external vehicle-use data. In turn, users can change the vehicle-use data and enter their specific data so that they may set up or customize the on-vehicle terminal apparatus according to their desired specification. Therefore, each on-vehicle terminal apparatus has its own respective collection of vehicle-use data or, in other words, each vehicle has different vehicle-use data. With the advance of said ITS technology, it is projected that the vehicle-use data for each vehicle will grow more diversified.
The vehicle-use data is stored on a storage medium such as a hard disk or the like as mentioned above. Since vehicles generate vibration and shock, such a data storage medium is used in relatively harsh conditions. Accordingly, the data written to the data storage medium may have become corrupted or the data storage medium itself may be damaged. In such a case, the vehicle-use data cannot be recovered by merely replacing the data storage medium. In particular, if various data specific to each vehicle is stored as described above, it is difficult to recover such lost data because it is difficult to recompile all the data that had been obtained externally up to that date and to reproduce customized data.
To enable recovery of the vehicle-use data, it is effective to back up the data. The information center that handles data communication with the on-vehicle terminal apparatus can be used as a backup site. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-270466, a system of this type is proposed in the field of facsimile communication. However, vehicle-use data systems communicating with the information center had yet to be developed. Moreover, such systems did not allow for each individual vehicle using customized data. Hence, backup was not required and appropriate techniques for dealing with data damage were not proposed.
The volumes of vehicle-use data creates an additional problem related to vehicle-use data backup. Because of the volume of data, data transmission to the information center for backup requires a large amount of time. Further, since the volume of data per vehicle is large, the information center must reserve an extremely large storage capacity for back up data of all the target vehicles. It is desirable that this backup memory capacity should be reduced as much as possible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a vehicle-use data backup system which can reduce the storage capacity of the center side for backing up the vehicle-use data and reduce the data transmission time for backing up the vehicle-use data.
To achieve this purpose, the vehicle-use data backup system of this invention backs up and saves the vehicle-use data used by an on-vehicle terminal apparatus in a backup center which handles data communication with a vehicle. The vehicle-use data backup system of this invention comprises an on-vehicle storage means provided on said on-vehicle terminal apparatus and which stores custom data unique to the vehicle along with other, standard data as said vehicle-use data and a backup storage means provided on said backup center which individually backs up and stores said vehicle-use data of each vehicle. Said backup storage means stores the raw custom data and identification codes indicating standard data rather than the raw standard data. The backup center may, for example, be said information center but may also be other centers.
It may also be desirable that backup transmission which sends said custom data and the identification code data indicating said standard data from the vehicle to the backup center be executed and that the data sent by the backup transmission be stored in said backup storage means.
As described above, in the present invention, the vehicle-use data to be backed up is classified into standard data and custom data. The standard data is data that is commonly used by multiple vehicles. However, it is not necessary that the standard data be used by all vehicles. On the other hand, the custom data is unique to each vehicle. Each vehicle uses its own custom data. For example, the custom data are created when users registered their specific settings or the like in the on-vehicle terminal apparatus. Also, as described above, the vehicle-use data may contain both the data used by a program and the program data itself. In the present invention, necessary data can be backed up appropriately.
For example, the standard data are installed in the on-vehicle terminal apparatus before purchase. For example, the standard data is also obtained from the outside of the vehicle and ordinarily obtained and used to some extent by various vehicles. On the other hand, the custom data is, for example, the changed portion of the data when the existing vehicle-use data were changed. For example, the custom data is also entered by the users themselves. Moreover, for example, the custom data may be externally obtained yet not used by certain vehicles because they are special to some extent.
According to the present invention, for the standard data provided in the vehicle, the backup center stores identification codes identifying the standard data because the standard data can be recovered if the identification codes are available. The backup center can prepare the standard data corresponding to the identification codes by itself and can also obtain them externally. On the other hand, for custom data, the custom data is itself stored in the backup center. Since the custom data differs for every vehicle and it is difficult to later recover the custom data if the entire data has not been stored.
As described above, with the present invention, the standard data for each vehicle is backed up and saved in the information center in the form of identification codes, therefore the waste of storing the same standard data of multiple vehicles in the information center can be eliminated. By storing only identification codes and custom data, the vehicle-use data can still be recovered when data damage, including loss or the like, occurs, but the memory capacity of the backup center can be reduced because of reduction in the volume of backup data and the communication time when data is sent to the backup center can be shortened. As a result, the data can be efficiently backed up.
Also, in the present invention, identification codes indicating the standard data may be used to indicate either a single standard data item or a group of multiple standard data.
In one aspect of the present invention, it is desirable that said backup transmission be executed when specified conditions are met on the vehicle side. For example, these specified conditions may be that the specified setting timing is reached or that the specified processing (engine stoppage or the like) i
Ando Kouichi
Harada Tomoyasu
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
To Tuan C.
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
LandOfFree
Vehicle-use data backup system and on-vehicle terminal... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Vehicle-use data backup system and on-vehicle terminal..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Vehicle-use data backup system and on-vehicle terminal... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2441821