User identification system and vehicular portable device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10157542-B2
Application number	US-201615556526-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2016
Priority date	Mar 25, 2015
Publication date	Dec 18, 2018
Grant date	Dec 18, 2018

Abstract

A user identification system is provided. In the user identification system, an in-vehicle apparatus specifies a position of a vehicular portable device with reference to a vehicle and determines whether the vehicular portable device exists in a predetermined identification area. Based on determining that the vehicular portable device exists in the identification area, the in-vehicle apparatus transmits an instruction signal instructing the vehicular portable device to specify a driver terminal. Based on reception signal strength detected during a time period determined by a time point of receipt of the instruction signal, the vehicular portable device determines the driver terminal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A user identification system comprising:
an in-vehicle apparatus mounted to a vehicle used by a plurality of users including a user who undertakes a role as a driver; and
a vehicular portable device that is carried by the driver, and that is associated with the in-vehicle apparatus,
the in-vehicle apparatus includes:
an in-vehicle apparatus communicator that communicates with the vehicular portable device; and
a portable device position specification section that specifies a position of the vehicular portable device with reference to the vehicle and determines whether the vehicular portable device exists in a predetermined identification area,

the vehicular portable device includes:
a first communicator that communicates with the in-vehicle apparatus;
a second communicator that performs short range communication with a mobile terminal carried by the user;
a reception signal strength detector that detects reception signal strength of a signal that the second communicator receives from the mobile terminal; and
a driver terminal determination section that determines, based on the reception signal strength detected by the reception signal strength detector, a driver terminal which is the mobile terminal carried by the user undertaking the role as the driver, and

wherein:
the in-vehicle apparatus communicator transmits an instruction signal to the vehicular portable device as an instruction to perform a process to determine the driver terminal, based on determining, by the portable device position specification section, that the vehicular portable device exists in the predetermined identification area;
the first communicator receives the instruction signal transmitted from the in-vehicle apparatus;
the driver terminal determination section determines the driver terminal, based on the reception signal strength detected by the reception signal strength detector during a time period determined by a reference time point, the reference time point being a time point when the first communicator receives the instruction signal; and
the predetermined identification area is an area in which there is a high possibility for the vehicular portable device that the reception signal strength of the signal transmitted from the mobile terminal carried by the user undertaking the role as the driver is greater than the reception signal strength of the signal transmitted from the mobile terminal carried by the user other than the driver.

2. The user identification system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the vehicular portable device identifies the mobile terminal existing around the vehicular portable device based on an identification code which is included in the signal transmitted from the mobile terminal and which is unique to the mobile terminal; and
when the plurality of mobile terminals exist around the vehicular portable device at the time point of receipt of the instruction signal, the driver terminal determination section determines that the driver terminal is the mobile terminal that transmits the signal indicating the greatest reception signal strength during the time period.

3. The user identification system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the vehicular portable device identifies the mobile terminal existing around the vehicular portable device based on an identification code which is included in the signal transmitted from the mobile terminal and which is unique to the mobile terminal; and
when the plurality of mobile terminals exist around the vehicular portable device at a time point of receipt of the instruction signal, the reception signal strength detector detects the reception signal strength of a signal from each of the mobile terminals during the time period multiple times and the driver terminal determination section determines one of the plurality of mobile terminals as the driver terminal based on the reception signal strength detected the multiple times.

4. The user identification system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the in-vehicle apparatus includes a vehicle information acquisition section that acquires vehicle information indicating a state of the vehicle;
when the portable device position specification section determines that the vehicular portable device exists in the predetermined identification area, the in-vehicle apparatus communicator determines, from the vehicle information acquired by the vehicle information acquisition section, whether a predetermined identification status is present for the vehicular portable device in which it is expected that the reception signal strength of the signal transmitted from the mobile terminal carried by the user undertaking the role as the driver is greater than the reception signal strength of a signal transmitted from the mobile terminal carried by the other user; and
the in-vehicle apparatus communicator transmits the instruction signal when it is determined that the identification status is present according to a result of the determining.

5. The user identification system according to claim 4 , wherein:
a plurality of the identification statuses are settled during a period from when the in-vehicle apparatus starts receiving a signal from the vehicular portable device until an engine included in the vehicle starts;
the in-vehicle apparatus communicator transmits the instruction signal each time it is determined, from the vehicle information acquired by the vehicle information acquisition section, that the identification status is present; and
the driver terminal determination section determines the driver terminal each time the first communicator receives the instruction signal.

6. The user identification system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the vehicular portable device includes a switch to be manipulated by the user; and
the driver terminal determination section determines the driver terminal based on the reception signal strength detected by the reception signal strength detector during a time period determined by a time point of the user's manipulation of the switch.

7. The user identification system according to claim 6 , wherein:
the vehicular portable device includes a position information acquisition section that acquires position information indicating a current position of the vehicular portable device based on a radio wave transmitted from a positioning satellite;
the vehicular portable device stores a parking position of the vehicle, the parking position being the position information acquired by the position information acquisition section at a time point when the first communicator receives the signal from the in-vehicle apparatus;
the reception signal strength detector detects the reception signal strength of the signal from the mobile terminal when a distance between the parking position and the vehicular portable device comes to be longer than or equal to a predetermined distance and then the distance between the vehicular portable device and the parking position comes to be shorter than the predetermined distance; and
the driver terminal determination section specifies the driver terminal based on the reception signal strength detected by the reception signal strength detector.

8. The user identification system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the first communicator transmits driver-terminal-related information to the in-vehicle apparatus, the driver-terminal-related information corresponding to the driver terminal determined by the driver terminal determination section.

9. The user identification system according to claim 8 , wherein:
the in-vehicle apparatus communicator receives the driver-terminal-related information; and
the in-vehicle apparatus includes a driver specification section that specifies

Assignees

• Denso Corp

Inventors

• Sanji Kenichiro
• Hirao Noritaka
• Matsushita Suguru

Classifications

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• G08G1/005

  including pedestrian guidance indicator · CPC title

• G07C2009/00325

  and the lock having only one limited data transmission range · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• B60R25/24

  using electronic identifiers containing a code not memorised by the user · CPC title