JP2001005671A - Data transmission system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make easily performable the download of software suited to a terminal equipment without complicating the constitution of the whole system or deteriorating the operability in the case of constructing a system capable of downloading software stored on the base station device side and installing the software by the terminal equipment side. SOLUTION: Many software parts suited to plural sorts of platform versions for an on-vehicle multimedia system (terminal equipment) 1 are stored in an information center (base station equipment) 8 so as to be identified for every version. When a download request signal including the version information of a platform of the system 1 itself is transmitted from the system 1 to the center 8, the center 8 judges whether software suited to the version information included in the received download request signal is stored or not, and wen the suited software is stored, transmits the software to the system 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission system capable of easily maintaining software installed in a terminal device based on data transmission between the terminal device and a base station device.

[0002]

For example, in a car navigation system, software such as an OS program of a built-in microcomputer and related application programs are frequently upgraded.
For this reason, conventionally, version upgrade program data has been provided through a removable storage medium such as a CD-ROM or a memory card. However, this configuration has a problem that it is difficult to quickly upgrade software on the car navigation device side.

On the other hand, in recent years, in order to be able to quickly respond to the above-mentioned version upgrade, new software is provided to a base station apparatus which transmits and receives data to and from a car navigation apparatus. A system that downloads and installs from a provided host computer has been considered.

In order to realize such a system,
It is necessary to confirm whether or not the operating environment (such as the version of hardware and software constituting the platform) on the car navigation device side is in a state sufficient to operate based on newly installed software. . Therefore, it is conceivable to employ a system as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-4-242828. That is, the system described in this publication provides an installation support function on the software to be installed, and the installation support function reads the asset information stored in the asset information storage unit on the terminal device side and operates itself. It is configured to check whether or not the environment is sufficient for the operation. However, this configuration has a problem that a special program called an installation support function must be incorporated in the software to be installed, which complicates the configuration.

In the prior art, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-233492
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication, a system has been considered in which a program (or data) can be downloaded or uploaded between information processing devices such as a terminal device and a host device using wireless communication means. However, in this method, the version of the platform of the information processing apparatus that downloads the program is not considered at all, and therefore, when the program is downloaded, the program to be downloaded is adapted to the information processing apparatus. It is necessary for the user side to confirm in advance whether or not the content is a certain one, and as a result, there arises a problem that the preparation and operation for the download become very complicated.

Further, in the prior art, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-205, in an in-vehicle terminal device connected to a base station device via communication means, the software / hardware information possessed by the terminal device is transmitted to the base station device side, and the base station device side A system that determines software to be transmitted to a terminal device based on the software / hardware information has been considered. However, in this system, while it is necessary to store the hardware information in detail in the terminal device, the detailed information is stored in each of a large number of software stored in the base station device. In addition, when deciding software to be transmitted to the terminal device side, it is necessary to perform a detailed check based on the stored information, and as a result, the configuration of the entire system is inevitably complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to construct a system in which software stored in a base station apparatus can be downloaded and installed on the terminal apparatus. Provide a data transmission system that can easily download software suitable for the software without complicating the overall configuration of the system or deteriorating operability, and that does not complicate the configuration of the software itself. Is to do.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, the means described in claim 1 can be adopted. According to this means, a large number of software compatible with a plurality of types of platform versions of the terminal device are stored in the base station device in such a manner as to be identifiable for each version. When such software is downloaded on the terminal device side, a download request signal including version information of its own platform is transmitted to the base station device. Then, in the base station side device, it is determined whether or not the software conforming to the version information included in the received download request signal is stored, and if the conforming software is stored, the software is downloaded. An operation of transmitting to the terminal device is performed. Therefore, when downloading the software suitable for the terminal device, it is only necessary to perform the transmission operation of the download request signal, and the operability is improved. Also, as in the conventional configuration,
There is no need to store detailed hardware information on the terminal device side or detailed information of a large number of software on the base station device side, and it is not necessary to perform detailed checks based on the stored information. In general, the configuration of the entire system does not become complicated. Further, since there is no need to add an extra mechanism such as a conventional installation support function to the software to be downloaded, the software configuration does not become complicated.

According to the second aspect, when the base station apparatus receives a download request signal from a terminal apparatus, the base station apparatus transmits only software for upgrading software installed in the terminal apparatus. Therefore, the terminal device can reliably upgrade the version of the installed software by a simple operation.

According to the fourth aspect, when the terminal device transmits a list request signal prior to the transmission of the download request signal, the base station device stores the stored software list in the terminal device. Answer back to the device side. Therefore, even if various kinds of software are stored in the base station device side, the terminal device side can easily download only necessary software based on the list that has been backed up, As a result, a situation in which useless download is performed can be prevented.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the base station apparatus, in response to receiving the download request signal, collects data indicating the number of terminal apparatuses to be transmitted / received and the type of the platform of the terminal apparatus. Since the information is accumulated, the type and quantity of the terminal devices actually operating can be accurately grasped, and the grasped result can be effectively used for management and adjustment of the accumulated software.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a data transmission system for an automobile will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of the entire system by combining functional blocks. In FIG. 1, an in-vehicle multimedia system 1 (corresponding to a terminal device) has a telephone control function, a notebook function, and the like in addition to the functions of a car navigation device. It has become. The in-vehicle computer 2 includes a signal received by the GPS antenna 3 for acquiring the current position data of the vehicle and a storage medium (not shown) such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.
In addition to performing car navigation control based on map data or the like stored in the mobile phone / mobile phone 4 provided with the antenna 4a, control is performed through the communication unit 5. A display 6 (for example, a color liquid crystal panel) is connected to the in-vehicle computer 2 as an output device, and a remote controller 7 is connected as an input device. However, the remote controller 7 is actually of a wireless type.

In this case, in addition to the OS program, the in-vehicle computer 2 has a route guidance program for a car navigation device, an address book program and a schedule book program for telephone and notebook functions, an Internet browser program, and the like. Are installed, and the software can be upgraded by downloading the software as described later. The in-vehicle computer 2 stores version information of the platform of the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 (specifically, version information of both hardware and software, and information indicating a hardware model).

An information center 8 (corresponding to a base station device) searches for a transmitting / receiving device 9 for transmitting / receiving data, a communication server 10 for controlling the transmitting / receiving device 9, and data requested through the communication server 10. Server 11 for storing data, database 1 for storing data
2 In particular, the database 12 stores a large number of software compatible with a plurality of types of platform versions of the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 in such a manner as to be identifiable for each version. In the information center 8, the transmitting / receiving device 9 is connected to a mobile telephone base station 14 of a mobile telephone communication carrier via a general subscriber telephone network 13. Further, the mobile phone base station 14 is configured to be able to transmit and receive data to and from the car / mobile phone 4 of the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 through the base station antenna 15.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show only the part of the operation contents of the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 and the information center 8 related to the gist of the present invention, which will be described below. FIG. 2 shows an operation content when downloading software on the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 side. As shown in FIG. 2, first, it is determined whether or not a list request operation has been performed through the remote controller 7 (step A1).
An operation of transmitting a list request signal to the information center 8 is performed (step A2). The transmission and reception of data between the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 and the information center 8 are performed through the mobile phone base station 14 and the like as described above.

As will be apparent from the following description, when the above list request signal is transmitted, the software list is answered back from the information center 8 which has received the list request signal. It waits until a list is received (step A3). When the software list is received, the list is displayed on the display 6 in a state as shown in FIG. 5 (step A).
4). FIG. 5 shows an example in which each software of “route guidance”, “schedule book”, “address book” and “Internet browser” is displayed in a list.

In such a list display state, the system waits until the displayed software selection operation is performed through the remote controller 7 (step A5). When the operation is performed, the software is downloaded to the information center 8. An operation of transmitting a request signal is performed (step A6). As shown in FIG. 4, the download request signal includes a maker ID indicating the manufacturer of the in-vehicle multimedia system 1, the above-described platform version information (version information of both hardware and software, and information indicating the model of hardware). ) And a software ID for identifying the selected software.

As will be apparent from the following description, when the above download request signal is transmitted,
The data or the message data of the software corresponding to the software ID in the download request signal is answered back from the information center 8 receiving this, and it waits until either of them is received (step A7). , A8).

When the software data is received, the software is installed in the vehicle-mounted computer 2 (step A9), and when the installation is completed, the download operation ends. When the message data is received, the message is displayed on the display 6, and the download operation is terminated thereafter.

FIG. 3 shows the operation of the information center 8. As shown in FIG. 3, the information center 8 waits until the list request signal transmitted from the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 as described above is received (step B1). When the signal is received,
The software list stored therein is transmitted to the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 (step B2). Thereafter, the process waits until the download request signal transmitted from the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 as described above is received (step B3).

When the download request signal is received, it is determined whether there is software that can be installed in the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 that has transmitted the download request signal in the software group stored therein. Is determined (step B4). Specifically, in this step B4, the software specified by the software ID in the download request signal among the software groups stored therein matches the platform version information in the download request signal. It is determined whether or not the software installed on the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 that has transmitted the download request signal is to be upgraded.

If "YES" is determined in the step B4, an operation of transmitting the software specified by the software ID in the download request signal to the vehicle-mounted multimedia system 1 is performed (step B5), and this transmission is completed. Sometimes, a series of operations ends. If the determination is "NO" in step B4, message data indicating that there is no compatible software or that downloading is not required (upgrading of the specified software is unnecessary) is sent to the in-vehicle multimedia system 1. An operation for transmitting is performed (step B6), and when this transmission is completed, a series of operations is completed.

In short, when software stored in the information center 8 is downloaded on the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 side, the transmitting operation of the list request signal and the transmitting operation of the download request signal are performed by the remote controller 7.
It is only necessary to perform the operations sequentially. In this case, when the transmission operation of the list request signal is performed, the list of the stored software is returned from the information center 8 side, and the software list is displayed on the display 6 (see FIG. 5). . Then, when a software selection operation is performed based on the display list, a download request signal having a format as shown in FIG. Platform version information and a software ID for specifying the selected software) are transmitted to the information center 8.

Then, the information center 8 determines whether or not the software requested by the received download request signal exists in the software group stored therein, and the corresponding software exists. In this case, the software is transmitted to the in-vehicle multimedia system 1, and the downloaded software is installed in the multimedia system 1. However, if the software does not upgrade the corresponding software installed on the in-vehicle multimedia system 1, an operation of transmitting message data indicating that download is unnecessary is performed. If the software requested by the request signal does not exist, an operation of transmitting message data indicating that there is no compatible software is performed.

Therefore, when downloading and upgrading the software suitable for the in-vehicle multimedia system 1, it is only necessary to transmit the list request signal and the download request signal, and the operability is improved. Further, unlike the conventional configuration, there is no need to store detailed hardware information on the terminal device (vehicle multimedia system 1) side or to store detailed software information on the base station device (information center 8) side. In addition, since it is not necessary to perform a detailed check based on the stored information, there is no possibility that the configuration of the entire system becomes complicated as a whole. Further, there is no need to add an extra mechanism such as a conventional installation support function to the software downloaded as described above, and the configuration is not likely to be complicated. In addition, since the download as described above is performed only when upgrading the software installed in the in-vehicle multimedia system 1, the version of the installed software can be surely upgraded by a simple operation.

In addition, since the software list stored in the information center 8 can be displayed by the in-vehicle multimedia system 1, even if various kinds of software are stored in the information center 8, Only the necessary software can be easily downloaded based on the software list, and the situation where useless download is performed can be prevented.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the following modifications or extensions are possible. The information center 8 arranges the platform version information included in the received download request signal in a state where the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 that has transmitted the download request signal can be specified, so that the in-vehicle data transmission / reception target can be identified. An operation of accumulating aggregated data indicating the number of multimedia systems 1 and the type of the platform thereof may be performed. According to such a configuration, the type and quantity of the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 actually operating in the market (or a terminal device such as a car navigation device provided alone) can be accurately grasped. Thus, for example, the maintenance result of software corresponding to a terminal device that is hardly operating in the market can be stopped, and the grasped result can be effectively used for management and adjustment of accumulated software.

In the above embodiment, the route guidance program, the address book program, the schedule book program, and the Internet browser program are given as examples of the software that can be upgraded by downloading. However, the OS program of the vehicle-mounted computer 2 and other software can be used. A configuration capable of upgrading the version of the software can be provided. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the system for upgrading the software is described. However, in order to cope with the destruction of the software, a system capable of re-installing the same version of the software may be used. Things.

The format of the download request signal is as follows:
The present invention is not limited to the example shown in FIG. 4. For example, it is also possible to construct a system that can specify software to be downloaded with only one or two IDs.
Further, the download request signal does not need to be transmitted in a lump, but may be transmitted in a time-division state. As an example of the terminal device, the car navigation device and the in-vehicle multimedia system 1 having a telephone function have been described as an example, but it is needless to say that a single car navigation device or another device may be used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic functional block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation content of the in-vehicle multimedia system;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation contents of an information center.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a format example of a download request signal;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of a display.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 denotes an in-vehicle multimedia system (terminal device), 2 denotes an in-vehicle computer, 6 denotes a display, and 8 denotes an information center (base station device).

Continued on the front page F-term (reference) 2F029 AA02 AC14 5B076 AC03 BB14 5B089 GA11 GA25 HA13 JA34 JB07 JB10 JB22 KA04 KC47 9A001 BB02 BB03 BB04 CC02 DD09 DZ01 FF03 JJ18 JJ72 JJ77 KK56 LL09

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A terminal device that operates based on installed software, and a base station device that is provided so as to be able to transmit and receive data to and from the terminal device, and that is stored in the base station device. In a data transmission system configured so that software can be downloaded and installed on the terminal device side, the terminal device can transmit a download request signal including version information of its platform to the base station device. The base station device stores a large number of software compatible with a plurality of types of platform versions of the terminal device in an identifiable state for each version, and transmits the download request signal from the terminal device. When received, the version information included in the download request signal Data transmission system, characterized thereby determine the presence or absence of software accumulation engaged, the said software to perform the operation of transmitting to the terminal device if the software adapted are accumulated. 2. The base station apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the base station apparatus transmits an operation to transmit the corresponding software to the terminal apparatus in response to receiving the download request signal from the terminal apparatus. 2. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein said data transmission system is executed only when said software is upgraded. 3. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the version information included in the download request signal includes version information of both hardware and software of a corresponding terminal device. 4. The terminal device is configured to transmit a list request signal before transmitting the download request signal, and the base station device receives the list request signal from the terminal device when the terminal device receives the list request signal. 4. The data transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the software list stored in the server is answered back to the terminal device. 5. The data transmission / reception object, wherein the base station device arranges version information included in the download request signal in a state where a terminal device that has transmitted the download request signal can be identified. The data transmission system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the data transmission system is configured to perform an operation of accumulating total data indicating the number of terminal devices and the type of platform of the terminal device.