JP2005343584A - Transport support device for article needing heat insulation, and transport support method and program for article needing heat insulation - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To support the transport of an article needing heat insulation while inhibiting a transporting person from forgetting to input the article needing heat insulation. <P>SOLUTION: A means 11 performs a first determination on whether or not the current position is to be a carry-in place for the article needing heat insulation, and a means 12 urges the transporting person to input the article needing heat insulation at the start of a transporting automobile from the carry-in place when the first determination is positive. A means 13 detects the article needing heat insulation carried in an automobile at the current position on the basis of the user input. A means 14 calculates the amount of time elapsed until the quality of the article needing heat insulation is lowered from the initial level to a predetermined permissible level as the permissible time Ta. A means 15 calculates the time required for the automobile to go direct to the transport destination of the the article needing heat insulation from the current position as the go direct time Tb. A means 16 performs a second determination on whether or not the automobile is to go direct to the transport destination of the article needing heat insulation on the basis of the contrast between Ta and Tb. A means 17 presents the information on the second determination to the transporter. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport support device, a transport support method, and a program for a warming-requiring item such as ice cream, for example, and a transport support device for a warming-requiring item that presents useful information related to the warming-requiring item being transported to a transporter, The present invention relates to a conveyance support method and a program for articles requiring heat insulation.

Patent Document 1 informs whether or not a user purchases a heat-requiring item such as ice cream at a store, when he / she takes it home by car, and if he / she can bring it to his / her home, Disclosed is a purchase support system for searching for another store that can be brought into a home without taking a heat-requiring item. That is, in the purchase support system of Patent Document 1, a user gets out of a car, carries a portable terminal with a scanner, and scans an information tag of an article requiring heat insulation such as ice cream at a store with a scanner of the portable terminal (Patent Document). 1 paragraph 0088), and this is to detect the heat-retaining necessary article to be purchased. In addition, the mobile terminal and the car navigation device installed in the user's car can transmit and receive data to and from each other wirelessly, and information processing such as propriety of purchase and search for alternative stores is performed in the car navigation device. Therefore, the processing result is notified to the portable terminal at hand of the user.
JP 2003-65773 A

The problems of the purchase support system of Patent Document 1 are as follows.
(A) A portable terminal with a scanner is required in addition to the car navigation device body.
(B) It is necessary to operate an information tag attached to the heat-requiring item with the scanner of the portable terminal in order to detect the heat-requiring item, which is complicated.
(C) It is difficult to detect a heat-requiring item if the information-requiring item is not attached.
(D) There are cases where the user forgets to read the information on the information tag by the scanner and cannot receive purchase support.
(E) The user only assists in determining whether or not the user needs to purchase the heat-retaining items, and does not support transportation after purchase.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to make it necessary for the transporter to input the warming-required article when the transporter carries the warming-requiring article, and to support the transport of the warming-required article by an automobile. It is another object of the present invention to provide a conveyance support method and program for heat-requiring items.

The conveyance support apparatus for heat-requiring goods of the present invention has the following.
Articles that need to be kept warm and that deteriorate in quality due to the temperature in the transport car when transported into a transporter's car (hereinafter referred to as “transport car”) A first determination means for performing a first determination as to whether or not the current location is a place for carrying an article requiring heat insulation to a transport vehicle;
An input facilitating means for urging the carrier to input a heat-requiring item that the carrier has carried into the carrier vehicle when the carrier vehicle departs from the carry-in location when the first determination is positive;
Thermal insulation necessary article detection means for detecting the thermal insulation necessary article carried into the transport vehicle at the current location based on user input;
A permissible time calculating means for calculating, as a permissible time Ta, the time required for the quality of the heat-retaining article to decrease from an initial level to a predetermined permissible level in the transport vehicle;
A direct time calculation means for calculating, as the direct time Tb, the time required for the transport vehicle to go straight from the current location to the destination of the heat-retaining articles.
Based on the comparison between Ta and Tb, the second determination means for performing the first determination as to whether or not the transport vehicle should go straight to the transport destination of the article requiring heat insulation, and the information related to the second determination are presented to the carrier Information presentation means.

The conveyance support method for a heat-requiring item of the present invention has the following steps.
Articles that need to be kept warm and that deteriorate in quality due to the temperature in the transport car when transported into a transporter's car (hereinafter referred to as “transport car”) A first determination step for carrying out a first determination as to whether or not the current location is a place for carrying a warming-requiring item to a transport vehicle;
An input promoting step that prompts the carrier to input the heat-requiring item that the carrier has carried into the carrier vehicle when the carrier vehicle departs from the carry-in location when the first determination is positive;
A heat-retaining required article detection step for detecting a heat-requiring required article carried into a transport vehicle at the current location based on a user input;
A permissible time calculating step for calculating a time required for the quality of the heat-requiring article to decrease from an initial level to a predetermined permissible level in the transport vehicle as a permissible time Ta;
A direct time calculation step for calculating the time required for the transport vehicle to go straight from the current location to the destination of the goods requiring heat insulation as the direct time Tb;
Based on the comparison between Ta and Tb, the second determination step for performing the second determination as to whether or not the transport vehicle should go straight to the transport destination of the heat-requiring item is presented to the carrier. Information presentation step.

  The present invention includes a program for causing a computer to function as each means of the above-described warm support article transportation support apparatus described below and a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded.

  According to the present invention, after carrying an article requiring heat insulation into a transport vehicle, the transporter can take an appropriate response based on information on whether or not to go straight to the transport destination. In addition, it is possible to save the trouble of preparing a scanner or operating the information tag of the heat-requiring item with the scanner in order to detect the heat-requiring item to be carried into the transport vehicle.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a conveyance support apparatus 10 for articles requiring heat insulation. The warming-required article conveyance support apparatus 10 includes a first determination unit 11, an input promoting unit 12, a warming-required article detection unit 13, an allowable time calculation unit 14, an orthogonal time calculation unit 15, a second determination unit 16, and information presentation. Means 17 are provided. The first determination means 11 is an article that needs to be kept warm, and when it is carried into a transporter's car (hereinafter referred to as “transport car”), the quality is determined by the temperature inside the transport car. An article that deteriorates is called an article requiring heat insulation, and a first determination is made as to whether or not the current location is a place where an article requiring heat insulation is carried into a transport vehicle. When the first determination is positive, the input promoting means 12 prompts the transporter to input the heat-requiring item that the transporter has carried into the transport vehicle when the transport vehicle departs from the carry-in location. The heat insulation necessary article detection means 13 detects the heat insulation necessary article carried into the transport vehicle at the current location based on the user input. The permissible time calculating means 14 calculates the time required for the quality of the article requiring heat insulation to decrease from the initial level to a predetermined permissible level as the permissible time Ta. The direct time calculation means 15 calculates the time required for the transport vehicle to go straight from the current location to the destination of the heat-retaining articles as the direct time Tb. The second determination means 16 performs a second determination as to whether or not the transport vehicle should go straight to the transport destination of the heat-requiring item based on the comparison between Ta and Tb. The information presenting means 17 presents information related to the second determination to the carrier.

  A predetermined temperature lower than that at room temperature and a predetermined temperature higher than that are defined as a first predetermined temperature and a second predetermined temperature, respectively. A low temperature type heat retaining necessary article as an article that needs to be kept warm, and a high temperature type heat retaining necessary article as an article that needs to be kept warm at a second predetermined temperature or higher for quality maintenance are included. Examples of the low-temperature type heat-retaining articles include ice cream, frozen food, and refrigerated food. Refrigerated food includes, for example, vegetables, milk, canned juice, packed juice, and juice in a pet bottle. Hot foods are included in the high-temperature type heat-retaining articles. Hot foods include hot coffee and hot tea, and lunch boxes heated in a commercial microwave oven. In the case of an article requiring low temperature type heat insulation, the deterioration of quality is, for example, melting or cooling. In the case of an article requiring high temperature type heat insulation, deterioration of quality is, for example, becoming slim.

  The delivery place of the items requiring heat insulation is, for example, a supermarket or a convenience store. For example, the function of prompting the carrier to input the heat-requiring item that the carrier has carried into the transport vehicle is to provide the heat-requiring item to the user by video notification or voice notification from the monitor or speaker of the heat-retaining necessary item conveyance support device. There is an instruction to input, and a voice inquiry from the agent (eg, “Did you buy ice cream?”) When the agent detects a heat-requiring item from the user's utterance by voice recognition.

  Typically, the person who carries the heat-requiring item to the transport vehicle and the carrier who carries the heat-requiring item by the transport vehicle are the same person, but they need not be the same person. The carrier is not limited to the purchaser of the heat-requiring item, but may be a delivery person who works to deliver the heat-requiring item. The delivery destination is typically the carrier's home, but does not exclude the carrier's acquaintance's home and the delivery person's delivery destination.

  The carrying of the heat-requiring article into the transport vehicle is typically carried into the passenger compartment where the transporter gets in, but it does not exclude the transport into the trunk room or the loading platform. The process of prompting the carrier to input the heat-requiring items carried into the transport vehicle is performed at the input promotion means 12 when the transport vehicle departs from the carry-in place. For example, the start of the transport vehicle is ignition. This is detected by detecting when the switch is switched from the OFF position to the accessory (ACC) position or the ON position by a predetermined sensor.

  An example of the utterance of the carrier when the carrier uses the speech recognition agent to input the heat-requiring item carried into the carrier car by utterance is as follows. There are an interactive type in which a carrier answers a computer agent inquiry, and a self-report type in which the carrier unilaterally speaks to the agent. In the self-reporting type, the carrier utters the name of the item requiring heat insulation, whereas in the interactive type, the carrier only needs to say “yes” or “no” in response to the inquiry from the agent. is there.

[Interactive]
Agent: Did you buy frozen foods?
Carrier: No.
Agent: Did you buy ice cream?
Carrier: Yes.
Agent: Did you buy something that is easily painful?
Carrier: Yes.
Agent: Do you have a cooler box?
Carrier: No. ...

[Self-reported type]
Carrier: I bought 5 frozen foods.
Carrier: I bought 10 ice creams.
Carrier: I bought a piece of fresh food.
Transporter: Ice cream was placed in a cooler box.
Transporter: The vegetables were put in the trunk room. ...

  The permissible time Ta is calculated based on, for example, the type of article requiring heat insulation and the temperature in the passenger compartment. The predetermined permissible level for the quality of the heat-requiring article corresponding to the end point of the permissible time Ta is not limited to the lowest level that cannot be further reduced. Assume that the tolerance level may be slightly higher than the lowest level. The temperature in the passenger compartment can be detected from a temperature sensor provided in the passenger compartment. In the case of an article requiring a low temperature type heat insulation, the higher the temperature in the passenger compartment, the faster it is melted or thawed, and the allowable time Ta becomes shorter. In the case of a high-temperature type heat-retaining article, the lower the temperature in the passenger compartment, the quicker it cools or becomes slim, and the allowable time Ta becomes shorter. In the case where the transport vehicle has a cooler box and the heat-requiring item is stored in the cooler box, the allowable time Ta is calculated in consideration of the storage of the heat-requiring item in the cooler box. Whether or not the items requiring heat insulation are stored in the cooler box is detected by voice recognition when the carrier speaks to that effect.

  The allowable time Ta is different for each article requiring heat retention, for example, an allowable time Ta1 for ice cream, an allowable time Ta2 for frozen food, and so on. The allowable time Ta also varies depending on where the heat-requiring item is stored (eg, a cooler box, a trunk room, or a passenger compartment) even if the same heat-retaining item is stored. When there are a plurality of types of heat-requiring items that are transported by a carrier in a transport vehicle and / or when there are a plurality of places where the heat-requiring items are accommodated in the vehicle, the allowable time Ta of the entire heat-retaining items is typically The shortest allowable time Ta is selected from the allowable times Ta of the articles requiring heat insulation. However, it is assumed that the average value of the allowable time Ta of each heat-retaining required article or the allowable time Ta of the number of types of heat-retaining required articles among the plurality of types of heat-retaining required articles may be selected.

  The direct time Tb to the carry-in destination is calculated by a method similar to that used by a normal car navigation apparatus to calculate the required time from the current location to the destination. The direct time Tb is calculated based on, for example, the road from the current location to the destination, the speed limit of the road, and road traffic congestion information. The traffic congestion information is obtained using, for example, VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System). As a premise for calculating the direct time Tb, it may be necessary to search for a recommended direct route from the transfer source to the transfer destination of the heat-requiring item.

  It should be noted that the direct time Tb changes as the transport vehicle moves. For example, it is assumed that the allowable time Ta and the direct time Tb are 80 minutes and 20 minutes, respectively, at the transport source. The carrier judges that there is room for 60 minutes, and if it is less than 60 minutes, it judges that it is likely that it will be in time to carry the goods that need heat insulation to the destination. Judge that he can go to B. The reason why the carrier determined that the one-way was 25 minutes was that the time required for the errand at point B was determined to be 10 minutes, and 25 minutes × 2 + 10 minutes = 60 minutes was expected as the required time. If the point B is closer to the transport destination, there is no problem. However, if the transport vehicle reaches the point B when the transport vehicle reaches the point B, the direct time Tb is 20 as the direct time Tb at the point A. It becomes longer than minutes and becomes worst (considering the route of B point → A point → transport destination), 45 minutes (= 25 minutes + 20 minutes). In general, since the dimension sum of two sides of the triangle is longer than the dimension of one side, there is a shortcut route from point B to the transport destination rather than a route passing through point A, and from point B to the transport destination from 45 minutes You can go in a short time. What I want to say is that at the transport source, a second determination is made as to whether or not the transport vehicle should go straight to the transport destination of the heat-requiring item based on the comparison between Ta and Tb. The information related to the determination of 2 is presented to the carrier, and the carrier does not go straight to the destination based on the information related to the second judgment, but goes to another place, and for that reason, the direct time from the current location to the destination However, there is a low possibility that the determination of the carrier related to the first determination at the transport source will be erroneous due to the subsequent change of Tb.

  The information related to the second determination that the information presenting means 17 presents to the carrier is, for example, a notice that the allowable time Ta is shorter than the direct time Tb, as well as the recommended direct route described later, and the current time is the allowable time. And the end time when the time when the allowable time has elapsed from the current time is set as the end time of the allowable time Ta is included. Presentation of information relating to the second determination to the carrier includes sound emission from a speaker and visual display on a display. The speaker and the display are provided in the vehicle interior, and typically use those of a car navigation device.

  Thus, the carrier can take an appropriate response based on the information related to the second determination. For example, when the second determination is positive, the appropriate response is to go straight to the transport destination and immediately put the article requiring heat insulation into the refrigerator at the transport destination, or when the second determination is negative. In order to complete other business such as shopping, stop by other shops.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the conveyance support device 10 for a warm-requiring item with added functions. The conveyance support apparatus 10 for articles requiring heat insulation can appropriately add a plurality of functions in an arbitrary combination. These functions are achieved by adding new means and / or adding or implementing processes to existing means. In the following, explanation will be given on the addition means and the processing addition means in units of additional functions.

  The heat-requiring article conveyance support apparatus 10 further includes a route search unit 21 and an information presentation unit 17. The route search means 21 searches for a route that goes straight from the current location to the destination of the heat-retaining necessary item as a recommended route for direct travel. The information presenting means 17 presents the recommended direct route to the carrier as information related to the second determination.

  The method in which the route search means 21 searches for the recommended route for direct driving is the same as the method in which a normal car navigation apparatus searches for a recommended route from a predetermined starting point including the current location to the destination. When the information presenting means 17 presents the recommended route for direct travel, the transporter knows that the quality of the heat-requiring item cannot be maintained until the transport destination is reached if he / she is taking a detour and follows the recommended travel route for direct travel. Will go straight to. Thereby, the heat-requiring article is transported to the transport destination while maintaining the quality.

  The heat-requiring article conveyance support apparatus 10 further includes information presentation means 17. When the second determination is negative, the information presenting means 17 presents the information related to the allowable time Ta to the carrier as the information related to the second determination.

  The information related to the allowable time Ta includes, for example, the allowable time Ta itself and the time when the allowable time Ta has elapsed from the current time. In the case where the carrier has other business other than the transportation of the heat-requiring item to the transportation source, the transporter can appropriately finish the other business while considering information on the allowable time Ta.

  The heat-requiring article conveyance support apparatus 10 further includes an elapsed time measuring unit 25, a remaining time calculating unit 26, and an information presenting unit 17. The elapsed time measuring means 25 measures the elapsed time Tc from when the article requiring heat insulation is carried into the vehicle. The remaining time calculating means 26 calculates a remaining time Td as a difference obtained by subtracting the elapsed time Tc from the storable time Ta. The information presenting means 17 presents information relating to the current remaining time Td to the carrier at the stop-by place.

  The information related to the remaining time Td presented by the information presenting means 17 includes, for example, the remaining time Td itself and the time when the remaining time Td has elapsed from the current time. The carrier can fully recognize the information relating to the remaining time Td presented by the information presenting means 17 and finish the use at the stop.

  The heat-requiring article conveyance support apparatus 10 further includes an outing period detection unit 31, a third determination unit 32, and a notification unit 33. The outing period detection means 31 detects that the carrier is out of the vehicle at a stop-by place. The third determination unit 32 performs a third determination as to whether or not the remaining time Td is less than a predetermined value. The notification means 33 notifies the information regarding the current remaining time Td to the mobile phone of the transporter when the transporter is outside the vehicle at the stop and the third determination is positive.

  The detection in the outing period detection means 31 is performed based on, for example, the state transition of the ignition switch of the transport vehicle. The typical behavior pattern of a transport destination at a stop is to turn the ignition switch to the off position, then go out of the vehicle, complete the work at the stop, return to the transport car, and turn on the ignition switch. To position. Therefore, it can be considered that the conveyance destination is out of the vehicle during the period from the time when the ignition switch is turned off to the time when the ignition switch is turned on next.

  The information related to the remaining time Td includes, for example, the remaining time Td itself and the time when the remaining time Td has elapsed from the current time. The predetermined value in the third determination is, for example, the total time of the required time from the stopover place to the transport destination and the predetermined margin time. For the notification to the mobile phone of the carrier, an electronic mail may be used in addition to the synthetic voice generated by the computer.

  The carrier receives the notification from the notification means 33 and takes an appropriate response. For example, when the carrier receives notification from his / her mobile phone, the carrier quickly returns to the carrier car and goes straight to the destination.

  The transport support apparatus 10 for a warm-necessary article further includes a route search unit 21, a remaining time calculation unit 26, a third determination unit 32, and an information presentation unit 17. The route search means 21 searches for a route that goes straight from the current location to the destination of the heat-retaining necessary item as a recommended route for direct travel. The remaining time calculating means 26 calculates a remaining time Td as a difference obtained by subtracting the elapsed time Tc from the storable time Ta. The third determination unit 32 appropriately performs a third determination as to whether or not the remaining time Td is less than a predetermined value. When the third determination is positive, the information presenting means 17 presents the recommended direct route from the current location to the transport destination to the transporter.

  The information presenting means 17 presents the recommended route for direct travel to the transporter when the transporter finishes the work at the stop, returns to the transport car, and leaves the transport car. The time when the transport vehicle departs from the stop is detected from when the ignition switch of the transport vehicle is switched from the off position to the on position. However, the information presenting means 17 may present the recommended route for direct travel to the carrier regardless of the departure time at the stop-by place. For example, when the transport vehicle is heading to a predetermined stopover location, it takes time due to an unexpected traffic jam, and when the third determination becomes positive, the information presenting means 17 changes the position on the way. The recommended direct route for the current location may be presented to the carrier. Thus, the transporter can bring the heat-requiring item to the transport destination while maintaining its quality.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a conveyance source routine in the conveyance support method for articles requiring heat insulation. The transport source routine is started, for example, when the transporter performs a predetermined key operation for instructing the start of execution of the transport source routine.

  In S39 (first determination step), when an article that needs to be kept warm and is carried into a carrier's automobile (hereinafter referred to as “conveyor automobile”) and transported, the temperature in the carrier automobile The article whose quality deteriorates due to the above is referred to as an article requiring heat insulation, and the first determination is made as to whether or not the current location is a place where the article requiring heat insulation is carried into the transport vehicle. In S40 (input promotion step), when the first determination is positive, the carrier is prompted to input the heat-requiring item that the carrier has carried into the transport vehicle when the transport vehicle departs from the carry-in location. In S41 (warmth necessary article detection step), the warmth necessary article carried into the transport vehicle at the current location is detected based on the user input. In S42 (allowable time calculating step), the time until the quality of the article requiring heat insulation is lowered from the initial level to a predetermined allowable level is calculated as the allowable time Ta. In S43 (direct time calculation step), the time required for the transported vehicle to go straight from the current location to the destination of the goods requiring heat insulation is calculated as the direct time Tb. In S44 (second determination step), based on the comparison between Ta and Tb, a second determination is made as to whether or not the transport vehicle should go directly to the transport destination of the article requiring heat insulation. In S45 (information presentation step), information related to the second determination is presented to the carrier.

  In the method for supporting the conveyance of the heat-requiring goods in FIG. 3, the implementation start and the completion are typically completed before the carrier starts the transportation vehicle at the transportation source of the heat-requiring goods. For the convenience of the person, it may be after the carrier car has started the carrier. The allowable time Ta may be calculated in consideration of this. Since the transporter thinks that the allowable time Ta is sufficiently large, the transport vehicle has to be started not for the transport destination but for another stop-off place, and then has to go straight to the transport destination. Sometimes the course is changed. While the execution time of S42 must be after the execution of S41, the execution time of S43 may be before S41 and S42. With the transport support method for heat-requiring items according to the flowchart of FIG. 3, the transporter can appropriately determine whether he / she has to go straight to the transport destination or can complete another task.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the transfer source routine in which a predetermined function is added to the transfer source routine of FIG. Hereinafter, each step will be described in units of added or embodied functions.

  The functions of R49 and S45 will be described. Prior to S45, R49 (recommended direct route search routine) is executed. R49 includes a route search step of searching for a route that goes straight from the current location to the destination of the goods requiring heat insulation as a recommended route for direct travel. In this case, the current location in R49 is the transport source. In S45, the recommended route for direct travel is presented to the carrier as information related to the second determination.

  A specific function of S45 will be described. In S45, when the second determination is negative, the information related to the allowable time Ta is presented to the carrier as the information related to the second determination.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the remaining time calculation routine. The remaining time calculation routine is appropriately executed by a call from another routine. In S53 (elapsed time measurement step), an elapsed time Tc from when the heat-requiring article is carried into the vehicle is measured. In S54 (remaining time calculation step), a remaining time Td as a difference obtained by subtracting the elapsed time Tc from the storable time Ta is calculated.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the stopover arrival routine. The stopover arrival routine is executed when the transport vehicle arrives at the stopover. When the transport vehicle arrives at the stop-off location, it can be detected by stopping the engine by switching the ignition switch from the on position to the off position when the current location is different from the transport source and the transport destination. In the drop-in place arrival routine, first, R57 (remaining time calculation routine in FIG. 5) is executed. Next, in S58, information related to the current remaining time Td, that is, the remaining time Td in the stop-by place is presented to the carrier.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the drop-in period routine. The drop-in period routine is executed during a period in which the transporter stops at the stop-off place. The period when the transporter stops by the stop-by location is, for example, t1 when the current switch is switched from the on position to the off position at a location other than the destination and source of the heat-requiring items. Thereafter, the time when the ignition switch is switched from the OFF position to the ON position can be detected as a period between t1 and t2, where t2. In S63, it is detected that the carrier is out of the vehicle at the stop-by place. It can be detected that the carrier is out of the vehicle at the stop-by place, for example, after t1 and before t2. If the carrier is out of the vehicle at the stop, R57 (remaining time calculation routine in FIG. 5) is executed. R64 (third determination routine) includes a step of performing a third determination as to whether or not the remaining time Td is less than a predetermined value. In S65 (notification step), when the transporter is outside the vehicle at a stop and the third determination is positive, the current remaining time Td is notified to the mobile phone of the transporter.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a recommended route presentation routine for direct driving. The recommended route presentation routine for direct driving is typically executed when the carrier departs from the stop, but may be appropriately executed at other times. For example, if the recommended route presentation routine for direct driving is set to be executed at regular time intervals, Td ≦ predetermined value when the road becomes unexpectedly congested on the way to the place where the carrier stops. The recommended direct route is presented to the transporter, and the transporter changes the destination from the stop-by location to the transport destination. In the recommended direct route presentation routine, first, R49 (recommended direct route search routine in FIG. 4: already described in FIG. 4) is executed. R57 (remaining time calculation routine in FIG. 5) is executed. Next, R64 (third determination routine: already described in FIG. 7) is executed. In S70, the recommended direct route is presented to the carrier.

  FIG. 9 is a hardware configuration diagram of the conveyance support device 10 for an article requiring heat insulation. The car navigation device 80 includes a NAVI board 81 and an agent system 82. The car navigation device 80 receives signals from the telephone communication device 84, the microphone 86, the VICS communication device 88, the temperature sensor 90, and the ignition switch 91, and outputs signals to the telephone communication device 84 and the speaker 87. The telephone communication device 84 is wirelessly connected to a nearby base station (not shown), and can communicate with any mobile phone 85. The microphone 86 converts the driver's voice into an electrical signal. The speaker 87 converts the audio electrical signal into audio. The VICS communication device 88 wirelessly receives road congestion information from the VICS traffic information center 89. The temperature sensor 90 detects the temperature inside the vehicle. The ignition switch 91 sends a signal for identifying an on position and an off position of the ignition switch of the transport vehicle to the car navigation device 80. The NAVI board 81 performs calculation of a recommended route, display of a road map on a display, detection of the current location, and other car navigation related processing. The agent system 82 recognizes the voice of the carrier from the voice signal from the microphone 86 and outputs an artificial synthesized sound from the speaker 87.

  FIG. 10 is a detailed configuration diagram of the agent system 82. The agent system 82 includes a voice input unit 101, a voice recognition unit 102, a natural language analysis unit 103, an agent processing unit 107, a voice synthesis processing unit 120, a voice output unit 126, and an input / output target device group 130. The basic actions of the agent in the agent system 82 are: (a) Recognize the input voice: (voice recognition processing), (b) Determine the action (question to the carrier, device control, etc.) based on the recognized words. : (Agent processing), and (c) Execution of action corresponding to the carrier (speech output, device control) (speech synthesis + α). First, the speech of speech recognition and speech synthesis will be schematically described, and then the role of the agent system 82 in the car navigation device 80 will be described.

  In the voice input unit 101, a voice by a carrier is input. The voice recognition unit 102 recognizes the utterance of the carrier by voice recognition. At this time, the input speech is recognized in cooperation with the word D / B (D / B: database) 112 of the agent processing unit 107. There are various voice recognition methods, for example, as follows.

  The degree of matching between the waveform of the input speech and the waveform of each word in the word D / B 112 is calculated. The calculation result is output as a likelihood (score). At this time, the word having the maximum score may be recognized as a word of the input speech, or all words having a predetermined score or more may be processed as candidates.

  For example, the natural language analysis unit 103 extracts predetermined parts of speech (for example, only nouns and verbs) from the input speech. As a result, even if the input voice is made by the natural utterance of the carrier (for example, “Ah, I ’m hungry”), only the keywords necessary for the process are extracted.

  The agent processing unit 107 performs control such as asking the carrier based on the predetermined part of speech input from the natural language analysis unit 103. For example, the speech utterance “I am hungry” → Agent “Do you want to eat?” Specifically, the category to which the recognized word belongs is identified, and the conversation flow of the identified category is entered. FIG. 11 is a relationship diagram between recognized words and categories. When the above-mentioned “I am hungry” is input, the “hungry” and “sit” are recognized and separated by the speech recognition unit 102 and the natural language analysis unit 103, and the agent processing unit 107 that receives them is Identify which category these words belong to. From the above relationship diagram, since it is identified that both “abdomen” and “sui” belong to the category of meals, the conversation flow related to “meal” is entered based on this.

  For example, when a “meal” flow trigger is applied, a voice synthesis is performed as “going to a meal?” (Described later), and the carrier is asked. Then, the conversation flow proceeds according to the reply from the carrier. From the voice input by the carrier of the voice input unit 101, the recognition of the utterance of the carrier of the voice recognition unit 102, and the input voice in the natural language analysis unit 103 until a transition is made to a predetermined step, for example “navigation setting of meal place” Control (including speech synthesis) such as extraction of predetermined parts of speech and inquiry to the carrier in the agent processing unit 107 is repeated.

  Speech synthesis in the speech synthesis processing unit 120 is basically speech synthesis by “sound piece synthesis D / B 121”. A sound piece is a set of speech composed of a predetermined length, specifically, one or more phonemes. For example, by recording “for meals” and “Is it going?” And having them in speech synthesis D / B 121 as words for speech synthesis, they are joined together to say “Do you want to go for meals”? Speech synthesis of very natural speech is possible. However, there is a case where the word to be synthesized does not exist in the sound piece synthesizing D / B 121 depending on circumstances. In that case, a word is created by machine synthesis from the phoneme synthesis D / B 122. Naturally, the speech synthesis is not as smooth as the speech synthesis D / B 121, but it is a mechanical synthesis called a robot voice. Therefore, the synthesis using the phoneme synthesis D / B 122 complements the synthesis of the speech synthesis. It will be used in the meaning.

  More specifically, when a word to be synthesized is determined, a “prosodic prediction” process is performed. Prosodic prediction is the prediction of intonation of words from the sequence of words. In a simple example, the question word is raised. Actually, the prediction is made in more detail. There are various inflections within one word, so this is predicted individually. For example, the words “Minami Urawa” and “Urawa Minami” are the same “Minami” and “Urawa”, but the intonation differs depending on how they are used. Then, sound pieces having the prosody closest to the predicted prosody are selected from the sound piece synthesizing D / B 121, and these are connected to determine a sound to be synthesized. In addition, utterance speed (whether to say slowly or quickly) can also be added to the index of sound piece selection.

  Next, a specific role of the agent system 82 in the car navigation device 80 will be described. The audio input unit 101 includes, for example, a microphone 86, an AF (Audio Frequency) amplifier, a sampler, an A / D (Analog-to-Digital) converter, and the like. The sound input unit 101 amplifies a sound signal representing sound collected by its own microphone / microphone 86, samples and A / D-converts it, thereby generating digital sound data representing the sound. Then, this voice data is supplied to the voice recognition unit 102.

  The speech recognition unit 102, the natural language analysis unit 103, the speech synthesis processing unit 120, and the agent processing unit 107 each include, for example, a processor including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a hard disk device that stores a program executed by the processor. And a volatile memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) having a storage area as a work area of the processor.

  Note that a part of or all of the functions of the speech recognition unit 102, the natural language analysis unit 103, the speech synthesis processing unit 120, and the agent processing unit 107 can be performed by a single processor, a single nonvolatile memory, or a single volatile memory. You may make it perform.

  When voice data is supplied from the voice input unit 101, the voice recognition unit 102 performs processing for removing noise included in the voice data, for example, and then converts a word D / B in the agent processing unit 107 to be described later. Referring to this speech data, a speech recognition process is performed on the speech data to identify all word candidates that can be represented by the speech data and the likelihood (score) of the candidates.

  Specifically, the speech recognition unit 102 calculates, for example, the degree of matching between the input speech and all the words registered in the word D / B, that is, the likelihood (score), and the score of which word Recognize which is the highest. For example, the voice data representing a voice that expresses the sentence “Huh?” Has been reduced, but the part of “???” can be recognized as “abdomen” or “grave”. If supplied, the score for the word “????” is calculated for each word, such as the car navigation device 80% score for the word “belly”, 65% score for the word “grave”, etc. To do. Then, “the stomach” showing the highest value is selected as the word represented by the part “???”. Then, the voice recognition unit 102 generates a text character string (or a word ID (IDentifier)) indicating a recognition result “Eh, I'm hungry” and supplies it to the natural language analysis unit 103.

  Note that the speech recognition method performed by the speech recognition unit 102 is arbitrary. Further, a word whose score value is lower than a predetermined value may not be selected as a candidate. In addition, a plurality of word candidates may be specified for one voice input (in this case, instead of selecting one word “belly” as described above, selecting “belly” and “grave”) And sent to the natural language analysis unit 103). Then, data indicating the identified candidate and the score of the candidate (hereinafter referred to as word data) is generated and supplied to the natural language analysis unit 103.

  Note that the word data may include the word information itself and the score, but in reality, it is advantageous in handling the data to include the word ID and the score.

  The natural language analysis unit 103 classifies the words represented by the word data for each part of speech by performing a morphological analysis on the word data (or text data) supplied from the speech recognition unit 102, and the like. Data indicating the classification result is attached to the word data and supplied to the agent processing unit 107. The classification method performed by the natural language analysis unit 103 is arbitrary. For example, “ChaSen” which is a Japanese morphological analysis method developed at Nara Institute of Science and Technology may be used.

  The non-volatile memory of the speech synthesis processing unit 120 further stores a speech piece synthesis D / B that stores data representing the waveform of a word and a phoneme synthesis D / B that stores data representing the waveform of a phoneme. To do. Then, the speech synthesis processing unit 120 uses the data stored in the sound piece D / B or the phoneme D / B, and the text data supplied from the agent processing unit 107 by a recording editing method or a rule synthesis method. To generate voice data in a digital format representing the voice to read out. Then, the generated audio data is supplied to the audio output unit 126.

  The audio output unit 126 includes, for example, a D / A (Digital-to-Analog) converter, an AF amplifier, and a speaker. The audio output unit 126 D / A converts and amplifies the audio data supplied from the audio synthesis processing unit 120, and reproduces the audio represented by the audio data by driving the speaker using the obtained analog signal. To do.

  The input / output target device group 130 includes, for example, a navigation unit 131 and a clock 132. The navigation unit 131 is the NAVI board NAVI board 81 shown in FIG. 9, and includes a GPS (Global Positioning System) mobile station, a display device such as a liquid crystal display, and a known car navigation system using a processor. . The navigation unit 131 stores map information representing a map, detects the current position of the vehicle in accordance with a control signal supplied by the agent processing unit 107, and generates data indicating which position on the map the detected current position corresponds to. Then, it is supplied to the agent processing unit 107 together with map information representing a map near the current position. In addition, a map near the current position is displayed together with a graphic indicating the current position.

  The clock 132 is composed of, for example, a crystal oscillator or a counter circuit, and continuously generates data indicating the current time and supplies the data to the agent processing unit 107. Note that time information obtained from the GPS may be supplied via the navigation unit 131.

  Returning to the agent processing unit 107, the agent processing unit 107 further includes a communication control device 108 including a modem, a packet communication terminal, and the like, and is connected to an external network via the communication control device 108.

  Further, the non-volatile memory of the agent processing unit 107 further stores the word D / B 112. The word D / B 112 is a D / B that stores data indicating a word and a category dictionary 111 for indicating under what concept or category the word is grouped.

  The category dictionary 111 has a data structure shown in FIG. 11, for example. That is, the category dictionary 111 stores data indicating a word and data indicating a category to which the word belongs in association with each other. For example, in the example illustrated in FIG. 11, the word “decreased” is associated with the category “meal”. One word may belong to a plurality of categories. (For example, in the example shown in FIG. 11, the word “abdomen” is associated with the categories “meal” and “hospital”.)

  Then, when a plurality of words are included in the same sentence, the agent system 82 treats only the category to which these words belong in common as the category to which these words belong, so that these words are It is possible to grasp the intentions spoken according to the context. For example, in the example illustrated in FIG. 11, when a set of word data constituting a sentence “I am hungry” is supplied from the natural language analysis unit 103 to the agent processing unit 107, the agent processing unit 107 determines that the word “abdomen”. In addition, only the category to which “decreased” belongs, that is, “meal”, can be treated as the category to which the words “abdomen” and “decreased” belong, as long as the processing related to the sentence is performed. Similarly, when the set of word data represents the utterance “I want to go to a meal” of the carrier, only the category “meal” to which the words “meal” and “I want to go” belong in common, As long as the process related to “I want to go to a meal” is performed, it can be treated as a category to which the words “meal” and “I want to go” belong.

  Further, the agent processing unit 107 uses only the word data supplied from the natural language analysis unit 103 that represents a specific part of speech (for example, only a noun and a verb) for subsequent processing performed by the agent processing unit 107. Also good.

  Note that the category to which a word belongs does not necessarily need to be specified from a combination of a plurality of words. For example, since the word “sui” is associated only with the category “meal”, when word data representing the word “sui” is supplied, the agent processing unit 107 performs a discrimination process in combination with other words. The word data may be handled as belonging to the category “meal” without needing to be performed.

  In addition, the non-volatile memory of the agent processing unit 107 appropriately stores a heat-requiring article D / B, a past experience D / B, a Japanese restaurant D / B, a Western restaurant D / B, and a Chinese restaurant D / B ( Not shown). The heat retention necessary article D / B is a D / B storing names of various types of heat retention necessary articles.

It is a functional block diagram of the conveyance support apparatus for articles requiring heat insulation. It is a functional block diagram of the conveyance support apparatus for heat retention required articles which added the function. It is a flowchart of the conveyance origin routine in the conveyance assistance method for heat retention required articles | goods. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a transfer source routine in which a predetermined function is added to the transfer source routine of FIG. 3 and a predetermined function is embodied. It is a flowchart of a remaining time calculation routine. It is a flowchart of a stopover arrival routine. It is a flowchart of a drop-in period routine. It is a flowchart of a recommended route presentation routine for direct driving. It is a hardware block diagram of the conveyance assistance apparatus for heat retention required articles | goods. It is a detailed block diagram of an agent system. It is a relationship diagram between recognized words and categories.

Explanation of symbols

10: Warm-requiring goods conveyance support device, 11: First determining means, 12: Input promoting means, 13: Heat-retaining necessary article detecting means, 14: Allowable time calculating means, 15: Direct time calculating means, 16: Second Determining means, 17: information presenting means, 21: route searching means, 25: elapsed time measuring means, 26: remaining time calculating means, 31: outing period detecting means, 32: third determining means, 33: notifying means.

Claims (13)

Articles that need to be kept warm, and that need to be kept warm if they are carried into a transporter's car (hereinafter referred to as “transport car”) and the quality deteriorates due to the temperature in the transport car. A first determination means for performing a first determination as to whether or not the current location is a place for carrying a heat-requiring item to the transport vehicle,
An input facilitating means for urging the transporter to input a heat-requiring item that the transporter has carried into the transport vehicle when the transport vehicle departs from the carry-in location when the first determination is positive;
Thermal insulation necessary article detection means for detecting the thermal insulation necessary article carried into the transport vehicle at the current location based on user input;
A permissible time calculating means for calculating, as a permissible time Ta, a time until the quality of the heat-requiring article is lowered from an initial level to a predetermined permissible level in the transport vehicle;
Direct time calculation means for calculating the time required for the transport vehicle to go straight from the current location to the destination of the heat-requiring article as the direct time Tb;
Second determination means for performing a first determination as to whether or not the transport vehicle should go straight to the transport destination of the heat-requiring item based on a comparison between Ta and Tb; and transporting information related to the second determination Information presentation means to be presented to the person,
A conveyance support apparatus for articles requiring heat insulation, comprising: A route search means for searching a direct route from the current location to the transport destination of the article requiring heat insulation as a recommended route for direct travel, and the information presentation for presenting the recommended direct route to the transporter as information related to the second determination means,
The conveyance support apparatus for heat-requiring goods according to claim 1, wherein When the second determination is negative, the information presenting means for presenting the information related to the allowable time Ta to the carrier as the information related to the second determination,
The conveyance support apparatus for articles requiring heat insulation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by comprising: An elapsed time measuring means for measuring an elapsed time Tc from when the article requiring heat insulation is carried into the vehicle;
A remaining time calculating means for calculating a remaining time Td as a difference obtained by subtracting the elapsed time Tc from the storable time Ta, and the information presenting means for presenting information relating to the current remaining time Td to a carrier at a stopover;
The conveyance support apparatus for heat-requiring articles according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein Outing period detecting means for detecting that the carrier is out of the vehicle at the stop-off place,
A third determination means for performing a third determination as to whether or not the remaining time Td is less than a predetermined value; and when a carrier is out of the vehicle at the stop and the third determination is positive Notification means for notifying the carrier's mobile phone of information relating to the remaining time Td of
The conveyance support apparatus for a heat-requiring item according to claim 4, wherein A route search means for searching a direct route from the current location to the transport destination of the warming necessary article as a recommended route for direct travel;
A remaining time calculating means for calculating a remaining time Td as a difference obtained by subtracting the elapsed time Tc from the storable time Ta;
Third determination means for appropriately performing a third determination as to whether or not the remaining time Td is less than a predetermined value, and when the third determination is positive, direct from the current location to the transport destination The information presenting means for presenting a recommended route to a carrier;
The conveyance support device for a heat-requiring item according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein Articles that need to be kept warm, and that need to be kept warm if they are carried into a transporter's car (hereinafter referred to as “transport car”) and the quality deteriorates due to the temperature in the transport car. A first determination step for carrying out a first determination as to whether or not the current location is a place to carry in the heat-requiring items to the transport vehicle,
An input facilitating step for prompting the transporter to input a heat-requiring item that the transporter has carried into the transport vehicle when the transport vehicle departs from the carry-in location when the first determination is positive;
A heat-required article detection step for detecting a heat-required article carried into the transport vehicle at the current location based on a user input;
A permissible time calculating step for calculating a time required for the quality of the heat-retaining article to decrease from an initial level to a predetermined permissible level in the transport vehicle as a permissible time Ta;
A direct time calculation step of calculating a time required for the transport vehicle to go straight from the current location to the destination of the heat-retaining article as a direct time Tb;
A second determination step for performing a second determination as to whether or not the transport vehicle should go directly to the transport destination of the heat-retaining articles based on a comparison between Ta and Tb; and transporting information related to the second determination Presenting information to the person,
A support method for conveying heat-requiring items, characterized by comprising: A route search step for searching for a direct route from the current location to the transport destination of the heat-requiring item as a recommended route for direct travel, and the information presentation for presenting the recommended direct route to the transporter as information related to the second determination Step,
8. The method for supporting conveyance of a heat-requiring item according to claim 7, further comprising: When the second determination is NO, the information presenting step of presenting information related to the allowable time Ta to the carrier as information related to the second determination;
9. A method for supporting conveyance of an article requiring heat insulation according to claim 7 or 8, characterized by comprising: An elapsed time measuring step of measuring an elapsed time Tc from the time when the article requiring heat insulation is carried into the vehicle;
A remaining time calculating step of calculating a remaining time Td as a difference obtained by subtracting the elapsed time Tc from the storable time Ta, and a step of presenting information related to the current remaining time Td to a carrier at a stop
10. A method for supporting conveyance of a heat-requiring item according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized by comprising: Outing period detection step for detecting that the carrier is out of the vehicle at the stop-off place,
A third determination step of performing a third determination as to whether or not the remaining time Td is less than a predetermined value; and when the carrier is out of the vehicle at the stop and the third determination is positive A notification step of notifying the mobile phone of the carrier of information relating to the remaining time Td of
11. The method for supporting conveyance of a heat-requiring item according to claim 10, characterized by comprising: A route search step for searching a direct route from the current location to the transport destination of the article requiring heat insulation as a recommended route for direct travel;
A remaining time calculating step of calculating a remaining time Td as a difference obtained by subtracting the elapsed time Tc from the storable time Ta;
A third determination step for appropriately performing a third determination as to whether or not the remaining time Td is less than a predetermined value; and, when the third determination is positive, direct from the current location to the transport destination Presenting the recommended route to the carrier;
The conveyance support method for a heat-requiring item according to any one of claims 7 to 11, characterized by comprising:   The program for functioning a computer as each means of the conveyance assistance apparatus for the heat-requiring goods in any one of Claims 1-6

Images