EP0836292B1 - Method and means for selective display of digitally coded messages received with a radio broadcast, according to the location of the receiver - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a method and a device for the area-dependent selective output of received digitally coded messages, which contain location identifying information, and a data carrier with a suitable location list.

The Radio Data System (RDS) enables additional and inaudible transmission of digital data in parallel to broadcast programs in one data channel. Specifications of the radio data system for VHF radio are inter alia in the publication Tech. 3244 - E, March 1984 of the European Union Broadcasting Union (EBU). Radio receivers with suitable RDS decoders can record and decode transmitted data in addition to audio reception with the same receiver. For data transmission, 32 groups of 104 bits each are provided, with each of the transmitted groups being assigned a specific service. Group 8a is currently for digitally encoded transmission Traffic reports provided.

The structure and coding of these traffic reports and the local list are laid down in CEN pr ENV / 278/7/1/0012 and pr ENV / 278/7/3/0004, published on the standard ALERT C, June 1996, issued by the RDS ATT ALERT Consortium, based. The essential elements of a traffic report are the location of the event and the event. This information is cataloged, which means that every traffic-relevant location and every traffic-relevant event is assigned a unique code. The concatenation of places in the place table along existing roads reflects the course. In addition to the usual facilities of a receiver with an RDS decoder facilities for decoding, storage, processing and output of the traffic reports are required to use the traffic message channel TMC (Traffic Message Channel).

Digitally coded traffic reports may also be transmitted in other ways than via broadcast stations and radio data signals. For example, a transmission of the digitally coded traffic reports via mobile networks is possible. Thus, short messages (short messages) can be transmitted parallel to the language in GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication), which may also contain digitally coded traffic reports.

These known systems are used primarily for the transmission of traffic reports, but messages with other content are not excluded, such as general danger warnings. Therefore, in the context of the present invention, the term "message" is used.

According to the ALERT standard mentioned above, a message is sent at least twice. For example, if there are 20 messages at the broadcaster, a message being sent at a constant distance of, for example, one second, each message will be broadcast again every 40 seconds. Each message is checked against each other in the receiver with the following bit-wise. After a single equality, the message is considered checked and thus received as valid and correct. The message is stored in the receiver and is subject to message management. If the message has not yet been received, it is considered new and is therefore stored with a first-time stamp.

A message is deleted if it has not been received again and updated for a certain period of time. This specific timeout is set to ALERT per event, usually 15 minutes. With the assumed second-order transmission rhythm specified in ALERT, theoretically 30 messages per minute and thus 450 messages per sender can be transmitted.

Because of this large number of messages, a restriction of the number of messages essential to the driver is essential. The ALERT standard provides for a selection for locations, such as selected streets and punctuated locations (for example, motorway exit Hildesheim).

In many cases, however, it may be more appropriate for the driver of a vehicle to select messages relating to the area he is driving. The ALERT standard does provide areas on the location list for purposes of decoding messages. However, this is not yet manageable for the driver or user Selection of messages by area possible.

WO-A-96/04340 discloses a vehicle navigation system in which, for the purpose of destination input, a location list or, subordinately, a street name list is displayed on the display within which an entry can be selected by means of cursor keys. By means of a second scroll signal, starting from a currently marked entry, a subset of entries is selected which begin with alphanumeric characters preceding or following that of the marked entry.

EP-A-0 586 897 discloses a method for the selection of digitally encoded (TNC) traffic reports. Selection criterion is a travel direction fan, which can be set up user-defined starting from a current location in one of the four directions.

The object of the present invention is to enable area selection in a manner practicable for the user of the receiver.

This object is achieved in the method according to the invention in that provided in a location list provided for a selection areas are provided with references to each one in a cyclic sequence and a subsequent area that a selection of the areas by forward and / or backward in the cyclical sequence is carried out such that suitable features for selection are read from the location list and compared with the information contained in the respectively received messages, which locations characterize, and that the output takes place as a function of the result of the comparison.

The method according to the invention has the advantage that the user can easily select the region (or regions) to be selected with the operating and display elements already present in the relevant receivers. The forward and / or backward movement in the cyclic sequence can be effected by each an input element is operated for forward or backward and that an output of each offered for selection area using a Display device (display) or via a voice output.

A first embodiment of the method according to the invention consists in that the areas provided for a selection are listed on the location list which is anyway required for a decoding of the received digitally coded traffic reports. This has the advantage that the location list in the anyway necessary for the decoding and therefore generally available form only by the references supplements can be used.

This embodiment can be further developed in that the areas provided for the selection represent a subset of the areas listed in the location list intended for the decoding. As a result, when selecting the area to be selected, the user does not need to check and discard areas that are anyway uninteresting for a selection - for example, the area "Germany".

Another embodiment of the invention is that the location list contains areas which are not used for decoding the received digitally coded traffic messages, but are provided for the selection. This embodiment can then be advantageously applied and optionally combined with the first embodiment, if the ALERT standardized areas do not meet all practical requirements with respect to a selection.

The invention also has the advantage that the location list, which is preferably stored on a chip card, complies with the ALERT standard. This applies both to the embodiment in which areas already provided for in the ALERT standard are linked, as well as to the embodiment with additional areas. In recipients who are not set up for a selection by the method according to the invention, the additional information - ie the references and possibly the additional areas - in the local list can not be evaluated, but do not bother.

In the method according to the invention, the selection process itself, namely the comparison of the features suitable for selection from the location list with the received the respective area characterizing information, done with any existing features or information. Preferably, it is provided in the method according to the invention that the locations characterizing information and the features suitable for selection are geographical coordinates.

In a further development of the method according to the invention, it is provided that the areas provided for a selection are provided with further references, which refer to predetermined areas, and that a selection of the respectively following predetermined area takes place through an operator input. This can be done by pressing a given input element faster through the designated areas for selection. Preferably, it is provided that the further indications of the areas, each with a same initial letter point to the one given area, which is in alphabetical order the first area with the following initial letter in the alphabet.

The other references can also be used differently, for example, by pointing to a parent area. In the event that a user has selected a very small area, he can then correct it without searching by pressing a special input element. For example, instead of a small town, the associated district is selected.

The object of the invention is further achieved with a device in that provided in a location list provided for a selection areas are provided with references to each in a cyclic sequence preceding and subsequent area that a selection of the areas by forward and / or backward is made in the cyclic sequence that features suitable for selection are read from the location list and compared with the information contained in the respective received messages, which identify locations, and that the output is made in dependence on the result of the comparison. Preferably, it is provided that for forward and / or backward in the cyclic sequence input elements are provided, wherein the name of each selected area is visible on a display device.

In a data carrier for a device for the area-dependent selective output of received digitally coded messages, which contain locations of identifying information, it is provided that in a list stored on the volume list provided for a selection areas with references to each in a cyclic sequence and a preceding subsequent area are provided.

Fig. 1

einen Ausschnitt aus einer angenommenen für das erfindungsgemäße Verfahren ergänzten Ortsliste,

Fig. 2

ein Ablaufschema zur Auswahl und Selektion eines Gebietes,

Fig. 3

ein Blockschaltbild einer erfindungsgemäßen Einrichtung und

Fig. 4

ein weiteres Beispiel für eine Ortsliste für das erfindungsgemäße Verfahren.

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawing with reference to several figures and explained in more detail in the following description. It shows:

Fig. 1

a section of an accepted location list supplemented for the method according to the invention,

Fig. 2

a flow chart for the selection and selection of an area,

Fig. 3

a block diagram of a device according to the invention and

Fig. 4

another example of a list of locations for the inventive method.

Fig. 1 shows a section of a place list, with only some of many areas listed. Other types of locations (loc. Type) are also not shown. The location list contains a location code (Loc code), a location type (Loc type), the name of the location, a reference to a following location and to a previous location (offset next and offset prev) as well as the coordinates of the place (co-ordinates). Other information provided in the ALERT location list is in Fig. 1 not shown, as they are not required to explain the invention. In the location list provided for the embodiment, however, the place names are additionally given in phonetic transcription.

The indications assigned to the areas for the method according to the invention relate to the following or previous area in a cyclic chain which is passed through step by step in the case of a manual selection of the selecting area. Thus, for example, an indication offset next = 400 to the area Berlin is given for the area "Aachen", while offset prev = 203 refers to the preceding area, namely to the last accepted area in the alphabet Stralsund.

From a receiver are in Fig. 3 only parts and functions are shown which are necessary to explain the selection according to the invention and a voice output. A traffic message processing device 21 is supplied with the signals of the group 8a at 22 from an RDS decoder, not shown. According to the ALERT specification mentioned above, these data essentially contain information about the location, the type, the probable duration, the size and the direction of an event. This information is decoded and selected in the device 21, which is preferably realized in the form of a microcomputer or a digital signal processor. A selection takes place according to the selection criteria supplied via an input unit 23, so that, for example, only those traffic reports are displayed that relate to the entered road section in an entered direction.

In the method according to the invention, the selection is made according to a previously selected area. For this purpose, in a part 25 of the location list 1 stored data are provided to areas that according to Fig. 1 are concatenated. These and other details are stored in a location list on a chip card 24 and can be read like other information described later using a reader present in the receiver.

The selected traffic reports are supplied to a voice synthesis device 26 whose output signals are supplied to the speaker 16 via the digital / analog converter 14 and the audio amplifier 15. The device 26 can also be realized in an advantageous manner with the aid of a digital signal processor to which a program 27 is available. The data necessary for the speech synthesis are supplied from the place list 1, an event set list 2, a carrier set list 3 and a segment library 4. The synthesis takes place, for example, after a DE 195 03 419 A1 described method in the language in which the event set list 2, the carrier replacement list 3 and the segment library 4 are created.

A display device (display) 20 serves for the optical output of messages and other information. In the method according to the invention, the area offered in each case for selection is displayed.

If an area is to be selected for selection, the user presses a key "SEL" ( Fig. 2 ), whereby a signal for initializing the area message selection (GMS) to the location list 1, 25 on the smart card 24 is given by the keyboard 23. This causes the program to first access an entry point - in this example, the alphabetically first area. This is in connection with the location list on the smart card in a Global Header ( Fig. 1 ) a reference to the location code 1002 is provided. The information "Aachen" is then transmitted to the display 20 and displayed there. In addition, the location code 1002 is transmitted to the message processing device 21.

If the user then presses the ">" key, the location code 1, 25 of the location code 1 registered in Aachen under "offset next" is read via the keyboard 23 and the associated area name is transmitted to the display 20 and displayed, while the location code This area of the message processing device 21 is reported. Pressing the "<" key causes the area to be read out, which indicates "offset prev". In the in Fig. 2 After Aachen, first of all Berlin, then Aachen and finally Stralsund are selected.

The selection process is terminated with the "ENTER" key, whereupon the location code 203 for Stralsund is transmitted to the chip card 24 and on the one hand "Stralsund" in phonetic transcription and on the other hand the coordinates of the area Stralsund are read out. In the message processing device 21, the coordinates are used for selection by comparison with the coordinates associated with the incoming message. In addition, the message processing means 21 of the speech synthesis means 26 is the phonetic transcription forwarded, which generates audio signals, which are ultimately made audible in the speaker 16, for example in the form of "area selection in Stralsund".

In the list of places to the listed areas even more references "offsetA" available. These refer in each case to the first listed area with the following initial letter, for example, both of "Detmold" and "Dortmund" on the first mentioned under the letter E area "Erlangen". This allows a user to go through the list faster by operating an input element provided for this purpose. After the area name first listed with the respective first letter appears in the display device, it is then necessary to move from area to area until the area desired for selection appears.

Claims (9)

1. Method for the area-dependent selective output of received digitally encoded messages which contain information identifying locations, characterized in that areas appearing in a location list and provided for a selection are provided with references to an area which is precedent in cyclic succession and a subsequent area, respectively, in that one of the areas is selected by moving forwards and/or backwards in the cyclic succession, in that features suitable for selection are read from the location list and are compared with the information identifying locations which is contained in the respective received messages, and in that the output is provided on the basis of the result of the comparison.
2. Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that the areas provided for a selection appear on the location list which is required for decoding the received digitally encoded messages anyway.
3. Method according to Claim 2, characterized in that the areas provided for the selection are a subset of the areas appearing in the location list provided for the decoding.
4. Method according to Claim 1, characterized in that the location list contains areas which are not used for decoding the received digitally encoded messages but are provided for the selection.
5. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the information identifying locations and the features suitable for selection are geographical coordinates.
6. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the areas provided for a selection are provided with further references which refer to prescribed areas, and in that an operator control input selects the respective next prescribed area.
7. Method according to Claim 6, characterized in that the further references of the areas with a respective identical initial letter refer to that prescribed area which, in alphabetical order, is the first area with the next initial letter in the alphabet.
8. Device for the area-dependent selective output of received digitally encoded messages which contain information identifying locations, characterized in that areas appearing in a location list (1, 25) and provided for a selection are provided with references to an area which is precedent in cyclic succession and a subsequent area, respectively, in that means (23) for selecting one of the areas by moving forwards and/or backwards in the cyclic succession are provided, in that further means (21) are provided which read features suitable for selection from the location list (1, 25) and compare them with the information identifying locations which is contained in the respective received messages and perform the selection on the basis of the result of the comparison.
9. Device according to Claim 8, characterized in that input elements (23) are provided for moving forwards and/or backwards in the cyclic succession, the name of the respective selected area being visible on a display apparatus (20).

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