—Road-vehicle Communication and In-car Network—
| Takashi Omata | System LSI Marketing Div., Electronic Devices Sales & Marketing Group, |
| Seiji Ukai | ITS Center, Systems Engineering Div., |
| Makoto Katagishi | Digital Media Systems R&D Div., Digital Media, |
| Shin'ichi Yoshida | Digital Media Products Div., Digital Media, |
For the ITS (intelligent transport systems), various services are being considered and forms of communication that are appropriate for each service are being proposed. There is a strong need for the ability to conveniently obtain required information on demand, to conveniently process transactions, and two-way wireless communication is essential as the form of communication for those purposes. Furthermore, in order to provide the vehicle driver with suitable services, both communication between vehicles and roadside, and communication among the devices within the vehicle are needed. For en-route communication, attention is on the mobile cell phone as a means of wide-range communication with Internet terminals and voice service terminals and on DSRC (dedicated short-range communication) as a means of narrow-range communication with electronic settlement terminals such as those of the ETC (electronic toll collection) system. Also, for communication among devices within the vehicle, the "Bluetooth" specifications hold promise for cableless interconnection of on-board devices. Hitachi, Ltd. has been involved in the setting of communication standards and the development of communication devices. In future work we will take up the tasks of developing communication technology for fusing various communication media and constructing a system towards implementing a seamless ITS communication environment.
ITS, ETC, DSRC, cell phone, Bluetooth
