Abstract: A disclosed vehicle control system comprises a mobile terminal that transmits a current location of the mobile terminal; a receiving portion that is installed in a vehicle and receives the current location transmitted from the mobile terminal; a vehicle location detecting portion that detects a current location of the vehicle; a controlling portion that controls a vehicle apparatus installed in the vehicle in accordance with a positional relationship between the current position of the mobile terminal received by the receiving portion and the current location of the vehicle detected by the vehicle location detecting portion; and a memory portion that stores behavioral pattern information of a user of the vehicle. The controlling portion controls the vehicle apparatus in accordance with the behavioral pattern information stored in the memory portion and the positional relationship between the current location of the mobile terminal and the current location of the vehicle.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods are described for assisting a requester to identify and reserve a resource that meets the need of the requestor's request. For example, a request can be augmented using augmentation data, such as current position and requester preferences, and resources are located and ranked according to their match against the augmented request. A person who is the requester may engage in another attention demanding task, such as driving a car, while resources well matched to preferences are located. Preference data may be determined from social network data, a preference file, and/or other sources.

Abstract: A vehicle environmental service system includes an in-vehicle information terminal mounted in a vehicle, a center server provided in a center, and a provider terminal managed by an affiliated service provider providing various services to users. The in-vehicle information terminal is capable of communicating with the provider terminal directly or through the center server. The in-vehicle information terminal or the center server has a point calculating unit for determining whether safety driving and/or ecological driving is being performed with respect to each of the users based on prescribed criteria and calculating the number of points to be awarded based on the result of the determination. The center server has a database for managing total number of points obtained by accumulating the number of points to be awarded with respect to each of the users.

Abstract: A dialogue system that provides a driver with driving advice includes driving performance evaluation means for evaluating a driving performance of the driver estimated based on driving performance information using a normative driving performance as a reference; response evaluation means for evaluating a driver's response to the provided driving advice based on a change in the driving performance of the driver after provision of the driving advice; and output control means for adjusting contents of the driving advice provided to the driver based on the result of evaluation of the driving performance of the driver and setting a mode of expressing the driving advice based on the result of evaluation of the driver's response to the provided driving advice.

Abstract: An observing part observes a driving situation based on sensor information; a learning part learns by storing an observation result obtained from the observing part together with the sensor information; a determining part determining a communication action with a user based on a learning result obtained from the learning part; a display control part displaying a first image in the vehicle expressing the communication action determined by the determining part; and an obtaining part obtaining acquired information acquired from the outside of the vehicle and stored in a portable terminal apparatus. The determining part determines the communication action by reflecting the acquired information on the learning result.

Abstract: A route guide apparatus and method finds a route to a destination and supplies the route to a user terminal. The apparatus stores information regarding facilities which are landmarks, searches for a route that reaches the destination and that passes near at least one of the facilities which is a landmark, and supplies the route to a user terminal. The route guidance apparatus and method may further store advertisement information. In that case, preferably a search is made for a route that passes near the facility which is a landmark and whose advertisement information is to be supplied to the user. This enables advertisers to supply advertisement information to the user when the user passes near the landmark facility.

Abstract: A portable terminal and an on-vehicle device are combined such that effective navigation can be provided. The portable terminal provided with communication function is connected with the on-vehicle information processing device when placed on a cradle. The portable terminal transmits a destination to an information center, and shows obtained route data on a display while transmitting the route data to the on-vehicle device which outputs guidance speech from a speaker. On arriving near the destination, the on-vehicle information processing device provides the portable terminal with map data for the vicinity of the destination. A user can remove the portable terminal from the cradle and reach the destination while viewing a map shown on the display of the portable terminal.

Abstract: A route guide apparatus and method finds a route to a destination and supplies the route to a user terminal. The apparatus stores information regarding facilities which are landmarks, searches for a route that reaches the destination and that passes near at least one of the facilities which is a landmark, and supplies the route to a user terminal. The route guidance apparatus and method may further store advertisement information. In that case, preferably a search is made for a route that passes near the facility which is a landmark and whose advertisement information is to be supplied to the user. This enables advertisers to supply advertisement information to the user when the user passes near the landmark facility.

Abstract: An information processing center correlates and stores a communication terminal ID assigned unique to each communication terminal used by a user and a user ID assigned unique to each user attempting to access, and stores user information correlated with the user ID. Then, the user is identified based on the communication terminal ID received by the information processing center. Consequently, specific service corresponding to each user can be provided and centralization and commonization of information for each user can be promoted.

Abstract: A device searches for an optimum route by estimating traffic information of a link whose traffic information cannot be obtained based on information from another link. Traffic information, such as a degree of congestion of link and a travelling time of link, is obtained by means of a transceiver, a FM antenna, and a receiver, and the optimum route is searched by an ECU for navigation. When there is a second link whose traffic information can not be obtained among links for searching routes, weighting of traffic information of a first link is performed according to a directional difference and a degree of separation (time or distance) between the first link and the second link, and then traffic information of the second link is estimated based on the traffic information weighted. The ECU for navigation searches the optimum route to destination using the traffic information estimated and displays it on a display.