ON-VEHICLE DEVICE AND COMMUNICATION METHOD
Disclosed is an on-vehicle device which can effectively and surely provide content information. The on-vehicle device includes a control unit which causes a feature information storage region to store feature information having predetermined items as information on the on-vehicle device features (step S 1 ). When a radio communication channel is established between the on-vehicle device and a radio relay device by a DSRC communication unit, the on-vehicle device reads out the feature information from the feature information storage region and causes the DSRC communication unit to transmit it to the radio relay device (step S 4 ).
1 . An on-vehicle device comprising:
a communication unit adapted to communicate with a server distributing content information via a radio relay device;
a storage unit adapted to store, in a storage region for storing information to be provided to the server, feature information having predetermined items as information relating to a device feature of the on-vehicle device; and
a control unit adapted to, simultaneously when a communication channel to the radio relay device is automatically established by the communication unit, operating to read the feature information from the storage region and cause the communication means unit to transmit this read feature information to the server via the radio relay device.
2 . The on-vehicle device according to claim 1 , wherein the feature information includes at least one of a language available on the on-vehicle device, a copyright protection technique, a geographic coordinate system of a map, a display performance of the on-vehicle device, and a storage capacity of the content information that can be stored.
3 . The on-vehicle device according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit generates the feature information and stores the feature information in the storage region, and when the communication unit establishes a communication channel to the radio relay device, the control unit operates to read the feature information from the storage region and causes the communication unit to transmit this read feature information to the server via the radio relay device.
4 . A method including the steps of:
performing communication between a communication device and a server distributing content information via a radio relay device;
storing, in a storage region for storing information to be provided to the server, feature information having predetermined items as information relating to a device feature of the on-vehicle device;
operating to read the feature information from the storage region and cause the communication device to transmit this read feature information to the server via the radio relay device, when a communication channel to the radio relay device is established.
5 . The on-vehicle device according to claim 2 , wherein the control unit generates the feature information and stores the feature information in the storage region, and when the communication unit establishes a communication channel to the radio relay device, the control unit operates to read the feature information from the storage region and causes the communication unit to transmit this read feature information to the server via the radio relay device.