Communication apparatus and communication method

1. A communication apparatus installed in a transportation vehicle, the communication apparatus comprising:

data selection circuitry which, in operation,

acquires location information and traveling direction information of the transportation vehicle in motion,

receives a plurality of bid requests for advertisement from one or more candidate advertisers based on the location information and the traveling direction,

selects for a plurality of passengers' mobile devices one of the bid requests to be accepted for each of time and location resources defined by a time axis and a location axis, and

acquires advertisement data for each of the time and location resources defined by the time axis and the location axis, the advertisement data corresponding to the selected bid request, wherein the advertisement data includes approaching-location data related to a location ahead of a current location of the transportation vehicle in the traveling direction and is selected from a plurality of pieces of data related to the location; and

transmission circuitry which, in operation, transmits a modulated light signal to the plurality of passengers' mobile devices, the modulated light signal being indicative of the acquired advertisement data during a corresponding one of the time and location resources and being to be used by each of the plurality of passengers' mobile devices to display the acquired advertisement data that varies depending on the time and location resources.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the data selection circuitry further acquires time information including information indicating a current time, and, based on the location information and the time information, selects the one of the bid requests to be accepted for each of the time and location resources in a future time following the current time.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the data selection circuitry determines, depending on an installation location of the communication apparatus within the transportation vehicle, the advertisement data to be transmitted by the transmission circuitry.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the data selection circuitry incorporates, into the approaching-location data to be transmitted by the transmission circuitry, ID information for identifying a radio base station associated with the communication apparatus.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of pieces of data related to the location ahead of the current location is data for causing an advertisement related to the location to be displayed on a display of each of the plurality of passengers' mobile devices that receives the modulated light signal.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the transmission circuitry includes an illumination circuit configured to transmit the modulated light signal using a visible light.

7. A communication method for a communication apparatus installed in a transportation vehicle, the communication method comprising:

acquiring location information and traveling direction information of the transportation vehicle in motion;

receiving a plurality of bid requests for advertisement from one or more candidate advertisers based on the location information and the traveling direction;

selecting for a plurality of passengers' mobile devices one of the bid requests to be accepted for each of time and location resources defined by a time axis and a location axis;

acquiring advertisement data for each of the time and location resources defined by the time axis and the location axis, the advertisement data corresponding to the selected bid request, wherein the advertisement data includes approaching-location data related to a location ahead of a current location of the transportation vehicle in the traveling direction and is selected from a plurality of pieces of data related to the location; and

transmitting a modulated light signal to the plurality of passengers' mobile devices, the modulated light signal being indicative of the acquired advertisement data during a corresponding one of the time and location resources and being to be used by each of the plurality of passengers' mobile devices to display the acquired advertisement data that varies depending on the time and location resources.

8. The communication method according to claim 7 , comprising:

acquiring time information including information indicating a current time; and

based on the location information and the time information, selecting the one of the bid requests to be accepted for each of the time and location resources in a future time following the current time.

9. The communication method according to claim 7 , comprising:

determining, depending on an installation location of the communication apparatus within the transportation vehicle, the advertisement data to be transmitted.

10. The communication method according to claim 7 , comprising:

incorporating, into the approaching-location data to be transmitted, ID information for identifying a radio base station associated with the communication apparatus.

11. The communication method according to claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of pieces of data related to the location ahead of the current location is data for causing an advertisement related to the location to be displayed on a display of each of the plurality of passengers' mobile devices that receives the modulated light signal.

12. The communication method according to claim 7 , wherein the modulated light signal is a visible light.