Archived content
NOTE: this is an archived page and the content is likely to be out of date.
Smart Mobility
Vol. 51, No. 4, October 2015
Publication Date (Web): October 30, 2015
This special issue presents a wide range of Fujitsu's driving solutions and innovations with smart mobility technology.
Japanese version: Magazine FUJITSU (Vol. 65, No. 4, July 2014)
Preface
- Special Issue on Smart Mobility (444 KB)
Hirohisa Yamaguchi, Head of Innovation Business Unit, pp.1-2
Overview
- Fujitsu's Approach to Smart Mobility (566 KB)
Akira Kawasaki, pp.3-7 - The various problems related to urban transportation depend on several factors such as the country, region, and stage of economic development, so one solution is insufficient. However, there is an approach that can not only solve transportation problems but also provide the optimum solution in line with urban growth: use of a platform to aggregate and visualize massive amounts of information about movement including automobiles, public transportation systems, and people's demand for movement. A combination of analysis and prediction programs can be applied to such information, and improvement criteria can be quantified in accordance with the respective country, region, and stage of economic development. Fujitsu is leveraging its technology for developing telematics services that it has built up over the years and technology for using probe data collected from running vehicles to build a mobility platform that visualizes urban transportation.
Personal Mobility
- Next-generation Ubiquitous Device for New Mobility Society: Next-generation Cane (973 KB)
Junichi Ninomiya, Kazunori Murayama, Tetsuya Yamaoka, Katsushi Sakai, pp.8-13 - Fujitsu develops products under a "human-centric" philosophy that seeks to leverage the power of information and communications technology (ICT). Its Human Centric Engine (HCE) incorporated in smartphones is a typical example of a technology that can provide easy-to-use products along with safety and security. Applying mobile sensing technologies developed and enhanced over many years, HCE has become a core component of user support functions. Fujitsu has studied the application of HCE to other products with the aim of supporting people in their everyday lives and has developed an advanced type of walking stick called the "Next-generation Cane." This paper describes the technical aspects of developing this novel product from studies of basic specifications to actual prototype development. It also discusses reactions to the Next-generation Cane at exhibitions and demonstrations and touches upon future developments.
- Method for Introducing Wi-Fi-based Area Detection System (653 KB)
Kazuo Hida, Kensuke Sawada, Yukio Hirokawa, Yoshinori Yaginuma, pp.14-20 - The demand for mobility services that are available anywhere is increasing as work styles become increasingly diversified. Location-based services (LBSs) that leverage the user's present location to provide optimal services are attracting attention as a special class of mobility services, and to achieve indoor LBSs, a variety of techniques for detecting the area in which a user is present have been proposed. Area detection by wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) is particularly attractive since its use eliminates the need for installing a new infrastructure for positioning purposes. However, specialized knowledge has so far been required to judge the detection performance of a system using wireless technology. To eliminate this requirement, we have developed a method for visualizing inter-area detection performance so that non-specialists can judge detection performance of a Wi-Fi-based area detection system. This paper describes the method and shows the results of an evaluation test.
- Mobility on Demand for Improving Business Profits and User Satisfaction (645 KB)
Takuro Ikeda, Takushi Fujita, Moshe E. Ben-Akiva, pp.21-26 - For a sustainable society, we need to design a mobility management system that does not excessively depend on private vehicles. To achieve this goal, an innovative transportation system is required that provides high user satisfaction in terms of both convenience and fares and is viable as a profit-making business. Recently on-demand transportation, which makes use of information and communications technology (ICT), has been growing and may be a viable solution to the challenges mentioned above. We are developing an innovative on-demand transportation system that has flexibility in terms of vehicle allocation and provides a menu of travel options to users. The system dynamically allocates a fleet of vehicles owned by a business to different transportation services such as taxi, shared taxi, and minibus. It offers convenient and reasonably priced transportation services through an optimization framework where services are assigned on the basis of a choice model in order to maximize profit. The system is expected to improve both user satisfaction and business profits as compared to conventional means of transportation. This paper presents the concept of the system and provides experimental results as a proof of concept using a simulation framework.
- Cloud-connected Battery Management System Supporting e-Mobility (630 KB)
Tetsu Tanizawa, Takayuki Suzumiya, Kazuto Ikeda, pp.27-35 - Electric vehicles have evolved along with a reduction in the size and weight of batteries. This has led to the development of bicycles, motorcycles, and small vehicles suitable for short distances that are driven by batteries small enough to be replaced by the user. Once batteries become readily replaceable even when away from the home or office, problems such as lengthy charging times and limited running distances will be overcome, and the practicality of electric vehicles will further increase. Since it would be difficult for users to carry replacement batteries with them or to store them at convenient locations, a battery-sharing system is essential. Fujitsu aims to establish a mechanism for grasping the status of shared batteries that will enable users to replace batteries with peace of mind and with no perceived degradation in battery quality. This cloud-connected battery management system will maximize the value of the shared batteries by using a location data cloud to continuously connect to the batteries, manage the state of their charge, and monitor changes in their characteristics. This paper presents the technology to be used to achieve this system and discusses how it will create new value.
Safe and Secure Mobility
- Realization of Safe Driving Environment (732 KB)
Norio Hashiguchi, Masatoshi Tohno, pp.36-42 - In the field of transportation and traffic, big data are beginning to be used for improving transport efficiency and assisting in safe driving. Fujitsu has commercialized FUJITSU Intelligent Society Solution SPATIOWL, a cloud service that uses location data, to build a system that accumulates in the cloud various types of information associated with location data of mobile objects including vehicles. We have also developed sensing technologies for use in vehicles or on road infrastructure that promote road traffic safety. Data acquired by sensing technologies related to road traffic systems have so far only been used in limited applications such as individual vehicle systems and safety systems for specific road sections. But systems are now in place that make it easier to connect with data in the cloud, and this facilitates data aggregation and accumulation. Adequate analysis of the massive amounts of accumulated data makes it possible to identify information about points requiring attention in driving, and to do this requires analysis technology that can accurately identify significant pieces of information that suit the purpose of analysis, out of massive amounts of data. This paper presents a technique of efficiently analyzing massive amounts of data from drive recorders and detecting truly necessary information. Then we introduce a system that utilizes SPATIOWL to implement that technique as a functional component for assisting in safe driving.
- Telematics Service for Commercial Vehicles to Realize Safe Traffic Society (550 KB)
Makoto Koike, Masatsugu Isogai, pp.43-47 - As operation management for commercial vehicles, services that use digital tachograph-based devices have become an industry-wide standard. Here a digital tachograph refers to a device approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism in Japan that records travel speeds and distances of a vehicle as needed. Digital data including travel speeds is used for visualizing the details of vehicle operation and for allowing the operation manager to give guidance on the operations. The data measured with a digital tachograph system have conventionally been recorded on a dedicated card, and then read and analyzed at the office to which the vehicle belongs. The telematics service for commercial vehicles presented in this paper further develops the digital tachograph described above. The service does not require a dedicated card, which is a mobile medium for the recorded data, and uses the FENICS wireless communication network to send the operation data to the cloud center in real time for analysis. At the cloud center, proprietary analysis middleware is used for analyzing the vehicle diagnosis information and driving operations of the driver based on the enormous amount of sensor data. These advanced forms of information and communications technology (ICT) allow unprecedented real-time provision of guidance on driving and hazard prediction.
- Technology to Detect Levels of Stress Based on Voice Information (669 KB)
Naoshi Matsuo, Shoji Hayakawa, Shouji Harada, pp.48-54 - As a monitoring service technology, Fujitsu has developed a way to process voice signals in order to detect the level of a person's stress based on their conversation, and also developed prototypes of a terminal—center linking system using smartphones, which are increasingly becoming widespread, to evaluate the system's operation. This technology is intended to be used to detect problems between customers and employees at an early stage so as to improve customer satisfaction and to monitor elderly people living alone and people driving vehicles in order to ensure safety, security, etc. This technology to detect the level of stress analyzes changes in the tone of a person's voice, that is, in the pitch and level of their voice, compared with a normal situation. Such changes occur when a person is under stress and has a dry throat. As a result of examining the detection accuracy in an evaluation experiment with simulated conversations in which the subjects were put under stress, it was found that this system can detect the level of stress with an accuracy of 90% or higher. This paper describes the technology to detect the level of stress based on the pitch and intensity of a voice and the configurations of the two prototype systems developed.
- 79 GHz-Band High-Resolution Millimeter-Wave Radar (776 KB)
Masayuki Kishida, Katsuyuki Ohguchi, Masayoshi Shono, pp.55-59 - High-resolution millimeter-wave radar that operates in the 79 GHz band is expected to achieve a significant increase in the distance resolution of radar systems because of the availability of a wide frequency bandwidth of 4 GHz as compared with 0.5 GHz of the existing 77 GHz-band millimeter-wave radar. For this reason, it has the potential to distinguish between a vehicle and a human, which was conventionally difficult, and recognize their movements. Therefore it raises expectations for use as a surrounding monitoring radar in driving safety support and automatic driving. As one of FUJITSU TEN's efforts regarding sensing technologies for driving safety support and automatic driving, it has been developing 79 GHz-band high-resolution millimeter-wave radar. This paper presents specifications of radar for application to systems that assist in safe driving and automatic driving and the results of testing a prototype for a wider bandwidth that is required to accomplish the technology's purpose. This radar increases the ability to detect a pedestrian in the surroundings of a vehicle, which was difficult to do with the existing 77 GHz-band radar. Furthermore, this paper also describes how the newly developed radar offers the possibility of improving the performance of a sensor for automatic driving and systems to assist in safe driving.
Comfortable Mobility
- Car Navigation System with Enhanced Connecting Function (694 KB)
Teru Sawada, pp.60-66 - In November 2013, FUJITSU TEN released three models of Z Series as new products of ECLIPSE car navigation systems, and they were the first commercially available models with Wi-Fi communication. They offer the following services: a voice interactive destination search service, push-type agent application software through which information on the surrounding facilities is given to the driver in speech form, and a new service that allows the driver to remotely operate a car navigation system from an electronic user manual application on a smartphone. In conjunction with the My Cloud service provided by Fujitsu, these products also come with application software that lets users retrieve and enjoy pictures and music saved on their home PC via the Internet. In November 2014, three further models were released as the SZ Series, and they came with a feature to automatically update the map data and facility information installed on the system. This paper gives an overview of these services and their features, and describes the future challenges in their development.
- Approach to M2M in Mobility Field (687 KB)
Akira Takee, Mitsuru Ota, Satoshi Shigematsu, pp.67-73 - Machine-to-machine communication (M2M), which has evolved as one solution to social issues such as energy saving and reduction of environmental impact, now makes it possible to have advanced analysis and prediction by making use of big data and is being applied to an increasingly wider range of fields. Application of M2M is expanding also in the field of mobility, which can contribute to a next-generation car-oriented society, such as in emergency call and theft tracking systems that will be made mandatory and in promotion of car sharing by ultra-small vehicles. FUJITSU TEN is also moving ahead with the development of in-vehicle communication units and working to realize telematics services based on having drive recorders connected with a cloud service. This paper describes FUJITSU TEN's approach to mobility M2M. It also presents technology for installing VoIP radio transceivers in vehicles and for automobile control systems related to smartphones that can be used to solve issues related to communication stability and information security that need to be overcome when connecting vehicles to a network.
- Global Rollout of Telematics Service (538 KB)
Naoki Harashina, pp.74-78 - Along with the advent of the age of big data utilization, services and areas covered by telematics services are increasing globally. The forms of services are undergoing a shift from those provided by service providers to those offered by automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which have their own service centers and launch services independently. As an example of big data utilization, Fujitsu has planned the rollout of a traffic information provision service, which is one type of telematics service, for automotive OEMs in Europe. For the rollout of this service, we have adopted the traffic message channel (TMC) data format based on our understanding that adopting a standard traffic information data format for service data input and output will be key to the service's success. This paper describes the global rollout of Fujitsu's traffic information provision service.
- M2M Network for Smart Mobility (752 KB)
Yoshitoshi Kurose, pp.79-85 - In smart mobility, information is gathered from vehicles and in-vehicle devices and is analyzed as big data. The analyzed data is then provided to drivers and vehicle manufacturers as a service. To provide information to and gather it from a vehicle and an in-vehicle device, a wireless network is used as a machine-to-machine (M2M) network. However, when the number of vehicles providing data increases from tens of thousands to millions, communication traffic increases and quality degrades. Additional issues facing smart mobility include increased communications cost and the need to ensure security on the network while providing various services. Fujitsu ENhanced Information and Communication Services (FENICS) II Business Network, which is a set of network services offered by Fujitsu for enterprises, offers FUJITSU Managed Infrastructure Service FENICS II M2M service that can solve these issues related to M2M and Internet of Things (IoT). This paper describes our M2M network which can support smart mobility and explains FENICS II M2M service in detail, including application examples.
