Information providing apparatus and system

Abstract

An information providing system is disclosed. The system includes a management apparatus having a database storing facility-event information of facilities or events, and a portable apparatus communicatable with the management apparatus. The portable apparatus sets each place, at which a movement stop time exceeds a prescribed staying time, as a stay place. The management apparatus estimates that a living area of a user of the portable apparatus is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user. The management apparatus sets the collective area as the search scope, extracts the facility-event information matching the search scope from the database, and transmits the extracted facility-event information to the portable apparatus.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An information providing system for providing information about a facility or an event as facility-event information, the information providing system comprising:
 a management apparatus that includes a database, wherein the database stores facility-event informations for a plurality of facilities or a plurality of events by associating the facility-event informations with respective location data of the facilities or the events; and   an in-vehicle apparatus that is mounted to a vehicle and communicable with the management apparatus,   wherein:   the in-vehicle apparatus
 acquires present position information indicating present position of the vehicle, 
 transmits vehicle source information, which is based on the present position information, to the management apparatus, and 
 provides a user, who drives the vehicle, with at least one of the facility-event informations transmitted from the management apparatus; 
   the management apparatus
 sets, based on the vehicle source information transmitted from the in-vehicle apparatus, a search scope parameterized by the location data, 
 extracts the facility-event informations matching the search scope from the database, and 
 transmits the extracted facility-event informations to the in-vehicle apparatus; 
   the in-vehicle apparatus
 measures a parking time of the vehicle, 
 sets a stay place of the user based on the present position information and the parking time of the vehicle, wherein the stay place is a place at which the parking time exceeds a prescribed staying time, and 
 sets a daily-visiting place of the user based on an acquisition date and time of the present position information, wherein the daily-visiting place is the stay place at which the vehicle is periodically parked; 
   based on respective location data corresponding to the stay places and the daily-visiting places, the in-vehicle apparatus
 estimates that a living area of the user is a collective area covering all of the stay places of the user is 
 estimates that a daily-living area of the user is a collective area covering all of the daily-visiting places of the user, 
 estimates that a non-daily-living area is the living area of the user except the daily-living area, 
 transmit place information indicative of the daily-living area and the non-daily-living area to the management apparatus; and 
   the management apparatus
 acquires the present position information from the in-vehicle apparatus, and 
 sets the search scope based on the present position information and the place information received from the in-vehicle apparatus, by
 setting the daily-living area as the search scope when the present position of the vehicle is within the daily-living area of the user, and 
 setting the non-daily-living area as the search scope when the present position of the vehicle is within the non-daily-living area of the user.