In-vehicle device and vehicle search system

A control method executed by an in-vehicle device comprising:

• performing control of switching a direction of an in-vehicle camera that photographs an outside of a vehicle to acquire an image between a first direction and a second direction, wherein the first direction is a traveling direction of the vehicle in a lane in which the vehicle is traveling and the second direction is a direction toward an opposite lane;
• periodically recognizing license plate information included in the image acquired continuously from the in-vehicle camera;
• and
• transmitting data related to the recognized license plate information to a server device, wherein
• the control of switching the direction of the in-vehicle camera includes:
• comparing first license plate information recognized from an image acquired from the in-vehicle camera at present time point with second license plate information recognized from an image acquired from the in-vehicle camera at predetermined time-steps before the present time point, when the direction of the in-vehicle camera keeps a same direction for a predetermined period or more;
• and
• switching the direction of the in-vehicle camera when the first license plate information and the second license plate information are identical.

A vehicle search system comprising:

• a vehicle;
• and
• a server device, wherein
• the vehicle includes:
• an in-vehicle camera that photographs an outside of a vehicle to acquire an image;
• a direction controller configured to perform control of switching a direction of the in-vehicle camera between a first direction and a second direction, wherein the first direction is a traveling direction of the vehicle in a lane in which the vehicle is traveling and the second direction is a direction toward an opposite lane according to any one of a first mode in which the direction of the in-vehicle camera is determined on the basis of information acquired from the server device and a second mode in which the direction of the in-vehicle camera is determined autonomously;
• a recognizer configured to recognize license plate information included in the image acquired from the in-vehicle camera;
• and
• a transmitter configured to transmit data related to the recognized license plate information to the server device together with position information, and
• the server device includes:
• a storage configured to store the data related to the license plate information transmitted from the vehicle in correlation with the position information;
• and
• a determiner configured to transmit information that designates whether the direction of the in-vehicle camera is to be controlled according to the first mode or the second mode to the vehicle on the basis of the stored data,
• wherein the direction controller is configured to:
• compare first license plate information recognized from an image acquired from the in-vehicle camera at present time point with second license plate information recognized from an image acquired from the in-vehicle camera at predetermined time-steps before the present time point, when the direction of the in-vehicle camera keeps a same direction for a predetermined period or more;
• and
• switch the direction of the in-vehicle camera when the first license plate information and the second license plate information are identical.