GB2260814A

GB2260814A - Remote fish-sensing apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2260814A
Application number: GB9122678A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Chih-Chiang Lu
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1991-10-25
Filing date: 1991-10-25
Publication date: 1993-04-28
Also published as: GB9122678D0

Abstract

A remote fish-sensing apparatus has a float 30 and a sensor 20 which is disposed with a high-frequency transmitter 1 for emitting ultrasonic waves under the water which are reflected back from an object e.g. a shoal of fish in the water and received by an ultrasonic receiver 2, and are further transmitted to a receiver (10, Fig 3, not shown) on land via an antenna 8 for display of information of fish. <IMAGE>

Description

TITLE: REMOTE FISH-SENSING APPARATUS The present invention relates to a remote fishsensing apparatus for sensing fish under the water.

In a conventional fish sensor arrangement, the construction is complicated and requires a lot of electrical power to support itself. This kind of fishsensing technique is appropriate in commercial fishing but is not suitable for personal fishing, because the fish sensor arrangement is too large to suit personal use.

Therefore, one kind of remote fish sensing apparatus is appropriate to replace the conventional fish sensor arrangement.

A remote fish sensing apparatus comprises a float with a sensor thereunder. The sensor comprises an ultrasonic generator, a transducer, a first receiver, and a transmitter. The sensor is set in the water with the float, and the power is turned on immediately, which actuates the ultrasonic generator. The latter transmits power to the transducer, where the transducer is triggered to emit a wave, which travels to the floor below the water and reflects therefrom. The reflected wave is received by the receiver, and the transmitter transmits the reflection wave to a second receiver on land via an antena of the float, whereby a fishman on the land can oversee the fish distribution under the water.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a remote fish sensing apparatus for a fishman on land to monitor fish distributed in water.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a remote fish-sensing apparatus with small size, low cost, and user friendiness.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a remote fish-sensing apparatus which comprises a float and a sensor connected to the float with a chain, such that the sensing scope is extented to a conventional fish sensing arrangement which is disposed on a boat.

These and additional objects, if not set forth specifically herein, will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the detailed description provided hereunder, with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the remote fish sensing apparatus of.the present invention; Fig. 2.is a cross-sectional view of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 illustrates a circuit diagram of the present invention.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 3, a sensor 20 and a float 30 are suspended in water. A sensing switch 14 of the sensor 20 enables the power on, and actuates a high-frequency generator 5 to generate an oscillating wave, which further drives a high-frequency transmitter 4 to transmit power to a transducer 1. The transducer 1 generates an oscillating wave within the water, sending the wave to a bottom below the water. The oscillating wave reflecting from the bottom needs a period of time to travel back to a ultrasonic receiver 2, therefore causing the receiver/transmitter converter 6 to be in an intermittent operating status.

When the receiver/transmitter converter 6 transmits the wave, the receiver portion thereof stops to operate, until the reflection wave returns to the receiver/transmitter converter 6, at which time the receiver portion begins to operate. When the first receiver 2 receives the reflected wave, it couples the received signal to a high-frequency receiver 3, which converts the signal to a low-frequency signal and outputs the low-frequency signal to a low-frequency transmitter 7. The low-frequency transmitter 7 transmits the low-frequency signal via a transmitting antenna 8 to a receiving antenna 9 on land.

The receiving antenna 9 couples the received signal to a second receiver 10, in which the signal is amplified and coupled to a signal processing system 13, which has a wave-detecting procedure. The detected signal is further coupled to a liquid crystal display (LCD) 11, showing the fish distribution. The detected signal is finally coupled to a sonar monitoring system 12 to obtain the sonic effect of the sensing procedure.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, the construction of the sensing apparatus comprises the float 30 and the sensor 20, wherein the float 30 is disposed with the transmitting antenna 8, which is connected to the transmitter 7. The float 20 is connected to an upper portion of the sensor 20 by a chain 24.

The sensor 20 is formed as a shell body which is separated to a plurality of chambers which are disposed with the high-frequency transmitter 4, the ultrasonic receiver 2, and the high-frequency receiver 3. A battery chamber 21 is formed on one side of the shell body and has a cover 22 for changing batteries thereon.

A cavity resonator 23 is connected to a bottom side of the sensor 20 and has a ultrasonic transducer 1 disposed in a middle portion thereof and two ultrasonic receivers 2 disposed in two sides of the ultrasonic transducer 1. When the power is on, the ultrasonic transducer 1 converts the power from the high-frequency transmitter 4 via the cavity resonator 23 to an oscillating wave, which is transmitted to the bottom below the water. The ultrasonic receiver 2 receives the reflected wave from the bottom and through the receiver/transmitter converter 6, the high-frequency receiver 3, the transmitter 7, and the transmitting antenna 8, transmits the reflected wave to the receiveing antenna 9 on land.

Since the sensor 20 is placed in specific area with the float 30, a fishman on land can obtain information indicating fish distribution.

Since the sensing apparatus of the present invention is a remote type, the sensor 20 below the float 30 can be nearer to the fish, thereby obtaining more accurate information than conventional fish sensing arrangements which are disposed on the boat.

While the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that various modifications thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading this specification. Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention disclosed herein is intended to cover all such modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

I claim:

1. A remote fish sensing apparatus comprising a water-based sensing portion and a land-based receiving portion, said water-based sensing portion comprising a sensor being disposed under a float with a chain being connected therebetween, said sensor comprising a shell body being divided into a plurality of chambers for disposing a plurality of circuit means respectively therein, a cavity resonator being disposed under said sensor and having a transducer and a pair of ultrasonic receivers disposed in two sides thereof for receiving a reflected wave from a bottom below the water.

2. The remote fish sensing appartus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said circuit means in said sensor comprises a receiver, a high-frequency transmitter, a high-frequency receiver, a high-frequency generator, a receiver/transmitter converter, and a signal transmitter, which generates an oscillating wave, said ultrasonic receiver receiving said reflected wave, said converter converting said reflected wave to a lowfrequency signal, said transmitter transmitting said low-frequcncy signal to said land-based receiving portion.

3. The remote fish sensing apparatus as claimed in calim 1, wherein said float comprises a transmitting antenna which is connected to said transmitter in said sensor.

4. The remote fish-sensing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said land-based receiving portion comprises a receiving antenna, a signal receiver, a liquid crystal display, a signal processing system, and a sensing switch for receiving said low-frequency signal transmitted from said water-based sensing portion and displaying the information of fish on said liquid crystal display.

5. A remote fish sensing apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawing.