JP2000137066A - Gps receiving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely and accurately input current position data as an initial set value even if a user does not know the latitude and longitude of the current position. SOLUTION: This device has a GPS receiver part 2 for receiving GPS signals transmitted from a GPS satellite and for calculating and outputting data such as latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, time and date, and service condition of the satellite by performing operations on the GPS satellite, a memory part 3 for retaining information about the orbit of the GPS satellite a broadcast receiving part 6 for receiving broadcast waves of TV, FM, AM, etc., and an input data calculating part 7 for calculating, using the broadcast waves received by the broadcast receiving part 6, an approximate current position as data for input to the GPS receiver part 2. In the GPS receiver part 2, data about the approximate current position transmitted from the input data calculating part 7 are utilized as an initial set value for computations. In this case, when the broadcast receiving part 6 receives a plurality of broadcast waves, the input data calculating part 7 determines an approximate current position according to the levels at which the plurality of broadcast waves are received.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a GPS receiver capable of measuring a current position using a satellite signal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art GPS (Global Position)
A receiving system needs to receive a satellite signal in order to measure the current position, but it takes a considerable time to search for a receivable satellite from nearly 30 satellites in orbit around the earth. Take it. Therefore, in order to perform the measurement quickly, it is necessary to limit the receivable satellites based on the current time, the current position, and the satellite orbit information. Therefore, the satellite orbit information may be stored in advance, but the current time and the current position need to be input as initial setting values.

[0003] Here, the current time and the current position are manually input. However, if an input error is made, it takes extra time for positioning, or to a place unknown by train, ferry or airplane. For example, there is a problem that the current position to be input is not known.

To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
Japanese Patent No. 88165 proposes a technique for receiving a radio signal such as AM or FM and calculating the current position from the radio signal. That is, the correspondence between the receivable frequency of the radio signal and an arbitrary point (representative point) in an area where the frequency can be received is stored in advance, and the representative point is obtained from the frequency of the received radio signal. This representative point is set as the current position. Specifically, for example, FIG.
As shown in the figure, three radio signals (F1, F2, F3)
A, when only the radio signal F1 is received, the point A when only the radio signal F2 is received, the point B when only the radio signal F3 is received, and the point C when only the radio signal F3 is received, when the receivable areas S1, S2, and S3 exist. , When only the radio signals F1 and F2 are received, and the point E when only the radio signals F1 and F3 are received.

[0005]

However, in the case of the above-mentioned GPS receiver, since a representative point is simply obtained and set as the current position depending on which radio signal is received, a certain degree of error occurs. There was a problem.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to ensure that the current position data can be reliably and accurately obtained even if the user does not know the latitude and longitude of the current position. That can be entered as the initial setting
An S receiving device is provided.

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
Receiving a GPS signal transmitted from a GPS satellite,
A GP that obtains and outputs data such as latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, date and time, and satellite usage by performing calculations on S signals
S receiver unit, a memory unit that stores the orbit information of GPS satellites, a broadcast receiving unit that receives broadcast radio waves such as TV, FM, AM, etc., and an approximate current using the broadcast radio waves received by the broadcast receiver unit. An input data calculation unit for calculating a position as input data to the GPS receiver unit;
In the GPS receiver, the S receiver unit uses the data of the approximate current position from the input data calculation unit as an initial setting value for calculation. In the input data calculation unit, the broadcast reception unit When there are a plurality of received broadcast radio waves, an approximate current position is determined according to each reception level.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a clock unit for measuring a current time is added, and the input data calculation unit converts the current time data from the clock unit into an approximate current position. The data is sent to a GPS receiver together with the data.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, the clock section is a radio clock.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the clock section is an FM multiplex broadcast receiving apparatus.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a GPS receiver according to one embodiment of the present invention. The GPS receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a GPS receiving antenna 1 and a GPS
It comprises a receiver unit 2, a memory unit 3, a data output unit 4, a broadcast receiving antenna 5, a broadcast receiving unit 6, and an input data calculating unit 7.

The GPS receiver unit 2 obtains various information by performing calculations on the GPS signal received by the GPS receiving antenna 1. That is, latitude, longitude, altitude (altitude above sea level) information indicating the current position of the GPS receiver, traveling direction, speed, current date and time information of the user of the GPS receiver,
And information about the satellite used to calculate, for example,
The satellite number of the satellite used for the calculation, information on the location of the satellite, and the S / N ratio of the signal are calculated, and sent to the data output unit 4 every second, for example. Then, the calculated various information is output from the data output unit 4 to the outside.

The orbit information of the GPS satellite is recorded in the memory unit 3, and is sent to the GPS receiver unit 2 when the power is turned on, and is used for searching for the GPS satellite. further,
In the memory unit 3, the locations of broadcasting stations such as TV broadcasting, FM broadcasting, and AM broadcasting and the locations of broadcasting radio wave transmitting stations are recorded as latitude, longitude, and altitude position information (hereinafter, referred to as position data). Further, the area where each broadcast such as TV broadcast, FM broadcast and AM broadcast can be heard is also recorded as latitude, longitude and altitude position information (hereinafter referred to as area data of a broadcast station).

The broadcast receiving section 6 receives broadcasts such as TV broadcasts, FM broadcasts, and AM broadcasts via the broadcast receiving antenna 5. The broadcast content is content for receiving analog information such as audio, FM multiplex broadcast, and TV text multiplex broadcast.

The input data calculator 7 detects the frequency of the broadcast wave received by the broadcast receiver 6, that is, the signal level of the broadcast station and the received signal, and stores the position data and area of the broadcast station recorded in the memory 3. Approximate position information of latitude, longitude and altitude is determined from the data, and sent to the GPS receiver unit 2. In addition, time information such as a time signal of a broadcast wave is also sent to the GPS receiver unit 2.

Here, the position information is determined by the following method. That is, when a plurality of broadcast waves are received by the broadcast receiving unit 6, it is determined that the higher the signal level of the received signal, the closer to the broadcast station, and the lower the signal level, the farther to the broadcast station. The distance from each broadcasting station is calculated according to the size, and the current position is obtained by using the value, the information of the latitude, longitude, and altitude of the broadcasting station using the principle of triangulation. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, for example, three radio signals (F1, F2, F3) can be received in areas S1, S2,
When S3 is present, the radio signals F1, F
When only 2 is received, the point D determined to be the current position is 1
Instead of just one point, it changes according to the magnitude of the signal level. In other words, the position is determined so as not to approach the direction of the broadcasting station having the higher signal level. The distance can be calculated even in consideration of the difference in the broadcast output of the broadcast station.

The GPS receiver unit 2 uses the latitude, longitude, and altitude position information and time information input from the input data calculation unit 7 and the GPS satellite orbit information in the memory unit 3,
The GPS satellites that the GPS receiver can see at the present time can be grasped, and the GPS satellites to be searched can be limited.

According to the present embodiment, the current position information is automatically input as data closer to the actual position, so that even if the user does not know the latitude and longitude of the current position, In addition, the current position information is accurately input as the initial setting value.

FIG. 3 shows a GPS according to another embodiment of the present invention.
It is a block diagram showing a receiving device. GPS of this embodiment
The receiving device is obtained by adding a clock unit 8 in the above-described embodiment. The clock unit 8 measures the current time, and can be realized by, for example, a built-in clock, a radio clock, or an FM multiplex broadcast receiving device. The input data calculation unit 7 captures the current time from the clock unit 8 and uses the GPS data as time information.
Send to receiver unit 2.

In the present embodiment, since the current time is constantly output from the clock unit 8, when the time signal information included in the broadcast signal from the broadcast station is used, the time information is input only at a fixed time. As compared with the case, the GPS satellites to be searched can be limited more quickly.

[0021]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a GPS signal transmitted from a GPS satellite is received,
A GPS receiver for calculating and outputting data such as latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, date and time, and satellite usage by performing calculations on the GPS signals; a memory for holding orbit information of GPS satellites; , A broadcast receiving unit that receives a broadcast wave such as AM, and an input data calculating unit that calculates an approximate current position as input data to the GPS receiver unit using the broadcast wave received by the broadcast receiving unit. In the GPS receiver unit, in the GPS receiving apparatus that uses data of the approximate current position from the input data calculation unit as an initial setting value for calculation, the input data calculation unit includes: When there are a plurality of broadcast radio waves received by the broadcast receiving unit, the approximate current position is determined according to each reception level, so that the user knows the latitude and longitude of the current position. Even without, reliably, and GPS receiver accurately the current position data can be input as an initial setting value could be provided.

According to the second to fourth aspects of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a clock section for measuring a current time is added, and the input data calculation section includes a current time from the clock section. Since the data is sent to the GPS receiver together with the approximate current position data, the current time is constantly output from the clock unit, and the GPS to be searched is determined.
Satellites can be limited more quickly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a GPS receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram according to the above.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a GPS receiver according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 GPS receiving antenna 2 GPS receiver unit 3 Memory unit 4 Data output unit 5 Broadcast receiving antenna 6 Broadcast receiving unit 7 Input data calculation unit 8 Clock unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuo Yamada 1048 Kadoma Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Works Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takuya Suto 1048 Kadoma Kadoma Kadoma City, Osaka Japan (72) Inventor Masahito Fukuda 1048 Kazumasa Kadoma, Osaka Pref.Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. 1048, Kazuma, Kadoma, Fumonma-shi F-term (reference) Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A GPS receiver section for receiving a GPS signal transmitted from a GPS satellite and performing arithmetic operation on the GPS signal to obtain and output data such as latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, date and time, and satellite use status. A memory unit for holding orbit information of a GPS satellite, a broadcast receiving unit for receiving broadcast waves such as TV, FM and AM, and an approximate current position using the broadcast waves received by the broadcast receiver. An input data calculation unit for calculating as input data to the receiver unit, wherein the GPS receiver unit uses data of the approximate current position from the input data calculation unit as an initial setting value for calculation. In the GPS receiving device to be used,
The GPS receiving device, wherein, when there are a plurality of broadcast waves received by the broadcast receiving unit, the input data calculating unit determines an approximate current position according to each reception level. 2. A clock section for measuring a current time is added, and the input data calculation section sends current time data from the clock section to a GPS receiver section together with approximate current position data. The GPS according to claim 1,
Receiver. 3. The GPS receiver according to claim 2, wherein said clock unit is a radio clock. 4. The GPS receiver according to claim 2, wherein said clock unit is an FM multiplex broadcast receiver.