JP2008134068A - Fish finder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a fish finder capable of easily recognizing previous echo wave information. <P>SOLUTION: This device controls a specific division display mode displaying: a wake display region 27 displaying a wake on a map; a normal echo wave display region 28 displaying the echo wave information in time order along the width direction of a display screen 10; and a reduced echo wave display region 29 displaying the echo wave information in longer time range than the normal echo wave display region 28 at the same time on the display screen 10 of an image display device 9. In a specific division display mode, time scale 42 at fixed time interval and specific index 41 at each time scale 42 are displayed along the width direction of the display screen 10 in the reduced echo wave display region 29. The same index 40 as the time scale 42 is displayed at one's own ship position approximately at the same time as the display position of the time scale 42 in the wake display region 27. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a fish finder that transmits ultrasonic waves in water and detects a school of fish by its echo waves.

  Fish detectors that transmit ultrasonic waves and detect a school of fish by their echo waves are well known. Recently, the number of fish detectors incorporating own ship position detecting means such as GPS is increasing. Such a fish finder can simultaneously display own ship position information and echo wave information on a display screen of an image display (for example, Patent Document 1).

  One display mode of the image display in the conventional fish finder is shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, the rectangular display screen 10a is divided into left and right display areas 27a and 28a by a dividing line 33a. The left display area 27a is a wake display area for displaying the ship position and wake. In the wake display area 27a, a map around the ship position is displayed, and a ship mark 34a indicating the ship position and a track line 35a indicating the wake are shown on the map.

  The right display area 28a is an echo wave display area for displaying echo wave information. In the echo wave display area 28a, the information of the received echo wave is displayed in the order of the measured time along the width direction of the display screen 10a. In FIG. 4, the latest echo wave information is displayed on the right side and the older echo wave information is on the left side, and the display screen 10a is updated as needed. The vertical axis shows the water depth reflected by the echo, and the intensity of the echo is represented by color and shade. In the echo wave display area 28a, the bottom echo 38a reflected from the bottom is continuously displayed in the width direction, and the fish echo 37a reflected from the school is displayed in a lump above the bottom echo 38a.

  Further, in recent fish finders, with the increase in capacity and cost of storage devices, it has become possible to store a large amount of measured echo information, and the latest echo is displayed in the echo display area 28a. In addition to displaying wave information, there are some that can display past echo wave information stored and retained retroactively as needed.

JP-A-4-265881

  In conventional fish detectors, the time range of echo wave information that can be displayed in the echo wave display area is limited, so when viewing echo wave information before that time range, the operator checks the latest echo wave information. I couldn't do it and I could miss the school of fish. If the scale of the echo wave display area is changed, the latest echo wave information and the past echo wave information can be confirmed at the same time, but in such a case, the fish echo becomes small and easily overlooked. On the other hand, when viewing the past echo wave information, there is also a drawback that the operator cannot grasp at which position the displayed echo wave information is the echo wave received.

  This invention is made | formed in view of this present condition, and aims at provision of the fish finder which is easy to confirm the past echo wave information.

  The present invention relates to a fish finder transmitting / receiving means for transmitting ultrasonic waves into water, receiving echo waves reflected from a school of fish or the bottom of the water, and outputting echo wave information, detecting the position of the ship, Own ship position detecting means for outputting position information, echo information output by the fish finder transmitting / receiving means, and own ship position information output by the own ship position information, and measurement information storage means for storing in association with time information; An image display provided with a display screen, and display control means for controlling to create required screen information based on information stored in the measurement information storage means and display the required image on the display screen of the image display The display control means comprises a wake display area for displaying a wake on a map based on own ship position information stored in the measurement information storage means, and echo information stored in the measurement information storage means. Display in chronological order along the width of the display screen Reduced echo that displays the normal echo display area and the echo information stored in the measurement information storage means in time order along the width direction of the display screen over a longer time range than the normal echo display area The display area can be controlled in a special divided display mode for simultaneously displaying the display area on the display screen of the image display unit. In the special divided display mode, the reduced echo wave display area is arranged along the width direction of the display screen. A time scale at a certain time interval and a characteristic index for each time scale, and further, the time scale at the ship position at the same time as the time scale display position in the wake display area. It is a fish finder characterized by displaying the same index.

  According to such a configuration, it is possible to check the past echo wave information in a bird's-eye view in the reduced echo wave display area while checking the latest echo wave information in the normal echo wave display area. Conversely, it is also possible to display the past echo wave information retroactively in the normal echo wave display area while confirming the latest echo wave information in the reduced echo wave display area.

  In addition, since the echo information of the reduced echo wave display area is associated with the position information of the track display area by the index, when confirming the past echo wave information, where the past echo wave information is You can understand at a glance whether it was measured.

  In the fish finder of the present invention, the form of the indicator is not particularly limited, but a figure or a symbol characterized by a color or a shape is preferable. In addition, it is desirable that all such indices differ for each time scale. However, if the correspondence relationship between the track display area and the reduced echo wave display area can be clearly understood, the same index can be used for a plurality of times. You may attach to a scale.

  In the fish finder of the present invention, the image display device includes a horizontally-long rectangular display screen, and the display control means includes a wake display area and a normal echo wave each having a rectangular shape in a special divided display mode. The display area is displayed side by side in the width direction of the display screen, and the reduced echo wave display area is displayed over the entire width of the display screen above or below the wake display area and the normal echo wave display area. Is proposed. In such a configuration, the reduced echo wave display area is long in the width direction, which is suitable for displaying past echo wave information over a long time range.

  As described above, according to the fish finder of the present invention, it is possible to confirm the latest echo wave information while confirming the past echo wave information, so that it is quickly discovered without missing the fish school. It becomes possible. In addition, when confirming past echo wave information, there is also an advantage that it is possible to easily understand where the echo wave information displayed is measured.

  Embodiments of the present invention are described according to the following examples.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a fish finder 1 according to the embodiment. The fish finder 1 detects the position of the own ship and the fish finder transmitting / receiving means 2 that transmits ultrasonic waves into the water, receives the echo reflected from the school or the bottom of the water, and outputs the echo information. The ship position detecting means 3 for outputting the ship position information and the time measuring means 4 for outputting time information are provided. The echo information output from the fish finder transmitting / receiving means 2 and the own ship position information output from the own ship position detecting means 3 substantially simultaneously with the time information output from the time measuring means 4 are stored as measurement information. Stored by means 5. The measurement information stored in the measurement information storage unit 5 is read by the display control unit 6. The display control means 6 creates required screen information by combining the measurement information and the map information stored in the map information storage means 8 based on the operation of the display operation means 7, and displays the display screen of the image display 9. To display.

Next, a specific control circuit of the fish finder 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
The fish finder 1 includes a main control unit 11 composed of a microcomputer. The main control unit 11 is provided with a central processing unit (CPU) 12 for processing and executing overall control of the fish finder 1. A data storage memory (RAM) 11 for reading and writing measurement information is connected to the central processing unit 12 via a data bus (not shown) for exchanging data. The central processing unit 12 has a map information memory (ROM) 14 in which map information is stored via an address bus (not shown) for unilaterally transmitting information for designating an address for reading and writing data. Connected. The central processing unit 12 is also connected with a program memory (ROM) 15 in which programs for executing various controls are stored. Further, the main control unit 11 incorporates a time measuring device 16 constituting the time measuring means 4, and time information is output from the time measuring device 16 to the central processing unit 12 as needed.

  Further, the main control unit 11 is provided with an input port (not shown) and an output port (not shown), and the transmission / reception control circuit 21 and the GPS arithmetic circuit 24 are connected through these ports.

  The transmission / reception control circuit 21 is connected to a transmission / reception unit 20 that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves. When a predetermined trigger signal is output from the main control unit 11 to the transmission / reception control circuit 21, the transmission / reception unit 20 transmits the predetermined wavelength. The ultrasonic pulse is transmitted underwater. When an echo wave reflected on the bottom of the water or a school of fish is received by the transmitting / receiving unit 20, the transmission / reception control circuit 21 receives information on the echo wave received by the transmitting / receiving unit 20 (e.g., reception timing and received intensity). ) To a digital signal and output to the main controller 11 as echo wave information. That is, in the present embodiment, the transmission / reception unit 20 and the transmission / reception control circuit 21 correspond to the fish finder transmission / reception means 2 according to the present invention.

  The GPS calculation circuit 24 is connected to the GPS antenna 23, detects the two-dimensional absolute position of the ship specified by longitude and latitude based on the signal received by the GPS antenna 23, and detects the detected ship position information. Is output to the input port of the main control unit 11. That is, in this embodiment, the GPS antenna 23 and the GPS arithmetic circuit 24 correspond to the own ship position detecting means 3 according to the present invention.

  When the echo wave information is input from the transmission / reception wave control circuit 21 to the main control unit 11, the central processing unit 12 includes the own ship position information output from the GPS arithmetic circuit 24, the time information output from the time measuring device 16, and Are stored in the measurement information memory 13 as a set of measurement information. The measurement information memory 13 has a capacity capable of storing measurement information for about one hour, and the measurement information is accumulated and stored in the order of the measured time. When the measurement information exceeds the storage capacity, old measurement information is sequentially deleted. That is, in this embodiment, the central processing unit 12 and the measurement information memory 13 constitute the measurement information storage means 5 according to the present invention.

  The map information memory 14 constitutes the map information storage means 8, in which 2D map information or 3D map information of a required area is stored as vector data.

  In addition, a key operation unit 26 for an operator to input various settings is connected to the input port of the main control unit 11. The key operation unit 26 can be used to select the display mode of the image display 9. The key operation unit 26 corresponds to the display operation unit 7 in the present invention.

  Further, a display control circuit 17 is connected to the input / output port of the main control unit 11, and the image display 9 is connected to the display control circuit 17. The image display device 9 includes a horizontally long display screen 10 (see FIG. 3), and is configured by a TFT, an LCD, a CRT, or the like.

  According to this configuration, the central processing unit 12 reads the measurement information stored in the measurement information memory 13 and the map information in the map information memory 14 as needed, and displays the display selected by operating the key operation unit 26. The required screen information is created based on the mode and output to the display control circuit 17. When receiving the screen information from the central processing unit 12, the display control circuit 17 converts the screen information into an appropriate video signal and outputs it to the image display 9. That is, in the present embodiment, the central processing unit 12 and the display control circuit 17 constitute the display control means 6 in the present invention.

  As described above, the fish finder of this embodiment is provided with various display modes, and an image according to the display mode selected by the operation of the key operation unit 26 is displayed on the display screen of the image display 9. 10 is displayed. The display mode in the special division display mode according to the main part of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 3 shows a display example of the display screen 10 of the image display 9 when the special split display mode is selected by operating the key operation unit 26. The display screen 10 is divided into three rectangular display areas 27, 28, and 29 by vertical and horizontal dividing lines 33.

  In the upper left wake display area 27, a two-dimensional map around the ship position is displayed, and the current ship position is plotted on the map by a ship-shaped ship mark 34. A curved line 35 extending downward from the ship mark 34 is a wake line 35 indicating a wake. The display image of the wake display area 27 is created by the central processing unit 12 by combining the measurement information stored in the measurement information memory 13 and the map information in the map information memory 14. Updated as the position changes. In the wake display area 27, a plurality of indices 40 made up of alphabets (ai) are displayed along the wake line 35. This index 40 will be described later.

  The upper right part of the display screen 10 is a normal echo wave display area 28. In the normal echo wave display area 28, echo wave information such as a fish school echo 37 and a water bottom echo 38 is visibly displayed. The display mode of the echo wave information is the same as the conventional configuration. In other words, the echo wave information is arranged in the order of reception time such that the latest information is on the right side and the old information is on the left side. The vertical axis of the normal echo wave display area 28 is the depth, which indicates the depth at which the received echo wave is reflected. The strength of the reverberant wave is expressed by shades and shades. In the normal echo wave display area 28, echo wave information (here, echo wave information for about 60 seconds) in a shorter time range than the reduced echo wave display area 29 described later is displayed.

  A display area 29 at the bottom of the display screen 10 is a reduced echo wave display area. The reduced echo wave display area 29 is provided over the entire width of the display screen 10. In the reduced echo wave display area 29, similarly to the normal echo wave display area 28, a graph indicating the echo wave information is displayed. Here, in the reduced echo wave display area 29, the echo wave information in the time range longer than that of the normal echo wave display area 28 (here, the echo wave information for about 30 minutes) is displayed. In 29, the past echo wave information can be seen from a bird's-eye view. This is because the reduced echo wave display area 29 is provided over the entire width of the display screen 10 so as to be wider than the normal echo wave display area 28, and long-time echo wave information is displayed. This is because the scale in the width direction is set.

  In the reduced echo display area 29, time scales 42 are provided along the width direction at regular time intervals (5 minute intervals). An index 41 consisting of f) is displayed. These indexes 41 have a one-to-one correspondence with the indexes 40 displayed along the track line 35 in the track display area 27. That is, the echo wave of the time scale 42 portion of the index “a” in the reduced echo wave display area 29 is measured at the position where the index “a” is displayed in the wake display area 27, and is displayed in the wake display. The echo wave measured at the position of the index “d” in the area 27 is displayed in the index “d” portion of the reduced echo wave display area 29. As described above, in the special division display mode, by comparing the wake display area 27 and the reduced echo wave display area 29, the past echo wave information and the measurement position of the echo wave information can be clearly understood.

  The display screen 10 shown in FIG. 3 is one display mode in the special division display mode. In the fish detector 1 of the present embodiment, the map scale of the wake display area 27 and the echo wave display areas 28 and 29 are displayed. Can be changed by operating the key operation unit 26 or the like. In the display example of FIG. 3, past echo wave display information is displayed from the latest echo wave information in the echo wave display areas 28 and 29, but for example, 15 minutes ago by the operation of the key operation unit 26. It is also possible to display echo wave information retroactively from the past.

  In addition, in the fish finder 1 of the present embodiment, there are some display modes such as displaying the echo wave information over the entire display screen in addition to the special split display mode. For other display modes, Since it is not the main part of this invention, description is abbreviate | omitted.

  As described above, according to the fish finder 1 of the present embodiment, it is possible to overlook the past echo wave information from a bird's-eye view while simultaneously confirming the latest echo wave information in the normal echo wave display area 28. It becomes possible to discover efficiently without missing. In addition, since there is a one-to-one correspondence with the index 40 in the wake display area 27 and the index 41 in the reduced echo wave display area 29, there is an advantage that the position where the echo wave information is received can be easily grasped.

  Further, in the special split display mode, as shown in FIG. 3, the wake display area 27 and the normal echo wave display area 28 are displayed side by side on the upper part of the horizontally long rectangular display screen 10 and displayed below them. A reduced echo wave display area 29 is displayed across the width direction of the screen 10. According to such an arrangement, the reduced echo wave display area 29 is long in the width direction, and thus the echo wave information in a long time range can be clearly displayed in the reduced echo wave display area 29.

  Note that the fish finder of the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  For example, the time interval of the time scale 42 displayed in the reduced echo wave display area 29 may be changed by an operator's operation, or is automatically changed according to the scale of the reduced echo wave display area 29. You may do it. Further, in the special divided display mode of the embodiment, the display screen 10 is divided into three display areas 27 to 29. However, the special divided display mode according to the present invention may divide the display screen into four or more. include. For example, when the display screen is divided into four display areas, it is proposed to display information such as water temperature and direction in one display area. The index 41 and the time scale 42 in the embodiment may be displayed not only in the reduced echo wave display area 29 but also in the normal echo wave display area 28.

2 is a functional block diagram of a fish finder 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the fish finder 1. FIG. It is a display example of the display screen 10 in the special division display mode. It is an example of a display of the display screen 10a in the conventional fish finder.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Fish finder 2 Fish probe transmission / reception means 3 Own ship position detection means 4 Timekeeping means 5 Measurement information storage means 6 Display control means 7 Display operation means 8 Map information storage means 9 Image display 10 Display screen 27 Track display area 28 Normal Echo Wave Display Area 29 Reduced Echo Wave Display Area 34 Own Ship Mark 35 Wake Line 37 Fish Echo 38 Water Bottom Echo 40 Indicator 41 Indicator 42 Time Scale

Claims (2)

Transmitting and receiving means for fish finder for transmitting ultrasonic waves into the water, receiving echo waves reflected by the school of fish or the bottom of the water, and outputting echo wave information;
Own ship position detecting means for detecting the position of own ship and outputting own ship position information;
Measurement information storage means for storing the echo information outputted by the fish finder transmitting / receiving means and the own ship position information outputted by the own ship position information in association with time information;
An image display with a display screen;
A display control unit configured to create necessary screen information based on the information stored in the measurement information storage unit and control the display of the required image on the display screen of the image display;
The display control means includes
A wake display area for displaying a wake on a map based on own ship position information stored in the measurement information storage means;
A normal echo display area for displaying the echo information stored in the measurement information storage means in time order along the width direction of the display screen;
A reduced echo display area for displaying the echo information stored in the measurement information storage means in time order along the width direction of the display screen over a longer time range than the normal echo display area. It can be controlled to a special split display mode that displays simultaneously on the display screen.
In the special divided display mode, a time scale at a constant time interval and a characteristic index for each time scale are displayed in the reduced echo wave display area along the width direction of the display screen. A fish finder, wherein the same indicator as the time scale is displayed at the own ship position at approximately the same time as the display position of the time scale in the display area. The image display is provided with a horizontally long rectangular display screen,
The display control means is in a special divided display mode,
Each of the rectangular wake display area and the normal echo wave display area is displayed side by side in the width direction of the display screen, and the reduced echo wave display area is displayed above or below the wake display area and the normal echo wave display area. The fish finder according to claim 1, wherein the fish finder is displayed over substantially the entire width of the fish finder.

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