JP2010118773A - Wireless communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a wireless communication terminal to instruct a user to move the terminal to a place where higher communication quality is obtained. <P>SOLUTION: A portable audio player 22, which is a wireless communication terminal, includes: a wireless communication part 35 for performing proximity wireless communication with another electronic equipment; a communication quality detection part 36 for detecting communication quality in the wireless communication part 35; and a movement sensor part 37 for detecting the movement of the terminal itself. A control part 30 calculates the position, change amount and moving direction of the terminal itself based on a change in the movement detected by the movement sensor part 37, calculates a position in which the communication quality is better than that of a present position based on the calculated position, change amount and moving direction and the communication quality and causes a display part 31 to display presentation of relative relation between the calculated position and the present position to the user. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless communication terminal that performs high-speed data communication by proximity wireless communication.

  Conventionally, a portable terminal that presents the direction of a target to a user has been considered (for example, Patent Document 1). In the portable terminal described in Patent Document 1, it is determined whether or not the reference direction predetermined for the portable terminal is directed toward the target, and the reference direction is directed toward the target. When it is determined, the fact is notified, and when it is determined that the reference direction is not directed toward the target, a notification corresponding to the moving direction of the mobile terminal for directing the reference direction toward the target is given. Like to do.

Incidentally, in recent years, proximity wireless communication in which high-speed data communication is performed in a state where devices are close to each other has been studied. In close proximity wireless communication, for example, the communicable distance is several centimeters. Therefore, in order to perform stable data communication, it is necessary to match the position where the communication quality is good between devices, and when a large amount of data is communicated Need to keep its proper position.
JP 2002-168647 A

  Thus, conventionally, it is determined whether or not the reference direction predetermined for the mobile terminal is directed toward the target, and the mobile terminal is moved in order to be directed to the target according to the determination result. Notifications can be made according to However, in a communication terminal that performs close proximity wireless communication, the position of a target object to be communicated cannot be determined in advance, and communication is not possible unless the target object is in close proximity. I couldn't give you a notice to go.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a wireless communication terminal capable of instructing movement to a place where communication quality is better.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention detects wireless communication means for performing close proximity wireless communication with other electronic devices, communication quality detection means for detecting communication quality in the close proximity wireless communication, and motion of the terminal itself. A movement detecting unit; a calculating unit that calculates a position of the terminal based on a change in movement detected by the movement detecting unit; a position calculated by the calculating unit; and a position detected by the communication quality detecting unit at the position. A first position calculating means for calculating a position where the communication quality is superior to the current position based on the communication quality, a position calculated by the first position calculating means, and a position calculated by the calculating means; Presenting means for presenting the relative relationship with the current position to the user is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to instruct movement to a place where the communication quality is better.

Hereinafter, wireless communication terminals according to embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
In the present embodiment, a wireless communication system using NFC (Near Field Communication) capable of high-speed communication will be described as an example. NFC has a communicable distance of several centimeters and is known as peer-to-peer proximity radio. By using a weak radio wave and miniaturizing the wireless function, it is possible to communicate wirelessly with extremely low power consumption. Currently, it is widely used for non-contact IC card communication in electronic money and ticket gates at stations. .

  On the other hand, a standard called TransferJET that makes these communications faster is also being studied, and it is possible to realize high-speed communications reaching a maximum of 560 Mbps in the physical layer. Similar applications are also discussed in IEEE 802.15.3c, which is working on standardization of a wireless communication system that uses millimeter waves in the 60 GHz band.

  In conventional applications using NFC, a small amount of data communication is performed in a short time as if touching, but high-speed data communication is possible, so that, like a portable audio player or a video playback terminal, When a larger amount of data is exchanged, the user needs to keep the wireless communication terminal in an appropriate position in the vicinity of the transmission side for a longer time than before.

  When exchanging a small amount of data in a short time, it is very short from the user's point of view, so the installation position is not so important and can be used as if touching the appropriate place However, in order to exchange large amounts of data such as music and moving images efficiently and at high speed, it is important to maintain the wireless communication terminal at the appropriate position for the appropriate time. .

  In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, a system example in which music data is transferred from a personal computer 10 to a portable audio player 22 by proximity wireless communication will be described. The wireless communication terminal according to the present invention is not limited to the personal computer 10 or the portable audio player 22, but may be, for example, a cellular phone, a PDA (personal digital assistant), a portable audio / video player, a digital video camera, or a portable car. Any device equipped with a processor for executing a program such as a navigation device may be used.

  The personal computer 10 shown in FIG. 1 shows a state where the display unit is opened. The personal computer 10 includes a computer main body 11 and a display unit 14. The display unit 14 incorporates a display device composed of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 14.

  The display unit 14 is attached to the computer main body 11 so as to be rotatable between an open position where the upper surface of the computer main body 11 is exposed and a closed position covering the upper surface of the computer main body 11. The computer main body 11 has a thin box-shaped casing, and a keyboard 13, a power button for power on / off, an input operation panel, a touch pad 16, a speaker, and the like are arranged on the upper surface thereof. .

  In addition, a pad-type wireless communication device 20 capable of performing close proximity wireless communication is connected to the personal computer 10 via, for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus). The personal computer 10 transmits data to and from the portable audio player 22 through the wireless communication device 20 when the portable audio player 22, which is a close proximity wireless communication terminal, is placed (closed) on the wireless communication device 20. To do.

  In the wireless communication device 20, an antenna (not shown) is disposed on the upper surface portion. Therefore, the portable audio player 22 can perform stable data communication when the proximity wireless communication antenna 34 provided in the device itself is brought close to the antenna position of the wireless communication device 20. The portable audio player 22 of the present embodiment can present the direction of a position where stable communication is possible to the user by bringing the portable audio player 22 close to the wireless communication device 20 once. The user can efficiently transfer a large amount of data by moving in the direction presented by the portable audio player 22 and placing the portable audio player 22 at the best position as shown in FIG. The state can be maintained.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the portable audio player 22.
As shown in FIG. 2, the portable audio player 22 includes a control unit 30, a display unit 31, an input unit 32, a data storage unit 33, a proximity wireless communication antenna 34, a wireless communication unit 35, a communication quality detection unit 36, And a movement sensor unit 37 is provided.

  The control unit 30 includes a processor (CPU), a memory, and the like, and controls the entire portable audio player 22. The control unit 30 implements various processing functions by executing various programs by the processor. In the present embodiment, in addition to the processing function as an audio player, a moving direction display processing function for instructing movement to a place where communication quality of proximity wireless communication control and proximity wireless communication becomes better is realized. In the movement direction display processing, display indicating the direction of the position where the communication quality is better is performed based on the data detected by the movement sensor unit 37 and the communication quality detection unit 36.

  The display unit 31 displays various information on the display under the control of the control unit 30. When the display unit 31 performs data transfer by proximity wireless communication, the communication quality is good when the portable audio player 22 is moved in any direction by the moving direction display process executed by the control unit 30 ( Information on whether high-speed communication is possible is displayed.

  The input unit 32 is used by the user to instruct the portable audio player 22 to input data and execute various processes. Specifically, a button, a keyboard, and the like.

  The data storage unit 33 is used for storing various data handled by the portable audio player 22. Specifically, it is composed of a ROM, a RAM, an HDD, and the like. The data storage unit 33 also includes playback content data such as music data received from the personal computer 10, for example. In the movement direction display process, communication quality data detected by the communication quality detection unit 36 when the portable audio player 22 is brought close to the wireless communication device 20, and portable audio player 22 detected by the movement sensor unit 37. The communication quality between the wireless communication device 20 and the current position of the portable audio player 22, for example, calculated based on the data indicating the movement of the mobile audio player 22 and the data detected by the communication quality detection unit 36 and the movement sensor unit 37. Data indicating a relative relationship with a good position (a virtual core to be described later) is temporarily stored.

  When the wireless communication unit 35 can communicate with the wireless communication device 20, the communication quality detection unit 36 receives the radio wave intensity (reception intensity) received by the proximity wireless communication antenna 34 and the wireless quality during communication. Data indicating communication quality such as (communication rate) is detected.

  The movement sensor unit 37 is a sensor for detecting the movement of the portable audio player 22. The movement sensor unit 37 includes, for example, an acceleration sensor 37a that detects acceleration that changes as the position of the portable audio player 22 changes, a gyro sensor 37b that detects angular displacement of each axis (for example, x, y, and z), and the like. including. The movement sensor unit 37 calculates the position, change amount, and movement direction of the terminal itself based on data indicating changes in movement detected in time series by the acceleration sensor 37a and the gyro sensor 37b.

  The wireless communication unit 35 performs close proximity wireless communication with the wireless communication device 20. Specifically, wireless communication is performed by NFC, UWB using a frequency band of 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz, millimeter wave using a 60 GHz band, or the like.

  Next, the moving direction display processing of the portable audio player 22 (proximity wireless communication terminal) in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 and 5 are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation for placing the portable audio player 22 at a position where the communication quality of the wireless communication device 20 is good. Here, for example, when data transfer is set in the portable audio player 22, the moving direction display process is executed.

  4 and 5, a range indicated by a circle represents a range 101 in which close proximity wireless communication is possible. The closer to the center 106, the stronger the radio wave intensity and the higher the communication rate at which communication is possible in the physical layer.

  In order to display the direction in which the communication quality is good in the portable audio player 22, the user moves the portable audio player 22 as shown in the locus 102 shown in FIG. And a range 101 in which close proximity wireless communication is possible.

  The control unit 30 of the portable audio player 22 moves at a place where close proximity wireless communication is possible, so that the control unit 30 of the portable audio player 22 reaches the wireless communication unit 35 or communication quality detection when it reaches the range 101 where close proximity wireless communication is possible. The unit 36 determines that the proximity wireless communication is possible (step A1). For example, at the boundary point 103a with the range 101 in which proximity wireless communication is possible in FIG. 3, it is detected that the radio communication unit 35 has changed the radio field intensity or the wireless communication unit 35 has changed the communication rate.

  The control unit 30 detects the position and the moving direction detected by the movement sensor unit 37 at the boundary point 103a (step A2). Thereafter, the control unit 30 detects the current position with the boundary point 103a as the reference position and the moving direction at each position, and detects the amount of change in the radio field strength (or communication rate) improvement or decrease (step A3). .

  Then, the amount of change in the radio field intensity (or communication rate) is recorded in the data storage unit 33 (step A4).

  Then, based on the vector sum based on the moving direction and the amount of change at each position, the position of the virtual core 104, which is a position where the communication quality is assumed to be good and the communication is stable, is calculated (step A5).

  For example, when the radio wave intensity (or communication rate) is improved with the change in position, it can be assumed that the center 106 is located in the moving direction at that time, and it is detected at each of a plurality of different positions. The position of the virtual core 104 can be calculated from the vector sum based on the amount of change in the radio field strength (or communication rate) improvement / decrease and the moving direction.

  The control unit 30 displays the direction from the current position relative to the boundary point 103a to the position of the virtual core 104 calculated as described above. For example, the display unit 31 displays an arrow indicating the direction on the display. The display form is not limited to the arrow, and any display form can be used as long as the direction can be recognized by the user.

  When the portable audio player 22 is in the range 101 in which close proximity wireless communication is possible (step A8, Yes), the control unit 30 changes the amount of increase / decrease in the radio wave intensity (or communication rate) detected at each position. Then, the position of the virtual core 104 is calculated from the vector sum obtained based on the moving direction of the portable audio player 22, and is displayed on the display unit 31 based on the direction of the virtual core 104 from the current position (steps A2 to A8). ).

  The control unit 30 moves along the trajectory 102, and the radio wave intensity (detected at the boundary points 103b, 103c, and 103d where the radio wave intensity or the communication rate has changed to a preset reference value is detected. Alternatively, the position of the virtual core 104 can be calculated based on the amount of change in the increase / decrease of the communication rate) and the moving direction, and the direction from the current position to the virtual core 104 can be displayed.

  Further, the position of the virtual core 104 may be calculated every time the change points 103a to 103d are detected. As the user moves the portable audio player 22 toward the virtual core 104, a plurality of change points are detected, and a vector sum including vectors at each change point is calculated, thereby improving the position accuracy of the virtual core 104. Let me go.

  The control unit 30 determines that the proximity wireless communication is impossible based on the radio wave intensity detected by the wireless communication unit 35 or the communication rate detected by the communication quality detection unit 36. Then (step A8, No), based on the data detected by the movement sensor unit 37 with reference to the current position detected at the boundary point 103d (or immediately before) where the proximity wireless communication is impossible. The current position is calculated and the moving direction is detected (step A9).

  The control unit 30 causes the display unit 31 to display the direction from the current position with respect to the virtual core 104 calculated at the boundary point 103d as shown in FIG. 3 (step A10).

  The control unit 30 presents the user with the relative relationship between the current position and the virtual core 104 that change when the portable audio player 22 is moved even outside the range 101 in which close proximity wireless communication is possible (steps A8 to A10). ).

  As shown in FIG. 5, by moving the portable audio player 22 in the direction of the virtual core 104, the relative relationship between the current position of the portable audio player 22 and the virtual core 104, that is, the distance between the two is determined. It can be calculated that it changes. In accordance with this relative relationship (distance), the control unit 30 reduces the length of the arrow as the distance between the two decreases, as in the portable audio players 22a, 22b, and 22c shown in FIG. Display (step A10). Thereby, the user can recognize the positional relationship (near / far) with the virtual core 104 from the display indicating the direction toward the virtual core 104.

  In step A10, as described above, the display form (the length of the arrow) may be changed according to the distance between the virtual core 104 and the current position of the portable audio player 22, or the radio wave intensity or The display form may be changed according to the communication rate.

  In particular, when it is in a position where the best communication quality is obtained (when the virtual core 104 matches the current position), a special display form as shown in the portable audio player 22c in FIG. 5 is adopted. Thus, it is possible to clearly indicate to the user the position where the portable audio player 22 should be placed.

  When it is determined that the data transfer is completed, the control unit 30 ends the movement direction display process (steps A7, A11, Yes).

  In this way, in this embodiment, the portable audio player 22 is once passed through the range 101 in which the wireless communication device 20 can perform near field communication, so that the communication quality is superior to the current position (preferably the communication quality is higher). The position of the position virtual core 104 (which is assumed to be the best) is calculated, and the current position is calculated based on data detected by the movement sensor unit 37 along with the movement, and the virtual core 104 is calculated from the current position. It is possible to display the direction to the. The user can move the portable audio player 22 with reference to this display and place it at a position where the communication quality is superior to the current position.

  In the above description, the case where close proximity wireless communication is performed between the wireless communication device 20 connected to the personal computer 10 and the portable audio player 22 is taken as an example, but the close proximity wireless communication function is provided in the personal computer 10. By installing, close proximity wireless communication can be performed directly between the personal computer 10 and the portable audio player 22. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, the personal computer 10 is provided with an antenna 24 for close proximity wireless communication on a palm rest provided on the upper surface of the computer main body 11. By bringing the portable audio player 22 close to the antenna 24, the display unit 31 displays a direction indicating the position of the antenna 24 in which the communication quality is superior to the current position (the communication quality is the best).

  Further, in the above description, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, an arrow indicating a relative relationship with the virtual core 104 is presented on the display unit 31 (display) provided in the portable audio player 22. However, other presentation forms such as a lamp such as an LED (Light Emitting Diode) may be used.

  Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of components disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine a component suitably in different embodiment.

  Further, the processing described in the above-described embodiment is a recording medium such as a magnetic disk (flexible disk, hard disk, etc.), optical disk (CD-ROM, DVD, etc.), semiconductor memory, etc., as a program that can be executed by a computer. And can be provided to various devices. It is also possible to transmit to a variety of devices by transmitting via a communication medium. The computer reads the program recorded on the recording medium or receives the program via the communication medium, and the operation is controlled by this program, thereby executing the above-described processing.

1 is a diagram showing a personal computer 10 and a portable audio player 22 in the present embodiment. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a portable audio player 22. FIG. The flowchart shown about the moving direction display process of the portable audio player 22 (close proximity wireless communication terminal) in this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation example for placing the portable audio player 22 in the present embodiment at a position where the communication quality of the wireless communication device 20 is good. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an operation example for placing the portable audio player 22 in the present embodiment at a position where the communication quality of the wireless communication device 20 is good.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Personal computer, 20 ... Wireless communication apparatus, 22 ... Portable audio player, 30 ... Control part, 31 ... Display part, 32 ... Input part, 33 ... Data storage part, 34 ... Antenna for close proximity wireless communication, 35 ... Wireless Communication unit 36 ... Communication quality detection unit 37 ... Movement sensor unit 37a ... Acceleration sensor 37b ... Gyro sensor.

Claims (4)

Wireless communication means for performing proximity wireless communication with other electronic devices;
Communication quality detection means for detecting communication quality in the proximity wireless communication;
Movement detection means for detecting the movement of the terminal itself;
Calculation means for calculating the position of the terminal based on a change in movement detected by the movement detection means;
Based on the position calculated by the calculating means and the communication quality detected at the position by the communication quality detecting means, a first position calculating means for calculating a position where the communication quality is superior to the current position;
A wireless communication terminal comprising: a presenting means for presenting a user with a relative relationship between the position calculated by the first position calculating means and the current position calculated by the calculating means.   The calculating means calculates a position with better communication quality than the current position based on the position, amount of change, and moving direction at a plurality of communication quality change points detected by the communication quality detecting means. The wireless communication terminal according to claim 1.   2. The radio according to claim 1, wherein the presenting unit presents a positional relationship between a position having better communication quality than the current position and a position of the terminal, which is calculated by the first position calculating unit. Communication terminal. Based on the position at which the wireless communication means is disconnected and the position when the wireless communication means is disconnected as a reference, a position with better communication quality than the current position is calculated based on the position calculated by the calculating means, the amount of change, and the moving direction. A second position calculating means for
The wireless communication terminal according to claim 1, wherein the presenting unit presents a user with a relative relationship between the position calculated by the second position calculating unit and the current position calculated by the calculating unit. .

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