JP2018164175A - Wireless communication system and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow wireless communication with a terminal device the position of which is not identified by a small number of antennas compared with a case in which wireless communication is performed by using a plurality of antennas with fixed communication directions when millimeter wave high speed wireless communication is performed with a movable terminal device.SOLUTION: A wireless communication unit 14 performs wireless transmission/reception with a terminal device 20 via a WiGig line by using an antenna 36. An antenna direction changing device 17 has a structure for mechanically changing the direction (maximum gain direction) of the antenna 36 under the control of a control unit 31. The control unit 31 identifies the direction of the terminal device 20 as a communication partner by continuously changing the direction of the antenna 36 by the antenna direction changing device 17 and controls the antenna direction changing device 17 such that the antenna 36 faces in the identified direction.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless communication system and a program.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an electronic conference system that transmits and receives data between a server, a client, and a terminal by wireless communication based on the Bluetooth (registered trademark) communication standard.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a collaborative medical assistance device in which a large amount of data is stored in advance in a portable recording medium such as an HDD (Hard Disc Drive) and distributed to each medical terminal.

JP 2004-048280 A JP 2004-167266 A

  An object of the present invention is to reduce the number of millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communications with a mobile terminal device as compared with the case where wireless communications are performed using a plurality of antennas whose communication directions are fixed. To provide a wireless communication system and a program that enable wireless communication with a terminal device whose position is not specified by an antenna.

[Wireless communication system]
The present invention according to claim 1 includes an antenna for performing millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication;
Changing means for changing the orientation of the antenna;
Control means for specifying the direction of the terminal device to be a communication partner by continuously changing the direction of the antenna by the changing means, and controlling the changing means so that the antenna faces the specified direction;
A wireless communication system including wireless transmission / reception means for performing wireless transmission / reception with a terminal device using millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication using the antenna.

The present invention according to claim 2 further includes position estimating means for estimating the position of the terminal device,
The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls the changing means so that the antenna is directed to a position estimated by the position estimating means.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the position estimating unit estimates the position of the terminal device based on communication strength with the terminal device in a plurality of communication devices provided in a region where the terminal device moves. A wireless communication system according to claim 2.

The present invention according to claim 4 further comprises measurement means for measuring communication strength of millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication with the terminal device by the wireless transmission / reception means,
4. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit changes the direction of the antenna by controlling the changing unit so that the communication strength measured by the measuring unit is increased. 5.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects, the control means controls the changing means so that the antennas are sequentially directed in a direction of a preset route in a region where the antenna is installed. This is a wireless communication system.

In the present invention according to claim 6, the area where the antenna is installed is a conference room,
6. The wireless communication system according to claim 5, wherein the control means controls the changing means so that the antennas are sequentially directed in a route direction corresponding to the arrangement of the desks in the conference room.

In the present invention according to claim 7, a plurality of the antennas are installed,
When the control unit finds a combination of the terminal device and the antenna that has a shorter communication distance when the one terminal device and the one antenna perform wireless transmission / reception, the control unit detects the one terminal or the one antenna. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein control is performed to switch to another terminal device or another antenna.

The present invention according to claim 8 is a step of specifying the direction of a terminal device as a communication partner by continuously changing the direction of an antenna for performing millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication;
A control step of controlling the orientation of the antenna so that the antenna faces the specified direction;
A program for causing a computer to execute a wireless transmission / reception step of performing wireless transmission / reception with a terminal device using millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication using the antenna.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, when performing millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication with a mobile terminal device, compared with a case where wireless communication is performed using a plurality of antennas whose communication directions are fixed. Thus, it is possible to provide a wireless communication system that enables wireless communication with a terminal device whose position is not specified by a small number of antennas.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a wireless communication system capable of specifying the position of the terminal device in a short time compared to the case of searching for the position of the terminal device.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a wireless communication system capable of specifying the position of the terminal device in a short time compared to the case of searching for the position of the terminal device.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a wireless communication system capable of continuing communication by tracking the position of a terminal device even when the terminal device in communication moves.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a radio communication system capable of searching for a terminal device capable of communicating efficiently compared with a case where the area where the antenna is installed is uniformly searched. be able to.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wireless communication system capable of searching for a terminal device capable of communicating efficiently compared with a case where the area where the antenna is installed is uniformly searched. be able to.

  According to the present invention of claim 7, when performing millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication with a plurality of movable terminal devices using a plurality of antennas, a combination of a terminal device and an antenna that shortens the communication distance It is possible to provide a wireless communication system that can be switched.

  According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, when performing millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication with a movable terminal device, compared to a case where wireless communication is performed using a plurality of antennas whose communication directions are fixed. Thus, it is possible to provide a program that enables wireless communication with a terminal device whose position is not specified by a small number of antennas.

It is a figure which shows an example of the mode of the medical conference using the medical conference system of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the medical conference system 10 in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the medical conference system 10 in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the external appearance of the antenna apparatus 40 comprised by the antenna 36 and the antenna direction change apparatus 17. FIG. It is a figure which shows the state which removed the cover of the antenna apparatus 40 shown in FIG. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the search operation | movement for searching the terminal device 20 in the medical conference system 10 of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the scanning pattern example 1 at the time of changing the direction of the antenna 36 continuously. It is a figure which shows the scanning pattern example 2 at the time of changing the direction of the antenna 36 continuously. It is a figure for demonstrating a mode that it stops in the state in which the direction of the antenna 36 of the antenna device 40 became the direction where the terminal device 20 exists. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the tracking operation | movement of the medical conference system 10 when the terminal device 20 which was being connected moves. It is a figure for demonstrating a mode that the control which continues the direction of the antenna 36 of the antenna device 40 to the terminal device 20 is performed when the user who possesses the terminal device 20 moves. It is a figure for demonstrating a mode that switching control of communication is performed when the two antenna devices 40a and 40b are installed. It is a figure for demonstrating the method for notifying a user that WiGig communication is performed in the terminal device 20. FIG.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  First, an example of a medical conference using the medical conference system according to the embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, a large screen display is installed in front of the conference room, and various medical images of the patient (medical images) are displayed on the large screen display, and medical diagnosis is performed by a plurality of doctors. It is shown.

  However, there is a limit to the number of doctors who can see an image with only one display, and if the number of doctors participating in a medical conference increases, there will be people who are close to the image and cannot confirm. In recent years, various mobile terminal devices such as tablet terminals have become widespread. Therefore, if image data for medical diagnosis can be transferred to such a movable terminal device and each doctor can refer to it at hand, it is possible to confirm each of the parts concerned by each doctor. As a result, it is expected that meeting time will be shortened and diagnostic accuracy will be improved.

  However, various images such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) images, X-ray images, and CT (Computed Tomography) images are used as the medical images used in the medical diagnosis as described above. It is done.

  As these images, high-resolution and high-definition images having high resolution are used, and the amount of data is enormous as compared with normal image data. For this reason, if image data is transferred to a terminal device using a conventional wireless LAN (Local Area Network), the transfer time becomes long, and the conference may not be able to proceed smoothly. Moreover, if the resolution of the image to be transferred to the terminal device is reduced to reduce the amount of data, the diagnostic accuracy may be lowered, which is not acceptable.

  Therefore, in the medical conference system of the present embodiment, medical image data is transferred to the terminal device using millimeter wave high-speed wireless communication called WiGig (registered trademark).

  However, in this WiGig (Wireless Gigabit) wireless communication, a radio wave with a high frequency of 60 GHz is used as a carrier frequency, and the directivity of the transmitted radio wave is high, and the directivity is sharp. Therefore, communication with a wide range of terminal devices can be performed. Can not. Therefore, in order to be able to transfer data to terminal devices existing in various places in the conference room, it is necessary to install a large number of antennas.

  Therefore, in the medical conference system according to the present embodiment, an antenna device that can change the transmission / reception direction of radio waves is installed on the ceiling, so that a terminal device whose position is not specified by a small number of antennas can be used. Wireless communication is possible.

  FIG. 1 shows a medical conference using the medical conference system of the present invention. A terminal device 20 such as a movable tablet terminal is distributed to each doctor participating in the medical conference. An antenna device 40 is installed on the ceiling. Each terminal device 20 performs WiGig wireless communication by receiving radio waves transmitted from the antenna device 40 and receives medical image data.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the medical conference system 10 of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the medical conference system 10 includes a CPU 11, a memory 12, a storage device 13 such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a wireless communication unit 14 that performs wireless communication based on the WiGig communication standard, and a wireless communication based on the Bluetooth communication standard. A wireless communication unit 15 that performs communication, a user interface (UI) device 16 including a touch panel or a liquid crystal display and a keyboard, and an antenna direction changing device 17 that is a mechanism for changing the antenna direction are included. These components are connected to each other via a control bus 18.

  The CPU 11 controls the operation of the medical conference system 10 by executing a predetermined process based on a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13. In the present embodiment, the CPU 11 has been described as reading and executing a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13, but the program is stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and stored in the CPU 11. It is also possible to provide.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the medical conference system 10 realized by executing the control program.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the medical conference system 10 of the present embodiment includes a wireless communication unit (WiGig) 14, a wireless communication unit (Bluetooth) 15, an antenna direction changing device 17, a control unit 31, and communication strength. A measurement unit 32, a position estimation unit 34, a medical data storage unit 35, and an antenna 36 for performing WiGig wireless communication, which is millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication, are provided.

  The antenna direction changing device 17 has a structure for mechanically changing the direction (maximum gain direction) of the antenna 36 under the control of the control unit 31.

  The antenna 36 and the antenna direction changing device 17 constitute an antenna device 40 as shown in FIG. FIG. 4 shows the antenna device 40 installed on the ceiling.

  And the state which removed the cover of this antenna apparatus 40 is shown in FIG. FIG. 5 shows a state in which the antenna direction changing device 17 changes the direction of the antenna 36 by mechanically tilting the antenna 36 in the 360-degree direction of front, rear, left and right.

  And the control part 31 specifies the direction of the terminal device 20 used as a communicating party by changing the direction of the antenna 36 continuously by the antenna direction changing device 17, and changes the antenna direction so that the antenna 36 faces the specified direction. The device 17 is controlled. Specifically, the control unit 31 transmits an inquiry packet while continuously changing the direction of the antenna 36 by the antenna direction changing device 17, and receives the reply packet from the terminal device 20 that has received the inquiry packet. Data transmission / reception is performed by stopping the direction change of the antenna 36 by the direction changing device 17.

  The wireless communication unit 14 performs wireless transmission / reception with the terminal device 20 through the WiGig line using the antenna 36.

  The radio communication unit 15 transmits and receives data to and from the terminal device 20 by Bluetooth communication using a radio frequency of 2.4 GHz, for example. Note that the antenna of the wireless communication unit 15 that performs the Bluetooth communication may also be installed in the antenna device 40.

  The position estimation unit 34 communicates information on the communication strength (radiowave reception strength) between the terminal device 20 and the terminal device 20 in a plurality of beacon devices installed in the conference room by Bluetooth communication via the wireless communication unit 15. Receive. And the position estimation part 34 estimates the position of the terminal device 20 in a meeting room from the information of the communication strength between this terminal device 20 and a some beacon apparatus. The position of the terminal device 20 may be estimated using not only the communication strength with the beacon device but also the reception strength in infrared communication, the reception strength in Bluetooth communication, and the like.

  When the position estimation unit 34 estimates the position of the terminal device 20 as described above, the control unit 31 controls the antenna direction changing device 17 so that the antenna 36 faces the position estimated by the position estimation unit 34.

  The communication strength measurement unit 32 measures the communication strength of WiGig communication with the terminal device 20 by the wireless communication unit 14.

  Then, the control unit 31 controls the antenna direction changing device 17 to change the direction of the antenna 36 so that the communication strength measured by the communication strength measuring unit 32 is increased.

  When the position estimation unit 34 does not estimate the position of the terminal device 20, the control unit 31 determines that the antenna 36 is in the direction of a predetermined route in a region such as a conference room where the antenna 36 is installed. The antenna direction changing device 17 is controlled so as to face sequentially, and the terminal device 20 to be a communication partner is searched.

  In the present embodiment, since the area where the antenna 36 is installed is a conference room, the control unit 31 controls the antenna direction changing device 17 so that the antenna 36 sequentially faces in the direction of the path corresponding to the arrangement of the desks in the conference room. To do.

  In this embodiment, the case where the area where the antenna 36 is installed is a conference room will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to such a case. The present invention can be similarly applied to various places such as a venue where the event is held.

  Next, operation | movement of the medical conference system 10 of this embodiment is demonstrated in detail with reference to drawings.

  First, a search operation for searching for the terminal device 20 in the medical conference system 10 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When the medical conference system 10 is activated and starts operating, the control unit 31 starts a continuous changing operation of the direction of the antenna 36 (step S101). Specifically, the control unit 31 controls the antenna direction changing device 17 so that the direction of the antenna 36 changes toward a route corresponding to the desk layout of the conference room.

  Examples of scanning patterns when the direction of the antenna 36 is continuously changed are shown in FIGS. FIG. 7 shows a scanning pattern example 1 in the antenna direction, and a search pattern example in which desks arranged in a plurality of columns are sequentially searched. Further, FIG. 8 shows a scanning pattern example 2 in the antenna direction, and shows a search pattern example in which eight desks arranged in one island shape are sequentially searched in an elliptical shape. These scanning patterns may be switched by separately providing a switching control unit that performs control so as to be switched in conjunction with the arrangement of the desk, for example, or may be switched by separately providing a switching control unit that controls switching manually.

  And the control part 31 transmits the inquiry packet for confirming presence of the terminal device 20 from the antenna 36 via the radio | wireless communication part 14, performing the search operation | movement which changed the direction of the antenna 36 in this way. (Step S102).

  Here, when the reply packet returned from the terminal device 20 that has received the inquiry packet is not received (No in step S103), the control unit 31 continues to transmit the inquiry packet while changing the direction of the antenna 36 ( Step S102).

  And the control part 31 stops the continuous change operation | movement of the antenna 36, when the reply packet sent in response from the terminal device 20 which received this inquiry packet is received (in step S103) (step S104). Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, the direction of the antenna 36 of the antenna device 40 is in a state where the terminal device 20 exists.

  Thereafter, the control unit 31 reads out the medical data requested by the terminal device 20 from the medical data stored in the medical data storage unit 35 and performs the WiGig communication via the wireless communication unit 14 and the antenna 36 to the terminal device 20. (Step S105). At this time, the image data is transmitted to the terminal device 20 by a streaming method in order to shorten the time during which the image can be browsed.

  Next, the tracking operation of the medical conference system 10 when the terminal device 20 that has been connected by wireless communication moves will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  During the transmission / reception of data to / from the terminal device 20 (step S201), the control unit 31 monitors the communication strength measured by the communication strength measurement unit 32, and the terminal device 20 moves. It is determined whether or not there is (step S202).

  When the movement of the terminal device 20 is detected due to a change in communication strength in wireless communication with the terminal device 20 (yes in step S202), the control unit 31 controls the antenna changing device 17 to change the direction of the antenna 36. And the tracking operation of the terminal device 20 is performed (step S203).

  Specifically, the control unit 31 changes the direction of the antenna 36 so that the communication strength measured by the communication strength measurement unit 32 is increased, thereby controlling the direction of the antenna 36 toward the terminal device 20. Do.

  By performing such control, for example, as shown in FIG. 11, even when the user who owns the terminal device 20 moves, control is performed so that the direction of the antenna 36 of the antenna device 40 is continuously directed toward the terminal device 20. Is realized.

  Then, when the control unit 31 detects that the terminal device 20 has stopped moving because the communication strength has not changed (Yes in Step S204), the control unit 31 stops the antenna direction changing operation and ends the tracking operation (Step S205). .

  When communication with the terminal device 20 is interrupted while tracking a certain terminal device 20, the control unit 31 ends communication with the terminal device 20 and can communicate with other terminal devices. 20 searches are performed.

  In the present embodiment described above, the case where one antenna device 40 is installed in one conference room has been described for the sake of simplicity. However, the size of the conference room and participation in the conference are described. The number of antenna devices 40 to be installed may be increased according to the number of persons.

  When a plurality of antenna devices 40 are installed in this way, the control unit 31 controls the antenna devices 40 so as to perform communication with the terminal devices 20 existing nearby. However, in the case where data transmission / reception is performed with the antenna device 40 while a plurality of terminal devices 20 are moving, if the tracking operation as described above is performed as the terminal device 20 moves, the communication distance The communication distance becomes shorter when the communication is performed with the other antenna device 40, and there may be a case where the communication distance is more effective for an obstacle such as a person or an object entering the communication path.

  Therefore, when the one terminal device 20 and one antenna device 40 (antenna 36) are performing wireless transmission / reception, the control unit 31 has found a combination of the terminal device 20 and the antenna device 40 that has a shorter communication distance. In this case, the one terminal or the one antenna device 40 may be controlled to be switched to another terminal device 20 or another antenna device 40.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 12A, description will be made using a case where two antenna devices 40a and 40b are installed on the ceiling and communication is performed between the antenna device 40a and the terminal device 20a. .

  In the state shown in FIG. 12A, when the terminal device 20b does not move directly below the antenna device 40a later, as shown in FIG. 12B, the antenna device 40a is connected to the terminal device 20b. The antenna device 40b is switched so as to communicate with the terminal device 20a.

  In the state shown in FIG. 12A, even when the terminal device 20b does not move later, switching control is performed so that communication is performed between the terminal device 20a and the antenna device 40b. Thus, the communication distance can be shortened.

  In order to notify the user that WiGig communication is being performed in the terminal device 20, for example, as shown in FIG. 13, an icon 51 may be displayed on the screen, or the LED 52 may be turned on. May be.

  Further, the scanning pattern of the antenna for searching for the terminal device 20 in the conference room can be changed according to the layout of the desk in the conference room, the number of antenna devices 40 to be installed, the importance / position of the participant in the seating place, and the like. You may make it.

  Further, when movement of the terminal device 20 is detected during communication with a certain terminal device 20, the terminal device 20 is not tracked, and other terminal devices 20 or other antenna devices that can communicate are searched. Anyway. Alternatively, when movement of the terminal device 20 is detected during communication with a certain terminal device 20, the terminal device 20 is tracked, or another terminal device 20 that can communicate without tracking the terminal device 20 or It may be possible to switch whether to search for another antenna device.

[Modification]
In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a medical conference system that transmits data such as medical image data to a mobile terminal device held by a medical staff has been described. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. It is not something. The present invention can be similarly applied to any wireless communication system that transmits a large amount of data to a mobile terminal device.

10 Medical Conference System 11 CPU
12 Memory 13 Storage Device 14 Wireless Communication Unit (WiGig)
15 Wireless communication unit (Bluetooth)
16 User Interface (UI) Device 17 Antenna Direction Change Device 18 Control Bus 20, 20a, 20b Terminal Device 31 Control Unit 32 Communication Strength Measurement Unit 34 Position Estimation Unit 35 Medical Data Storage Unit 36 Antenna 40, 40a, 40b Antenna Device 51 Icon 52 LED

Claims (8)

An antenna for performing millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication;
Changing means for changing the orientation of the antenna;
Control means for specifying the direction of the terminal device to be a communication partner by continuously changing the direction of the antenna by the changing means, and controlling the changing means so that the antenna faces the specified direction;
Wireless transmission / reception means for performing wireless transmission / reception with a terminal device by millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication using the antenna;
A wireless communication system. It further comprises position estimating means for estimating the position of the terminal device,
The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the control means controls the changing means so that the antenna is directed to the position estimated by the position estimating means.   The wireless communication system according to claim 2, wherein the position estimating unit estimates the position of the terminal device based on communication strength with the terminal device in a plurality of communication devices provided in a region where the terminal device moves. A measuring means for measuring communication strength of millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication with the terminal device by the wireless transmitting / receiving means,
The wireless communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the control unit controls the changing unit to change the direction of the antenna so that the communication strength measured by the measuring unit is increased.   The wireless communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the control means controls the changing means so that the antennas are sequentially directed in a direction of a preset route in an area where the antenna is installed. The area where the antenna is installed is a conference room,
6. The wireless communication system according to claim 5, wherein the control means controls the changing means so that the antennas are sequentially directed in a route direction corresponding to the arrangement of the desks in the conference room. A plurality of the antennas are installed,
When the control unit finds a combination of the terminal device and the antenna that has a shorter communication distance when the one terminal device and the one antenna perform wireless transmission / reception, the control unit detects the one terminal or the one antenna. The radio | wireless communications system in any one of Claim 1 to 6 controlled to switch to another terminal device or another antenna. Identifying the direction of the terminal device that is the communication partner by continuously changing the direction of the antenna for performing millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication; and
A control step of controlling the orientation of the antenna so that the antenna faces the specified direction;
A program for causing a computer to execute a wireless transmission / reception step of performing wireless transmission / reception with a terminal device using millimeter-wave high-speed wireless communication using the antenna.

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