JP3280887B2 - Wrist watch type GPS receiver - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a GPS (Global P
ositioning System: a G that receives radio waves from satellites and measures the position and moving speed of the receiving device
It relates to a PS receiver. In particular, a wristwatch type G that can be held and worn by a human arm and measures the position and moving direction of a human
It relates to a PS receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, a GPS receiver transmits a GPS radio wave 61 emitted from a GPS satellite to a GPS.
The signal is received by the receiving means 62, the signal is processed at high speed by the GPS reception signal processing means 63 such as a frequency calculation section and an orbit information calculation section, and the positioning data obtained as a result is displayed on the GPS data display means 64. Was. Considering that such a GPS receiver is carried on the wrist, the receiving attitude of the antenna becomes a problem. FIG. 7 shows a conventional example in which the attitude of the antenna is kept constant.
Shown in In the conventional example shown in FIG. 7, an antenna unit 71 and an operation unit 72 are provided, and the receiving surface 73 of the antenna unit 71 has a horizontal plane H.
The antenna unit 71 and the operation unit 72 can be integrally connected by a support member 74 that is rotatably supported with respect to a desired angle, and the center of gravity of the antenna unit 71 is shifted from its own rotation center position. Can also be set vertically below. In addition, a weight (balancer) is provided below the antenna unit 71.
By providing the antenna 75, the antenna unit 71 is always kept horizontal, so that the antenna position that can always be received is maintained. Such a conventional example is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-359179.

[0003]

Generally, considering that the elevation angle of the receivable antenna is set to 15 degrees or more with respect to the horizontal plane, the antenna attitude in realizing a wristwatch type GPS receiver is a major problem. become. When the GPS antenna is arranged on the same plane as the display means of the GPS receiver, if the user carries the GPS receiver on his arm and walks in a natural posture, the antenna posture becomes impossible to receive GPS. Performing the reception operation constantly even in the antenna position where reception is clearly impossible deteriorates the power consumption efficiency. In particular, the GPS receiving signal processing means of the GPS receiving device requires high-speed arithmetic processing, and requires an orbit calculation processing device having an extremely high-speed processing capability, which consumes a large amount of power. It is wasteful to continue the operation of the GPS reception signal processing means that consumes a large amount of power even when the antenna is in an unreceivable antenna position. On the contrary, there is a method of using the antenna while keeping the attitude at the time of GPS reception, but it is very inconvenient to move while keeping the attitude constant. An object of the present invention is to reduce the power consumption of a wristwatch type GPS receiver by eliminating such reactive power consumption without deteriorating usability.

[0004]

In order to solve the above problems, a GPS receiver according to the present invention comprises: an antenna attitude detecting means for detecting an unreceivable antenna attitude state and a receivable antenna attitude state; In the case of the impossible antenna posture state, the reception operation control means for temporarily suspending the reception operation until the antenna posture state becomes capable of receiving again, and the reception operation is controlled based on the output of the reception operation control means G
PS reception means, GPS reception signal processing means for controlling reception signal processing based on the output of the reception operation control means,
GP of GPS receiver output by PS reception signal processing means
A GPS data display means for displaying S information is provided, and power is not consumed by useless positioning operation when reception is not possible. Further, the operation of the reception operation control means for temporarily stopping the positioning is prohibited for a certain period of time, thereby improving the reliability of the display data. In the case of a form in which the reception attitude is clearly different from the attitude of viewing the display, as in the wristwatch-type GPS receiver shown in FIG. Configuration.

In addition to the above-described method of detecting the attitude of the antenna and stopping the operation of the GPS receiving means to reduce power consumption, the GPS state is detected during exercise by detecting the exercise state of the carrier.
There is also a method of stopping the operation of the receiving means to achieve the same purpose. Body motion detecting means for detecting a motion (walking or running) state of the carrier, motion discriminating means for discriminating that the carrier is operating based on an output signal of the body motion detecting means, and motion discriminating means Receiving operation control means for controlling the receiving operation of the GPS radio wave from the result of the determination, and moving distance calculating means for calculating the moving distance of the carrier while the receiving operation is stopped based on the signal from the body movement detecting means And a notifying means for notifying the antenna attitude to an easy-to-receive position based on the output of the moving distance output means, so that power is not consumed by useless positioning operation during exercise. And

[0006]

FIG. 1 shows a wristwatch type GPS according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a first example of the receiver. In FIG. 1, the antenna attitude detecting means 11 detects the receiving attitude of the antenna, and the receiving operation control means 12 determines whether or not the receiving state of the antenna is possible from the receiving attitude of the antenna. The receiving operation control means 12 is connected to the GPS receiving means 13
It controls the PS reception signal processing means 14 and prohibits the GPS reception operation in the position where the antenna cannot be received. In the case of a receivable antenna posture, the GPS receiving means 13
Upon receiving the PS radio wave 17, the GPS reception signal processing means 14 processes the signal output from the GPS reception means 13 and outputs the positioning data to the GPS data display means 15,
A positioning end signal is output to the alarm unit 16. The alarm unit 16 notifies the user of the end of the positioning operation by performing an alarm based on the signal indicating the end of the processing signal from the GPS reception signal processing unit 14. GPS data display means 15
Indicates the GPS data output from the GPS reception signal processing means 14.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a specific configuration. The antenna attitude detection circuit 21 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The signal output from the antenna attitude detection circuit 21 is input to a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 25,
The reception operation control unit of the PU 25 determines whether or not reception is possible, and if reception is impossible, the GPS reception unit 23 and the orbit information decoding calculation circuit 24 are turned off. The orbit information decoding circuit 24 is constituted by a CPU having a high-speed processing capability and requires a large amount of power. Only when the CPU 25 determines that the signal can be received, the GPS radio wave is received by the GPS receiver 23, processed by the orbit information decoding calculation circuit 24, and input to the CPU 25. The reference frequency generation circuit 26 generates a reference frequency of the CPU 25 and outputs a frequency signal required for each circuit.
The RAM 27 stores GPS data, time information, and the like. R
The operation of the CPU 25 is programmed in the OM 28.
The display drive circuit 29 is a circuit for displaying GPS data, time, and the like. The display device 2a displays GPS data, time, and the like. The alarm drive circuit 2b drives the buzzer 2C with a circuit that generates a buzzer sound.

FIG. 3 shows a specific embodiment of the antenna attitude detecting circuit. The switch 31 is a posture detection switch such as a mercury switch which is turned on in an unreceivable antenna posture and turned off in a receivable antenna posture, one terminal is VDD, the other terminal is a posture detection resistor 32, and a latch circuit. 33 is connected to the D terminal. The other terminal of the attitude detection resistor 32 is connected to the terminal a (drain electrode) of the N-channel transistor 37 which is conductive only when the attitude is detected. The terminal b (source electrode) of the N-channel transistor 37 is connected to VSS, and the terminal c (gate electrode) is connected to a differentiating circuit 38 including a flip-flop 36 and an AND gate 35. The output of the differentiating circuit 38 is further connected to the input c terminal of the AND gate 34. The input a terminal of the AND gate 34 is 256 HzM of a reference frequency generation circuit.
And the output b terminal of the AND gate 34 is connected to the C terminal of the latch circuit 33 to generate a clock signal. The Q output of the latch circuit 33 is connected to the CPU.
The D terminal and the C terminal of the flip-flop 36 constituting the differentiating circuit 38 have a reference frequency generating circuit of 8 HzQ, 256H
zQ are respectively connected.

The operation will be further described with reference to the timing chart shown in FIG.
A pulse having a pulse width of 3.9 msec is generated at a period of 5 msec. With this signal, the N-channel transistor 37 becomes conductive, and a current flows through the attitude detection switch 31 to detect the attitude of the antenna. At this time, the posture detection switch 31
Is in the ON state, a VDD potential is generated in the attitude detection resistor 32. When the attitude detection switch 31 is in the OFF state, a VSS potential is generated in the attitude detection resistor 32. This voltage is latched (held) by the latch circuit 33 at the falling timing of the output signal of the AND gate 34, and the CPU
Interrupt

As a result, the state of the attitude detection switch 31 can be detected from the output signal of the AND gate 35 (at intervals of 125 ms). By doing so, it is possible to reduce the power consumed in the posture detection. FIG. 5 shows an output signal of the antenna attitude detection circuit 21 for the CPU 2.
5 shows an operation flow for inhibiting the operation of the GPS receiver 23 or the orbit information decoding circuit 24. When the output signal of the antenna attitude detection circuit 21 detects an attitude in which the positioning operation of the antenna is disabled, the CPU 25 is interrupted. After that, CP
U25 immediately receives the GPS receiver 23 and the orbit information decoding circuit 2
4 is prohibited (S51). Thereafter, a timer for a certain time is started (S52). After the timer expires (S53), the CPU 25 immediately looks at the output of the antenna attitude detection circuit 21 and determines whether or not the antenna is in an attitude capable of positioning (S54). If positioning is impossible, the timer is started again (S52). If positioning is possible, the CPU 25 restarts the operations of the GPS receiving unit 23 and the orbit decoding calculation circuit 24 (S55). By performing the above operation, the GPS receiving unit 23 or the orbit information decoding calculation circuit 24 can be used in the position where the antenna cannot be positioned.
Operation was stopped and useless positioning operation was prohibited for a certain period of time, thereby achieving low power consumption.

Further, the positioning operation is restarted (S55).
Then, the positioning data output from the orbit information decoding circuit 24 is input to the CPU 25. The CPU 25 sends a signal to the alarm means 16 composed of the alarm drive circuit 2b and the buzzer 2c to generate a buzzer sound to notify the user of the end of the positioning operation. By performing such an operation, it is possible to prevent the user from viewing the display unit 82 during the positioning operation and setting the antenna elevation angle of the GPS receiving antenna 81 to an unreceivable posture. In particular, as in the wristwatch-type GPS receiver shown in FIG. 8, the antenna is arranged on the radial side of the wrist (6 o'clock side of a normal watch dial), and the receiving posture and the posture of the wearer looking at the display unit 82 are clear. This is effective in the case of a different form.

The position detection switch of the embodiment used in the description of the present invention is an example of a mercury switch or the like. However, in combination with other means, for example, a sensor such as a terrestrial magnetism sensor or a gyro, a higher accuracy can be obtained. There is also a method to detect the posture well,
They are also included in the claims of the present invention. Next, another embodiment of the wristwatch type GPS receiver according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram showing a typical configuration of the present invention.

In FIG. 9, the GPS receiving means 900 includes:
It has functions from the receiving antenna to the positioning calculation, and the receiving operation is controlled by the receiving operation control means 901. The body movement detection means 902 detects the movement of the body of the wearer and outputs a body movement signal to the movement determination means 903 and the movement distance calculation means 904. When the output signal of the body movement detecting unit 902 can determine that the user is walking (movement beyond walking), the operation determining unit 903 transmits a signal to the receiving operation control unit 901 to the effect that the wearer is in an operating state. Receiving operation control means 901 stops receiving operation of GPS receiving means 900 when a signal indicating that the wearer is in the operating state is transmitted from operation determining means 903. Similarly, the moving distance calculating means 904 to which the body motion signal is input calculates the moving distance of the carrier based on the body motion signal from the body motion detecting means 902 on the assumption that the carrier is moving. When the moving distance exceeds a certain distance, a signal is transmitted to the notifying means 905. When a signal indicating that the moving distance of the carrier has exceeded a certain amount is input from the moving distance calculating unit 904, the notifying unit 905 performs a notification to prompt the carrier to receive GPS.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a specific configuration. The GPS receiving means 100 has a function from the receiving antenna to the positioning calculation, the receiving operation is controlled by the CPU 104, and outputs the position data such as the position and the moving speed to the CPU 104. The body motion detection device 101 includes an acceleration sensor and a comparator, or a filter circuit, an A / D
It is constituted by a converter and the like, and detects a swing motion of a human arm, a vibration when a foot lands, and the like, and sends a signal to the CPU 104. The CPU 104 operates the RO in which the operation is programmed.
The operation of the GPS receiving means 100 is controlled according to the contents of M106. The RAM 105 is connected to the CPU 104 as a data register when the CPU 104 operates, and also stores a target position and the like when performing a guiding operation. An input circuit 102 transmits an input signal of a switch or the like to the CPU 104. Reference numeral 103 denotes a reference signal generation circuit, which includes a crystal oscillator or a CR oscillation circuit,
It generates a reference frequency signal for the operation of the CPU 104 and outputs a necessary frequency signal to the CPU 104. 10
Reference numeral 7 denotes a driving circuit for the display panel 108,
The current position, moving speed, and the like calculated by
8 is displayed. Reference numeral 109 denotes a notification device, which includes a light, a buzzer, a vibration alarm using an ultrasonic motor, and the like.

FIG. 11 shows a second embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of No. 0, and shows an operation in a case of guiding a wearer from a current position to a target position registered in advance. Before starting the guidance operation, the user registers the target position. When a registration signal is sent from the input circuit 102 to the CPU 104 at the position to be registered, the CPU 104 causes the RAM 105 to store the coordinates of the point. Alternatively, arbitrary coordinate data can be input from the input circuit 102 and registered.

At an arbitrary point, C
When the guidance start signal is sent to PU 104, GPS receiving apparatus 100 starts the receiving operation (S200). When the reception of the radio wave is completed and the current position is grasped, the distance and the direction to the target position stored in the RAM 105 are obtained (S20).
1) The result is displayed on the display panel 108 (S20)
2). When the reception state is good (S203), the distance and the direction to the target position are obtained again (S201). However, when the reception state is not good (S203), it is determined whether or not the operation is performed by the wearer (S204).
When it is determined that the operation is not the cause, the distance and the direction to the target position are received again and the direction is obtained (S201). However, when it is determined that the mobile phone is operating, the reception of the radio wave is temporarily stopped (S205).

The CPU 104 determines whether or not the operation is in progress based on a signal output from the body movement detecting means 101. If the output signal of the body motion detecting means 101 has been subjected to the rectangular wave processing, it is possible to determine whether or not the user is walking by determining the period. If the body motion signal is obtained as a digital signal, frequency analysis is performed by the CPU 104, and the obtained frequency, signal level, and the like can be used as judgment material. If the frequency is stable within a predetermined range and there is no significant change in the signal level, the user can determine that the operation is in progress. Here, the determined range of the frequency can be determined by experience. For example, if the number of output signals of the body movement detecting means 101 is in the range of about 90 to 130 per minute and the frequency is stable, it can be determined that the user is walking.

The user continues walking while the reception of radio waves is temporarily stopped (S205), and when the user reaches a certain distance (S20).
6) Since the traveling direction must be confirmed or corrected, the user is notified by the notification device 109, and the GPS
The user is prompted to receive the radio wave (S207). At the same time, a signal for resuming reception is also sent to the GPS receiving means 100. Therefore, when the user moves the GPS receiving device to a position where it can be easily received, the reception is restarted (S200).

The walking distance of the user is determined by the body movement detecting means 101.
Frequency of the obtained body motion signal and reference signal generating means 1
It can be obtained by presetting the stride of the user from time information obtained based on the signal 03.
Before setting the stride, the input circuit 102 sets the stride length.
Performed by During reception stop, if the user attempts reception even if the distance has not been reached, it is determined that the user is not walking (S204). Since the reception is resumed, the user checks the traveling direction at an arbitrary point. Or they can be modified.

As for the fixed distance that advances while the reception is stopped, an arbitrary distance can be registered from the input circuit 102 depending on the time and the case. Note that even when the reception state is good, it is possible to intermittently receive GPS radio waves and save power consumption by setting a certain distance, time, etc. in advance. When the user is guided to the target position or when the end signal is input from the input circuit 102 (S20)
8) The guidance operation ends.

Next, the operation of another example of the second embodiment of the wristwatch type GPS receiver according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The main configuration is the same as that of the second embodiment described above, but in the present embodiment, the GPS is used while the user is walking.
This is a configuration including a time measuring means for measuring the time during which the radio wave reception operation is stopped. The difference from the above-described embodiment of FIG. 11 is that the interval from when the user temporarily stops the receiving operation to when the radio wave is received again is controlled by time.

When a guidance start signal is sent from the input circuit 102 to the CPU 104, the GPS receiving means 100 starts receiving (S200). Next, the timer is stopped (if it has already stopped, it is confirmed that it has stopped), and the value of the timer is reset (S300). From the operation for obtaining the distance and the direction to the target position (S201), the result is displayed on the display panel 108 (S202), and the reception state is determined (S201).
203), when the reception state is not good (S203),
Operation to determine whether or not it is for walking (S20
Up to 4), the operation is the same as that of the mobile phone of the embodiment described above.

If it is determined that the poor reception condition is caused by the operation of the carrier, the reception of the radio wave is temporarily stopped (S
205) Start the timer (S301). When the operation state continues and the value of the timer reaches the predetermined value, the traveling direction must be confirmed or corrected. Therefore, a notification is made by the notification device 109 to urge the user to receive the GPS radio wave (S207). ). The time from when the reception operation during walking is stopped until reception is performed again is registered in advance by the input circuit 102.

As in the above-described embodiment, even if the fixed time does not elapse while the reception is stopped, when the user attempts reception, it is determined that the user is not walking (S204) and the reception is restarted. Therefore, the user can confirm or correct the traveling direction at an arbitrary point. The above-described guiding operation is repeated, and when the user reaches the target position, or when a signal to end the guiding is sent from the input circuit 102 to the CPU 104 (S208), the guiding operation ends.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the GPS
Antenna attitude detecting means for detecting a receiving attitude of a receiving antenna, receiving operation controlling means for controlling a receiving operation based on an output of the antenna attitude detecting means, GPS receiving means and GPS receiving means controlled based on the receiving operation controlling means Since the signal processing means and the display means for displaying the GPS data output by the GPS reception signal processing means are provided, the GPS reception operation unit and the reception signal processing unit are stopped in the antenna position where reception is obviously impossible. Therefore, the current consumption of the GPS receiver can be reduced. As another method, there is a method of providing a body movement detecting unit, an operation determining unit, and a receiving control unit to stop a receiving operation in a position where it is extremely difficult to receive a radio wave during operation, thereby saving current consumption. In addition, the provision of the notification means prompts the user to receive radio waves every time the vehicle travels a certain distance or every time a certain time elapses. There is also an effect that it is possible to walk without worrying about.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a wristwatch-type GPS receiver of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a specific embodiment of a wristwatch type GPS receiver of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a specific embodiment of an antenna attitude detection circuit of the wristwatch type GPS receiver of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation time chart of a reception operation control unit of the wristwatch type GPS receiver of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a reception operation control unit of the wristwatch type GPS receiver of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional GPS receiver.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conventional GPS antenna.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an appearance of a wristwatch type GPS receiver of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram showing a representative configuration showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a specific configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of another example of the second embodiment of the wristwatch-type GPS receiver according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 GPS receiving means 101 Body motion detecting means 102 Input circuit 103 Reference signal generating circuit 104 CPU 105 RAM 106 ROM 107 Drive circuit 108 Display panel 109 Notification means 400 GPS receiving means 401 GPS receiving signal processing means 402 GPS data output means 500 Antenna section Reference numeral 501 Operating unit 502 Wave receiving surface 503 Support member 504 Weight (balancer) H Horizontal plane

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kazumi Sakumoto 1-8-1, Nakase, Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba Seiko Instruments Inc. (72) Inventor Chiaki Nakamura 1-8-8, Nakase, Mihama-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba Seiko Instruments Inc. (56) References JP-A-8-136260 (JP, A) JP-A-6-206588 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01S 5/00-5 / 14 G01C 15/00-15/14 G01C 21/00-21/24 G04B 1/00-49/04 G04G 1/00-15/00 H01Q 1/12-1/26

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A GPS receiving means, a body movement detecting means for detecting an operation state of a carrier, and an operation for determining that the carrier is operating based on an output signal of the body movement detecting means. Determining means, receiving operation control means for controlling the receiving operation of the GPS receiving means based on the result of the determination by the operation determining means, and a portable person while stopping the GPS receiving operation based on the output signal of the body movement detecting means Moving distance calculating means for calculating the moving distance of the vehicle, and GP based on an output signal of the moving distance calculating means.
A wrist-portable GPS receiver, comprising: a notifying unit for notifying the user that the S receiving antenna is directed to a position where radio waves can be easily received. 2. The wrist-portable GPS according to claim 1, further comprising a timer for measuring a traveling time of the carrier while the GPS receiver stops receiving operation.
Receiving machine.