JP4578392B2 - Wireless communication connection device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless communication connection device that establishes a plurality of links with a plurality of devices having a wireless communication function and selects one of them as in use.

  Short-range wireless by adding short-range wireless communication functions such as Bluetooth (trademark) to in-vehicle devices such as in-vehicle audio devices and car navigation devices equipped with user interfaces such as speakers, microphones, touch switches or key switches, and displays It is possible to provide a hands-free call to a mobile phone having a communication function. Furthermore, if the short-range wireless communication function added to the in-vehicle device can support multi-profile, an audio player such as iPod (registered trademark) to which the short-range wireless communication function is added is also connected at the same time. It is also possible to receive data from and play it back on a car audio device.

  In this case, when a mobile phone or an audio player is present within a predetermined distance and the electric field strength of the radio wave from the mobile phone or audio player becomes equal to or higher than the predetermined electric field strength, a link is established in synchronization with each other. , You can always communicate. In this state, if the mobile phone receives an incoming call, the in-vehicle device functions as a hands-free device, and if the user selects an audio player, the in-vehicle device functions as a playback device.

  Thereafter, when the electric field strength from the mobile phone or the audio player decreases and the link is disconnected, for example, as described in Patent Document 1 below, the connection is made immediately by trying to reconnect a predetermined number of times at a predetermined cycle. When the electric field strength with the device that has been restored is restored, it can be reconnected.

  In this case, if a device connected via a link other than the disconnected link is in use (during a hands-free call or audio playback), the CPU performs data communication and processing with the device in use. At the same time, the reconnection process with the device whose link has been disconnected is performed, so that the load on the CPU increases and there is a risk of failure such as sound interruption and data loss.

JP 2002-152309 A JP 2001-239897 A

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication connection apparatus that performs reconnection processing without affecting the operation of a device in use even when one of a plurality of links is disconnected.

  According to the present invention, a wireless communication means for establishing and communicating with a plurality of devices having a wireless communication function and a link is disconnected when one of the plurality of links is disconnected. When reconnection means that tries to reconnect to the device and a device connected by a link other than the disconnected link is in use, reconnection by the reconnection means is suppressed until the use is completed. And a wireless communication connection device.

  When a device connected by another link is in use, by suppressing the reconnection process until it is finished, an increase in CPU load is avoided and a failure caused thereby is avoided.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an in-vehicle audio apparatus having a multi-profile compatible short-range wireless communication function as an example of a wireless connection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a hands-free unit 14 having an antenna module 12 for short-range wireless communication with a mobile phone 10 and an audio player 11 and having functions for encoding, decoding and link establishment of short-range wireless communication signals. The main unit 22 is connected to the hands-free unit 14 via communication lines 13 and 15 and includes a user interface including a microphone 16, a speaker 18, a switch 19, and a display 20.

  The hands-free unit 14 includes a memory 26 and an input / output interface 28 for storing a program and data for the aforementioned encoding, decoding and link establishment operations of the CPU 24. The main unit 22 further includes a memory 32 for storing programs and data for the operation of the CPU 30, a serial interface 34, an audio interface 35, an audio interface 36, codecs 38 and 39, and a selector 40. Control signals and audio data are exchanged between the hands-free unit 14 and the main unit 22 via the communication line 13 between the input / output interface 28 of the hands-free unit 14 and the serial interface 34 of the main unit 22. Are exchanged via the communication line 15 between the input / output interface 28 and the voice interface 36.

  The main unit 22 is an in-vehicle audio device that further includes, for example, a CD player and a tuner (not shown). In addition to the operation mode as the audio device, the hands-free mode and audio for realizing the hands-free call of the mobile phone 10. A streaming playback mode for streaming playback of audio data from the player 11 is provided.

  In the hands-free mode, the downstream audio signal received at the antenna of the mobile phone 10 is decoded by the codec 38 via the audio interface 36 of the antenna module 12, the hands-free unit 14, and the main unit 22, and is selected by the selector 40 and the amplifier (FIG. The speaker 18 is sounded through (not shown). The upstream voice is encoded by the codec 38 through the microphone 16 of the main unit 22 and transmitted from the antenna of the mobile phone 10 through the voice interface 36, the hands-free unit 14, and the antenna module 12. The display 20 of the main unit 22 serves as a display for displaying an incoming call display, and the switch 19 is a switch for an operation such as a response (off-hook), and is configured by a touch switch, a key switch, or the like.

  In the streaming playback mode, the audio data from the audio player 11 is decoded by the codec 39 via the antenna module 12, the hands-free unit 14, the serial interface 34 of the main unit 22, and the audio interface 35, and a selector 40 and an amplifier (not shown). ), The speaker 18 is sounded.

  When the mobile phone 10 and / or the audio player 11 approaches the hands-free unit 14 and the electric field intensity of the radio waves from them becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the mutual communication is performed according to the short-range wireless communication protocol of the standard by Bluetooth SIG ((Special Interest Group). When the hands-free unit 14 notifies that the link has been established, the CPU 30 of the main unit 22 displays the link on the display screen of the display 20 as shown in FIG. Displays an icon corresponding to the established profile.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the processing of the CPU 30 of the main unit 22 executed when a link loss (link disconnection) occurs in one of the links established with a plurality of devices. When notified from the hands-free unit 14 that a link loss has occurred, the corresponding icon is blinked to notify the user that a link loss has occurred (step 1000). Next, if a link other than the profile in which the link loss has occurred is in execution (step 1002), it waits for it to end (step 1004). The re-connection of the generated link is instructed to the hands-free unit 14 (step 1006).

  In use here, if it is a hands-free profile, it means that the hands-free unit 14 and the main unit 22 are operating as hands-free devices, and the selector 40 selects the output of the codec 38. However, if it is an AV profile, it means that the data from the audio player 11 is being streamed and the selector 40 has selected the output of the codec 39. That is, if a link loss occurs with the mobile phone 10 during the reproduction of data from the audio player 11, the reconnection process is not started immediately, but the reconnection process is performed after the reproduction is stopped or paused. Do. Conversely, if a link loss occurs with the audio player 11 during a hands-free call, the reconnection process is not started immediately, but the reconnection is started after the call ends.

  If the reconnection process fails, reconnection is attempted up to a predetermined number of times until a time-out occurs (step 1010), and if the connection is timed out without success, the corresponding icon is deleted from the screen (step 1012). If the connection is successful, the corresponding icon is turned on again (step 1014).

  Here, the CPU 30 of the main unit 22 has a history of devices connected so far for each profile on the memory 32 as shown in FIG. 4 in the case of a hands-free profile, for example. In the reconnection process in step 1006, a request for reconnection is made to “mobile 1” that is the last connected device.

  It is desirable that the number of reconnections and the period (trial time) can be set interactively using the switch 19 and the display 20. The connection with the device having the wireless communication function is continued until the power of the wireless connection device is turned off or a disconnection request is issued from the user.

  The processing of the main unit 22 described so far can be realized by software programmed for the operation of the CPU 30 stored in the memory 32 of the main unit 22.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the vehicle-mounted audio apparatus which has a near field communication function corresponding to a multi profile as an example of the wireless connection apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the displayed icon. 4 is a flowchart of processing of the main unit 22. It is a figure explaining a connection history.

Claims (4)

Wireless communication means for establishing and communicating with a plurality of links with a plurality of devices having a wireless communication function;
Reconnection means for attempting to reconnect to the device whose link has been disconnected when one of the plurality of links is disconnected;
A wireless communication connection device comprising: suppression means for suppressing reconnection by the reconnection means until use is terminated when a device connected by a link other than the disconnected link is in use.   2. The wireless communication connection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the link of the device in use is disconnected, reconnection with the device in use is preferentially attempted.   The wireless communication connection device according to claim 1, further comprising notification means for notifying a connection state with the plurality of devices.   The wireless communication connection device according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication is short-range wireless communication.

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