JP5898786B2 - Optical communication device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an optical communication device, for example, a communication device that transmits sensor data and location information using optical communication.

  In the intelligent production field such as research and development, communication among members is deeply related to productivity. In teamwork at the workplace, tacit knowledge gained from each person's professional activities is masticated through formal communication and utilized as common knowledge, realizing a more advanced knowledge production cycle. The

  As a means for detecting this intra-organizational communication, a technology has been developed that uses a sensor device worn by a person to detect and visualize the intra-organizational communication and to help improve the organization.

  Infrared communication is used for communication detection. Infrared communication is less affected by reflection and transmission compared to general wireless communication, and detects that terminals are placed facing each other. Suitable for that.

  When detecting communication using a terminal worn by a person, a stationary communication device, for example, an ID sent by an infrared transmitter installed on the ceiling is received by the terminal worn by the person, and the terminal is mounted There is a technique to acquire the position of a person. Such a stationary communication device is hereinafter referred to as an infrared beacon.

  On the other hand, the above-mentioned concept that workplace productivity depends on communication is not only for intelligent production sites, but also so-called office work such as customer service at stores and hospital medical practices such as staff and customers, doctors and nurses. It is common in other workplaces. At these workplaces in the field, there are various attitudes and physiques when communicating. In addition, since store customers and hospital patients frequently move in the facility, more precise position detection accuracy is required.

  In other words, the infrared beacon installed to detect the position of the wearer needs to control the irradiation range according to the required detection accuracy and the physique and posture of the target. Furthermore, in order to obtain a more detailed position detection resolution, it is necessary to install a large number, and downsizing is required.

  In many cases, light rays from infrared beacons are emitted vertically above the substrate. This is because, in the case of irradiation in the horizontal direction, there is a restriction on the arrangement of parts on the substrate so that the optical axis of the emitted infrared rays does not interfere with the adjacent parts.

  When configuring an infrared beacon that emits light in the direction of the side of the substrate while using an infrared light emitter that emits light in the vertical direction of the substrate, it is necessary to change the optical axis with some optical system.

  As a method of changing the optical axis, Patent Document 1 discloses a structure in which the direction and irradiation range of light emitted from a housing are controlled using a conical mirror. In Patent Document 1, the lamp is irradiated upward and is split by a conical mirror installed on the top of the housing. The direction of the light beam is controlled by the angle of the cone of the conical mirror. However, the angle cannot be changed dynamically during operation.

JP 2009-302063 A

  In the prior art, the irradiation angle of the light beam of the infrared beacon is fixed to the device, and cannot be changed to a desired irradiation range according to installation conditions by simple field work. Furthermore, although there is a lighting equipment technology that uses a conical mirror to control the optical axis to control the irradiation range, on the other hand, because of the need to mount an angled optical system in the housing, There was a side effect of increasing the thickness and increasing the size.

  In addition, with the expansion of the application of communication detection in workplaces other than office work, there is also a problem that the reach of the rays of infrared beacons that are compatible with conventional intelligent production sites is insufficient. .

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an on-site work in which the irradiation range of an infrared beacon is simplified while reducing the size and thickness of an optical communication device in an optical communication device that operates on a battery and transmits location information via optical communication. And a technology for extending the reach of the infrared beacon.

  In order to achieve the above object, typical inventions disclosed in the present application are as follows.

  An optical communication device that operates on a battery and transmits location information by infrared rays, and has an optical adjustment unit that adjusts an irradiation range of a light beam emitted from a light emitting unit, and the optical adjustment unit and the battery are connected to a circuit board. Mounted on the same surface, the optical adjustment unit is mounted in the space made by the housing, circuit board, light emitting unit and battery, and the light emitting time of optical communication and the presence or absence of modulation are selected, the optical communication reach It is characterized by controlling.

  According to the present invention, in an optical communication device that operates on a battery and transmits location information via optical communication, the irradiation range of the infrared beacon can be easily achieved by simple field work while reducing the size and thickness of the optical communication device. And a technology for extending the reach of the infrared beacon.

The figure which shows the structure of the optical communication apparatus which is one Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the business microscope system which is one Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram of the name tag type sensor device which is one Embodiment of this invention. The overhead view which shows the horizontal installation example of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The side view which shows the horizontal installation example of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The overhead view which shows the vertical installation example of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The side view which shows the vertical installation example of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of arrangement | positioning of the battery and infrared transmitter on an infrared beacon circuit board which are one Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram of the infrared transmitter which is one Embodiment of this invention. The side view of the example of arrangement | positioning of the battery on the infrared beacon circuit board and infrared transmitter which is one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a shape of the optical system of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a shape of the optical system of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a shape of the optical system of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The structure figure of the infrared rays beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of arrangement | positioning of the infrared transmitter on the infrared beacon circuit board which is one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of a shape of the optical system of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The fragmentary figure which shows the example of a shape of the optical system of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the example of arrangement | positioning which shows the positional relationship of the infrared transmitter of an infrared beacon, and an optical system which is one Embodiment of this invention. The time chart of the communication of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The time chart of the communication of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention. The time chart of the communication of the infrared beacon which is one Embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
<Description of optical communication system (business microscope system) using infrared beacons>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an optical communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In order to clarify the position and function of an infrared beacon in the present invention, an optical communication system using an infrared beacon (hereinafter referred to as a business microscope system) will be described first. Here, this business microscope system refers to the wearer's situation (for example, the wearer's position, movement, posture, or voice characteristics) acquired by a name tag type sensor terminal worn by a human, the surrounding situation, and wearing It is a system for summarizing the face-to-face information of each other and illustrating the relationship between persons and the current evaluation (performance) of the organization as an organization activity to help improve the organization.

  Furthermore, not only in the field of intellectual production such as research and development, but also in business fields where communication between people in the organization is strongly related to performance, such as stores in the field of work, medical sites, etc. It aims to improve efficiency by visualizing and analyzing the flow of communication between patients and staff.

  An infrared beacon (IRB) has one or a plurality of infrared light emitters and transmits its own ID to transmit location information to other terminals. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the case where two infrared light emitters (BLED1, BLED2) are provided is illustrated.

  The structure peculiar to the present invention is to have an optical adjustment unit (BBC) for controlling the optical axis and irradiation range of the irradiated infrared rays. A mirror, a lens, a prism, or the like is applied to the optical system constituting the optical adjustment unit (BBC).

  In the present embodiment, a structure having three types of mirror-type optical systems (BM11, BM12, and BM13 mirrors for BLED1 and BM21, BM22, and BM23 mirrors for BLED2) that can be selected per light emitter is shown. . The optical systems BM12 and BM22 are planar mirrors, the irradiation direction changes, and the width of the irradiation range does not change. On the other hand, since BM11 and BM23 are convex mirrors, the irradiation range varies widely with the optical axis direction. Moreover, since BM13 and BM21 are concave mirrors, the irradiation range is narrowed.

  The microprocessor (BMCU) is a semiconductor circuit that controls the entire infrared beacon. The infrared light emitter is controlled in a sequence according to the set value by the program.

  The infrared ID is set by an ID setting switch (BID). A transmission signal is converted into a transmission signal by a transmission circuit (BTR), current is amplified by an infrared light emitter driver (BDR), and the infrared light emitters (BLED1, BLED2) are driven. The emission intensity is adjusted by current limiting resistors (BRES1, BRES2).

  As a structure peculiar to the present invention, there is a case in which a modulator (BMOD) is provided and whether a transmission signal is directly driven or modulated and transmitted is selected by BMSEL. A plurality of signals generated by the timing generator (TDIV) are selected by BTSEL.

  In general, by modulating infrared light, it becomes strong against disturbance and can extend the communication distance. Further, the communication distance changes by changing the time such as the light emission length and the light emission interval. Each timing is generated by a timing generation unit (TDIV) based on the time base (BTB). Selection of BTSEL and BMSEL is controlled by an operation control unit (BCTR), and the operation of the operation control unit can be set by a modulator (BMOD).

  The present invention changes the presence / absence of modulation, the light emission time, and the light emission interval according to the application, and controls the infrared communication distance, so that it can be applied to various applications just by changing the set value even though it is a single infrared beacon. Making it possible.

  The infrared beacon operates on a battery (BBAT). However, as shown in the present embodiment, the infrared beacon may include an external power supply terminal (EXT) and may be designed to operate with an external power supply.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a typical system configuration of a business microscope system.
The business microscope system is characterized in that a person wears name tag type sensor devices (NN1, NN2). Generally, two or more people wear it. In the name-tag type sensor device, the person-to-person face-to-face, behavior, environment in which the person is placed, and the like are acquired and accumulated by the sensor, and data is collected via the business microscope system base station (BS1). Communication between the name tag type sensor device and the business microscope system base station may be performed using wireless communication or wired communication.

The name tag type sensor device includes an infrared transceiver. The infrared transmitter / receiver has two roles, one is the function to detect the face-to-face between the wearers, and the other is to receive signals from the infrared beacons (IRB1, IRB2) installed at each location. This is a function for detecting when and where the wearer was.
Infrared communication has higher straightness than wireless communication, has a characteristic that communication is difficult to be dispersed and reflected, and is suitable for detecting that terminals are facing each other.

  Data collected by the business microscope system base station (BS1) is first prepared inside the information equipment (BSPC) by the operation of the base station host program (BSH) incorporated in the information equipment (BSPC) represented by a PC or the like. Stored in the base station DB (BSDB).

  Thereafter, data is collected in the server DB (SVDB) provided in the signal server (SV) by protocol communication between the base station middle program (BSM) and the server middle program (SVM) provided in the signal server. The signal server has a function of collectively storing sensor data acquired by a plurality of name tag type sensor devices.

The feature value analysis program (FTR) of the analysis server (FV) accesses the server DB (SVDB) of the signal server (SV) via network communication, acquires and analyzes the sensor data, and stores it in the analysis DB (FDB). Store.
The analysis result is accessed by the display program (HTP) stored in the information terminal (HTPC) typified by the PC via the network communication to the analysis DB (FDB) and displayed by the display device (DSP).

  The information device, the signal server, the analysis server, and the display device do not need to be independent devices, and may be mounted on an appropriately integrated device.

  Next, functions of the name tag type sensor device (NN) will be described with reference to FIG. A name tag type sensor device acquires and records data transmitted and received by an infrared communication device, movement (calculated by acceleration), voice, and illuminance, temperature, etc. of the environment surrounding the wearer, and records them. Type terminal. The recorded data is transmitted to the business microscope system base station by the communication circuit.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the name tag type sensor device (NN) has four sets of infrared transceivers (IRTR1, IRTR2, IRTR3, IRTR4), and communicates with name tag type sensor devices worn by other people. The meeting is detected by exchanging the ID. Further, by receiving the ID of the infrared beacon placed at the place, it is detected where the wearer was. The wearer's movement, speech and environmental sound, surrounding brightness, and surrounding temperature are acquired by the acceleration sensor (ACC), microphone (MIC), illuminance sensor (LUM), and temperature sensor (THM), respectively.

  The detected and acquired face-to-face data, location data, and sensor data are recorded in a nonvolatile storage device, generally a flash memory (FLM). The recorded data is sent to the signal server by communication with the business microscope system base station of the previous day through a communication circuit (COM) as appropriate.

These infrared transceivers, sensors, nonvolatile memories, and communication circuits are controlled by a microprocessor (MPU).
<Description of infrared beacon function>
An infrared beacon is installed at a place, emits its own ID by infrared communication, and receives the name tag type sensor device or the like to detect the place. Since the name tag type sensor device (NN) is generally at the height of the chest of the wearer, it is desirable to install the infrared beacon at that height. The shape of an infrared beacon and installation examples are shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B, 5A, and 5B.

  4A and 4B show an example in which an infrared beacon (IRBH) is installed in the horizontal direction. FIG. 4A is an overhead view showing an installation state of an infrared beacon (IRBH), and FIG. 4B is a side view showing the infrared beacon and the installation position. The infrared beacon of the present embodiment has a short cylindrical shape and emits light rays in a horizontal 360 ° direction. When installed on a desk (TBLA) or the like in a conference room, information on the attendees of the conference can be grasped by emitting infrared rays in a range of 15 ° in the horizontal direction.

  5A and 5B show an example in which an infrared beacon (IRV) is installed in the vertical direction. FIG. 5A is an overhead view showing an installation state of an infrared beacon (IRBH), and FIG. 5B is a side view showing the infrared beacon and an installation position. When there is no horizontal base at the height of the target name tag type sensor device, it is installed on the side of the device (TBLB). Compared with the case where an infrared beacon is installed in the horizontal direction, it is necessary to irradiate an infrared ray toward the upper part of the device.

  The configuration of the infrared beacon according to the present invention is as described above with reference to FIG.

  Next, an arrangement example of the infrared light emitter and the battery will be described with reference to FIGS. 6, 7, and 8. Although FIG. 1 shows a case where there are two infrared light emitters, in this embodiment, an example including six infrared light emitters (LED1, LED2, LED3, LED4, LED5, LED6) is shown.

  FIG. 6 shows an arrangement example of each infrared light emitter. Six infrared light emitters (LED1, LED2, LED3, LED4, LED5, LED6) are arranged in the vicinity of the outer peripheral edge of the circular substrate at a constant interval. The battery (BAT) is arranged on the same substrate so as to be sandwiched between infrared light emitters.

  FIG. 7 is an overhead view showing an enlarged view of one of the infrared light emitters shown in FIG. 2 shows a general shape of a surface mount type LED often used for downsizing an apparatus. That is, the lens structure (LEDL) is provided on the top of the light emitting unit (LEDS), which is a semiconductor, and an irradiation angle according to the required specifications can be realized.

  Two electrodes for supplying power to the semiconductor, each having LEDA and LEDK, are mounted on the substrate surface by soldering. In this structure, it is not necessary to make holes on the circuit board for mounting, and it is suitable for high-density mounting. In this example, infrared rays are emitted vertically above the substrate. This is because, in the case of irradiation in the horizontal direction, there is a restriction on the arrangement of parts on the substrate so that the optical axis of the emitted infrared rays does not interfere with the adjacent parts.

  When a light beam is emitted to the side surface of the substrate while using an infrared light emitter that is irradiated with light rays vertically above the substrate, an optical system for directing the light beam to the side surface is required above the infrared light emitter.

In FIG. 8, the figure which looked at the infrared beacon in a present Example from the side surface (downward direction of FIG. 6) is shown. As for the infrared light emitter, LED1, LED6, LED5, and LED4 are illustrated, but LED2 and LED3 are omitted because they are positioned behind each other. By mounting an infrared emitter (LED1, LED6, LED5, LED4) and battery (BAT) on the upper surface of the circuit board (PCB), an optical system is installed in the space between the substrate, infrared emitter and battery. A space for mounting and the optical adjustment units LR1 and LR2 are configured.
By adopting this configuration peculiar to the present invention, the thickness of the battery and the space of the optical system are offset, which contributes to downsizing.
<Description of optical system (1)>
A specific example of the optical system mounting space mounted on the optical adjustment units LR1 and LR2 of FIG. 8 described above will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the case of irradiating a light beam toward the upper side of the housing, the infrared light emitter emits the light beam in the vertical direction of the substrate. That is, the casing is sealed in the optical system mounting space without mounting the optical system. On the other hand, when it is desired to irradiate light toward the side surface of the housing, it is necessary to direct the optical axis irradiated in the vertical direction to the side surface.

9A to 9E show examples of the optical system mounted in the optical system mounting space described above.
FIG. 9A shows an example in which the 90 ° optical axis is directed to the side surface by a mirror. The optical system A (BM-A) has a structure having a mirror having an angle of 45 ° with respect to the substrate. When the irradiation range of the light beam emitted from the infrared light emitter (LED) is ± 15 °, the irradiation range is ± 15 ° even after the 90 ° optical axis is changed by the mirror.

  FIG. 9B shows an example in which the mirror of the optical system is configured as a concave surface. By the optical system B (BM-B), the optical axis is directed in the lateral direction, and at the same time, it is narrowed from the irradiation range of the infrared light emitter by concave reflection. That is, the irradiation range becomes narrower than ± 15 °.

  FIG. 9C shows an example in which the mirror of the optical system is configured as a convex surface. By the optical system C (BM-C), the optical axis is directed in the side surface direction, and at the same time, the optical system C (BM-C) irradiates the convex surface with a wider area than the irradiation range of the infrared light emitter. In other words, irradiation is performed with an irradiation range wider than ± 15 °.

  The change angle of the optical axis does not need to be 90 °, and the angle may be adjusted according to the application. For example, in FIG. 9D, the optical system D (BM-D) includes a mirror having an angle larger than 45 ° with respect to the substrate, the optical axis is changed to be smaller than 90 °, and the irradiation is slightly upward from the housing. It becomes a corner.

  In contrast, in FIG. 9E, the optical system E (BM-E) includes a mirror having an angle smaller than 45 ° with respect to the substrate, the optical axis is changed to be larger than 90 °, and the optical system E (BM-E) is slightly downward from the housing. It becomes the irradiation angle.

  When the housing is circular and the infrared light emitter is arranged on the circumference as shown in FIG. 6, the shape of the mirror according to the present embodiment is an inverted conical curved surface as shown in FIG. The inverted conical outer surface corresponds to the mirror shown in FIG. Therefore, for example, the outer surface corresponding to FIG. 9B has a concave surface.

  FIG. 11 is a modification of the inverted conical curved surface shown in FIG. That is, it is not necessary to make the optical system continuous where the light rays do not hit due to the arrangement of the infrared light emitters, and may be configured with only a part or a part lacking as shown in the figure. In this embodiment, an example is shown in which a battery is disposed between LEDs and an optical system is configured to avoid a space in which the battery is mounted.

  FIG. 12 illustrates the structure of the infrared beacon with the above configuration. FIG. 12A illustrates a case where a mirror type optical system is mounted on the optical adjustment unit so that the light beam is directed to the side surface, and FIG. It is an Example in the case of irradiating with light rays.

  On the lower lid (ENB), a circuit board having an infrared light emitter (LED) and contacts (BC1, BC2) for mounting a battery on the upper surface is fixed. FIG. 12A shows an example in which the battery is mounted on the upper surface of the substrate, and an optical system (inverted conical mirror) is mounted in a space between the substrate, the battery, and the upper lid (ENU). The optical system has an inverted conical mirror structure, and in order not to interfere with the battery, the BM 11 and the BM 12 are divided into two parts. Since the infrared light emitter is not mounted at the battery position, the optical system is not deteriorated by the division.

A case where an optical system is not mounted on the optical adjustment unit is an example of FIG.
As shown in the above-described embodiments, the optical system mounted on the optical adjustment unit is configured to be easily replaceable and removable (for example, screwed), so that the light irradiation direction can be easily changed in the field work. be able to.
<Description of optical system (2)>
As another example of the optical system described in the description (1) regarding the optical system, the characteristics of the optical system mounted on the optical adjustment unit are not exchanged, but an infrared emitter (LED), an optical system (BM), and The example of the structure changed with the positional relationship of is shown.

  FIG. 13 shows an optical system (BM) when six infrared light emitters are mounted. Since there are six infrared emitters, the optical system (BM) is also divided into six. FIG. 14A and FIG. 14B show one divided portion. FIG. 14A is an overhead view of the optical system (BM) shown in FIG. 13 and shows one of the mirrors formed on the outer surface. Although it is an inverted conical ring as a whole, as shown in FIG. 14B, the shape of the side mirror for one side is concave as it goes to the right side of the figure, and convex as it goes to the left side. Yes. In this embodiment, the central part is a straight line.

  That is, when the light beam from the infrared light emitter is irradiated to the right side of the ring, the concave reflection in FIG. 9B, and when irradiated to the center of the ring, the plane reflection in FIG. 9A is irradiated to the left side of the ring. And convex reflection in FIG. 9C.

  In FIG. 15, the optical system (BM) is rotated while fixing the circuit board (PCB) and the LED mounted thereon, and the position of the mirror is determined by the positional relationship between the infrared light emitter (LED) and the optical system (BM). A structure that dynamically changes the characteristics is shown.

FIG. 15A shows a case where the light does not rotate, and the light beam emitted from the infrared light emitting LED is applied to the linear portion of the optical system (BM) and operates only by changing the optical axis. FIG. 15B shows a case where the optical system is rotated 20 ° to the right. Light rays emitted from the infrared light emitter LED are applied to the concave surface portion of the optical system (BM), and the irradiation range is narrowed. FIG. 15C shows the case where the optical system is rotated 20 ° to the left, and the light beam emitted from the infrared light emitter LED is irradiated to the convex surface portion of the optical system (BM), and the irradiation range is extended. The
<Light emission length change mechanism>
An embodiment of the optical communication system in the present invention is shown in FIG.
What is transmitted is a unique ID consisting of ID setting (BID), the total of 2 bytes of ID and 2 bytes of a 16-bit cyclic redundancy check code (CRC16) as a means for confirming whether transmission data has been correctly received. Send 4 bytes.

  The transmission data is encoded for each byte. As shown in FIG. 16 (B), a start bit of logical value 0 indicating the beginning of a byte is 1 bit and 8 bits of transmission data, and a stop bit of logical value 1 indicating the end of the byte is 10 bits in total. It becomes the data of.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 16C, the transmission time of 1 bit is 16 μs, and the transmission time of 4 bytes as a whole is 0.16 ms and 0.64 ms. For example, if communication is performed once per second, this time is sufficiently short, and is suitable as the transmission time.

  FIG. 16C shows an example of a 1-bit transmission waveform. Infrared light is emitted when the logical value is 0, and is not emitted when the logical value is 1. In order to reduce power consumption during infrared light emission, the light emission pulse is made shorter than 16 μs, which is a transmission time for one bit. FIG. 16C shows an example in the case of emitting light for 3 μs, for example.

  In general, in optical communication, as the communication distance increases, the optical energy attenuates with the square of the distance, and the probability that a bit error will occur increases. In this embodiment, in order to obtain a longer communication distance, it has a function of increasing the light emission energy by extending the light emission time.

  In FIG. 1, the light emission time of infrared communication is generated by the timing generation unit (TDIV) with reference to the time base (BTB). Selection of the light emission timing BTSEL is controlled by an operation control unit (BCTR), and the operation of the operation control unit is set by an operation setting switch (BMOD).

  A transmission waveform in which the light emission time is extended by this mechanism is shown in FIG. Compared with the normal transmission waveform 1 shown in FIG. 16C, the light emission time is doubled and the communication success rate is increased. On the other hand, since the entire transmission time does not change, there is no need to change the optical communication protocol on the receiving side.

Of course, the light emission time can be dynamically changed according to the communication conditions regardless of the set value. Further, as shown in FIG. 16E, the pulse length may be extended and the bit length may be further changed.
<Selection of presence / absence of modulation>
FIG. 17 shows an embodiment of an encoding method when modulation is used for infrared communication.
Typically, 16 bits for 2 bytes of its own unique identification information and 16 bits for 2 bytes obtained by inverting the logical value of the data information are transmitted as means for confirming whether transmission data has been correctly received. Before transmitting the entire data, a logical value 1 is transmitted for 1 ms and a logical value 0 is transmitted for 1 ms as a leader code indicating the head of the data. The transmission data is encoded bit by bit, and when the data information is 0, the logical value 1 is transmitted for 500 μs and the logical value 0 is transmitted for 500 μs. When the data information is 1, a logical value 1 is transmitted for 500 μs and a logical value 0 is transmitted for 1500 μs. Finally, a logical value 1 is transmitted for 500 μs as a stop bit indicating the end of the data.

  Although the transmission time differs depending on whether the data information is 0 or 1, the total transmission time becomes a fixed 50 ms by adding information obtained by inverting the logical value of the data information. For example, if communication is performed once every 10 seconds, this time is sufficiently short, and is suitable as the transmission time.

  Infrared light is emitted when the logical value is 1, and is not emitted when the logical value is 0. In order to further increase the transmission distance and reduce the power consumption during infrared light emission, the light emission of logical value 1 is modulated into short pulses. FIG. 17F shows an example in which the pulse is modulated to, for example, a 40 kHz duty 50% pulse. Of course, a modulation frequency other than 40 kHz may be used.

  By using the modulation signal for infrared communication, resistance to disturbance can be improved and the communication distance can be extended.

The modulator (BMOD) in FIG. 1 can select whether to drive the transmission signal as it is or to transmit it with modulation using the BMSEL.
The present invention is characterized in that transmission processing can be performed in the same light emitter regardless of the presence or absence of modulation. Therefore, it is possible to mix two kinds of signals with and without modulation.

FIG. 18 shows a time series when a signal with modulation and a signal without modulation are mixed. As described above, signals with modulation are longer in communication time than in the case of no modulation. However, if the transmission interval t1 of signals without modulation is set longer than the communication time of signals with modulation, they do not interfere with each other. Further, although the light emission time and the number of times increase the power consumption of the modulated signal, the increase in the power consumption can be suppressed by increasing the transmission interval t2 of the modulated signal.
Of course, it is also possible to determine which ID is received on the receiving side by changing the ID with and without modulation.

Claims (10)

An optical communication device that transmits information via optical communication,
A light emitting unit for irradiating light provided for the optical communication provided on one main surface of the circuit board;
A power supply unit for driving the light emitting unit;
An optical adjustment unit that adjusts an irradiation range of light emitted from the light emitting unit, and
The optical adjustment unit and the power supply unit are placed on one main surface of the circuit board,
The optical adjustment unit is sandwiched between an upper lid provided on one main surface side of the circuit board and a lower lid provided on the opposite side of the one main surface, and is fixed to the circuit board.
An optical communication device. The optical adjustment unit includes an optical member that changes an irradiation range of light rays from the light emitting unit,
Having a structure removable from the circuit board to replace the optical member with another optical member having different optical properties;
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the irradiation range of the light beam from the light emitting unit is changed by replacing the optical member with another optical member. The optical adjustment unit includes an optical member that changes an irradiation range of light rays from the light emitting unit,
An optical path conversion surface provided on one side of the optical member is composed of a plurality of regions having different optical characteristics, and by changing the optical positional relationship between the light emitting unit and the optical adjustment unit, Change the irradiation range,
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 1. The plurality of regions having different optical characteristics include a plurality of reflecting surfaces having different curvatures on an optical path conversion surface provided in the optical member.
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 3. The reflection surface having a different curvature provided on the optical path conversion surface is composed of a surface formed by continuously changing the curvature from the concave surface to the convex surface,
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 4. The circuit board is circular;
A plurality of the light emitting portions are arranged on the outer edge portion of the circuit board, and the irradiation range is expanded by irradiating the light rays from the outer edge portion of the circuit board.
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 1. The diameter of the circular circuit board is set to be smaller than the length in the longitudinal direction of the power supply unit,
The power supply unit is disposed in the circuit board region including the circular center so as to face each of the plurality of light emitting units arranged.
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 6. An operation control unit for controlling a light emission length of the optical communication,
By changing the emission pulse width of the optical communication by the operation control unit, the reach of the optical communication is controlled,
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 1. An operation control unit for modulating the pulse of the optical communication,
The operation control unit controls the reach of the optical communication by controlling the presence or absence of pulse modulation of the optical communication;
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 1. An operation control unit for modulating the pulse of the optical communication,
The optical communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation control unit controls transmission of both a signal with modulation and a signal without modulation in a time division manner.

Images