JPH06164507A - Infrared duplex communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an infrared duplex communication equipment which can easily correspond to the move of an equipment using infrared space communication. CONSTITUTION:A transmission/reception directivity alterating means 107 which can change the directivity of transmitting infrared beams and received infrared beams by interlocking is provided. The directivity of transmission/reception is changed by changing the position of a case 107 which moves a transmission lens 103 and a reception lens 106 by interlocking them in the direction of the axes of the lenses.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an infrared bidirectional wireless communication device, and more particularly to an infrared directivity variable communication technique suitable for easily responding to movement of the wireless communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, not only remote controllers for home electric appliances such as televisions and VTRs, but also devices that employ infrared communication for communicating information such as OA devices and audio data and voice using infrared rays have been increasing. The distance and range for infrared communication vary depending on the purpose. As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-109830, there are many products that use a prism or a lens to determine the direction and directivity of infrared signal transmission and reception.

[0003]

Recent personal computers, word processors, electronic notebooks, televisions, VTs.
Many of the information devices such as R and video movies, audiovisual products, and home appliances are characterized by their small size and light weight, and they can be carried easily. When infrared space communication is adopted for such devices, the devices are frequently moved. Therefore, if the directivity of infrared signal transmission and reception is fixed, the range of movement of the device, the place of use, and the method of use are therefore fixed. There is a problem that is fixed. The purpose of the present invention is to
It is an object of the present invention to provide a two-way infrared communication device that can easily cope with the movement of a device using infrared spatial communication.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, as a bidirectional infrared communication device, directivity of infrared rays to be transmitted and infrared rays to be received are interlocked. A changeable transmission / reception directivity changing means is provided. Here, as the transmission / reception directivity changing means, a structure is provided in which one or more lenses are provided in the infrared transmitter and the infrared receiver, and infrared rays are transmitted and received through the lenses, and the infrared transmitter and the infrared receiver. A lens position moving means may be provided for moving all or a part of the lenses in the axial direction of the lens. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the second lens 10 for transmission is used.
3 is moved from the position shown in FIG. 1A to the position of the case 107 that moves the first lens for reception 106 in conjunction with each other.
The directivity of transmission and reception can be changed by changing to the position shown in (b). Alternatively, as the transmission / reception directivity changing means, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, a structure is provided in which one or more lenses are provided in the infrared transmitter and the infrared receiver, and infrared rays are transmitted and received through the lenses. A lens or a lens group of the infrared transmitter and the infrared receiver may be interlocked and exchangeable. For example, in FIG.
The transmission / reception lens housed in the case 307 shown in FIG. 3A is replaced with another case 31 shown in FIG.
The transmission / reception lens housed in 0 may be exchangeable. Alternatively, as the transmission / reception directivity changing means, it is possible to select and equip any one of a plurality of configurations having an infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver having different directivities of radiation and incident infrared rays, For example, the structure shown in FIG. 4 can be adopted as the structure in which the infrared transmitter and the infrared receiver are interlocked with each other and can be attached and detached. For example, in FIG. 4, the portion 403 containing the transmitting / receiving unit can be attached / detached by the connectors 402 and 405 so that the directivity can be changed. Further alternatively, as the transmission / reception directivity changing means, an automatic directivity control means for automatically controlling the means and an infrared communication state detection means for detecting whether infrared communication is favorably performed are provided, and the directivity of infrared transmission / reception is controlled. It may be automatically controlled. Examples of the automatic control are shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, for example.

[0005]

With the above-mentioned means, by changing the directivity of the transmission and reception of the infrared signal in accordance with the situation such as the positional relationship of the equipment for communication, it is possible to perform the infrared space communication suitable for the usage situation of the equipment. Like For example, if the positional relationship between communicating devices is far apart, the directivity is narrowed, and if the positional relationship moves to the left or right, the directivity is widened, so that it is possible to secure communication between both devices. Moreover, all the above means for changing the directivity can be configured by a simple mechanism. Even if the above-mentioned device moves, the positional relationship between the infrared transmitter and the receiver is always the same in each device that communicates with each other. The directivity can be changed more easily by changing both in conjunction. That is, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform bidirectional infrared communication that can easily cope with the movement of a device using infrared spatial communication.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Figure 2
Shows a configuration for bidirectional communication by infrared rays in the information processing apparatus, and those not directly related to infrared ray communication are omitted. In the figure, 201, 21
Reference numeral 1 is an information processing apparatus main body, 202 and 212 are central processing units (CPU) that control the information processing apparatus, 203 and 21.
Reference numeral 3 is a parallel / serial conversion unit that converts a signal to be transmitted by infrared rays into a serial signal, 204 and 214 are modulation units that modulate the signals serialized by the parallel / serial conversion units 203 and 213, and 205 and 215 are transmission units. Infrared light emitting diode drive unit for driving an infrared light emitting diode for converting a signal from an electric signal to infrared light, 206, 2
Reference numeral 16 is an infrared light emitting diode that converts a signal into infrared rays and emits it. Reference numerals 207 and 217 are photodiodes that receive an infrared signal incident from another and convert it into an electric signal, 208 and 21.
Reference numeral 8 is an amplification unit that amplifies the electric signal converted by the photodiodes 207 and 217, reference numerals 209 and 219 are demodulation units that demodulate the amplified electric signals, and 210 and 220 are serial / parallel conversion units that convert the demodulated signals into parallel signals. Is. When data is transmitted from the information processing device 201 to the information processing device 211, the CPU 202 of the information processing device 201
Sends data to be transmitted to the parallel / serial conversion unit 203, and the data converted into serial data by the parallel / serial conversion unit 203 is modulated by the modulation unit 204 and sent to the infrared light emitting diode drive unit, and the infrared light emitting diode 20
At 6, the infrared signal is converted and radiated into space. When the radiated infrared signal reaches the photodiode 217 of the information processing device 211, it is converted into an electric signal by the photodiode 217 and sent to the amplifier 218. The amplifying unit 218 amplifies the sent electric signal and sends it to the demodulating unit 219.
The signal demodulated by the demodulation unit 219 is parallelized by the serial / parallel conversion unit 220. The CPU 212 receives the parallelized data. Data transmission from the information processing device 211 to the information processing device 201 is similarly performed.
In the above infrared communication device, the infrared signal emitted from the transmitting side must be received by the photodiode on the receiving side with a power of a certain intensity or more in order to perform proper communication. However, the infrared power output from the transmitting side is limited due to power consumption, cost, or safety of the device.
Therefore, in order to carry out long-distance communication as much as possible with limited infrared light output, it is possible to give a certain directivity to infrared transmission and infrared reception with a lens, and to carry out long-distance communication compared to the case where no lens is used. Possible ways are possible.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a transmission / reception unit of a first embodiment of the present invention, which is an example of a method of adjusting directivity by a lens. FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B show a state in which the positional relationship of the lenses that are moved together is changed. 10 in the figure
1 is an infrared light emitting diode that emits an infrared signal, 102
Is a first lens that collects the infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting diode 101, and 103 is a second lens that further collects the infrared light that has passed through the lens 102. Reference numeral 106 denotes a first lens that collects infrared rays emitted from other devices, 10
Reference numeral 5 is a second lens that further collects the infrared light that has passed through the first lens 106, and 104 is a photodiode that receives the infrared light that has passed through the second lens 105 and converts it into an electrical signal. The second lens 107 on the transmitting side and the first lens 106 on the receiving side are fixed to a common case 107 so that they can move in conjunction with each other, and can move in a direction perpendicular to the lens surface. . Lens 1 with case 107
By moving 03 and 106, the directivity of infrared transmission and reception can be changed. In FIG. 1, (a)
The case 107 in the figure is closer to other parts than the case in the figure (b), and the directivity for both transmission and reception is narrower than that in the figure (b). Since the directivity is narrowed, the infrared light emitted from the infrared light emitting diode 101 does not spread greatly in the infrared transmission, so that the intensity of the infrared light is large even when the distance is long as compared with the case where the directivity is wide. Further, even on the receiving side, compared with the case where the directivity is wide, the incident infrared rays can be condensed in a narrow range and an infrared signal having a large power can be sent to the photodiode 104. However, if the directivity is narrow, the range in which infrared signals can be transmitted or received is narrow, so the communication area is limited, so the direction of infrared transmission and reception and the position of the other party's device that communicates are accurate. Need to be adjusted to. Therefore, by changing the directivity as necessary, the directivity suitable for the situation such as the communication distance and the communication direction can be selected. Further, since it is considered that the infrared transmission and reception positions of the communication partner device are almost the same, the directivity of transmission and reception can be changed in conjunction with each other, which saves labor and improves usability.
Although some lenses are interlocked in FIG. 1, the same effect can be obtained by interlocking all the lenses. Although the directivity is changed by using the lens in the above-mentioned embodiment, a method of obtaining the same effect by using one or a plurality of reflecting plates is also conceivable.

Next, the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. This drawing is a block diagram of the second embodiment and has a structure almost the same as that of FIG. FIGS. 3A and 3B show that lenses having different directivities are used as the lenses that are changed in conjunction with each other. In the figure, 301 is an infrared light emitting diode that emits an infrared signal, and 302 is an infrared light emitting diode 3.
303, a first lens for collecting infrared rays emitted by 01
Is a second lens that further collects the infrared light that has passed through the lens 302. Further, 306 is a first lens that collects infrared rays emitted from other devices, and 305 is a first lens 306.
Second lens that further collects infrared rays that have passed through 304
Is a photodiode that receives the infrared light that has passed through the second lens 305 and converts it into an electrical signal. The second lens 307 on the transmission side and the first lens 306 on the reception side are fixed to the same case 107, and the case 307 can be attached and detached. As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of cases equipped with lenses having different properties are prepared, and the lenses can be exchanged according to the usage conditions such as distance and direction with the communication partner.
Appropriate directivity can be obtained. The lenses to be replaced may generally be a lens group.

Next, a third embodiment will be described. FIG. 4 shows a part of the information processing apparatus of this embodiment. In the figure, 401 is a housing of the information processing device, 402 is a connector for connecting an infrared transmitting / receiving unit, 403 is a head having an infrared transmitting unit and an infrared receiving unit built therein, 404 is an arm supporting the head 403, and 405 is infrared transmitting / receiving. It is a connector for connecting the unit to the information processing apparatus main body. In the case of performing infrared communication, a signal to be transmitted is sent from the information processing apparatus main body to the head 403 through the connectors 402 and 405 and the arm 404, is converted into an infrared signal by an infrared transmitting section in the head 403, and is emitted. Further, the received infrared signal is received by the infrared receiving section in the head 403 and converted into an electric signal. Furthermore, the arm 404, the connector 4
It is sent to the information processing apparatus main body through 05 and 402. Since the infrared transmission / reception unit can be attached / detached between the connector 402 of the main body and the connector 405 of the infrared transmission / reception unit, a plurality of infrared transmission / reception units with different directivity of infrared transmission and reception are prepared in advance to communicate with a communication partner. Appropriate directivity can be obtained by changing the infrared transmitter / receiver according to the usage conditions such as distance and direction. Further, the infrared transmitter / receiver can be removed when the infrared communication is not performed. Because the arm 404 is flexible, the arm 404
It is possible to freely set the directions of infrared transmission and reception by adjusting.

Next, a fourth embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the information processing apparatus of this embodiment. In the figure, a lens movement control unit 501 is added to the configuration described in FIG. Further, FIG. 6 shows a motor 6 for automatically moving the case 107 according to the lens moving method described in FIG.
01 is added. In FIG. 5, the CPU 202 controls the lens movement control unit 501 to move the motor 601 to control the position of the case 107, which is omitted in FIG. When the information processing apparatus 201 performs infrared communication with another device, a communication confirmation code is transmitted by infrared in order to confirm that communication with the other device is possible. When the other party's device receives the communication confirmation code, it sends back a reception confirmation code notifying the reception. When the information processing apparatus 201 receives the reception confirmation code, infrared communication with the other party's device is possible, and the communication is performed as it is.

However, if the reception confirmation code cannot be received within a certain period of time, it means that the infrared signal is not normally transmitted or received.
Controls the lens movement control unit 501 to move the motor 601 to move the case 107 by a predetermined distance, and confirms the infrared communication again. As a result of the confirmation of the communication, if it is confirmed that the normal communication can be performed, the communication is performed as it is, and if it is not confirmed, the case 107 is further moved to confirm the communication. When the communication is not normal as a result of checking the communication at all the predetermined positions of the case 107, it is impossible for the user to use the infrared communication in the present state by using the information notifying means such as the display device. Notify that. By performing the control as described above, it is possible to automatically detect the directivity suitable for the usage situation and perform communication in transmitting and receiving the infrared signal.

In the above embodiments, the case where infrared rays are used has been shown, but the bidirectional communication structure according to the present invention can be applied not only to infrared rays but also to spatial communication using light including visible rays.

[0013]

According to the present invention, the directivity of transmission and reception of infrared communication can be changed in conjunction with each other, so that it is possible to reduce restrictions on a communication partner such as a positional relationship.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a transmission / reception unit according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram of infrared communication.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a transmission / reception unit according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an external view of a transmitter / receiver according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a transmission / reception unit according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 206, 216, 301 ... Infrared light emitting diodes 104, 207, 217, 304 ... Photodiodes 102, 103, 105, 106, 302, 303, 3
05, 306 ... Lens 107, 307, 310 ... Case 202, 212 ... CPU 203, 213 ... Parallel / serial conversion section 204, 214 ... Modulation section 205, 215 ... Infrared light emitting diode drive section 208, 218 ... Amplification section 209, 219 ... Demodulation section 210, 220 ... Serial / parallel conversion section

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kazuhide Nishiyama 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi Hitachi, Ltd. Microelectronics Device Development Laboratory

Claims (5)

[Claims] Claim: What is claimed is: 1. An infrared transmitter for transmitting a signal to another device by converting an electric signal to be transmitted into infrared light and radiating the infrared light into a space, and an infrared signal sent from another device to be received and converted into an electric signal. A bidirectional infrared communication device having an infrared signal receiving unit for converting, comprising a transmission / reception directivity changing unit capable of changing the directivity of an infrared ray to be transmitted and an infrared ray to be received. 2. The bidirectional infrared communication device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission / reception directivity changing means is provided with one or a plurality of lenses in the infrared transmitting section and the infrared receiving section, and infrared rays are transmitted through the lenses. And a lens position moving means for moving all or part of the lenses of the infrared transmitter and the infrared receiver in conjunction with the axial direction of the lens. Infrared communication device. 3. The bidirectional infrared communication device according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting / receiving directivity changing means is provided with one or a plurality of lenses in the infrared transmitting section and the infrared receiving section, and infrared rays are transmitted through the lenses. A two-way infrared communication device comprising: a structure for transmitting and receiving data, and a structure in which a lens or a lens group of the infrared transmitting unit and the infrared receiving unit can be interlocked and exchanged. 4. The bidirectional infrared communication device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission / reception directivity changing means has a plurality of configurations including an infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver having different directivities of radiated and incident infrared rays. A bidirectional infrared communication device having a structure in which an infrared transmitter and an infrared receiver are detachably attached so that any one can be selected and installed. 5. The bidirectional infrared communication device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission / reception directivity changing means detects whether the infrared ray communication is favorably performed with an automatic directivity control means for automatically controlling the means. Equipped with infrared communication state detection means,
A bidirectional infrared communication device characterized by automatically controlling directivity of infrared transmission and reception.