JPH1069581A - Light emitting device for identification - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily, speedily and exactly find a specified object out of real darkness or many similar objects by displaying the optical signal of a transmitter by turning on or flickering plural visible light emitting diodes(LED) at a receiver. SOLUTION: The transmitter is composed of an external transmission source 1 such as a low-power type radio light emitting device and an antenna 2. When the frequency to be used is defined as a VHFUHF band and there is an output from 1mW to 10mW, radio waves reach the range from 10m to 200m. The receiver is composed of an antenna 3, receiving part 4 and light emitting part 5 such as a visible LED. Then, when a signal from the external transmission source 1 is received, the visible LED is turned on or flickered. It is enough for the receiving part 4 to sufficiently improve its sensitivity to the external transmission source 1 and a homodyne or heterodyne system is preferable.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of transmitting a coded signal or a signal of a specific wavelength from a transmitting device so that a light-emitting portion of the receiving device that receives the signal lights or blinks. The present invention relates to a light-emitting device for identification in which a specific object to which the receiving device is attached or placed stands out, so that the object can be easily and quickly found.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a coded signal or a signal of a specific wavelength is transmitted, a light emitting unit of a receiving device that receives the signal is turned on or blinked.
There is no identification light emitting device that makes a specific object on which the receiving device is attached or mounted stand out.

[0003]

Generally, a vehicle is placed in a place where many cars are parked, for example, when the vehicle is placed in darkness or in a large parking lot or a stadium. If you place your car in the first place, it remembers the location of your car, but it is easy to find your car after a certain amount of time has passed or the parking situation has changed due to the movement of another car. It is actually very time-consuming,
This is true for more cars. In addition, even if many people use a clog box without a door, or if many people take off their shoes in a place other than a clog box, where are their shoes out of many shoes? It is very difficult to find out.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art, and to make it possible to easily, quickly and accurately find a specific object from among many things such as darkness or the like. Another object of the present invention is to provide an identification light emitting device.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a light emitting device for identification according to the present invention comprises a transmitting device having a light emitting element capable of arbitrarily setting a coded optical signal, and a transmitting device transmitted from the transmitting device. A light-receiving element that responds only to any coded optical signal and a receiving device that has a light-emitting unit that indicates that the optical signal has been received. A light-receiving element that responds to the optical signal when the optical signal transmitted therefrom is reflected back to the transmitter, and a lens that can move in the direction of the optical axis is arranged on the transmitter. And a light emitting unit for displaying that the optical signal has been received, and the display on the receiving device is performed by turning on or blinking the light emitting unit composed of one or more visible light emitting diodes.

[0006]

The user of the identification light-emitting device should place the receiving device in a dark place or in a place where there are many similar objects, and in a particular place or part that is particularly conspicuous for a particular one he or she wants to find. Attach or place. For example, in the case of a car, on the dashboard inside or on the front board or rear board, and in the case of the outside, it is necessary to consider measures against theft. Attach or mount the receiving device on the top of the device. The receiving device may be attached or placed at any location as long as a signal from the transmitting device reaches the receiving device and the user can visually recognize the light of the light emitting unit. Regarding the method of placing or installing, it may be simply placed or attached with an adhesive seal or the like interposed. Other attachments, such as attachments such as magnets and ski carriers, can also be used.

After that, if a signal is transmitted from the transmitting device to the receiving device, the receiving device causes the light emitting portion to emit light in response to the signal, so that even in the dark, many objects of the same type are present. Even in a certain situation, the user can easily find what he or she wants to find, such as a car.

[0008] Further, as another example in the case of installing in a car,
If a high-mount stop lamp composed of a light-emitting diode is used as a light-emitting unit and a driving signal is sent to a light-emitting circuit of this lamp when a signal is received by a receiving unit, a unique light-emitting unit is not required and a car battery can be used. Since it is used, only the configuration of the receiving unit is sufficient. Therefore, the whole apparatus can be made smaller and lighter, and can be realized at low cost. Although the vehicle has been described as an example, the application of the present invention is not limited to ordinary vehicles, buses, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles, but it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to other vehicles.

[0009] Also, when searching for a specific person from the crowd, when searching for one's shoes from a large number of shoes, or when traveling, etc., one can find one's own goods from many other luggage. It is convenient when searching, etc., and its application is widely considered.

[0010] As a transmitting device for transmitting a coded signal or a signal of a specific wavelength, for example, a low power type or weak power type radio transmitting device or an optical transmitting device having an infrared light emitting diode is used. The signal transmitted from the receiving device is received by a receiving device including a light receiving element such as a homodyne or heterodyne receiver or a pin photodiode, a phototransistor, or a SIT phototransistor as a receiving device. For example, a light emitting element such as a visible light emitting diode may be turned on. in this case,
The light emitting element can be turned on or off by incorporating an IC, a transistor, a relay circuit, or the like in the receiving circuit.

It is preferable to use a SIT phototransistor as the light receiving element because the SIT phototransistor has remarkably superior sensitivity characteristics as compared with other transistors and pin photodiodes. Comparing the same optical sensor as an example, an output signal current of 1 μA can be obtained with a MOS type.
With the type, an output of 100 μA or more can be obtained. Also,
Compared with the CCD type, it has a sensitivity characteristic several orders of magnitude higher. From this point of view, the SIT phototransistor is an element that can catch even a weak optical signal transmitted from a place far away from other light receiving elements.
In addition, when an infrared light emitting diode is used as a light emitting element in order to enable use during the day, it is appropriate to use a light receiving element having the best sensitivity characteristic for infrared wavelengths. Although a phototransistor using silicon (Si) is possible, an element using Ge (germium) can be expected to improve sensitivity characteristics.

When the wavelength used is infrared, the transmitting element of the transmitting device and the receiving element of the receiving device are covered with glass or resin made of a material that cuts the wavelength of visible light, or the entire device is used. Is covered with a resin such as a red-to-red-black plastic or the like, it can be used without malfunction due to the influence of sunlight or the like.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of a light emitting device for identification according to the present invention, wherein 1 is an external transmission source such as a low power type wireless light emitting device, and 2 is an antenna, which constitutes the transmission device. doing. VHF used frequency
If the output is as high as 1 mW to 10 mW, radio waves reach a range of about 10 m to 200 m.

Reference numeral 3 denotes an antenna of a receiving unit described later, 4 denotes a receiving unit, 5 denotes a light emitting unit such as a visible light emitting diode, and these constitute a receiving device. Then, when a signal from the external transmission source 1 is received, the visible light emitting diode 5 is turned on or blinks. The receiving unit 4 is an external transmission source 1
It is sufficient that the sensitivity is sufficiently high with respect to, and a homodyne or heterodyne type is preferable.

In order to further facilitate the task of specifying what should be identified, in this embodiment, the external source 1 and the receiving section 4 may be provided with a modulator and a demodulator, respectively. That is, the modulating side encodes and modulates an arbitrary combination of characters or numbers, and the demodulating side blinks the visible light emitting diode by responding only to the encoded signal. In this way, since the receiving unit 4 responds only to a signal of a specific code, it is possible to prevent the influence of interference and noise, and as a result, it becomes easy to specify an object to be identified. External source 1
The same effect can be obtained even if the frequency or wavelength of the receiver 4 can be arbitrarily selected.

FIG. 2 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a receiver according to another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2, and FIG.
FIG. 9 is a schematic perspective view of a transmitting device according to another embodiment. FIG.
In the figure, reference numeral 11 denotes a cylindrical housing, and a plurality of light receiving elements 12 such as SIT phototransistors are built in the side surface thereof so that light from the outside reaches the light receiving portion via the convex lens 13. A plurality of visible light emitting diodes 14 are built in the upper part of the housing 11, and a substantially hemispherical lid 15 having a lens effect covers the visible light emitting diodes 14. Diode 14
A battery 16 for emitting light is built in.

As shown in FIG. 3, four light receiving elements 12 are arranged concentrically with the housing 11 and outward.
A convex lens 13 and a specular reflector 17 are provided in front of the convex lens 13 to increase the light receiving sensitivity. The method of arranging the light receiving elements 12 is not limited to this, and the entire circumference of the housing 11 is covered, for example, by arranging the light receiving elements 12 on the side surface of the housing 11 without using the reflection plate 17 and without any gap. Any configuration may be used. Furthermore, the shape of the housing 11 is not limited to a cylindrical shape, and a configuration in which the light receiving unit and the light emitting unit are separated separately may be used.

As shown in FIG. 4, the transmitting device comprises:
An infrared light emitting diode 19 serving as a transmission source, and a convex lens 20 movable with respect to the optical axis direction for adjusting a projection angle.
, The battery 21 and the drive switch 22 are housed in the case 18. The effect of the lens 20 is that, when the car to be searched is at a relatively short distance, by widening the light projection angle, it is possible to send an optical signal over a wide range even when the light intensity is relatively weak. As a result, the receiving device can be captured in a short time and an optical signal can be transmitted to the receiving device. Further, when an optical signal is transmitted at a long distance, the light projection intensity can be increased by reducing the light projection angle, so that the reception accuracy can be improved.

FIG. 5 shows a basic circuit of the transmitting device and the receiving device of the present embodiment. The circuit of the transmitting device includes a battery 21 for causing the infrared light emitting diode 19 to emit light, a switch 22, a limiting resistor 23, and the like. The circuit of the receiving device includes a light receiving element 12 and a battery 16 for causing the light emitting diode 14 to emit light.

FIG. 6 shows an application example of the receiving circuit.
In this example, in order to prevent the current flowing through the light emitting diode 14 of the light emitting unit from decreasing when the input optical signal is weak, a constant output is always supplied to the light emitting diode 14 regardless of the input light amount. An amplification stabilizing circuit 24 is incorporated.

By incorporating a hold circuit for the output to the light emitting diode 14 in series with the stabilizing circuit, even if the input signal is momentary, once the signal is input, the output signal is continuously transmitted. Can be Further, by incorporating a timer circuit, the operation of the hold circuit can be limited to a fixed time.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a mounting structure of the receiving device, in which a car radio antenna or the like is used as a mounting portion. As a matter of course, by using the antenna, the receiving device can be installed at a position higher than the ceiling of the car. As a mounting method of the receiving device,
There is a method of attaching the antenna via a leaf spring sandwiched between the antennas, or an attachment metal fitting 27 which is fitted into the antenna and fixed with screws. Also in this case, only the receiving unit may be attached to the antenna, and the light emitting unit may use a high-mount stop lamp or the like.

FIGS. 8 and 9 are a schematic sectional view and a schematic perspective view of an embodiment in which a light receiving element is also mounted on the transmitting device side. As shown in FIG. 8, a light receiving element 28 is installed next to the light emitting element 19, and the light receiving element 28 is configured to be housed in the case 18 in parallel with the infrared light emitting diode 19 via a convex lens 29. .

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, when the emitted light signal is reflected and returned, the light receiving element 2 on the transmitting device side is used.
9 captures this signal, and the light emitting diode 30 in front of the switch 22 is turned on or off. The circuit of this embodiment is the same as the transmitting circuit and the receiving circuit shown in FIG. If this is used, in the unlikely event that a high vehicle such as a wagon or a truck is parked on the left, right, front and back of the car, it will be blocked by that car and installed in the receiver installed on the target car. When the light does not reach, the light reflected from the car with a high ceiling is captured by the light receiving element 29 on the transmitting device side, and the light emitting diode 30 is turned on to notify that there is an obstacle. Therefore, if there is no light emission from the receiving device even if the light projection direction is turned to the other direction, it is possible to know that the own vehicle is in the parking direction of a high vehicle. By incorporating the light receiving element 29 also on the transmitting device side in this way, the identification of the target object becomes easy and quick.

[0025]

As described above, according to the light-emitting device for identification according to the present invention, in the darkness or in a place where there are many similar things, the user can easily find a particular thing he wants to find out. If the device of the present invention is attached or placed at a place, the specific object can be found quickly and easily. For example, it can help you find your car in a parking lot, but it is also useful for finding your bag from a lot of luggage, such as when traveling, not only for cars, Its applications are widespread.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of one embodiment of a light emitting device for identification according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a receiving device of another embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A 'of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a transmitting device according to another embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a basic circuit diagram of a transmitting device and a receiving device according to another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an application example of a receiving circuit.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an example of how to attach a receiving device.

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view of a transmitting device according to still another embodiment.

9 is a schematic perspective view of the transmitting device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 External transmission source 2, 3 Antenna 4 Receiving part 5, 4 Visible light emitting diode 11 Housing 12, 28 Light receiving element 13, 20, 29 Convex lens 15 Cover 16, 21 Battery 17 Specular reflector 18 Case 19 Infrared light emitting diode 22 Drive switch 23 Limiting resistor 27 Mounting bracket

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transmitting device having a light-emitting element capable of arbitrarily setting a coded optical signal, a light-receiving element responding only to an arbitrary coded optical signal transmitted from the transmitting device, and a light-receiving element. And a receiving device having a light emitting unit that indicates that the light has been received. A light emitting device for identification, comprising: a lens movable in an optical axis direction in front of a light emitting element of the transmitting device to adjust a light projecting angle. The transmitting device is provided with a light receiving element responding to the optical signal when the optical signal transmitted therefrom is reflected and returned, and a light emitting unit for displaying that the optical signal has been received. A light-emitting device for identification, wherein the display on the receiving device is performed by turning on or off a light-emitting portion composed of one or more visible light-emitting diodes.