JP2001305206A - Gps receiving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To sufficiently reduce power consumption. SOLUTION: This device is composed of, a GPS receiving part 1 for calculating the present position by receiving a signal from a GPS satellite, a sensor 2 for variation in conjunction with movement; a movement amount calculation part 3 for calculating a movement amount by accumulating the output values of the sensor 2, and a GPS receiving control part 4 for starting the GPS receiving part 1 when the movement amount exceeds a threshold value.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a GPS receiver used for portable use.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A GPS receiving device is a device that receives radio waves from a plurality of GPS satellites and executes a calculation of a reception position, that is, a positioning calculation. When this GPS device is used for portable applications, reduction of power consumption has become a major issue in order to extend battery life.

Conventionally, as a method of reducing power consumption, a method of periodically starting / stopping has been used. This is especially true for mobile applications, where travel speeds are low,
It is premised that the startup and positioning are performed periodically so that the movement can often be followed to some extent.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above conventional GPS
In the case where the receiving apparatus is stationary without moving, the same position is repeatedly obtained, which wastes power. In addition, if priority is given to reduction in power consumption, when a person runs, it may not be able to follow, and there is a problem in followability such that the speed that can be followed becomes low. That is, there is a trade-off between reduction of power consumption and followability, and it cannot be considered that power consumption is sufficiently reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a GPS receiver capable of sufficiently reducing power consumption.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a GPS receiving apparatus for receiving a signal from a GPS satellite and calculating a current position, and a GPS receiving unit for calculating a current position. A sensor for detecting a change, a movement amount calculation unit for calculating a movement amount by integrating output values of the sensor, and a GPS reception control unit for activating a GPS reception unit when the movement amount exceeds a threshold value Configuration.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the GPS receiving apparatus according to the first aspect, the sensor is any one of an acceleration sensor, a speed sensor, and a vibration sensor.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the GPS receiving apparatus according to the second aspect, when the sensor is a vibration sensor, the GPS receiver is based on the vibration frequency as the movement amount and the current position before and after the movement. , The threshold value is converted from one of the frequency or the moving distance to the other.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a GPS receiver which receives a signal from a GPS satellite (not shown) and calculates a current position. An acceleration sensor 2 detects acceleration as a change accompanying the movement of the GPS receiver.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a movement amount calculation unit which integrates and accumulates the acceleration, which is the output value of the acceleration sensor 2, twice.
Calculate the moving distance (moving amount). In this movement amount calculation unit 3, a limit movement distance is set in advance as a threshold, and it is determined whether or not the movement distance exceeds the limit movement distance, and the determination result is sent to a GPS reception control unit 4 described later. input.

The limit moving distance set as a threshold value in the moving amount calculating section 3 is appropriately adjusted in accordance with the interval for detecting the locus of movement. Therefore, as the limit travel distance is set to be longer, the activation frequency of the GPS receiver 1 is reduced, and power consumption can be reduced.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a GPS reception control unit.
When the judgment result input from the above indicates that the moving distance exceeds the limit moving distance, the power is turned on and the GP
Activate the S receiving unit 1.

In such a GPS receiver, a GPS
Since the reception control unit 4 activates the GPS receiving unit 1 when the moving distance exceeds the limit moving distance as a threshold, the following moving distance is set in advance as the limit moving distance, so that the followability is improved. Without interfering with
Power consumption can be reduced.

Further, by integrating the acceleration detected twice as a change accompanying movement twice, the movement distance (movement amount) can be calculated, so that the movement distance can be easily calculated.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. In addition, only different points from the first embodiment will be described, and the same portions as those in the first embodiment will be denoted by the same reference numerals. In the first embodiment, the acceleration sensor 2 that detects acceleration as a change accompanying the movement of the present GPS receiver is provided. In the present embodiment, a vibration sensor that detects vibration as a change accompanying the movement of the present GPS receiver is provided. 5 and a stride calculation unit 6 is further provided.

The moving amount calculating section 3 calculates the vibration frequency (moving amount) by integrating the vibrations which are the output values of the vibration sensor 5. Here, since the vibration detected by the vibration sensor 5 is considered to be derived from human walking, the vibration frequency can be regarded as the number of steps. A limit number of steps is set as a threshold value in advance in the movement amount calculation unit 3, and it is determined whether or not the number of steps exceeds the limit number of steps, and the determination result is input to the GPS reception control unit 4.

The movement amount calculation unit 3 can set the limit movement distance as a threshold value by multiplying the step length and the limit number of steps input from the step calculation unit 6 described later. That is, the movement amount calculation unit 3 converts the threshold value from the value based on the number of steps to the value based on the movement distance, and the reverse conversion is also possible.

When the above-mentioned number of steps exceeds a preset limit number of steps (threshold), the GPS reception control section 4 turns on the power and activates the GPS reception section 1.

The stride calculating section 6 calculates the frequency (step number) described above.
And the current position before and after the movement. Therefore, the stride calculating section can calculate the stride based on the moving distance and the frequency (the number of steps) calculated based on the current position before and after the movement. The stride calculated by the stride calculation unit 6 is input to the movement amount calculation unit 3 as described above.

In such a GPS receiver, a GPS
Since the reception control unit 4 activates the GPS reception unit 1 when the number of steps exceeds the limit number of steps as a threshold value, setting the maximum number of steps that can be followed in advance as the limit number of steps impairs the followability. Power consumption can be reduced.

Further, based on the frequency (the number of steps), which is the amount of movement, and the current position before and after the movement, the threshold can be converted from the frequency (the number of steps) to the movement distance, and vice versa. Even if one of (the number of steps) or the moving distance is set, it can be appropriately converted to the other.

In the present embodiment, the threshold value is converted from the frequency (the number of steps) to the moving distance, and the reverse conversion is also possible. For example, when the reverse conversion is not planned, the reverse conversion is performed. Need not be possible, in which case the configuration of the movement amount calculation unit 3 can be made simpler.

[0024]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a GPS receiving apparatus comprising:
When the moving amount exceeds the threshold value, the GP
Since the S receiving unit is activated, by setting a threshold value of the amount of movement that can be followed in advance as a threshold, power consumption can be reduced without impairing the followability.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, when the sensor is an acceleration sensor, the acceleration detected as a change accompanying movement is integrated twice. When the sensor is a speed sensor, the integration is performed by integrating the speed detected as a change accompanying the movement, whereby the movement that is the movement amount is calculated. The distance can be calculated, and when the sensor is a vibration sensor, if the vibration is derived from walking, the number of steps, which is the amount of movement, can be calculated by integrating the vibration detected as a change accompanying movement, Further, when the stride is known, the moving distance, which is the moving amount, can be calculated from the number of steps and the stride, and thus the moving amount can be easily calculated.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effects of the second aspect of the GPS receiving apparatus, the threshold is set to the frequency or the moving distance based on the frequency as the moving amount and the current position before and after the moving. Since the threshold value is converted from one to the other, the threshold value can be appropriately converted to the other even if the threshold value is set for either the vibration frequency or the moving distance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 GPS reception part 2 Acceleration sensor 3 Movement amount calculation part 4 GPS reception control part 5 Vibration sensor

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Wakio Yamada 1048 Kadoma Kadoma, Osaka Pref. Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. (72) Inventor Takuya Sueto 1048 Kadoma Kadoma, Kadoma, Osaka Pref. Matsushita Electric Works (72) Inventor Masahito Fukuda 1048 Kadoma Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Inside Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. (72) Inventor Kenji Okuno 1048 Kadoma Odoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Inside Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. (72) Kazuhiro Kawamoto Osaka 1048 Kadoma, Kadoma, Fumonma-shi Matsushita Electric Works Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5J062 BB05 CC07 DD21 FF00 FF04

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A GPS receiver for receiving a signal from a GPS satellite to calculate a current position, a sensor for detecting a change accompanying movement, and a movement amount for calculating a movement amount by integrating output values of the sensors. A GPS receiving device comprising: a calculating unit; and a GPS receiving control unit that activates a GPS receiving unit when a movement amount exceeds a threshold. 2. The GP according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is one of an acceleration sensor, a speed sensor, and a vibration sensor.
S receiver. 3. When the sensor is a vibration sensor,
The GPS receiver according to claim 2, wherein the threshold value is converted from one of the frequency and the moving distance to the other based on the frequency as the moving amount and the current position before and after the moving.