JP2011208948A - Radio controlled watch - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To receive a radio wave at a timing having an excellent reception environment, when receiving a radio wave based on an instruction of a user, in a radio controlled watch for receiving a radio wave from a satellite such as a GPS satellite, and correcting a time.SOLUTION: This radio controlled watch 100 for correcting an internal time based on information on a present time and information on a present leap second included in a transmission wave from a satellite includes an environmental information acquisition means for acquiring environmental information on a reception environment where the radio controlled watch is placed, and an operation means for receiving operation of the user. The radio controlled watch is put into an environmental information monitoring state for monitoring the environmental information by the environmental information acquisition means based on operation of the operation means, and in the environmental information monitoring state, extracts information included in the transmission wave from the satellite based on the environmental information.

Description

  The present invention relates to a radio wave wristwatch.

  Patent Document 1 describes a GPS wristwatch that receives a satellite signal from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite and corrects the time based on GPS time information included in the satellite signal. In the invention described in this document, indoor / outdoor determination is made based on the power generation amount from the solar panel and the output waveform from the acceleration sensor, and the reception is determined. The reception timing is performed at a specific time (paragraph 0037).

JP 2008-39565 A

  The radio wave from the GPS satellite is in the UHF band of 1575.42 MHz and has high straightness. Therefore, the radio wave path between the antenna and the satellite is greatly affected by an obstacle such as a building or a multipath caused by a reflected wave. For this reason, radio wave wristwatches that adjust the time by receiving radio waves from GPS satellites may or may not be received depending on the location of the GPS satellites at the moment of reception, even if there are radio wave wristwatches at the same position. There may be cases. In addition, when the radio wave wristwatch user performs an operation to instruct the reception of radio waves to correct the time, for example, the operation itself such as pressing a button covers the antenna in the user's hand and the reception environment is impaired. obtain.

  If the radio wristwatch receives radio waves based on the user's instructions as described above, if the reception environment is bad, the reception immediately fails and the reception operation itself is terminated. Convenience is not good. In addition, since it is difficult to receive, if the user performs an operation to instruct the reception of radio waves over and over again, the high-frequency circuit and the decoding circuit that consume a large amount of power must be operated each time, and the power consumption increases. There is a concern that

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and when a radio wave wristwatch that receives radio waves from satellites such as GPS satellites and corrects the time is received when receiving radio waves based on user instructions. The purpose is to receive radio waves in a time when the environment is good.

  In order to solve the above problems, a radio-controlled wristwatch that corrects an internal time based on information on the current time and information on the current leap second included in a transmission wave from a satellite according to the present invention is provided with the radio-controlled wristwatch. Environment information acquisition means for acquiring environment information related to the received environment and operation means for accepting a user's operation, and environment information is monitored by the environment information acquisition means based on the operation of the operation means In a monitoring state, information included in a transmission wave from the satellite is extracted based on the environmental information in the environmental information monitoring state.

  According to the present invention, when a radio wave wristwatch that receives radio waves from a satellite such as a GPS satellite and corrects the time is received based on a user's instruction, the radio waves are received at a timing in which the reception environment is good. can do.

1 is a plan view of a radio-controlled wristwatch according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the positional relationship of the member arrange | positioned inside a radio-controlled wristwatch. It is a functional block diagram of the radio-controlled wristwatch according to the first embodiment. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the sub-frame of the signal transmitted from a GPS satellite. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a subframe 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a page 18 of a subframe 4. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the user of a radio wave wristwatch operates operation means, such as a button, and instruct | indicates reception of the electromagnetic wave from a GPS satellite. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the user of a radio wave wristwatch operates operation means, such as a button, and instruct | indicates reception of the electromagnetic wave from a GPS satellite. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the user of a radio wave wristwatch operates operation means, such as a button, and instruct | indicates reception of the electromagnetic wave from a GPS satellite. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the user of a radio wave wristwatch operates operation means, such as a button, and instruct | indicates reception of the electromagnetic wave from a GPS satellite. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the user of a radio wave wristwatch operates operation means, such as a button, and instruct | indicates reception of the electromagnetic wave from a GPS satellite. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when the user of a radio wave wristwatch operates operation means, such as a button, and instruct | indicates reception of the electromagnetic wave from a GPS satellite. It is a figure which shows the structure of the electromagnetic wave receiver of the radio wave wristwatch which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the electromagnetic wave receiver of the radio wave wristwatch which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the electromagnetic wave receiver of the radio wave wristwatch which concerns on the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the electromagnetic wave receiver of the radio wave wristwatch which concerns on the 5th Embodiment of this invention.

[Embodiment 1]
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a radio-controlled wristwatch 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In the same figure, a case 1 that is the exterior of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100, a dial 2 that is arranged in the case 1, and an hour hand 3, a minute hand 4 and a second hand 5 that are hands indicating time are arranged coaxially. Yes. The dial plate 2 is formed of a nonmagnetic and non-conductive material, for example, a synthetic resin, so that radio waves arriving from the satellite can be transmitted and received by a patch antenna disposed behind the dial plate 2. Further, on the axis different from the hour hand 3, the minute hand 4, and the second hand 5, a state display hand 6 that is a pointer for displaying the state of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is disposed. A state display scale 7 which is a scale indicating various states is described. A crown 8 and buttons 9 are arranged on the side surface of the trunk 1 on the 3 o'clock side for various operations by the user. A band fixing portion 10 for fixing the band extends from the side surface of the trunk 1 at the 12 o'clock side and the 6 o'clock side.

  In addition, the design of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 shown in the figure is an example. In addition to those shown here, for example, the barrel 1 may be square instead of round, and the presence / absence, number, and arrangement of the crown 8 and the button 9 are arbitrary. In the present embodiment, the hands are the four hands, that is, the hour hand 3, the minute hand 4, the second hand 5, and the status display hand 6. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the second hand 5 may be omitted or provided on a separate axis. May also serve as the state display needle 6. Furthermore, a pointer for performing various displays such as a day of the week, the presence / absence of a time zone or daylight saving time, a remaining battery level, and a date display may be added, and the status display hand 6 may also serve as these displays. good.

  In this specification, the term radio-controlled wristwatch refers to time information that is a wristwatch and that receives radio waves from the outside and is held inside the wristwatch based on information about the time included in the radio waves. It is used to indicate a wristwatch having a function of correcting a certain internal time.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the positional relationship of members arranged inside the radio-controlled wristwatch 100. As shown in FIG. In the figure, for reference, the exterior of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 including the trunk is indicated by a two-dot chain line.

  Reference numeral 11 denotes a patch antenna that receives radio waves from a GPS satellite, and is arranged so that its receiving surface faces the windshield side. A battery 12 is disposed beside the patch antenna. In this embodiment, the battery 12 is a rechargeable secondary battery, and uses a button-type lithium ion secondary battery. And the electric power produced | generated by the solar cell formed in the dial plate or installed behind the dial plate is accumulate | stored.

  By the way, in general, in a radio timepiece that performs time adjustment using a standard radio wave transmitted from a ground station using a long wave band, a so-called bar antenna in which a coil is wound around a magnetic core such as a ferrite or an amorphous alloy is used. Many. On the other hand, the radio wave wristwatch 100 according to the present embodiment receives a signal transmitted from a GPS satellite using a UHF band having a much higher frequency. For this reason, the patch antenna 11 is used as a small antenna suitable for receiving a UHF band signal.

  In the present embodiment, the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is shown as including a secondary battery that is driven by electric power generated by solar power and can store electricity. However, a primary battery may be used instead. In that case, a solar cell is unnecessary. Further, the shape of the battery 12 is not limited to the button type, and is arbitrary. Further, a secondary battery other than the lithium ion secondary battery, for example, a lithium ion capacitor or a nickel metal hydride battery may be used.

  Reference numeral 13 denotes a controller that controls the operation of the entire radio-controlled wristwatch 100 and measures the time using an internal circuit. Further, on the opposite side across the patch antenna 11 and the battery 12, there are a high-frequency circuit 14 that converts a signal received by the patch antenna 11 into a baseband signal, and a decode circuit 15 that extracts information from the baseband signal. It is shown.

  The arrangement of the controller 13, the high frequency circuit 14, and the decoding circuit 15 shown here is an example. In particular, in the present embodiment, the high-frequency circuit 14 and the decode circuit 15 are arranged at opposite positions on both sides of the circuit board, and by connecting them through through holes, the wiring path connecting the two is shortened, and the parasitic capacitance The impedance is reduced to reduce the effect of noise. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the high frequency circuit 14 and the decode circuit 15 may be arranged on the same surface of the circuit board, or a one-chip integrated circuit in which the functions of the high frequency circuit 14 and the decode circuit 15 are integrated is used. Also good.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 according to the present embodiment. The radio wave from the GPS satellite received by the patch antenna 11 is converted into a baseband signal by the high-frequency circuit 14, and the decoding circuit 15 performs TOW, which is information about the time, and if necessary, the WNWeek Number) or the current leap second. The current leap second Δt _{LS as} information is extracted and passed to the controller 13. The controller 13 is a microcomputer that controls the operation of the entire radio-controlled wristwatch 100, and also has a clock circuit therein, and has a function of measuring the internal time, which is the time held by the clock circuit. ing. The accuracy of the clock circuit is about ± 15 seconds per month, although it depends on the accuracy of the crystal unit used and the usage environment such as temperature. Of course, this accuracy may be arbitrarily set as required. In addition, the internal time held by the clock circuit is accurately maintained by being appropriately corrected based on the received time information and the current leap second information.

  The controller 13 receives a signal from an operating means (the crown 8, the button 9) that receives an external operation by a user or the like. Further, the controller 13 outputs a signal for driving the motor 17 based on the internal time, and the time is displayed by driving the hands (the hour hand 3, the minute hand 4, and the second hand 5). Further, a signal corresponding to the state of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is output to the motor 17 and the state display hand 6 is driven. The number of motors 16 that drive the hands is not limited to one, and a plurality of motors may be provided according to the number of hands that are desired to operate independently.

  The solar cell 18 is connected to the battery 12 via the switch 21, and is generated by the solar cell 18 in a state where the switch 21 conducts the solar cell 18 and the battery 12 according to an instruction from the controller 13. Electric power is stored in the battery 12. Then, power is supplied from the battery 12 to the high-frequency circuit 14, the decode circuit 15, and the controller 13. In addition, the solar cell 18 is also connected to the power generation amount detection unit 20 via the switch 21, and the solar cell 18 and the power generation amount detection unit 20 are electrically connected to each other in accordance with an instruction from the controller 13. The current generated by the battery 18 flows to the power generation amount detection unit 20. The power generation amount detection unit 20 converts this current into a voltage, further converts this voltage into a digital value, and supplies it to the controller 13. The switch 21 is a switch that switches on / off the power supply to the high-frequency circuit 14 and the decode circuit 15, and is controlled by the controller 13. Since the high-frequency circuit 14 and the decoding circuit 15 that operate at a high frequency consume a large amount of power, the controller 13 turns on the switch 21 only when receiving radio waves from the satellite to operate the high-frequency circuit 14 and the decoding circuit 15. In other cases, the switch 21 is turned off to reduce power consumption.

  In addition, the structure (switch 19 and power generation amount detection part 20) for detecting the power generation amount of the solar cell 18 by the controller 13 is the environment which shows the power generation amount of the solar cell 18 in the surroundings of the radio wristwatch as will be described later. It is for use as information related to information. Therefore, when the amount of power generated by the solar cell 18 is not used as information related to environmental information, this configuration is not essential and may be omitted if not necessary.

  In addition to receiving radio waves, the user of the radio wristwatch has set a predetermined time in addition to the operation of instructing reception of radio waves by operating the operation means such as the crown 8 or the button 9 in order to correct the time. At this time, it may be performed based on the elapsed time from the time when the previous time correction was made, the amount of power generated by the solar cell 18 or other information indicating the environment around the radio wristwatch 100, or the like.

Next, signals from GPS satellites received by the radio wristwatch according to the present embodiment will be described. The signal transmitted from the GPS satellite has a carrier frequency of 1575.42 MHz called L ₁ band, and is a C / A code specific to each GPS satellite modulated by BPSK (biphase shift keying) with a period of 1.023 MHz. And is multiplexed by a so-called CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) method. The C / A code itself is 1023 bits long, and the message data carried on the signal changes every 20 C / A codes. That is, 1-bit information is transmitted as a 20 ms signal.

  A signal transmitted from a GPS satellite is divided into frames each having 1500 bits, that is, 30 seconds, and the frame is further divided into five subframes. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a subframe of a signal transmitted from a GPS satellite. Each subframe is a 6-second signal including 300-bit information, and subframe numbers 1 to 5 are assigned in order. The GPS satellites sequentially transmit from subframe 1, and after completing transmission of subframe 5, return to transmission of subframe 1 again, and so on.

  At the head of each subframe, a telemetry word indicated as TLM is transmitted. The TLM includes a code indicating the head of each subframe and information on the ground control station. Subsequently, a handover word indicated as HOW is transmitted. The HOW includes TOW (Time Of Week), which is information about the current time, also called Z count. This is a time in 1.5 seconds counted from midnight on Sunday of GPS time, indicates the time when the next subframe starts, and is transmitted every subframe, that is, every 6 seconds. .

  Information following the HOW differs for each subframe, and subframe 1 includes satellite clock correction data. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of subframe 1. Subframe 1 includes a week number indicated as WN (Week Number) following HOW. That is, WN is transmitted every 30 seconds. WN is a numerical value indicating the current week counted from January 6, 1980 as week 0. Therefore, accurate date and time in GPS time can be obtained by receiving WN and TOW. Note that once WN has successfully received the radio wave wristwatch, it can know the correct value by counting the internal time unless the internal time is lost due to some reason, for example, the battery has run out. . Since WN is 10 bits, it returns to 0 again after 1024 weeks. The signal from the GPS satellite includes various other information, but information that is not directly related to the present invention is only shown in the figure and will not be described.

  Returning to FIG. 4 again, subframe 2 and subframe 3 include orbit information of each satellite called ephemeris following HOW, but the description thereof is omitted in this specification.

  Further, subframes 4 and 5 include general orbit information of all GPS satellites called almanac following HOW. Since the information accommodated in the subframes 4 and 5 has a large amount of information, the information is divided into units called pages and transmitted. The data transmitted in the subframes 4 and 5 is divided into pages 1 to 25, and the contents of different pages are sequentially transmitted for each frame. Therefore, it takes 25 frames, that is, 12.5 minutes, to transmit the contents of all pages.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the page 18 of the subframe 4. As shown in the figure, the current leap second Δt _LS, which is information related to the current leap second, is included in the 241st bit of page 18 of subframe 4. That is, Δt _LS is transmitted once every 12.5 minutes. Δt _LS indicates the difference between UTC and GPS time in seconds, and UTC is obtained by adding Δt _LS to GPS time.

As described above, the current date is obtained by acquiring TOW and WN included in a transmission wave from an arbitrary GPS satellite, and the current accurate time is obtained by further acquiring Δt _LS .

A brief description of leap seconds here is to correct deviations in the rotation period of the earth, etc. Based on astronomical observation results, Can be added or deleted at midnight. However, so far only irregular additions have been made at either midnight on January 1, midnight on July 1, or both. Δt _LS included in the signal from the GPS satellite indicates a difference between the GPS time accumulated by adding the leap second and UTC, and is updated when the leap second is added to the UTC. I think that the.

  Returning to FIG. 1 again, the state display scale 7 shows various states of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 indicated by the state display hand 6. In this embodiment, these are the reception operation display unit 22, the reception environment display. It is divided into a unit 23 and a time accuracy display unit 24.

The reception operation display unit 22 is a display indicating how the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is currently performing reception, and includes “R” and “W” displays. “R” indicates that the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is currently receiving radio waves, that is, operating the high-frequency circuit and the decoder circuit. On the other hand, “W” is a notice that the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is about to receive radio waves from GPS satellites. That is, the high-frequency circuit and the decoder circuit are not operated at the present time, but the user is notified that the reception is performed when the information to be acquired next is transmitted. In this case, the information to be acquired next is one or more of TOW, WN, and Δt _LS . For example, if the information to be acquired next is Δt _LS , the maximum is 12.5 minutes. Until the previous time point, it waits for Δt _{LS to} be transmitted. In the present embodiment, WN and Δt _LS are received after waiting for the next transmission timing.

  The reception environment display unit 23 is a display of information regarding environmental information indicating how suitable the environment in which the radio wristwatch 100 is placed is suitable for receiving radio waves from a satellite. In the present embodiment, the intensity of external light incident on the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is used as environmental information, and the magnitude is evaluated in three levels, so that the environmental information is displayed in three displays “1”, “2”, and “3”. It shows with. This is based on the fact that when the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is exposed to strong light, the satellite is directly visible, such as outdoors in the daytime or near the window, and it is highly likely that the environment is suitable for reception. The intensity of external light incident on the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 can be obtained by various means. In this embodiment, the amount of power generated from the solar cell is used to indicate the intensity of external light. The display of the environment information is not limited to the three stages shown here, and may be two stages, a plurality of stages of four or more stages, or a continuous display. Of course, in addition to this, light receiving means such as an optical sensor or an ultraviolet sensor may be provided, and the output thereof may be used to indicate the intensity of external light. This is only an example, and various other information may be used as environment information. Other examples will be described in other embodiments described later. The “information related to environmental information” includes not only the environmental information itself (in this embodiment, the amount of power generated by the solar battery) but also an evaluation value based on the environmental information.

The time accuracy display unit 24 is a display showing information related to the accuracy of the internal time of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100. Although various forms are conceivable for such display, the present embodiment employs a display that directly indicates the reliability of information regarding the current time and the reliability of information regarding the current leap second. The information related to the current time is the TOW received by the patch antenna, and the information related to the current leap second means Δt _LS similarly received. In the time accuracy display unit 24, “PFT” indicates that both TOW and Δt _LS are reliable. “TW” means a state without TOW reliability, “LS” means a state without Δt _LS reliability, and “TL” means a state without both TOW and Δt _LS reliability. ing. The specific display content shown here is an example, and how each state is expressed is arbitrary. Here, “PFT” is an abbreviation for “Perfect”, and “LS” is an abbreviation for “Leap Second”.

  Here, the reliability of information related to the current time and the reliability of information related to the current leap second will be considered. First, the reliability of information regarding the current time, that is, the reliability of the TOW depends on the elapsed time from the last time the TOW was received. Since the clock circuit of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 of the present embodiment has an accuracy of about ± 15 seconds per month, if the elapsed time from the last TOW reception exceeds 48 hours (that is, 2 days), There is a possibility that the difference between the accurate time and the internal time exceeds 1 second. Therefore, as an example, if the elapsed time from the last TOW reception is within 48 hours, it is determined that the information related to the current time is reliable. It is conceivable to determine that there is no. Of course, how the elapsed time used for the determination is determined depends on the accuracy of the clock circuit and how much deviation from the accurate time is allowed, and may be arbitrarily set. Alternatively, when the date changes, that is, after midnight, it may be determined that there is no reliability of information regarding the current time. In any case, the reliability of the information related to the current time is based on the time elapsed since the last reception of the information related to the current time, or the predetermined time after receiving the information related to the current time. You may decide based on whether it passes.

As for the reliability of information regarding the current leap second, as described above, the leap second may be added or deleted on the first day of every month at midnight. Thus, information about the current leap second, i.e., the reliability of the Delta] t _LS may when determined based on whether leap seconds after the time of receiving the Delta] t _LS has passed a point that can be added or deleted. Specifically, it is assumed that there is reliability of information regarding the current leap second from the reception of Δt _LS until midnight of the first day of the next month, and after that, reliability of information regarding the current leap second. Suppose there is no. Or, so far, considering that the addition of leap seconds has only been made at midnight on January 1 or July 1, the next January 1 or 7 after receiving Δt _LS It can be considered that the information about the current leap second is reliable until midnight on the first day of the month. In this case, the time when leap seconds after the time of receiving Δt _LS can be added or deleted is regarded as midnight on January 1 or July 1.

  So far, in light of the fact that leap seconds have been added approximately once a year, the reliability of information about the current leap second, and finally the information about the current leap second. It may be determined depending on whether or not a predetermined time, for example, one year has passed since the reception.

Also, when the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 operates without being charged for a long time, the power supply voltage decreases, and the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is in a so-called power-off state, or when the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is initialized for some reason. In the case of starting again from the above, it is considered that WN is not a correct value in addition to TOW and Δt _LS . In such a case, it is considered that there is no reliability of information regarding the current time and reliability of information regarding the current leap second, and it is considered that the information regarding the current date is also unreliable. In the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 according to the present embodiment, the presence or absence of reliability of information regarding the current date is not particularly displayed, but may be displayed.

  Since the status display hand 6 is a pointer indicating each display included in the status display scale 7 described above, when the radio wave wristwatch 100 indicates the reception operation display unit 22, what operation the radio wave wristwatch 100 is currently receiving is indicated. When the reception environment display unit 23 is pointed as a reception operation display means for indicating whether the radio wave is in the reception environment, the reception environment indicating how suitable the environment in which the radio wristwatch 100 is placed is suitable for receiving radio waves from the satellite. When the time accuracy display unit 24 is pointed out as the display means, it functions as time accuracy display means for indicating information related to the accuracy of the internal time of the radio-controlled wristwatch 100.

Subsequently, an operation at the time of reception of the radio-controlled wristwatch according to the present embodiment will be described. The operation described here is started when the radio wave wristwatch user operates an operation means such as a button to instruct reception of radio waves from a GPS satellite. When there is no reliability, reliability of information related to the current leap second, and reliability of information related to the current date, TOW, Δt _LS, and WN are to be obtained sequentially in one operation. However, what information is acquired in what case may be arbitrarily set according to the specification. For example, each information may be prioritized, and only one of TOW, Δt _LS, and WN may be received by a single operation means. Regardless of the reliability of these information, Information may be received. The order of receiving these pieces of information is not particularly limited and is arbitrary.

  FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 are flowcharts showing the operation when the radio wave wristwatch user operates an operation means such as a button to instruct reception of radio waves from a GPS satellite.

  First, in step S1, the controller determines whether the TOW is reliable. If there is reliability, the process proceeds to step S8 (FIG. 8). If there is no reliability, the process proceeds to step S2, and acquisition of environmental information is started using the environmental information acquisition means. In this embodiment, the amount of power generated by the solar cell is used as environmental information. In the subsequent step S3, the magnitude of the power generation amount is evaluated in three stages based on the acquired environmental information, displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1), and shown to the user. As a result, the user can obtain a clue to determine whether the current environment is suitable for receiving a transmission wave from a GPS satellite. Furthermore, in step S4, it is determined whether or not the environmental information satisfies a predetermined condition. In the present embodiment, as an example, it is determined whether the environmental information evaluation stage is “2” or more. When the environment is good, that is, when the environment information satisfies a predetermined condition, the process proceeds to step S5, and “R” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1). In subsequent step S6, the controller operates the high-frequency circuit and the decoding circuit and attempts to receive TOW. Note that the display of “R” in step S5 is slightly faster than the operation timing of the high-frequency circuit and the decoding circuit in step S6, for example, 2 seconds earlier so as to inform the user in advance that the reception is attempted. Also good. Then, the process proceeds to step S7. If the TOW has been successfully received, the process proceeds to step S9 in FIG.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S4 that the environmental information does not satisfy a predetermined condition, or if TOW reception fails in step S7, the process proceeds to step S8. In step S8, the timer measures the time from the start of acquisition of environment information in step S2, and determines whether or not a predetermined time, for example, 30 seconds has elapsed. If the predetermined time has not been reached, the process returns to step S2 and repeats from the acquisition of the environment information. If it has, the reception of TOW is abandoned, and the process proceeds to step S9 in FIG. Note that how to set the predetermined time is arbitrary. It is also preferable that the user can set.

  As described above, when the user operates the button, the radio-controlled wristwatch according to the present embodiment repeatedly acquires the environment information by repeating steps S2 to S8. In other words, based on the operation of the operation means by the user, the environment information monitoring state for monitoring environment information is entered. Then, in the environmental information monitoring state, as shown in step S4, information included in the transmission wave from the satellite is extracted based on the environmental information. Note that monitoring environmental information refers to a state in which environmental information is continuously or intermittently acquired. In addition, proceeding to step S8 in the figure means that the environmental information monitoring state is terminated at the same time. Further, the environmental information monitoring state may be ended by a user operation, for example, a button operation.

Proceeding to FIG. 8, in subsequent steps S9 and after, an attempt is made to acquire WN and Δt _LS . In step S9, it is determined whether or not the WN is reliable. If it is determined that there is no reliability, “W” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1) in step S10. In step S11, the process waits until the timing for transmitting WN transmitted once every 30 seconds arrives. In step S12, “R” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1). In S13, the high-frequency circuit and the decoding circuit are operated to try to receive WN. The display of “R” in step S12 may also be performed slightly earlier than the operation timing of the high frequency circuit and the decoding circuit in step S13, for example, 2 seconds earlier. Similarly, after step S13, it is determined whether or not Δt _LS is reliable in step S14. If it is determined that there is no reliability, “W” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1) in step S15. In step S16, the process waits until the timing at which Δt _LS is transmitted once every 12.5 minutes has arrived. In step S17, “R” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1). Thereafter, in step S18, the high-frequency circuit and the decoding circuit are operated to try to receive Δt _LS . The display of “R” in step S17 is the same as before in that it may be performed slightly earlier than the operation timing of the high frequency circuit and the decoding circuit in step S18, for example, 2 seconds earlier.

When all the above operations are completed, the process proceeds to step S19 to return to the normal display, that is, the state indicating the normal time, and the process ends. In the case of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the current time based on the internal time is displayed by the hour hand 3, the minute hand 4 and the second hand 5, and the status display hand 6 has the reliability of TOW and the reliability of Δt _LS . Based on the characteristics, any position of the time accuracy display unit 24 is displayed. At this time, if there is a neutral position of the state display needle 6, this neutral position may be indicated. Alternatively, when the second hand 5 also functions as the status display hand 6, the reception result, that is, the position of the time accuracy display unit 24 is displayed for a certain period of time, and then the second of the current time is indicated. Also good.

In addition, after the completion of step S6, step S13, and step S18, the reception result may be notified to the user. As an example of the notification method, the status indicator 6 is pointed at any position of the time accuracy display unit 24 for a certain period of time based on the obtained TOW reliability and Δt _LS reliability. Is mentioned. Alternatively, display of “Y” and “N” indicating the reception result may be added to the status display scale 7, and one of the positions may be indicated by the status display needle 6 for a certain period of time.

Furthermore, while waiting for the timing at which WN or Δt _LS is transmitted in step S11 and step S16, the environment information may be notified to the user as in step S3. Environmental information acquisition may be repeated at regular intervals, for example, to always indicate the current environmental information, or it may be detected by detecting a user's operation, such as a button press, for a certain period of time. You may make it show. When the current environment information is always indicated, the status display hand 6 may be changed to the “W” display by pointing to one of the positions “1” to “3” of the reception environment display unit 23, or A state in which the state display hand 6 points to any position on the reception environment display unit 23 and a state in which the position indicating the “W” position on the reception operation display unit 22 may be alternately repeated.

In the control according to the flowchart described above, the environment information is referred to only when TOW is received, and it is determined whether or not to attempt reception, that is, whether or not to extract information included in the transmission wave from the satellite. And Δt _LS are received without waiting for the arrival of the transmission timing of each information in order, without referring to the environment information. However, the environment information may be referred to when receiving either or both of WN and Δt _LS . Hereinafter, as such an example, control for referring to environment information at the time of WN reception will be described with reference to flowcharts shown in FIGS.

The flowcharts shown in FIGS. 9 to 12 replace the flowchart of FIG. That is, step S20 in FIG. 9 is executed following steps S1, S7, or S8 in FIG. In this step, the processing is branched into four based on the presence / absence of reliability of WN and Δt _LS . If both WN and Δt _LS are reliable, it is not necessary to receive WN and Δt _LS. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S21, and each pointer is displayed normally, that is, the hour hand 3, minute hand 4 and second hand 5 are While displaying the internal time, the state display hand 6 is set to a position indicating any position of the time accuracy display unit 24 (see FIG. 1), and the process is terminated.

If the WN is not reliable in step S20, but Δt _LS is reliable, it is sufficient to try to receive only WN, and the process proceeds to step S22 in FIG. The processing from step S22 to step S30 shown in FIG. 10 is a process in which the environment information is good and attempts to receive WN at the timing when WN is transmitted. Repeat until. First, in step S22, the state indicating hand 6 (see FIG. 1) is set to indicate “W”, and it is determined whether or not it is a timing to try to receive WN in subsequent step S23. This timing is preferably a predetermined time before the WN transmission timing transmitted once every 30 seconds, for example, 2 to 3 seconds before. If it is time to attempt to receive WN, the process proceeds to step S24, where the environmental information is acquired, the environmental information acquired in step S25 is displayed, and the user is notified. In step S26, it is determined whether or not the environmental information satisfies a predetermined condition. In the present embodiment, as an example, it is determined whether the environmental information evaluation stage is “2” or more. If the environment is good, that is, if the environment information satisfies a predetermined condition, the process proceeds to step S27, where “R” is displayed by the status indicator 6 (see FIG. 1), and then in step S28. The high frequency circuit and the decoding circuit are operated to try to receive WN. In a succeeding step S29, it is determined whether or not the WN has been successfully received. If successful, the process proceeds to a step S21 in FIG. 9 to return to the normal display, and the process ends. If reception of WN has failed, if it is not the timing of receiving WN in step S23, and if the reception environment is not good in step S26, monitoring of environment information for receiving WN is started in step S30. Then, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time, for example, 150 seconds has elapsed. If the predetermined time has not yet elapsed, the process returns to step S22 to display “W” again and repeat until the WN is successfully received or the predetermined time has elapsed. When the time predetermined in step S30 elapses, the process proceeds to step S21 in FIG. 9 as a timeout, returns to the normal display, and the process ends.

Returning to FIG. 9 again, if WN is reliable in step S20 and Δt _LS is not reliable, only Δt _LS may be received, and the process proceeds to step S31 in FIG. The processing in steps S31 to S34 is the same as the processing in steps S15 to S18 in FIG. 8, and waits for the timing at which Δt _LS is transmitted, and receives Δt _LS . First, in step S31, “W” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1). In step S32, the process waits until the timing at which Δt _LS transmitted once every 12.5 minutes arrives. In step S33, “R” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1). Thereafter, in step S34, the high-frequency circuit and the decoding circuit are operated to try to receive Δt _LS . After attempting to receive Δt _LS , the process proceeds to step S21 in FIG. 9 regardless of the success or failure of the reception, the display is returned to the normal display, and the process ends.

Returning to FIG. 9 again, if both WN and Δt _LS are unreliable in step S20, the process proceeds to step S35 in FIG. 12 to try to receive both WN and Δt _LS . The process of step S35 to step S46 shown in FIG. 12, until the reception timing of Delta] t _LS arrives, attempt to receive the WN based on the environment information for each timing WN is transmitted, arrival of the reception timing of Delta] t _LS After that, until a predetermined period elapses, reception of WN is attempted based on the environment information at every timing when WN is transmitted. If a predetermined period has passed at the time of the reception timing of Δt _LS, the process is immediately terminated.

First, in step S35, the state indicating needle 6 (see FIG. 1) is set to indicate “W”, and it is determined whether or not it is time to try to receive WN in subsequent step S36. This timing is preferably a predetermined time before the WN transmission timing transmitted once every 30 seconds, for example, 2 to 3 seconds before. If the timing for trying to receive WN has arrived, the process proceeds to step S37 to acquire environment information, display the environment information acquired in step S38, and notify the user. In step S39, it is determined whether or not the environmental information satisfies a predetermined condition. In the present embodiment, as an example, it is determined whether the environmental information evaluation stage is “2” or more. When the environment is good, that is, when the environment information satisfies a predetermined condition, the process proceeds to step S40, “R” is displayed by the status display needle 6 (see FIG. 1), and then in step S41. The high frequency circuit and the decoding circuit are operated to try to receive WN. In a succeeding step S42, it is determined whether or not the WN has been successfully received. If successful, the process proceeds to a step S32 in FIG. This is because the reception of WN was successful before attempting to receive Δt _LS , and thereafter only Δt _LS needs to be received. If reception of WN fails, and if the reception timing of WN is not in step S36 or if the reception environment is not good in step S39, the process proceeds to step S43, and is transmitted at a timing of once every 12.5 minutes. It is determined whether it is time to receive Δt _LS . If it is not the time to receive Δt _LS, the process returns to step S35 and repeats in the same manner. If it is the reception timing of Δt _LS , “R” is displayed by the status indicator 6 (see FIG. 1) in step S44, and then the high-frequency circuit and the decoding circuit are operated in step S45 to try to receive Δt _LS . After attempting to receive Δt _LS , regardless of whether or not the reception is successful, the process proceeds to step S46, and monitoring of environmental information for receiving WN is started, and then a predetermined time, for example, 150 seconds is received. It is determined whether or not it has elapsed. If a predetermined time has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S21 in FIG. 9 as a time-out, returns to the normal display, and ends the process. If the predetermined time has not yet elapsed, the process continues to receive WN. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S23 in FIG. 10, and the process continues until the WN is successfully received or a timeout occurs. .

In the control described here, the processing is continued until at least Δt _LS reception is attempted, so that the processing is continued until the longer of the time-out time and the time until Δt _LS is transmitted. However, regardless of the time until Δt _LS is transmitted, the process may be terminated when a predetermined time elapses. In addition, here, Δt _LS is tried to be received only once, but this may be tried a plurality of times, and environment information may be referred to at that time.

  In the radio wave wristwatch 100 according to the present embodiment described above, the intensity of external light incident on the radio wave wristwatch 100 is obtained from the amount of power generated by the solar cell as environmental information. However, various amounts other than this may be used as the environmental information. In the embodiment described below, a case where an amount other than the intensity of external light incident on the radio-controlled wristwatch 100 is used as the environmental information will be described.

[Embodiment 2]
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a configuration of a radio wave receiver of a radio wristwatch according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the configurations of the patch antenna 11 and the high-frequency circuit 14 are shown in a block diagram.

  The signal received by the patch antenna 11 is first amplified by an LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) 25 and then amplified by a GCA (Gain Control Amplifier) 26. A signal that has passed through a BPF (Band Pass Filter) 27 is mixed with a signal oscillated by a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) 28 by a mixer 29 and subjected to frequency conversion. The signal from which unnecessary frequency components are removed by the BPF 30 is converted into a digital signal by an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) 31, further subjected to digital signal processing by a controller 32, and output to a decoding circuit at a subsequent stage. Is done. The VCO 28 may be of any type as long as it is a local oscillator whose oscillation frequency can be controlled.

  On the other hand, the gain 34 in the GCA 26 is determined by an AGC (Automatic Gain Control) 33 so that the signal output from the BPF 30 has an amplitude corresponding to the resolution of the ADC 31. The AGC 33 has a function of setting the gain 34 large if the power of the signal exiting the BPF 30 is small and setting the gain 34 small if the power of the signal exiting the BPF 30 is large. That is, the gain 34 decreases as the intensity of the radio wave received by the patch antenna 11 increases, and increases as the intensity of the radio wave received by the patch antenna 11 decreases.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the gain 34 determined by the AGC 33 is used as environment information. That is, if the gain 34 is smaller than a certain value, the reception intensity of the transmission wave from the satellite is high, and it is determined that it is suitable for reception. In order to obtain the gain 34, it is only necessary to supply power to the high-frequency circuit 14, and it is not necessary to supply power to the decoding circuit.

  Since the present embodiment is not particularly different from the first embodiment with respect to other points, detailed description of portions common to both is omitted.

[Embodiment 3]
Next, FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a radio wave receiver of a radio wristwatch according to the third embodiment of the present invention. This figure also shows the configuration of the patch antenna 11 and the high-frequency circuit 14 in a block diagram.

  A feature of the present embodiment is that a reception sequence for receiving a radio wave different from the transmission wave from the GPS satellite is provided in addition to the reception sequence from the patch antenna 11 that receives the transmission wave from the GPS satellite to the control unit 32. In this embodiment, a broadcast wave of terrestrial digital television broadcasting is used as a radio wave different from a transmission wave from a GPS satellite.

  The antenna 35 is an antenna that receives a broadcast wave of digital terrestrial television broadcasting, and is provided separately from the patch antenna 11. The signal received by the antenna 35 passes through the LNA 36, GCA 37, and BPF 38, and is mixed by the mixer 40 with the signal oscillated from the VCO 39 in the same manner as when receiving the transmission wave from the GPS satellite. pass. Then, the AGC 42 determines the gain 43 in the GCA 37 based on the signal from the BPF 41. In the present embodiment, the gain 43 obtained for the broadcast wave of this terrestrial digital television broadcast is used as environmental information. The point that the reception environment is considered to be better as the gain 43 is smaller is the same as in the second embodiment.

  This embodiment does not use the gain 34 for the transmission wave from the GPS satellite for the following reason. As described above, the transmission wave from the GPS satellite is multiplexed by the CDMA method which is a kind of spread spectrum modulation, and the background noise and signal until decoding by the C / A code which is a pseudo random noise. Difficult to distinguish In addition, since the transmission wave from the GPS satellite is extremely weak, it is difficult to obtain the intensity of the transmission wave from the GPS satellite until the control unit 32 obtains the correlation between the received signal and the C / A code. Is expected.

  Therefore, although the frequency is slightly different, the reception environment is estimated using a broadcast wave of digital terrestrial television broadcasting that is the same UHF band signal as the transmission wave from the GPS satellite. Broadcast waves of digital terrestrial television broadcasting are multiplexed by an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) method, and the signal strength is relatively easy to measure because the radio wave strength is high.

  Note that radio waves that can be used as radio waves different from those transmitted from GPS satellites are not limited to terrestrial digital television broadcast waves. Any wave may be used as long as the transmission wave from the GPS satellite and the frequency band are relatively close and the radio wave intensity is high. Other examples include transmission waves according to WiMAX (IEEE802.16) standard.

  In addition, here, the patch antenna 11 and the antenna 35 have been described as being provided separately, but may be shared when both can be shared.

  Since the present embodiment is not particularly different from the first embodiment with respect to other points, detailed description of portions common to both is omitted.

[Embodiment 4]
FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a radio wave receiver of a radio wristwatch according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. This figure also shows the configuration of the patch antenna 11 and the high-frequency circuit 14 in a block diagram. In the figure, the same parts as those in the previous embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Also in the present embodiment, as in the third embodiment, in addition to the reception series from the antenna 11 that receives the transmission wave from the GPS satellite, a radio wave different from the transmission wave from the GPS satellite, here, as an example, A reception sequence from an antenna 35 for receiving a broadcast wave of digital television broadcasting is provided. In this embodiment, instead of the gain 34 from the AGC 33 and the gain 43 from the AGC 42, the reception quality of the broadcast wave of the terrestrial digital television broadcast received by the antenna 35 is used as the environmental information. That is, a signal received by the antenna 35 and passed through the BPF 41 is converted into a digital signal by the ADC 44 and then input to the control unit 32. The control unit 32 obtains a BER (Bit Error Ratio) 45 from the signal of the ADC 44, and outputs the obtained BER 45 as environment information. In this case, the smaller the BER 45, the better the reception environment.

  In addition to the BER 45, SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) or SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio) may be used as environment information obtained from the ADC 44 signal. . When SNR and SIR are used, the larger the values, the better the reception environment.

  Since the present embodiment is not particularly different from the first embodiment with respect to other points, detailed description of portions common to both is omitted.

[Embodiment 5]
FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the configuration of the radio wave receiver of the radio wristwatch according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention. This figure also shows the configuration of the patch antenna 11 and the high-frequency circuit 14 in a block diagram. In the figure, the same parts as those in the previous embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  This embodiment also receives radio waves different from the transmission wave from the GPS satellite and the transmission wave from the GPS satellite. As an example of the radio wave different from the transmission wave from the GPS satellite, there is a broadcast wave of terrestrial digital television broadcasting as in the previous embodiment. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the receiving circuit from the LNA 25 to the control unit 32 uses the same transmission wave from the GPS satellite and the broadcasting wave of the terrestrial digital television broadcast. Therefore, the signal from the antenna 35 and the signal from the patch antenna 11 are switched by the switch 46. The switch 46 is switched based on a command from the control unit 32. Further, IMCs (Impedance Matching Circuits) 47 and 48 are inserted to match the impedances of the high-frequency circuit 14 extending from the LNA 25 to the control unit 32, the antenna 35, and the patch antenna 11, respectively.

  First, when receiving a broadcast wave of terrestrial digital television broadcasting, the control unit 32 switches the switch 46 to the antenna 35 side and guides the signal received by the antenna 35 to the LNA 25. At the same time, a voltage command is issued to the VCO 28 to output a signal that oscillates at a frequency for converting a terrestrial digital television broadcast wave to a baseband frequency, and the mixer 29 mixes both. At this time, the gain 34 of the GCA 26 output from the AGC 33 is used as environment information. The gain 34 is the same as the gain 43 (see FIG. 10) in the third embodiment, and the smaller the value, the better the reception environment. At this time, it is not necessary to operate the ADC 31 and convert the signal that has passed through the BPF 30 into a digital signal. However, instead of the gain 34, as in the fourth embodiment, the BER, SNR, or SIR of the received digital terrestrial television broadcast signal may be used as the environment information. In that case, the signal that has passed through the BPF 30 may be converted into a digital signal by the ADC 31, and the control unit 32 may obtain the BER, SNR, or SIR of the signal and output it as environment information.

  When receiving a transmission wave from a GPS satellite, the control unit 32 switches the switch 46 to the patch antenna 11 side and issues a voltage command to the VCO 28 to convert the transmission wave from the GPS satellite into a baseband frequency. Output a signal that oscillates at a frequency for Both are mixed by the mixer 29, and necessary frequency components are extracted by the BPF 30, converted into a digital signal by the ADC 31, signal processing by the control unit 32, and output to a subsequent decoding circuit.

  In the present embodiment, since the high-frequency circuit 14 is shared between the case of receiving a transmission wave from a GPS satellite and the case of receiving a radio wave different from the transmission wave from the GPS satellite, the circuit scale of the high-frequency circuit 14 is small. It can be suppressed.

In each of the embodiments described above, the transmission wave from the GPS satellite is used as the radio wave from the satellite. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a signal having a longer interval at which information indicating a difference between the home country and the coordinated universal time in the satellite is transmitted than the interval at which the time information is transmitted by the satellite is transmitted. Any satellite can be used. In that case, the names and formats such as TOW, WN, and Δt _LS used in this specification may be appropriately read according to the satellite.

  1 body, 2 dial, 3 hour hand, 4 minute hand, 5 second hand, 6 status indicator hand, 7 status indicator scale, 8 crown, 9 button, 10 band fixing part, 11 patch antenna, 12 battery, 13 controller, 14 high frequency circuit , 15 Decoding circuit, 16, 17 Motor, 18 Solar cell, 19 Switch, 20 Power generation amount detection unit, 21 Switch, 22 Reception operation display unit, 23 Reception environment display unit, 24 Time accuracy display unit, 25 LNA, 26 GCA, 27 BPF, 28 VCO, 29 mixer, 30 BPF, 31 ADC, 32 control unit, 33 AGC, 34 gain, 35 antenna, 36 LNA, 37 GCA, 38 BPF, 39 VCO, 40 mixer, 41 BPF, 42 AGC, 43 Gain, 44 ADC, 45 BER, 46 switch, 47, 48 IM , 100 wristwatch.

Claims (8)

A radio-controlled wristwatch that corrects the internal time based on information on the current time and information on the current leap second included in the transmission wave from the satellite,
Environmental information acquisition means for acquiring environmental information related to the reception environment where the radio-controlled wristwatch is placed;
An operation means for receiving a user's operation,
Based on the operation of the operation means, the environmental information acquisition means is in an environmental information monitoring state to monitor environmental information,
A radio-controlled wristwatch that extracts information contained in a transmission wave from the satellite based on the environmental information in the environmental information monitoring state.   The radio-controlled wristwatch according to claim 1, further comprising environmental information display means for displaying information related to the environmental information in the environmental information monitoring state.   The radio-controlled wristwatch according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the environmental information monitoring state is terminated when a predetermined time elapses.   The radio-controlled wristwatch according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the environmental information is information relating to intensity of external light incident on the radio-controlled wristwatch.   The radio-controlled wristwatch according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the environmental information is information related to a gain when a transmission wave from the satellite received by an antenna is amplified.   The radio wave wristwatch according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the environmental information is information related to a radio wave intensity different from a transmission wave from the satellite.   The radio-controlled wristwatch according to claim 6, wherein the information on the intensity of the radio wave different from the transmission wave from the satellite is information on a gain when the radio wave different from the transmission wave from the satellite received by the antenna is amplified.   Information on the intensity of the radio wave different from the transmission wave from the satellite includes BER (Bit Error Ratio), SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) and SIR (Signal Signal) of the radio wave different from the transmission wave from the satellite received by the antenna. The radio wristwatch according to claim 6, wherein the radio wristwatch is at least one of “to Interference Ratio”.

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