Electronic timepiece

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10649097-B2
Application number	US-201715460670-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2017
Priority date	Mar 28, 2016
Publication date	May 12, 2020
Grant date	May 12, 2020

Abstract

An electronic timepiece includes a pointing hand, a distance display hand, a magnetic sensor, a GPS receiver receiving GPS time information from a GPS satellite, a storage unit storing ephemeris data of the GPS satellite, and a control unit generating positional information of the electronic timepiece using the GPS time information received by the GPS receiver and the ephemeris data stored in the storage unit and executing navigation using the pointing hand and the distance display hand based on the positional information, an output of the magnetic sensor, and destination site information. When the ephemeris data is stored in the storage unit and then a first predetermined time equal to or less than a valid period of the ephemeris data elapses, the control unit receives the ephemeris data using the GPS receiver and updates the ephemeris data stored in the storage unit to ephemeris data received using the GPS receiver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic timepiece that executes navigation to a destination site, comprising:
a display unit;
a magnetic sensor;
a reception unit configured to receive time information indicating a time from a GPS satellite;
a storage unit that stores orbit information indicating an orbit of the GPS satellite; and
a control unit configured to generate positional information indicating a position of the electronic timepiece using the time information received by the reception unit and the orbit information stored in the storage unit and execute the navigation using the display unit based on the positional information, an output of the magnetic sensor, and destination site information indicating a position of the destination site,
wherein when the orbit information is stored in the storage unit and then a first predetermined time equal to or less than a valid period of the orbit information elapses, the control unit is configured to receive orbit information from the GPS satellite using the reception unit and update the orbit information stored in the storage unit to the orbit information received using the reception unit.

2. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a first manipulation unit configured to receive a first manipulation of giving an instruction to start the navigation,
wherein when the first manipulation unit receives the first manipulation, the control unit is configured to receive the time information from the GPS satellite using the reception unit, generate the positional information using the time information and the orbit information stored in the storage unit, and execute the navigation using the display unit based on the positional information, the output of the magnetic sensor, and the destination site information.

3. The electronic timepiece according to claim 2 ,
wherein in a case in which an elapsed time until the orbit information is stored in the storage unit and then the first manipulation unit receives the first manipulation exceeds a second predetermined time shorter than the first predetermined time, the control unit is configured to receive the orbit information from the GPS satellite using the reception unit according to the first manipulation and update the orbit information stored in the storage unit to the orbit information received according to the first manipulation.

4. The electronic timepiece according to claim 3 ,
wherein in a case in which the elapsed time exceeds the second predetermined time, the control unit is configured to stop a reception operation of the reception unit when the orbit information is not receivable despite elapse of a third predetermined time after the reception unit starts the reception operation according to the first operation.

5. The electronic timepiece according to claim 4 ,
wherein the orbit information and the time information are included in a navigation message included in a satellite signal transmitted from the GPS satellite, and
wherein the third predetermined time is shorter than a transmission period of the navigation message.

6. The electronic timepiece according to claim 3 ,
wherein in a case in which the elapsed time does not exceed the second predetermined time, the control unit is configured to stop a reception operation of the reception unit when the time information is received according to the first manipulation.

7. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a second manipulation unit configured to receive a second manipulation of giving an instruction to generate the destination site information,
wherein when the second manipulation unit receives the second manipulation, the control unit is configured to receive the time information and the orbit information from the GPS satellite using the reception unit, update the orbit information stored in the storage unit to the orbit information received according to the second manipulation, and generate the positional information as the destination site information using the time information received according to the second manipulation and the updated orbit information stored in the storage unit.

8. The electronic timepiece according to claim 1 ,
wherein the orbit information is ephemeris data.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Nozawa Toshiyuki

Classifications

• G01S19/26

  involving a sensor measurement for aiding acquisition or tracking · CPC title

• G01C21/20

  Instruments for performing navigational calculations (G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence) · CPC title

• G04R20/04

  Tuning or receiving; Circuits therefor · CPC title

• G01S19/34

  Power consumption · CPC title

• G01S19/45 Primary

  by combining measurements of signals from the satellite radio beacon positioning system with a supplementary measurement · CPC title