Altitude information acquiring device and altitude information acquiring system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9291718-B2
Application number	US-201313796117-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2013
Priority date	Mar 27, 2012
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

An altitude information acquiring device includes a measuring unit which measures atmospheric pressure; a wireless communication unit which performs near field communication with an external device; and an altitude information acquiring unit which acquires altitude information from an external positioning device through the wireless communication unit. An inversion detecting unit detects an inversion of a changing direction of the atmospheric pressure periodically measured by the measuring unit, and a communication control unit controls a timing to acquire the altitude information through the wireless communication unit at a set timing, based on the inversion detected by the inversion detecting unit. An integrated altitude change acquiring unit acquires a rise altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a rising direction and a fall altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a falling direction, based on the acquired altitude information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An altitude information acquiring device comprising:
a measuring unit which periodically measures atmospheric pressure;
a wireless communication unit which performs near field communication with an external device;
an altitude information acquiring unit which acquires altitude information from an external positioning device through the wireless communication unit;
an inversion detecting unit which detects a reversal of a changing direction, which is a direction in which the atmospheric pressure periodically measured by the measuring unit is changing;
an altitude calculating unit which converts atmospheric pressure values measured by the measuring unit into altitude values based on a predetermined table;
a communication control unit which sets a timing to acquire the altitude information through the wireless communication unit to a timing at which, after the reversal of the changing direction, an altitude change in the changing direction after the reversal is a preset altitude difference or more; and
an integrated altitude change acquiring unit which acquires a rise altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a rising direction and a fall altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a falling direction, based on the acquired altitude information.

2. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1 , wherein the altitude information acquiring unit acquires the altitude information at the timing when the changing direction of the atmospheric pressure was reversed, by correcting the acquired altitude information with the preset altitude difference.

3. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1 , wherein the altitude calculating unit calculates the altitude by correcting the predetermined table based on the acquired altitude information.

4. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2 , wherein the altitude calculating unit calculates the altitude by correcting the predetermined table based on the acquired altitude information.

5. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the altitude information acquiring unit calculates a temporary value related to the altitude information based on the altitude value calculated by the altitude calculating unit when the altitude information acquiring unit fails to acquire the altitude information from the positioning device, and
when the altitude information acquiring unit successfully acquires the altitude information from the positioning device upon or after the calculation of the temporary value, the altitude information acquiring unit corrects the temporary value based on the altitude information currently acquired and the altitude information previously acquired from the positioning device.

6. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2 , wherein:
the altitude information acquiring unit calculates a temporary value related to the altitude information based on the altitude value calculated by the altitude calculating unit when the altitude information acquiring unit fails to acquire the altitude information from the positioning device, and
when the altitude information acquiring unit successfully acquires the altitude information from the positioning device upon or after the calculation of the temporary value, the altitude information acquiring unit corrects the temporary value based on the altitude information currently acquired and the altitude information previously acquired from the positioning device.

7. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1 , wherein:
the altitude information acquiring unit acquires an altitude value at the timing to acquire the altitude information as the altitude information, and
the integrated altitude change acquiring unit updates the rise altitude integrated value or the fall altitude integrated value based on a difference between a previously acquired altitude value and the currently acquired altitude value.

8. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 3 , wherein:
the altitude information acquiring unit acquires an altitude value at the timing to acquire the altitude information as the altitude information, and
the integrated altitude change acquiring unit updates the rise altitude integrated value or the fall altitude integrated value based on a difference between a previously acquired altitude value and the currently acquired altitude value.

9. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2 , wherein:
the altitude information acquiring unit acquires an altitude value at the timing to acquire the altitude information as the altitude information, and
the integrated altitude change acquiring unit updates the rise altitude integrated value or the fall altitude integrated value based on a difference between a previously acquired altitude value and the currently acquired altitude value.

10. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1 , wherein the altitude information comprises a value of altitude change from a timing that the altitude information was previously acquired from the positioning device through the communication control unit to the timing that the altitude information is currently acquired.

11. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 3 , wherein the altitude information comprises a value of altitude change from a timing that the altitude information was previously acquired from the positioning device through the communication control unit to the timing that the altitude information is currently acquired.

12. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2 , wherein the altitude information comprises a value of altitude change from a timing that the altitude information was previously acquired from the positioning device through the communication control unit to the timing that the altitude information is currently acquired.

13. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1 , wherein the altitude information comprises the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value calculated by the positioning device.

14. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 3 , wherein the altitude information comprises the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value calculated by the positioning device.

15. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2 , wherein the altitude information comprises the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value calculated by the positioning device.

16. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 13 , further comprising an initial value setting unit which transmits initial values of the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value to the positioning device by the wireless communication unit when the measuring unit starts measuring the atmospheric pressure.

17. An altitude information acquiring system comprising:
a positioning device which comprises (i) an altitude acquiring unit which acquires an altitude of a current position, and (ii) an external wireless communication unit which transmits altitude information based on the altitude of the current position acquired by the altitude acquiring unit; and
the altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1 ,
wherein the altitude acquiring unit acquires altitude data included in the current position calculated by receiving radio waves from a plurali

Assignees

• Casio Computer Co Ltd

Inventors

• Miyake Takeshi

Classifications

• G01C5/06 Primary

  by using barometric means · CPC title

• G01S19/14

  specially adapted for specific applications · CPC title

• G01S19/34

  Power consumption · CPC title

• G01L19/086

  for remote indication · CPC title

• G01L2019/0053

  Pressure sensors associated with other sensors, e.g. for measuring acceleration, temperature · CPC title