Electronic Timepiece And Time Adjustment Method For An Electronic Timepiece

• US 20090190444A1
• Filed: 01/21/2009
• Published: 07/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Lin, Chen Wei, Akiyama, Toshikazu
• Granted Patent: US 8,705,321 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 368/14
• CPC Class Codes: G04R 20/06 Decoding time data; Circuits therefor

Abstract

An electronic timepiece includes a reception unit that receives satellite signals transmitted from positioning information satellites and acquires time information and positioning information, a time zone information storage unit that stores region data dividing geographical information containing time difference information into a plurality of regions, and time difference information contained in each region, a time difference information acquisition unit that extracts the region containing the positioning information acquired by the reception unit from the region data, and acquires the time difference information contained in that region, and a time calculation unit that calculates the current time based on the time difference information acquired by the time difference information acquisition unit and the time information acquired by the reception unit. The region data stored in the time zone information storage unit including region data dividing the geographical information into a plurality of regions, and region data further dividing each region that contains a plurality of time difference values into a plurality of regions.

Claims

1. An electronic timepiece comprising:

a reception unit that receives satellite signals transmitted from positioning information satellites and acquires time information and positioning information;

a time zone information storage unit that stores region data dividing geographical information containing time difference information into a plurality of regions, and time difference information contained in each region;

a time difference information acquisition unit that extracts the region containing the positioning information acquired by the reception unit from the region data, and acquires the time difference information contained in that region; and

a time calculation unit that calculates the current time based on the time difference information acquired by the time difference information acquisition unit and the time information acquired by the reception unit;

the region data stored in the time zone information storage unit including region data dividing the geographical information into a plurality of regions, and region data further dividing each region that contains a plurality of time difference values into a plurality of regions.

2. The electronic timepiece described in claim 1, wherein:

the region data stored in the time zone information storage unit includes at least first region data dividing the geographical information into a plurality of first regions, and second region data dividing each first region that contains a plurality of time zones into a plurality of second regions.

3. The electronic timepiece described in claim 2, wherein:

the region data also includes at least third region data dividing each second region that contains a plurality of time zones into a plurality of third regions.

4. The electronic timepiece described in claim 1, wherein:

the region data stores time difference data in the time difference information for a region that contains only one time zone, and

stores a link to region data that subdivides the region in the time difference information for a region that contains a plurality of time zones.

5. The electronic timepiece described in claim 1, wherein:

each region in the region data is a rectangular area.

6. The electronic timepiece described in claim 1, wherein:

the time difference information in the region data can be updated by a user input operation.

7. A time adjustment method for an electronic timepiece that has a reception unit that receives satellite signals transmitted from positioning information satellites and acquires time information and positioning information, and a time zone information storage unit that stores region data dividing geographical information containing time difference information into a plurality of regions, and time difference information contained in each region,

the region data stored in the time zone information storage unit including region data dividing the geographical information into a plurality of regions of a predetermined size, and region data further dividing each region that contains a plurality of time difference values into a plurality of regions,

the time adjustment method comprising:

a reception step that receives satellite signals transmitted from positioning information satellites and acquires time information and positioning information;

a time difference information acquisition step that extracts the region containing the positioning information acquired by the reception step from the region data, and acquires the time difference information contained in that region; and

a time calculation step that calculates the current time based on the time difference information acquired by the time difference information acquisition step and the time information acquired by the reception step.

8. The time adjustment method for an electronic timepiece described in claim 7, wherein:

time difference data is stored in the time difference information for a region that contains only one time zone;

a link to region data that subdivides the region is stored in the time difference information for a region that contains a plurality of time zones;

the time difference information acquisition step detects the region containing the positioning information acquired by the reception step in the region data dividing the geographical information into regions of a predetermined size, and acquires the time difference data if time difference data is stored in the time difference information of the detected region, and

if link information is stored in the time difference information of the detected region, detects the region containing the positioning information and acquires the time difference data for the detected region.