COMMUNICATION APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

• US 20120218085A1
• Filed: 02/27/2012
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: FUJIMOTO, Masaki, TANIOKA, Keiichi
• Granted Patent: US 9,330,289 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.5
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10217 parameter settings controlling the transmission power of the interrogator
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/04 Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/08 Amplitude regulation arrangements

Abstract

Disclosed is a communication apparatus comprising: a communication section which performs communication in an ASK modulation format with an RFID tag; and a control section which sets a modulation degree of the ASK modulation of the communication section to a large degree when polling of the RFID tag is performed by the communication section and which sets the modulation degree to a small degree when response information is received from the RFID tag through the communication section.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a communication section which performs communication in an ASK modulation format with an RFID tag; and

a control section which sets a modulation degree of the ASK modulation of the communication section to a large degree when polling of the RFID tag is performed by the communication section and which sets the modulation degree to a small degree when response information is received from the RFID tag through the communication section.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the communication section includes an antenna and an amplitude adjustment resistance which can change amplitude of an electric signal output from the antenna; and

the control section changes the modulation degree by changing a resistance value of the amplitude adjustment resistance.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control section sets the modulation degree to a large degree when polling of the RFID tag is performed by the communication section and sets the modulation degree to a small degree at a preset timing during the polling.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control section sets the modulation degree to a large degree when the polling of the RFID tag by the communication section is performed and sets the modulation degree to a small degree step by step at a preset timing during the polling.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control section does not change the modulation degree when the modulation degree is set to a large degree and the response information is received from the RFID tag through the communication section.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a power source section which includes a cell; and

a monitoring section which obtains a cell remaining amount of the power source section, wherein

the modulation degree or the timing to set the modulation degree smaller during the polling is changed according to the cell remaining amount obtained from the monitoring section.

7. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, the control section sets the modulation degree according to the type of RFID tag specified by the identification information of the RFID tag included in the response information when the response information is received from the RFID tag through the communication section.

8. A computer program product which is readable by a computer used in a communication apparatus and in which an instruction to perform computer processing is encoded, the computer processing comprising:

communicating in an ASK modulation format with an RFID tag; and

controlling which sets a modulation degree of the ASK modulation to a large degree when polling of the RFID tag is performed in the communicating step and which sets the modulation degree to a small degree when response information is received from the RFID tag in the communicating step.