Tablet or Smart Phone Compatible Fish Finder Device

• US 20140057677A1
• Filed: 10/23/2012
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Uab Friday Lab
• Original Assignee: Uab Friday Lab
• Inventors: Liubinas, Aurelijus, Sereika, Rolandas
• Application Number:
  US14/000,947
• Publication Number:
  US 20140057677A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 97/00 Accessories for angling fish stringers A01K65/00; landing-nets or landing-spoons for fishing A01K77/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/96 for locating fish
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/026 Details of the structure or mounting of specific components
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/80 in fisheries management

Abstract

A fish finder system, comprising a sonar gadget, which communicates with a display device via digital wireless communication. The system contains a software product, which runs both on the sonar gadget and the display device, wherein the gadget part of the software is preferably adapted to run on an embedded microcontroller system and the user display device part of the software is preferably a downloadable application adapted to run on portable communication devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, laptops or the like. Said display device part of the software is adapted not only to visualize the obstacles with indication of depth, size and movement, but also provide additional functionality, such as access to a camera device, digital maps and GPS, social network accounts, weather information and forecast, calendar with notes, information on moon phases and other kinds of information found on the Internet. Both software parts allow update functionality.

Claims

1. A fish finder system, comprising:

a sonar gadget comprising an ultrasound scanning device; and

a display device comprising output means for visually displaying at least an area of information related to a fishing environment, wherein said display device further comprises at least one of;

an input means for activating or interacting with a display device-characteristic function and

an output means for displaying information relating to the sonar gadget.

2. The fish finder system according to claim 1, wherein said display device-characteristic function comprises one or more of a camera, a map, a UPS, a calendar, weather information, moon phase information, and social networking.

3. The fish finder system according to claim 1, wherein said output means for displaying information relating to the sonar gadget comprises at least one of a battery level indicator, a wireless connection strength or state indicator, and a GPS connection state and strength indicator.

4. The fish finder system according to claim 1, wherein said sonar gadget further comprises a connector for data transfer and charging of a battery.

5. The fish finder system according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of a wireless and a wired communication link between the display device and the sonar gadget, and wherein the at least one of the wireless and the wired communication link is arranged to provide bidirectional communication.

6. The fish finder system according to claim 5, wherein the sonar gadget is arranged to receive software code updates by means of the at least one of the wired and the wireless communication link from at least one of the display device, an external data storage, and an internet data source.

7. The fish finder system according to claim 1, wherein the display device is arranged to connect to multiple sonar gadgets.

13. The fish finder system according to claim 1, further comprising a wireless communication link between the display device and the sonar gadget, and wherein the wireless communication link is arranged to provide bidirectional communication between the display device and the sonar gadget.

14. The fish finder system according to claim 2, wherein the output means for displaying information relating to the sonar gadget comprises one or more of a battery level indicator, a wireless connection strength or state indicator, and a UPS connection state or strength indicator.

15. The fish finder system according to claim 2, wherein the sonar gadget further comprises a connector for data transfer and charging of a battery.

16. The fish finder system according to claim 6, wherein the sonar gadget is configured to communicate the area of information related to the fishing environment to the display device wirelessly.

8. A sonar gadget device, comprising an active element for ultrasound generation and reception, wherein the sonar gadget device further comprises a water tight housing comprising fastening means for attachment of a cord or a fishing line.

9. The sonar gadget according to claim 8, wherein a first portion of the fastening means is arranged at a top of said water tight housing and a second portion of the fastening means is arranged on a side of the water tight housing.

10. The sonar gadget according to claim 8, wherein that the sonar gadget comprises two electrodes, located on a surface of the water tight housing, wherein the two electrodes are separated from each other and arranged to act as an activation sensor, and wherein said activation sensor is activated when the sonar gadget is placed into water.

18. The sonar gadget according to claim 9, wherein the sonar gadget comprises two electrodes, located on a surface of the water tight housing, wherein the two electrodes are separated from each other and arranged to act as an activation sensor, and wherein said activation sensor is activated when the sonar gadget is placed into water.

11. A software product arranged to be installed on a fish finder system, wherein the software product comprises at least two parts, a display device part arranged to run on a conventional display device, and a sonar gadget part that is arranged to be installed on a sonar gadget.

12. The software product according to claim 11, wherein said at least two parts of the software product are provided with an update functionality, such that update data is transferrable to the fish finder system from at least one of an Internet and an external memory device.

19. The software product of claim 11, wherein the conventional display device is selected from a tablet computer, a smart phone, and a laptop computer.

20. The software product of claim 11, wherein the display device part of the software product is configured to display surroundings-related information on the display device.

17. The fish finder system according to claim I, wherein the display device is configured to communicate with multiple sonar gadgets.