Terminal apparatus, positioning method, control program for terminal apparatus, and computer readable recording medium having recorded therein control program for terminal apparatus

• US 7,812,764 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2009
• Issued: 10/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Mizuochi, Shunichi, Hayashi, Akifumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H
• Assistant Examiner(s): LIU, HARRY K
• Application Number:
  US12/418,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20090195452A1
• Time in Patent Office: 554 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.15
• US Class Current: 342/357.67
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/23 Testing, monitoring, correcting or calibrating of receiver elements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/24 Acquisition or tracking or demodulation of signals transmitted by the system synchronisation aspects of direct sequence spread spectrum modulation H04B1/7073
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/29 carrier including Doppler, related G01S19/246 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/30 code related G01S19/246 takes precedence

Abstract

A terminal apparatus includes a control unit and a positioning device. The control unit determines a first satellite-to-be-acquired from among a plurality of SPS satellites, and generates an initial search frequency for the first satellite-to-be-acquired. The positioning device has a plurality of search units, and is configured to acquire the first satellite-to-be-acquired using the plurality of search units. The control unit determines first difference information, which is a difference between the initial search frequency and the frequency at which the first satellite-to-be-acquired is acquired. The control unit generates corrected search frequencies for other SPS satellites, using the first difference information. The positioning device acquires other necessary SPS satellites using the corresponding corrected search frequencies. The terminal apparatus can acquire SPS satellites accurately even when there has been a frequency shift in the terminal apparatus since the last positioning.

Claims

1. A satellite signal search method comprising:

generating a first search frequency based on a known frequency of a first satellite signal, a Doppler effect and an estimated frequency drift;

computing a first drift, the first drift being a difference between the first search frequency and a first acquisition frequency, the first acquisition frequency being a frequency at which the first satellite signal is acquired at a first time;

generating a second search frequency based on the first search frequency and the first drift;

computing a second drift, the second drift being a difference between the second search frequency and a second acquisition frequency, the second acquisition frequency being a frequency at which a second satellite signal is acquired at a second time; and

correcting the estimated frequency drift based on the first or second drift when a drift difference between the first drift and the second drift falls within a predetermined range.

2. The satellite signal search method according to claim 1, wherein a search frequency for another satellite signal to be used for positioning is determined based on the corrected estimated frequency drift.

3. The satellite signal search method according to claim 1, wherein the first satellite signal is searched using all search units available.

4. The satellite signal search method according to claim 3, wherein the acquired satellite signal is tracked using a fewer number of the search units available.