Receiving apparatus

• US 8,320,821 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2009
• Issued: 11/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/04/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Nakata, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Simon
• Application Number:
  US12/993,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20110076971A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• Field of Search: 455 301- 306, 455/67.11, 455132-135, 455/150.1, 4551601-1613, 455/164.2, 4551841-1851, 455/186.1, 455/226.1, 455/345, 455/456.1, 455/179.1
• US Class Current: 455/3.01
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 1/0075 where the receiving frequencies of the stations are stored in a permanent memory, e.g. ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H03J 1/0083 using two or more tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/55 for traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/13 radio data system/radio broadcast data system [RDS/RBDS]

Abstract

A receiving apparatus discriminates RDS data containing traffic information corresponding to the vehicle'"'"'s own position from RDS data of broadcasting stations searched for by frequency sweeping by a sub tuner front end 7; stores step by step into a pool memory 16 frequencies of alternative stations identified by each PI code of the RDS data and the number of the alternative stations; determines the PI code with the greatest number of the alternative stations by comparing the numbers of the alternative stations for individual PI codes stored in the pool memory 16 in a frequency sweeping range; and receives the traffic information from the station with the highest received electric field strength among all the alternative stations identified by the PI code determined.

Claims

1. A receiving apparatus having a position detecting unit for detecting its own position, a first receiving system for reproducing radio sound by receiving broadcast signals from respective broadcasting stations, and a second receiving system for receiving RDS (Radio Data System) data in each broadcast signal, wherein the second receiving system comprises:

an RDS demodulating unit for demodulating the RDS data in each broadcast signal;

a memory unit for storing, in association with each of one or more PI (Program Identification) codes, a counted number of alternative stations identified by that PI code and respective frequencies of those alternative stations, each of the one or more PI codes being reproduced from the RDS data in a broadcast signal received from a respective broadcasting station;

a processor programmed to execute a process of;

discriminating, from the RDS data of each broadcasting station searched for by frequency sweeping, the RDS data containing traffic information about the region code corresponding to the position information detected by the position detecting unit,

storing step by step into the memory unit frequencies of the alternative stations and the number of the alternative stations identified by each of the one or more PI codes of the RDS data,

determining which of the one or more PI codes is associated with the highest number of the alternative stations by comparing the counted numbers of the alternative stations for individual PI codes stored in the memory unit in a frequency sweeping range,

sweeping all the frequencies of the alternative stations identified by the determined PI code, and

receiving the traffic information from the alternative station identified by the determined PI code with the highest received electric field strength.

2. The receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the process further includes:

searching for a new broadcasting station when a prescribed update time period has elapsed from a start of receiving the traffic information or when the received electric field strength of the broadcast signal containing the traffic information becomes less than a permissible level; and

updating storage contents of the memory unit by using the RDS data of the broadcasting station searched for, and making a new determination of which of the one or more PI code is associated with the highest number of the alternative stations.