Altitude information acquiring device and altitude information acquiring system

• US 9,291,718 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Miyake, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Liu, Harry
• Application Number:
  US13/796,117
• Publication Number:
  US 20130257650A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,106 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357.31
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 5/04 Hydrostatic levelling, i.e. by flexibly interconnected liquid containers at separated points
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 5/06 by using barometric means
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 19/086 for remote indication
• CPC Class Codes: G01L 2019/0053 Pressure sensors associated with other sensors, e.g. for measuring acceleration, temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption

Abstract

An altitude information acquiring device includes a measuring unit which measures atmospheric pressure; a wireless communication unit which performs near field communication with an external device; and an altitude information acquiring unit which acquires altitude information from an external positioning device through the wireless communication unit. An inversion detecting unit detects an inversion of a changing direction of the atmospheric pressure periodically measured by the measuring unit, and a communication control unit controls a timing to acquire the altitude information through the wireless communication unit at a set timing, based on the inversion detected by the inversion detecting unit. An integrated altitude change acquiring unit acquires a rise altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a rising direction and a fall altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a falling direction, based on the acquired altitude information.

Claims

1. An altitude information acquiring device comprising:

a measuring unit which periodically measures atmospheric pressure;

a wireless communication unit which performs near field communication with an external device;

an altitude information acquiring unit which acquires altitude information from an external positioning device through the wireless communication unit;

an inversion detecting unit which detects a reversal of a changing direction, which is a direction in which the atmospheric pressure periodically measured by the measuring unit is changing;

an altitude calculating unit which converts atmospheric pressure values measured by the measuring unit into altitude values based on a predetermined table;

a communication control unit which sets a timing to acquire the altitude information through the wireless communication unit to a timing at which, after the reversal of the changing direction, an altitude change in the changing direction after the reversal is a preset altitude difference or more; and

an integrated altitude change acquiring unit which acquires a rise altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a rising direction and a fall altitude integrated value obtained by integrating an amount of altitude change in a falling direction, based on the acquired altitude information.

2. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1, wherein the altitude information acquiring unit acquires the altitude information at the timing when the changing direction of the atmospheric pressure was reversed, by correcting the acquired altitude information with the preset altitude difference.

3. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1, wherein the altitude calculating unit calculates the altitude by correcting the predetermined table based on the acquired altitude information.

4. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2, wherein the altitude calculating unit calculates the altitude by correcting the predetermined table based on the acquired altitude information.

5. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1, wherein:

the altitude information acquiring unit calculates a temporary value related to the altitude information based on the altitude value calculated by the altitude calculating unit when the altitude information acquiring unit fails to acquire the altitude information from the positioning device, and

when the altitude information acquiring unit successfully acquires the altitude information from the positioning device upon or after the calculation of the temporary value, the altitude information acquiring unit corrects the temporary value based on the altitude information currently acquired and the altitude information previously acquired from the positioning device.

6. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2, wherein:

the altitude information acquiring unit calculates a temporary value related to the altitude information based on the altitude value calculated by the altitude calculating unit when the altitude information acquiring unit fails to acquire the altitude information from the positioning device, and

when the altitude information acquiring unit successfully acquires the altitude information from the positioning device upon or after the calculation of the temporary value, the altitude information acquiring unit corrects the temporary value based on the altitude information currently acquired and the altitude information previously acquired from the positioning device.

7. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1, wherein:

the altitude information acquiring unit acquires an altitude value at the timing to acquire the altitude information as the altitude information, and

the integrated altitude change acquiring unit updates the rise altitude integrated value or the fall altitude integrated value based on a difference between a previously acquired altitude value and the currently acquired altitude value.

8. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 3, wherein:

the altitude information acquiring unit acquires an altitude value at the timing to acquire the altitude information as the altitude information, and

the integrated altitude change acquiring unit updates the rise altitude integrated value or the fall altitude integrated value based on a difference between a previously acquired altitude value and the currently acquired altitude value.

9. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2, wherein:

the altitude information acquiring unit acquires an altitude value at the timing to acquire the altitude information as the altitude information, and

the integrated altitude change acquiring unit updates the rise altitude integrated value or the fall altitude integrated value based on a difference between a previously acquired altitude value and the currently acquired altitude value.

10. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1, wherein the altitude information comprises a value of altitude change from a timing that the altitude information was previously acquired from the positioning device through the communication control unit to the timing that the altitude information is currently acquired.

11. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 3, wherein the altitude information comprises a value of altitude change from a timing that the altitude information was previously acquired from the positioning device through the communication control unit to the timing that the altitude information is currently acquired.

12. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2, wherein the altitude information comprises a value of altitude change from a timing that the altitude information was previously acquired from the positioning device through the communication control unit to the timing that the altitude information is currently acquired.

13. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1, wherein the altitude information comprises the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value calculated by the positioning device.

14. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 3, wherein the altitude information comprises the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value calculated by the positioning device.

15. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 2, wherein the altitude information comprises the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value calculated by the positioning device.

16. The altitude information acquiring device according to claim 13, further comprising an initial value setting unit which transmits initial values of the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value to the positioning device by the wireless communication unit when the measuring unit starts measuring the atmospheric pressure.

17. An altitude information acquiring system comprising:

a positioning device which comprises (i) an altitude acquiring unit which acquires an altitude of a current position, and (ii) an external wireless communication unit which transmits altitude information based on the altitude of the current position acquired by the altitude acquiring unit; and

the altitude information acquiring device according to claim 1,

wherein the altitude acquiring unit acquires altitude data included in the current position calculated by receiving radio waves from a plurality of positioning satellites according to a request from the altitude information acquiring device.

18. An altitude information acquiring system comprising:

a positioning device which comprises (i) an altitude acquiring unit which acquires an altitude of a current position, (ii) an external wireless communication unit which transmits altitude information based on the altitude of the current position acquired by the altitude acquiring unit, (iii) an altitude history memory unit which stores latest altitude data acquired by the altitude acquiring unit, and (iv) an amount of altitude change calculating unit which calculates an amount of altitude change from an altitude stored in the altitude history memory unit to a currently and newly acquired altitude; and

the altitude information acquiring device according to claim 10,

wherein the external wireless communication unit transmits the amount of altitude change calculated by the amount of altitude change calculating unit to the altitude information acquiring device.

19. An altitude information acquiring system comprising:

a positioning device which comprises (i) an altitude acquiring unit which acquires an altitude of a current position, (ii) an external wireless communication unit which transmits altitude information based on the altitude of the current position acquired by the altitude acquiring unit, (iii) an altitude history memory unit which stores latest altitude data acquired by the altitude acquiring unit, and (iv) an amount of altitude change calculating unit which calculates an amount of altitude change from an altitude stored in the altitude history memory unit to a currently and newly acquired altitude; and

the altitude information acquiring device according to claim 13,

wherein;

the altitude history memory unit stores a rise altitude integrated value which is an integrated value of an amount of altitude change in a rising direction and a fall altitude integrated value which is an integrated value of an amount of altitude change in a falling direction,

the amount of altitude change calculating unit adds the amount of altitude change to one of the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value according to a sign of the calculated amount of altitude change, and

the external wireless communication unit transmits the rise altitude integrated value and the fall altitude integrated value as the altitude information to the altitude information acquiring device.