Radio transmitting apparatus and radio receiving apparatus to monitor residual capacity of a battery

• US 9,661,576 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2015
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
• Original Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
• Inventors: Tomisawa, Satoru
• Primary Examiner(s): JACKSON, BLANE J
• Application Number:
  US14/980,352
• Publication Number:
  US 20160262105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 512 Days
• Field of Search: 4551151, 4551153, 4551271
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/04 TPC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/245 taking into account received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/247 where the output power of a terminal is based on a path parameter sent by another terminal
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A radio apparatus that allows a user to check a state of a power supply is provided. A radio transmitting apparatus 10 includes a power supply voltage measurement unit 11 that measures a power supply voltage, a transmission power determination unit 12 that determines a transmission power based on the power supply voltage that has been measured, and a radio transmitting unit 13 that transmits by radio an advertisement packet including transmission power information indicating the transmission power that has been determined at the transmission power that has been determined. A radio receiving apparatus 20 includes a radio receiving unit 23 that receives the advertisement packet and a power supply state detection unit 21 that detects the state of the power supply of the radio transmitting apparatus 10 based on the transmission power information included in the advertisement packet.

Claims

1. A radio transmitting apparatus comprising:

a power supply voltage measurement unit that measures a power supply voltage;

a transmission power determination unit that determines a transmission power based on the power supply voltage that has been measured; and

a radio transmitting unit that transmits by radio a plurality of advertisement packets including transmission power information indicating the determined transmission power,

wherein a residual capacity of a battery is represented by the plurality of the advertisement packets and a combination of the transmission power information of the plurality of the advertisement packets indicates the residual capacity of a battery.

2. The radio transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the advertisement packets are iBeacon (registered trademark) packets in compliance with Bluetooth (registered trademark) protocol, and

the transmission power information is Measured Power of the iBeacon packets.

3. The radio transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission power determination unit changes the transmission power according to a decrease in the power supply voltage that has been measured.

4. The radio transmitting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the transmission power determination unit changes the transmission power every time one of the advertisement packets is transmitted when the residual capacity of the battery is below a threshold value.

5. The radio transmitting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the transmission power determination unit changes the transmission power when the power supply voltage that has been measured is lower than a threshold value of the power supply voltage corresponding to a timing when the battery, which supplies the power supply voltage, should be changed.

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

a storage unit that stores a transmission power pattern table, the transmission power pattern table associating the power supply voltage with a transmission power pattern indicating the transmission power for every transmission of the advertisement packets, and

the transmission power determination unit determines the transmission power according to the power supply voltage that has been measured based on the transmission power pattern table.

7. The radio transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage unit that stores a transmission power pattern table, the transmission power pattern table associating a transmission power pattern indicating the transmission power for every transmission of the advertisement packets with the residual capacity of the battery which supplies the power supply voltage,

wherein the transmission power determination unit determines the transmission power according to the residual capacity of the battery corresponding to the power supply voltage that has been measured based on the transmission power pattern table.

8. The radio transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the radio transmitting unit comprises an attenuator that switches the transmission power of the advertisement packets according to a control signal corresponding to the transmission power that has been determined.

9. A radio transmitting apparatus comprising:

a power supply voltage measurement unit that measures a power supply voltage;

a transmission power determination unit that determines a transmission power of a plurality of advertisement packets based on a result of comparing a predetermined value with a value based on the power supply voltage; and

a radio transmitting unit that reduces the transmission power of the advertisement packets based on the determined transmission power from the transmission power determination unit,

wherein a residual capacity of a battery is represented by the plurality of the advertisement packets and a combination of the transmission power of the plurality of advertisement packets indicates the residual capacity of a battery.

10. The radio transmitting apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the radio transmitting unit changes the transmission power when the transmission power determination unit determines the value based on the power supply voltage is less than the predetermined value.

11. A radio receiving apparatus comprising:

a radio receiving unit that receives a plurality of the advertisement packets; and

a power supply state detection unit that detects a state of a power supply of a transmission apparatus that transmitted the advertisement packets based on transmission power information included in the advertisement packets,

wherein the state of the power supply of a transmission apparatus is represented by the plurality of the advertisement packets and a combination of the transmission power information included in the plurality of the advertisement packets indicates the state of the power supply of a transmission apparatus.

12. The radio receiving apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a received signal strength measurement unit that measures a received signal strength of a plurality of radio signals including the advertisement packets received by the radio receiving unit,

wherein the power supply state detection unit detects the state of the power supply of the transmission apparatus based on the transmission power information included in the advertisement packet and the received signal strength that has been measured.

13. The radio receiving apparatus according to claim 11, wherein:

the advertisement packets are iBeacon (registered trademark) packets in compliance with Bluetooth (registered trademark) protocol, and

the transmission power information is Measured Power of the iBeacon packets.

14. The radio receiving apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the power supply state detection unit detects the state of the power supply based on changes of the transmission power information for each of the advertisement packets that has been received.

15. The radio receiving apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the power supply state detection unit detects a decrease in a power supply voltage of the transmission apparatus based on the changes of the transmission power information.

16. The radio receiving apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the power supply state detection unit detects a timing when a battery, which is the power supply of the transmission apparatus, should be changed based on the changes of the transmission power information.

17. The radio receiving apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a storage unit that stores a received signal strength pattern table, the received signal strength pattern table associating a received signal strength pattern indicating a received signal strength for each of the advertisement packets to be received with a power supply voltage of the radio transmitting apparatus,

wherein the power supply state detection unit detects the power supply voltage according to the transmission power information based on the received signal strength pattern table.

18. The radio receiving apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

a storage unit that stores a received signal strength pattern table, the received signal strength pattern table associating a received signal strength pattern indicating a received signal strength for each of the advertisement packets to be received with a residual capacity of a battery which is the power supply of the radio transmitting apparatus,

wherein the power supply state detection unit detects the residual capacity of the battery according to the transmission power information based on the received signal strength pattern table.