Navigation wristwear

• US 5,627,548 A
• Filed: 11/30/1995
• Issued: 05/06/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Janky, Gregory T., Mura-Smith, Kiyoko M., Woo, Arthur N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHAN, DAO LINDA
• Application Number:
  US08/563,568
• Time in Patent Office: 523 Days
• Field of Search: 342/357, 342/352, 342/356, 455/12.1
• US Class Current: 342/357.57
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/35 Constructional details or hardware or software details of the signal processing chain
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/36 relating to the receiver frond end
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/04 using radio waves radio-controlled time-pieces G04R
• CPC Class Codes: G04R 20/02 the radio signal being sent by a satellite, e.g. GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G04R 20/08 the radio signal being broadcast from a long-wave call sign, e.g. DCF77, JJY40, JJY60, MSF60 or WWVB
• CPC Class Codes: G04R 20/14 the radio signal being a telecommunication standard signal, e.g. GSM
• CPC Class Codes: G04R 60/06 Antennas attached to or integrated in clock or watch bodies
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/273 Adaptation for carrying or wearing by persons or animals
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 23/00 Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them

Abstract

A navigation wristwear device comprises a GPS receiver fully disposed in a wrist watch type housing. A transparent microwave patch antenna is patterned of indium-tin-oxide on sapphire in front of an LCD time, position and velocity display. A bezel provides a protective window. A low-noise amplifier, downconversion, code processing and navigation processing are all provided on a single integrated circuit. Photovoltaic solar cells to each side of the LCD help keep a battery charged.

Claims

1. A navigation wristwear device, comprising:

means for establishing a radio link to communicate downconverted and demodulated code suitable for navigation processing;

a first part including an antenna to receive L-band microwave signals from orbiting navigation satellites, a downconverter connected to remove the carrier frequencies from said signals, and a code processor connected to despread and track said signals and connected to communicate corrected ranging and timing information via the radio link means; and

a wrist watch type housing with straps in which is disposed a navigation processor connected to receive said corrected ranging and timing information via the radio link means, and a display connected to receive position, velocity and time information from triangulation of said corrected ranging and timing information.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein:

said code-processor and said navigation-processor are physically separate and physically independent.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein:

the first part is configured to be worn on a part of the body of a user that has better visibility to said orbiting navigation satellites and includes a battery charged by a photovoltaic solar cell to keep it charged and to provide power to the first part.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein:

the first part is configured to be placed in the vicinity of the wrist watch type housing in a position that has better visibility to said orbiting navigation satellites and includes a battery charged by a photovoltaic solar cell to keep it charged and to provide power to the first part.

5. A navigation wristwear device, comprising:

a wrist watch type housing with straps in which is disposed an antenna to receive L-band microwave signals from orbiting navigation satellites, a downconverter connected to remove the carrier frequencies from said signals, and a code processor connected to despread and track said signals and to provide a radio link having corrected ranging and timing information, a navigation-processor connected to receive said radio link having corrected ranging and timing information, and a display connected to receive position, velocity and time information from triangulation of said corrected ranging and timing information;

wherein said antenna is placed in a stack behind a protective bezel and in front of said display and is constructed to permit viewing of said position, velocity and time information on said display through said protective bezel;

said downconverter, code processor and navigation processor all share a single integrated circuit placed beneath said display; and

a battery connected to power said single integrated circuit and said display is disposed in the bottom of said wrist watch type housing behind a backing plate.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein:

said antenna comprises a circular dipole in two ring-shaped parts placed together.

7. The device of claim 5, wherein:

said antenna comprises a folded dipole in two transparent disk-shaped parts placed together.

8. The device of claim 5, wherein:

said antenna comprises an annular ring.

9. The device of claim 5, wherein:

said antenna comprises a transparent disk substrate on which is deposited and patterned a transparent conductive material on both sides that serve as a microwave patch electrode and groundplane.

10. A navigation wristwear device, comprising:

means for establishing a radio link to communicate downconverted and demodulated code suitable for navigation processing;

a first part including an antenna to receive L-band microwave signals from orbiting navigation satellites, a downconverter connected to remove the carrier frequencies from said signals, and a code processor connected to despread and track said signals and connected to communicate corrected ranging and timing information via the radio link means; and

a wrist watch type housing with straps in which is disposed a navigation processor connected to receive said corrected ranging and timing information via the radio link means, and a display connected to receive position, velocity and time information from triangulation of said corrected ranging and timing information; and

wherein said orbiting navigation satellites include a master clock to which said navigation processor recalibrates and synchronizes itself for the presentation of time of day information on said display.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein:

said timing information provided by said orbiting navigation satellites is system time and the local time is computed by said navigation processor from the time zone position of the watch on earth or is assumed, where the correct time zone is known or can be assumed from a last good position fix, as few as one satellite signal is tracked by said code processor and said navigation processor extracts said timing information for watch function.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein:

said single navigation satellite signal is not tracked in real time and samples of the signal are collected and stored, and then decoded in slower-than-real-time post processing by a microcomputer.