Broadcast receiver capable of automatically updating location and performing spiral searching

#There are, of course, numerous devices for conveying, particularly with displays, information to the users of broadcast receivers, particularly, home and auto radio receivers. Such displays have taken the form of 7-segment gas diodes, light emitting diodes and even liquid crystal display panels to provide the user information about the frequency of the station to which he is listening. An example of a liquid crystal display is shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,719 to Schiebelhuth. Another such patent is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,714 to Oshawa. In this patent, the liquid crystal display merely advises the user whether the broadcast is stereo or monaural. Still another patent concerned with displaying the broadcast frequency to the user is the U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,651 to Froeliger.

#A conventional scanning receiver is one which can be operated to scan over a portion of the broadcast frequency spectrum to stop at a received station having a sufficient signal strength and permit a user to listen to or watch that station. Such receivers, for instance, are often provided in vehicles and operated to scan either AM or FM bands to stop at the first station received for a period of time to permit the user to decide if the station received is one he wants to listen to or to let the scanning operation resume.

#The usefulness and attractiveness of receivers can be enhanced considerably by the provision of a receiver capable of conveying greater amounts of information to the user. Likewise, by the provision of a preprogramming capability, the foregoing and other advantages to the user can be enhanced.

#The invention itself is set forth in the claims appended hereto and forming a part of this specification, while an understanding of embodiments thereof may be had by reference to the detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a radio receiver in accordance with the invention;

#FIG. 2 is an illustration of an embodiment of the front of a receiver which can be used to practice the invention;

#Referring first to FIG. 1 of the drawings, a radio receiver in accordance with the invention includes a control module 1. In this embodiment, the control module is constituted by a one-chip CPU such as the T-18 manufactured by Toshiba and is described in the published technical data for this chip. It includes as a program memory a ROM, a RAM data memory together with a liquid crystal display driver circuit, input/output ports and timing oscillators. As will be described hereinafter various inputs are provided for the T-18 chip.

#The receiver itself includes the usual radio frequency and audio frequency circuits for both AM and FM. The FM circuit includes an antenna 11 for connection to a RF radio frequency section 17, the output of which in turn is connected to a mixer 18. The output of the mixer is supplied to an intermediate frequency amplifier 19 and its output in turn is supplied to a detector 20. The output of the detector is coupled to a multiplexer 25 which feeds earphones 28 and an audio frequency amplifier 26 that supplies a speaker 27.

#A similar circuit is provided for AM signals and is constituted by an antenna 12 for connection to a RF radio frequency section 21 the output of which in turn is connected to a mixer 22. The output of the mixer is supplied to an intermediate frequency amplifier 23 and its output in turn is supplied to a detector 24. As before, the output of the detector is coupled to the multiplexer 25 which feeds earphones 28 and an audio frequency amplifier 26 that supplies the speaker 27.