US 9,310,777 B2Granted

Radio-controlled wristwatch

AssigneesCitizen Holdings Co., Ltd., Citizen Watch Co., Ltd.

InventorAkira Kato

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Abstract

Provided is a radio-controlled wristwatch, including: reception means (11) for receiving a radio wave from a satellite to extract time-of-week specifying information and week specifying information; clock means for counting a current date and time; date and time adjustment means for adjusting the current date and time counted by the clock means; week information holding means for holding the week specifying information; week information updating means for updating the week specifying information held in the week information holding means based on the current date and time counted by the clock means; and week information reception limiting means for limiting the reception of the week specifying information performed by the reception means, and controlling the reception means to receive the week specifying information in a predetermined case. Therefore, power consumption required for reception in the radio-controlled wristwatch configured to receive a radio wave containing time information from a satellite in a global positioning system is reduced.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A radio-controlled wristwatch, comprising:

a reception unit for receiving a radio wave to extract time-of-week specifying information and week specifying information;
a clock for counting a current date and time;
a date and time adjustment unit for adjusting the current date and time counted by the clock;
a week information holding unit for holding the week specifying information;
a week information updating unit for updating the week specifying information held in the week information holding unit based on the current date and time counted by the clock;
and
a week information reception limiting unit for limiting the reception of the week specifying information performed by the reception unit, and controlling the reception unit to receive the week specifying information in a predetermined case,
wherein the week information reception limiting unit is configured to control the reception unit to receive the week specifying information in at least one of the cases a) and d) and at least one of cases b), c), and e), wherein
in case a) a user has adjusted a date counted by the clock;
in case b) a date and time converted from the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit or a date and time counted by the clock falls within a predetermined range with respect to a time point at which the week specifying information is updated;
in case c) in accordance with the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit,
a difference in the forward direction is defined as a difference between the date and time converted from the time of week and the date and time counted by the clock when assuming that the date and time converted from the time of week is located in the forward direction with respect to the date and time counted by the clock,
a difference in the reverse direction is defined as a difference between the date and time converted from the time of week and the date and time counted by the clock when assuming that the date and time converted from the time of week is located in the reverse direction with respect to the date and time counted by the clock,
a smaller one of the difference in the forward direction and the difference in the reverse direction extends over the time point at which the week specifying information is updated;
in case d) the clock has halted due to a decrease in power supply voltage;
and
in case e) the user has adjusted information indicating a number of cycles of the week specifying information.

14 more elements

A radio-controlled wristwatch, comprising:

a reception unit for receiving a radio wave to extract time-of-week specifying information and week specifying information;
a clock for counting a current date and time;
a date and time adjustment unit for adjusting the current date and time counted by the clock;
a week information holding unit for holding the week specifying information;
week information updating unit for updating the week specifying information held in the week information holding unit based on the current date and time counted by the clock;
and
week information reception limiting unit for limiting the reception of the week specifying information performed by the reception unit, and controlling the reception unit to receive the week specifying information in a predetermined case,
wherein the date and time adjustment unit is configured to:
adjust a time or a date and time counted by the clock unit based on the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit and the week specifying information held in the week information holding unit, when the reception of the week specifying information is limited by the week information reception limiting unit;
adjust the date and time counted by the clock unit based on the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit and the week specifying information received by the reception unit, when the reception of the week specifying information is performed by the reception unit under control of the week information reception limiting unit;
adjust only the time counted by the clock based on the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit, when the reception of the week specifying information is limited by the week information reception limiting unit and when a current day of week specified by the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit is identical to a day of week specified by the date counted by the clock;
and
adjust the date counted by the clock unit, when the reception of the week specifying information is limited by the week information reception limiting unit and when a current day of week specified by the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit is different from a day of week specified by the date counted by the clock.

10 more elements

A radio-controlled wristwatch, comprising:

a reception unit for receiving a radio wave to extract time-of-week specifying information and week specifying information;
a clock for counting a current date and time;
a date and time adjustment unit for adjusting the current date and time counted by the clock;
a week information holding unit for holding the week specifying information;
a week information updating unit for updating the week specifying information held in the week information holding unit based on the current date and time counted by the clock;
and
a week information reception limiting unit for limiting the reception of the week specifying information performed by the reception unit, and controlling the reception unit to receive the week specifying information in a predetermined case,
wherein, in a case where the reception unit is controlled by the week information reception limiting unit to attempt to receive the week specifying information and where the reception unit has succeeded in receiving the time-of-week specifying information but failed to receive the week specifying information:
the date and time adjustment unit adjusts a time counted by the clock based on the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit when a current day of week specified by the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit is identical to a day of week specified by the date counted by the clock;
and
the date and time adjustment unit is controlled not to adjust the date and time counted by the clock when the current day of week specified by the time-of-week specifying information received by the reception unit is different from the day of week specified by the date counted by the clock.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/237,889Filed 1 Aug 2012
Priority: JP 2011-17619211 Aug 2011
Published: US 2014/0226446 A114 Aug 2014
Granted: 12 Apr 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

G04G 9/00
Visual time or date indication means
G01S 19/34
Receivers: power consumption
G04R 20/04
The radio signal being sent by a satellite, e.g. GPS: tuning or receiving; Circuits therefor
G04R 20/06
The radio signal being sent by a satellite, e.g. GPS: decoding time data; Circuits therefor