JPH0969816A - Optical communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: It is possible to reduce power consumption required for spatial optical communication and to reduce interference and interference with other spatial optical communication. A directivity control unit 16 of a control unit 11 variably controls the directivity of a variable directivity light emitting unit 13 of a first transmission / reception device 10. Light receiving unit 24 of the second transceiver 20
The received light intensity at is detected by the received light intensity detection circuit 28 in the optical signal reception processing circuit 25, and the transmission drive circuit 22 and the transmission unit 2 are detected.
3 is received by the receiving unit 14 of the first transmitting / receiving device 10, and the received light intensity information is received by the receiving processing circuit 15.
And is sent to the directivity control unit 16 of the control unit 11. The directivity control unit 16 of the control unit 11 controls the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting unit 13 so that the light reception intensity of the second transmission / reception device 20 is maximized.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical communication device using infrared rays or the like, and more particularly to spatial light for performing communication by emitting light such as infrared rays from at least one of a pair of transmitting / receiving devices to the other in space. Regarding a communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In spatial optical communication using infrared rays or the like, a long-range communication range is set as wide as possible in consideration of the situation of use, and a light emitting element for optical transmission is used. The emission intensity is set to an intensity that satisfies the communicable range.

For example, in an infrared remote controller (remote control device) for one-way transmission, the emission intensity of an infrared light emitting diode provided on the remote controller side is such that a controlled device normally placed in a room can be controlled reliably. As described above, the light emission drive current and the like are set in advance, and the directivity is set to have a certain width in order to facilitate the operation.

Optical communication using infrared rays or the like has a higher degree of freedom because it is less regulated than communication using radio waves, and since data transmission / reception is performed only within a range that can be overlooked, data leakage does not occur outside and data security is ensured. It is also excellent in that the transmitter / receiver can be constructed at a lower cost than radio waves.
In consideration of these points, spatial light using infrared rays is used not only for one-way communication such as the infrared remote controller, but also for two-way communication between, for example, indoor computers and between computers and peripheral devices. It is considered to communicate.

[0005]

In the case of a transmitter / receiver for performing such spatial optical communication, a light emitting means such as an infrared light emitting diode has a certain size because of its easy installation. It is desired to have directivity.
Therefore, the signal light is actually emitted in the direction in which the communication partner does not exist, and the energy corresponding to this is not only energy that is not originally necessary for spatial optical communication,
Like other transmitters / receivers for spatial optical communication arranged in the same room, there is a risk of adverse effects such as interference and interference with other spatial optical communication existing in a nearby space.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and provides an optical communication device capable of saving power of a light emitting element for spatial optical communication and effectively preventing communication interference and the like. The purpose is to

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a first transmitting / receiving device with a variable directivity light emitting means of which the directivity changes and a second transmitting / receiving device for receiving an optical signal. Respective light receiving means for detecting the light receiving intensity of the light receiving means and transmitting information related to the light receiving intensity information to the first transmitting / receiving device, and the first transmitting / receiving device. Is characterized in that the control section variably controls the directivity of the variable directional light emitting means in accordance with information related to the received light intensity information from the second transmission / reception device.

Here, it is preferable to use light for transmitting the received light intensity information. Further, it is preferable that the control unit of the first transmission / reception device controls the directivity of the variable directional light emitting means so that the light reception intensity of the second transmission / reception device becomes maximum.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing an example of an embodiment of an optical communication device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a first transmitter / receiver 10 for spatial optical communication includes a control unit 11 and a light emission drive circuit 12 to which a communication signal supplied via the control unit 11 is input.
And a variable directivity light emitting section 13 driven to emit light by the light emission drive circuit 12, a receiving section 14 for receiving a signal, and a reception processing circuit 15 for receiving and processing a signal from the receiving section 14. There is. The reception processing circuit 15 outputs a reception signal and received light intensity information to be described later and sends it to the control unit 11. In particular, the received light intensity information is sent to the directivity control unit 16 in the control unit 11. The directivity control unit 16 controls the directivity of the emitted light of the variable directivity light emitting unit 13. It should be noted that the directivity control unit 16 is generally realized by software such as the CPU of the control unit 11.

The second transmitter / receiver 20, which is a communication partner of the spatial optical communication with respect to the first transmitter / receiver 10, has a transmission drive circuit 22 for transmitting and controlling the communication signal supplied to the input terminal 21, and the transmission drive circuit 22. A transmission unit 23 to which a signal from the transmission drive circuit 22 is supplied, a light receiving unit 24 for receiving an optical signal from the variable directivity light emitting unit 13 of the first transmission / reception device 10, and a signal from this light receiving unit 24. And an optical signal reception processing circuit 25 for receiving processing. The received signal from the optical signal reception processing circuit 25 is taken out via the output terminal 26. In addition, in the optical signal reception processing circuit 25,
A light reception intensity detection circuit 28 for detecting the intensity of light received by the light receiving unit 24 is provided. The received light intensity information detected by the received light intensity detection circuit 28 is sent to the transmission drive circuit 22, and is sent to the transmitter 23 as a transmission drive signal together with the communication signal from the input terminal 21. The transmitter 23 transmits radio waves, infrared rays, or other types of signals to the receiver 14 of the first transceiver 10. here,
Communication between the transmission unit 23 of the second transmission / reception device 20 and the reception unit 14 of the first transmission / reception device 10 may be performed by radio waves, infrared rays, or any other form, but spatial light such as infrared rays may be used. It is preferable to allow communication. The reception processing circuit 15 receives the signal from the reception unit 14 of the first transmission / reception device 10.
The received light intensity information of the received information obtained by the signal processing in step S1 is sent to the directivity controller 16 in the controller 11, as described above.

The directivity control unit 16 in the control unit 11 of the first transmission / reception device 10 changes the directivity of the variable directivity light-emitting unit 13 at the start of communication, for example, and the second transmission / reception device 2
By monitoring the received light intensity at 0, the directivity that maximizes the received light intensity is found. After setting the variable directivity light emitting unit 13 to the optimum directivity that maximizes the received light intensity, the spatial optical communication of the original communication signal is performed.
If the positional relationship between the first transmission / reception device 10 and the second transmission / reception device 20 is fixed, it is only necessary to first adjust and set the directivity to the optimum state, and the directivity is set at each communication start. There is no need to adjust and set the sex.

By adjusting the light emission directivity as described above, the following effects can be obtained. That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, a transceiver 31 having a light emitting element for transmission and a transceiver 32 having a light receiving element for reception.
When trying to communicate with a, if the directivity of the light emitting element of the transmitting / receiving device 31 is set to be wide to some extent, for example, three transmitting / receiving devices 3 within the optical signal reachable range 34.
Since 2a, 32b, and 32c are included, not only may there be problems such as mutual interference and communication interference, but also unnecessary power is consumed. On the other hand, by changing the directivity of the transmission / reception device 31 based on the received light intensity information from the transmission / reception device 32a, for example, the directivity shown in the optical signal arrival range 33 of FIG. 2 is obtained. At this time, almost only the transmission / reception device 32a exists within the optical signal reachable range 34, other optical communication existing in the nearby space is less likely to be disturbed, and the power consumption becomes minimum. .

Regarding the change in the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting portion, narrow directivity with different directions is switched as shown in FIG. 3 rather than changing the width like wide directivity and narrow directivity. Is preferably changed as follows. That is, in FIG. 3, the variable directivity light emitting unit 35 includes a plurality of relatively narrow directivities 38a, 38b, ...
., And these directivities 38a, 38b, ...
By switching and selecting, the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting unit 35 is changed.

An example of a concrete structure of such a variable directivity light emitting portion 35 is schematically shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.

4 and 5, for example, a plurality of light emitting elements 3 arranged in a two-dimensional vertical and horizontal matrix form.
A variable directivity light emitting portion 35 is configured by providing an integrated lens 36 on the light emitting elements 37 so that the light emitting elements 37 have directivities in different directions. In this specific example, 5 × 5 = 25 light emitting elements 37 such as infrared light emitting diodes are arranged in a matrix in a matrix, and the half-value angle of directivity of each light emitting element 37 is narrowed to about 5 degrees. . For this reason, interference or interference with other adjacent spatial optical communication becomes extremely small, and more communication can be performed simultaneously in a limited space. Also,
A half-value angle of the directivity of the entire variable directional light emitting section 35 is about 25 degrees. Therefore, when installing a transmitter / receiver having such a variable directional light emitting section 35, accurate alignment is required. It can be installed easily without the need for Furthermore, 1 out of 25 light emitting elements 37
Since one of them is selected to emit light, the energy required for light emission can be reduced to 1/25 of that in the conventional case.

When such a variable directivity light emitting unit 35 is used for the variable directivity light emitting unit 13 of the first transmitting / receiving device 10 of FIG. 1, first, when performing spatial optical communication, the control of FIG. The directivity control unit 16 of the unit 11 transmits the reference signal while switching the plurality of light emitting elements 37, and the second transmitting / receiving device 20 of FIG. By comparing the above received light intensities of, the light emitting element having the highest received light intensity is selected. The light emitting element selected at this time naturally has a directivity in the direction in which the second transceiver 20 of the communication partner in FIG. 1 is present.

Therefore, according to the spatial optical communication device having the configuration of FIG. 1 using the variable directivity light emitting section 35 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5,
As a whole, it has a directivity that does not hinder the alignment when installing the transmitters / receivers 10 and 20, and reduces the power consumption by limiting the required directivity during spatial optical communication. It is possible to reduce interference and obstruction with respect to the spatial optical communication.

The variable directivity light emitting section 3 shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 above.
Some specific examples of the switching selection method of the plurality of light emitting elements 37 of No. 5 will be described.

First, as a first method, all the light emitting elements 3
It is possible to scan 7 in order and select the light emitting element that gives the maximum light emission intensity on the light receiving side.

This is because the directivity control unit 16 of the control unit 11 of the first transmitter / receiver 10 of FIG. 1 causes the plurality of light emitting elements 37 to be arranged in a predetermined order, for example, from the light emitting element 37 in the upper left corner of FIG. Scan to the right edge in the horizontal direction and move to the left edge of the next lower row, and then repeat the horizontal scan and the transition to the lower row in the same manner to send a predetermined signal while scanning the light emitting element in the lower right corner. To do. For each light emitting element 37 that is switched and selected by this scan, the received light intensity detected by the second transmission / reception device 20 of FIG. Part 1
6, the light emitting element having the highest received light intensity is selected.

Here, while performing the above-described all-element scanning, transmission control is performed so that signals including identification codes, for example, element numbers, of the light-emitting elements 37 that have been switched and selected can be transmitted, and communication is performed. It can be considered that it is possible to identify which light emitting element is switched and selected on the side of the second transceiver 20 of the other party. In this case, the second transceiver 20
On the side, the element number of the light emitting element and the received light intensity at that time are stored in association with each other, the maximum received light intensity is detected by comparing the received light intensities, and the element number corresponding to this maximum received light intensity is transmitted in the first transmission / reception. Return to device 10.

In the detection of the maximum received light intensity, first, the set of the element number and the received light intensity for the first light emitting element of the scan is stored in the memory, and the received light intensity of the next light emitting element by the scan is stored in the memory. It is possible to realize by advancing the above scanning while storing the set of the received light intensity and the element number, which is larger than the received light intensity, in the memory. The light-receiving intensity paired with the intensity is the maximum light-receiving intensity. This maximum received light intensity detection is performed by the first transmitter / receiver
The same can be done on the side.

Next, as a second switching selection method, it is possible to scan a plurality of light emitting elements 37 for each block and select the light emitting element having the maximum light receiving intensity on the light receiving side.

This is divided into blocks for each of the five light emitting elements 37 in each column of a 5 × 5 matrix as shown in FIG. 4, and scanning is performed for each column to select the column having the maximum light receiving intensity. , Then the five light-emitting elements 3 in this selected row
If 7 is sequentially scanned, the switching of 5 blocks and the switching of 5 elements are required a total of 10 times, and the time until the element having the maximum light emission intensity is selected can be shortened. In this case, the maximum emission intensity may be detected on the side of the first transmitting / receiving device or on the side of the second transmitting / receiving device as described above.

Next, the third switching selection method will be described. If three light emitting elements that are not on a straight line are sequentially switched to emit light and the light receiving intensity is detected, the maximum light receiving element on the light receiving side is limited to four elements based on the ratio of these light receiving intensities. At this time, if the light receiving side is within the specified angle range, it can be specified as one element, so that the time until selection can be shortened.

In addition to these switching selection methods, various switching selection methods are possible.

In the above description, an example in which spatial optical communication is used for communication in at least one direction of a pair of transmitting / receiving devices has been described, but spatial optical communication may be used in both directions.
A specific example in this case will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 6, the first transmitter / receiver 40
And the second transmission / reception device 50 have the same configuration, and the first transmission / reception device 40 is in the 40's
In the transmitting / receiving device 50, instruction codes in the 50s are attached.

The first transmission / reception device 40 of FIG.
1, a light emission drive circuit 42 to which a communication signal supplied via the control unit 41 is input, a variable directivity light emission unit 43 that is driven to emit light by the light emission drive circuit 42, and a light receiving unit that receives an optical signal. 44, and an optical signal reception processing circuit 45 for receiving and processing the optical signal from the light receiving section 44. The variable directivity light emitting section 43 includes a light emitting section 43B including a plurality of light emitting elements having different directivities,
The light emitting portion 43B includes a switching portion 43A for switching each light emitting element. From the reception processing circuit 45,
The received signal and the received light intensity information at the light receiving unit 44 are output and sent to the control unit 41. The received signal may include the received light intensity information or the element number information of the maximum received light intensity in the second transceiver 50. The control unit 41 outputs a switching instruction signal for performing the above-described scanning operation or for switching to the directivity corresponding to the maximum received light intensity and sends it to the switching unit 43A of the variable directional light emitting unit 43.

The second transmission / reception device 50, which is a communication partner of the spatial light communication with the first transmission / reception device 40, has the same structure as the first transmission / reception device 40. The description is omitted by replacing the instruction codes in the 40's of the respective parts with those in the 50's with the figures.

As shown in FIG. 6, bidirectional spatial optical communication is performed, and directivity switching control and received light intensity detection are performed by the transmitting and receiving devices 40 and 50, respectively.
After proper light emitting elements are selected by both sides, the original signal communication is performed.

The present invention is not limited to the examples of the above-described embodiments, and for example, in the variable directional light emitting section of FIGS. 4 and 5, an integral lens is formed to form each light emitting element. However, the directivity may be different from each other by changing the mounting angle of each light emitting element. In addition, the light emitting element is 5 ×
However, two or more light emitting elements may be arranged in an arbitrary shape, for example, in a linear shape. Further, the half-value angle of directivity of each light emitting element is not limited to about 5 degrees described above, and any other angle may be used. Furthermore, although the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion are separately configured, an optical component integrated with light receiving and emitting may be used.

[0035]

According to the present invention, the control section of the first transmitting / receiving device, which has at least the variable directivity light emitting means whose directivity changes and the control section which variably controls the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting means, Since the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting means is variably controlled in accordance with the intensity of the received light detected by the second transmitter / receiver, the directivity of the degree that does not hinder the alignment when installing the transmitter / receiver is provided. While having as a whole, it is possible to reduce power consumption by limiting the directivity necessary for spatial optical communication, and reduce interference and interference with other spatial optical communication.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an example of an embodiment of an optical communication device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a signal arrival range of spatial optical communication according to directivity.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a specific example of directivity of a variable directivity light emitting unit.

FIG. 4 is a front view schematically showing a specific example of a variable directivity light emitting unit.

FIG. 5 is a side view schematically showing a specific example of a variable directivity light emitting unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of another example of the embodiment of the optical communication device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11, 41, 51 control unit 12, 42, 52 light emission drive circuit 13, 43, 53, 35 variable directivity light emitting unit 14 reception unit 15 reception processing circuit 16 directivity control unit 22 transmission drive circuit 23 transmission unit 24, 44, 54 light receiving section 25, 45, 55 optical signal reception processing circuit 28 received light intensity detection circuit 36 lens 37 light emitting element

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Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A first transmission / reception device having at least a variable directivity light emitting means of which directivity changes and a controller for variably controlling the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting means, and the variable directivity light emitting means. And a second transmitter / receiver having at least a received light intensity detector for detecting the intensity of light received by the light receiver. The controller of the first transmitter / receiver includes the second transmitter / receiver. 2. The optical communication device, wherein the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting means is variably controlled according to information related to the received light intensity information detected by the transmitter / receiver device and transmitted to the first transmitter / receiver device. 2. The optical communication device according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit of the first transmitting / receiving apparatus has a light receiving unit, and the transmitting unit of the second transmitting / receiving apparatus has a light emitting unit. 3. The control unit controls the directivity of the variable directivity light emitting means so that the light receiving intensity of the light receiving means of the second transceiver is maximized. Optical communication device. 4. The variable directivity light emitting means of the first transmitter / receiver is provided with a plurality of light receiving elements having different directivities, and the directivity is changed by switching the plurality of light receiving elements. The optical communication device according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The control unit sequentially switches a plurality of light receiving elements of the variable directivity light emitting means to emit light, and selectively controls the light receiving element having the maximum light receiving intensity in the light receiving means of the second transceiver. The optical communication device according to claim 4, wherein: