Horology: time measuring systems or devices – Plural timepiece system or system device
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-28
2004-06-15
Martin, David (Department: 2841)
Horology: time measuring systems or devices
Plural timepiece system or system device
C047S052000, C047S05900R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06751163
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a clock adjusting method for electronic equipment, and more particularly to the correct adjustment of a day of the week and a time indicated by clock means of an electronic equipment by discriminating the time of the clock means and a reference time obtained through the reception of broadcasting waves with reference time information and adjusting the day of the week of the clock means on the basis of the result of discrimination while setting the time of the clock means at the reference time.
In the conventional electronic equipment, for example, an audio equipment capable of recording a broadcasting program of a radio casting into a recording medium and reproducing a music or the like recorded in the recording medium, a desired broadcasting program can be recorded simply by a timer recording function. In this audio equipment, a clock indicating a day of the week and a time is incorporated so that in order to enable the recording even in the case where the broadcasting dates of desired broadcasting programs are different, not only the designation of the instant of time of recording start and the instant of time of recording end or a recording time but also the designation of a broadcasting day of the week of the program are possible at the time of timer recording. Therefore, it is possible to make the recording reservation of broadcasting programs over one week.
In order to correctly record a desired broadcasting program, it is required that the clock incorporated in the audio equipment should be placed in a correctly adjusted condition. For that purpose, broadcasting waves including the multiplexed form of message data indicative of broadcasting station information, traffic information, date/time information and so forth, for example, as in a RDS (Radio Data System) broadcasting practiced in Europe are received so that the clock is adjusted using the obtained time information.
However, when not only information of a time but also information of a date or the like are to be obtained from a received signal, a complicated operation processing is required to obtain information of “month”, “day” and “day of week” since information of a date or the like is represented using a corrected Julian calendar in the case of the RDS broadcasting.
Also, assume the case where the adjustment based on the acquisition of only time information from a received signal is made in order to provide the simple adjustment of the clock of the audio equipment. In this case, if the adjustment of the clock is made at a timing near to 0:00 a.m. at which a day of the week changes, there may occur the case where a day of the week is not correctly adjusted.
For example, in the case where the clock of the audio equipment goes slow or indicates “23:58 on Tuesday” when a correct time is “0:02 on Wednesday”, as shown in
FIG. 6
, the adjustment of the clock of the audio equipment results in the adjustment to “0:02 on Tuesday”, that is, a state in which a day of the week is put back one day. Also, in the case where the clock of the audio equipment goes fast or indicates “0:02 on Tuesday” when a correct time is “23:58 on Monday”, the adjustment of the clock of the audio equipment results in the adjustment to “23:58 on Tuesday”, that is, a state in which a day of the week is put forward one day.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a clock adjusting method and an electronic equipment in which a clock of an electronic equipment can correctly be adjusted using time information.
A clock adjusting method according to the present invention comprises a step in which a reference time and a time indicated by a clock portion are compared, a step in which when the time of the clock portion is in a first time range from 0:00 a.m. and the reference time is in a second time range before 0:00 a.m., the time of the clock portion is set at the reference time while a day of the week indicated by the clock portion is put back one day, and a step in which when the time of the clock portion is in a third time range before 0:00 a.m. and the reference time is in a fourth time range from 0:00 a.m., the time of the clock portion is set at the reference time while the day of the week of the clock portion is put forward one day.
Also, an electronic equipment according to the present invention comprises receiving means for receiving broadcasting waves with reference time information to obtain a reference time, and clock adjusting means for discriminating a time indicated by clock means and the reference time information obtained by the receiving means so that a day of the week indicated by the clock means is adjusted on the basis of the result of discrimination while the time indicated by the clock means is set at the reference time obtained by the receiving means.
In the case where the discrimination of the time indicated by the clock means and the reference time obtained through the reception of the broadcasting waves results in that when the time indicated by the clock means is in a first time range from 0:00 a.m., the reference time indicates a time of the preceding day which is in a second time range before 0:00 a.m., the day of the week of the clock means is put back one day. Also, in the case where when the time indicated by the clock means is in a third time range before 0:00 a.m., the reference time indicates a time of the next day which is in a fourth time range from 0:00 a.m., the day of the week of the clock means is put forward one day.
Further, in the case where the announcement of time of 0:00 a.m. is detected when the time indicated by the clock means is in a fifth time range before 0.00 a.m., the clock adjustment is made with the day of the week of the clock means being put forward one day.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3852953 (1974-12-01), Mischiatti
patent: 4014166 (1977-03-01), Cateora
Lindinger Michael L.
Martin David
Sony Corporation
Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP
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