II OPERATING
Contents
1. 1 After that flow goes back to S340 0075 That is at the guidance information creating pro cessing of FIG 7 the position at which the highest number of communicable terminals is detected is always recorded as an origin point Based on the origin point guidance information to be used to place the terminal back to the origin point is created and provided to the user Therefore in FIG 8 if a Bluetooth communication terminal to be newly installed can perform the guidance information cre ating processing of FIG 7 the Bluetooth communication terminal can be surely guided to and installed in a position where the Bluetooth communication terminal can directly communicate with all of the printer 3 the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 0076 More particularly for example when the power of the Bluetooth communication terminal is turned on and the guidance information creating processing of FIG 7 starts at a position B of FIG 8 the position B is recorded as a position where at least two devices the printer 3 and the personal computer 4 can communicate with the Bluetooth communication terminal Therefore if the Bluetooth com munication terminal is moved to a position C or D from the position B it is possible to place the Bluetooth commu nication terminal back to the position B Further when the Bluetooth communication terminal is moved to a position A the Bluetooth communication terminal can communi2. cate with three devices at the position A Thus the position A is recorded as a new origin point Accordingly if the Bluetooth communication terminal is moved to other positions such as the position B C or D the Bluetooth communication terminal can be placed back to the position A where the Bluetooth amp communication terminal can directly communicate with the three devices 0077 In the guidance information creating processing of FIG 7 the processing of S360 corresponds to the process ing performed by a communicable target detecting unit 0078 In the above described embodiments the explana tions have been given by taking the communication between Mar 11 2004 the printer 1 and the PDA 2 and the communication between the printer 3 the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 as examples However it is needless to say that the invention can be adopted to various Bluetooth equipped devices For example the invention can be adopted to the interconnection between a cellular phone and a personal computer a PDA or a headset each of which has the Bluetooth communication technology Various applications of the invention are con ceivable 0079 In the above described embodiments the two axis acceleration sensor 26 is used However a three axis accel eration sensor can be used instead of the two axis accelera tion sensor 26 If the three axis acceleration sensor is used guidance information can be created based on
3. Connection has been bro ken and Move in the direction of the flashing arrow In FIG 3B the display panel 25a displays a direction toward an origin point and a distance from the current position of the PDA 2 to the origin point As described above guidance information is displayed on the display panel 25a in order to place the PDA 2 back within the communicable range of the printer 1 By doing so the user moves with the PDA 2 according to the guidance information so that the PDA 2 can be placed back within the communicable range of the printer 1 0042 The acceleration sensor 26 which can detect accel erations of two axes in a two dimensional plane as described above is attached to the PDA 2 so that the two dimensional plane is parallel to a surface of the display panel 25a of the display unit 25 Therefore in order to correctly display the direction toward the origin point and or required moving distance to the origin point on the display panel 25a the PDA 2 needs to be held such that the surface of the display panel 25a is kept parallel to the ground plane and the orientation of the PDA 2 on the ground plane is maintained after the power of the PDA 2 is turned on that is after the recording of an origin point and calculation of moved distances and moving velocities of the PDA 2 is started Accordingly a user s manual of the PDA 2 includes a note for example Keep the orientation of the device as it is and the surface of
4. time T in the formula 1 is a time between the instance when the processing of S130 is finished and the instance when flow goes back to S130 again after the processing of S140 and its subsequent processing are per formed The time T is fixed even when the subsequent steps of S140 are changed In the formula 1 velocities VxO and Vy0 are equal to velocities Vx and Vy obtained the last time at S130 Immediately after the power of the PDA 2 is turned on the velocities Vx and Vy are set to O 0047 At S140 accelerations ax and ay are detected that is detection results of the acceleration sensor 26 are obtained and the flow moves to S150 At S150 it is determined whether the PDA 2 can communicate with the printer 1 that is it is determined whether the PDA 2 exists within the communicable range of the printer 1 This deter mination is performed by which the PDA 2 broadcasts inquires a search command to devices around the PDA 2 and determines whether any devices have responded to the search command 0048 When it is determined that the PDA 2 is out of the communicable range of the printer 1 S150 NO flow moves to 170 At 170 it is determined whether the origin point SxO is 1 which is a value set at S110 When the origin point 0 is 1 that is the PDA 2 has not been moved into the communicable range yet S170 YES flow goes back to 130 and subsequent steps are performed When the origin point Sx0 is not 1 that is t
5. Sheet 7 of 9 US 2004 0048571 A1 ACCELERATION SENSOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION UNIT BLUETOOTH MODULE WIRELESS COMMUNICATION UNIT BLUETOOTH MODULE ________ 5 WIRELESS COMMUNICATION UNIT BLUETOOTH MODULE pU 4s IMAGE SCANNING UNIT Patent Application Publication 11 2004 Sheet 8 of 9 US 2004 0048571 A1 FIG DEFAULT POSITIONAL DATA 5310 5 0 SyO 1 0 320 DEFAULT ACCELERATION 0 DEFAULT NUMBER OF S330 COMMUNICABLE TERMINALS term0 termi 0 CALCULATE VELOCITY 0 ax T 0 UPDATE ORIGIN POINT CURRENT POSITION 5 0 Sy0 0 Sx Sy 0 DETECT ACCELERATION ax ay DETECT NUMBER OF COMMUNICABLE TERMINALS UPDATE HIGHEST NUMBER term OF COMMUNICABLE ves TERMINALS term0 lt termi NO CALCULATE MOVED DISTANCE 1 Sx x T t ax Sx 1 sy yr ay Sy Patent Application Publication 11 2004 Sheet 9 of 9 US 2004 0048571 A1 COMMUN CABLE RANGE OF PRINTER 3 D ONE gt MAN COMMUN CABLE M RANGE OF 4 5 COMMUN CABLE RANGE OF ct j SCANNER i US 2004 0048571 A1 METHOD FOR GUIDING WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE INTO COMMUNICABLE RANGE AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0001 1 Field of Invention 0002
6. acceleration sensor 26 and the wireless communication unit 17 will be omitted The acceleration sensors 26 provided in the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 are also the same as the acceleration sensor 26 of the first embodiment 0066 The personal computer 4 has a common structure and includes a CPU 41 a ROM 42 a RAM 43 an operating unit 44 such as a keyboard and a display unit 45 including a liquid crystal display which are connected with each other via a bus line L4 In addition the personal computer 4 includes a wireless communication unit 47 which includes a Bluetooth module and an acceleration sensor 26 The personal computer 4 has a function of creating guidance information by the CPU 41 based on a detection result of the acceleration sensor 26 similar to the PDA 2 of the first embodiment The CPU 41 performs various processing to control data communication with external wireless commu nication devices e g the printer 3 and the scanner 5 in this embodiment via the wireless communication unit 47 0067 The scanner 5 includes a CPU 51 a ROM 52 a RAM 53 an image scanning unit 54 an operating unit 55 display unit 56 an acceleration sensor 26 and a wireless communication unit 58 which are connected with each other via a bus line LS The CPU 51 controls all of operations to be performed by the scanner 5 and data communication with external wireless devices e g the printer 3 and the personal computer 4 in t
7. chip module including several modules required for the Bluetooth wireless communication sys tem and is incorporated with various protocol stacks for controlling data transmission 0030 The PDA 2 as wireless communication device is a well known portable terminal that mainly controls private information such as schedules memorandums mails and address files The PDA 2 includes a CPU 21 a ROM 22 a RAM 23 an operating unit 24 a display unit 25 and a wireless communication unit 27 which are connected with each other via a bus line L2 In this embodiment an acceleration sensor 26 is provided to the PDA 2 The acceleration sensor 26 is also connected with the above described units via the bus line L2 0031 The CPU 21 controls all operations to be per formed by the PDA 2 and data communication with an external wireless communication device for example the printer 1 in the embodiment via the wireless communica tion unit 27 The ROM 22 stores programs for various controls to be performed by the PDA 2 The CPU 21 performs the controls according to the programs stored in the ROM 22 0032 The RAM 23 temporarily stores data to be created when the CPU 21 performs the controls The operating unit 24 having a plurality of keys and or buttons not shown is used by the user to input various data into the PDA 2 and instruct various operations The user can also input the data and instruct the operations by touching a display pane
8. controls When the printer 1 receives a request to execute a print job from the PDA 2 1 the PDA 2 transmits print data to the printer 1 the CPU 11 temporarily stores the received print data in the RAM 13 Mar 11 2004 and then the print data is printed by the printing unit 14 After that the CPU 11 erases the print data from the RAM 13 The printing unit 14 performs printing forms images onto recording sheets in accordance with print data inputted from the external devices 0027 The operating unit 15 is used by a user to perform settings of the printer 1 The display unit 16 displays various information about the operations performed by the printer 1 such as an operating status and setting conditions of the printer 1 0028 Although the drawings are omitted the printer 1 includes an input interface such as an RS 232C or a USB port to receive print data from external devices in addition to the wireless communication unit 17 When the printer 1 is requested from the external device such as a personal computer to perform a print job the printer 1 prints the print data inputted via the input interface by the printing unit 14 0029 The wireless communication unit 17 of the printer 1 of the embodiment transmits receives various data to from external Bluctooth communication terminals using the Bluetooth wireless communication system The wireless communication unit 17 includes a Bluetooth module which is a one
9. for those processing will be omitted and only different processing will be described below US 2004 0048571 A1 0073 In the guidance information crating processing of FIG 7 after the processing of S310 and S320 the number of communicable terminals and term1 are defaulted at 5330 Term0 indicates the highest number of communicable terminals that has been detected in the past Term1 indicates the number of communicable terminals that is detected at time of new searching described later Then after the calculation of velocity V S340 and the detection of accel eration a S350 of the Bluetooth communication terminal to be newly installed are performed at 360 the number of currently communicable Bluetooth communication termi nals term1 is detected This detection is achieved by detect ing the number of terminals that responded to the broadcast which is similar to 150 of FIG 4 0074 At S370 it is determined whether the number of currently communicable terminals term1 detected at S360 is greater than or equal to the highest number of communicable terminals term which has been recorded in the past When an affirmative judgement is made at S370 flow moves to 380 to record the position of the Bluetooth communica tion terminal which is located at time of detecting its position as an origin point Then at S390 the highest number of communicable terminals term0 is updated to the number of communicable terminals
10. plane perpendicular to an axis of the earth when the display panel 25a of the display unit 25 of the PDA 2 is parallel to the ground plane 0036 The wireless communication unit 27 as the Blue tooth module is similar in structure and function to the wireless communication unit 17 of the printer 1 except a profile of the Bluetooth The standardized technology and specifications in data communication between Bluetooth equipped devices between the printer 1 and the PDA 2 in this embodiment such as an establishment of a communi cation link access to a communication target and changing of a status from a connection mode to another mode e g a park mode or a sniff mode are well known as basic technology of the Bluetooth wireless communication Accordingly explanations for those technology will be omitted 0037 It is assumed that various data created by the PDA 2 are printed by the printer 1 by performing data commu nication between the printer 1 and the PDA 2 in the Bluetooth wireless communication system In this case the user of the PDA 2 transmits print data within a com municable range in which data communication can be achieved between the PDA 2 and the printer 1 Then the printer 1 prints the received print data by the printing unit 14 However there may be a case where the user who holds the PDA 2 unintentionally moves to a position out of the communicable range of the printer 1 0038 Incase the above des
11. terminals are determined by using the guidance information creating processing of FIG 4 or FIGS 5A and 5B of the first embodiment a broader range Bluetooth communica tion network e g scatternet can be established 0071 There may be case where it is desired that a Bluetooth communication terminal be installed in a posi tion where the Bluetooth communication terminal can directly communicate with all of the printer 3 the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 In particular when another Bluetooth communication terminal is newly installed by using the Bluetooth communication terminal as a junction point it is preferable that around the Bluetooth commu nication terminal there be more devices with which the Bluetooth communication terminal that functions as the junction point can directly perform data communication in terms of the stability of the communication system 0072 Here another guidance information creating pro cessing will be described with reference to FIG 7 This guidance information creating processing is effective in newly installing a Bluetooth communication terminal in a position where the newly installed Bluetooth communica tion terminal can perform data communication with as many Bluetooth communication terminals as possible Process ing of 5310 5320 5340 S350 S380 and S400 to S420 of FIG 7 are the same as the processing of 110 to 5140 and 160 to S190 of FIG 4 so that explanations
12. the display panel in the horizontal position when you move 0043 Next guidance information creating processing to be performed by the CPU 21 will be described with refer ence to FIG 4 The guidance information of FIG 3 is created based on the detection results of the acceleration US 2004 0048571 A1 sensor 26 The guidance information creating processing is executed by the CPU 21 upon turning the power of the PDA 2 on 0044 As the processing starts first at step 110 herein after S stands for step an origin point 50 5 0 SyO is set to 1 1 and a current position S Sx Sy is set to 0 0 The origin point SO 1 1 means that the PDA 2 has not been moved into the communicable range of the printer 1 yet after the power of the PDA 2 is turned on The current position S 0 0 means that an origin point has not been recorded yet or the PDA 2 exists within the communicable range of the printer 1 An x element and a y element of each position indicate each axis of the acceleration sensor 26 0045 At S120 the accelerations are defaulted More specifically both accelerations ax and ay of the two axes are set to 0 At S130 a velocity of the PDA 2 is calculated However both velocities Vx and Vy of the two axes are 0 at this point because the accelerations have been just set to 0 The velocities Vx Vy of the PDA 2 are obtained by a following well known formula 1 Vx Vx0 ax T D Vy Vx0 ay T 0046
13. used to place the wireless commu nication device back to the origin point is created and provided based on the detected distance and direction 0092 That is the wireless communication device can guide itself within the communicable range when the wire less communication device moves to a position out of the communicable range Therefore even if the user who holds the wireless communication device moves to a position out of the communicable range the user can go back within the communicable range based on guidance information for placing the wireless communication device back within the communicable range 0093 The recording unit can record any position within the communicable range as an origin point However it is more preferable that a position which is detected immedi ately before the wireless communication device moves to a position out of the communicable range be recorded as an origin point when it is determined that the wireless com munication device does not exist within the communicable range 0094 As described above by guiding the wireless com munication device to the origin point which is a position that is detected immediately before the wireless communi cation device moves to the position out of the communicable range a maximum distance can be secured between the wireless communication device and the communication tar get Accordingly a broadband wireless communication net work can be established as broa
14. 1 110 Sy 0 DEFAULT ACCELERATION 120 0 CALCULATE VELOCITY Vx ay DETECT ACCELERATION 140 150 CABLE UPDATE ORIGIN POINT AND CURRENT POSITION 0 Sy0 0 Sx Sy 0 CALCULATE MOVED DISTANCE 1 Sx Vx T 7 ax T Sx 1 7 ay DISPLAY ORIGIN POINT 190 DIRECTION DISPLAY Patent Application Publication 11 2004 Sheet 5 of 9 US 2004 0048571 A1 FIG 5A DEFAULT POSITIONAL DATA Sx0 Sy0 1 510 Sx Sy 0 DEFAULT ACCELERATION 520 ax ay 0 CALCULATE MOVING VELOCITY 530 VyO ay T DETECT ACCELERATION S540 ax ay COMMUN CABLE 542 YES EXECUT ON OF DATA COMMUNICATION REQUESTED START UP DATA COMMUNICATION PROCESSING NO 570 CALCULATE MOVED DISTANCE 1 S580 Sx 5 ax T2 Sx E 2 2 ay Sy DISPLAY ORIGIN POINT 590 DIRECTION ON DISPLAY Sy Vy T Patent Application Publication 11 2004 Sheet 6 of 9 US 2004 0048571 FIG 5B DATA COMMUNICATION PROCESS ING PERFORM DATA COMMUN CAT ON 720 710 DATA COMMUN I CAT ON NORMALLY COMPLETED UPDATE ORIGIN POINT AND CURRENT POSITION 0 Sy0 0 Sx Sy 0 Patent Application Publication 11 2004 FIG 6 PRINTER
15. 2 moves within the communicable range detecting the acceleration a S140 and calculating the velocity V based on the acceleration a S130 are repeatedly performed between positions in order to obtain the latest velocities and accelerations between a current position and a position where the PDA 2 is previously located at all times 0050 Ina case where the PDA 2 moves to a position out of the communicable range again although the PDA 2 has been within the communicable range once a negative judge ment is made at S150 and S170 and flow moves to 180 At S180 moved distance of the PDA 2 from the origin point is calculated with respect to each axis based on the velocity V Vx values obtained at S130 and the acceleration a ax ay values obtained at S140 at this point In other words a current position S is calculated with respect to the set origin point The moved distance of each axis is obtained by a following well known formula 2 1 2 2 awT Jes 1 were ze res 0051 After the current position S with respect to the origin point is obtained at S180 flow moves to S190 to display a direction toward the origin point an origin point direction on the display panel 25a based on the obtained current position S Sx Sy as shown in FIGS 3A and 3B Guidance information which corresponds to a vector Sx Sy indicating a direction from the current position S to the origin point is displayed
16. G 4 and the processing of S170 to S190 of FIG 4 respectively Therefore explana tions for those processing will be omitted 0059 In this processing after the calculation of the velocity V 530 and the detection of the acceleration a S540 are performed it is determined whether the PDA 2 can communicate with the printer 1 at 542 When the PDA 2 cannot communicate with the printer 1 S542 NO flow moves to S570 When the PDA 2 can communicate with the printer 1 flow moves to S550 At S550 it is determined whether an execution of data communication has been requested For example when the user operates the operat ing unit 24 of the PDA 2 to transmit print data and instruct the printer 1 to print the print data a data communication request flag is set in the PDA 2 The determination of S550 is performed with reference to the presence or absence of the data communication request flag When the flag is not set S550 NO it is determined that the execution of data communication has not been requested and flow moves to 570 When the flag is set 5550 YES flow moves to 560 and data communication processing is started 0060 The data communication processing is a task that is to be performed separately from the guidance information creating processing but is concurrently performed with the guidance information creating processing FIG 5B shows a flowchart of the data communication processing When this processing starts data co
17. The invention relates to a method for guiding a wireless communication device into a communicable range where the wireless communication device can achieve data communication with a communication target and a wireless communication device that creates information used to place the wireless communication device back within the com municable range when the wireless communication device moves to a position out of the communicable range using the above described method 0003 2 Description of Related Art 0004 Recently Bluetooth wireless technology is becoming widely used as a wireless communication system for enabling short range wireless data communication between various devices For example wireless data com munication is implemented between stationary electronic devices such as desktop personal computers printers and scanners between portable electronic devices such as cel lular phones PDAs personal digital assistants and note book computers or between the above described stationary electronic devices and the above described portable elec tronic devices 0005 The Bluetooth wireless technology can carry out communication within a relatively short range approxi mately between 10 to 100 meters in one to one communi cation at low power consumption and a middle speed approximately 1 Mbps Further the Bluetooth wireless technology achieves downsizing of a communication mod ule and excellent connectability between
18. US 20040048571 1 a2 Patent Application Publication Pub No US 2004 0048571 Al as United States Kiyose 43 Pub Date Mar 11 2004 54 METHOD FOR GUIDING WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE INTO COMMUNICABLE RANGE AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE 75 Inventor Katsumi Kiyose Nagoya shi JP Correspondence Address OLIFF amp BERRIDGE PLC P O BOX 19928 ALEXANDRIA VA 22320 US 73 Assignee BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA Nagoya shi JP 21 Appl No 10 395 152 22 Filed Mar 25 2003 30 Foreign Application Priority Data 29 2002 2002 095243 PRINTER Publication Classification GD Int Cb custo etd tecta H04B 5 00 52 ISAO 455 41 2 455 456 1 57 ABSTRACT personal digital assistant PDA detects its position by two axis acceleration sensor provided therein While the PDA is within a communicable range where the PDA can communicate with the printer a position of the PDA which is located at time when the position of the PDA is detected is recorded as an origin point and the origin point is periodically updated to the detected position When the PDA moves to a position current position through a position which is out of the communicable range of the printer guidance information for guiding the PDA into the commu nicable range of the printer is created based on a relative positional relationship between the curren
19. able range as shown in FIG 4 0063 Next a second embodiment of the invention will be described below In the first embodiment the description has been made taking the one to one communication the printer 1 and the PDA 2 as an example In the second embodiment as shown in FIG 6 it is designed such that data communication can be performed between a printer 3 US 2004 0048571 A1 a personal computer PC 4 and a scanner 5 In the second embodiment also the printer 3 the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 perform data communication therebe tween in the Bluetooth wireless communication system 0064 The printer is similar in structure to the printer 1 of the first embodiment The printer 3 includes a CPU 31 ROM 32 a RAM 33 a printing unit 34 an operating unit 35 display unit 36 and a wireless communication unit 17 which are connected with each other via a bus line L3 The printer 3 also includes an acceleration sensor 26 to create guidance information by the CPU 31 based on a detection result of the acceleration sensor 26 The acceleration sensor 26 is also connected to the bus line L3 0065 The acceleration sensor 26 is two axis accelera tion sensor that is the same as the acceleration sensor 26 provided to the PDA 2 of the first embodiment The wireless communication unit 17 of the second embodiment is also the same as the communication unit 17 of the first embodiment Accordingly explanations for the
20. acceleration in three dimensional plane so that further precision guid ance information can be provided 0080 In the first embodiment in order to correctly dis play the origin point direction and the distance between a current position and an origin point on the display panel 25a the user s manual of the PDA 2 includes a note for example Keep the orientation of the device as it is and the surface of the display panel in the horizontal position when you move However the above restriction on the user may exacerbate the usability of the PDA 2 0081 In order to resolve this problem a bearing sensor may be additionally provided to the PDA 2 to detect a direction of each axis of the acceleration sensor 26 With this structure at least the orientation of the PDA 2 in the two dimensional plane can be detected at all times even when the orientation is changed Further for example the acceleration sensor 26 is attached to the PDA 2 so that the two dimen sional plane of the acceleration sensor 26 is to be held in parallel with the ground plane in the two dimensional plane at all times With this structure the origin point is to be correctly displayed on the display panel 25a at all times even though the orientation of the PDA 2 is changed or the PDA 2 is inclined in three dimensions In this case it is preferable that each axis of the acceleration sensor 26 be designed so as to point to a fixed direction at all times like a magnetic b
21. ample in car navigation systems and cellar phones direction and a distance from the current position to the origin point may be calculated in accordance with the data obtained by the GPS 0085 The currently used GPS is a DGPS Differential GPS with high accuracy For example even when the orientation and or posture of a device is changed while a user moves with the device the current position can be precisely obtained by using the GPS Accordingly there is no possibility that guidance information does not appear or wrong information appears due to the losing of the direc tions and distances from the original point to the current position because the orientation and or posture of the device is changed 0086 However the GPS needs to receive radio waves from a satellite Therefore the GPS cannot work indoors where radio waves from the satellite are difficult to reach On the other hand the acceleration sensor 26 does not need to receive data from an external unit when detecting accelera tion Thus the detecting method using the acceleration sensor 26 has an advantage that the acceleration sensor 26 can be used indoors where radio waves from the satellite are difficult to reach Further a detection accuracy tolerance of the DGPS is approximately 10 meters Therefore the detec tion tolerance of approximately 10 meters may become a problem in data communication between a wireless com munication devices using the Bluetooth comm
22. ata of the electric field strength within a range of a general usage like the Bluetooth wireless communication devices of the above described embodiments Mar 11 2004 0090 According to the above described embodiments a moved distance and a moved direction from an origin point to a current position are calculated by using acceleration of the wireless communication device itself There is a well known rule that if an acceleration of an object is obtained a velocity can be obtained as an integration result and if a velocity is obtained a distance can be obtained as an integration result By using this rule that is based on the obtained acceleration the moved distance and direction of the wireless communication device can be obtained 0091 According to the wireless communication device of the embodiments the communicability determination unit determines whether the wireless communication device exists within the communicable range of the communication target When it is determined that the wireless communica tion device is within the communicable range the recording unit records an arbitrary position of the wireless communi cation device within the communicable range as an origin point The moving status detecting unit detects a moved distance and a moved direction from the origin point to the current position When the wireless communication device moves to a position out of the communicable range guid ance information to be
23. c field strength of radio waves from the base station 0008 However it is difficult to implement the conven tional guiding system using the electric field strength in the Bluetooth wireless communication system Under the present circumstances manufacturers who manufacture Bluetooth wireless communication devices purchase RF modules baseband modules firmware ROMs which are recently integrated into a one chip and protocol stack software for controlling the modules and create various applications by using the protocol stack API application program interface to control Bluetooth modules 0009 The protocol stack is standardized in its detail The protocol stack offers a means for controlling a power of radio waves of a device to control a lower module by an application or to obtain data from the lower module How ever the protocol stack does not include a means for controlling other controls and obtaining other data Accord ingly information as to the electric field strength cannot be obtained by controlling the Bluetooth module via an application layer Accordingly the conventional guiding method using the electric field strength cannot be applied to the Bluetooth wireless system SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0010 The invention thus provides a method for guiding a wireless communication device into a communicable range of a communication target when the wireless com munication device moves to a position out of the c
24. ck to the origin point can be created and provided by the above described method It is thus possible to guide the wireless communication device into the communicable range without using the conventional method using an electric field strength from the communication target US 2004 0048571 A1 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0013 Embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the following figures wherein 0014 FIG 1 is a schematic diagram showing structures of a printer and a PDA according to a first embodiment of the invention 0015 FIG 2 is an explanatory diagram of a principle of guidance information creation 0016 FIGS and 3B are explanatory diagrams of examples of guidance information to be displayed on a display unit of the PDA 0017 FIG 4 is a flowchart of guidance information creating processing according to the first embodiment 0018 FIG 5A is a flowchart of a variation of the guidance information creating processing to be executed by the PDA of the first embodiment 0019 FIG 5B is a flowchart of data communication processing to be executed by the PDA with the execution of the variation of the guidance information creating process ing according to the first embodiment 0020 6 is a schematic diagram showing structures of a printer a personal computer and a scanner according to a second embodiment of the invention 0021 FIG 7 is flowchart of
25. cribed case happens the PDA 2 of the embodiment calculates its moving velocity moved distance and direction between a new position and a prior position from which the PDA 2 moves at all times There fore when the PDA 2 moves to a position out of the communicable range of the printer 1 the PDA 2 creates guidance information based on the calculated results in order to guide the PDA 2 into the communicable range 0039 A principle of guidance information creation will be described with reference to FIG 2 As shown in FIG 2 while the PDA 2 exists within the communicable range of the printer 1 a position of the PDA 2 is detected at regular time intervals and the position where the PDA 2 is located at a time of detecting its position is recorded as an origin point The origin point is updated to a new position where the PDA 2 is detected while the PDA 2 moves within the communicable range of the printer 1 The moved directions and distances of the PDA 2 between positions are obtained based on accelerations of two axes detected by the accel eration sensor 26 0040 It is assumed that the PDA 2 is detected at position B which is located out of the communicable range Mar 11 2004 of the printer 1 after the PDA has been detected at a position A which is located within the communicable range of the printer 1 that is the PDA 2 moves from the position A to the position B FIG 2 In this case the origin point is not updated t
26. d as possible For example if the determination is adopted to the Bluetooth commu nication devices a broader scatternet can be established with a small number of terminals 0095 When the communicability determination unit determines that the wireless communication device is out of the communicable range the guidance information creating unit generates guidance information to provide the informa tion to an external That is when it is determined that the guidance information is required the guidance information is provided to the external 0096 Further when data communication between the wireless communication device and the communication tar US 2004 0048571 A1 get is actually performed and the data communication is normally completed the position of the wireless communi cation device where the data communication has been normally completed can be recorded as an origin point In other words it is designed such that a position can be recorded as an origin point only after the position is deter mined that the wireless communication device is within the communicable range and the data communication with the communication target has been normally completed instead of deterring with reference to the position of the wireless communication device By doing so there is no possibility that position where the wireless communication device cannot excellently perform data communication with the target due to external noises is rec
27. detects accelerations of two or more axes of the wireless communication device Based on the accelerations detected by the acceleration detecting unit at least one of a moved distance and moved direction of the wireless communication device is detected When the acceleration detecting unit can detect accelerations of two axes accelerations on a plane including the two axes can be obtained Therefore when the wireless communication device moves on the two dimensional plane it is enough to detect the accelerations of two axes When the wireless communication device is to be moved in three dimensions an acceleration detecting unit that can detect accelerations of three axes should be used 0100 It is not a problem if the wireless communication device having the two axis acceleration detecting unit is used while the two axes of the wireless communication device are always maintained in the horizontal position and the orientation of the wireless communication device is fixed However there may be cases where a moved distance and or direction from the origin point cannot be correctly detected due to inappropriate movement of the wireless communication device Mar 11 2004 0101 Therefore it is preferable that in addition to the acceleration detecting unit the wireless communication device whose orientation may change while the user moves such as mobile terminals as PDAs be provided with a detecting unit that detects the orientation
28. devices especially between devices of different types 0006 Accordingly the Bluetooth wireless technology has been applied to various devices mainly mobile termi nals such as cellular phones and PDAs and is becoming increasingly common as one of the future mainstream wire less data communication systems Because the Bluetooth wireless technology achieves data communication at low power consumption and a downsized communication mod ule the communicable range in a one to one communication is as short as approximately 10 to 100 meters Therefore it often and easily happens that Bluetooth equipped termi nal moves to a position out of the communicable range while carrying out the wireless communication with the other Bluetooth equipped terminal 0007 There have been various methods for placing wireless communication terminal back within a communi cable range of a communication target when the wireless communication terminal moves to a position out of the communicable range of a communication target in wireless communication technology other than the Bluetooth Those methods have been put into practical use For example there has been known a method such that in wireless communication between a base station and a ter minal a distance between the terminal and the base station and a direction toward the base station from the terminal are Mar 11 2004 displayed on a display of the terminal by detecting an electri
29. earing 0082 Instead of the above described method a gyrosen sor can be used to detect the orientation change and or rotation of the PDA 2 and guidance information can be created and provided based on the detection result If both of the three axis acceleration sensor and the three axis gyrosensor are provided to the user to the PDA 2 guidance information can be created and provided with consideration given to any movement and rotation of the PDA 2 in three dimensions Thus the precision of the guidance information can be improved 0083 The above described contrivance the additional provision of the bearing sensor or the gyrosensor keeping the two dimensional plane of the acceleration sensor 26 parallel with the ground plane or keeping the two axes of the acceleration sensor 26 so as to point the fixed direction are not only adopted to the printer 1 and the PDA 2 of the first embodiment but also adopted to the printer 3 the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 of the second embodiment 0084 In the above described embodiments moved direc tions and distances of the Bluetooth equipped device is obtained based on acceleration detected by the acceleration US 2004 0048571 A1 sensor 26 However it is needless to say that the detector is not limited to the acceleration sensor 26 For example an origin point and a current position may be obtained by using a well know GPS Global Positioning System which has been used for ex
30. erforms wire less data communication with an external communication target comprising a controller that detects the number of communication targets that are communicable with the wireless communication device records a position of the wireless communication device as an origin point when at least one commu nicable communication target is detected determines at least one of a distance and a direction from the origin point to a location of the wireless communication device after moving the wireless communication device and provides guidance information to be used to place the wireless communication device back to the origin point in accordance with at least one of the deter mined distance or direction wherein the origin point 15 updated to a position where the highest number of communicable targets are detected 8 The wireless communication device according to claim 3 wherein the controller includes an acceleration detecting unit that detects accelerations of at least two axes of the wireless communication device and detects at least one of the moved distance or direction based on the accelerations detected by the acceleration detecting unit 9 The wireless communication device according to claim 7 wherein the controller includes an acceleration detecting unit that detects accelerations of at least two axes of the 10 Mar 11 2004 wireless communication device and detects at least one of the moved dista
31. guidance information creating processing according to the second embodiment and 0022 FIG 8 is an explanatory diagram showing respec tive communicable ranges of the printer the personal com puter and the scanner according to the second embodiment DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 0023 Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings A first embodiment of the invention will be described below FIG 1 is an explanatory diagram showing schematic structures of a printer 1 and a PDA personal digital assistant 2 of the first embodiment In this embodiment the printer 1 is stationarily installed and the PDA 2 is designed so as to transmit receive data to from the printer 1 0024 The printer 1 as a communication target includes a CPU 11 a ROM 12 RAM 13 a printing unit 14 operating unit 15 a display unit 16 and a wireless commu nication unit 17 which are connected with each other via a bus line L1 0025 The CPU 11 controls all of the operations to be performed by the printer 1 and data communication with an external wireless communication device for example the PDA 2 in the embodiment via the wireless communication unit 17 The ROM 12 stores various programs for the controls to be performed by the printer 1 The CPU 11 performs various controls according to the programs 0026 The RAM 13 temporarily stores data to be created when the CPU 11 performs the
32. hat is the position B is not recorded as a new origin point because the position B is not located within the communicable range The origin point A has been recorded as the latest origin point immediately before the PDA 2 moved to the position out of the communicable range of the printer 1 is held as the latest origin point A moving velocity a moved distance and a moved direction of the PDA 2 between the position A and the position B have been calculated Then it is assumed that the PDA 2 is detected at current position C the PDA has been after detected at the position B that is the PDA 2 moves to the position C from the position B A moving velocity a moved distance and a moved direction of the PDA 2 between the position B and the position C have been calculated Then guidance infor mation is displayed on the display panel 25a of the display unit 25 of the PDA 2 based on a vector including required moving direction and distance from the current position C to the origin point A Therefore the user can easily place the PDA2 back within the communicable range of the printer 1 according to the guidance information 0041 FIGS 3A and 3B show examples of guidance information to be displayed on the display panel 25a of the display unit 25 of the PDA 2 In FIG 3A the display panel 25a displays a direction toward an origin point only using a flashing arrow In addition to this the display panel 25a displays messages for example
33. he embodiment via the wireless communication unit 58 The ROM 52 stores various control programs to be executed by the CPU 51 The RAM 53 temporarily stores data to be created when the CPU 5 executes processing The image scanning unit 54 scans a surface of an original document as image data The operat ing unit 55 is used by the user to perform settings of the scanner 5 and instruct operations The display unit 56 displays the settings and operation status of the scanner 5 The acceleration sensor 26 detects acceleration of the scan ner 5 The wireless communication unit 58 includes a Bluetooth module 0068 The printer 3 the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 can perform the guidance information creating processing of FIG 4 or FIGS 5A and 5B of the first embodiment Accordingly for example while the personal computer 4 is stationarily installed the printer 3 can be placed at position as far as possible from the personal Mar 11 2004 computer 4 a position near the border of the communicable range within the communicable range of the personal com puter 4 and the scanner 5 can be located in a position which is opposite to the printer 3 and as far as possible from the personal computer 4 a position near the border of the communicable range within the communicable range of the personal computer 4 0069 described above the printer 3 and the scanner 5 can be placed at the positions as far as possible from each
34. he origin point 0 has been set to 0 at S160 because the PDA 2 has been within the communicable range S170 NO flow moves to S180 When an affirmative judgement is made at 150 flow moves to 160 to set the origin point 0 and the current position to 0 respectively Then flow goes back to 130 That is a position of the PDA 2 which is located at time of detecting its position is recorded as an origin point 0049 That is while the PDA 2 exists out of the commu nicable range of the printer 1 after the power of the PDA 2 Mar 11 2004 is turned on a negative judgement is made at S150 and then an affirmative judgement is made at S170 After that flow goes back to S130 This cycle is repeated until the PDA 2 moves to a position within the communicable range of the printer 1 after the power of the PDA 2 is turned on However once the PDA 2 moves to a position within the communi cable range an affirmative judgement is made at S150 and then flow moves to S160 to set the origin point 0 and the current position S to 0 respectively After that flow moves to 5130 This cycle is repeated while the PDA 2 exists within the communicable range of the printer 1 In other words while the PDA 2 is within the communicable range the origin point 0 and the current position S are set to 0 at any position and the position where the PDA 2 is located at time of detecting its position is recorded as a latest origin point Also while the PDA
35. i cation device and the communication target is set as the origin point 20 The method according to claim 1 wherein the origin point is a position where a highest number of communicable targets are detected
36. in the two dimen sional plane and inclination inclination of the two axes with respect to a fixed reference plane such as a plane perpendicular to the axis of earth of the wireless commu nication device With consideration given to all of the detection results of the acceleration detecting unit and the additional detecting unit a direction and distance to the origin point is obtained 0102 In the wireless communication device the moving status detecting unit detects a moved distance and direction and generates and provides at least one of the distance and direction from the current position and the origin point as guidance information It is preferable that the guidance information include both of the distance and direction The guidance information can be displayed on the display LCD of the wireless communication device or can be outputted by voice Various informing methods can be adopted as long as the guidance information for guiding the wireless commu nication device into the communicable range can be pro vided to the user 0103 While the invention has been described in detail and with reference to the specific embodiments thereof it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes arrangements and modifications may be applied therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention What is claimed is 1 A method for guiding a wireless communication device which is designed to implement
37. irection between the origin point and a location of the wire less communication device after moving the wireless communication device and provides guidance information to be used to place the wireless communication device back to the origin point in accordance with at least one of the deter mined distance or direction 4 The wireless communication device according to claim 3 wherein the controller records a position which is detected within the communicable range immediately before the wireless communication device moves to a first position which is out of the communicable range as the origin point when the wireless communication device is determined to be out of the communicable range 5 The wireless communication device according to claim 4 wherein when the wireless communication device further moves from the first position to a second position which is out of the communicable range the controller detects at least one of a direction and a distance between the first position and the second position and provides information to be used to place the wireless communication back to the origin point from the second position 6 The wireless communication device according to claim 3 wherein the controller records a position where data communication has been actually performed and thus nor mally completed between the wireless communication device and the communication target as the origin point 7 wireless communication device that p
38. l 25a FIG 3 of the display unit 25 a liquid crystal display in this embodiment of the PDA 2 with a pen not shown 0033 The display panel 25 of the display unit 25 performs general functions of the PDA 2 such that the display panel 25 displays various data inputted by the user In addition the display panel 25a has a function of display ing guidance information for placing the PDA 2 back within a communicable range of the printer 1 when the PDA 2 moves to a position out of the communicable range in which the Bluetooth wireless communication can be achieved The details of this function will be described later with reference to FIG 3 US 2004 0048571 A1 0034 The acceleration sensor 26 as an acceleration detecting unit can detect accelerations of two axes in a two dimensional plane After the acceleration sensor 26 detects an acceleration of each axis the obtained accelera tions are inputted into the CPU 21 Then the CPU 21 calculates a moving velocity of the PDA 2 based on the inputted acceleration of each axis Further based on the accelerations and the moving velocity a moved distance and a moved direction are obtained described later Based on the obtained moved distance and direction the above described guidance information is created 0035 In this embodiment the acceleration sensor 26 is provided to the PDA 2 such that a two dimensional plane of the acceleration sensor 26 is parallel to a ground plane a
39. mmunication is performed at S710 That is desired data e g print data is transmitted from the 2 10 the printer 1 After the data communication at S710 is completed flow moves to S720 to determine whether the data communication has been normally completed When the data communication has not been normally completed S720 NO this processing is finished When the data com munication has been normally completed S720 YES flow moves to S730 to update the origin point SO and the current position S The processing of S730 is the same as the processing of 1160 of FIG 4 The position of the PDA 2 which is located at the time of detecting is recorded as a new origin point 0061 Every time the origin point is updated the process ing of S580 is performed to obtain the current position S with respect to the origin point 0 Then at 590 guidance information which indicates the position where the data communication has been actually normally completed is created and provided to the user The processing of 730 of FIG 5B corresponds to the processing performed by a recording unit of the invention 0062 described above if the PDA 2 is guided to the origin point where the data communication has been actually normally completed a further high quality communication can be maintained as compared with the method in which a position is recorded as an origin point only on condition that the position is located within the communic
40. nce or direction based on the accelerations detected by the acceleration detecting unit 10 The wireless communication device according to claim 4 wherein the controller includes an acceleration detecting unit that detects accelerations of at least two axes of the wireless communication device and detects at least one of the moved distance or direction based on the accel erations detected by the acceleration detecting unit 11 The wireless communication device according to claim 5 wherein the controller includes an acceleration detecting unit that detects accelerations of at least two axes of the wireless communication device and detects at least one of the moved distance or direction based on the accel erations detected by the acceleration detecting unit 12 The wireless communication device according to claim 6 wherein the controller includes an acceleration detecting unit that detects accelerations of at least two axes of the wireless communication device and detects at least one of the moved distance or direction based on the accel erations detected by the acceleration detecting unit 13 The wireless communication device according to claim 3 wherein the controller detects both of the moved distance and direction and provides at least one of the direction and distance from the current position of the wireless communication device to the origin point as the guidance information 14 The wireless communication device according t
41. o claim 4 wherein the controller detects both of the moved distance and direction and provides at least one of the direction and distance from the current position of the wireless communication device to the origin point as the guidance information 15 The wireless communication device according to claim 5 wherein the controller detects both of the moved distance and direction and provides at least one of the direction and distance from the current position of the wireless communication device to the origin point as the guidance information 16 The wireless communication device according to claim 6 wherein the controller detects both of the moved distance and direction and provides at least one of the direction and distance from the current position of the wireless communication device to the origin point as the guidance information 17 The wireless communication device according to claim 7 wherein the controller detects both of the moved distance and direction and provides at least one of the direction and distance from the current position of the wireless communication device to the origin point as the guidance information 18 The wireless communication device according to claim 3 wherein the origin point is a predetermined area within the communicable range 19 The method according to claim 1 wherein a position where data communication has actually been performed and that is normally completed between the wireless commun
42. ommu nicable range without using an electric field strength from the communication target 0011 According to one exemplary aspect of the inven tion a method for guiding a wireless communication device which is designed to implement wireless data communica tion with an external communication target into a commu nicable range where the wireless communication device can perform wireless data communication with the communica tion target includes the steps of setting a position of the wireless communication device within the communicable range as an origin point calculating at least one of a distance and a direction between the origin point and a location of the wireless communication device after moving the wireless communication device and providing guidance information in order to place the wireless communication device back to the origin point in accordance with at least one of the calculated distance or direction 0012 That is once a direction or a distance from an origin point to a position where the wireless communication device has moved and currently located within the commu nicable range is calculated a distance or direction from the current position to the origin point can be obtained from the calculated data Therefore even when the wireless commu nication device moves to a position out of the communicable range of the communication target guidance information to be used to place the wireless communication device ba
43. on the display panel 25a 0052 After S190 flow goes back to S130 While the PDA2 is out of the communicable range the processing of S130 and its subsequent steps are repeatedly performed Every time these steps are performed the latest velocity V and acceleration a are obtained at all times 130 and 140 At S150 and 170 negative judgement is made and the processing of S180 is performed Although the current position S is updated every time the processing of S180 is performed the origin point is not changed the origin point which is located within the communicable range and has been recorded immediately before the PDA 2 moves to a position out of the communicable range is not changed Accordingly every time the processing of S180 is per formed guidance information is created at 190 based US 2004 0048571 A1 the result of 5180 and is displayed on the display panel 25a Thus the user who holds the PDA 2 can go back within the communicable range of the printer 1 according to the guidance information 0053 Then when the PDA 2 is placed back within the communicable range an affirmative judgement is made at 150 and flow moves to 160 to update the origin point SO and the current position S That is the position of the PDA 2 which is located within the communicable range and detected after returning within the communicable range is recorded as a latest origin point 0054 As described above in this embodimen
44. orded as an origin point Accordingly the wireless communication device can be placed back to the position which is within the communi cable range and the data communication can be normally performed Thus the communication quality can be further surely maintained 0097 Further a position where the highest number of communicable communication targets is detected can be recorded as an origin point That is the wireless communi cation device includes the communicable target detecting unit that detects the number of communicable targets which can communicate with the wireless communication device The recording unit records an arbitrary position of the wireless communication device where at least one commu nicable target is detected by the communicable target detect ing unit as an origin point In addition every time the communicable target detecting unit detects the highest num ber of communicable targets the recording unit updates the origin point to the position where the highest number of communicable targets are detected 0098 As described above the origin point is updated to a new position every time the position where the highest number of communicable targets is detected Thus the wireless communication device can be guided to the position where the communication device can perform data commu nication with more communication targets 0099 The moving status detecting unit includes the acceleration detecting unit that
45. other Thus a Piconet which is a long range wireless communication network is established between the printer 3 the personal computer 4 and the scanner 5 Although normally the printer 3 and the scanner 5 cannot directly perform data communication with each other because of the long distance the printer 3 and the scanner 5 can perform data communication via the personal computer 4 as a junction point in the Piconet For example image data scanned by the scanner 5 can be printed by the printer 3 by which the image data is transmitted from the scanner 5 to the printer 3 via the personal computer 4 In this case a Scatternet is established by two interconnected Piconets one of which is formed by the scanner 5 and the personal computer 4 and the other of which is formed by the personal computer 4 and the printer 3 The personal computer 4 interconnects the Piconets In the one Piconet the scanner 5 acts as a master and the personal computer 4 acts as a slave In the other Piconet the personal computer 4 acts as a master and the printer 3 acts as a slave 0070 For example another Bluetooth communication terminal can be newly provided within the communicable range of the printer 3 or within the communicable range of the scanner 5 Still another Bluetooth communication terminal can be newly provided within the communicable range of the newly installed Bluetooth communication terminal In those cases if installation positions of those
46. rocessing of 180 corresponds to the processing performed by a moving status detecting unit and the processing of 190 corresponds to the processing performed by a guidance information providing unit 0057 In the embodiment the position of the PDA 2 which is located within the communicable range and was detected immediately before the PDA 2 moves to a position out of the communicable range is recorded as an origin point and guidance information is created and provided to the user to place the PDA 2 back to the origin point However it is not necessarily required that the above described position which is located near the border of the communicable range is recorded as an origin point but any position within the communicable range can be recorded as an origin point 0058 For example a position which is located within the communicable range and where data communication between the PDA 2 and the printer 1 has been actually performed and normally completed is recorded as an origin point Then guidance information is created and provided to guide the PDA 2 to the origin point when the PDA 2 moves to a position out of the communicable range FIG 5A shows flowchart of guidance information creating processing in the above described case In the guidance information cre Mar 11 2004 ating processing of FIG 5A the processing of S510 to 540 and the processing of S570 to S590 are the same as the processing of S110 to 140 of FI
47. t the PDA 2 obtains its acceleration at all times by itself by using the acceleration sensor 26 provided thereto and detects its current position based on the obtained acceleration When the PDA 2 moves to a position out of the communicable range of the printer 1 the position of the PDA 2 which is located within the communicable range and has been recorded as an origin point immediately before the PDA 2 moved to a position out of the communicable range is kept as a latent origin point and the PDA 2 provides the user with guidance information to go back to the origin point 0055 Accordingly it becomes possible to guide the PDA 2 into the communicable range of the printer 1 without using the conventional method that uses the electric field strength from a communication target Especially when the Blue tooth wireless technology is adopted to a wireless com munication terminal like the PDA 2 of the embodiment the wireless communication terminal cannot obtain information about the electric field strength from the terminal protocol stack Thus the above described method of the embodiment is effective on the wireless communication terminal using the Bluetooth wireless technology 0056 In the guidance information creating processing of FIG 4 the processing of 150 corresponds to the process ing performed by a communicability determination unit the processing of 5160 corresponds to the processing performed by a recording unit the p
48. t position and the origin point which is recorded immediately before the PDA moves to a position out of the communicable range and then the guidance information is displayed on the PDA OPERATING UNIT WIRELESS COMMUNICATION UNIT BLUETOOTH MODULE ACCELERATION SENSOR 24 OPERAT ING UNIT 25 DISPLAY UNIT Patent Application Publication 11 2004 Sheet 1 of 9 US 2004 0048571 A1 FIG 1 PRINTER 14 PRINTING UNIT 15 OPERAT ING UNIT 16 DISPLAY UNIT 17 WIRELESS COMMUNICATION UNIT BLUETOOTH MODULE WIRELESS COMMUNICATION UNIT BLUETOOTH MODULE OPERAT ING UNIT US 2004 0048571 Sheet 2 of 9 Patent Application Publication 11 2004 9 NOILISOd 138319 V LNIOd 1910 OL 9 NOILISOd 2 INIYYNI 40199 P _ V LNIOd NI9130 m u3iNIHd JO 39NVH 3 18V91NDIWWOO eng G Ola US 2004 0048571 Sheet 3 of 9 Patent Application Publication 11 2004 egg SC 3 gg 1 14 QNV NOIIO3MIQ Did egg 96 SNIHSV T3 40 1193810 JHL NI 9 338 SVH NOI I93NNOO 01193810 Ve Old Patent Application Publication 11 2004 Sheet 4 of 9 US 2004 0048571 A1 FIG 4 START DEFAULT POSITIONAL DATA 5 0 0
49. unication technology because the communicable range of one to one communication between the Bluetooth wireless commu nication devices is approximately between 10 and 100 meters 0087 Consequently a suitable method can be selected from the various methods using the acceleration sensor or GPS or other conceivable methods and adopted to the device in accordance with conditions such as situations and places where the device is used 0088 In the above described embodiments the explana tions have been given with the printer scanner personal computer and PDA which are equipped with the Blue tooth communication technology as examples of the wire less communication devices of the invention However the invention can be adopted to not only Bluetooth equipped devices but also communication devices to be used in a wireless LAN IEEE802 11a or IEEESO2 11b The inven tion can be adopted to any wireless communication devices as long as they can at least determine whether they are within a communicable range of a communication target by themselves 0089 The method of the invention can be adopted to wireless communication devices which use a conventional method for guiding themselves within communicable range of a communication target based on an electric field strength replacing the conventional method The method of the invention is further effectively used if adopted to wire less communication devices that cannot obtain d
50. wireless data communica tion with an external communication target into a commu nicable range where the wireless communication device can perform wireless data communication with the communica tion target comprising the steps of setting a position of the wireless communication device within the communicable range as an origin point calculating at least one of a distance and a direction between the origin point and a location of the wireless communication device after moving the wireless com munication device and providing guidance information in order to place the wireless communication device back to the origin point in accordance with at least one of the calculated dis tance or direction 2 The method according to claim 1 wherein calculating the moved distance or direction is performed based on an acceleration of the wireless communication device 3 A wireless communication device that performs wire less data communication with an external communication target comprising a controller that determines whether the wireless communication device exists within a communicable range where the wire less communication device can perform data com munication with the communication target US 2004 0048571 A1 records a position of the wireless communication device as an origin point when the wireless commu nication device is determined to exist within the communicable range determines at least one of a distance and a d
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