Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090086580 | HAND POSITION DETECTING DEVICE AND APPARATUS INCLUDING THE DEVICE - It is determined whether light has passed through apertures in a seconds, a center and an intermediate wheels and a relevant one of apertures in an hour wheel, thereby determining their respective rotational positions. When the center wheel rotates one step at a time in a predetermined direction to such a position that the apertures in the center and intermediate wheels align and a detection unit detects light which has passed thorough the apertures, the center wheel is returned twelve steps or more in the reverse direction. The center wheel is again rotated one step at a time in the predetermined direction to the position where the detection unit detected light first. When the detection unit again detects light at that position, this position is determined as the reference position in the center wheel. | 04-02-2009 |
20090086581 | HAND POSITION DETECTING DEVICE AND APPARATUS INCLUDING THE DEVICE - A detection unit detects light passing through apertures provided in a seconds wheel, a center wheel and an hour wheel, respectively, which rotate on the same axis. The apertures in the seconds wheel include a circular aperture provided at a reference position therein, and two apertures provided separated by corresponding arcuate apertures of different lengths from the aperture on its opposite sides, respectively. By counting the number of light non-detection events the detection unit encounters due to the light blocking area covering the detection unit, the rotational position of the seconds wheel is detected accurately and securely. | 04-02-2009 |
20090296534 | HAND POSITION DETECTING DEVICE - When detecting a rotational position of a seconds hand, it is determined whether data stored in a register in correspondence with a supply state of a drive current previously supplied to a coil of a stepping motor is “0”. When the data is “0”, the rotational position of the seconds hand is optically detected. When the data is “1”, the seconds hand is rotated one step, and then, the rotational position of the seconds hand is optically detected. Even though the seconds hand is shifted one second, the position detection is executed every two steps. | 12-03-2009 |
20110141858 | HAND POSITION DETECTING DEVICE AND ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - A hand position detecting device including: a first gear rotating with a minute hand; a second gear rotating with a second hand; a first detection target portion that is provided on the first gear and identifiable by light irradiation; a second detection target portion that is provided on the second gear and identifiable by light irradiation; and a detector, wherein the second detection target portion is formed to be divided into a plurality of parts over a predetermined angular range out of a center angle of 360° of the second gear, and a presence-or-absence pattern of the second detection target portion in an angular range of successive N (N represents one of 5 to 10) angular segments with any angular segment being set as a start point is made different when the angular segment of the start point is different. | 06-16-2011 |
20110249538 | ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - Disclosed is an electronic timepiece, comprising: a second hand and a minute hand; a stepping motor which performs a stepping drive of the hands; a rotating body which includes a target section, and rotates with the second hand; a detection section which detects an existence of the target section; a detection control section which makes the detection section operate by every rotation period, to make the detection section detect the existence of the target section at a first timing and at a second timing; a hand position counter which counts estimated positions of the hands based on the number of drive times of the stepping motor; a counted value holding section capable of temporarily holding a value of the hand position counter; a counted value saving section which makes the counted value holding section hold the value; and a counted value correcting section which corrects the value. | 10-13-2011 |
20110249539 | ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - Disclosed is an electronic timepiece, comprising: hands which indicate time to display the time; a stepping motor which performs a stepping drive of the hands; a drive control section which supplies the stepping motor with drive pulses; a hand movement examining section which examines whether the hands are moving or not; and awaiting control section which temporarily interrupts a supply of the drive pulses by the drive control section to be in a waiting state, when the hand movement examining section judges that the hands are stopped, wherein the supply of the drive pulses by the drive control section and an examination of whether the hands are moving or not by the hand movement examining section are respectively restarted, after the waiting control section has released the waiting state. | 10-13-2011 |
20120195172 | ELECTRONIC TIMEPIECE - An electronic timepiece includes: a power generation unit that generates power by taking in energy from outside; a battery that stores the generated power; a generated power monitor that intermittently and repeatedly measures the power generated by the power generation unit; an input amount analyzing section that performs an analysis on an energy input amount based on the measurement results of the generated power monitor; and a power generation urging notification controller that starts power generation urging notification if it is determined, based on the analysis result of the input amount analyzing section, that the energy input amount is low on average. | 08-02-2012 |