Abstract:
A global positioning system (GPS) receiver may be integrated with a tide display device. The GPS receiver receives satellite signals and determines the precise time and geodetic position by trilateration. The precise time and geodetic position is used by the tide display device to determine the appropriate tide information to display. The tide display device displays the tide information to a surfer on a graph display with the ordinate axis representing tide height and the abscissa axis representing time.

Description:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. §119 
     The present Application for patent claims priority to Provisional Application No. 60/844,070 entitled “TIDE DISPLAY DEVICE WITH GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM, TIMING AND NAVIGATION,” filed on Sep. 11, 2006 and assigned to the assignee hereof and hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     1. Field 
     The invention relates generally to display devices. More specifically, the invention relates to portable display devices for displaying tide information. 
     2. Related Art 
     Surfers have traditionally relied on various sources for gathering information about surf conditions, for example, the internet, television, and radio. Surf conditions depend on many factors including local bathymetry, swells, wind conditions, and tides. Information related to tides in many local areas has often been scant. Tide tables from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides tide heights for ports and bridges. The information, however, has little utility for surfers interested in the surf conditions at surfing beaches. 
     Many surfers would like to have tide information available to them while surfing. Some surfers use watches with preloaded tide information. The tide information presented to the surfer on some of these watches includes the present tide height displayed as a numerical value. Other watches show the present tide height by illuminating one of eight, low to high tide bars. These watches, however, do not provide the surfer with complete and precise twenty-four hour tide information. 
     To use these watches correctly, a surfer must also enter their precise geographic location since relevant tide information depends on the location of the surfer. Complicating matters, the surfer may be unaware of his precise geographic location or the name of the beach he is surfing at. Even if the surfer knows his precise location, his watch may not have tide data for that location because the manufacturer had limited memory for storing preloaded tide data. 
     Thus, there is a need for a tide display device for surfers that will allow them to determine their precise geodetic location and view precise twenty-four hour tide information for that location. 
     SUMMARY 
     A global positioning system (GPS) receiver may be integrated with a tide display device. The GPS receiver receives satellite signals and determines the precise time and geodetic position by trilateration. The precise time and geodetic position is used by the tide display device to determine the appropriate tide information to display. The tide display device displays the tide information to a surfer on a graph display with the ordinate axis representing tide height and the abscissa axis representing time. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The exact nature of this invention as well as its objects and advantages will be readily understood upon consideration of the following specification as related to the attendant drawings wherein like reference numerals throughout the drawings indicate like parts, and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a top view of the tide display device according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a cross section of the tide display device of  FIG. 1  showing exemplary embedded electronic components according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating a computer with a tide database for uploading tide information to the tide display device of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 4  shows an exemplary GPS page displayed on the tide display device of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 5  shows an exemplary calculator page displayed on the tide display device of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Methods and systems that implement the embodiments of the various features of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention. Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” is intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least an embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Throughout the drawings, reference numbers are re-used to indicate correspondence between referenced elements. 
       FIG. 1  is a top view of the tide display device  100  according to an embodiment of the invention. The tide display device  100  can be, for example, a watch, a surfing information device, a surf watch, a mobile device, a handheld device (e.g., a cell phone, a Blackberry or an iPhone), etc. Packaging the tide display device  100  in the form of a waterproof device provides the surfer with convenient and easy access to tide data. The tide display device  100  can also be packaged such that it can withstand various standard atmospheric pressures such as 3 atm, 5 atm, 7 atm, 10 atm, 15 atm, 20 atm, 25 atm, etc. This can be advantageous in preventing damage to the tide display device  100  from impact shock, water leakage, etc. 
     The tide display device  100  may be packaged in forms other than a watch. The tide display device  100  may also include Velcro®, clips, and/or suction devices for attaching the tide display device  100  to automobile dashboards, backpacks, bicycles, surf boards, etc. The tide display device  100  may also be embedded in other electronic devices such as a computer, a personal digital assistant or a cell phone. 
     The tide display device  100  may have a display  102 , a band  104 , first, second, third, and fourth push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112 , a GPS antenna  134 , an RF antenna  136 , and/or a compass  138 . The RF antenna  136  can be used as a receiver, transmitter, and/or transceiver. The band  104  can be constructed of various materials such as cloth, polyurethane, etc. Thus, the band  104  can have a polyurethane unibody construction. An area surrounding the display  102  can be constructed of stainless steel while the display  102  can be made of a plastic or shatter resistant material. 
     The display  102  may show surf information such as a tide graph  114  having 24 hour tide information. The tide heights are shown chronologically from left to right. The abscissa (x-axis) of the tide graph  114  is labeled with time intervals. The far left of the tide graph  114  shows the tide height six hours previously and the far right of the tide graph  114  shows the tide height eighteen hours in the future. Historic data on the tide graph  114  is shaded to allow the surfer to easily identify the current state of the tide in the tidal cycle. The date  116  appears below the tide graph. The surf information can also include a moon phase  118 , which also appears proximate to the tide graph  114 . Furthermore, surf information can also include a sunrise time  120  and a sunset time  122  that appear in the middle portion of the display  102 . 
     The display  102  also has a GPS indication  124 . The GPS indication  124  alerts the surfer that the information on the display  102  corresponds to the best available data for the GPS navigated location and time. The time of the day  126  and day of the week  128  may also be displayed. Since the GPS indication  124  is illuminated, the time of day corresponds to the GPS time of day. Also, displayed are the current tide height  130  and the temperature  132  as sensed by a temperature sensor  208  (shown in  FIG. 2 ). 
     The display  102  layout is exemplary and many display pages are contemplated showing watch, GPS and tide information in a variety of formats. Alternate display pages may be selected through actuation of the push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112 . The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may be used to change the display format. For example, the tide information may be displayed numerically (e.g., spreadsheet), graphically with numerical labels (e.g., high and low tide numerics) or through animation. 
     The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may also be used to select different units of measure, for example, the tide height in meters or the temperature in degrees Celsius. The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may be used to set a tide alarm. The push buttons may be used to select the display language, for example, English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, or Spanish. Display modes that allow the user to count waves or other events by depressing one of the push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  are provided. A heat timer mode can also be activated by depressing one of the push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112 . Furthermore, depressing one or more of the push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  can activate a chronograph feature of the tide display device  100 . 
     The display  102  can also be used to display the time zones around the world with 24 time zones. A user can then view the current time in other time zones and/or shift the current time to a desired time zone. 
     Other display pages may display relevant surfing information for a variety of surf locations. A surfer may call up an individual location using push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112 . For each surf spot, the display may show the name of the location, the tide data (time and heights), and the sunset and sunrise times. Furthermore, in a “best mode” operation the display may also show the best tide for surfing, the best swell direction, the best wind direction, the bottom type or any other relevant surfing data. The bottom type may indicate the bottom of the body of water such as whether it is sand, rock, a mixture of sand and rock, or any other materials. In other modes, one or more of the relevant surfing data such as the name of the location, the tide data (time and heights), the sunset and sunrise times, the best tide for surfing, the best swell direction, the best wind direction, the bottom type may be displayed. 
     Using the push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112 , the surfer may also change or input the name of the beach. For example, a surfer may wish to change a reference beach name such as “Newport Beach” to “56 th  street” or “Secret Spot”. Thus, although a beach may normally be referenced as “Newport Beach” the user can now customize the beach name to be “56 th  Street” or “Secret Spot.” In that case, “56 th  Street” or “Secret Spot” will refer to “Newport Beach” and contain all of the same information as that of “Newport Beach.” In one embodiment, the surfer may input a new beach name and a relative distance from an existing beach name. For example, the surfer may input Corona Del Mar Beach and 5 miles south of Newport Beach. Hence, the tide display device  100  is customizable to a particular location and will compute or estimate the new tide information (e.g., Corona Del Mar) relative to or using the stored tide information (e.g., Newport Beach). The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may allow the surfer to input or select a future calendar date and review tide or other surfing data for one or more locations on that date. Tide information for up to 2,000 spots and up to 50 years in the future can be stored in the tide display device  100 . 
     The tide display device  100  also includes a tide alarm. Using push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112 , the surfer may select an alarm time relative to the tide time, for example, two hours before high tide. The alarm can also be set to indicate when there is a crescendo such as when the tide height is increasing or a decrescendo such as when the tide height is decreasing. The alarm can also be set to notify the user when the tide is at a certain height. In addition, the surfer may select an alarm tone or a display message to appear at the desired time. The surfer may also select a different alarm tone for high tide alert and low tide alert. The alarm tones can be a variety of sounds including, but not limited to, keytone, chimes, tide chimes, etc. 
     The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may also be used to change the tide graph  114  format, for example, 3 hours, 6 hours, 9 hours, 18 hours, 21 hours, and 24 hour format. The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may be used to view tide graphs  114  for previous days or future days. The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may be used to view tide graphs  114  for other geodetic positions or beaches. The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  can also be used to lock the display such that the display does not accept any inputs from push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  until one of push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  are pushed to unlock the display. The push button  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  that locks and unlocks the display can be the same button or it can be different buttons. Furthermore, there can be a predetermined combination of push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  that locks and/or unlocks the display. Instead of locking the display, push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  122  can also be used to set the tide display device  100  into a sleep mode wherein the tide display device  100  will not wake from the sleep mode until one or more of push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  are depressed. 
     The push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  may be used to enter a tide time offset. The tide time offset may be used by the surfer to create a “new” beach not in the tidal database. The user may select a beach in the database, compare the high tide or low tide time of the selected beach with the new beach, and enter a tide time offset. The use of GPS to estimate a tide time offset from the surfer&#39;s present position to the nearest beach may be performed. The use of a math model for generating the tide graph  114  for a specific geodetic location based on tide information for one or more neighboring beaches may also be performed. 
     The tide display device  100  may also incorporate watch features such as alarms and timers. The tide display device  100  may also feature a compass  138  to allow the surfer to determine his orientation allowing the surfer to determine the swell or wind direction. The compass  138  can have a graphical layout and indicate north, south, west or east and the direction the user is pointing towards. The compass  138  can also have a graphical layout of the terrain that the user is at. Furthermore, the compass  138  can also be incorporated onto the display  102  instead of being a separate unit. The compass  138  can have a digital display (e.g., graphically and/or numerically) or be digitally rendered onto the display  102 . 
     The GPS antenna  134  located on the inside or outside of the tide display device  100  allows the electronics (not shown) to receive GPS signals. The use of a compact GPS antenna  134  is preferred to maintain the tide display device  100  form packaging. 
       FIG. 2  is a cross section of the tide display device  100  of  FIG. 1  showing exemplary embedded electronic components according to an embodiment of the invention. The tide display device  100  may include a microprocessor  200 , a Bluetooth® Radio Frequency (RF) circuit  202 , a GPS chip  204 , a memory  206 , a battery  208 , and a temperature sensor  210 . The Bluetooth® RF circuit  202  may be connected to the RF antenna  136  and the GPS chip  204  may be connected to the GPS antenna  134 . Furthermore, the temperature sensor  210  can be connected to the microprocessor  200 . The battery  208  provides power to each of the electronic components. To increase battery life, the microprocessor  200  can put the tide display device  100  into a sleep mode that reduces the amount of battery power used by the tide display device  100 . The user can set the sleep time for a number of minutes, hours or days. Also, the user can set the tide display device  100  into a sleep mode until the user pushes one or more of the push buttons  106 ,  108 ,  110 , and  112  to exit the sleep mode. The tide display device  100  can be stored for months and the battery life will be increased due to the sleep mode. 
     The GPS chip  204  may receive the GPS signals through the GPS antenna  134 . The GPS chip  204  may process the GPS signals to determine the precise time and geodetic position of the tide display device  100 . The GPS chip  204  may send the time and position to the microprocessor  200 . The microprocessor  200  may process the time and position for display to the user. 
     The memory  206  may store a tide database as well as other information for use by the microprocessor  200 . The memory  206  can store just the beaches the user wants such as beaches of interest to the user. This can limit the size of memory  206 . For example, if there was only ten slots available in the memory  206 , a user can load only 10 beaches it wants information about for one year into the memory  206 . Alternatively, a user can load only 5 beaches it wants information about for two years into the memory  206 . The number of slots available is variable and can be any number. 
     Furthermore, the display  102  can indicate how much of the memory  206  is available or used. For example, if two slots are used in the memory  206  and the memory  206  has ten slots total, then the display can indicate that eight slots are available, two slots are used, 20% of the memory  206  is full, and/or 80% of the memory  206  is empty, etc. 
     The memory  206  may also store GPS information serving as a GPS data logger. The GPS data logger can also contain, for example, user created mark-points. The user created mark-points can be used for future reference of the same GPS location. The memory  206  may be used to store ephemeredes, such as lunar phase or sunset or sunrise times. The memory  206  may also be used to store microprocessor programs or scripts. The memory  206  may also be used to store beach names that correspond with GPS information supplied by the GPS chip  204 . For example, longitude and latitude GPS information of 33.47908, −117.718999 can be matched up with Salt Creek Beach Park in Dana Point, Calif. Likewise, longitude and latitude GPS information of 33.477004, −117.719493 can be matched up with the Huntington Beach Municipal Pier in Huntington Beach, Calif. 
     The Bluetooth® RF circuit  202  may provide the tide watch device  100  with RF capabilities. The Bluetooth® RF circuit  202  may be a Bluetooth® RF transceiver or a Bluetooth® RF transmitter or receiver. The Bluetooth® RF circuit  202  may be connected to a USB connection. 
     The microprocessor  200  may use the time and position information provided by the GPS chip  204  to update the display  102 . For example, the microprocessor  200  may use the GPS time information to update the time of day  126  and the date  116  shown on the display  102 . The microprocessor  200  may also use the GPS information to retrieve tide information and ephemeredes data from the memory  206  for updating the display  206 . The microprocessor  200  may also perform area navigation, for example, calculating the distance and bearing to a beach by using GPS information of the current location and the GPS information of the beach. 
     The microprocessor  200  may also update databases in the memory  206 . The microprocessor  200  may receive new databases via an RF data link established through the Bluetooth® RF circuit  202  or other wired or wireless means such as the Internet, mobile phone, wireless satellite transmissions, etc. 
     The temperature sensor  210  can sense a temperature and transmit it to the microprocessor  200 . The microprocessor  200  can receive the temperature from the temperature sensor  210  and display the temperature on the display  102 . The temperature can be displayed graphically and/or numerically (i.e., a digital readout). The temperature sensor  210  can be, for example, a digital thermometer, one or more comparators, one or more diodes, etc. 
       FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating a computer  302  with a tide database for uploading tide information to the tide display device  100  of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the invention. Tide information as well as other information may be first loaded on the computer  302 . The tide information may be loaded on the computer  302  via a data storage medium such as a CD  306 , a universal serial bus (USB) connection, a FireWire® connection or a data transfer network such as the Internet  304 . The tide information may be obtained from public databases such as those maintained by NOAA or a proprietary (private) database. 
     Instead of CD  306 , the tide information can also be loaded onto a USB memory stick, a USB memory stick with Wi-Fi communication capability, a DVD, or any other type of data storage. The USB memory stick with Wi-Fi communication ability can directly communicate with the tide display device  100  using RF to load data onto the tide display device  100 . The data storage can store, for example, tide data for 2000 spots and 50 years, or ephemeredes data for 2000 spots and 50 years. The data storage can also store images and/or videos of certain beaches which can be displayed on the computer  302 . This can aid the user in selecting which beach the user wants to load onto the tide display device  100 . The data storage can also store a world map that is zoomable such that a global map is first displayed but with predetermined actions the user can zoom in on the map and eventually view one or more pictures or videos of a specific beach. 
     The computer  302  can also cooperate with the memory  206  shown in  FIG. 2  such that the computer  302  can display how much of the memory  206  is available or used. 
     The tide database may include non-tide data of interest to a surfer. For example, ephemeredes surf conditions, wind conditions, and swell information may be included. The tide database preferably contains tide data for all well known surfing beaches. For example, the database may contain tide data for The Wedge in Newport Beach and Huntington Pier in Huntington Beach. The tide conditions and times may be used by a surfer to determine the times when a specific surf spot is likely to have the best surfing conditions. 
     Once the databases are loaded on the computer  302 , a surfer may select the database entries that should be loaded on the tide display device  100 . For example, the surfer may be in Southern California and may wish to load the tide display device  100  with information for beaches from Big Sur to Ensenada. The surfer may establish a Bluetooth® link with the tide display device  100  and upload the relevant portions of the database to the tide display device  100 . The relevant portions of the database can then be stored, for example, in the memory  206  of the tide display device  100 . 
     Although a Bluetooth® wireless link between the tide display device  100  and the computer  302  is shown, other data wireless and cable data transfer methods may be used. For example, the tide display device  100  and the computer  302  may have a USB or FireWire® ports for data transfer. The memory  206  may also be removable allowing the surfer to remove and replace memory modules containing appropriate tide data. For example, the memory  206  can be a Secure Digital card, a Compact Flash card, or even a Flash EPROM memory. If the memory  206  is large enough, a large database may be preloaded by the manufacturer, making updating the memory  206  unnecessary. The large database may be preloaded by the manufacture onto the memory  206  and the memory  206  can receive updates that modify the large database. 
     The RF antenna  136  can also be used to download surf information such as beach and/or tide information from an external source such as an external database based on the GPS information supplied by the GPS chip  204 . The external database can be a subscription based database. Thus, for example, even if the beach and/or tide information is not loaded on the memory  206 , and the user is at a beach and not near a computer, the RF antenna  136  can access the beach and/or the tide information from an external database based on the GPS information supplied by the GPS chip  204 . The beach and/or tide information can then be added to the memory  206 . 
       FIG. 4  shows an exemplary GPS page displayed on the tide display device  100  of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the invention. The display  102  may have a display page indicator  402  showing the surfer that he is currently viewing the “position” page. A satellite numeric  404  shows that the GPS chip  204  is using eight satellites to determine the tide watch device  100  geodetic position. Although eight satellites are generally used, a variety of satellites can be used such as two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, twenty-three, etc. The display  102  shows the geodetic position in latitude  406 , longitude  408 , and elevation  410  above mean sea level. The time  412  from one or more satellites may also be displayed. 
     Active push buttons may be designated by chevrons  414   a  and  414   b . The display  102  has “mark”  416  with a chevron  414   a  next to the first push button  106  (see  FIG. 1 ), indicating the surfer may mark his present position for later viewing by depressing the first push button  106 . The display  102  also has “calculator”  420  with a chevron  414   b  next to the third push button  110  (see  FIG. 1 ) indicating the surfer may select the calculator page by depressing the third push button  110 . The display  102  also has “beaches”  418  with a chevron  414   c  next to the fourth push button  112  indicating the surfer may access the beaches page display by selecting the fourth push button  112 . 
       FIG. 5  shows an exemplary calculator page displayed on the tide display device of  FIG. 1  according to an embodiment of the invention. The display  102  has a display page indicator  502  showing the surfer that he is currently viewing the “calculator” page. The location field  504  displays the closest beach for which tide information is available, e.g., Huntington Pier. The distance  506  and the bearing  508  to the tide information location are also displayed. In this case, the surfer knows that Huntington Pier is 5.1 miles to the north north east or a bearing of 31.2 degrees. 
     The display  102  has a chevron  414   a  with mark  510  next to the first push button  106  indicating the surfer may mark his present position for later viewing by depressing the first push button  106 . The display  102  also has “position”  512  with a chevron  414   b  next to the third push button  110  indicating the surfer may access the position page display by selecting the third push button  110 . 
     While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other changes, combinations, omissions, modifications and substitutions, in addition to those set forth in the above paragraphs, are possible. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various adaptations and modifications of the just described preferred embodiment can be configured without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it is to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.