Tide display device with global positioning system, timing and navigation
View Patent ↗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.
1. A tide display watch comprising:
a waterproof housing;
a memory located in the waterproof housing for storing tide information including a tide height and an associated time of day for each of a plurality of surf spots;
a radio frequency transceiver located in the waterproof housing for downloading and updating the tide information;
a global positioning system receiver located in the waterproof housing for determining geodetic position; and
a display located in the waterproof housing, the display simultaneously displays a current time, a graph displaying tide heights on a vertical axis and time increments on a horizontal axis with a numeric labeling of the time increments on the horizontal axis, the graph including the tide height at the current time for the geodetic position, and an exact numeric value of the tide height separate from the tide heights on the vertical axis of the graph, the numeric value being continuously updated to represent the tide height at the current time for the geodetic position.
2. The tide display watch of claim 1 further comprising a global positioning system data logger having user created mark-points for logging global positioning system information.
3. The tide display watch of claim 1 wherein the display displays a latitude and a longitude.
4. The tide display watch of claim 1 wherein the display displays an elevation.
5. The tide display watch of claim 1 further comprising a temperature sensor for providing a temperature reading to the display.
6. The tide display watch of claim 1 wherein the display displays a sunset time and a sunrise time.
7. A surf information watch comprising:
a waterproof housing;
a memory located in the waterproof housing for storing tide information including a tide height and an associated time of day for each of a plurality of surf spots;
a microprocessor located in the waterproof housing having global position system software and generating global positioning system information;
a surf information database connected to the microprocessor;
a display connected to the microprocessor for displaying the global positioning system information from the microprocessor and surf information from the surf information database;
the display simultaneously displaying a current time, a graph displaying tide heights on a vertical axis and time increments on a horizontal axis with a numeric labeling of the time increments on the horizontal axis, the graph including the tide height at the current time for the geodetic position, and an exact numeric value of the tide height separate from the tide heights on the vertical axis of the graph, the numeric value being continuously updated to represent the tide height at the current time for the geodetic position; and
a global positioning system data logger having user created mark-points for logging the global positioning system information.
8. The surf information watch of claim 7 wherein the surf information data includes tide information.
9. The surf information watch of claim 7 wherein the surf information data includes data on ephemeredes.
10. The surf information watch of claim 9 wherein the data on ephemeredes includes data on a moon phase.
11. The surf information watch of claim 9 wherein the data on ephemeredes includes data on a sunset and a sunrise.
12. The surf information watch of claim 7 further comprising a temperature sensor coupled with the microprocessor for measuring a temperature of the environment, the display displays the temperature measured by the temperature sensor.
13. A tide display watch comprising:
a waterproof housing;
a memory located in the waterproof housing for storing tide information including a tide height and an associated time of day for each of a plurality of surf spots;
a radio frequency transceiver located in the waterproof housing for downloading and updating the tide information;
a global positioning system receiver located in the waterproof housing for determining geodetic positions;
a global positioning system data logger storing user created mark-points for logging the geodetic positions;
a temperature sensor for providing a temperature reading;
a display located in the waterproof housing operable to display the tide information for the geodetic positions, the user created mark-points, and the temperature reading;
the display simultaneously displays a current time, a graph displaying tide heights on a vertical axis and time increments on a horizontal axis with a numeric labeling of the time increments on the horizontal axis, the graph including the tide height at the current time for the geodetic position, and an exact numeric value of the tide height separate from the tide heights on the vertical axis of the graph, the numeric value being continuously updated to represent the tide height at the current time for the geodetic position.
14. The tide display watch of claim 13 wherein the display displays an elevation.