JP2503903B2 - Battery-powered portable data equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a battery-powered portable data device in which each component operates by using a battery built in a housing as a power source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In battery-powered portable data devices such as battery-powered portable word processors, portable personal computers, and portable data input devices, long-time operation and further reduction in size and weight are strongly demanded. Has been. In order to realize such a demand,
An important issue is how to reduce the power consumption of the device and reduce the size and weight of the battery accordingly.

Up to now, in order to achieve low power consumption of an apparatus, when a certain function is not used, an electronic device of a circuit part which realizes the function is in a low power consumption state called a standby mode or a sleep mode. Or turn off the power of the unused circuit part,
A method of stopping or lowering the frequency of the operating clock is adopted. Furthermore, it has a function to constantly monitor the keyboard, switches, etc., and when the operator does not operate the keyboard etc. for a certain period of time, puts the circuit part that does not interfere with the operation into a low power consumption state or a power off state, A method is adopted in which the operation clock is stopped or lowered to bring the entire device into a low power consumption state called a standby mode.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional portable data device, a low power consumption state is set by a time-out of a no-operation timer for detecting that a keyboard or the like has not been operated for a predetermined time or by turning off a power switch. Since it is configured to perform the transition, if, for example, forgetting to turn off the power switch, the battery power will be wasted until the no-operation timer times out, which is effective. There is a problem that low power consumption cannot be realized.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and the wasteful consumption of the battery is suppressed by shifting to a low power consumption state only by lifting and moving. An object of the present invention is to provide a battery-powered portable data device capable of extending a driving time by a battery.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is provided with a function of operating each component by using a battery built in a housing as a power source and setting the component to a low power consumption state. In a battery-powered portable data device, a sensing means for sensing the movement of the housing and a movement determining means for comparing the sensing signal from the sensing means with a predetermined reference value to determine the presence or absence of the housing movement. And the presence / absence determination signal from the determination means and power ON or OF
A monitoring unit that monitors a signal indicating F and outputs a signal that shifts to a low power consumption mode when a determination signal indicating that there is a movement or a power off signal is received; A processing means for stopping the processing operation to bring it to a low power consumption state, saving the processing state, and restoring the saved state by releasing the transition signal to the low power consumption mode to restart the processing operation. It is configured to be equipped. Further, in a preferred aspect, the movement sensing means senses vibration applied to the housing and first sensing means provided on a bottom surface of the housing for sensing that the housing is separated from a mounting surface. The movement determining means compares the sensing signal from the first sensing means with a first reference value, and detects the sensing signal from the second sensing means. A comparator circuit for comparing with a reference value of 2 is provided, and it is determined that there is a movement when both the sensing signal from the first sensing means and the sensing signal from the second sensing means satisfy the reference value. Further, preferably,
The first sensing means is an infrared sensor or a pressure sensor.

[0007]

According to the present invention, when the device is lifted from the desk and moved while the power is on, the sensing means outputs a sensing signal to the movement determination means. The movement determination means compares the sensing signal with a reference value, determines whether or not the reference value is satisfied, and outputs a movement detection signal if the reference value is satisfied. When the movement detection signal is input, the monitoring means outputs a transition signal to the low power consumption mode to the processing means. When the processing means receives the low power consumption mode transition signal, the processing means stops the processing operation to enter the low power consumption state.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention. The battery-powered portable data device of this embodiment has a sensor unit 10 for detecting movement.
And a movement detection circuit 11, a power switch 12, a control signal monitoring circuit 13, a processing circuit 14, a battery 15, and a memory 1 for determining the presence or absence of movement based on a sensing signal from the sensor unit 10.
6 and a power supply control circuit 17. In addition to the above, various electronic devices and circuit parts are provided,
Structures not directly related to the present invention are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 2, the sensor section 10 is composed of an infrared sensor 20 and a vibration detecting section 21.
As shown in FIG. 3, the infrared sensor 20 is provided on the bottom surface 31 of the housing 30 of the battery-powered portable data device, and the light emitting element 20a that radiates infrared rays below the bottom surface 31.
And a light receiving element 20b that receives a light beam emitted from the light emitting element 20a and reflected by the desk surface on which the housing 30 is placed.

The light receiving element 20b of the infrared sensor 20 outputs a voltage signal proportional to the amount of the reflected light received, and this voltage signal is used as the reflection amount signal a as the movement detecting circuit 1
Sent to 1. Therefore, when the housing 30 is lifted from the desk on which the bottom surface 31 is separated from the desk, the amount of light received by the light receiving element 20b decreases or no light is received at all. It is for detecting that you have been lifted from.

The vibration detector 21 is realized by, for example, an impact sensor or a gyro sensor, detects the vibration applied to the housing 30, and outputs the vibration frequency to the movement detection circuit 11 as a vibration amount signal b. This vibration detector 21
Is for detecting that the device is being carried and is moving due to vibration applied to the housing 30.

The movement detecting circuit 11 is, as shown in FIG.
A reflection amount reference value setting unit 41 that sets a reflection amount of a size that can be determined based on the reflection amount signal a sent from the infrared sensor 20 to indicate that the housing 30 has been lifted and separated from the mounting surface as a reference value a1; Based on the vibration amount signal b sent from the vibration detection unit 21 and the comparison circuit 42 that compares the quantity signal a with the reflection quantity reference value a1, the vibration of a magnitude that allows the housing 30 to be carried and moved. The vibration amount reference value setting unit 43 that sets the amount as the reference value b1, a comparison circuit 44 that compares the vibration amount signal b with the vibration amount reference value b1, and an AND gate 45 that receives the outputs of the comparison circuits 42 and 44 as inputs. It consists of and.

In the comparison circuit 42, when the reflection amount signal a from the infrared sensor 20 becomes less than or equal to the reflection amount reference value a1, a sensing signal a2 indicating that the housing 30 is lifted from the mounting surface is released. Output. Further, the comparison circuit 44 is
When the vibration amount signal b sent from the vibration detection unit 21 becomes equal to or larger than the vibration amount reference value b1, the detection signal b2 indicating that the housing 30 is carried and moved is output. When the sensing signal a2 and the sensing signal b2 are output, the AND gate 45 outputs the movement detection signal c.

The control signal monitoring circuit 13 is a movement detecting circuit 1
The movement detection signal c from 1 and the power state signal d indicating the ON or OFF state of the power switch 12 output from the power switch 12 of the device are monitored, and when the movement detection signal c is input, it indicates the OFF state. When the power state signal d is input, the standby mode transition signal e is output to the processing circuit 14.

The processing circuit 14 is a CPU provided in the equipment.
Is realized by receiving the standby mode transition signal e from the control signal monitoring circuit 13,
To stop the processing operation of the device by cutting off the power supply to each component (LCD, FDD, etc.) of the device and save the status during processing in the memory 16 to reduce the power consumption of the device. To When the standby mode transition signal e is released, the processing contents saved in the memory 16 are restored and the processing operation is restarted.

Next, the operation of shifting to the standby mode and the operation of releasing the battery-powered portable data equipment configured as described above will be described. When the device used by the operator is lifted from the desk and moved while the power switch 12 is ON, the reflection amount signal a from the infrared sensor 20 as described above.
Is less than or equal to the reflection amount reference value a1 and the vibration amount signal b from the vibration detection unit 21 is greater than or equal to the vibration amount reference value b1, the movement detection circuit 11 outputs the movement detection signal c to the control signal monitoring circuit 13. It

Although the power supply state signal d from the power supply switch 12 is in the ON state, the control signal monitoring circuit 13 is in the standby mode transition signal e because the movement detection signal c is input.
Is output to the processing circuit 14. When the processing circuit 14 receives the standby mode transition signal e, it controls the power supply control circuit 17 to cut off the power supply to each component (LCD, FDD, etc.) of the device to bring the device into a processing stop state. With
The contents being processed are saved in the memory 16. As a result, the battery-powered portable data device enters a low power consumption state.

When the power switch 12 is operated in the low power consumption state to turn on the power state signal d, the control signal monitoring circuit 13 releases the standby mode transition signal e. When the standby mode transition signal e is released, the processing circuit 14
The processing content stored in the memory 16 is restored, and the power supply control circuit 17 is controlled to supply power to each component of the device to restart the processing operation.

In the above embodiment, the control signal monitoring circuit 13 monitors the movement detection signal c and the power supply state signal d of the power switch 12 to shift to the low power consumption state. In addition to the monitoring conditions such as the operation state of the program and the operation content of the program, for example, when the keyboard is not operated for a certain time or more, the low power consumption state can be set as described above. Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above embodiments. For example, although the infrared sensor 20 detects that the housing 30 has been lifted in the embodiment, the pressure sensor may be provided on the bottom surface 31 of the housing 30 to detect that the housing 30 is lifted. Further, the case where the processing means 14 controls the power supply to shift to the low power consumption state is shown, but the processing clock may be stopped or the frequency of the processing clock may be further lowered to bring the processing unit into the low power consumption state. It is possible.

[0020]

As described above, according to the battery-powered portable data device according to the present invention, it is possible to bring the device into a low power consumption state simply by lifting and moving the housing, so that the device can be carried and moved. Even if the user forgets to turn off the power when doing so, useless consumption of the battery can be prevented as much as possible. Further, this makes it possible to extend the driving time by the battery.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a battery-powered portable data device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a specific example of a sensor unit.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a battery-powered portable data device showing a mounting state of an infrared sensor.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a specific example of a movement detection circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Sensor Section 11 Movement Detection Circuit 12 Power Switch 13 Control Signal Monitoring Circuit 14 Processing Circuit 15 Battery 16 Memory 17 Power Supply Control Circuit 20 Infrared Sensor 21 Vibration Detection Section 30 Case 41 Reflection Reference Value Setting Section 42, 44 Comparison Circuit 43 Vibration Number reference value setting section

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A battery-powered portable data device in which each component is operated by using a battery built in the casing as a power source and which has a function of setting the component to a low power consumption state. Sensing means for sensing, movement determining means for determining whether or not the casing has moved by comparing a sensing signal from the sensing means with a predetermined reference value, a presence / absence determining signal from the determining means, and a power source Monitoring means for monitoring a signal indicating ON or OFF and outputting a signal for shifting to a low power consumption mode when receiving a discrimination signal indicating that there is a movement or a signal for turning off the power supply, and a shift signal for shifting to the low power consumption mode In response to this, the processing operation is stopped to bring it to a low power consumption state, the state being processed is saved, and the saved state is restored by releasing the low power consumption mode transition signal to start the processing operation. Battery-powered portable data device, characterized in that it comprises a processing means for opening. 2. The movement sensing means senses vibration applied to the housing and first sensing means provided on a bottom surface of the housing for sensing that the housing is separated from a mounting surface. A second sensing means, wherein the movement determining means compares a sensing signal from the first sensing means with a first reference value and a second sensing signal from the second sensing means. A comparison circuit for comparing with a reference value of the first sensing means and the sensing signal from the first sensing means and the second sensing signal.
2. The battery-powered portable data device according to claim 1, wherein the presence of movement is determined when both the sensing signals from the sensing means satisfy the reference value. 3. The battery-powered portable data device according to claim 2, wherein the first sensing means comprises an infrared sensor or a pressure sensor.