EP4076074A1

EP4076074A1 - Electrical charger device for an electronic cigarette

Info

Publication number: EP4076074A1
Application number: EP20829874.5A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Adrian Peter STOCKALL; Ronald VAN TUIJL; David VARGAS
Original assignee: JT International SA
Current assignee: JT International SA
Priority date: 2019-12-17
Filing date: 2020-12-16
Publication date: 2022-10-26
Also published as: CN114828679A; WO2021122693A1; JP2023506272A

Abstract

There is provided a method performed by an electrical charger device (10) for an electronic cigarette (20), and an electrical charger device. The method comprises: establishing a communicative pairing (32) between the electrical charger device (10) and a computing device (30); establishing a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device (10) and the electronic cigarette (20); acquiring data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette; determining a charge level to be provided to the electronic cigarette based on the acquired data; and charging the electronic cigarette when the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette are electrically connected based on the determined charge level. The data acquired from the electronic cigarette may include a health status of a battery. The determination of charging level may be further based on configurable rules regarding maximum usage level of the electronic cigarette. The charger device may comprise a biometric sensor (18) to receive biometric user data such as a fingerprint.

Description

ELECTRICAL CHARGER DEVICE FOR AN ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method performed by an electrical charger device for electronic cigarettes, such as electrical chargers able to communicate with electronic cigarettes.

BACKGROUND

Electronic cigarettes generally include a battery as a power source. This provides the power to operate the electronic cigarette. These batteries are typically rechargeable. In order to charge the battery of an electronic cigarette, the electronic cigarette is connected to an external power source. This may be as simple as a plug connected to a mains electricity socket and a cable connected between the plug and the electronic cigarette. Alternatively, an electrical charger device may be provided in the form of a hub to which one or more electronic cigarettes are attached in order to charge.

Additionally, electrical charger devices may themselves have a battery to which the electronic cigarette is able to be attached. This allows the electrical charger to be mobile and taken with a user to allow charging while on the move.

Regardless of the power source of the electrical charger device, how much the electronic cigarette is charged is a key consideration to make sure the electronic cigarette is able to be used as the user desires. As part of the user’s desired use, the user may of course have a desire to limit their use of electronic cigarettes.

In view of this it is known (for example in US 2016/0345628 A1) to limit charging by modulating the charging function between providing charging (i.e. and ON” state) and not providing charging (i.e. an OFF” state). This limits the amount of charge provided overall thereby causing the electronic cigarette to be charged to a lower level, and therefore to be usable for a smaller amount of time between charges. Accordingly, this is typically applied when a user wishes to restrict their use of an electronic cigarette.

Applying charging in this manner does not take account of variations in the user’s behaviour and use of the electronic cigarette. Additionally, switching charging on and off increases the number of charging cycles the electronic cigarette battery undergoes. This has a detrimental effect on the performance of the battery over time. There is therefore a need to address these issues.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION According to a first aspect, there is provided a method performed by an electrical charger device for an electronic cigarette, the method comprising: establishing a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and a computing device; establishing a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette; acquiring data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette from the computing device and from the electronic cigarette; determining a charge level to be provided to the electronic cigarette based on the acquired data; and charging the electronic cigarette when the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette are electrically connected to the determined charge level. This allows the amount of charge provided to the electronic cigarette to be customised, thereby tailoring it to the user’s requirements. This is achieved while also enhancing the battery life of the electronic cigarette by limiting the number of charging cycles by providing a suitable amount of charge each time the electronic cigarette is charged by the electrical charger device. The charge level may be a State of Charge (also referred to as “SoC”). This is the level of charge of an electric battery relative to its capacity. The unit of SoC is percentage points where typically 0% is empty and 100% is full. The charge level may also be another metric that specifies how much charge a power source of an electronic cigarette has or how much power there is remaining in that power source.

Establishing a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette allows data transmission between the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette as well as the transfer of power from the electrical charger device to the electronic cigarette to charge the electronic cigarette.

Acquiring data from the electronic cigarette, and the charge level determination being based on the acquired data including acquired data from the electronic cigarette allows information relating to the electronic cigarette to be used in determining the charge level.

In practice, usage data may be gathered by the electronic cigarette and stored on electronic cigarette first. If the electronic cigarette is connected to a computing device, such as a phone, usage data may be transferred from the electronic cigarette to the computing device. The transferred data may then be deleted from the electronic cigarette at some point. Since the storage capacity on electronic cigarette is typically small this allows the quantity of data stored on the electronic cigarette to be reduced.

As a result of usage data being transferred to the computing device, the computing device may have access to (such as by storing the usage data locally or by having access to usage data when stored remotely) a full history of usage data up to the latest connection with electronic cigarette. The electronic cigarette holds new usage data gathered since the last connection with the computing device (i.e. that has not been transmitted anywhere and is only available on electronic cigarette). When the electrical charger device establishes a communicative pairing with the electronic cigarette as well as with the computing device, more complete data is able to be acquired. This allows prediction of charge level to be more customised to the user of the electronic cigarette and more accurately tailored to the user’s usage pattern. The acquired data from the electronic cigarette may include any information or data, such as current charge level of a battery, time of last use, time since last use, electronic cigarette mode, age, make, model and/or type, heatable substance age, make, model and/or type, time interval between last use or between previous uses, average time interval between uses and/or length of last. Typically, the acquired data from the electronic cigarette includes a health status of a battery of the electronic cigarette. This allows the charge level that is to be applied to be adapted in view of the health status of the battery to account for any deterioration in the battery health that has occurred over time and any associated increase in rate of discharge of the battery during use. By “health status” we intend to mean the battery state of health, performance, or the condition of the battery compared to the ideal condition of the battery.

The determination of charging level may be further based on configurable rules regarding a desired maximum usage level of the electronic cigarette. This allows the charge level to be modified to limit the amount the electronic cigarette can be used, such as when a user is trying to reduce their usage.

The acquired data may include usage amount of the electronic cigarette over a predetermined period of time and/or data related to a user of the electronic cigarette over a predetermined period of time. This may be obtained from the computing device, but is able to be acquired from the electronic cigarette as well or instead of from the computing device. When the data is acquired from the electronic cigarette it allows less data transfer operations to be carried out for the data to reach the electrical charger device. This data may include a user’s usage profile or a user’s usage history. This allows the charge level determination to account for variations in the amount of charge required for a particular day or at a particular time of the day for example. For example, on Monday and Friday, a user’s usage history may indicate a high usage, causing the appropriate charge level to be about 95%, and on other days, the appropriate charge level would only be about 70%. Adopting this approach is not related to restricting use of the electronic cigarette but allows battery life to be prolonged since the battery, such as when the battery is a lithium-ion battery, will have the longest lifespan if kept at a charge level of about 65% to 75% at all times. One skilled in the art would understand that the optimal charge level will depend on many factors such as battery model, charging voltage, charging current, and any other suitable metrics, and is not limited to the example above. This is based on an assumption that a user will charge the electronic cigarette in advance, such as overnight or in the morning of the day, but may also include charging being applied alternatively or additionally at other times.

To assist in determining the charge level, the electrical charger device may have an internal timer. This allows the current time and/or day or date to be taken into account in the charge level determination.

The determination of charge level may be further based on predicted usage amount of the electronic cigarette predicted based on acquired data and/or a previously predicted usage amount. This allows a possible future use of the electronic cigarette to be taken into account when determining charge level. This means the charge level applied when charging the electronic cigarette is able to be tailored more closely to the use circumstances likely to be applied by the user.

The charging being based on the determined charge level may provide charging according to a charging scheme. When this occurs, the method may further comprise: storing biometric user data in the electrical charger device; acquiring biometric data from a user seeking to charge the electronic cigarette; establishing whether the acquired biometric data matches the stored biometric data; and authorising charging of the electronic cigarette according to the charging scheme based on the established match. This allows a user to approve use of the charging scheme, thereby allowing them to select the mode to be applied by the electrical charger device.

Alternatively or additionally, the method may further comprise: storing biometric user data in the electrical charger device; acquiring biometric data from a user seeking to charge the electronic cigarette; establishing whether the acquired biometric data matches the stored biometric data; and authenticating the electrical charger device for connection to a further device based on the established match. This allows the user control over what devices are connected to the electrical charger device, which improves the security of the electrical charger device. As a further alternative or addition, the method may further comprise: storing biometric user data in the electrical charger device; acquiring biometric data from a user seeking to charge the electronic cigarette; establishing whether the acquired biometric data matches the stored biometric data; and permitting the acquiring, by the electrical charger device, of data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette based on the established match. This allows a user to approve whether data is acquired, which enhances security provisions by allowing a user to block data being acquired when they are unfamiliar with the location from which data is to be acquired or when data acquisition is not wanted. Irrespective of the situation in which biometric data is handled, when establishing whether the acquired biometric data and the stored biometric user data match, the subsequent action may occur when there is a positive match (i.e. when the acquired biometric data and the stored biometric user data do match) or when there is a negative match (i.e. when the acquired biometric data and the stored biometric user data do not match). Typically the subsequent action occurs when there is a positive match. This means that when there is a negative match the subsequent action may not occur, and instead either no action may be occur or an alternative action may occur, such as a notification being issued that there is a negative match. The biometric data may comprise a fingerprint. Other biometric data may be used instead or in addition. This may include an iris scan and/or facial recognition. This allows a user to be uniquely identified and therefore allow actions specific to an individual user to be applied by the electrical charger device. The stored biometric user data may be updated when the owner of the electronic cigarette and/or electrical charger device is changed. This allows ownership of the electrical charger device and/or the electronic cigarette to change without a loss of functionality of one or other (or of each). An ID tag associated with the electronic cigarette may be received at the electrical charger device. This may be used to verify the ability of the electrical charger device to interact with and/or control charging of the electronic cigarette.

According to a second aspect, there is provided an electrical charger device, comprising: an interface configured to establish a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and a computing device and configured to establish a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and an electronic cigarette; and a controller configured to acquire data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette from the computing device and the electronic cigarette, determine a charge level to be provided to the electronic cigarette based on the acquired data and to charge the electronic cigarette when the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette are electrically connected based on determined charge level.

The electrical charger device may further comprise a biometric sensor configured to receive biometric user data. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

An example electrical charger device and method performed by an electrical charger device for charging an electronic cigarette are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:

Figure 1 shows a schematic of an example electrical charger device, example electronic cigarette and example computing device;

Figure 2 shows a flow chart of an example method performed by an example electrical charger device;

Figure 3 shows an example user usage profile; Figure 4 shows a flow chart of a second example method performed by an example electrical charger device;

Figure 5 shows a flow chart of a third example method performed by an example electrical charger device; and Figure 6 shows a fourth example method performed by an example electrical charger device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As outlined above, examples described herein seek to provide electrical charger device that controls a charge level applied to an electronic cigarette when that electronic cigarette is in electrical connection with the electrical charger device. Various examples of such an electrical charger device are set out below, along with details of a corresponding electronic cigarette and method used by that electrical charger device. An electrical charger device according to an example is generally illustrated at 10 in Figure 1. This includes a charging unit 12 and a controller 14. In this example, the electrical charger device also includes a memory 16 and a biometric sensor 18. The memory and the biometric sensor may not be present in other examples. The electrical charger device 10 is powered either by an external power source (not shown) or by a battery (not shown) located within the device itself. Whatever the means used to power the electrical charger device, the power source provides power to the various components of the electrical charger device. Figure 1 also shows an electronic cigarette 20. In this example the electronic cigarette has a rechargeable power source 21 , heatable substance 23, controller 24 and heater 26. The electronic cigarette also has a memory 28 in this example, which may not be present in other examples. The power source is typically a battery. The electronic cigarette 20, which is also referred to as an e-cigarette, is typically a handheld device (i.e. may be capable of being held and supported in only one or two hands by a user). The electronic cigarette contains a heatable substance 23 that, when heated, produces vapour or an aerosol capable of being drawn from the electronic cigarette into the mouth of a user due to the structural arrangement of the electronic cigarette. The heatable substance may be a liquid or a solid, each of which either vaporise or produce an aerosol on heating or contain a constituent that vaporises of produces an aerosol on heating. For ease of reference, the whole substance is also referred to as a vaporisable substance herein.

In the example shown in Figure 1 , the electrical charger device 10 is also connected to a computing device 30. This connection is provided by a connection 32. This connection is able to be a wired connection or a wireless connection. Regardless of the connection, the connection may be a direct connection (i.e. a connection only between the electrical charger device and computing device without any devices connected in between) or may be an indirect connection (i.e. a connection between the electrical charger device and the computing device with other devices connected in between, such as in a network). In various examples the computing device is provided by one or more servers and/or a mobile phone.

Of course, the electrical charge device 10 connection to a computing device 30, such as a mobile phone or server, can either be temporary or permanent. Further, the connection to the computing device is not dependent on the electrical charge device being connected to an electronic cigarette 20, and neither is the connection of the electrical charger device with an electronic cigarette dependent on a connection to a computing device.

In various examples the electrical charger device 10 may be a module of a computing device 30, such as a mobile phone, thereby having a direction connection between the electrical charger device and the computing device. This may be achieved by software on the computing device, such as in a user application (also referred to as an “app”), emulating or otherwise taking the place of the hardware of an electrical charger device and using various components of the computing device to provide the components of the electrical charger device.

Where there is a wireless connection between the electrical charger device 10 and a further device (such as the electronic cigarette 20 and/or computing device 30), this connection may be provided by a wireless transceiver (not shown). Such a wireless transceiver may be capable of providing Bluetooth, Wi Fi, radio, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G communication or any other form of wireless communication, such as near-field communication (NFC) or LTE communication. Of course, the wireless transceiver is intended to be compatible with a wireless transceiver (not shown) of the electrical cigarette and/or a wireless transceiver (not shown) capable of providing a connected to the computing device. Such a wireless transceiver is typically used by the electrical charger device to transmit data. Should wireless charging be provided by the electrical charger device, this may be achieved using a different form of transmitter (although the same antenna and/or same transceiver or transmitter may be used).

The charging unit 12 of the electrical charger device 10 is arranged in use to charge an electronic cigarette 20 when a suitable connection is provided between the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette. This may be achieved by a wired or wireless connection between the electrical charge device and an electronic cigarette. Should the charging be applied wirelessly, this may be achieved using a wireless communicative pairing. In examples where the electrical charger device is able to establish a wireless communicative pairing, the electrical charger device has a wireless transceiver (not shown). Additionally, wireless charging would of course require the electronic cigarettes to also have the capability of wireless charging.

In examples where the charging is provided by a wired connection, this may be achieved using a cable connected between the electrical charger device 10 and electronic cigarette 20 or may be achieved by a port and socket arrangement on the electronic cigarette and electrical charge device. The electrical charger device 10 in this example applies charging and performs all other functions due to operation of the controller 14. This is typically also the case with the electronic cigarette 20 and the corresponding controller 24. The controller of the electrical charger device and/or the electronic cigarette in this example is a processor. This is capable of receiving and issuing commands and carrying out instructions in the form of execution of code.

An electrical charger device of an example, such as the electrical charger device 10 shown in Figure 1 , is able to be used to control the charge level to be applied to an electronic cigarette of an example (such as the electronic cigarette 20 of Figure 1) when an electrical connection is established between the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette. To achieve this, a method, such as the example method set out in the flow chart of Figure 2 is applied. Initially, at step 100, a wireless communicative pairing is established between an electrical charger device and a computing device. Once the wireless community pairing is established, at step 102, data is acquired, from the computing device, related to a user of the electronic cigarette. At step 104, a charge level to apply to the electronic cigarette is determined (i.e. a process to ascertain a suitable charge level is conducted), based on the acquired data. Once the charge level is determined and the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette are electrically connected to each other (which it may already be, or alternatively, this may occur at a later time), at step 106, the electronic cigarette is charged based on the determined charge level.

In various examples the computing device 30 typically holds data related to a user of the electronic cigarette 20. This may be because the computing device holds a database of data relating to users of a particular make or model of electronic cigarette. Alternatively or additionally, the computing device may be a repository for data related to a user of the electronic cigarette provided by the user at purchase, set-up or when desired and/or compiled about the user based on their use of the electronic cigarette or related products, such as heatable substances units or computer programs, such as a mobile phone app, linked to the electronic cigarette or provided by the supplier of the electronic cigarette for managing the electronic cigarette components, connectivity and/or use.

A communicative pairing is also established between the electrical charger device 10 and the electronic cigarette 20. This is shown at step 108 of Figure 2. This communicative pairing may be established sequentially with the communicative pairing with the computing device 30, or may be established in parallel. At this stage the process may revert to step 102 with data relating to the electronic cigarette user being acquired. Instead of only acquiring data from the computing device however, data relating to the user is also acquired from the electronic cigarette.

In other examples, instead of only acquiring data relating to the electronic cigarette user, data may be acquired relating to the electronic cigarette 20. This is shown at step 110 in Figure 2.

In practice, in some examples, usage data is gathered by the electronic cigarette 20 and stored in the memory 28 on electronic cigarette. The electronic cigarette is able to be connected to the computing device 30, which allows usage data to be transferred from the electronic cigarette to the computing device. The transferred data can then be deleted from the electronic cigarette as appropriate (such as to be replaced by other data when once the older data has been transferred). In this manner the electronic cigarette holds the newest usage data, since this will have been gathered since the last connection with the computing device.

The acquired data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette 20 may include one or more of the user’s age, gender, employment status and type, working hours, health statistics, electronic cigarette usage behaviour and/or desired electronic cigarette usage behaviour. Should the computing device 30 be a mobile phone, the data may include the location of the mobile phone or user based on the mobile phone location. The acquired data relating to the electronic cigarette 20 may include one or more of make, model, age, charging frequency (i.e. time between charges or how often charging is applied), charging time (such as amount of time charged for on average, at last charge, or over a predetermined number of previous charges), battery charge level, battery health status, length of use (such as length of last use by a user, average length of use and/or length of each of a predetermined number of previous uses by the user) and/or type of the electronic cigarette and/or make, model, age and/or type of the vaporisable substance 23, usage amount of the electronic cigarette over a predetermined period of time and/or data related to a user of the electronic cigarette over a predetermined period of time. The predetermined period of time may be since the manufacture of the electronic cigarette, since the user first used the electronic cigarette, one or more days, weeks, months or years.

Should the acquired data include battery health status, this may be monitored by the electronic cigarette 20 and stored in the memory 28 of the electronic cigarette. Any other data acquired from the electronic cigarette in addition or as an alternative to battery health status may also be stored in the memory of the electronic cigarette.

When battery health status is used, the charge level determined may be higher when the battery health status has deteriorated. This may be to account for a faster rate of battery discharge during use than for a battery with a better battery health status.

The acquired data may also include a user usage profile. This may be a usage profile compiled automatically by an electronic cigarette 20 or computing device 30, or may be a manually set user profile (which, although it could be set on an electronic cigarette, would typically be set on a computing device, such as on a phone or via a server where user data is stored for an app with which the user interacts an associated graphical user interface).

To compile a user usage profile automatically, this may be obtained by studying user’s usage history. There are already various known techniques of studying user’s electronic cigarette behaviour by uploading user’s usage data and event data to a mobile phone or other computing device for analysis. Examples may for instance be found in EP 19206355.0. In various examples of the present case, based on the usage statistics 600 (such as those shown in Figure 3), the charger is able to determine a charge level for the electronic cigarette 20 for a particular day 604, and further at a particular time of the day 602. To achieve this, the electrical charger device 10 may further include an internal timer 19 (as shown in Figure 1 ).

The acquired data (regardless of what it includes) is processed when carrying out the determination of charge level. The processing predicts the charge level required to allow the user to use the electronic cigarette 20 as they wish until the next charge. This prediction is modelled on the anticipated usage by the user. For example, the user may typically work between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm, so usage during these times may be lower. This can be factored into the charge level to be applied before a day on which the user is working. Of course, a previous prediction may also be used to predict the charge level required instead or in addition to an anticipated usage by the user.

In another example, additionally, or alternatively, the user usage profile may be downloaded from an application held on a mobile phone, server or other computing device on which user electronic cigarette usage is recorded automatically or manually, and the charge level may be determined based on this.

Should a user be seeking to reduce their usage of an electronic cigarette 20, such as a user wishing to reduce usage to five heatable substance units per day, the charge level may be determined to be about 25% to 30% for example since a fully charged battery (i.e. 100%) allows for 20 heatable substance units to be used before reaching a minimum level (such as 0%). This is applicable to electronic cigarette devices known as T-vapor devices (typically devices that use a solid or solid based heatable substance) and to E-vapor devices (typically devices that use a liquid or liquid based heatable substance). Should an E- vapor device be used, the determination may be carried out based on number of puffs (i.e. individual draws by a user) on the electronic cigarette. There are some T-vapor devices where basing the determination on the number of puffs would also be suitable. To take account of a the usage level the user wishes to have, in various examples the user is able to set a desired usage level by providing to the electrical charger device 10, the electronic cigarette 20 and/or the computing device 30, a desired usage level. This could be in terms of length of time usage will be possible, maximum or minimum number of heatable substance units to use and/or number of puffs over a time period, such as one or more days, weeks, months or years. The time period may be set automatically, or may be chosen by the user. This information then forms part of the acquired data relating to the user.

In a further example, the determined charge level takes account of the typical length of use during a usage period of the electronic cigarette 20 since longer uses will require more power to be used and therefore more charge, and/or the current charge level of the battery since a low charge level (such as 10%) is only able to support a short period of use of the electronic cigarette.

In some examples the charging of the electronic cigarette 20 when electrically connected to the electrical charging device 10 may only be permitted (e.g. authorised) when biometric data of the user matches biometric data stored in the memory 16 of the electrical charger device is carried out. The process for carrying out this assessment is set out in Figure 4. At step 112, biometric user data is stored. In this example the biometric user data is stored in memory 16 of the electrical charger device. This is achieved by biometric user data being scanned using the biometric sensor 18 of the electrical charger device, which in this example is a fingerprint sensor. This step is carried out when the electrical charger device is initially set up, or at some later time based on choices taken by the user. At step 114, biometric data is acquired from the current user of the electronic cigarette 20. This can be achieved by the current user providing biometric data at the biometric sensor 18 of the electrical charger device 10, or at a biometric sensor (not shown) on the electronic cigarette, which is then transmitted to the electrical charger device.

The acquired biometric data and the stored biometric user data are compared at step 116. If the comparison determines there the acquired biometric data and the stored user biometric data match, then charging the electronic cigarette 20 to the determined charge level as set out above is authorised. This may mean that the process of determining the charge level is only carried out once the charging is authorised, or this may simple mean that all the steps other than the charging are carried out, and once authorisation is received, the charging is able to be applied.

In examples where a mobile phone is used, when a fingerprint or other biometric data is to be provided, the biometric data may be provided at the mobile phone instead of at the electrical charger device. This may be achieved by the mobile phone issuing a notification to a user that biometric data is requested. This may be in response to the electrical charger device 10 providing a request to the mobile phone for biometric data input. When the user provides biometric data this can either be verified with biometric data stored on the mobile phone or biometric data stored on the electrical charge device. This input may be required for example when the electrical charger device requests authorisation of charging. This process would also be applicable to other computing devices. The step of the user providing biometric data at the mobile phone or other computing devices could be replaced by the user being requested to enter a PIN code or press a button, which removes the need for biometric data.

An electrical charger device 10 may also request authorisation of charging of an electronic cigarette 20 from the computing device 30. In such an example, in addition to the data able to be included in the acquired data, the computing device may provide a response based on information held at the computing device, such as user details, which may be compared to a registered owner of a respective electronic cigarette for example. The computing device may then respond to the electrical charge device with a confirmation as to whether or not to apply charging based on the determined charge level based on the information held at the computing device. For example, charging based on the determined charge level may only be authorised when the user of the electronic cigarette is the registered owner of the electronic cigarette.

The electrical charger device 10 may provide information to the computing device 30. In some examples, this information may include the ID tag of an electronic cigarette 20 in a wireless connected pairing with the electrical charger device along with a means of identifying the electrical charge device. This allows registration of which electronic cigarettes are used with which electrical charger devices.

Further example processes able to be carried out by the electrical charger device 10 are shown in Figures 5 and 6. Figure 5 illustrates a process for authenticating connection to a further device, such as a further computing device 30 or further electronic cigarette 20. In this process, steps 112 to 116 set out above of storing biometric user data, acquiring biometric data of a current user and establishing a match between the stored biometric data and the acquired biometric data are carried out. Based on the match (either a positive or a negative match, but typically only when there is a positive match), at step 120 connection to a further device is authorised.

Figure 6 illustrates a process for permitting further data to be acquired. This may be used when user permission is required for further data to be accessed. In this process, steps 112 to 116 set out above of storing biometric user data, acquiring biometric data of a current user and establishing a match between the stored biometric data and the acquired biometric data are carried out. Based on the match (either a positive or a negative match, but typically only when there is a positive match), at step 122, permission to further acquire data is provided.

There are occasions when the owner of an electronic cigarette and/or electrical charger device may change. As such, it is possible to update, either by replacement or addition, ID tags stored either on the electrical charger device 10 and/or the electronic cigarette 20. Additionally, or alternatively, it is possible to update, either by replacement or addition, user biometric data stored either on the electrical charger device and/or the electronic cigarette. Of course, the electrical charger device 10 may be connected to one or more electronic cigarettes 20 and/or computing devices 30 at any one time. Additionally, any electronic cigarette and/or computing device may be connected to one or more electrical charge devices at any one time. This can be for charging and/or control purposes or for establishing a wireless connected pairing to control use of each electronic cigarette.

Claims

1. A method performed by an electrical charger device for an electronic cigarette, the method comprising: establishing a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and a computing device; establishing a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette; acquiring data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette from the computing device and from the electronic cigarette; determining a charge level to be provided to the electronic cigarette based on the acquired data; and charging the electronic cigarette, when the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette are electrically connected, to the determined charge level.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the acquired data from the electronic cigarette includes a health status of a battery of the electronic cigarette.

3. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the determination of charging level is further based on configurable rules regarding a desired maximum usage level of the electronic cigarette.

4. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the acquired data including usage amount of the electronic cigarette over a predetermined period of time and/or data related to a user of the electronic cigarette over a predetermined period of time.

5. The method according to any preceding claims, wherein the determination of charge level is further based on predicted usage amount of the electronic cigarette predicted based on acquired data and/or a previously predicted usage amount.

6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the charging being based on the determined charge level providing charging according to a charging scheme, the method further comprising: storing biometric user data in the electrical charger device; acquiring biometric data from a user seeking to charge the electronic cigarette; establishing whether the acquired biometric data matches the stored biometric data; and authorising charging of the electronic cigarette according to the charging scheme based on the established match.

7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: storing biometric user data in the electrical charger device; acquiring biometric data from a user seeking to charge the electronic cigarette; establishing whether the acquired biometric data matches the stored biometric data; and authenticating the electrical charger device for connection to a further device based on the established match.

8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising: storing biometric user data in the electrical charger device; acquiring biometric data from a user seeking to charge the electronic cigarette; establishing whether the acquired biometric data matches the stored biometric data; and permitting the acquiring, by the electrical charger device, of data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette based on the established match.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the biometric data comprises a fingerprint.

10. The method of any one of claims 6 to 9, further comprising updating the stored biometric user data when the owner of the electronic cigarette and/or electrical charger device is changed.

11. The method of any one of claims 6 to 10, further comprising receiving an ID tag associated with the electronic cigarette at the electrical charger device.

12. An electrical charger device, comprising: an interface configured to establish a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and a computing device and configured to establish a communicative pairing between the electrical charger device and an electronic cigarette; and a controller configured to acquire data relating to a user of the electronic cigarette from the computing device and the electronic cigarette, determine a charge level to be provided to the electronic cigarette based on the acquired data and to charge the electronic cigarette when the electrical charger device and the electronic cigarette are electrically connected based on determined charge level.

13. The electrical charger device according to claim 12, further comprising a biometric sensor configured to receive biometric user data.