JP2004038610A - Electric apparatus, and method for controlling power consumption for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a user to recognize a result such as the completion of an application and the end of communication, etc., even when a display is in an off state. <P>SOLUTION: A PDA 10 includes a result display LED 38, and an outer device includes the result display LED, so that the completion of the application or the end of communication is detected. Thus, turning-on or flickering is performed by a designated display pattern, so as to report the end of the application or communication. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic device that notifies completion of a series of processes in a portable information terminal and the like, and a power consumption control method of the electronic device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
An electronic device such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants) uses a battery as an operation power supply, and in order to prevent battery consumption, power consumption is reduced by a method such as turning off a display screen when an operation is not performed for a predetermined time. Is controlled. However, when the built-in processor executes a process that requires a processing time longer than a predetermined time until the display screen is turned off in order to save power consumption, the display screen is turned off during the process. The status cannot be confirmed on the display screen. For this reason, it is necessary for the user to keep the display screen on at all times, or to turn on the display screen by operating a button or the like occasionally and check the processing status of the built-in processor based on the content displayed on the display screen. However, there is a problem that the operation time of the electronic device is shortened because power consumption is inevitably increased.
[0003]
Also, in a wireless communication device or the like, an LED provided in the device is lit or blinked to indicate whether communication is being performed.
[0004]
However, when checking the results of automatic processing by application software, if the display screen is always on, power consumption will increase and the electronic device cannot be used for a long time. There was a problem that convenience was lacking because it could not be determined in a timely manner.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
With the conventional technology, when checking the result of automatic processing by application software, if the display screen is always on, power consumption will increase and the electronic device cannot be used for a long time. There has been a problem that the results are not convenient because the results cannot be determined in a timely manner.
[0006]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and has a display unit for notifying the completion of processing to an electronic device such as a PDA or a device used by the device, and providing the notification using the display unit. Accordingly, it is an object to provide an electronic device and a power consumption control method of the electronic device, which can notify completion of processing even when a display screen is off.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, an electronic device and a method of controlling power consumption of the electronic device according to the present invention include an electronic device main body, first display means and second display means provided in the electronic device main body, When the input to the device main body is not performed for a predetermined period of time, the first display unit is turned off to suppress power consumption of the electronic device main unit. And notifying means for notifying the processing result of the predetermined application by the second display means.
[0008]
Further, according to the power consumption control method for an electronic device of the present invention, when an input to the electronic device main body is not performed for a predetermined time, the first display means provided on the main body of the electronic device is turned off to suppress power consumption. The processing result of the application is notified by the second display unit even when the first display unit is off.
[0009]
According to the present invention, even if the display screen is off, it is possible to determine the completion of the processing by the display device, so that it is not necessary to turn on the display screen to check the processing status, and power consumption is reduced. In addition, the operation time of the electronic device body is prolonged, and convenience is improved.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0011]
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in which a PDA is used as an electronic device.
[0012]
In FIG. 1, 10 is a PDA, 11 is a personal computer, 12 is a wireless communication card, 13 is a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) access point, 14 is a router, and 15 is a modem.
[0013]
The PDA 10 is connected to a wireless LAN access point 13 via a wireless communication card 12 to exchange data and synchronize data with the personal computer 11 via a router 14, and to connect to a WAN (Wide) via a router 14 and a modem 15. Area Network).
[0014]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an appearance of the PDA according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[0015]
In FIG. 2, 10 is a PDA main body, 21 is a power button, 22 is a power LED, 23 is a result display LED, 24 is a touch screen (having a display function and a tablet function), 25 is an operation button, 26 is a speaker, and 27 is a stylus. , 28 are cards inserted into expansion slots.
[0016]
That is, an SD (Secure Digital) card or a CompactFlash (registered trademark) card is inserted into the expansion slot and can be used. These cards include memory cards and IO cards such as the wireless communication card 12 described above.
[0017]
The user operates the operation buttons 25, taps the touch screen 24 using the stylus 27, and performs operations such as input of handwritten characters on the touch screen 24. The result of the recognition processing is displayed on the touch screen 24 and is notified by lighting or blinking of the result display LED 23. The display pattern of the result display LED 23 is determined for each application to be used.
[0018]
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the PDA according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[0019]
In FIG. 3, 30 is a CPU, 31 is a Flash ROM, 32 is a RAM, 33 is a display provided on the touch screen 24, 34 is a display controller, 35 is an IO controller, 36 is a battery, 37 is an SD interface, and 38 is a result display. The LED, 39 is a tablet provided on the touch screen 24, 40 is an ASIC, and 41 is an operation button.
[0020]
The CPU 30 is provided to control the operation of the PDA 10 and executes an operating system and application programs stored in the Flash ROM 31. The Flash ROM 31 stores an operating system (not shown) for operating the PDA 10, an application program (not shown), data, and the like. The RAM 32 is used as a work area and an area for temporarily storing data when the operating system and application programs stored in the Flash ROM 31 operate.
[0021]
The display controller 34 is provided to control the display on the display 33. The IO controller 35 controls input and output to and from a card inserted into an expansion IO slot. The SD interface 37 is controlled by the IO controller 35 and controls an SD memory card and an SD I / O card. The LED 38 is provided for notifying the status of the application executed on the PDA 10, and lights or blinks in a predetermined pattern under the control of the application to notify the status. The tablet 39 can perform input by operating the stylus 27.
[0022]
The operation button 41 is provided for operating the PDA 10. Most of the logic circuits of the PDA 10 are configured by an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) 40. The ASIC 40 is further provided with a first timer 40a and a second timer 40b. Although the timers 40a and 40b are provided in the ASIC 40 in the embodiment of the present invention, they may be provided in a circuit block other than the ASIC 40 or may be realized by software. The battery 36 supplies the operating power of the PDA 10, and a rechargeable lithium battery or the like is used.
[0023]
Next, the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described.
[0024]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process after the PDA 10 is powered on.
[0025]
When the power button 21 of the PDA 10 is turned on, the display 33 is turned on (step S100), and the first timer 40a of the ASIC 40 is reset (step S101). Then, the first timer 40a is started to start monitoring the time of the input operation (step S102). Next, the PDA 10 checks whether or not the user has performed an input operation using the operation button 41 (the operation button 25 in FIG. 2) or the tablet 39 (step S103). When the user performs an input operation on the PDA 10 (YES in step S103), the process returns to step S101, resets the first timer 40a, restarts the first timer 40a, and repeats time monitoring of the input operation in the same manner. Execute.
[0026]
When the user has not performed an input operation on the PDA 10 (NO in step S103), the elapsed time of the first timer 40a is checked to determine whether a predetermined time has elapsed (step S104). If the time during which the user has not performed an input operation on the PDA 10 has not passed the predetermined time (NO in step S104), the process returns to step S103.
[0027]
On the other hand, if the time during which the user has not performed an input operation on the PDA 10 exceeds a predetermined time (YES in step S104), the first timer 40a is reset (step S105), and the display 33 is turned off (step S106). ). Then, the PDA 10 checks whether or not the operation button 41 or the tablet 39 has been operated by the user (step S107). When the user operates the PDA 10 (YES in step S107), the process returns to step S100. On the other hand, when the user does not operate the PDA 10 (NO in step S107), step S107 is repeated, and the display 33 is turned off until the user operates the PDA 10.
[0028]
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process when the electronic mail software is used in the PDA 10.
[0029]
The user activates the e-mail software by, for example, tapping the touch screen 24 with the operation button 25 or the stylus 27 (step S120). The e-mail software controls the wireless communication card 12, connects to a mail server (not shown), and transmits / receives e-mail (step S121). When the e-mail software receives a new mail addressed to itself from the mail server (YES in step S122), it turns on or blinks the LED 38 provided on the PDA 10 (step S123), and notifies the arrival of the mail, and then proceeds to step S124. Proceed to. On the other hand, when there is no new mail (NO in step S122), the process proceeds to step S124 without doing anything.
[0030]
Next, when disconnecting from the mail server (step S124), the e-mail software starts the second timer 40b of the ASIC 40 (step S125) and waits for a predetermined time (step S126). Then, when a predetermined time has elapsed (YES in step S126), the e-mail software resets the second timer 40b (step S127), returns to step S121, and returns to step S121 at a predetermined time interval without user operation. Connects to a mail server and checks for incoming mail.
[0031]
The on / off control of the display shown in FIG. 4 is also performed during the processing of the e-mail, and the display 33 is turned off when the time during which the user does not operate the PDA 10 exceeds a predetermined time. However, as shown in FIG. 5, the PDA 10 connects to the mail server at predetermined time intervals to check for incoming mail, and when receiving a new mail, turns on or blinks the result display LED 38 to notify the user of the incoming mail. Can be. Therefore, the user can know that the mail has arrived without operating the PDA 10 to turn on the display 33.
[0032]
Here, the e-mail software has been described as an example, but the present invention may be applied to any application that operates on the PDA 10. Further, although the result display LED 38 is used, the power supply LED 22 may be shared and displayed.
[0033]
As described above, in the first embodiment of the present invention, when an application that takes a long time to execute on the PDA 10 that does not require user operation is executed, the display 33 is turned off during the execution of the application. In addition, since the completion of the application is notified by the result display LED 38, the user does not need to operate the PDA 10 from time to time to turn on the display 33 and view the result, thereby reducing power consumption and keeping the PDA 10 for a long time. Can be used.
[0034]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
[0035]
In the second embodiment of the present invention, a display unit for notifying the completion of the process is provided in an external device such as an SD card.
[0036]
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of an SDIO Bluetooth (registered trademark) card 50 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
[0037]
In FIG. 6, 51 is an SD interface, 52 is an SDIO Bluetooth controller, 53 is an LED, 54 is an antenna, 55 is a Flash ROM, 56 is a CPU, and 57 is a RAM.
[0038]
The SD interface 51 is a physical interface for connecting the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 to a host device, and is connected to the PDA 10 via, for example, an SD card slot provided in the PDA 10. The SDIO Bluetooth controller 52 exchanges commands and data with the host device via the SD interface 51, has a function such as a baseband function and a link manager, and transmits and receives high-frequency signals via the antenna 54. The Flash ROM 55 includes software of each layer of Bluetooth such as Service Discovery Protocol (SDP), RFCOMM, and Host Controller Interface (HCI), and a profile of a LAN (Local Area Network) such as that shown in FIG. An LED lighting pattern corresponding to a port number determined for each application is stored. These data can be written to the Flash ROM 55 via the SD interface 51 and the SDIO Bluetooth controller 52 at any time by the application on the PDA 10 side.
[0039]
The CPU 56 is provided for controlling the SDIO Bluetooth 50 card.
[0040]
The RAM 57 is an area used by the CPU 56, and the software of each layer of Bluetooth stored in the Flash ROM 55 is copied to the RAM 57, executed under the control of the CPU 56, and provides the PDA 10 with a LAN service. The RAM 57 is used as a work area in addition to the software of each layer of the Bluetooth. The LED 53 is for notifying a communication state and a communication result. When the communication is completed, the LED 53 notifies the user that the communication has been normally completed according to information as shown in FIG.
[0041]
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an SDIO Bluetooth card according to the second embodiment of the present invention. An LED 53 provided at the upper right of the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 notifies the communication state and the communication result.
[0042]
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a table storing LED lighting patterns corresponding to port numbers determined for each application on the TCP / IP protocol.
[0043]
In FIG. 9, reference numeral 60 denotes a port number determined for each application on the TCP / IP protocol, 61 denotes a pattern for turning on or blinking the LED 53 when communication is completed, and 62 denotes a designated data amount for determining completion of communication. It is. These data are stored in the Flash ROM 55 and can be rewritten at any time by a running application.
[0044]
FIG. 8 is a flowchart when communication is performed using the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the configuration of the TCP header part of the TCP / IP protocol. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the configuration of the IP header section of the TCP / IP protocol. The operation of the second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
[0045]
The application performing communication first determines the port number determined for each application on the TCP / IP protocol as shown in FIG. 9, the lighting pattern of the LED 53 corresponding to the port number, and the completion of the communication so that the completion of the communication can be confirmed. The designated data amount is set in the flash ROM 55 via the SD interface 51 and the SDIO Bluetooth controller 52 in a table as shown in FIG. 9 (step S130). At this time, the transmission data amount (not shown) in the RAM 57 of the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 is cleared. Then, application processing is performed and communication is started.
[0046]
The PDA 10 first establishes a connection with the communication partner device via the antenna 54 (Step S131). If the connection cannot be established (NO in step S131), the connection establishment (step S131) is repeated. When the connection is established (YES in step S131), the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 acquires the transmission source port number 63 and the transmission destination port number 64 from the TCP header shown in FIG. For example, in HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), the source port number 63 is an arbitrary value between "1024" and "65535", and the destination port number 64 is set to "80". The port number is determined by the protocol used in this way.
[0047]
Next, the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 analyzes the transmission packet and checks the sequence number 65 in the TCP header shown in FIG. If the sequence numbers 65 overlap (YES in step S134), the packet is a retransmitted packet, so that the data amount is not calculated and the process returns to step S133 to process the next packet. If the sequence numbers 65 do not overlap (NO in step S134), the sequence numbers 65 are temporarily stored in the RAM 57 (step S135), and the port numbers 60 are set based on the IP packet length 66 in the IP header shown in FIG. Is calculated (integrated) (step S136).
[0048]
Next, the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 checks whether or not the transmission packet is a connection close request (step S137). If the transmission packet is not a connection close request (NO in step S138), the process returns to step S133 to process the next packet. Do. On the other hand, in the case of a connection close request (YES in step S137), the integrated transmission data amount (the calculated value in step S136) corresponding to the transmission destination port number 64 temporarily stored in the RAM 57 in step S132 is compared with the designated data amount 62. (Step S138). If the transmission data amount is smaller than the designated data amount 62 (NO in step S138), it is determined that the application process still remains, and the process returns to step S131. On the other hand, if the transmission data amount is larger than the designated data amount 62 (YES in step S138), it is determined that the communication processing by the application has been completed. Then, the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 acquires the LED pattern corresponding to the destination port number temporarily stored in the RAM 57 in step S132 from the Flash ROM 55, and turns on or blinks the LED 53 (step S139).
[0049]
Also during the communication processing shown in FIG. 8, the display on / off control shown in FIG. 4 is performed, and if the time during which the user does not operate the PDA 10 exceeds a predetermined time, the display 33 is turned off. However, when the SDIO Bluetooth card 50 completes the communication processing as shown in FIG. 8, the LED 53 is turned on or blinks to notify the end of the communication processing, so that the user sometimes operates the PDA 10 to turn on the display 33 and turn on the display 33. There is no need to check the status of communication processing.
[0050]
In the second embodiment of the present invention, the completion of communication is detected based on the amount of transmission data. However, the operating application itself may turn on or blink the result notification LED 53.
[0051]
As described above, in the second embodiment of the present invention, when performing communication with the PDA 10, the user can know the completion of the communication by the LED 53 even if the display 33 is turned off during the communication. In addition, the user does not need to operate the PDA 10 from time to time to turn on the display 33 and view the result, thereby reducing power consumption and using the PDA 10 for a long time.
[0052]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, since the user does not need to turn on the display screen of the electronic device to check the end of the application or the communication, the power consumption of the electronic device can be reduced and the operation time can be prolonged. .
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a use form of a PDA according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an external view of a PDA according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the PDA according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart regarding display screen ON / OFF according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart regarding mail reception in the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an SDIO Bluetooth communication card according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is an external view of an SDIO Bluetooth communication card according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a communication process using an SDIO Bluetooth communication card according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a table having a port number, an LED pattern, and a designated data amount.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a part of a TCP header.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a part of an IP header.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 PDAs
11 Personal computer 2
18, 50 Bluetooth wireless communication card 21 Power button 22 Power LED
23, 53 Result display LED
24 touch screen 25 operation buttons 30, 56 CPU
31, 55 Flash ROM
32, 57 RAM
33 display 34 display controller 35 IO controller 36 battery 37 SD interface 39 tablet 40 ASIC
52 SDIO Bluetooth controller 54 Antenna

Claims (9)

Electronic equipment itself,
First display means and second display means provided on the electronic device main body;
A power consumption control unit that turns off the first display unit and suppresses power consumption of the electronic device body when an input to the electronic device body is not performed for a predetermined time;
An electronic device comprising: a notifying unit that notifies a processing result of a predetermined application by the second display unit while the first display unit is off. 2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first display means comprises an LCD panel, and said second display means comprises an LED. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined application is electronic mail software. The e-mail software connects to a mail server at predetermined intervals to receive a mail addressed to itself, and notifies the second display unit of the reception result even when the first display unit is off. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein: 2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the second display unit is provided on a device detachable from the electronic device main body. The predetermined application is a communication control application, and when the amount of data transmitted when the communication is completed by the application exceeds a predetermined amount, the second display unit notifies that the communication has been normally completed. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein: If the input to the electronic device is not performed for a predetermined time, the first display unit provided on the main body of the electronic device is turned off to reduce power consumption,
A method for controlling power consumption of an electronic device, wherein a processing result of an application is notified by a second display unit even when the first display unit is off. The electronic device connects to a mail server at predetermined intervals to receive mail addressed to the own device,
After receiving the mail, disconnect from the mail server regardless of the presence or absence of the received mail,
8. The power consumption control method for an electronic device according to claim 7, wherein when the received mail is present, the second display unit notifies that the mail has been received. The electronic device has a table that records a communication protocol and a predetermined transmission data amount,
When the communication is completed, the transmitted data amount is compared with the transmitted data amount according to the communication protocol,
8. The consumption of the electronic device according to claim 7, wherein when the amount of transmitted data is larger than the amount of transmitted data, it is determined that the transmission has been completed normally, and the second display unit notifies that the communication has been completed. Power control method.

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