JP2011101326A - Communication apparatus, and method of controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a power supply control technology that maintains a communication state even when power required for communication gets low. <P>SOLUTION: A communication apparatus includes: a transmitting unit that transmits data; a reception unit that receives power from a power transmitter in a contactless state; a comparison unit that compares a received power amount with a threshold; a storage unit that stores multiple data different in amount of data that is transferred from the transmitting unit per unit time for each threshold; and a control unit that controls the data amount transmitted from the transmitting unit so that power consumption in the apparatus does not exceed the power amount that can be received from the power transmitter according to results compared in the comparison unit. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to power supply control for transmitting power to a communication device in a contactless manner.

  In recent years, since there are few restrictions on installation locations and user convenience is high, communication devices having a power receiving function using a non-contact power transmission method using electromagnetic induction or the like have been developed. In addition, a technique for suppressing power consumption of each device when the supplied power is insufficient has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2001-034370 A

  However, in the case of the non-contact power transmission method, there is a possibility that the supplied power may increase or decrease due to the distance between the power supply source and the power receiving communication device, the direction, an obstacle existing between the devices, and the like. Here, if the power consumption of the power receiving communication device exceeds the amount of power received from the power supply source, the system of the communication device goes down and communication is interrupted. Moreover, if the power consumption of each device is suppressed as in Patent Document 1, necessary communication may not be possible.

  This invention is made | formed in view of the said subject, The objective is to implement | achieve the electric power supply control technique which can maintain a communicable state even when the electric power required for communication is insufficient.

  In order to solve the above problems and achieve the object, the communication device of the present invention includes a transmission unit that transmits data, a power reception unit that receives power supply from the power transmission device in a contactless manner, and a received power amount as a threshold value. In the apparatus according to the comparison unit, the storage unit that stores a plurality of data having different data amounts transferred per unit time from the transmission unit for each threshold, and the comparison result in the comparison unit And a control unit that controls the amount of data transmitted from the transmission unit so that power consumption does not exceed the amount of power that can be received from the power transmission device.

  According to the present invention, the amount of power required for communication is insufficient by controlling the amount of communication data so that the power consumption in a communication device that receives power in a contactless manner does not exceed the amount of power that can be received. Can maintain a communicable state, and system down can be suppressed.

It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the communication apparatus of Embodiment 1 which concerns on this invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a power transmission device according to a first embodiment. 2 is a data management table managed by the storage unit of FIG. It is a figure which illustrates the control table which matched the received electric energy used for the data communication process of Embodiment 1, and video data. 4 is a flowchart illustrating data communication processing according to the first exemplary embodiment. It is a figure which illustrates the other form of the control table which matched the received electric energy and video data amount used for the data communication process of Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the communication apparatus of Embodiment 2 which concerns on this invention. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a receiving apparatus according to Embodiment 2. FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating data communication processing according to the second embodiment.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiment described below is an example for realizing the present invention, and should be appropriately modified or changed according to the configuration and various conditions of the apparatus to which the present invention is applied. It is not limited to the embodiment.

  [Embodiment 1] The configurations of a communication apparatus 100 and a power transmission apparatus 200 according to Embodiment 1 will be described below with reference to FIGS. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the communication device 100 includes a communication antenna 101, a transmission unit 102, a storage unit 103, a power reception antenna 104, a power reception unit 105, a comparison unit 106, and a control unit 107. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the power transmission device 200 includes a power transmission unit 201 and a power transmission antenna 202.

  In the present embodiment, an example in which HD video data and super-resolution video data are applied as communication data will be described. Here, the HD video data is data having 1920 * 1080 pixel encoded in MPEG2. The super-resolution video data is data that has been re-encoded with the number of pixels increased to 3840 * 2160 pixels so that the same video becomes a higher definition video. Needless to say, the present invention is applicable to data other than the video data. In this embodiment, an example applied to a non-contact power transmission system that receives power from the power receiving antenna 104 will be described, but it is needless to say that the present invention can also be applied to other power transmission systems having similar problems. Note that the non-contact power transmission method includes a method using electromagnetic induction, electromagnetic waves, magnetic field resonance, electric field resonance, and the like, but the present invention can be applied to any method.

  The communication device 100 selects the HD video data or super-resolution video data stored in the storage unit 103 and sends it to the communication antenna 101. The power receiving antenna 104 receives power from the power transmission device 200. In the communication antenna 101, the video data modulated by the transmission unit 102 and transmitted from the communication antenna 101 is received by a data receiving device (not shown) and reproduced on a display device or the like. The data receiving apparatus has a video data receiving function using, for example, IEEE 802.11n of a wireless communication standard and a function capable of decoding and displaying received video data. The data receiving apparatus can display the received HD video data or super-resolution video data with a corresponding resolution. Further, in order to perform video data communication of 100 Mbps, when performing MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) used in the IEEE802.11n technology, a plurality of communication antennas 101 are necessary. A case where the antenna is used will be described. In this embodiment, detailed description of the IEEE 802.11n technology is omitted.

  The transmission unit 102 modulates the video data stored in the storage unit 103 into a high-frequency signal and transmits the high-frequency signal to the communication antenna 101. For example, the transmission unit 102 has a modulation function compliant with IEEE802.11n, and can transmit video data to the reception device by following a procedure compliant with the method. In addition, the transmission unit 102 can change the modulation method according to the data transfer rate and adjust the amount of power to be transmitted. For example, when the bit rate of the video data to be transmitted is sufficiently lower than the maximum bit rate that can be transmitted by 64QAM modulation, the communication data modulation method 64QAM and coding rate 4/5 are changed to 16QAM and 1/2, respectively. In addition, the amount of transmitted power can be reduced. That is, the transmission unit 102 can reduce power consumption by changing to transmission of video data having a lower bit rate.

  The storage unit 103 manages the video data to be transmitted, and sends the data to the transmission unit 102 based on a data transmission command from the control unit 107. For example, the storage unit 103 includes an HDD (hard disk drive), has a data management table 300 as shown in FIG. 3, and manages two types of video data, data A and data B, for one content. . Data A is HD video data, for example, and data B is super-resolution video data created by re-encoding data A, for example. As can be seen from the data management table 300, data A is 20 Mbps, data B is 100 Mbps, and there is a difference in bit rate. Further, the power consumption in the storage unit 103 when transmitting data A is low because the bit rate of the data A is low and the time for accessing the HDD can be reduced compared to when transmitting the data B.

  As described above, the communication device 100 receives power supply from the power transmission device 200 of FIG. 2 through the power receiving antenna 104 by the non-contact power transmission method. Here, the power transmission device 200 will be described. The power transmission device 200 transmits the power of the AC power source supplied to the home through the power transmission antenna 202. The power transmission unit 201 converts the power of the AC power source into a resonance frequency that can be received by the power receiving antenna 104. The power receiving antenna 104 includes a coil and a capacitor. The power receiving antenna 104 receives the power transmitted from the power transmitting device 200 by matching with the power transmission frequency converted by the power transmitting unit 201, and transmits the power to the power receiving unit 105.

  The power receiving unit 105 smoothes the received power, converts it into necessary power for each block of the communication apparatus 100, and supplies the converted power. In addition, the power reception unit 105 sends the maximum received power amount that can be received from the power transmission device 200 to the comparison unit 106.

  Here, a method of calculating the maximum received power amount will be described. FIG. 4 illustrates a control table 400 for selecting video data according to the maximum amount of received power. In FIG. 4, data A and B are determined according to power consumption necessary for the communication device 100 to maintain a state in which the data A and B can be communicated. Further, the smaller the threshold value, the smaller the amount of data transferred per unit time (including the data transfer rate and data size in addition to the data transfer rate) is associated. The voltage received by the power receiving antenna 104 becomes higher as the received power is larger. Therefore, the power receiving unit 105 that receives power can calculate the maximum received power amount from the received voltage received by the power receiving antenna 104.

  The comparison unit 106 compares the maximum received power amount calculated by the power receiving unit 105 with the threshold value of the received power amount of the control table 400 in FIG. 4, and a video in which the maximum received power amount satisfies the threshold value from the comparison result. Data is selected from the control table 400. Further, the comparison unit 106 sends the selection result to the control unit 107. The control unit 107 instructs the storage unit 103 on video data to be transmitted to the transmission unit 102 based on the selection result in the comparison unit 106.

  Next, processing for selecting video data according to the amount of received power by the comparison unit 106 and the control unit 107 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 5, this processing is started by, for example, a user performing an operation of reproducing the video data in the storage unit 103 by the above-described receiving device with a remote controller (not shown), and ends when the reproduction of the video data is completed. Steps S502 to S506 are repeatedly executed during the reproduction of the video data.

  In step S <b> 502, the comparison unit 106 acquires the maximum received power amount from the power reception unit 105. In step S <b> 503, the comparison unit 106 compares the maximum received power amount acquired from the power receiving unit 105 with the received power amount threshold value of the control table 400 in FIG. 4, selects video data, and sends the selection result to the control unit 107. Send it out. Here, for example, when the maximum received power amount is 800 mW, the comparison unit 106 determines that the received power amount is large because the threshold is 500 mW or more in the control table 400, and selects video data of data B. When the maximum received power amount is 300 mW, it is determined that the received power amount is low because the threshold is 100 mW or more and less than 500 mW in the control table 400, and the video data of data A is selected. Further, when the maximum received power amount is 80 mW, the comparison unit 106 determines that the received power amount necessary for transmitting the video data is not reached, and selects transfer impossibility without transmitting the video data.

  In step S <b> 504, the control unit 107 determines whether there is a change in the video data based on the comparison result in the comparison unit 106. In step S <b> 505, when it is determined that the video data is changed, the control unit 107 instructs the storage unit 103 again about the video data to be output. For example, when an amount of power received decreases from 800 mW to 300 mW due to an obstacle such as a person crossing between the power transmitting antenna 202 and the power receiving antenna 104, the control unit 107 determines the video data to be transmitted from the data B. The storage unit 103 is instructed to change to data A. Further, when the amount of received power is reduced to 80 mW, the control unit 107 issues a command to temporarily stop data communication so that the system does not go down, and the communication device 100 can save power so that the system can be maintained with the current received power. Change to mode. Also, when the position of the communication apparatus 100 is changed and the amount of received power increases from 300 mW to 800 mW, the control unit 107 issues a command to change from data A to data B. When the amount of received power increases from 80 mW to 300 mW, the power saving mode of the communication apparatus 100 is canceled, and the control unit 107 resumes the transmission of the data A that has been paused.

  In step S506, the control unit 107 determines whether to end the transmission of the video data. Here, the determination can be made based on, for example, a data reproduction end instruction by the user or a video data reproduction end. If the data transmission is not terminated in step S506, the process returns to step S502 and continues. Further, when the data transmission is finished, this process is finished.

  In this example, the comparison unit 106 has selected video data corresponding to the received power amount threshold value of the control table 400. However, the comparison unit 106 has a hysteresis in the received power amount threshold value of the control table 400 so that the maximum received power amount changes over time. It can be changed accordingly.

  Further, the comparison unit 106 measures the received power amount of the power receiving unit 105 for a certain period of time, and determines that the received power amount is unstable if the received power amount is frequently less than or equal to the threshold value of the control table 400. The video data associated with the threshold value or less can be selected. For example, if the average received power has decreased to 550 mW and the lower limit to 490 mW during a certain time, the comparison unit 106 determines that the received power amount is unstable and always selects HD video data. Accordingly, it is possible to control so that the video data is not frequently switched due to the amount of received power that frequently falls below the threshold.

  Further, the comparison unit 106 can also change the received power amount threshold value of the control table 400 according to the distance between the power transmission device 200 and the communication device 100. That is, in consideration of a decrease in received power and an increase in the possibility that the devices are blocked by an obstacle or the like in advance, the threshold is changed in advance to the received power amount threshold corresponding to the instability of the received power. For example, the comparison unit 106 uses the control table 400 if the inter-device distance is less than 3 m, and uses the control table 600 (FIG. 6) having a different received power threshold value if the distance is 3 m or more. Here, the inter-device distance is derived using, for example, an actually measured value of the device position input by the user when installing the device, or a characteristic that the maximum received power decreases in proportion to the inter-device distance.

  Further, in this embodiment, an example applied to a non-contact power transmission system that receives power via an antenna has been described. However, the above control can be performed using a system that uses a solar cell that converts sunlight into electric power, Regardless of the form in which the power generation device or the like is used, the same control can be performed.

  In the present embodiment, the control table 400 derived from the power consumption specific to the communication device is used for selecting the video data. However, the measurement result of the power consumption when each function of the external device or the communication device is operated is a threshold value. As a table.

  In the present embodiment, the power transmission apparatus 200 is described as being different from the reception apparatus, but the same control can be performed even if the power transmission apparatus 200 is built in the same housing as the reception apparatus.

  According to the embodiment described above, when the amount of power received from the power transmission device 200 decreases, the video data to be communicated is changed to data with a low bit rate so that the power consumption of the communication device 100 does not exceed the amount of power received. . As a result, for example, system down during video data reproduction can be suppressed. After that, when the received power starts to increase, the video data to be communicated is changed to data with a high bit rate so that the power consumption of the communication device 100 does not exceed the received power amount. Communication is possible.

  [Embodiment 2] Next, a communication system according to Embodiment 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. The difference from the first embodiment is that the receiving device that is the transmission destination of the video data is supplied with power, and the communication device that is the transmission source controls the video data to be communicated according to the amount of received power in the receiving device. By the way. 7 and 8 show the configurations of the communication device and the reception device according to the second embodiment, and the transmission device 700 includes a transmission / reception unit 701 instead of the transmission unit 102 of FIG. Other elements having the same functions as those in FIG. On the other hand, the reception device 800 includes a power reception antenna 801, a power reception unit 802, a transmission / reception unit 803, a communication antenna 804, and a display unit 805, and receives supply of power from the power transmission device 200 illustrated in FIG.

  Hereinafter, a configuration different from the communication device 100 according to the first embodiment will be described in detail. Similar to the transmission unit 102 in FIG. 1, the transmission / reception unit 701 modulates video data stored in the storage unit 103 into a high-frequency signal, transmits the high-frequency signal to the reception device 800 via the communication antenna 101, and from the reception device 800. Received power amount information is acquired and sent to the comparison unit 106.

  The receiving device 800 receives power supply from the power transmitting device 200 of FIG. 2 through the power receiving antenna 801 by a non-contact power transmission method. The power receiving antenna 801 includes a coil and a capacitor, and receives power transmitted from the power transmitting device 200 by matching with the power transmission frequency converted by the power transmitting unit 201, and transmits the power to the power receiving unit 802.

  The power receiving unit 802 smoothes the received power, converts it into necessary power for each block of the receiving apparatus 800, and supplies the converted power. In addition, the power reception unit 802 sends the maximum received power amount that can be received from the power transmission device 200 to the transmission / reception unit 803. The method for calculating the maximum received power amount is as described in the first embodiment.

  The transmission / reception unit 803 has a modulation / demodulation function capable of data communication with the transmission / reception unit 701, receives video data from the transmission device 700, and transmits the maximum received power amount acquired from the power reception unit 802 to the transmission device 700. Further, the transmission / reception unit 803 sends the video data received via the communication antenna 804 to the display unit 805. The display unit 805 has a function of decoding and displaying video data, and displays the video data with a resolution corresponding to HD video data or super-resolution video data.

  Next, processing for the transmission apparatus 700 to select video data according to the amount of received power of the reception apparatus 200 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 9, this processing is started when the user performs an operation of reproducing the video data in the storage unit 103 with the receiving device 800 using a remote controller (not shown), and ends when the reproduction of the video data is completed. Steps S902 to S506 are repeatedly executed during the reproduction of the video data. Further, in steps S503, S504, S505, and S506 in FIG. 9, the same processing as in FIG. 5 is performed.

  In the present embodiment, for example, when the maximum received power amount of the receiving device 800 changes from 0 mW to 800 mW, the power receiving unit 802 transmits the maximum received power amount (for example, 800 mW) to the transmission / reception unit 803. The transmission / reception unit 803 converts the signal into a modulation method that can be received by the transmission device 700 and transmits the modulation method to the communication antenna 804. Here, it is desirable that the modulation method for transmitting the maximum amount of received power is a method that requires as little power as possible for the transmission / reception unit 803 to transmit data. The maximum received power amount transmitted via the communication antenna 804 is received by the transmission / reception unit 701 via the communication antenna 101.

  Further, the transmission apparatus 700 performs processing according to the flow of FIG. That is, in FIG. 9, in step S <b> 902, the comparison unit 106 acquires the maximum received power amount from the transmission / reception unit 701. In step S <b> 503, the comparison unit 106 compares the maximum received power amount acquired from the transmission / reception unit 701 with the received power amount threshold value of the control table 400 in FIG. 4, selects video data, and sends the selection result to the control unit 107. Send it out. Here, the comparison unit 106 selects the video data of the data B because the maximum received power amount is 800 mW and the threshold value is 500 mW or more in the control table 400. In step S <b> 504, the control unit 107 determines whether there is a change in the video data based on the comparison result in the comparison unit 106. In this case, the control unit 107 determines that the data B transmission has been switched to the data B transmission. In step S <b> 505, the control unit 107 commands the data B as video data to be output to the storage unit 103. The storage unit 103 receives the command from the control unit 107 and starts outputting data B to the transmission / reception unit 701. The transmission / reception unit 701 transmits video data to the communication antenna 101 with a modulation scheme of 64QAM and a coding rate of 4/5.

  In step S506, the processing from step S902 is repeated until the transmission of data in S505 ends. The video data transmitted from the communication antenna 101 is received by the communication antenna 804 of the receiving apparatus 800 and sent to the transmission / reception unit 803. The transmission / reception unit 803 demodulates the video data according to a predetermined modulation method, and sends the video data to the display unit 805. In this way, the display unit 805 can decode the video data of the data B and reproduce and display the super-resolution video.

  Next, a case where the maximum received power amount is changed from 800 mW to 300 mW will be described. The maximum received power amount of 300 mW is transmitted from the communication device 800 to the receiving device 700 during communication of video data (step SS902). The maximum received power amount 300 mW received by the communication device 800 is sent to the comparison unit 106, and is compared with the received power amount threshold value in the control table 400 to select video data (step S503). Here, the comparison unit 106 selects the video data of the data A because the maximum received power amount is 300 mW and the threshold value is 100 mW or more and less than 500 mW in the control table 400.

  The control unit 107 determines that the data to be transmitted has been changed from the data B to the data A (step S504), and instructs the storage unit 103 to output the data A. The transmission / reception unit 701 modulates the data A output from the storage unit 103 to a modulation scheme of 16QAM and a coding rate of ½, and transmits video data to the communication antenna 101. The transmission / reception unit 803 that has received the data A via the communication antenna 804 demodulates the modulation scheme 16QAM and the coding rate 1/2 and transmits the result to the display unit 805. In this way, the display unit 805 can decode the video data of the data A and reproduce and display the HD video.

  As described above, the receiving device 800 reduces the power required for the demodulation processing in the transmission / reception unit 803 and the decoding processing in the display unit 805 as the bit rate of the received video data decreases, for example, during video data playback System down is suppressed.

  In this embodiment, when the received power amount of the receiving device 800 changes, the data is changed to data with a different bit rate. However, by changing the data transfer speed or the data size instead of the bit rate, the power consumption is similarly reduced. It can also be reduced.

  According to the above-described embodiment, when the received power amount at the receiving device 800 is reduced, the video data transmitted from the transmitting device 700 has a low bit rate so that the power consumption of the receiving device 800 does not exceed the received power amount. Change to data. As a result, for example, system down during video data reproduction can be suppressed. Thereafter, when the received power of the receiving device 800 starts to increase, the video data to be communicated is changed to data with a higher bit rate so that the power consumption of the receiving device 800 does not exceed the received power amount, thereby achieving higher definition. Video data can be communicated. In addition, a communication system including the transmission device 700 and the reception device 800 can be constructed.

  The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

Claims (7)

A transmission unit for transmitting data;
A power receiving unit that receives power from the power transmission device in a contactless manner;
A comparison unit that compares the amount of received power with a threshold;
For each of the threshold values, a storage unit that stores a plurality of data having different data amounts transferred per unit time from the transmission unit;
A control unit that controls the amount of data transmitted from the transmission unit so that the power consumption in the device does not exceed the amount of power that can be received from the power transmission device according to the comparison result in the comparison unit. A communication device. The data amount is determined according to the power required for the communication device to maintain a state in which the data can be communicated, and the smaller the threshold, the smaller the data amount associated with the data,
The control unit selects one of the plurality of data from the storage unit according to a comparison result in the comparison unit, and controls the transmission unit to transmit the selected data. The communication device according to claim 1.   The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the storage unit includes a control table in which data having different data transfer rates is associated with each threshold.   The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the comparison unit changes the threshold value according to a time-series change in the received power amount.   The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the comparison unit changes the threshold according to a distance between the power transmission device and the communication device. A communication system comprising a transmitting device for transmitting data and a receiving device for receiving the transmitted data,
The transmitter is
A power transmitting / receiving unit that transmits power to the receiving device and receives information representing the amount of received power from the receiving device;
A comparison unit that compares the received power amount with a threshold;
For each of the threshold values, a storage unit that stores a plurality of data having different data amounts transferred per unit time from the transmission / reception unit;
A control unit that controls the amount of data transmitted from the transmission / reception unit so that the power consumption in the reception device does not exceed the amount of power that can be received from the transmission device according to the comparison result in the comparison unit. And
The receiving device is:
A power receiving unit that receives power from the transmitter without contact;
A communication system, comprising: a transmission / reception unit that transmits information representing the amount of power received from the transmission device and receives data transmitted from the transmission / reception unit. A method for controlling a communication device, comprising: a transmission unit that transmits data; and a power reception unit that receives power supply in a contactless manner from a power transmission device,
A comparison step of comparing the amount of received power with a threshold;
A storage step of storing a plurality of data having different data amounts transferred per unit time from the transmission unit for each threshold value;
And a control step of controlling the amount of data transmitted from the transmission unit so that the power consumption in the communication device does not exceed the amount of power that can be received from the power transmission device according to the comparison result of the comparison step. A method for controlling a communication device.

Images