JP2011109586A - Mobile terminal and display method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately and quantitatively display power consumption of a mobile terminal, in particular, a mobile phone, the emission of greenhouse gas generated to produce the power or the like for an end user. <P>SOLUTION: At the start of charging, if a charging power supply is a commercial power supply, a control unit determines the area including the current position of a mobile telephone, accesses a server of a power company that provides power to the determined area via the Internet, and acquires and stores electric power information including a proportion of each power generating method of the generated power and the emission of greenhouse gas of each power generating method. Further, when the charging operation is completed, the control unit obtains the remaining power of a charger when charging is completed from a power supply processing unit, and stores it as a remaining battery capacity after charging, calculates the amount of electric power charged and the emission of greenhouse gas generated to generate the electric power, on the basis of the electric power information, the remaining battery capacity before charging, and the remaining battery capacity after charging , and causes an image display unit to display them. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile terminal including an image display unit, and more particularly to a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone.

Some recent events that are the background of the present invention are listed.
1. Increasing awareness of global warming countermeasures at the national and global levels.
2. Rapid development of environmentally friendly industrial products (electric vehicles and others).
3. Active use of clean energy using wind power and sunlight.
4). Study of a more intelligent energy supply system called smart grid.

  Against the background as described above, it is expected that the construction of an environmentally friendly social infrastructure infrastructure will be promoted, such as diversifying power generation methods and combining them with a smart grid to efficiently supply power.

For example, Patent Literature 1 proposes a CO ₂ emission amount display device that can display the CO ₂ emission amount according to the amount of power used in each household. This apparatus is realized as follows. A CO ₂ indicator is connected to an electric meter installed in each house, and CO ₂ calculation data is transmitted to the electric meter at a predetermined timing from a host computer of an electric power company. The electric meter sends the power consumption of the installed house and data for CO ₂ calculation to the CO ₂ display. The CO ₂ display unit calculates and displays the CO ₂ emission amount by performing a predetermined calculation process using the received power consumption and the CO ₂ calculation data.

  On the other hand, mobile devices, especially mobile phones, tend to be seen as being away from the above efforts due to the small size of the device itself, and each user has an opportunity to be aware of the environment. It can be said that it is a difficult industrial product.

  Since the mobile phone is driven by a battery, the mobile phone itself does not generate carbon dioxide. In addition, since the device itself is small, the amount of heat generated per unit is never large, and it can be said that there is little opportunity for the user to be aware of the environmental impact in normal use. If you dare to mention it, it will remain to the extent that you intend to recycle when you dispose of your mobile phone or battery pack.

  However, in reality, the power consumed by the mobile phone is originally stored in the home or office, which indirectly affects the environment. However, the user of the mobile phone cannot know such information.

JP2008-97303 (see paragraphs [0009]-[0013])

  The present invention encourages the user to be aware of the amount of energy consumed by the mobile terminal, especially the mobile phone, and use it efficiently in daily use.

  Since a mobile phone is a device that is closely related to an individual's life, through the use of the mobile phone, it is possible to know the influence of personal activities on the environment.

Originally, NW (network) equipment such as base stations and greenhouse gases (CO ₂ gas) generated in the production process of mobile phones are also expected to be clearly indicated on mobile phones as so-called carbon footprints. Is done.

  However, in the present invention, from the viewpoints described above, the power consumption of mobile terminals, particularly mobile phones used by individuals, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions generated to generate this, etc. are accurately determined to the end user, It is intended to be able to display quantitatively.

  When the present invention is applied to a mobile phone, it realizes a function of calculating and displaying the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from each mobile phone according to the power consumption state when charging a rechargeable battery built in the mobile phone. It is characterized by doing.

  As a premise in the present invention, the ratio of the supplied power by the power generation method (thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, etc.) in the area / time in which the power company supplies power, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions by each power generation method, etc. It is mentioned that it provides a service that distributes information publicly via the Internet.

  At the time of charging, the mobile phone can identify the current location (area) by the information of the cell in the area and the GPS (Global Positioning System), and can know the power configuration of the commercial power supply supplied to the mobile phone through the Internet.

  Based on the result and the amount of power consumed by charging the mobile phone, the user can know how much warming gas is discharged by charging the mobile phone per time.

  A portable terminal according to an aspect of the present invention includes a communication processing unit that accesses the Internet via a wireless network, the power processing unit that charges an internal rechargeable battery from an external power source via a charger, and an image display unit. And control means for controlling the respective parts.

  The control means obtains the current remaining charge of the charger from the power supply processing means at the start of the charging and stores it as a remaining battery charge before charging, and a determination action for determining whether the charging power supply is a commercial power supply. And, when the charging power source is a commercial power source, the communication processing unit is activated to grasp the area including the current position of the mobile terminal based on the in-zone cell information, and the communication processing unit Access to the server of the power company that provides power to the area via the Internet to acquire and store power information including the ratio of generated power by generation method and the amount of greenhouse gas generated by generation method And a function of executing When the charging operation is completed, the control means also obtains an amount of charge remaining at the end of charging from the power supply processing means and stores it as a remaining battery level after charging, the power information and the remaining battery charge before charging. The amount of power supplied for charging and the amount of greenhouse gas emission generated to generate the power are calculated from the amount and the remaining battery level after charging, and are displayed on the image display means. It has a function.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, communication processing means for accessing the Internet via a wireless network, power processing means for charging a built-in rechargeable battery from an external power source via a charger, and image display means And a display method of the portable terminal including the control means for controlling the respective units.

  In the present display method, at the start of the charging, a process for storing the current remaining battery level as a remaining battery level before charging, a determination process for determining whether the charging power source is a commercial power source, and the charging power source In the case of a commercial power supply, the communication processing means is activated to grasp the area including the current position of the mobile terminal based on the serving cell information, and the communication processing means provides power to the grasped area. Accessing the power company's server via the Internet, obtaining and storing power information including the ratio of generated power by generation method and the amount of greenhouse gas generation by generation method, When the charging operation is completed, a process for storing the remaining amount of the charger at the end of charging as a remaining battery level after charging, and from the power information, the remaining battery level before charging, and the remaining battery level after charging, for charging. Supplied And competence, executes a process of displaying on the image display unit to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions generated to power it.

  In any of the above aspects, by further providing GPS means, the GPS means may grasp the area including the current position of the mobile terminal instead of the in-zone cell information. .

  Further according to the present invention, communication processing means for accessing the Internet via a wireless network, power processing means for charging a built-in rechargeable battery from an external power source via a charger, image display means, Storing the current remaining battery level as a pre-charge battery level at the start of the charging in a computer that is applied to a portable terminal including the control unit that controls each unit and functions as the control unit; A step of determining whether the charging power source is a commercial power source; and, when the charging power source is a commercial power source, activates the communication processing means and grasps an area including the current position of the mobile terminal based on the serving cell information And the communication processing means accesses the server of the power company that provides power to the grasped area via the Internet to generate generated power. And acquiring and storing electric power information including a ratio for each method and an amount of greenhouse gas generated for each power generation method, and when the charging operation is completed, the remaining amount of the charger at the end of charging is calculated. The step of storing as a remaining battery level after charging, the amount of power supplied for charging from the power information, the remaining battery level before charging, and the remaining battery level after charging, and warming that occurs to generate this power And a step of calculating a gas discharge amount and displaying the calculated amount on the image display means.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the amount of electric power used with the portable terminal is known, and the warming gas discharge amount produced | generated in order to generate | occur | produce this can be displayed and provided to a user by an image display part. As a result, it is expected that the environmental awareness of each user having a portable terminal is increased and more efficient power consumption is promoted.

It is the figure which showed the structure of the mobile telephone charge in a house in order to demonstrate the Example of this invention. It is the figure which showed the structural example of the mobile telephone required for the Example of this invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation when a charger is attached to the mobile phone of FIG. 2 and charging is started. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining an operation after charging is completed in the mobile phone charged through the charging process of FIG. 3.

[Configuration of Example]
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 1 shows a mobile phone charging configuration at home as an example of a system necessary for an embodiment of the present invention.

  As a general power distribution mechanism, power generated by the power generation facility 10 is transmitted via the substation 20 and distributed to each home. As the power generation facility 10, a home generator (solar cell or the like) 30 is also assumed. These electric power is distributed to various places in the home from the home distribution board 40. The cellular phone 100 is charged with the power thus obtained.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, it is assumed that an electric power company that supplies electric power discloses a configuration of the power generation facility 10 and the like and has a server accessible via the Internet (electric power company server 25). The mobile phone 100 accesses the Internet via a wireless network, and obtains information such as the ratio of generated power (thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, etc.) and the amount of greenhouse gas generated from the power company server 25. It can be obtained.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of a cellular phone necessary for the embodiment of the present invention.

  The mobile phone 100 receives power via an external IF (Interface) 101 during charging, and charges the rechargeable battery 103 by the power supply processing unit 102. The state of charge is monitored by the application processing unit 104 or the communication processing unit 105 via the power supply processing unit 102. The communication processing unit 105 also enables access to a wireless network.

  In FIG. 2, the mobile phone 100 has a GPS 106 for specifying the current position. However, as will be described later, in order to specify the current position, the area information (Cell-ID and application processing unit) obtained by the wireless network is used. Area information acquired by the server 104 from the server 25) may be used. In other words, the current position of the mobile phone 100 only needs to know an area in the range of at least a municipality, and may not be an accurate position. In addition to the above-described components, the mobile phone 100 includes elements necessary for exhibiting functions as a mobile phone. However, the mobile phone 100 is not the gist of the present invention, and thus illustration and description thereof are omitted.

  In FIG. 1, it is assumed that information on the power supplied from the cellular phone 100 from the server 25 of the power company is stored in the nonvolatile memory 110 or the RAM 120. The mobile phone 100 itself may include a power generation mechanism 130 such as a solar battery. The electric power generated by the power generation mechanism 130 is also used for charging via the power supply processing unit 102.

[Operation of the embodiment]
3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation when a charger is attached to the mobile phone 100 and charging is started. In the present embodiment, the following operation will be described on the assumption that the operation subject is the cellular phone 100. However, in practice, the application processing unit 104 is an application stored in advance in the non-volatile memory 110 or a separate built-in memory (not shown). It is realized by reading a program and executing an operation, so to speak, controlling each unit as a main control unit. That is, the application processing unit 104 has a CPU or computer function.

  The mobile phone 100 to which the charger is attached in step S1 confirms the power ON / OFF state of the device (mobile phone) in step S2.

  If the power is turned off in step S2, the minimum system activation is performed such as keeping the liquid crystal screen of the mobile phone off (step S3).

  Charging is started with the minimum system activation state (step S4), and the remaining battery level at this time is stored in the RAM 120 or the nonvolatile memory 110 as the remaining battery level before charging (step S5).

  Next, it is determined what power source is connected (step S6). At this time, the mechanism for discriminating the type of power supply is realized by providing a function of detecting a charging control path by hardware in the power supply processing unit 102 and switching by a user interface.

  When the connected power source is a household outlet or the like, the communication processing unit 105 or the GPS 106 is activated to identify the current position (area) of the mobile phone 100 (step S7). An area is specified by acquiring cell information or acquiring position information by the GPS 106 (step S8). Next, the server 25 of the electric power company is accessed and information on the composition of generated power and greenhouse gas emissions, that is, the ratio of generated power by power generation method (thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, etc.) and warmth by power generation method. Information including the amount of generated gas is obtained as power information (step S9). This information is stored in the nonvolatile memory 110 or RAM 120 of the mobile phone 100 (step S10). It should be noted that the relationship with the power company for each area is stored in the memory in advance as to which power company the acquired area is supplied with. Also, servers to be accessed for each electric power company are determined in advance and stored in the memory.

  Access to the server of the power company and acquisition of power information from the server are automatically performed. That is, the application processing unit 104 activates the communication processing unit 105 and specifies an area, and then connects to a server of an electric power company corresponding to the specified area to acquire necessary power information.

  The process so far is performed, and the original state is returned according to the apparatus state determined in step S2. That is, when the power is turned off in step S2, the system that has been started as a minimum system is stopped (step S12), and the charging state is entered (step S13). If the power is turned on in step S2, the charging state is maintained (step S13).

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart after charging is completed in the mobile phone charged in this way.

  In step S21, the charger is removed from the mobile phone 100, or the mobile phone 100 that has been charged confirms whether the apparatus (mobile phone) is turned on or off in step S22. If the power is off, the minimum system is activated in step S23, the remaining battery level at the end of charging is stored as the remaining battery level after charging (step S24), and the activated minimum system is stored in step S25. After stopping, the power is returned to the off state (step S26).

  Thereafter, the system is started by a power ON trigger in step S27 (step S28). However, depending on the remaining battery level before charging stored in step S5 in FIG. 3 and the remaining battery level after charging stored in step S24 in FIG. The charged total electric energy (supplied electric energy) is calculated (step S29).

  Next, the profile stored in the internal memory is referred to (step S30). It is assumed that this profile is stored in the nonvolatile memory 110, and is information stored as a table of how much warming gas is generated by each charging power source.

  For example, when charged by a built-in power generation mechanism (solar cell or the like) 130 of the mobile phone 100, the amount of greenhouse gas generation is zero, and if a dry battery charging facility is used, the generation generally required for dry cell production Table the quantities as fixed values.

  Also, the power supply configuration information and the greenhouse gas emissions from each power generation facility acquired from the power company server 25 in step S9 of FIG. 3 are stored in a table. Based on these pieces of information, the application processing unit 104 calculates a greenhouse gas generation amount according to the power supply configuration at the time of charging (step S31).

  The information thus obtained is processed in the application processing unit 104 and can be used by an application on the mobile phone 100. In the application, the accumulated usage time of each charging power source, the amount of warming gas generated due to charging (the value calculated in step S31), and the like are displayed on the image display unit.

  According to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the amount of greenhouse gas generated to generate the amount of power used by correctly tracing the power consumption of the mobile phone and the configuration for generating the power. Can be displayed accurately and quantitatively to the end user by the image display unit.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Power generation equipment 20 Substation 25 Electric power company server 30 Home power generator 40 Home distribution board 100 Mobile phone

Claims (5)

Communication processing means for accessing the Internet via a wireless network; power supply processing means for charging a built-in rechargeable battery from an external power supply via a charger; image display means; and control means for controlling each of the parts. Including,
The control means, at the start of the charging,
An operation of obtaining the current remaining charge of the charger from the power processing means and storing it as the remaining battery charge before charging;
A determination operation for determining whether the charging power source is a commercial power source,
When the charging power source is a commercial power source, an operation of activating the communication processing unit and grasping an area including the current position of the mobile terminal based on the serving cell information;
By using the communication processing means, access to a server of a power company that provides power to the grasped area via the Internet, and including the ratio of generated power by generation method and the amount of greenhouse gas generation by generation method An operation of acquiring and storing information, and a function of executing
The control means is also configured to terminate the charging operation,
An operation of obtaining the remaining amount of the charger at the end of charging from the power processing means and storing it as the remaining battery level after charging;
The image display means calculates the amount of power supplied for charging and the amount of greenhouse gas emission generated to generate power from the power information, the remaining battery level before charging, and the remaining battery level after charging. A portable terminal having a function of executing an operation to be displayed on the mobile phone.   2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, further comprising GPS means, wherein the control means grasps the area including the current position of the portable terminal by the GPS means instead of the in-zone cell information. A portable terminal characterized by that. Communication processing means for accessing the Internet via a wireless network; power supply processing means for charging a built-in rechargeable battery from an external power supply via a charger; image display means; and control means for controlling each of the parts. , Including a mobile device display method,
At the start of the charging,
Storing the current remaining battery level as the remaining battery level before charging;
A determination process for determining whether the charging power source is a commercial power source;
When the charging power source is a commercial power source, starting the communication processing means and grasping the area including the current position of the mobile terminal based on the serving cell information;
By using the communication processing means, access to a server of a power company that provides power to the grasped area via the Internet, and including the ratio of generated power by generation method and the amount of greenhouse gas generation by generation method Processing to acquire and store information,
When the charging operation ends,
Storing the remaining battery level at the end of charging as the remaining battery level after charging;
The image display means calculates the amount of power supplied for charging and the amount of greenhouse gas emission generated to generate power from the power information, the remaining battery level before charging, and the remaining battery level after charging. A display method for a portable terminal, characterized in that:   4. The display method for a mobile terminal according to claim 3, further comprising GPS means, so that the GPS means can grasp the area including the current position of the mobile terminal instead of the in-zone cell information. A display method of a portable terminal characterized by the above. Communication processing means for accessing the Internet via a wireless network; power supply processing means for charging a built-in rechargeable battery from an external power supply via a charger; image display means; and control means for controlling each of the parts. , To a computer that functions as the control means,
At the start of the charging,
Storing the current remaining charge of the charger as the remaining battery charge before charging;
Determining whether the charging power source is a commercial power source;
When the charging power source is a commercial power source, starting the communication processing means and grasping the area including the current position of the mobile terminal based on the serving cell information;
By using the communication processing means, access to a server of a power company that provides power to the grasped area via the Internet, and including the ratio of generated power by generation method and the amount of greenhouse gas generation by generation method Acquiring and storing information, and
When the charging operation ends,
Storing the remaining battery level at the end of charging as the remaining battery level after charging;
The image display means calculates the amount of power supplied for charging and the amount of greenhouse gas emission generated to generate power from the power information, the remaining battery level before charging, and the remaining battery level after charging. And a step for displaying the program.

Images