JPH0430116A - Display device and controlling method for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To suppress the power consumption of a back light as much as possible by turning off forcedly the back light when a specified state accompanied with the power consumption is recognized. CONSTITUTION:In a document preparing device, etc., provided with a display device with a semitransparent back light 23, a back light control part 20 recognizes the specified state accompanied with the power consumption, for instance, at the time of printing, the initialization of a floppy disk and continuous access due to copy, etc., and turns off forcedly the back light 23. Then, the useless lighting of the back light can be excluded, and thus, the power consumption of the back light can be suppressed to the utmost, and the operating time of a device by battery drive can be lengthened, and the battery can be made of small capacity.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a display device capable of controlling lighting of a backlight, and particularly relates to a display device with a transflective backlight and a control method thereof. .

(Prior Art) For example, in a word processor equipped with a backlit liquid crystal display device, electroluminescence (E
L) Display units such as panels equipped with backlights are widely used. In word processors that use this type of backlit liquid crystal display device for the display section, regardless of the surrounding environment (brightness), the I was turning the backlight on and off.

However, in such a backlit liquid crystal display device, the power consumption of the backlight is relatively large. Therefore, when using a backlit liquid crystal display device as described above in a battery-powered device,
The operating time due to battery drive is shortened, and since a built-in battery with a large capacity is required, problems such as an increase in the size of the device arise.

In particular, word processors are equipped with devices that consume a lot of power, such as printers and floppy disk drives (FDD), so when these devices are used, the battery consumption becomes significant and a larger-capacity built-in battery is required. Become.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, conventionally, when a liquid crystal display device with a backlight is used as a display mechanism, the operating time of the device due to battery power is shortened, and the built-in large capacity battery is As a result of this need, problems such as an increase in the size of the device have arisen. This becomes a serious problem especially when using printers, FDDs, etc.

The present invention was created in view of the above points, and aims to extend the operating time of the device due to the power consumption of the backlight by suppressing the power consumption of the backlight as much as possible, thereby realizing a reduction in the capacity of the power consumption. It is an object of the present invention to provide a display device with a transflective backlight that is compact and economically advantageous, and a control method thereof.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving the Problems) That is, the present invention recognizes a specific state involving power consumption in a display device with a backlight using a transflective liquid crystal display panel, and This is to force the switch to turn off.

Further, the present invention provides a device comprising a printing means for printing documents, etc., an external storage means for storing documents, etc., and a display device, in which the operating state of the printing means or the external storage means is recognized, and the operation state of the printing means or the external storage means is recognized. The backlight is forcibly turned off.

(Function) According to the above configuration, unnecessary lighting of the backlight can be eliminated in a power consumption state. This makes it possible to suppress the power consumption of the backlight as much as possible, extend the operating time of the device due to battery drive, and reduce the capacity of the battery.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, a display device and a control method thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. m1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a document creation device equipped with a transflective backlit display device. In FIG. 1, a keyboard 11 outputs input information necessary for document creation etc. to an input control section 12. This keyboard 11 includes "character" keys, "numeric" keys, "cursor" keys, etc., as well as a "print" key for instructing printing.
Function keys such as a key 1111 and an "auxiliary" key 11b for instructing floppy disk initialization and copying are provided. The input control section 12 outputs the input information from the keyboard 11 to the proofreading/editing section 13 , print control section 14 , document management section 15 , and auxiliary function section 16 .

The proofreading/editing unit 13 proofreads and edits documents. The print control unit 14 performs print processing in response to the operation of the "print" key 11a. The document management unit 15 performs document management processing such as storing and reading documents. The auxiliary function section 16 performs document auxiliary processing such as floppy disk initialization and copying in response to the operation of the "auxiliary" key 11b. Document memory 17
is made up of, for example, a RAM, and stores created documents. The printer 18 prints documents stored in the document memory 17 or the external storage device 1 under the control of the print control unit 14.
The document read into the main body from 9 and stored in the document memory 17 is printed on paper. The external storage device 19 is, for example, a floppy disk device, and under the control of the document management section 15, it can store created documents and store external characters (characters, symbols, marks, etc. other than JIS 1st and 2nd level characters). ) etc.

In addition, the backlight control unit 20 recognizes specific states associated with power consumption, such as during printing, initialization of a floppy disk, and continuous access by copying, and controls the backlight control unit 20 as shown in the flowchart of FIG. Performs write control processing. The memory 21 stores a flag A that is set/reset by the check light control section 20. This flag A is set when the backlight 23 is forcibly turned off. The display 22 displays input data, editing processing data, etc., and includes a backlight 23. Here, it is assumed that the display 22 is composed of a transflective liquid crystal display panel, and the backlight 23 is composed of an EL panel. Note that in the case of a transflective liquid crystal display panel, characters displayed on the screen are sufficiently visible even when the backlight 23 is turned off. Status storage section 2
4 is a memory that stores the current on/off state of the backlight 23;

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Note that here, A is used as the power source.
In a document creation device that can use either a C adapter power source or a battery power source, assume that the battery power source is used, which poses a problem in terms of power consumption.

When a "print" key 11a provided on the keyboard 11 is operated, a print command is given to the print control section 14 through the input control section 12. The print control unit 14 reads the document stored in the document memory 17 in accordance with this print command, and provides it to the printer 18 .

As a result, the desired document is printed on the paper.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2, when the backlight control section 20 recognizes the printing operation state of the printer 18 based on a command from the print control section 14 (step S1), first,
Referring to the status storage unit 24, it is determined whether the backlight 23 is currently in the on state (step S2).
. If the backlight 23 is on, the backlight control unit 20 forcibly turns off the backlight 23 (step S3), and sets flag A in the memory 21 to indicate this (step S4). Note that in step S2, if the backlight 23 is in the off state, the flag A is set to the reset state (
Step S9). After printing is completed (step S5,
S6), the backlight control unit 20 checks the state of the flag A, and if the flag A is in the set state (step S7), the backlight 23 has been forcibly turned off, so the backlight The light 23 is turned back on again, and the process here ends (step S8).

In this way, by forcibly turning off the backlight 23 when using the printer 18 that consumes a lot of power, that is, when printing, it is possible to eliminate unnecessary lighting of the backlight 23 and turn on the backlight. By minimizing the associated wasteful power consumption, it is possible to extend the operating time due to battery drive and to reduce the capacity of the battery.

Note that even when the backlight 23 is forcibly turned off, since a transflective liquid crystal display panel is used as the display 22, the displayed content can be recognized by external illumination light. Therefore, even if the backlight 23 is forcibly turned off, as long as the normal operation of the device is maintained, the input
Editing work, etc. can be continued.

Furthermore, although the above embodiment has been described using the printer 18 as an example, the present invention is not limited to this, and similar processing is performed when the external storage device 19 is used. That is, the backlight 23 is forcibly turned off even when floppy disk initialization, copying, etc. are specified by operating the "auxiliary" key flb. This results in
The power consumed by continuous access to the external storage device 19 can be suppressed as much as possible.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the control is such that the backlight 23 is forcibly turned off, or it is not necessarily necessary to turn off the backlight 23, but the power is supplied to the display device so that the power consumption of the backlight 23 does not cause a significant deterioration in battery function, etc. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the power to be used is controlled to a low level. This configuration can be applied not only to display devices with a transflective backlight, but also to ordinary display devices with a backlight and CRT display devices.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, in a display device equipped with a backlight, a specific state associated with power consumption is recognized and the backlight is forcibly turned off. This makes it possible to eliminate unnecessary lighting of the backlight, suppress the power consumption of the backlight as much as possible, extend the operating time of the device driven by a battery, and reduce the capacity of the battery.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a document creation device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment. 11... Keyboard, lla... "Print" key, l
lb... "Auxiliary" key 13... Proofreading/editing department, 1
4...Print control section, 15...Document management section, 16...
- Auxiliary function unit, 1'7... Document memory, 18... Printer, 19... External storage device, 20... Backlight control unit, 21... Memory, 22... Display unit, 2
3...Backlight, 24...Status storage unit. commode

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A transflective backlight, a recognition means for recognizing a specific state that involves power consumption, and a control for forcibly turning off the backlight when the recognition means recognizes the specific state. A display device comprising: means. (2) In a device comprising a printing means for printing documents, etc., an external storage means for storing documents, etc., and a display device, the operating state of the printing means or the external storage means is recognized, and the operating state is A method for controlling a display device, comprising forcibly controlling power supply to the display device to be turned off when the display device is recognized.