JPH1069335A - Portable information terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable information terminal which solves the problem that all functions stop in a short time and has long operation life as a portable information terminal which has two LCDs. SOLUTION: The battery rest detected value of a battery 8 is detected by a battery rest monitor part 9 and compared with a battery rest threshold value and when the detected value is less, an entirety control part 7 instructs a large- power-consumption LCD 3 not to supply electric power to the image control part 3 and large-power-consumption LCD1, instructs a small-power-consumption LCD power source 6 to supply electric power to a small-power-consumption LCD 2 and a small-power-consumption LCD image control part 5, and instructs the small-power-consumption LCD image control part 5 to display an image, thereby making a display using only the small-power-consumption LCD 2. When the detected value is larger than the battery rest threshold, a display is made by using both the large-power-consumption LCD 1 and small-power-consumption LCD 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable information terminal powered by a battery and having two LCDs as display devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the advent of batteries having high volumetric efficiency and miniaturization and low power consumption of electronic components, the development of small portable information terminals has been active. A conventional portable information terminal having two LCDs generally has a configuration shown in FIG. The configuration and operation will be described below with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 1 denotes a large power consumption LCD whose power consumption is larger or equal to that of the other LCD, and 2 denotes a small power consumption L whose power consumption is smaller or equal to that of the other LCD.
The CD 3 is a high power LCD image controller for controlling image signals to be displayed on the high power LCD 1, and the 4 is a power generation and control unit for supplying power to the large power LCD 1 and the high power LCD image controller 3. Large power consumption LCD power supply,
Reference numeral 5 denotes a low power consumption LCD image controller for controlling an image signal to be displayed on the low power consumption LCD 2, and 6 denotes a low power consumption LCD.
2 and a low power consumption LCD power supply for generating and controlling a power supply to be supplied to the low power consumption LCD image control unit 5; 7, an overall control unit for controlling the entire portable information terminal; Is a user interface unit for inputting user instructions.

When power is supplied from the battery 8, the overall control unit 7 instructs power supply to the large power consumption LCD power supply 4 and the small power consumption LCD power supply 6 respectively. Large power consumption LC
The power supply 4 for D and the power supply 6 for low power consumption LCD are a large power consumption LCD 1 and a high power consumption LCD image control unit 3, respectively.
Then, necessary power is generated and supplied to the low power consumption LCD 2 and the low power consumption LCD image control unit 5.

[0005] The overall control unit 7 has a large power consumption LCD1.
The image control unit 3 for large power consumption LCD and the image control unit 5 for small power consumption LCD instruct the low power consumption LCD 2 to display an image.
1. Output image data to be displayed on the low power consumption LCD 2 to the large power consumption LCD 1 and the low power consumption LCD 2, respectively.

When an input from the user is provided to the user interface unit 10, the overall control unit 7 instructs the image control unit 3 for the large power consumption LCD and the image control unit 5 for the small power consumption LCD to display an image corresponding to the input. I do. In this way 2
Two images can be displayed using one LCD.

[0007]

However, in the above-described conventional configuration, even if the battery power is consumed and the remaining battery level becomes low, the two LCDs are always displayed and operated. Power supply),
When the battery runs out, the entire function of the portable information terminal stops at the same time. In particular, when the function using two LCDs among the functions of the portable information terminal is often less important than the function using only one LCD, two LCDs are used.
It was not desirable that the time until both functions could not be used at the same time (because the entire terminal could not be used) was short due to the use of the terminal (due to high power consumption).

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the portable information terminal of the present invention has a battery remaining amount monitoring unit and monitors the electronic remaining amount to set the battery remaining amount. When the power consumption falls below the threshold, the power supply of the large power consumption LCD and the image control unit for the large power consumption LCD is stopped,
Display is performed using only one small power consumption LCD. According to the present invention, a portable information terminal having a long operation life is realized.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is characterized by a large power consumption liquid crystal display device (hereinafter referred to as LCD) having the same or higher power consumption than the other, and the same or lower power consumption than the other. Small power consumption LCD and large power consumption LCD
And a low power consumption LCD image control unit for controlling the image display of each of the low power consumption LCD and the low power consumption LCD image control unit, and supplies power to the large power consumption LCD and the high power consumption LCD image control unit. A power supply for a high-power LCD, a power supply for the low-power LCD, and a power supply for a low-power LCD for supplying power to an image control unit for the low-power LCD;
Power supply, power supply for low power LCD and battery for supplying power to the entire apparatus, battery remaining amount detecting unit for detecting remaining power of power consumed by the battery, power supply for high power LCD, power supply for low power LCD ON / OFF of the power supply of the LCD, and the image control unit for the large power consumption LCD, the small power consumption LC
The large power consumption LCD and the small power consumption L
The portable information terminal is configured to include an overall control unit for instructing the contents of an image to be displayed on a CD and for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus, wherein the remaining battery level detected by the remaining battery level monitoring unit is set in advance. If the value exceeds the value, the power is supplied to the large power consumption LCD, the large power consumption LCD image control unit, the small power consumption LCD, and the small power consumption LCD image control unit, and the battery is operated. When the remaining battery level detected by the battery level monitoring unit falls below a preset value, power supply to one or both of the large power consumption LCD and the large power consumption LCD image control unit is stopped, and the entire apparatus is stopped. Has the effect of operating with reduced power consumption.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the portable information terminal according to the first aspect, the portable information terminal further includes a user interface unit that allows a user to input an instruction. A mode in which power is supplied to the image control unit for the power LCD, the low power consumption LCD, the image control unit for the low power consumption LCD, and the large power consumption LC
D, has an effect of stopping the power supply to one or both of the large power consumption LCD image control units and switching the operation mode.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the portable information terminal according to the first aspect has at least two types of image information groups to be displayed on the low power consumption LCD.
Image control unit for D, low power consumption LCD, low power consumption LCD
Power supply to one or both of a large power consumption LCD, a large power consumption LCD image control unit, and a power supply to a small power consumption LCD, a small power consumption LCD image. In each of the cases where power is supplied to the control unit, a different one of the image information groups is selected and displayed on the low power consumption LCD.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable information terminal having two LCDs and a mode in which two LCDs are simultaneously displayed and only one of the LCDs is displayed.
By disposing the transparent coordinate input means on the LCD on the display side in the mode in which display is performed only by D, two L
In both the simultaneous CD display mode and the mode in which only one of the LCDs is displayed, the user inputs an instruction from the coordinate input means by using an image displayed on the LCD to be displayed in the mode in which the display is performed by only one of the LCDs. It has the effect of enabling input.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of a portable information terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. The power LCD 2 is a small power consumption LC having the same or lower power consumption among the two LCDs of the portable information terminal.
D, 3 are high power consumption LCD image control units for controlling image signals displayed on the high power consumption LCD 1;
A large power consumption LCD power supply for generating and controlling a power supply to be supplied to the CD 1 and the large power consumption LCD image control unit 3;
Is an image control unit for a low power consumption LCD that controls an image signal displayed on the low power consumption LCD 2;
And a low power consumption LCD power supply for generating and controlling the power supply to be supplied to the low power consumption LCD image control unit 5; a general control unit 7 for controlling the entire portable information terminal; A battery to be supplied, 9 is a remaining battery level monitoring unit that monitors the remaining battery level of the battery 8, and 10 is a user interface unit that inputs an instruction from a user.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of a portable information terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the portable information terminal. When power is supplied from the battery 8, the overall control unit 7 sets a battery remaining amount threshold in the battery remaining amount monitoring unit 9 (flow 1). The battery remaining amount monitoring unit 9 accumulates the power consumed by the battery 8 and detects the accumulated value by subtracting the accumulated value from the power when the battery is fully charged (flow 2).
Is compared with the remaining battery level threshold (flow 3).

If the detected value of the remaining battery power is larger than the remaining battery threshold, the overall control unit 7 supplies the large power consumption LCD 1 and the low power consumption LCD image to the large power consumption LCD power supply 4 and the low power consumption LCD power supply 6, respectively. Control unit 3 and low power consumption LC
It instructs D2 and the low power consumption LCD image controller 5 to supply power. The large power consumption LCD power supply 4 and the small power consumption LCD power supply 6 are composed of the large power consumption LCD 1 and the large power consumption LCD image control unit 3, respectively, and the small power consumption LC.
A necessary power source is generated and supplied to D2 and the low power consumption LCD image control unit 5 (flow 4).

The overall control unit 7 is a large power consumption LCD 1
The image control unit 3 for large power consumption LCD and the image control unit 5 for small power consumption LCD instruct the low power consumption LCD 2 to display an image.
1. Output image data to be displayed on the low power consumption LCD 2 to the large power consumption LCD 1 and the low power consumption LCD 2, respectively.

When there is an input from the user to the user interface unit 10, the overall control unit 7 instructs the large power consumption LCD image control unit 3 and the small power consumption LCD image control unit 5 to display an image corresponding to the input. (Flow 5). In this manner, two images can be displayed using two LCDs.

When the detected remaining battery level is equal to or smaller than the remaining battery threshold, the overall control unit 7 controls the large power consumption LCD power supply 4.
And low power consumption LCD power supply 6 with high power consumption LC respectively
The power supply to D1 and the high power consumption LCD image control unit 3 is stopped, and the low power consumption LCD 2 and the low power consumption LCD image control unit 5 are instructed to supply power.

Large power consumption LCD power supply 4 has large power consumption L
The power supply to the CD 1 and the high power consumption LCD image control unit 3 is stopped, and the low power consumption LCD power supply 6 generates and supplies the necessary power supply to the low power consumption LCD 2 and the low power consumption LCD image control unit 5. (Flow 6).

The overall control unit 7 is a low power consumption LCD 2
The low power consumption LCD image control unit 5 outputs image data to be displayed on the low power consumption LCD 2 to the low power consumption LCD 2 in accordance with the instruction of the overall control unit 7 (flow 7). The overall control unit 7 does not instruct the large power consumption LCD 1 to display an image.

When there is an input from the user to the user interface section 10, the overall control section 7 instructs the low power consumption LCD image control section 5 to display an image corresponding thereto. Thus, the low power consumption LC of the two LCDs
Display using only D2 becomes possible.

Here, even when the detected remaining battery level is equal to or smaller than the remaining battery threshold, the power consumption of the high power consumption LCD image control unit 3 is small enough to cause no problem compared to the large power consumption LCD 1. In this case, the overall control unit 7 may not instruct the large power consumption LCD power supply 4 to stop the power supply to the large power consumption LCD image control unit 3.

In this way, when the remaining battery power is reduced, the operation is performed by using only the LCD with low power consumption, so that the portable information terminal can operate with low power consumption.

Further, when the remaining battery power decreases and the battery becomes empty, the entire portable information terminal stops. If the battery remaining amount increases due to the replacement and charging of the battery and the battery remaining amount detection value> the battery remaining amount threshold value, the two L
The operation uses the CD for display.

When the same battery is used to operate the portable information terminal according to the above procedure, only the low power consumption LCD is displayed as compared with the case where two LCDs are always displayed. The operating life can be extended.

(Embodiment 2) When the user instructs the user interface unit 10 to always use the two LCDs to display the image, the detected battery remaining level detected by the battery remaining level monitoring unit 9 is compared with the battery remaining level threshold. Even if the battery remaining amount detection value ≦ the battery remaining amount threshold value, the overall control unit 7 performs the same operation as the case where the battery remaining amount detection value is larger than the battery remaining amount threshold value in the first embodiment, and performs both of the two LCDs. Is displayed using. When the user instructs to operate according to the operation procedure in the first embodiment when the remaining battery level is reduced from the user interface unit 10, the overall control unit 7 performs the operation according to the procedure in the first embodiment. Control the terminal.

(Embodiment 3) There are two or more types of image information groups to be displayed on the low power consumption LCD 2, one of which is an image group (image group 1) displayed in an operation mode displayed on two LCDs. The other is low power consumption LCD2
Group to be displayed at the time of mode to display only image group (image group 2)
It is.

Generally, the image group 2 includes a low power consumption LCD 2
It is preferable to add image information to the image group 1 in place of the image group (image group 3) displayed on the large power consumption LCD 1 which is not displayed in the mode in which only the image is displayed.

In the first embodiment, when the battery remaining amount detection value> the battery remaining amount threshold value, the image group 1 is displayed on the low power consumption LCD 2,
The large power consumption LCD 1 is displayed using the image group 3, and when the battery remaining amount detection value ≦ the battery remaining amount threshold value, the large power consumption LC 1 is displayed.
Low power consumption LCD using image group 2 without displaying D1
2 is displayed.

(Embodiment 4) In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes coordinate input means such as a touch panel or a tablet for transmitting an image displayed on an LCD disposed below and allowing a user to input coordinate information. is there. Coordinate input means 1
Numeral 1 is disposed on the other LCD of the two LCDs which are used for display during the operation of the portable terminal, or the LCD which is not displayed because the power is turned off.

When the user inputs the coordinate information to the coordinate input means 11, the user interface unit 10 notifies the general control unit 7 that the coordinate information has been input, and the general control unit 7 displays on the LCD according to the input coordinate information. Change the image information to be displayed. In this way, a user interface for inputting coordinate information to the coordinate input means 11 with reference to the image displayed on the LCD is realized.

Even when the power of one of the LCDs is turned off and only the other LCD is displayed, it is possible to input coordinate information using the image displayed on the LCD.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operation mode is switched when the remaining battery power becomes low, and the display is performed using only the LCD having the smaller power consumption. An excellent effect is obtained in that the operation time of a part of can be extended.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a portable information terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the same.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the portable information terminal.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a conventional portable information terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Large power consumption LCD 2 Low power consumption LCD 3 Image control part for large power consumption LCD 4 Power supply for large power consumption LCD 5 Image control part for small power consumption LCD 6 Power supply for small power consumption LCD 7 Overall control part 8 Battery 9 Battery Remaining amount monitoring unit 10 User interface unit 11 Coordinate input means 12 Pen

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Agency reference number FI Technical display location G09G 3/36 H04N 5/64 511F H04N 5/64 511 5/66 102B 5/66 102 G06F 1 / 00 333C

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A large power consumption liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as LCD) having the same or larger power consumption than the other, a small power consumption LCD having the same or smaller power consumption as the other, and a small power consumption with the large power consumption LCD. Image control unit for large power LCD that controls image display of each power LCD, small power LCD
Image control unit, the large power consumption LCD and the large power consumption L
A high-power LCD power supply for supplying power to the image control unit for CD, the low-power LCD, a low-power LCD power supply for supplying power to the low-power LCD image control unit, and the high-power LCD power supply; A power supply for the low power LCD and a battery for supplying power to the entire apparatus; a battery remaining amount detecting unit for detecting a remaining power of the power consumed by the battery; and a power supply for the high power LCD power supply and the low power LCD power supply Control the ON / OFF of the LCD, and instruct the image control unit for large power consumption LCD and the image control unit for small power consumption LCD about the contents of the images to be displayed on the large power consumption LCD and the small power consumption LCD, and An overall control unit for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus, and when the remaining battery level detected by the remaining battery level monitoring unit exceeds a preset value, the large power consumption LCD, the large power consumption LCD Image system Unit, a low power consumption LCD, operates by supplying power to the image control unit for the low power consumption LCD, and when the battery remaining amount detected by the battery remaining amount monitoring unit falls below a preset value, A portable information terminal characterized in that the power supply to one or both of the high power consumption LCD and the high power consumption LCD image control unit is stopped to reduce the power consumption of the entire device and operate. 2. A high power consumption LCD, a high power consumption LCD image control unit, a low power consumption LCD, a low power consumption LCD image according to a user's instruction. It is possible to select a mode in which power is supplied to a control unit to operate, and a mode in which power supply to one or both of the large power consumption LCD and the large power consumption LCD image control unit is stopped to operate. Item 2. The portable information terminal according to Item 1. 3. A high power consumption LCD having two or more types of image information groups to be displayed on a low power consumption LCD.
Image control unit for CD, low power consumption LCD, low power consumption LC
When the operation is performed by supplying power to the D image control unit, the power supply to one or both of the large power consumption LCD and the large power consumption LCD image control unit is stopped to reduce the low power consumption LC.
2. The mobile phone according to claim 1, wherein, in each of the cases of supplying power to the image control unit for the low power consumption LCD, a different one of the image information groups is selected and displayed on the low power consumption LCD. Information terminal. 4. A portable information terminal having two LCDs and having two simultaneous display modes and only one display mode, wherein transparent coordinate input means is disposed on the LCD for displaying in one display mode. A portable information terminal characterized by the following.