JPH11168608A - Power supply controller for portable terminal for information communication - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the power a supply controller that suppresses power consumption of a battery, independently of that of a terminal in an extension adaptor connectable to the portable terminal for information communication and that tentatively protects the battery, even if the power is much consumed. SOLUTION: An image-capturing adaptor 11 is inserted to/withdrawn from the terminal 1, and a power supply battery 13 is provided to the adaptor 11 in addition to the power supply of the terminal 1. In this case, when the adaptor 11 is adapted to the terminal 1, the adaptor power supply 3 is activated. If the electromotive force of the adaptor power supply 3 drops, the power is supplied from the terminal 1 to the adaptor 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable information communication terminal for transmitting and receiving voice, image, character information, and the like using a wireless line (iridium [trademark], mobile phone, PHS).
In particular, the present invention relates to power control of an expansion adapter that captures image data in a terminal for portable information communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image communication has not been performed in a terminal for portable information communication. However, in recent years, a technology for transmitting and displaying character information and a method for transmitting information from a personal computer or a digital camera have been used. It has been proposed to transmit image information by a mobile phone (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-204886).
issue). However, with such a technique, it is still not possible to transmit and receive a moving image, that is, to easily transmit and receive between mobile phones without a personal computer or a digital camera. Therefore, adapters having image capture, compression, decompression, and modulation / demodulation functions that can be directly connected to a portable information communication terminal have been developed.

[0003]

In recent mobile phones and terminals for portable information communication, emphasis has been placed on making the call time longer and lighter and smaller, such as image capture, modulation / demodulation, compression / decompression, and the like. Various adapters have been developed in order to increase the function of the device because the function cannot be added.

For example, in an adapter having an image capturing / imaging function, the current consumption of the adapter is about five times the current consumption of the main body in order to drive the image sensor. Conventionally, there was a problem how to power this adapter. In other words, if power is supplied from the main unit to the adapter, the battery life of the main unit will be shortened, and if the power supply is built in the adapter, the time difference between the life of the battery and the life of the main unit battery is unavoidable. When the life of such a battery expires, the operation stops halfway.

However, in the prior art, there is no solution for how to use the power supply of this adapter.
For example, if power is constantly supplied from the terminal to the adapter, the battery life of the terminal is shortened and the battery is quickly consumed. When the adapter is removed, there is no power already, and telephone communication may not be possible. On the other hand, even if a power supply is built in the adapter, if the power supply of the adapter is exhausted during shooting, the shooting timing of an image that the user wanted to take in may be missed. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to a portable information communication system capable of transmitting and receiving voice, image, and text information over a wireless line by using an electromotive force from a power supply. A terminal, wherein an image capturing adapter for capturing the image information is configured to be independently insertable / removable, and an adapter power supply for supplying an electromotive force independently to the adapter separately from the terminal power supply is provided. In the provided portable information communication terminal, the power supply for the adapter can be started when the adapter is attached. As a result, the electromotive force is supplied independently on the adapter side, and the consumption of the electromotive force on the terminal side is reduced.

[0007] Further, it is possible that the terminal can supply power when the adapter is mounted and the electromotive force of the power supply for the adapter decreases. As a result, even if the power supply for the adapter is exhausted during the photographing, it is temporarily protected by the power supply for the terminal, so that a photographing opportunity is not missed.

[0008]

1 and 2 are schematic diagrams of the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal circuit of a power supply control device of the present invention, and FIG. It is an external view of the terminal for shape information communication. In both figures, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and FIG. 1 is a portable information communication terminal having a display function, which can transmit and receive characters and voice information using a wireless line, and also has an image capturing adapter 11 of the present invention. The terminal 1 is used as a high-performance telephone capable of transmitting and receiving images, particularly moving image information.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a control circuit for controlling each function of the terminal, a communication function 2a for performing communication from the terminal 1 by the antenna 5, a display function 2b for displaying received character data and the like on the liquid crystal display unit 21, and a button. The adapter for image capturing according to the present invention is a button operation circuit 2c for performing operations such as camera shutter operation and moving image operation, and a circuit having other functions. The button operation circuit 2c is provided with an operation switch 2d for turning ON / OFF the power supply on the adapter side of the present invention, and connected to signal lines 30a and 30b for a start command signal from the terminal.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a power supply battery for the terminal, which is not shown, and includes a DC-DC converter for converting the power supply battery 3 to a predetermined voltage at which the circuit operates stably. The power switch 4 is interlocked with the button operation circuit 2c. The operation switch 2d is turned off in conjunction with turning off the power switch 4, and the power of the adapter 11 is turned off. Reference numeral 6 denotes a switch (SW) for supplying an electromotive force to the adapter of the present invention, and reference numeral 7 denotes a power supply line. Reference numeral 29 denotes a data line connecting the terminal 1 and the adapter 11.

Reference numeral 11 denotes an image capturing adapter.
Reference numeral 12 denotes a control circuit of the adapter 11, which includes an image pickup device 12a such as a CCD or a C-MOS for converting video information into digital information, and also includes, though not shown, compression / decompression, restoration audio processing, and related ICs. Have been.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a power supply battery for supplying an electromotive force to the adapter. It is connected via a power supply line 17 to supply an electromotive force to the control circuit 12 of the adapter 11. In the present invention, a power supply battery 13 is provided in the adapter 11 separately from the power supply battery 3 of the terminal 1. The reason is that the consumption of the battery power supply 3 of the terminal 1 is reduced, that is, if the power supply depends only on the battery power supply 3, the power consumption of the imaging device is larger than the power used for communication in the terminal 1. This is because, after the communication is completed, a battery may be exhausted and a call may not be made. However, in order to activate the adapter 11 using only the power supply battery 3 of the terminal 1, the problem can be solved by inserting a large power supply battery 3 of the terminal 1 from the beginning. Therefore, the power supply battery 13 is provided in the adapter 11 independently of the terminal 1 as in the present invention. 14
Is a voltage detection circuit of the power supply 13 for the adapter. When the electromotive force of the power supply 13 for the adapter is large, an H signal is output to the AND circuit 18; Is output.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a semiconductor switch, which is connected to an AND circuit 18 and further connected to a semiconductor switch 16 via an inverter 16a.

Reference numeral 22 in FIG. 2 denotes an image pickup unit to which a lens is attached, from which image information can be captured via the image pickup device 12a in FIG. Reference numeral 21 denotes a liquid crystal screen, which is configured to display a character information transmitted by the antenna 5. Reference numeral 8 denotes a receiver for receiving voice information transmitted from the telephone of the other party via the antenna 5, and reference numeral 9 denotes a transmitter for transmitting voice information from the own terminal 1 via the antenna 5 via a wireless line.

Next, the operation in such a configuration will be described. In FIG. 2, when the adapter 11 is attached to the terminal 1 as shown in FIG. 2, data can be transferred through the data line 29. When the power switch 4 or the operation switch 2d is directly operated and turned on, the signal line 30 is turned on.
a and 30b become H.

When the signal line 30a goes high and the electromotive force of the adapter power supply 13 is large, the voltage detection circuit 14
Outputs an H signal, the SW 15 is turned on and the SW 16 is turned off by the AND circuit 18, and the electromotive force is supplied to the control circuit 12. Further, the signal line 30b becomes H and the switch SW6 is turned on, but the switch 16 is turned off. Therefore, the supply of the electromotive force from the terminal 1 to the adapter 11 is prohibited.

On the other hand, when the electromotive force of the adapter power source 13 is consumed and becomes small, the voltage detection circuit 14 outputs an L signal, the SW 15 is turned off, the SW 16 is turned on, and the electromotive force is sent to the control circuit 12. Will not be supplied. However, in this case, since the SW 6 is ON, the electromotive force is temporarily supplied from the power supply 3 of the terminal 1. At this time, although not shown, the fact is displayed on the liquid crystal screen 21 so that the user can be quickly notified that the electromotive force of the terminal 1 is currently used and the electromotive force is consumed. I have.

Thereafter, the video information from the imaging unit 22 is fetched, various signal processing is performed by the control circuit 12, and the fetched image information is sent to the terminal 1 through the data line 29, and the audio function is performed by the communication function of the control circuit 2. The image is transmitted to the partner terminal via the antenna 5.

Next, when the adapter 11 is not operated,
By operating the power switch 4 or the operation switch 2d of the terminal 1, the signal lines 30a and 30b are turned off. This allows
The signal lines 30a and 30b output a low signal, and
15 is OFF, SW16 is ON, no electromotive force is supplied to the control circuit 12 of the adapter 11, and SW6 is OFF.
Since it is an FF, the electromotive force from the terminal 1 is not supplied to the adapter 11 either.

When the power switch 4 of the terminal 1 is turned off, the operation switch 2d of the operation button circuit 2c is turned off.
The signal lines 30a and 30b are also set to LOW, and the power switch 13 is turned off as described above.

[0021]

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, a power supply battery is provided on an adapter attached to a portable information communication terminal separately from the power supply battery of the portable information communication terminal, and the adapter is mounted. Sometimes, the power supply for the adapter is configured to be startable, so that the electromotive force is supplied independently on the adapter side, and the consumption of the electromotive force on the terminal side is reduced.

Also, when the adapter is attached,
If the electromotive force of the power supply for the adapter is reduced, it can be supplied from the terminal side, so even if the power supply for the adapter is exhausted during shooting, it will be temporarily protected by the power supply for the terminal, so miss shooting opportunities Nothing. And so on.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Terminal 2: Terminal control circuit 2a: Communication function 2b: Display function 2c: Button operation circuit 2d: Operation switch 21: Liquid crystal display unit 22: Image pickup unit 3: Power supply battery for terminal 4: Power switch 5 on terminal side : Antenna 6: Semiconductor switch (SW) 7: Power line 8: Receiver 9: Transmitter 11: Adapter 12: Adapter control circuit 13: Power supply battery for adapter 14: Voltage detection circuit 15: Semiconductor switch (SW) 16: Semiconductor switch (SW) 16a: Inverter 17: Signal line 21: Liquid crystal screen 22: Imaging unit 29: Data line

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A portable information communication terminal configured to transmit and receive voice, image, and character information through a wireless line by an electromotive force from a power supply, and an image capturing adapter for capturing the image information. A portable information communication terminal that is configured to be independently insertable and removable, and provided with an adapter power supply that supplies an electromotive force independently in the adapter separately from the terminal power supply; The power supply control device in the portable information communication terminal, wherein the power supply for the adapter is configured to be activated when the power supply is turned on. 2. A power supply control in a portable information communication terminal, wherein the power supply for the portable information communication terminal can be supplied from the terminal side when the adapter is mounted and when the electromotive force of the power supply for the adapter decreases. apparatus.