KR20170052117A - method of reducing power consumption of consumer electronic devices based on non-active time period management - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a technique to reduce power consumption while minimizing inconvenience in using an electronic device. More specifically, according to the present invention, an inactive time section, in which a broadcast watching rate is relatively low, and other active time section are set through division. An operation mode is switched into and maintained in an active standby mode when an electronic device is turned off in the active time section such that rebooting standby time of the electronic device in accordance with a following power-on operation is reduced, thereby minimizing inconvenience of a user. The operation mode is switched into and maintained in a passive standby mode when the electronic device is turned off in the inactive time section, thereby effectively saving power consumption of the electronic device.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for reducing power consumption of a home appliance based on inactivity time interval management and a recording medium therefor,

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a technique for reducing power consumption while minimizing inconvenience in use of a home appliance.

More specifically, the present invention divides and sets an inactive time interval and a remaining active time interval in which a broadcasting viewing rate is relatively low, and maintains an operation mode in an active standby mode when the household appliance is powered off in an active time interval The user can minimize the inconvenience by shortening the rebooting waiting time of the home appliance according to the power-on operation and maintains the operation mode in the passive standby mode at the time of power-off of the home appliance in the inactivity time interval, The present invention relates to a technique for effectively reducing the cost.

Various home appliances are used in the home, and all of them consume electric power according to their own needs during operation. In recent years, the issue of sustainability has become a hot issue, and the need to reduce energy use has become an important issue, and ideas for reducing energy use at home are being demanded. In this specification, a power consumption problem of a home appliance is examined by taking as an example a set-top box which is attracted attention with high power consumption among home appliances.

A set-top box is a device that receives broadcast contents from an external source through a communication medium (e.g., the Internet) and displays a broadcast screen on a TV or a monitor connected to HDMI, composite, or component. In order to provide ultra-high resolution broadcasting quality and to provide various services through Internet channels, set-top boxes are equipped with a variety of functional modules as well as high performance.

The operation mode of such a set-top box is generally divided into an active mode, an active standby mode, and a passive standby mode.

First, the active mode is in a state of watching broadcast contents.

In active standby mode, only the audio / video output function is turned off and all the functions of the set-top box including the network connection (eg connection with the broadcasting server) are in operation. In the active standby mode, , But consumes tens of watts in a few watts.

In passive standby mode, only the remote control and front panel button handling is turned on and the rest of the set-top box is virtually turned off. Passive standby mode typically consumes less than 1 watt of power and therefore meets the power requirements of each country, for example, the 1 watt standby power specification in accordance with the European CDC (Code of Conduct).

Because such power regulations in each country must be met for product sales, set-top boxes must implement passive standby mode. However, the passive standby mode has a drawback in that it is very inconvenient to wait about 30 to 90 seconds in the rebooting process when turning on the power again.

In the active standby mode, most of the hardware of the set-top box is operating. Therefore, when the user presses the power-on button of the remote control or the front panel, the user can react almost instantly with little reboot time .

However, in passive standby mode, most of the hardware of the set-top box is turned off, so the user must perform a cold booting by pressing the power-on button. The time to completion of this cold boot process takes approximately 30 to 90 seconds per set-top box. Thus, in passive standby mode, the rebooting wait time becomes very long.

By comparing the standby modes, it can be seen that the active standby mode has good responsiveness to the user's operation, while the power consumption is high, the passive standby mode can reduce the power consumption while the responsiveness to the user's operation is disadvantageous there is a problem.

1 is a block diagram of a general set top box 10 that controls power consumption. Referring to FIG. 1, when power is supplied from the outside, the power on / off module 11 performs on / off operation according to a power on / off operation according to a user operation, , The active standby mode, and the passive standby mode.

Here, when the user turns off the power according to the button operation, the operation mode selection unit 12 first switches the operation mode of the set-top box 10 to the active standby mode. In this mode, when power is turned on again by user operation, the system reacts immediately and switches to the active mode.

In addition, when the operation mode of the set-top box 10 is switched to the active standby mode by the operation mode selection unit 12, the passive standby mode is switched to the passive standby mode when a predetermined time, for example, 10 minutes elapses without any event. As described above, when the passive standby mode is entered, the rebooting time may be as long as 30 to 90 seconds when the set-top box 10 is powered on according to a user operation. However, this is considered to be inevitable due to the power-related regulations.

Korean Patent Application No. 10-2013-0005518 "Set-top box for power saving in standby mode" Korean Patent Application No. 10-2008-0123793 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Power Saving in Set-Top Box & Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0083140 "Digital Cable Set-Top Box and Method for Saving Power Consumption" Korean Patent Application No. 10-2011-0105385 entitled "Power Control Device of Set Top Box" Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0051916 "Power Mode Control Device and Method of Set Top Box" Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0008999 "Power Management System and Method in Multifunction Set-Top Box" Korean Patent Application No. 10-2008-0017926 "Power Management System of Set Top Box, Control Method Therefor, Set Top Box" Korean Patent Application No. 10-2011-0036143 "Automatic Set-Top Box Power Control Device for TV and Method Thereof"

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for reducing power consumption of a home appliance while minimizing inconvenience in use of the home appliance.

Particularly, it is an object of the present invention to separately set an active time interval and a non-active time interval in which a broadcast viewing ratio is relatively low, and maintains an operation mode in an active standby mode when the household appliance is powered off in an active time interval It is possible to minimize the inconvenience of the user by shortening the rebooting waiting time of the home appliance according to the power-on operation and to keep the operation mode in the passive standby mode when the home appliance is powered off in the inactivity time period, And to provide a technology that allows for savings.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus and a method thereof, in which an inactive time interval for switching to a passive standby mode immediately upon power-off of an appliance is relatively low, Which can optimize the TV viewing environment of the home appliance.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of reducing power consumption based on management of an inactivity time period for a home appliance operating in an active mode, an active standby mode, and a passive standby mode, Identifying an active time interval corresponding to a time other than an inactive time interval and an inactive time interval that are set as a relatively low time interval; (b) powering off from the active mode in response to a user operation; (c) determining whether the power-off time belongs to an inactive time interval or an active time interval; (d) when the power-off time belongs to the inactivity time period, switching the operation mode from the active mode to the passive standby mode; (e) the power-off time belongs to the active time period. Maintaining an operation mode from an active mode to an active standby mode; (f) automatically switching the operation mode from the active standby mode to the passive standby mode when it is determined that the current time enters the inactivity time interval in the active standby mode.

A method for reducing power consumption of a home appliance according to the present invention includes: identifying a default value corresponding to an inactivity time interval; Identifying one or more time values entered differently from a default value according to a user operation; And setting at least one inactive time interval according to at least one time value.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for reducing power consumption of a home appliance, the method comprising: analyzing a viewing pattern of a user by a viewing pattern analyzing agent; Automatically extracting at least one time value corresponding to an inactivity time interval from at least one of a repeated viewing time zone, a non-repeated viewing time zone, and a non-viewing time zone of the user as a result of analyzing the viewing pattern by time; And setting at least one inactive time interval based on the automatically extracted time value.

The method further includes the steps of automatically switching the operation mode from the passive standby mode to the active standby mode when it is recognized that the current time enters the active time interval in the passive standby mode, It is preferable to further comprise.

In the present invention, the viewing pattern analysis agent may be installed in an external cloud server and configured to remotely set a time value of the inactivity time interval for the home appliance. In addition, in the present invention, the analysis of the hourly viewing pattern is preferably performed on a weekly basis.

Meanwhile, a computer-readable recording medium according to the present invention records a program for causing a computer to execute a method of reducing power consumption of a home appliance based on the inactivity time period management as described above.

The present invention reduces standby time before starting watching TV from a user's power-on operation of a home appliance in an active time interval while satisfying the requirement to manage standby power of a household appliance according to power-related regulations of each country under 1 watt There is an advantage that the inconvenience of the user is minimized.

Further, the present invention is advantageous in that the power consumption of the home appliance is effectively reduced by switching to the passive standby mode immediately after power-off of the home appliance in the inactive time interval.

In addition, since the inactivity time interval for switching to the passive standby mode immediately upon power-off of the home appliances can be easily reset by one or more selections according to the user's selection, the user can change the power consumption of the home appliances There is an advantage that it can be effectively saved.

Further, according to the present invention, an inactivity time interval for switching to a passive standby mode immediately upon power-off of the home appliances is automatically set to one or more in accordance with a viewing pattern of a user, thereby enabling power consumption of the home appliances to be effectively There is an advantage to be saved.

[Fig. 1] is a block diagram of a general set-top box for controlling power consumption,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a set-top box according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a set-top box according to a second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a set-top box according to a third embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a switching process of an operation mode for reducing power consumption of a set-top box according to the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of setting an inactivity time interval for switching an operation mode of a set-top box according to the present invention;
7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of setting another inactivity time interval for switching the operation mode of the set top box according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described on the assumption of a set-top box that is highly interested in power consumption among home appliances. The technical idea of the present invention is not limited to a set-top box but various home appliances such as a digital broadcasting receiver, -Top box, a personal video recorder (PVR), a DVD player, and the like.

2 is a block diagram of a set-top box according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the first embodiment of the present invention is configured to reduce power consumption based on management of an inactivity time period for a set-top box 100 operating in an active mode, an active standby mode, and a passive standby mode will be. The set top box 100 includes a power on / off module 110, an operation mode selection unit 120, a time interval storage unit 130, and a time interval input unit 140.

First, when power is externally applied, on / off operation of the power on / off module 110 is performed by a user operation. Power is applied to the various function modules provided in the set-top box 100 according to the operation mode selection of the operation mode selection unit 120 according to the on-off operation of the power-on /

In this case, the set-top box 100 determines whether the time when the power-on / off module 110 is powered off during the monitoring of the power-on / off module 110 is an active time period, It is determined whether the inactive time period is a pre-stored default value.

The time interval storage unit 130 stores settings related to the inactivity time interval and the active time interval. The inactivity time interval is preset as a time interval in which the broadcast viewing ratio is relatively low, and may be set to, for example, 24:00 to 06:00. Also, the active time interval corresponds to a time interval corresponding to a time other than the inactivity time interval among 24 hours a day.

When the set-top box 100 determines that the power-off time of the set-top box 100 belongs to the inactivity time period, the operation mode selection unit 120 selects the set- And controls the operation mode of the box 100 to be switched from the active mode to the passive standby mode immediately. In the prior art, the active standby mode is firstly switched to the active standby mode, and when a certain period of time has elapsed without any event, the active standby mode is switched to the passive standby mode. However, according to the present invention, when the power-off occurs in the inactive time interval, the passive standby mode is entered without going through the active standby mode.

If the set-top box 100 determines that the power-off time of the set-top box 100 belongs to the active time period as a result of the power-off time determination, the operation mode selection unit 120 sets the operation mode of the set- And controls to keep switching from the active mode to the active standby mode. Here, the meaning of 'keep switching' means that the system does not automatically switch to the passive standby mode even if no use event occurs for a certain period of time in the active standby mode. Even in such a case, the present invention remains in the active standby mode.

Thereafter, the set-top box 100 monitors the current time in real-time in the active standby mode, so that the current time enters the inactivity time interval from the active time interval (e.g., 23:59 to 24:00 , The operation mode selection unit 120 controls the operation mode of the set top box 100 to be automatically switched from the active standby mode to the passive standby mode.

Meanwhile, the set-top box 100 identifies the inactive time interval as a default value that is preset in the inactive time interval and stored in the time interval storage unit 130. [ However, the user may change the inactivity time interval to a different time value or add another time value, for example, through a menu operation. Accordingly, when the set top box 100 identifies one or more time values designated through the time interval input unit 140 so as to be different from the default value, preferably, the set top box 100 resets one or more inactive time intervals based on the time value, And stores it in the storage unit 130.

In this manner, the inactive time interval can be changed to a previously set time value or a new inactive time interval can be added. As a result of the definition described above, the active time interval is automatically reset as the inactive time interval is reset (changed, added).

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 show block diagrams of a set-top box according to the second and third embodiments of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the second and third embodiments of the present invention further include a viewing pattern analysis agent 200, which is a dedicated program for automatically setting an inactivity time interval in the set top box 100 .

The viewing pattern analysis agent 200 may be installed inside the set-top box 100 as shown in FIG. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, it may be installed in an external cloud server 300 linked to a network, and may set a time value of an inactive time interval to the set-top box 100 remotely, as described later.

In the present invention, it is shown that the inactivity time interval is set through the time interval input unit 140 as an optimal embodiment, and the viewing pattern analysis agent 200 further provides a more complicated embodiment of the present invention.

First, when power is supplied from the outside, the power on / off module 110 is turned on and off by a user operation, and the operation mode selector 120 according to the on / off operation of the power on / Top box 100 according to the selection of the operation mode of the set top box 100.

In this case, the set-top box 100 determines whether the time when the power-on / off module 110 is powered off according to a user operation during the monitoring of the power-on / off module 110 is an active time period or a non- .

When the set-top box 100 determines that the power-off time for the set-top box 100 belongs to the inactivity time interval stored in the time-interval storage unit 130 as a result of the power-off time determination, Controls the operation mode of the set top box 100 from the active mode to the passive standby mode.

When the set-top box 100 determines that the power-off time point for the set-top box 100 belongs to the active time period as a result of the power-off time point, the operation mode selection unit 120 selects the operation mode of the set- From the active mode to the active standby mode.

When the set-top box 100 identifies that the settop box 100 enters the inactivity time interval in the active standby mode, the operation mode selection unit 120 sets the operation mode of the settop box 100 as And switches from the active standby mode to the passive standby mode.

When the set top box 100 identifies one or more time values input differently according to a default value preset in the time interval storage unit 130 and a user operation through the time interval input unit 140 in an inactive time interval, And to reset one or more inactive time intervals based on the time value.

At this time, the viewing pattern analysis agent 200 analyzes a time-based viewing pattern of the user by watching the TV, and then analyzes at least one of the repeated viewing time period, the non-repeated viewing time period, and the non- (Time zone) suitable for setting the inactivity time interval from the inactive time interval to the time interval storage unit 130, and resets one or more inactive time intervals based on the stored time value.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation mode switching process for reducing power consumption of a set-top box according to the present invention.

Step S110: The present invention is a method for reducing power consumption based on management of an inactivity time period for a set-top box 100 operating in an active mode, an active standby mode, and a passive standby mode, ) Is configured to identify an inactive time interval with a relatively low broadcast viewing rate and an active time interval corresponding to a time other than the inactive time interval.

When the set top box 100 is powered off from the active mode in response to a user operation, the set top box 100 monitors the time interval storage unit 130 and the power on / off module 110 (steps S120 and S130) It is determined whether the power-off time point of the set-top box 100 belongs to the inactivity time interval or the active time interval.

When the power-off time of the set-top box 100 belongs to the inactivity time period as a result of the determination of the time interval, the set-top box 100 controls the operation mode selection unit 120 to set- (100) is switched from the active mode to the passive standby mode.

When the power-off time of the set-top box 100 belongs to the active time interval as a result of the determination of the time interval, the set-top box 100 controls the operation mode selection unit 120 to set the set- ) From the active mode to the active standby mode.

When the set-top box 100 identifies that the current time enters the inactivity time interval in the active standby mode, the set-top box 100 sets the operation mode of the set- Mode to passive standby mode.

When the set-top box 100 identifies that the current time enters the active time interval while the set-top box 100 is in the passive standby mode, the operation mode of the set- Mode to active standby mode.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of setting an inactivity time interval for switching an operation mode of the set top box according to the present invention.

In step S210, the set-top box 100 allows the set-top box 100 to reset the inactivity time period during which the set-top box 100 is switched from the active mode to the passive standby mode by a user's operation. And identifies a preset default value corresponding to the time interval.

The set top box 100 is stored in the time interval storage unit 130 by a user's operation through the time interval input unit 140 different from the default value stored in the time interval storage unit 130 in advance One or more time values are identified. Then, one or more inactive time intervals are reset according to the identified one or more time values.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of setting another inactivity time interval for switching the operation mode of the set top box according to the present invention.

Step S310: The viewing pattern analysis agent 200 installed in the set-top box 100 first monitors the viewing pattern of the user and analyzes the viewing pattern by time. Generally, since the TV schedule table is formed on a weekly basis, it is preferable that the viewing pattern analysis agent 200 analyzes the viewing pattern of the user in units of one week.

Step S320: Then, the analysis tool 200 analyzes the time-based viewing pattern from the at least one of the repeated viewing time zone, the non-repeated viewing time zone, and the non-viewing time zone of the user as a time value corresponding to the inactivity time interval Band) is automatically extracted and stored in the time interval storage unit 130.

Step S330: Subsequently, the viewing pattern analysis agent 200 is configured to automatically reset one or more inactive time periods based on the time values stored in the time period storage unit 130 by automatically extracting one or more.

The present invention can also be embodied in the form of computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. At this time, the computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording apparatuses in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored.

Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storage, and the like, and may be implemented in the form of a carrier wave . The computer-readable recording medium can also be stored and executed by a computer-readable code in a distributed manner on a networked computer system. And functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the present invention can be easily deduced by programmers skilled in the art to which the present invention belongs.

10: Set-top box
11: Power on / off module
12: Operation mode selection unit
100: Set-top box
110: Power on / off module
120: Operation mode selection unit
130: time interval storage unit
140: time interval input unit
200: Watch Pattern Analysis Agent
300: Cloud server

Claims (7)

CLAIMS 1. A method for reducing power consumption based on management of an inactivity time interval for a consumer device operating in an active mode, an active standby mode, and a passive standby mode,
(a) identifying an inactivity time interval previously set as a time interval with a relatively low broadcast viewing rate and an active time interval corresponding to a time other than the inactivity time interval;
(b) powering off from the active mode in response to a user operation;
(c) determining whether the power-off time belongs to the inactivity time interval or the active time interval;
(d) when the power-off time falls within the inactive time period, switching the operation mode from the active mode to the passive standby mode;
(e) the power-off time belongs to the active time period. Maintaining an operation mode from an active mode to an active standby mode;
(f) automatically switching the operation mode from the active standby mode to the passive standby mode when it is determined that the current time enters the inactive time interval in the active standby mode;
Wherein the inactivity time interval management is based on the inactivity time interval management.
The method according to claim 1,
Identifying a default value corresponding to the inactivity time interval;
Identifying one or more time values input differently from the default values according to a user operation;
Setting one or more inactive time intervals according to the one or more time values;
Wherein the power consumption of the home appliance is lower than the power consumption of the home appliance.
The method of claim 2,
Analyzing a viewing pattern of a user by a viewing pattern analyzing agent;
Automatically extracting one or more time values corresponding to the inactivity time period from at least one of a repeated viewing time zone, a non-repeated viewing time zone, and a non-viewing time zone of the user as a result of analyzing the viewing pattern by time;
Setting one or more inactive time intervals based on the automatically extracted time values;
And a controller for controlling the inactivity time interval based on the inactivity time interval management information.
The method according to claim 1,
Automatically switching the operation mode from the passive standby mode to the active standby mode when it is determined that the current time enters the active time period from the inactive time period;
Wherein the power consumption of the home appliance is lower than the power consumption of the home appliance.
The method of claim 3,
Wherein the analysis of the hourly viewing pattern is performed every week. ≪ RTI ID = 0.0 > 11. < / RTI >
The method of claim 3,
Wherein the viewing pattern analysis agent is installed in an external cloud server and remotely sets a time value of an inactivity time interval for the home appliance.
A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for causing a computer to execute a method of reducing power consumption of a home appliance based on inactivity time interval management according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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