Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G04—HOROLOGY
  • G04F—TIME-INTERVAL MEASURING
  • G04F10/00—Apparatus for measuring unknown time intervals by electric means
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F1/00—Details not covered by groups G06F3/00 - G06F13/00 and G06F21/00
  • G06F1/04—Generating or distributing clock signals or signals derived directly therefrom
  • G06F1/14—Time supervision arrangements, e.g. real time clock

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a timer adjustment technique.
• FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration example related to time management in a digital television receiver shown as an example of a general electronic device.
• a general time management mechanism includes a timer management unit 111 that manages timer-related mechanisms, a control unit 115 that controls the entire apparatus, a time acquisition unit 117 that acquires time, and a reference A reference time storage unit 121 that stores time and a current time timer 123 are provided, and the current time timer 123 is provided with a backup power source 125 so that the current time is not lost.
• Patent Documents 1 and 2 describe measures for preventing the process from being lost when changing the time information during operation.
• Patent Document 1 JP 2005-337614
• Patent Document 2 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-103151
• a system that uses a difference value from a certain point in time to operate using an elapsed time from a certain point in time, which is not the absolute value of the current time can be considered. If there is no mechanism such as a battery for holding information, if this and the current time are required at the same time, it is necessary to take measures such as possessing multiple systems of timers, which also requires improvement. It is a point to do.
• the present invention aims to solve the above problems.
• a current time timer that keeps ticking the current time after startup, a reference time storage unit that holds a reference time for device operation, and at least 1 to acquire time information from the outside Two external time information acquisition units, and a timer management unit that returns time information in response to a time information inquiry from the module.
• the time information acquired by the external time information acquisition unit is used as the current time timer and the reference time.
• an electronic device including a timer management unit reflected in a storage unit.
• a current time timer that does not have a backup power source and keeps the current time after startup
• a reference time storage unit that holds a reference time of device operation
• at least one external device that acquires time information from the outside
• a time information acquisition unit and a timer management unit that returns time information in response to a time information inquiry from the module, wherein the time information acquired by the external time information acquisition unit is stored in the current time timer and the reference time storage unit.
• an electronic device equipped with a timer management unit that reflects the above.
• the external time acquisition unit is at least one of a first external time acquisition unit that acquires time information from a broadcast wave and a second external time acquisition unit that acquires time information from outside by communication. On the other hand, it is preferable. Furthermore, it has a comparison part which compares a present time timer with the acquired time information, and can determine whether a present time timer is updated based on the comparison result by this comparison part. Difference between the current time timer and the acquired time information Decide whether or not to update based on minutes, or based on a comparison of an arbitrary time and the current time timer.
• the current time timer may be a timer that counts from a certain time before the actual time.
• a current time timer that does not include a backup power source and keeps the current time
• a reference time storage unit that holds a reference time for device operation
• a module a time management unit that returns time information in response to the time information query! /
• a time management unit that reflects the time information acquired from the outside to the current time timer and the reference time storage unit;
• a timer adjusting device is provided.
• the time can be displayed.
• time display can be performed in the same manner. By not displaying the time when the time information is not acquired, the user can be prevented from being confused.
• FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an overall configuration example of an electronic device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a basic configuration example of a part related to a timer mechanism of an electronic device.
• FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of substantially the entire electronic device.
• FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of timer adjustment processing according to the present embodiment.
• FIG. 5 is a front view showing a simple configuration example of a display unit of an electronic apparatus that performs display with a timer adjustment function according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of timer adjustment processing according to the present embodiment.
• FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of an electronic device according to the present embodiment.
• FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of an electronic device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing a flow of timer adjustment processing in the electronic device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
• FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example relating to time management in a digital television receiver shown as an example of a general electronic device.
• FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram showing an overall configuration diagram when the electronic apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention is a digital television receiver.
• the feature of the present invention is that when the obtained time information is reflected in the system timer, the reference time of the currently operating timer is corrected at the same time, thereby preventing the influence on the operation of other modules. is there.
• FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of the electronic device according to the present embodiment.
• an electronic device system A includes a network environment 1, an electronic device 5, and a broadcasting station 10. Between the electronic device 5 and the network environment 1, and the electronic device Between 5 and broadcasting station 10, network networks 3 and 7 are provided.
• FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the basic configuration of a part related to the timer mechanism of the electronic device 5
• FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of the electronic device.
• the timer mechanism of the electronic device 5 includes a timer management unit 11 that performs timer management, a control unit 15 that controls the entire device, a time acquisition unit 17, a reference time storage unit 21, and And a current time timer 23.
• no backup power source is provided for the current time timer 23.
• the electronic device 5 As shown in FIG. 3, the electronic device 5 according to the present embodiment as a whole has a communication interface in addition to the timer management unit 11, the reference time storage unit 21, the current time timer 23, and the control unit 15. II and communication device 25, authentication unit 27 and certificate storage unit 31, decoder 35, video-audio signal interface unit 12, video processing unit 37, and image display unit 41.
• the force described only in the decoder unit 35 Actually, not only the decoder but also a tuner or a tuner and an antenna may be incorporated.
• the decoder unit 35 decodes the digitally-coded information and passes it to the video processing unit 37. At this time, time information is included in a video compression stream such as MPEG2-TS. Therefore, the time information is extracted and notified to the timer management unit 11.
• This notification means may use the same bus (or signal line) as the image processing unit 37, or may use another bus (or signal line). Instead of notifying spontaneously, time information may be returned when an inquiry is received from the timer management unit 11.
• the communication device 25 connected to the external network environment via the communication interface II is a LAN terminal, a wireless communication device, a communication port including power line communication, or the like.
• the timer management unit 11 is notified of time information obtained using NTP (Network Time Protocol).
• NTP Network Time Protocol
• a method of connecting to a specific page is always used immediately after network connection, and the time information of the page may be acquired. In this case as well, the time information may be returned only when there is an inquiry from the timer management unit 11 without voluntary notification.
• the timer management unit 11 responds to inquiries from the control unit 15, the authentication unit 27, and various modules installed in the electronic device not shown in the figure, and responds to the time information or generates an event at any timing. Notify the occurrence.
• the response to the time information inquiry may use the difference between the reference time and the current time timer, or use the current time timer value itself. May be. Which one is selected is determined by the inquired module or API (Application Program Interface) to be used.
• API Application Program Interface
• the time from the start of the electronic device 5 is responded to the inquiry from the control unit 15, and the value of the current time timer is sent to the inquiry! /, Inquiry from the authentication unit 27. Is supposed to respond.
• the reference time storage unit sets the same value as the difference between the current time timer before the update and the reference time.
• the stored reference time value is also updated.
• the reference time storage unit 21 holds the time when the electronic device 5 is activated in the initial state. For example, on Linux systems it is 1970/1/1.
• the reference time storage unit 21 exists on a common storage unit, and may be secured on a register on the CPU or hardware with a special configuration in other configurations. “Start-up” means that power is supplied to an electronic device (when power is not supplied) and the operation of the electronic device is started.
• the current time timer 23 is a timer that is always counting up after the electronic device 5 is started. On Linux systems, time counting starts from 1/1/1970. When the time information is acquired by the decoder 35 or the communication device 25, it is updated to the acquired time information.
• This storage unit exists on a common storage unit, but in other configurations, it may be secured on a register on the CPU or a specially configured hardware. In the case of the example shown in the figure, for each ls, an interrupt is received from hardware not shown, and the power to explain the configuration for counting up by software and updating the current time timer 23 on the storage unit. Of course, this count up
• the processing may be configured by hardware, or may be configured differently, such as the reference time being different from 1970/1/1 or the reference time changing every time it is started.
• the control unit 15 controls the overall operation of the electronic device 5. Control the decoder 35, communication device 25, video processor 37, and other modules not shown in the figure to operate at the appropriate timing!
• the authentication unit 27 performs certificate authentication processing for securely performing communication such as SSL.
• the authentication method is not limited to SSL, but SSL is used in this embodiment.
• the validity of the certificate is judged by comparing the expiration date of the certificate with the current time. If it is valid, the SSL authentication procedure and the key number key processing are performed.
• the (electronic) certificate storage unit 31 stores an electronic certificate. Save the SSL certificate issued by the server. Alternatively, a part of the common storage unit may be used.
• the video processing unit 37 performs processing for displaying the information received by the decoder 35 on the image display unit 41.
• the video display unit 41 appropriately displays video, subtitles received by MPEG-TS, control information generated by the control unit 15, UI such as a menu, channel display, and cursor on the image display unit 41.
• the image display unit 41 displays information processed by the video processing unit 37 to the user.
• the device itself has a display unit, but it may be an electronic device that displays on an external device (external display).
• FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of timer adjustment processing according to the present embodiment.
• step S1 there is a notification of time acquisition from the time notification means, and time update processing for time adjustment is started.
• the time information update process may be started periodically or when an arbitrary event occurs.
• steps S1 and S2 there may be a process of waiting for time information to be input. Even when the timer management unit waits for a certain period of time, the timer management unit waits for a time information acquisition. In this case, when the communication device or the decoder can acquire the time information, the timer management unit is interrupted. It is also possible to notify by a method using events such as mafo (synchronization mechanism for sharing and using resources), mailbox, event flag, etc.
• mafo synchronization mechanism for sharing and using resources
• step S2 it is determined whether or not a time acquisition notification is received from the decoder. If N, proceed to step S8. If Y, proceed to step S3.
• the time information obtained from the broadcast wave is compared with the time of the current time timer.
• the process proceeds to step S8, and it is confirmed whether or not the current current time timer is already set from the broadcast wave. If already set from the broadcast wave (Y) Proceed to step S7 to end the time update process. If it has not been set from the broadcast wave (N), proceed to step S9 and check if time information can be obtained from the network! /. If time information can be obtained from the network! /, Na! /, Proceed to step S7. If it can be obtained from the network (Y), proceed to step S3 and use the time information obtained from the network to update the time compared to the current time timer. It is determined whether to perform a new process.
• the time acquisition from the broadcast wave is given priority in consideration of the time information acquired from the broadcast wave, which is generally more accurate than the time information acquired from the network. For this reason, depending on the configuration of the device, it is not essential, and it may be preferable to give priority to the time information obtained from the network.
• step S3 the current time timer is compared with the acquired time information. Based on this result, in step S4, it is determined whether or not to update the current time timer.
• a criterion for whether or not to update a criterion that the difference between the current time timer and the acquired time information is, for example, Is or more is used.
• Is or more a criterion that the difference between the current time timer and the acquired time information is, for example, Is or more is used.
• an arbitrary difference value such as a differential value force Slms, 13 may be used, or an arbitrary difference value may be set.
• the ability to determine that the value of the current time timer is updated if it is before the manufacturing year (for example, 2006), or an acquisition availability storage unit for storing the acquired flag is provided, and the determination is made based on that value.
• step S7 If it is determined that the difference is less than Is and not updated (N), the time update process is terminated (step S7).
• step S5 When the time update process is performed (Y), the process proceeds to step S5, and first the updated reference time is calculated.
• the updated reference time is obtained by subtracting the value of the current time timer from the time acquired in the above steps and adding the current reference time to this subtracted value. If the system timer uses Is as a reference unit, Is is subtracted from the calculated reference time so that Is is incremented during the next step (update process) and necessary processing is not lost. Use the specified value. For example, in the case of a configuration in which the reference time or less is cleared at the time of installation or timer setting with one software, such processing may not be required. Next, time setting processing is performed in step S6.
• the time setting process is performed by setting the acquired time in the current time timer and setting the calculated reference time in the reference time memory.
• the reason for subtracting the Is here is that there may be a problem with a shift in software processing when the timer is controlled by software.
• the timer is controlled by software, there may be a slight difference between the system clock reference unit and the timing before and after the update.
• the response time to interrupts generally fluctuates from the beginning, and it is considered that this error does not cause a problem. Therefore, it is a problem that the event does not occur across the reference time, but since the calculated value is used that incorporates the fact that the problem will not occur even if the time is reversed if the time is less than the reference time, the above value is used. Is subtracting.
• FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram specifically showing details of the timer adjustment processing. Processing in each of the current time timer 23, the reference time storage unit 21, the control unit 15, the timer management unit 11, and the time acquisition unit 17 will be described.
• the electronic device 5 is activated at 10:00 on 2006/8/10.
• the initial value at this time is 1970/1/10 00 for both the current time timer 23 and the reference time storage unit 21.
• the current time timer 23 keeps counting up after starting.
• the controller 15 inquires the timer manager 11 about the elapsed time after startup (L1), the timer manager 11 To the reference time storage unit 21 (L2, L4), from the current time timer 23 to 1970/1/1 0:08 (L3), the reference time storage unit 21 to 1970/1/1
• the value of 0:00 of the day is responded (L5).
• the timer management unit 11 can calculate that 8 minutes have elapsed since the start-up, and can therefore return a response of 0 hour 08 minutes to the control unit 15 (L6).
• time acquisition means (decoder 35 or communication device 25 in Fig. 3) acquires the current time at 10:10 on August 10, 2006 (L15).
• the time acquisition unit 17 notifies the timer management unit 11 that the time has been acquired (L17).
• the timer management unit 11 calculates a value to be updated to the reference time storage unit 21 from the acquired current time of 2006/10/10 10:10 and the value of the current time timer 23.
• the value obtained by subtracting 0:10 on 1970/1/1 from 10:10 on 10/8/2006 to 00:00 on 1/1970 is the new reference time.
• Time timer 23 to 2006/10/10 10:10 (L7), reference time memory 2 Set the value of 2006/8/10/8 10:00 CL8) to 1.
• the timing of module operation is affected by setting the time information newly acquired from the outside of the device in the timer inside the device.
• difference which arises can be prevented.
• the time information acquired from the decoder unit 35 and the system internal time acquired from the timer management unit 11 are stored.
• the menu display unit 51 and One solution is to provide a time storage unit 55 that provides time information to other modules that perform time display.
• This time storage unit 55 has an invalid value (for example, 00000000) in the initial state at the time of start-up, so that it is possible to easily determine whether it is valid time information that can be displayed.
• the time storage unit used in the second embodiment has no problem when only the time information from the decoder unit 35 is used, but at least one other means for acquiring the time information from the outside is provided. If the time information is Similarly, there is a method that can be used by modules other than the timer management unit 11. This means that timer management is performed twice. From the user's perspective, if time information can be obtained by some means, it is more convenient to display it.
• FIG. 5 is a front view showing a simple configuration example of a display unit of an electronic apparatus that has a timer adjustment function and performs display according to the present embodiment.
• the display unit 41 includes a display screen 41a and a menu bar 41b displayed in the display screen 41a.
• the time information display 41c is displayed at the right end of the menu bar 41b. ing.
• the electronic device when displaying the time, even when the time information cannot be acquired from the decoder or communication device, the response is made to the menu bar 41a of the image display unit 41a when the time is inquired to the timer management unit. Is characterized by performing processing so that the time is not displayed. Thereby, a user's confusion can be prevented.
• FIG. 7 An example of the configuration is shown in FIG.
• the electronic device includes a timer management unit 11, a control unit 15, a video processing unit 37, an image display unit 41, a menu display unit 51, and a time display unit. 53.
• step S 11 processing is passed from the menu display processing unit to the time display unit.
• step S12 the time is inquired to the timer management unit.
• step S13 it is confirmed whether or not time information can be acquired from the outside.
• the confirmation method in this case cannot be obtained if the current time timer value is earlier than the manufacturing year (for example, 2006) when the current time timer is a system that starts from 1/1/1970.
• an acquisition availability storage unit for storing the acquired flag or the acquired flag may be provided.
• step S14 If the time has been acquired (Y), the time is displayed in step S14. If the time has not been acquired (N), control is performed so as not to display the time in step S16. At this time, to prevent the display from becoming unnatural for the user, paint the display in the same color as the menu bar in advance. It is also possible to carry out a process such as leaving it. In either case, the process proceeds to step S 15 and proceeds to the menu display process.
• FIG. 11 exemplarily shows an overall configuration diagram in the case of a digital television receiver.
• the digital television receiver shown in FIG. 11 includes an antenna unit 51 that receives digital broadcasts and a tuner unit 52 that selects broadcasts in addition to the main parts of the configuration of the electronic device 5 shown in FIG.
• the selected digital broadcast signal is decoded by the decoder unit 35.
• the time information can be acquired by the network communication unit (communication device) 25 or the time information can be acquired by digital broadcasting.
• the other electronic devices exemplified above can similarly apply the technique according to the present invention as long as it has a mechanism capable of acquiring time information from the outside.
• time information is acquired from a network environment that is not only obtained when time information is acquired by digital broadcasting. Also, when time information can be obtained by other means, it is possible to display the time in the same way. There is an advantage that the user can be prevented from being confused by not displaying the time when the time information can be acquired and at a low level.
• the present invention can be used for timer adjustment of electronic devices.

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• 2006
  • 2006-08-30 JP JP2006234250A patent/JP4891707B2/ja active Active
• 2007
  • 2007-08-20 US US12/439,492 patent/US20100010775A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2007-08-20 WO PCT/JP2007/066118 patent/WO2008026467A1/ja not_active Ceased

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