ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE, DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS, METHOD FOR MEASURING SMOKING AMOUNT AND SMOKING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM EMPLOYING THE SAME

• US 20170013883A1
• Filed: 07/15/2016
• Published: 01/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2015
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation
• Original Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation
• Inventors: HAN, Gunhee, LEE, Seungyup
• Application Number:
  US15/211,282
• Publication Number:
  US 20170013883A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/10 Devices using liquid inhalable precursors
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/51 Arrangement of sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/65 Devices with integrated communication means, e.g. wireless communication means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Disclosed are an electronic cigarette, a data processing apparatus, a method for measuring a smoking amount, and a smoking management system using the same. The electronic cigarette may comprise: a power unit to supply power, a liquid container to contain liquid, a heater to generate heat using power supplied from the power unit to evaporate the liquid contained in the liquid container, a sensor unit including a current sensor to measure a current supplied to the heater, a controller to collect information measured by the sensor unit, and a communication unit to transmit the information collected by the controller to a data processing apparatus.

Claims

1. An electronic cigarette comprising:

a power unit to supply power;

a liquid container to contain liquid;

a heater to generate heat using power supplied from the power unit to evaporate the liquid contained in the liquid container;

a sensor unit comprising a current sensor to measure a current supplied to the heater;

a controller to collect information measured by the sensor unit; and

a communication unit to transmit the information collected by the controller to a data processing apparatus.

2. The electronic cigarette according to claim 1, further comprising:

a timer to measure a duration from a time to begin supply of a current to the heater to a time to stop supply of the current to the heater and a duration from the time to stop supply of the current to the heater to a time to resume the supply of the current to the heater, and

wherein the controller further collects information associated with the time measured by the timer.

3. The electronic cigarette according to claim 1, wherein the controller further collects information about the amount of power in the power unit.

4. The electronic cigarette according to claim 1, wherein the sensor unit comprises at least one of:

a liquid level sensor to measure the amount of the liquid contained in the liquid container;

a chemical sensor to measure an ingredient of the liquid contained in the liquid container;

a motion recognition sensor to recognize motion of a user who uses the electronic cigarette; and

a pressure sensor to measure an inhaling strength of the user for the evaporated liquid.

5. The electronic cigarette according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit transmits the information collected by the controller to the data processing apparatus through wireless communication.

6. A data processing apparatus comprising:

a communication unit to receive, from an electronic cigarette, information about a current supplied to a heater to heat liquid; and

a calculator to calculate a smoking amount based on the received information.

7. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication unit further receives, from the electronic cigarette, information about a time for supply of the current, and

wherein the calculator calculates the amount of a current used by the electronic cigarette based on the information received by the communication unit, and calculates a smoking amount based on the calculated amount of the current.

8. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication unit further receives, from the electronic cigarette, information about a duration from a time to stop supply of the current to a time to resume supply of the current, and

wherein the calculator calculates a smoking interval based on the information about the duration from the time to stop the supply of the current to the time to resume the supply of the current.

9. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a memory to store a smoking amount per a predetermined amount of a current,

wherein the calculator calculates the smoking amount depending on the information received by the communication unit and the smoking amount per a predetermined amount of the current.

10. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein, when the calculated smoking amount is larger than or equal to a predetermined smoking amount, the data processing apparatus transmits a signal to the electronic cigarette via the communication unit.

11. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication unit further receives information about the amount of power in the electronic cigarette.

12. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication unit further receives at least one of information about the amount or an ingredient of liquid contained in a liquid container of the electronic cigarette, information about motion of a user of the electronic cigarette and information about an inhaling strength of the user.

13. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a display unit to display at least one of the information received by the communication unit and the smoking amount calculated by the calculator.

14. A method for measuring a smoking amount, comprising:

receiving, from an electronic cigarette, information about a current supplied to a heater to heat liquid; and

calculating the smoking amount based on the received information.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the calculating of the smoking amount comprises:

calculating the amount of the current used by the electronic cigarette based on the current and a time for supply of the current; and

calculating the smoking amount depending on the calculated amount of the current and a smoking amount per a predetermined amount of a current.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, from the electronic cigarette, information about a duration from a time to stop supply of the current to a time to resume supply of the current; and

calculating a smoking interval based on the received information about the duration.

17. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer executable program that, when executed, causes a computer to perform the method for measuring a smoking amount according to claim 14.

18. A smoking management system comprising:

an electronic cigarette; and

a data processing apparatus to receive information from the electronic cigarette to calculate a smoking amount,

wherein the electronic cigarette comprises;

a power unit to supply power;

a liquid container to contain liquid;

a heater to generate heat using power supplied from the power unit to evaporate the liquid contained in the liquid container;

a sensor unit comprising a current sensor to measure a current supplied to the heater;

a controller to collect information measured by the sensor unit; and

a first communication unit to transmit the information collected by the controller to the data processing apparatus,

wherein the data processing apparatus comprises;

a second communication unit to receive information from the electronic cigarette;

a memory to store a smoking amount per a predetermined amount of a current; and

a calculator to calculate the smoking amount based on the information received through the second communication unit and the smoking amount per the predetermined amount of the current.

19. The smoking management system according to claim 18, wherein, when the smoking amount calculated by the calculator is larger than or equal to a predetermined smoking amount, the second communication unit transmits a signal to the electronic cigarette, and

wherein the electronic cigarette comprises:

an alarm generator to generate an alarm according to the signal received from the data processing apparatus.

20. The smoking management system according to claim 18, wherein the second communication unit transmits the information received from the electronic cigarette and the smoking amount calculated by the calculator to a computing apparatus.