Electronic equipment, display control method, recording medium and program

• US 7,148,655 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2003
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ebato, Satoshi, Nunomaki, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Easthom, Karl
• Assistant Examiner(s): Berhanu, Samuel
• Application Number:
  US10/367,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20030221134A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 Days
• Field of Search: 320/106, 320/132, 320/134, 320/136, 324/428, 324/433, 429/61, 429/90
• US Class Current: 320/132
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3284 Power saving in printer
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A communication portion of a video camera receives expected power information of a printer from the printer, and also receives battery power information from a battery pack. When a microcomputer judges that there is any shift to a state where the power consumption amount under operating state is varied, that is, the printer is under a print standby state for printing operation, an operating portion reads out expected power information of the video camera under operation of the printer which is stored in advance is read out from the storage portion to calculate the expected power consumption amount of a video camera system under the operation of the printer on the basis of the expected power information of the printer received by the communication portion and the expected power information of the video camera read out, and the battery residual amount time is determined on the basis of the expected power consumption amount.

Claims

1. Electronic equipment supplied with power from a battery mounted therein comprising:

reception means for receiving battery power information from a battery, storage means for storing first expected power information;

judgement means for judging whether there is any shift to a state where the power consumption amount under operating state is varied;

read-out means for reading out the first expected power information from the storage means when it is judged by the judgement means that the operating state is shifted to the state where the power consumption amount is varied;

calculation means for calculating a battery residual amount on the basis of the battery power information received by the reception means and the first expected power information read out from the read-out means; and

display control means for controlling display of the battery residual amount calculated by the calculation means.

2. The electronic equipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first expected power information is information corresponding to an operating state where the power consumption amount is larger than a reference value.

3. The electronic equipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein when it is judged by the judgment means that the operating state is not shifted to the state where the power consumption amount is varied, the calculation means calculates the battery residual amount on the basis of only the battery power information received by the reception means.

4. The electric equipment as claimed in claim 1, further comprising connection means for connecting external equipment for supplying power of a battery, and achieving means for achieving second expected power information from the external equipment connected through the connection means, wherein the calculation means may calculate the battery residual amount on the basis of the battery power information received by the reception means, the first expected power information read out by the read-out means and the second expected power information achieved by the achieving means when it is judged by the judgment means that the operating state is shifted to the state where the power consumption amount is varied.

5. The electronic equipment as claimed in claim 4, wherein the storage means stores the second expected power information achieved by the achieving means in connection with the external equipment.

6. A display control method for electronic equipment supplied with power from a battery mounted therein, comprising:

a reception step of receiving battery power information from a battery;

a judgment step of judging whether there is any shift to a state where a power consumption amount under operating state is varied;

a read-out step of reading out expected power information stored in a memory when it is judged through the processing of the judgment step that the operating state is shifted to the state where the power consumption amount is varied;

a calculation step of calculating a battery residual amount on the basis of the battery power information received through the processing of the reception step and the expected power information read out through the processing of the read-out step; and

a display control step of controlling display of the battery residual amount calculated through the processing of the calculation step.

7. A program embedded on a computer readable medium for electronic equipment supplied with power from a battery mounted therein, comprising:

a reception step of receiving battery power information from a battery;

a judgment step of judging whether there is any shift to a state where a power consumption amount under operating state is varied;

a read-out step of reading out expected power information stored in a memory when it is judged through the processing of the judgment step that the operating state is shifted to the state where the power consumption amount is varied;

a calculation step of calculating a battery residual amount on the basis of the battery power information received through the processing of the reception step and the expected power information read out through the processing of the read-out step; and

a display control step of controlling display of the battery residual amount calculated through the processing of the calculation step.

8. A program embedded on a computer readable medium which can be executed by a computer for controlling electronic equipment supplied with power from a battery mounted therein, characterized in that the program contains:

a reception control step of controlling reception of battery power information from a battery;

a judgment step of judging whether there is any shift to a state where a power consumption amount under operating state is varied;

a read-out step of reading out expected power information stored in a memory when it is judged through the processing of the judgment step that the operating state is shifted to the state where the power consumption amount is varied;

a calculation step of calculating a battery residual amount on the basis of the battery power information whose reception is controlled through the processing of the reception control step, and the expected power information read out through the processing of the read-out step; and

a display control step of controlling display of the battery residual amount calculated through the processing of the calculation step.