Semiconductor device and electrical terminal

• US 9,298,248 B2
• Filed: 04/09/2013
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LAPIS Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (ROHM Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: LAPIS Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (ROHM Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Saitou, Takayuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Sun, Michael
• Application Number:
  US13/859,169
• Publication Number:
  US 20130268792A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,085 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken

Abstract

A semiconductor device includes a moving state determining unit for obtaining first sensor data from a first sensor for detecting a moving state of a user who possesses an electrical terminal so that the moving state determining unit performs a determination process of the moving state of the electrical terminal; a reliability information determining unit for determining reliability information indicating reliability of a determination result of the determination process; and a transmission processing unit for transmitting the determination result and the reliability information to a main control unit that controls the electrical terminal.

Claims

1. A semiconductor device, comprising:

a moving state determining unit for obtaining first sensor data from a first acceleration sensor so that the moving state determining unit monitors a transitional state of the first sensor data, and determines whether a user who possesses an electrical terminal is walking or moving by a vehicle when the transitional state of the first sensor data exceeds a specific threshold value;

a reliability information determining unit for determining reliability information indicating reliability of a determination result of the moving state determining unit; and

a transmission processing unit for transmitting the determination result and the reliability information to a main control unit that controls the electrical terminal,

wherein said reliability information determining unit is configured to determine that the reliability information is set to a first value when the moving state determining unit performs the determination process for a period of time longer than a specific level, and

said reliability information determining unit is configured to determine that the reliability information is set to a second value indicating that the reliability is higher than that of the first value when the moving state determining unit performs the determination process for a period of time shorter than the specific level.

2. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit for storing the first sensor data;

and a data control unit for transmitting the first sensor data to the main control unit when the main control unit transmits a response to request transmission of the first sensor data, said data control unit being configured to allow the first sensor data to be deleted when the main control unit transmits a response to not request the transmission of the first sensor data.

3. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, further comprising a reception unit for receiving a validation result of the main control unit relative to the determination result;

and a change control unit for changing an execution condition of the determination process when the validation result indicates that the determination result is not valid.

4. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein said moving state determining unit is configured to obtain second sensor data from a second sensor so that the moving state determining unit performs the determination process using the second sensor data when the validation result indicates that the determination result is not valid.

5. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein said moving state determining unit is configured to determine whether the user is walking or moving by the vehicle that is a bicycle, an automobile, or a train.

6. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein said moving state determining unit is configured to determine the user is walking or moving by the vehicle according to a variance in the first sensor data.

7. The semiconductor device according to claim 4, wherein said second sensor is a geomagnetic sensor.

8. The semiconductor device according to claim 4, wherein said reliability information determining unit is configured to determine the reliability information according to both the first sensor data and the second sensor data.

9. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein said reliability information determining unit is configured to determine that the reliability information is set to the second value when the moving state determining unit obtains a same determination result consecutively.

10. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein said reliability information determining unit is configured to categorize the reliability information into a plurality of levels according to the reliability of the determination result;

and

said transmission processing unit is configured to transmit one of the levels together with the determination result to the main control unit.

11. The semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein said reliability information determining unit is configured to categorize the reliability information into a first level, a second level, and a third level according to the reliability of the determination result;

said transmission processing unit is configured to not transmit the determination result to the main control unit when the reliability information determining unit categorizes the reliability information to the first level or the third level, and

said transmission processing unit is configured to transmit the second level together with the determination result to the main control unit when the reliability information determining unit categorizes the reliability information to the second level.

12. An electrical terminal comprising:

an acceleration sensor for detecting a user who possesses an electrical terminal;

a semiconductor device for controlling the acceleration sensor; and

a main control unit for controlling the electrical terminal,

wherein said semiconductor device comprises;

a moving state determining unit for obtaining first sensor data from a first acceleration sensor so that the moving state determining unit monitors a transitional state of the first sensor data, and determines whether a user who possesses an electrical terminal is walking or moving by a vehicle when the transitional state of the first sensor data exceeds a specific threshold value;

a reliability information determining unit for determining reliability information indicating reliability of a determination result of the determination process;

a transmission processing unit for transmitting the determination result and the reliability information to the main control unit that controls the electrical terminal; and

a storage unit for storing the sensor data, and

said main control unit comprises;

a reception unit for receiving the determination result and the reliability information;

a validation processing unit for performing a validation process relative to the determination result when the reliability information meets a specific condition; and

a display processing unit for displaying a validation result of the validation processing unit,

wherein said validation processing unit is configured to request the semiconductor device to transmit the sensor data when the reliability information meets a first condition so that the validation processing unit performs the validation process relative to the determination result using the sensor data, and

said validation processing unit is configured to perform the validation process relative to the determination result using data obtained from the main control unit when the reliability information meets a second condition.

13. The electrical terminal according to claim 12, wherein said main control unit further includes a validation result notification unit for notifying the validation result to the semiconductor device when the validation processing unit performs the validation process.