Electronic device, computer-readable storage medium, and portable terminal

• US 9,583,969 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2014
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Takano, Satoru
• Primary Examiner(s): Whitmore, Stacy
• Application Number:
  US14/560,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20150180270A1
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: 320107-108, 320113-115, 455/41.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01F 38/14 Inductive couplings for wireless supply or distribution of electric power using inductive coupling H02J50/10
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2207/10 Control circuit supply, e.g. means for supplying power to the control circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/40 using two or more transmitting or receiving devices H02J50/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0042 characterised by the mechanical construction
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/266 One coil at each side, e.g. with primary and secondary coils
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

An electronic device of the present invention has a secondary battery as a power source, and has a first interface arranged in one surface of the electronic device that includes a first communicating section which performs data communication with a first external device by near field communication and a power receiving section which is capable of receiving electric power from the first external device without being in direct contact and charging the secondary battery, and a second interface arranged in another surface of the electronic device that includes a second communicating section which performs data communication with a second external device by near field communication and a power transmitting section which is capable of transmitting electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device without being in direct contact, and a control section which controls the operations of the first interface and the second interface.

Claims

1. An electronic device having a secondary battery as a power source, comprising:

a first interface arranged in one surface of the electronic device and including a first communicating section which performs data communication with a first external device by near field communication and a power receiving section which is capable of receiving electric power from the first external device without being in contact with the first external device and charging the secondary battery;

a second interface arranged in another surface of the electronic device and including a second communicating section which performs data communication with a second external device by near field communication and a power transmitting section which is capable of transmitting electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device without being in contact with the second external device; and

a control section which controls operations of the first interface and the second interface.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control section judges whether a power reception command received by the first communicating section of the first interface is a command directed to the electronic device and, when the power reception command is a command directed to the electronic device, controls to start charging to the secondary battery in accordance with the power reception command.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control section judges whether a power transmission command received by the first communicating section of the first interface is a command directed to the electronic device and, when the power transmission command is a command directed to the electronic device, controls to transmit the electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device without being in contact with the second external device, in accordance with the power transmission command.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control section judges whether a command received by the first communicating section of the first interface is a command directed to the electronic device and, when the received command is not a command directed to the electronic device, controls to transmit the received command from the second communicating section of the second interface so as to relay the received command.

5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control section, when a command received by the first communicating section of the first interface is a command inquiring about number of connected devices, transmits the command from the second communicating section of the second interface, and then notifies an inquiring-source external device of the number of connected devices updated based on a response result received from an external device to which the command has been transmitted, from the first communicating section of the first interface.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a remaining amount detecting section which detects a remaining amount of the secondary battery,

wherein the control section starts an operation of charging the secondary battery when the remaining amount of the secondary battery detected by the remaining amount detecting section is lower than a predetermined value, or starts an operation of transmitting the electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device without being in contact with the second external device when the remaining amount of the secondary battery is equal to or higher than the predetermined value.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the first interface uses a communication antenna of the first communicating section as an electromagnetic induction coil of the power receiving section, and

wherein the second interface uses a communication antenna of the second communicating section as an electromagnetic induction coil of the power transmitting section.

8. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the first interface receives data transmitted from the first external device by using the data communication by the first communicating section, and

wherein the second interface transmits the data received by the first interface to the second external device by using the data communication by the second communicating section.

9. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an electric double-layer capacitor which serves as an auxiliary power source for the second battery,

wherein the control section controls charging and discharging of the secondary battery and the electric double-layer capacitor.

10. The electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a switching section which switches a current mode to a power-saving mode,

wherein the control section controls the switching section to switch the current mode to the power-saving mode when controlling the second interface to transmit the electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a program that is executable by a computer in an electronic device having a secondary battery as a power source and wherein arranged in one surface are (i) a first communicating section which performs data communication with a first external device by near field communication and (ii) a power receiving section which is capable of receiving electric power from the first external device without being in contact with the first external device and charging the secondary battery;

and arranged in another surface are (i) a second communicating section which performs data communication with a second external device by near field communication and (ii) a power transmitting section which is capable of transmitting electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device without being in contact with the second external device, the program being executable by the computer to perform functions comprising;

first processing for causing the first communicating section to perform data communication with the first external device by near field communication and causing the power receiving section to receive electric power from the first external device without being in contact with the first external device and charge the secondary battery;

second processing for causing the second communicating section to perform data communication with the second external device by near field communication and causing the power transmitting section to transmit electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device without being in contact with the second external device; and

control processing for controlling operations of the first processing and the second processing.

12. A portable terminal having a second battery as a power source, comprising:

a power receiving section which is arranged in one surface of a terminal body, and capable of performing data communication with a first external device by near field communication, receiving electric power from the first external device without being in contact with the first external device, and charging the secondary battery;

a power transmitting section which is arranged in another surface of the terminal body, and capable of performing data communication with a second external device by near field communication, and transmitting electric power received from the secondary battery to the second external device without being in contact with the second external device; and

a control section which controls operations of the power receiving section and the power transmitting section.