Battery-driven electric equipment

• US 6,710,809 B1
• Filed: 02/25/2000
• Issued: 03/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Niikawa, Masahito
• Primary Examiner(s): Garber, Wendy R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ye, Lin
• Application Number:
  US09/513,445
• Time in Patent Office: 1,488 Days
• Field of Search: 348/372, 348/376, 348/333.04, 348/333.13, 348/333.01, 455/574, 455/343.5
• US Class Current: 348/372
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/634 Warning indications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/651 for reducing power consumption by affecting camera operations, e.g. sleep mode, hibernation mode or power off of selective parts of the camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/72 Combination of two or more compensation controls

Abstract

A battery-driven electric equipment includes a detector for detecting a voltage of the battery and a calculator for calculating an available photographing number based on the voltage detected by the detector. The available photographing number calculated by the calculator is displayed by an indicator.

Claims

1. A battery-driven electric equipment, comprising:

an image sensor for photoelectrically converting an optical image of an object;

a video circuit for processing an output from said image sensor;

a display for displaying an image processed by said video circuit;

a manipulation member;

a discriminator for discriminating whether said manipulation member has not been manipulated for a predetermined time period;

a first controller for suspending a power supply from said battery to said video circuit and said display when said discriminator discriminates that said manipulation member has not been manipulated for a first time period;

a second controller for turning off a power supply of said electric equipment when said discriminator discriminates that said manipulation member has not been manipulated for a second time period longer than the first time period; and

a detector for detecting a voltage of said battery;

wherein said first controller changes the first time period based on the voltage detected by said detector, and said second controller changes the second time period based on the voltage detected by said detector.

2. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 1, wherein said electric equipment is a digital camera.

3. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 2, wherein said digital camera further includes a selector for selecting a reproduction mode for reproducing a recorded image and a third controller for controlling a selection of said reproduction mode by said selector based on the voltage detected by said detector.

4. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 3, wherein said third controller prohibits the selection of the reproduction mode when the voltage detected by said detector is equal to or less than a predetermined voltage.

5. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 2, wherein said digital camera further includes a flash lamp for illuminating the object and a third controller for controlling the use of said flash lamp based on the voltage detected by said detector.

6. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 5, wherein said third controller prohibits a use of said flash lamp when the voltage detected by said detector is equal to or less than a predetermined voltage.

7. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 6, wherein said digital camera further includes an amplifier for amplifying an output from said image sensor, wherein said third controller increases a gain of said amplifier when the use of said flash lamp is prohibited.

8. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 2, wherein said digital camera further includes a calculator for calculating a remaining available operation time period of said digital camera based on the voltage detected by said detector, and an indicator for indicating the available operation time period calculated by said calculator.

9. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 2, wherein said digital camera further includes a third controller for controlling a use of said display based on the voltage detected by said detector.

10. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 9, wherein said third controller prohibits the use of said display when the voltage detected by said detector is equal to or less than a predetermined voltage.

11. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 10, wherein said third controller prohibits the use of said display by suspending a power supply from said battery to a driving circuit for driving said display.

12. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 11, wherein said digital camera further includes an optical finder for confirming the object.

13. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 2, wherein said digital camera includes a first dynamic RAM for storing an image, a second dynamic RAM for displaying the image stored in said first dynamic RAM on said display, and a third controller for controlling a power supply from said battery to said second dynamic RAM based on the voltage detected by said detector.

14. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 13, wherein said third controller suspends a power supply to said second dynamic RAM when the voltage detected by said detector is equal to or less than a predetermined voltage.

15. A battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 2, wherein said digital camera further includes:

a photographing lens;

an automatic focusing mechanism for automatically adjusting a focus of said photographing lens;

a third controller for discriminating whether a use of said automatic focusing mechanism should be prohibited based on the voltage detected by said detector and indicating that it is possible to manually adjust the focus of said photographing lens when it is discriminated that the use of said automatic focusing mechanism should be prohibited; and

a driver for driving said photographing lens to a predetermined focal length when it is discriminated that the use of said automatic focusing mechanism should be prohibited.

16. A method of controlling a battery-driven electric equipment, the method comprising:

photoelectrically converting an optical image of an object by an image sensor;

processing an output from the image sensor by a video circuit;

displaying an image processed by the video circuit on a display;

discriminating whether a manipulation member has not been manipulated for predetermined time period;

suspending a power supply from the battery to the video circuit and the display when it is discriminated that the manipulation member has not been manipulated for a first time period;

turning off a power supply of the electric equipment when it is discriminated that the manipulation member has not been manipulated for a second time period longer than the first time period;

detecting a voltage of the battery; and

changing the first time period and the second time period based on a detected voltage.

17. A method for controlling a battery-driven electric equipment as in claim 16, further comprising a step of controlling a selection of a reproduction mode of said battery-driven electric equipment based on the detected voltage of the battery.