Controlling supply of power to a communication unit of a communication device based on user's activity of image capturing and transferring on the communication device

• US 9,176,566 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 11/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Okazaki, Yoshinori
• Primary Examiner(s): Kawsar, Abdullah Al
• Application Number:
  US13/783,464
• Publication Number:
  US 20130232355A1
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 370/311
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3278 Power saving in modem or I/O interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A communication device includes a communicating unit that communicates with another electronic device, and a controller that intermittently controls the supply of power to the communicating unit by keeping the supply of power to the communicating unit during a first time period and stopping the supply of power to the communicating unit during a second time period, and determines whether the other electronic device is connected to the communication device within the first time period. When the other electronic device is connected within the first time period, the controller keeps the supply of power to the communicating unit. When the other electronic device is not connected within the first time period, the controller stops the supply of power to the communicating unit during the second time period after the first time period elapses.

Claims

1. A communication device, comprising:

an image capturing unit having an image sensor configured to capture an image of a subject;

an operation unit having a user manipulated input device configured to receive a user input;

a communicating unit having a communication interface, wherein the communication interface communicates with another electronic device; and

a controller configured to control a supply of power to the communicating unit, wherein

the controller;

intermittently controls the supply of power to the communicating unit by keeping the supply of power to the communicating unit during a first time period and stopping the supply of power to the communicating unit during a second time period, and

determines whether the other electronic device is connected to the communication device through the communicating unit within the first time period,

when the other electronic device is connected to the communication device through the communicating unit within the first time period, the controller keeps the supply of power to the communicating unit,

when the other electronic device is not connected to the communication device through the communicating unit within the first time period, the controller stops the supply of power to the communicating unit during the second time period after the first time period elapses; and

when the supply of power to the communicating unit is stopped, the controller automatically starts the supply of power to the communication unit according to at least one of the following predetermined conditions;

the image capturing unit captures the image of the subject;

or

the operation unit receives a user input for selecting a captured image to be sent to the other electronic device.

2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein

when the supply of power to the communicating unit is kept and a plurality of other electronic devices to the communication device through the communicating unit within the first time period, the controller stops the supply of power to the communicating unit during the second time period, after the communication device is disconnected from all of the plurality of other electronic devices.

3. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein

after the communication device is disconnected from all of the plurality of other electronic devices, the controller keeps the supply of power to the communicating unit until a third time period elapses, and stops the supply of power to the communicating unit during the second time period after the third time period elapses.

4. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein

the controller adjusts a length of the second time period according to a number of other electronic devices which are previously connected to the communication device through the communicating unit.

5. The communication device according to claim 4, wherein

the controller sets the length of the second time period to be shorter as the number of other electronic devices previously connected to the communication device increases.

6. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein

when the communication device is not connected to the other electronic device after repeating the operations of keeping and stopping the supply of power to the communicating unit a predetermined number of times, the controller increases stepwise a length of the second time period according to the predetermined number of times.

7. The communication device according to claim 6, wherein the controller resets the length of the second time period to an initial value when the communication device is connected to the other electronic device.

8. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising

an informing unit configured to notify the other electronic device that the communication device is to perform the intermittent operation of the supply of power to the communicating unit.

9. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the communication device has an access point function.

10. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the communication device is a digital camera.

11. The communication device according to claim 10, wherein the communicating unit communicates with the other electronic device via a wireless communication.

12. The communication device according to claim 11, wherein the communicating unit performs the wireless communication according to a WiFi standard.