Portable terminal device and program

• US 9,436,306 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2012
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Oguri, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Ajibade Akonai, Olumide T
• Assistant Examiner(s): YI, ALEXANDER J.
• Application Number:
  US14/346,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20140221051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,457 Days
• Field of Search: 455/566, 455/41.2, 345/169, 345/173, 345/158, 345/156, 345/157, 345/166, 345/163, 345/175, 178/18.01
• 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 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04106 Multi-sensing digitiser, i.e. digitiser using at least two different sensing technologies simultaneously or alternatively, e.g. for detecting pen and finger, for saving power or for improving position detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/027 by controlling a display operation or backlight unit
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The present invention is to enable a portable telephone capable of switching to a power conservation state so as to reduce power consumption by limiting the supply of power, in which the limit on the supply of power can be partially removed immediately before the portable telephone is used, without the necessity of cancelling the power conservation mode through a mechanical button operation to restore the normal power state. In the case while the supply of power to a predetermined peripheral device (touch panel) is being limited by a power conservation mode, an acceleration sensor detects vibrations applied to the portable telephone as a first state and a brightness sensor detects the ambient brightness of the portable telephone as a second state, a CPU removes the limit on the supply of power to the predetermined peripheral device on the basis of the first state and the second state.

Claims

1. A portable terminal device including a power switching section for carrying out switching between a normal power state in which power supply is not limited and a power conservation state in which the power supply is limited to reduce power consumption, the portable terminal device further comprising:

a first state detection section for detecting vibrations applied to the portable terminal device as a first state;

a second state detection section for detecting a surface state of the portable terminal device or a peripheral state thereof as a second state, which comprises detecting a surrounding environment of the portable terminal device; and

a power control section which, in the case when a power supply to a predetermined peripheral device is limited, with switching being made by the power switching section to the power conservation state, removes the limit on the supply of power to the predetermined peripheral device based upon the first state detected by the first state detection section and the second state detected by the second state detection section, wherein the predetermined peripheral device is a touch input section of the portable terminal device'"'"'s touch screen for inputting data in response to a touch operation, and the power control section removes the limit on the supply of power to the touch input section based upon the first state detected by the first state detection section and the second state detected by the second state detection section, and brings the touch input section to an inputtable state for accepting a touch operation, wherein the portable terminal device further comprises a touch operation judging section for judging whether or not a touch operation to the touch input section has been carried out within a predetermined period of time after the limit on the supply of power to the touch input section was removed by the power control section in the power conservation state, wherein upon judging that no touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the touch operation judging section, the power control section again limits the power supply to the touch input section and upon judging that a touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the touch operation judging section, the power control section removes the limits on the power supply to the touch input section, wherein the portable terminal device further comprises a display section of the portable terminal device'"'"'s touch screen for displaying data, and wherein in the case when the power supply to the display section is limited, with switching being made by the power switching section to the power conservation state, upon judging that no touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the operation judging section, the power control section again limits the supply of power to the display section and upon judging that a touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the touch operation judging section, the power control section removes the limit on the supply of power to the display section.

2. The portable terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a cancellation operation judging section for judging whether or not an operation for cancelling the power conservation state has been carried out within a predetermined period of time after the removal of the limit on the supply of power to the display section by the touch input section,

wherein upon judging that a cancelling operation has been carried out in the touch input section by the cancellation operation judging section, the power switching section carries out switching from the power conservation state to the normal power state.

3. The portable terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined peripheral device is an image capture section for capturing an image of a subject, and

the power control section removes the limit on the supply of power to the image capture section based upon the first state detected by the first state detection section and the second state detected by the second state detection section so as to bring the image capture section to a state capable of capturing an image.

4. The portable terminal device according to claim 3, further comprising:

an image recognizing section for carrying out a personal identification based upon an image captured by the image capture section after removing the limit on the supply of power to the image capture section by the power control section in the power conservation state, and

in the case when the personal identification is not confirmed by the image recognizing section, the power control section again limits power supply to the image capture section.

5. The portable terminal device according to claim 3, wherein in the case when the personal identification has been confirmed by the image recognizing section, the power switching section carries out switching from the power conservation state to the normal power state.

6. The portable terminal device according to claim 1, wherein in the case when, upon removing the limit on the supply of power to the predetermined peripheral device based upon the first state detected by the first state detection section and the second state detected by the second state detection section, the power control section judges whether or not the second state detected by the second state detection section satisfies a predetermined condition, and upon judging that the condition is satisfied, removes the limit on the supply of power to the predetermined peripheral device.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a program stored thereon that is executable by a computer to perform functions comprising:

a power switching processing for carrying out switching between a normal power state in which power supply is not limited and a power conservation state in which the power supply is limited to reduce power consumption;

a first detection processing for detecting vibrations applied to a portable terminal device as a first state;

a second detection processing for detecting a surface state of the portable terminal device or a peripheral state thereof as a second state, which comprises detecting a surrounding environment of the portable terminal device; and

a power control processing for, in the case when a power supply to a predetermined peripheral device is limited, with switching being set to the power conservation state, removing the limit on the supply of power to the predetermined peripheral device based upon the first detected state and the second detected state, wherein the predetermined peripheral device is a touch input section of the portable terminal device'"'"'s touch screen for inputting data in response to a touch operation, and the power control processing removes the limit on the supply of power to the touch input section second state detected by the second state detection processing, and brings the touch input section to an inputtable state for accepting a touch operation, wherein a touch operation judging processing for judging whether or not a touch operation to the touch input section has been carried out within a predetermined period of time after the limit on the supply of power to the touch input section was removed by the power control processing in the power conservation state is performed, wherein upon judging that no touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the touch operation judging processing, the power control processing again limits the power supply to the touch input section and upon judging that a touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the touch operation judging section, the power control section removes the limits on the power supply to the touch input section, and wherein in the case when the power supply to a display section of the portable terminal device'"'"'s touch screen for displaying data is limited, with switching being made by the power switching processing to the power conservation state, upon judging that no touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the touch operation judging section, the power control section again limits the supply of power to the display section and upon judging that a touch operation has been carried out within the predetermined period of time by the touch operation judging processing, the power control processing removes the limit on the supply of power to the display section.