Method and apparatus for providing charging information regarding
Contents
1. Still referring to FIGS 1 and 2 the display unit 130 dis plays screen data generated when the portable terminal 100 is operated and state information according to a user s key operation and function settings The display unit 130 may also display a variety of signals and color information output from the controller 110 The display unit 130 may be imple mented with a liquid crystal display LCD an organic light emitting diode OLED or any other type of thin film screen etc The display unit 130 may also serve as an input device when implemented without a touch screen In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the display unit 130 may display an image indicating that the battery 170 is being charged via the solar cell 150 under the control of the con troller 110 For example the display unit 130 may flicker a battery icon in the RSSI indicator area In particular the display unit 130 may output information regarding the opti mal charging angle and direction Also according to the control of the controller 110 the display unit 130 displays the environmental information so that the portable terminal 100 can select corresponding environmental information and search for an average charging efficiency according to the selected environmental information and then output the aver age charging efficiency The display unit 130 may also display the help containing the user s manual and note of the solar cell 150 etc The cont2. joining p type and n type semiconductors together in thermal equilibrium causes the charge imbalance by the diffusion caused by the gradient of carrier density which generates an electric field so that the carrier diffusion no longer occurs When light energy which has energy corresponding to the difference between the conduction band and the valence band in the semiconductor material is applied to the junction diode the electrons receive the light energy and then excite to from the conduction band to the valence band The excited electrons move freely in the conduction band On the other hand holes are generated in the regions in the valence band from which the electrons are moved The electrons and the generated holes which are called transient carriers are dif fused according to the density difference in the conduction band or valence band During the diffusion process the majority carrier in the existing p type or n type semiconduc tor is hindered due to the energy barrier caused by the electric 0 25 30 40 45 50 55 65 4 field but the auxiliary carrier generated by the diffusion is moved to the other type of semiconductor Therefore the diffusion process causes the mobility of carriers and thus the charge balance in a stable state is broken This instability causes a potential difference The potential difference causes an electromotive force at both ends of the p n junction diode As described ab
3. vveather conditions humidity seasons etc thereby making it easier to recognize the battery charging state The above described methods according to the present invention can be realized in hardware or as software or com puter code that can be stored in a recording medium such as a CD ROM a RAM a floppy disk a hard disk or a magneto optical disk or downloaded over a network so that the meth ods described herein can be executed by such software using a general purpose computer or a special processor or in programmable or dedicated hardware such as an ASIC or FPGA As would be understood in the art the computer the processor or the programmable hardware include memory components e g RAM ROM Flash etc that may store or receive software or computer code that when accessed and executed by the computer processor or hardware implement the processing methods described herein In addition it would be recognized that when a general purpose computer accesses code for implementing the processing shown herein the execution of the code transforms the general purpose computer into a special purpose computer for executing the processing shown herein Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to exemplary embodiments thereof it should be understood that these exemplary embodiments are only illus trative and not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention Therefore one skilled in the art will understand
4. FIG 5 illustrates screens that show a menu for providing charging information according to an exemplary embodi ment of the present invention Referring now to FIGS 1 and 5 the portable terminal 100 displays a menu ofa plurality of items on a first screen 510 of US 8 421 402 B2 9 the display unit 130 When a user selects an item Solar cell its sub menu preferably displays sub items 3 Optimal charging angle Average charging efficiency and Help on a second screen 520 of the display unit 130 If the user selects a sub item 1 Optimal charging angle on the second screen 520 the controller 110 calculates an optimal charging angle and controls the display unit 130 to display the calcu lated optimal charging angle in the format of text and or image on a third screen 530 Since the method for calculating the optimal charging angle has been already explained in the foregoing description referring to FIG 3 its explanation will be omitted in the following description On the other hand ifthe user select a sub item 2 Average charging efficiency on a fourth screen 540 the display unit 130 displays a fifth screen 550 showing Weather Humidity Temperature Average efficiency etc The fifth screen 550 is distinguished between an environmental selection area 10 and a charging efficiency output area 20 that outputs an aver age charging efficiency according to the selected environ mental factor The e
5. determine whether a charging pro cess is being optimally performed To this end the controller 110 periodically detects current or voltage output from the solar cell 150 and checks the present charging efficiency which is hereinafter called a first charging efficiency The controller 110 receives the present time information location information environment information etc via the RF com munication unit 140 and then searches for an average charg ing efficiency from an average charging efficiency DB stored in the storage unit 120 based on conditions closest to the received time information location information environ mental information etc where the average charging effi ciency is hereinafter called a second charging efficiency After that the controller 110 compares the first charging efficiency with the second charging efficiency to check whether or not a present charging process is being optimally performed If the controller 110 ascertains that a present charging process is not being optimally performed the con troller 110 outputs an alert message via the display unit 130 or a voice signal to a speaker not shown The exemplary embodiment may be modified for example such that the controller 110 can further output the optimal charging angle and the direction information The portable terminal 100 may further include a tilt sensor not shown for detecting whether the portable terminal 100 is tilted In that case the contr
6. embodiment of the present inven tion is described in such that information regarding the alti tude and location of the Sun is stored in the storage unit 120 it should be understood that the presently claimed invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment For example the exemplary embodiment may be modified in many ways including transmitting the location information regarding the portable terminal 100 to a particular server that provides the information regarding the altitude and location of the Sun and receiving the information regarding the altitude and loca tion information of the Sun therefrom FIG 4 is a flow chart that describes a method for providing charging information according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 Referring novy to FIGS 1 to 4 at step S401 the controller 110 activates a charging function using a solar cell 150 At step S403 the controller 110 identifies a charging efficiency via the solar cell 150 wherein the charging effi ciency is hereinafter referred to as a first charging efficiency That is the controller 110 can identify the first charging efficiency via the current or voltage output from the solar cell 150 To this end the controller 110 may include a current detector not shown for detecting current output from the solar cell 150 or a voltage detector not shown for detecting a voltage output from the
7. solar cell 150 At step S405 the controller 110 receives information regarding factors that affect the charging efficiency of the solar cell 150 For example the controller 110 receives the present time and location information from a base station via the RF communication unit 140 and also environmental information from a particular server for example a mobile communication server and a weather information providing server The environmental information contains the tempera ture humidity seasons weather conditions or the like After receiving the time information location information and environmental information at step S407 _the controller 110 searches for a charging efficiency from an average charg ing efficiency DB stored in the storage unit 120 based on conditions closest to the received location information time information environmental information etc where the charging efficiency is hereinafter referred to as a second charging efficiency Next at step S409 the controller 110 determines whether or not the first charging efficiency approximates to the second charging efficiency The approximation means that the first and second charging efficiencies are equal to each other or differ within a preset range If at step S409 the controller 110 ascertains that the first charging efficiency does not approximate to the second charg ing efficiency then at step S411 the controller outputs an alert message indicatin
8. that the embodiments disclosed in the description and con figurations illustrated in the drawings are only preferred exemplary embodiments instead there may be various modi fications alterations and equivalents thereof without depart ing from the scope and spirit of the presently claimed inven tion as described in the accompanying claims What is claimed is 1 A method for providing charging information in a por table terminal with a solar cell comprising receiving at least one of location information time infor mation regarding a portable terminal and environmental information containing at least one of the temperature humidity seasons and weather conditions outputting charging information corresponding to the at least one of the received location information time information and the environmental information wherein the charging information comprises at least one of an optimal charging angle wherein the solar cell per forms a charging process with a highest charging eff ciency or an average charging efficiency at the optimal charging angle monitoring the optimal charging angle by comparing a tilt angle output from a tilt sensor with the optimal charging angle and outputting if a difference between the tilt angle and the optimal charging angle is outside a preset range a voice signal or an alert message indicating that the tilt angle of the portable terminal should be corrected 2 The method of claim 1 wher
9. IG 4 START ACTIVATE CHARGING FUNCTION USING SOLAR CELL IDENTIFY FIRST CHARGING EFFICIENCY RECEIVE INFORMATION REGARDING TIME LOCATION AND ENVIRONMENT SEARCH FOR SECOND CHARGING EFFICIENCY S409 5411 IRST CHARGIN EFFICIENCY SECOND CHARGING OUTPUT ALERT MESSAGE EFFICIENCY S413 YES OUTPUT OPTIMAL CHARGING ANGLE AND DIRECTION INFORMATION U S Patent Apr 16 2013 FIG 5 920 ZAP TETA 771 3 HELP 4 OPTIMAL CHARGING ANGLE L3 Sheet 5 of 5 US 8 421 402 B2 WEATHER RAINING gt 711 HUMIDITY 4 HIGH pje12 gt 10 TEMPERATURE 4 20 C pj 918 AVERAGE m Lo EFFICIENCY 990 US 8 421 402 B2 1 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING CHARGING INFORMATION REGARDING PORTABLE TERMINAL WITH SOLAR CELL CLAIM OF PRIORITY This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U S C 119 a from Korean patent application No 10 2009 0041392 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on May 12 2009 the entire disclosure of which is hereby incor porated by reference BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The present invention relates to battery charging technol ogy More particularly the present invention relates to a method and apparatus that provides charging information to optimize the charging efficiency when a portable terminal changes its battery using a solar cell 2 De
10. US008421402B2 az United States Patent 10 Patent No US 8 421 402 B2 Jang 45 Date of Patent Apr 16 2013 54 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR 58 Field of Classification Search 320 101 PROVIDING CHARGING INFORMATION See application file for complete search history REGARDING PORTABLE TERMINAL WITH SOLAR CELL 56 References Cited 75 Inventor Jin Yeoul Jang Gyeongsangbuk do U S PATENT DOCUMENTS KR 5 937 229 A 8 1999 Walgrove etal 399 66 5 939 855 A 8 1999 Proctor et al 320 104 73 Assignee Samsung Electronics Co Ltd sg6099540 AE 7 2000 Kikuchi 3961304 subol et al whe Samsung to Veongionopu S w si 200810100258 AI 5 2008 Ward 320 101 Gyeonggi do KR 200910320827 AI 12 2009 Thompson etal 126 576 Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this cited by examiner patent is extended or adjusted under 35 a U S C 154 b by 320 days Primary Examiner Arun Williams 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Cha amp Reiter LLC 21 Appl No 12 777 781 57 ABSTRACT A method and apparatus provides charging information regarding devices such as a portable terminal with a solar cell 22 Filed May 11 2010 65 Prior Publication Data The solar cell charges the battery of the portable terminal with US 2010 0289446 Al Nov 18 2010 the highest charging efficiency at an optimal charging angle The optimal charging angle is determin
11. and time information a storage unit for storing average charging efficiency infor mation generated as average charging efficiencies wherein the solar cell charges a battery on the average at 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 12 the optimal charging angle and which are classified according to a preset classification condition and a display unit for displaying at least one of the calculated optimal charging angle and the average charging effi ciency wherein the average charging efficiency is acquired at the calculated optimal charging angle and a particular environmental condition 11 The apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the dis play unit displays a help screen containing a user s manual of the solar cell 12 The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the controller iden tifies an altitude of the Sun using the location information and time information and calculates an incident angle of the sunlight according to the altitude of the Sun and the optimal charging angle and direction information when the sunlight is perpendicularly incident on the solar cell 13 The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the controller con trols the display unit to display the optimal charging angle and direction information in at least one of the formats of text voice and image 14 The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the controller trans mits the optimal charging angle and direction information to a cradle that manually or automatical
12. ased on a condition closest to the environmental information time information and location information from average charging efficiency information wherein the average charging efficiency information is generated as average charging efficiencies at the optimal charging angle are classified by date weather conditions seasons and time comparing the identified charging efficiency of the solar cell with the searched average charging efficiency and notifying a user that the identified charging efficiency is less than the searched average charging efficiency if the identified charging efficiency is less than the searched average charging efficiency 7 The method of claim 6 wherein notifying a user com prises outputting an indication that the charging efficiency is not optimized 8 The method of claim 7 wherein the indication comprises a message or a voice signal 9 The method of claim 6 wherein notifying a user com prises outputting the optimal charging angle and direction infor mation 10 An apparatus for providing charging information to a portable terminal comprising a solar cell for converting solar energy into electricity an RF communication unit for receiving location informa tion regarding the portable terminal and time informa tion a controller for calculating an optimal charging angle at which the solar cell is positioned for a highest charging efficiency based on the received location information
13. corporated herein may be omitted to avoid US 8 421 402 B2 3 obscuring appreciation of the subject matter of the present invention by a person of ordinary skill in the art The terms or words described in the present description and the claims should not be limited by a general or lexical mean ing instead should be analyzed as a meaning and a concept through which the inventor defines and describes the present invention at his most effort to comply with the idea of the present invention Therefore one skilled in the art will under stand that the exemplary embodiments disclosed in the description and configurations illustrated in the drawings are only preferred exemplary embodiments and there are various modifications alterations and equivalents thereof the exem plary embodiments at the time of filing this application that are within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims Inthe following description although the portable terminal according to the present invention is described based on a example of a portable terminal equipped with a solar cell a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand and appre ciate that the portable terminal is merely representative of virtually any type of information communication devices multimedia devices and their applications such as a navi gation terminal a digital broadcast receiver a personal digital assistant PDA a smart phone a portable multimedia playe
14. d A detailed description is provided regarding a method for providing charging infor mation regarding a portable terminal as follows FIG 3 is a flow chart that provides an operational example ofa method for providing charging information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention Referring now to FIGS 1 to 3 at step S301 the controller 110 detects the execution of a menu for providing charging information After that at step S303 the controller 110 checks whether a command for calculating an optimal charg ing angle is input If the controller 110 ascertains that a command for calculating an optimal charging angle has not been input at S303 at step S304 the controller performs a corresponding function For example the controller 110 pro vides the help regarding a charging function using solar energy or also an average charging efficiency according to environmental conditions such as the weather conditions temperature humidity seasons etc On the contrary if the controller 110 ascertains that a command for calculating an optimal charging angle has been input at S303 then at step S305 the controller can identify the present location infor mation and time information The controller 110 can receive the location information and time information from a base station via the RF communication unit 140 The location information may be latitude and longitude information If the portable terminal 100 is implemente
15. d to include a GPS receiver the controller can receive the location information and time information therethrough With continued reference to FIG 3 the controller 110 identifies the present altitude of the Sun based on the received location information latitude and longitude information and the time information and then at step S307 calculates an incident angle of the sunlight according to the altitude of the Sun To this end it is preferable that the storage unit 120 store information regarding the altitude of the Sun and information regarding the location of the Sun according to the location information and time information At step S309 the controller 110 calculates an optimal charging angle according to the incident angle of the sunlight The optimal charging angle refers to an angle where the sunlight is perpendicularly incident on the surface of the solar cell 150 When the sunlight is perpendicularly incident on the surface of the solar cell 150 the solar cell 150 has the highest charging efficiency For example as shown in FIG 2 if the incident angle of the sunlight is 60 the optimal charging angle is 30 Next at step S311 the controller 110 controls the display unit 130 to display the calculated optimal charging angle and direction information in the format of text and or image Alternatively the controller 110 may also output the optimal charging angle and the charging direction in voice Although the exemplary
16. ed according to the 30 Foreign Application Priority Data location information regarding the portable terminal and time information When the solar cell performs a charging process May 12 2009_ KR 10 2009 0041392 with the highest charging efficiency the portable terminal provides a user with an average charging efficiency and the 51 Int Cl help containing a user s manual of the solar cell The average H027 7 00 2006 01 charging efficiency is determined according to environmental HOIM 10 44 2006 01 conditions such as temperature humidity weather condi HOIM 10 46 2006 01 tions etc 52 U S CI USPE kivit tt st c 3201101 19 Claims 5 Drawing Sheets U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 1 of 5 US 8 421 402 B2 FIG 1 130 DISPLAY UNIT ih 110 CONTROLLER STORAGE UNIT RF COMMUNICATION UNIT 150 SOLAR CELL CHARGING UNIT 170 U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 2 of 5 US 8 421 402 B2 FIG 2 U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 3 of 5 US 8 421 402 B2 FIG 3 EXECUTE MENU FOR PROVIDING CHARGING INFORMATION S303 COMMAND FOR CALCULATING OPTIMAL CHARGING ANGLE INPUT YES IDENTIFY LOCATION INFORMATION AND TIME INFORMATION CALCULATE INCIDENT ANGLE ACCORDING TO SOLAR ALTITUDE CALCULATE OPTIMAL CHARGING ANGLE OUTPUT OPTIMAL CHARGING ANGLE AND DIRECTION S304 PERFORM CORRESPONDING FUNCTION U S Patent Apr 16 2013 Sheet 4 of 5 US 8 421 402 B2 F
17. ed to use a conven tional solar energy charging method have many disadvan tages in that their battery charging efficiency depends on the weather conditions time and the sunlight intensity and thus can be so low that a user cannot depend on being able to charge the battery For example although the portable terminals utilizing a solar energy charging process for the same amount of time can have very different levels of charge particularly if the portable terminals are exposed to different external environ mental conditions such as different weather conditions and different intensities of sunlight The result is that as the bat teries can be charged with different amounts of charge even to the same device with such dependence on external condi tions the users cannot know whether the portable terminals are charging the battery with an optimal efficiency or how long it would take on a given day to charge the battery back to maximum power for example 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to provide a method and apparatus that provides charging information to optimize the charging efficiency when a portable terminal charges its battery using a solar cell In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the present invention provides an apparatus for providing charging information to a portable terminal preferably including a sola
18. ein charging information includes a help function containing a user s manual of the solar cell 3 The method of claim 1 wherein charging information is generated based on the received location information and time information 4 The method of claim 1 wherein the charging informa tion is extracted for output by detecting an altitude of the Sun according to the location information and time information calculating an incident angle of the sunlight according to the altitude of the Sun and US 8 421 402 B2 11 calculating an optimal charging angle where the sunlight is perpendicularly incident on the solar cell and direc tion information 5 The method of claim 4 further comprising transmitting the optimal charging angle and the direction information to a cradle holding the portable terminal so that the cradle manually or automatically adjusts a direc tion and angle of the portable terminal 6 A method for providing charging information in a por table terminal with a solar cell comprising receiving location information and time information regarding a portable terminal and outputting charging information corresponding to the received location information and time information receiving environmental information containing at least one of the temperature humidity seasons and weather conditions and periodically identifying a charging efficiency of the solar cell searching for an average charging efficiency b
19. ent angle of the sunlight refers to an angle between the sunlight incident on the surface of the Earth and the surface of the Earth The optimal charging angle refers to an angle between the surface of the Earth and 0 5 40 45 50 55 65 6 the solar cell 150 when the sunlight is perpendicularly inci dent on the surface of the solar cell 150 As shown in FIG 2 when the sunlight is perpendicularly incident on the surface of the solar cell 150 the solar cell 150 has the highest charg ing efficiency The addition of the incident angle of the sun light and the optimal charging angle is always 90 For example if the incident angle of the sunlight is 60 the optimal charging angle is 30 If the incident angle of the sunlight is 90 the optimal charging angle is 30 In particu lar if the incident angle of the sunlight is 150 the optimal charging angle is 60 In that case the negative sign means that the direction of the sunlight incident on the surface of the Earth is changed The optimal charging direction of the solar cell 150 refers to a direction at which the solar cell 150 directly faces the Sun The charging direction may be deter mined according to the altitude of the Sun by times After calculating an optimal charging angle the controller 110 controls the display unit 130 to display the calculated optimal charging angle and the direction information The controller 110 can
20. g that the charging efficiency is not optimal Alternatively the controller 110 may output a voice signal indicating that the charging efficiency is not optimal After that at step S413 the controller 110 controls the display unit 130 to output charging information that contains an opti mal charging angle and direction information If the portable terminal 100 further includes a tilt sensor not shown for detecting whether the portable terminal 100 is tilted the controller 110 compares a tilt angle output from the tilt sensor with the optimal charging angle If the controller 110 ascertains that a difference between the tilt angle and the optimal charging angle is outside of a preset range the con troller can cause output of a voice signal to the speaker indi cating that the tilt angle of the portable terminal 100 should be corrected and or display an alert message showing the same content on the display unit 130 Although the exemplary embodiment of the present inven tion is described such that temperature or humidity informa tion is received from a particular server a person of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the presently claimed invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment For example the embodiment may be modified for example to acquire temperature or humidity information from a tempera ture or humidity sensor if the portable terminal is imple mented to include the temperature or humidity sensor
21. ly adjusts the angle and direction of the portable terminal for optimal charging 15 The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the RF communi cation unit receives environmental information that contains at least one of temperature humidity seasons and weather conditions 16 The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the controller periodically identifies a charging efficiency of the solar cell searches for an average charging efficiency based on condi tion closest to the environmental information time informa tion and location information received via the RF commu nication unit from average charging efficiency information compares the searched average charging efficiency with the identified charging efficiency and if the identified charging efficiency is less than the searched average charging effi ciency outputs an alert message or a voice signal indicating that the identified charging efficiency is less than the searched average charging efficiency 17 The apparatus of claim 16 wherein if the identified charging efficiency is less than the searched average charging efficiency the controller outputs the optimal charging angle and direction information 18 The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising a tilt sensor for detecting whether the portable terminal is tilted from a predetermined orientation 19 The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the controller compares a tilt angle output from the tilt sensor with the optimal chargi
22. ng angle and if a difference between the tilt angle and the optimal charging angle is outside a preset range outputs a voice signal or an alert message indicating that the tilt angle of the portable terminal should be corrected
23. nvironmental selection area 10 a weather region 11 for selecting weather conditions a humidity region 12 for selecting humidity and a temperature area for selecting temperature The user can set weather humidity and tempera ture conditions on the environmental region 10 to identify a charging efficiency ina particular environment For example if the user selects Rain in the weather region 11 High in the humidity region 12 and 20 C in the temperature region 13 on the fifth screen 550 the display unit 130 displays an average charging efficiency of 10 mA h in the charging effi ciency output area 20 on the fifth screen 550 In other words the portable terminal 100 charges the battery with current 10 mA per hour using the solar cell 150 To this end it is preferable that that the storage unit 120 store average charg ing efficiencies according to temperature weather condi tions humidity time and seasons in a database Although not shown in FIG 5 if the user selects a sub item Help on the second screen 520 the display unit 130 may display brief information note and user s manual regarding the solar cell 150 and the charging process thereof As stated previously although the exemplary embodi ments of the present invention is explained in implementation to display an optimal charging angle and direction informa tion on the display unit a person of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the presentl
24. oller 110 compares a tilt angle output from the tilt sensor with the optimal charging angle during the charging process If the controller 110 ascertains that a difference between the tilt angle and the optimal charg ing angle is out of a preset range it outputs a voice signal indicating that the tilt angle of the portable terminal 100 should be corrected to the speaker or displays an alert mes sage showing the same content on the display unit 130 Although not shown in FIGS 1 and 2 the portable terminal 100 may further include many other functional modules such as a camera module for capturing images or moving images a short range communication module for performing short range RF communication a broadcast receiver module for receiving broadcasts a digital audio source reproducing mod ule such as an MP3 player module an Internet communica tion module for communicating with the Internet and per forming an Internet function etc With the convergence of digital devices there may be many digital devices and modi fications thereof not listed in the application and a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand and appreciate that these functional modules are just a few of the possible mod ules that can also be included in the portable terminal US 8 421 402 B2 7 In the foregoing description the configuration of the por table terminal according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention has been explaine
25. ove the solar cell 150 preferably operates in this manner A plurality of solar cells is connected in serial or parallel to convert the sunlight to electricity The solar cell 150 may be formed so as to be transparent translucent or opaque In an exemplary embodiment of the present inven tion the solar cell 150 is installed to the body of the portable terminal 100 If the portable terminal 100 has a cover the solar cell 150 may be formed to be translucent or opaque Furthermore ifthe solar cell 150 is installed in on the display unit 130 the solar cell 150 may be implemented to be opaque The solar cell 150 outputs current where the amount of output current varies according to the sunlight intensity In general the solar cells for the portable terminals may output 0 150 mA according to the intensity of sunlight The output current of the solar cell 150 flows into the charging unit 160 and then is used to charge the battery 170 of the portable terminal 100 The charging unit 160 serves to charge the battery 170 with the electricity energy from the solar cell 150 Alternatively the charging unit 160 also receives electrical power from an external adapter and then charges the battery 170 with the received electrical power The charging unit 160 may further include for example an overcharge protection circuit The battery 170 may be implemented as a battery unit with various types of batteries that can be provided as a secondary battery fo
26. r PMP an international mobile telecommunication 2000 IMT 2000 terminal a code division multiple access CDMA terminal a wideband code division multiple access WCDMA terminal a global system for mobile communi cation GSM terminal a universal mobile telecommunica tion service UMTS terminal etc FIG 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a portable terminal 100 with a solar cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention and FIG 2 provides an operational example of a method for calculating an optimal charging angle according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention Referring now to FIGS 1 and 2 the portable terminal 100 preferably includes a controller 110 a storage unit 120 a display unit 130 an RF communication unit 140 a solar cell 150 a charging unit 160 and a battery 170 The solar cell 150 comprises a device that converts the energy of sunlight into electricity The solar cell 150 falls into a solar thermal cell and a solar photovoltaic cell The solar photovoltaic cell is in essence a type of p n junction diode and performs the photovoltaic energy conversion In a typical solar photovoltaic cell electrons are asymmetrically distrib uted For example a p n junction diode is configured in such that its n type area has a large electron density and a small hole density and its p type area has a small electron density and a large hole density The p n junction diode formed by
27. r cell an RF communication unit a controller a storage unit and a display unit The solar cell converts solar energy into electricity The RF communication unit receives location information regarding the portable ter minal and time information The controller calculates an opti mal charging angle where the position ofthe solar cell permits the highest charging efficiency according to the location information and time information The storage unit stores average charging efficiency information generated as average charging efficiencies wherein the solar cell charges a battery on the average at the optimal charging angle and which are classified according to a preset classification condition The display unit displays at least one of the calculated optimal charging angle and the average charging efficiency The aver age charging efficiency is acquired at the calculated optimal charging angle and a particular environmental condition In accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention the present invention provides a method for providing charging information in a portable terminal with a solar cell including receiving location information regard ing the portable terminal and time information and output ting the charging information corresponding to the received location information and time information wherein the charging information includes at least one of an optimal charging angle wherein the solar cell when posi
28. r example a nickel battery a cadmium battery a nickel cadmium battery a chemical battery etc The battery 170 is charged by the charging unit 160 and supplies electric power to the elements in the portable terminal 100 The RF communication unit 140 preferably establishes a communication channel with a base station under the control of the controller 110 and performs data and voice communi cation In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the RF communication unit 140 may receive location infor mation and time information from the base station in order to calculate the optimal charging angle where the charging effi ciency using the solar cell 150 is the highest The location information refers to the latitude and longitude information regarding a place where the portable terminal is located If the portable terminal 100 includes a GPS receiver it may receive the location information and time information therethrough The RF communication unit 140 may transmit the location information to a particular server for example a mobile communication server a weather information providing server etc and may then receive the environment informa tion therefrom The environment information includes the humidity temperature weather conditions seasons or the like The storage unit 120 preferably stores the entire operation of the portable terminal 100 application programs required to communicate with a wireless communication netwo
29. rk and data generated when the application programs are executed That is the storage unit 120 preferably stores an operating system OS for booting up the portable terminal 100 appli cation programs required to operate the function of the por table terminal 100 and data generated when the portable terminal 100 is operated The storage unit 120 can be com posed of read only memory ROM random access memory RAM etc In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the storage unit 120 stores a program for calculat ing the optimal charging angle and direction to perform an US 8 421 402 B2 5 optimal charging process using the location information regarding the portable terminal 100 and the time information The storage unit 120 may store the average charging effi ciency in a database according to a preset classification con ditions for example weather conditions date time zone seasons etc The average charging efficiency means a state where the solar cell 150 can perform a charging process at the optimal charging angle Also the storage unit 120 may also store information regarding the altitude and meridian altitude of the Sun according to the location information regarding the portable terminal 100 and time information The meridian altitude of the Sun refers to an altitude when the Sun is located at the noon meridian In general the charging efficiency is the highest when the Sun passes through the meridian altitude
30. roller 110 preferably controls the entire operation of the portable terminal 100 and signal flows among the elements in the portable terminal 100 In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the controller 110 can calculate an optimal charging angle using location informa tion and time information The optimal charging angle can be calculated for example according to a preset period of time a user s request or a time that the charging efficiency is reduced to equal to or less than a preset value The optimal charging angle refers to an angle at which the solar cell 150 can receive the largest amount of sunlight The optimal charging angle is calculated with respect to the sur face of the Earth That is if the controller 110 receives a command for calculating an optimal charging angle the loca tion information and time information is provided to the controller preferably from a base station via the RF commu nication unit 140 and then the controller identifies the present altitude of the Sun based on the received location information and time information To this end it is preferable that infor mation regarding the altitude of the Sun according to location information and time information is stored in the storage unit 120 of the device 100 After that the controller 110 calculates the incident angle of the sunlight according to the altitude of the Sun and then the optimal charging angle according to the incident angle The incid
31. scription of the Related Art With the development of mobile communication technol ogy portable terminals now provide a variety of optional functions such an MP3 player function a mobile broadcast receiving function a moving image playback function a camera function etc A significant aspect of operating por table terminals providing such various functions is power usage particularly so as not to deplete the batteries so as to hinder their use In recent years portable terminals have attempted to charge their battery by utilizing solar energy in order to overcome the limitation regarding the battery use time Solar energy technology uses the Sun s energy and light to provide heat and light For example a solar heating technol ogy refers to a technology that heats water using the Sun s solar energy through housings that transfer heat to the water A sunlight use technology also refers to a technology that converts the Sun s light to the electricity and drives a variety of devices etc using the electricity Solar energy is an inex haustible and harmless energy resource That is solar energy does not cause pollution to generate electricity such as air pollution noise pollution greenhouse gases vibration etc Solar energy can be used in virtually any area where the sunlight falls Solar energy technology has recently been applied to portable terminals to charge their battery with solar energy However portable terminals adapt
32. tioned at the optimal charging angle performs a charging process with a highest charging efficiency and an average charging effi ciency at the optimal charging angle BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other exemplary aspects features and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which FIG 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a portable terminal with a solar cell according to an exemplary embodi ment of the present invention FIG 2 is a view that illustrating a method for calculating an optimal charging angle according to an exemplary embodi ment of the present invention FIG 3 is a flow chart providing an operational example of a method for providing charging information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention FIG 4 is a flow chart providing an operational example of a method for providing charging information according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention and FIG 5 illustrates screens that show a display menu for providing charging information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION Hereinafter exemplary embodiments of the present inven tion are described in detail with reference to the accompany ing drawings Detailed descriptions of well known functions and structures in
33. y invention is not limited to any of the exemplary embodiments For example the exemplary embodiments may be modified so that the optimal charging angle and direction information can be transmitted to acradle holding the portable terminal 100 through wire less or wired communication The cradle can manually or automatically adjust the direction or angle of the portable terminal held thereby That is the cradle receives the optimal charging angle and direction information and then adjusts the direction or angle of the portable terminal held thereby according to the received information The cradle automati cally adjusts the angle and direction of the portable terminal held thereby according to the change in the incident angle of the sunlight so that the sunlight can be perpendicularly inci dent on the surface of the solar cell of the portable terminal Therefore the portable terminal with a solar cell according to the present invention retains the highest charging efficiency As described above the method and apparatus according to the present invention provides an optimal charging angle so that the portable terminal with a solar cell can perform a charging process with the highest charging efficiency and thus reduce the battery charging time The claimed invention also provides the average amount of battery to be charged according to the environmental conditions such as tempera 0 5 35 40 45 55 10 ture
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