US 8,941,362 B2Granted

Charging apparatus, and charge control method

AssigneeSony Corporation

InventorsJunko Saito, Hiroshi Kawashima, Kei Yamashita, Tomoyuki Ono, Masaya Kimura, Kayoko Tanaka, Hideki Noma, Jin Pan, Yukiyoshi Hirose, Ryoki Honjo, Itaru Kawakami

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Abstract

There is provided a charging apparatus including a connection unit to which a device is to be connected, a charging unit for charging the device connected to the connection unit, a history acquisition unit for acquiring a history of content use stored in the device, a timing prediction unit for predicting a timing of use of the device based on the history of content use acquired by the history acquisition unit, and a charge control unit for controlling the charging unit such that the device connected to the connection unit becomes fully charged at a timing suitable for the timing predicted by the timing prediction unit.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A charging apparatus comprising:

a connection unit to which a device is to be connected;
a charging unit configured to charge the device connected to the connection unit;
a history acquisition unit configured to acquire a history of content use stored in the device;
a removal time range holding unit configured to hold a time range during which the device connected to the connection unit is removed;
an information acquisition unit configured to:
identify first information directly from an information source on a network, the first information being related to an event;
and
acquire the identified first information directly from the information source;
a timing prediction unit configured to:
predict a first timing of use of the device based on the history of content use acquired by the history acquisition unit;
determine a first timing of full charge based on the predicted first timing of use;
detect second information related to a use of the device from the acquired first information;
predict a second timing of use of the device based on the detected second information;
determine a second timing of full charge based on the predicted second timing of use;
predict a timing of removal of the device from the connection unit, based on a history of time range held by the removal time range holding unit;
and
determine a third timing of full charge based on the predicted timing of removal;
and
a charge control unit configured to:
compare the first timing of full charge, the second timing of full charge, and the third timing of full charge, and
control the charging unit such that the device becomes full charged at the earliest of the first timing of full charge, the second timing of full charge, and the third timing of full charge.

18 more elements

A charge control method comprising:

connecting a device to a charging apparatus;
acquiring a history of content use stored in the device;
acquiring a history of time range during which the device is removed;
identifying, directly from an information source on a network, first information related to an event;
acquiring the identified first information directly from the information source on the network;
predicting a first timing of use of the device based on the acquired history of content use;
determining a first timing of full charge based on the predicted first timing of use;
detecting second information related to a use of the device from the acquired first information;
predicting a second timing of use of the device based on the detected second information;
determining a second timing of full charge based on the predicted second timing of use;
predicting a timing of removal of the device based on the acquired history of time range;
determining a third timing of full charge based on the predicted timing of removal;
comparing the first timing of full charge, the second timing of full charge, and the third timing of full charge;
and
controlling the charging apparatus such that the device becomes full charged at the earliest of the first timing of full charge, the second timing of full charge, and the third timing of full charge.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.