Imaging device having a charge controller for regulating battery charging during interval shooting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10652463-B2
Application number	US-201816010198-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2018
Priority date	Jul 13, 2017
Publication date	May 12, 2020
Grant date	May 12, 2020

Abstract

An imaging device is capable of interval shooting that allows images to be consecutively captured at predetermined image-capture intervals. The imaging device includes power input unit through which the imaging device receives power from an external device; battery configured to be charged with power received via the power input unit, and to supply power to operate the imaging device; and charge controller configured to control charging of the battery. Charge controller prohibits, under a predetermined condition, charging of the battery during the interval shooting performed by the imaging device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imaging device capable of interval shooting that allows images to be consecutively captured at image-capture intervals predetermined beforehand, the imaging device comprising:
a power input unit through which the imaging device receives power from an external device connected to the power input unit;
a battery configured to be charged with the power received via the power input unit, and to supply the power to operate the imaging device; and
a charge controller configured to control charging of the battery,
wherein the charge controller prohibits, under a predetermined condition, the charging of the battery between immediately adjacent shots during the interval shooting performed by the imaging device.

2. The imaging device according to claim 1 , wherein when a current one of the image-capture intervals is greater than a first predetermined value, the charge controller charges the battery even during the interval shooting performed by the imaging device.

3. The imaging device according to claim 1 , wherein when a remaining capacity of the battery is less than a second predetermined value, the charge controller charges the battery even during the interval shooting performed by the imaging device.

4. The imaging device according to claim 3 , further comprising
a display unit configured to display the remaining capacity of the battery at a plurality of levels in a stepwise manner,
wherein the second predetermined value is set to be equal to a threshold for the remaining capacity of the battery, the threshold being referred to in performing switching between the plurality of levels.

5. The imaging device according to claim 1 , wherein
in the interval shooting, a plurality of image-capture operations are performed at respective image-capture intervals,
the imaging device further includes an overall controller configured to control a whole of the imaging device,
when a current image-capture operation of one of the plurality of image-capture operations is performed at a respective image capture interval that is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the overall controller transitions to a sleep state in which power supply to the overall controller is stopped, upon completion of each of the plurality of image-capture operations, and
when the current image-capture interval is less than the predetermined value, the overall controller does not transition to the sleep state upon completion of each of the plurality of image-capture operations.

6. The imaging device according to claim 5 , wherein the charge controller prohibits the charging of the battery when the overall controller is in the sleep state.

7. The imaging device according to claim 6 , wherein
a first predetermined value is greater than the third predetermined value, and
when the current image-capture interval is greater than the first predetermined value, the charge controller charges the battery even in a case where the overall controller is in the sleep state.

8. The imaging device according to claim 6 , wherein when a remaining capacity of the battery is less than a second predetermined value, the charge controller charges the battery even in a case where the overall controller is in the sleep state.

9. The imaging device according to claim 5 , wherein before transitioning to the sleep state, the overall controller notifies the charge controller that the interval shooting is being performed.

10. The imaging device according to claim 5 , wherein before transitioning to the sleep state, the overall controller notifies the charge controller of the current image-capture interval.

11. The imaging device according to claim 1 , wherein the power input unit includes a circuit that establishes connection with the external device in compliance with a universal serial bus (USB) standard.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hashimoto Shingo

Classifications

• H04L12/10 Primary

  Current supply arrangements · CPC title

• H04L12/40045

  Details regarding the feeding of energy to the node from the bus · CPC title

• H02J7/00

  Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries · CPC title

• H02J7/0048

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H02J7/0047

  Electricity · mapped topic