JP5379582B2 - Charger with game function - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a charger for charging a mobile device such as a mobile phone.

  In recent years, cellular phones and portable digital players (hereinafter referred to as “portable devices”) have become widespread. Many of these portable devices have a built-in rechargeable battery and need to be charged regularly. By the way, the user sometimes forgets to charge the portable device or is troublesome and sometimes does not charge the portable device. If a portable device is used in such a case, the portable device will eventually become unusable due to insufficient charging.

  Therefore, in order to prevent the portable device from being unusable due to insufficient charging, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a portable charger having portability.

JP 2000-278381 A

  However, the invention described in Patent Document 1 is simply due to the fact that charging at the destination is simplified, and the user forgets to charge the portable device or is troublesome. This is not the fundamental solution for mobile devices becoming undercharged.

  In view of such a point, the present invention provides a charger that a user wants to actively charge a portable device.

  According to the main aspect of the present invention, the charger is a display unit for displaying an image, an external connection port for electrically connecting to a device to be charged, and the external connection port. In addition, a charge monitoring unit that detects whether or not the device to be charged is being charged, and a time during which it is detected by the charge monitoring unit that the device to be charged is being charged is measured as a continuous charging time. There is provided a charger comprising: a charging time measuring unit that performs a different story based on a measurement result from the charging time measuring unit, and displays a game image on the display unit .

  In this case, it is preferable that the game control unit executes the game only when the charge monitoring unit detects that the device to be charged is being charged.

  According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an event generating unit that generates a game event when the continuous charging time measured by the charging time measuring unit has passed a predetermined time. And the game control section executes a game based on the game event generated by the event generation section.

  In this case, it is preferable that the event generating unit randomly selects one or more game settings from among a plurality of game settings for developing the game so as to be advantageous or disadvantageous to the player.

  Further, in this case, the charging unit includes a charging time storage unit that stores the continuous charging time measured by the charging time measuring unit and the total of continuous charging times measured in the past, and the event generation unit A game event is generated based on the continuous charging time stored in the time storage unit and a total of continuous charging time measured in the past, and the game control unit is configured to generate a game event generated by the event generating unit. It is desirable to develop a game story based on this.

  According to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a save / load unit for generating the game progress status as save data, and a data storage unit for storing the save data generated by the save / load unit. The charging time measuring unit ends the measurement of the continuous charging time when the charging monitoring unit detects that the device to be charged is not charging, and the save / load unit When the measurement of the charging time is completed by the measuring unit, the save data is generated and stored in the data storage unit, and the game control unit finishes the measurement of the continuous charging time by the charging time measuring unit, and When the save data is stored by the save / load unit, a charger for forcibly terminating the game being executed is provided.

  In this case, the save / load unit reads the save data from the data storage unit when the charge monitoring unit starts detecting that the device to be charged is being charged, It is desirable for the control unit to execute the game according to the read save data.

  According to another embodiment of the present invention, the charging time measuring unit ends the measurement of the continuous charging time when the charging monitoring unit detects that the device to be charged is fully charged. The save / load unit generates the save data and stores it in the data storage unit when the measurement of the continuous charge time is completed by the charge time measurement unit, and the game control unit measures the charge time measurement When the measurement of the continuous charging time is completed by the unit and the save data is stored by the save / load unit, a charger for forcibly terminating the game being executed is provided.

  Features other than the features of the present invention described above and remarkable effects of the present invention can be easily understood by those skilled in the art by referring to the following embodiments and drawings.

  By having the above configuration, it is possible to provide a charger that allows the user to positively charge the portable device.

FIG. 1 is an external view. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram. FIG. 3 is a flowchart.

  FIG. 1 is a view showing an appearance of a charger 1 according to the present invention.

  The charger 1 includes a main body 2 and a power plug portion 3. The main body 2 has a display unit 4 provided on one side surface, an operation unit 6 provided in the vicinity of the display unit 4, and an external connection port 12 provided on the upper surface of the main unit 2. (Wavy line). In the present embodiment, a mobile phone (hereinafter referred to as “mobile device”) 5 is connected to the external connection port 12 as a device to be charged.

  The display unit 4 is divided into upper and lower parts to display different images. That is, a game image is displayed on the upper part, while information on charging of the portable device 5 is displayed on the lower part. In the present embodiment, in the upper part, as a game image, a background image, a character image, a character growth level (“LV4”), and various commands (“play” “food”) for developing the game are displayed. “Walk” “Setting”) are displayed. In the lower portion, information on charging of the mobile device 5 is displayed as “charging”, “1:00 from charging start” (1 hour), and “total 9:59” (9 hours 59 minutes). Has been.

  The operation unit 6 has four buttons at positions corresponding to various commands displayed on the display unit 4. Various commands displayed on the display unit 4 are executed by appropriately pressing these four buttons. In the present embodiment, the operation unit 6 is provided integrally with the main body 2, but may be a separate body.

  As described above, the portable device 5 is connected to the external connection port 12. Here, in general, the shape of the charging terminal for connection with the charger varies depending on the type of the portable device. Therefore, for example, a dedicated adapter for each model may be prepared, and by attaching this adapter, various portable devices may be connected to the external connection port 12.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the charger 1. In FIG. 2, the charger 1 includes a charging control unit 10 for controlling charging of the portable device 5 and a game control unit 13 for controlling a game.

  Although not shown, the charging control unit 10 has a configuration necessary for charging the portable device 5 such as a rectifier circuit or a voltage (current) control circuit. Then, when the power plug unit 3 is connected to, for example, an AC 100 outlet, power from the outlet is supplied to the portable device 5 from the external connection port 12 via the charging control unit 10 and the portable device 5 is connected. The device 5 is charged.

  In addition, the charging control unit 10 includes detection means 11 that always detects an output voltage from the charging control unit 10 to the external connection port 12. Then, the charge monitoring unit 18 described below constantly monitors the detection result of the detection means 11, and when the output voltage exceeds a predetermined threshold (for example, 3.5V) by the detection means 11, the portable device 5 is “charged”, and once the output voltage exceeds the threshold value, a voltage drop that occurs in the vicinity of full charge is determined as “full charge” of the portable device 5. ing.

  Here, the power supply control unit 10 may employ, for example, a dry battery or a charging place as a power supply. In this case, when a rechargeable battery is employed as the power source, the power plug portion 3 may be detachably provided.

  The game control unit 13 includes a program storage unit 14 and a data storage unit 15. The program storage unit 14 includes a game main program 16, a save / load unit 17, a charge monitoring unit 18, a charging time measurement unit 19, and an event generation unit 20. The data storage unit 15 includes a game data storage unit 21 and a charging time storage unit 22.

  Each of the function units 16 to 20 included in the program storage unit 14 is actually a storage medium such as a hard disk, and operates according to a computer program including instructions written in a computer language. Then, it is called and executed on a storage medium such as a RAM by an arithmetic unit such as a CPU (not shown) so as to function as each component of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the above configuration will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the game process of the charger 1. In this figure, reference numerals 1 to 14 correspond to steps S1 to S14 in the following description, respectively. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the character shown on the display unit 4 in FIG. 1 grows with time.

  First, when the portable device 5 is connected to the external connection port 12, the charge monitoring unit 18 determines whether or not the portable device 5 is being charged (S1). Specifically, as described above, the charge monitoring unit 18 constantly monitors the detection result of the detection unit 11, and the output voltage from the charge control unit 10 to the external connection port 12 is a predetermined threshold (for example, , 3.5V) is determined as “charging”.

  Then, once the charge monitoring unit 18 determines that the portable device 5 is being charged (YES in S1), then whether the portable device 5 is continuously charged (S2a), And it is always monitored whether the portable device 5 is fully charged (S2b). Here, as described above, whether or not the charging of the portable device 5 is continued and whether or not the portable device 5 is fully charged is detected by the detection means 11 as described above. Determine by constantly monitoring the results. That is, the charge monitoring unit 18 determines that “charging is not continued” when the output voltage from the charge control unit 10 to the external connection port 12 falls below a predetermined threshold (for example, 3.5 V). Further, it is determined that the voltage drop starts even when the output voltage is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold (for example, 3.5 V) as “full charge”.

  Next, the save / load unit 17 loads the save data stored in the game data storage unit 21 (which means the game progress state up to the previous time: not shown) (S3). Then, the game main program 16 resumes the game based on the save data loaded by the save / load unit 17 (S4). At this time, when the user plays for the first time, the game main program 16 executes the game from the beginning.

  When the game is resumed by the game main program 16, the charging time measuring unit 19 starts measuring the time in real time (hereinafter referred to as “continuous charging time”) from the time when the game is resumed. The measured continuous charging time is displayed on the display unit 4. The unit of the measurement time is, for example, “minute”, and the charging time measurement unit 19 counts 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes,... From the start of continuous charging time measurement. In the present embodiment, the continuous charging time is 1 hour, and as shown in FIG. 1, the display unit 4 displays “1:00 from charging start” as the continuous charging time. .

  Here, the charging time storage unit 22 accumulates and stores the total of continuous charging times measured in the past. Then, the charging time measuring unit 19 reads the total of the continuous charging time measured in the past from the charging time storage unit 22, and reads the total of the continuous charging time measured in the past and the real time. The sum of the stored continuous charge times (hereinafter referred to as “total charge time”) is always calculated, and the calculated total charge time is displayed on the display unit 4 together with the continuous charge time ( S5).

  For example, in this embodiment, the total charging time is 9 hours 59 minutes. As shown in FIG. 1, “total 9:59” is displayed on the display unit 4 as the total charging time. That is, this is because the total continuous charging time measured in the past is 8 hours 59 minutes (not shown) and the continuous charging time (real time) is 1 hour, so the total charging time is 8 hours 59 minutes + 1. Time = 9 hours 59. The charging time measuring unit 19 counts 10 hours 00 minutes, 10 hours 01 minutes, etc. every time one minute of the total charging time elapses. In this way, the charging time measuring unit 19 simultaneously counts the continuous charging time (real time) and the total charging time (past + real time).

  Next, when the predetermined charging time (for example, 1 hour) set in advance has elapsed (YES in S6), the event generating unit 19 20 is instructed to randomly select from among the game settings A to C (hereinafter referred to as “lottery”). In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the continuous charging time is 1 hour. That is, in this case, the event generation unit 20 executes a lottery according to an instruction from the charging time measurement unit 19.

  Here, the game setting A is, for example, as shown in FIG. 2 as “Feed twice”, and the game progresses with the probability of feeding appearing twice the initial setting within a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes). It is set to do. The game setting B is a game in which, for example, the experience value of the main character of the game is acquired twice as much as the initial setting within a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes) as shown in FIG. Is set to proceed. The game setting C is, for example, as shown in the figure as “twice the battle probability”, with the probability of becoming a battle with an enemy character within a predetermined time (for example, 10 minutes) being double the initial setting. The game is set to progress.

  Next, the event generating unit 20 performs a lottery from among the game settings A to C based on an instruction from the charging time measuring unit 19 (S7). Then, the game main program 16 proceeds with the game setting reflecting the lottery result (S8). For example, when the game setting A (feed twice) is drawn, the game main program 16 advances the game so that the number of feeds to be given to the character is double the initial setting for a certain period of time.

  Further, the charging time measuring unit 19 gives a lottery instruction to the event generating unit 20 even when a predetermined time (for example, 10 hours) has passed. Then, the event generation unit 20 executes a lottery based on the instruction. This lottery may be different from the lottery in the continuous charging time. For example, the lottery may be performed twice in succession, and all the two game settings (for example, B and C) selected by the lottery may be reflected in the game. For example, when game setting B (experience value doubled) and C (double battle probability) are drawn, the game main program 17 doubles the experience value to be given to the character to the initial setting and battle The game progresses so that the probability is also doubled. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the total charging time is 9 hours 59 minutes, and when another 1 minute has passed, the lottery based on the total charging time as described above is executed. . In this case, all the game settings A to C are reflected in the game for a predetermined time together with the assigned game setting A “Feed twice”.

  Next, the game main program 16 determines that the charging monitoring unit 16 detects that charging of the portable device 5 is continued (YES in S9), and the charging monitoring unit 16 detects the portable device 5 When the full charge of 5 is not detected (NO in S10), the game is continued.

  On the other hand, when the charge monitoring unit 16 does not continue charging the portable device 5 (NO in S9), or when the charge monitoring unit 16 detects full charge of the portable device 5 (YES in S10). The game main program 16 ends the execution of the game after going through steps S11 to S13. The case where “charging is not continued” is, for example, a case where the portable device 5 is removed from the external connection port 12 by the user, or a case where the power plug unit 3 is removed from the AC100 outlet. It does not include that the portable device 5 is fully charged.

  First, the charging time measuring unit 19 detects that the charging monitoring unit 16 does not continue charging the portable device 5 (NO in S9), or the charging monitoring unit 16 detects the portable device 5 When the full charge is detected (YES in S10), the measurement of the continuous charge time (real time) is ended (S11). Then, the charging time measuring unit 19 stores the total charging time (past + real time) that has been measured so far in the charging time storage unit 22 (S12). That is, the total charging time stored at this time is the above-mentioned “total of continuous charging times measured in the past” when the game is restarted next time.

  Next, when the measurement of the continuous charging time is completed by the charging time measuring unit 19, the save / load unit 17 generates save data of the game that has been played so far and stores it in the game data storage unit 21. (S13).

  When the save data is stored by the save / load unit 17, the game main program 17 forcibly ends the game in progress (S14). At the same time, a display effect indicating the end of the game may be applied to the display unit 4.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the said one Embodiment, A various deformation | transformation is possible in the range which does not change the summary of invention.

  For example, when a plurality of the external connection ports 12 are provided and the game main program 17 executes a lottery, the game main program 17 may perform the lottery independently for each external connection port and reflect the result in the game development. In addition, for example, a “win” or “out” is randomly set in advance in any of the plurality of external connection ports, and a lottery is performed only when the external device is connected to the connection port. When the game is off, the game may be developed without performing the lottery.

  In addition, the generation of the save data and the end of the game described above may of course be performed appropriately during the game by causing the player to operate the operation unit 6.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Charger 2 ... Main body 3 ... Power supply plug part 4 ... Display part 5 ... Portable device 6 ... Operation part 10 ... Charge control part 11 ... Detection means 12 ... External connection port 13 ... Game control part 14 ... Program storage part 15 ... Data storage unit 16 ... Game main program 17 ... Save / load unit 18 ... Charge monitoring unit 19 ... Charging time measuring unit 20 ... Event generating unit 21 ... Game data storing unit 22 ... Charging time storage unit

Claims (8)

A charger,
A display for displaying an image;
An external connection port for electrical connection with the device to be charged;
A charge monitoring unit for detecting whether or not the device to be charged connected to the external connection port is being charged;
A charging time measuring unit that measures the time during which it is detected that the device to be charged is being charged by the charge monitoring unit as a continuous charging time; and
And a game control unit that develops different stories based on the measurement result from the charging time measurement unit and displays them on the display unit as a game image. The charger according to claim 1, wherein
The game control unit executes a game only when the charge monitoring unit detects that the device to be charged is being charged. The charger. The charger according to claim 1, wherein
An event generating unit that generates a game event when the predetermined charging time that has been set in advance is measured by the charging time measuring unit;
The said game control part performs a game based on the game event generated by the said event generation part. The charger characterized by the above-mentioned. The charger according to claim 3, wherein
The said event generation | occurrence | production part selects one or more game settings at random from several game settings for developing a game so that it may become advantageous or disadvantageous for a player. The charger according to claim 3, wherein
A charging time storage unit that stores the continuous charging time measured by the charging time measuring unit and a total of continuous charging times measured in the past, respectively;
The event generation unit generates a game event based on the continuous charging time stored in the charging time storage unit and the total of continuous charging times measured in the past,
The battery control unit develops a game story based on a game event generated by the event generation unit. The charger according to claim 1, wherein
A save / load unit for generating game progress as save data;
A game data storage unit for storing save data generated by the save / load unit;
The charging time measurement unit ends the measurement of the continuous charging time when the charge monitoring unit detects that the device to be charged is not being charged,
When the measurement of the charging time is completed by the charging time measurement unit, the save / load unit generates the save data and stores it in the data storage unit,
The game control unit forcibly ends a running game when the measurement of the continuous charging time is completed by the charging time measuring unit and save data is stored by the save / load unit. Charger. The charger according to claim 6, wherein
The save / load unit reads the save data from the data storage unit when the charge monitoring unit starts detecting that the device to be charged is being charged,
The game controller restarts the game according to the read saved data. The charger according to claim 6, wherein
The charging time measuring unit ends the measurement of the continuous charging time even when the charging monitoring unit detects that the device to be charged is fully charged,
When the measurement of the continuous charging time is completed by the charging time measuring unit, the save / load unit generates the save data and stores it in the data storage unit,
The game control unit forcibly ends a running game when the measurement of the continuous charging time is completed by the charging time measuring unit and save data is stored by the save / load unit. Charger.

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