Charging system

Abstract

Provided is a power supply system that can easily and safely supply wireless power to terminal devices within a target area by starting wireless power supply to the terminal device using the detection of the presence of the terminal device entering a target area where wireless power supply is possible as a trigger. [Solution] The power supply system includes a wireless power supply unit, a detection unit that detects the presence of a terminal device in a target area to which power can be supplied wirelessly from the wireless power supply unit, and a control unit that, triggered by the detection of the presence of the terminal device in the target area, controls the wireless power supply unit to start wireless power supply to the terminal device in the target area or to the entire target area. The detection unit may individually identify and detect the presence of multiple terminal devices in the target area, and the control unit may, triggered by the detection of the presence of each of the multiple terminal devices in the target area, control the wireless power supply unit to individually start wireless power supply to each of the multiple terminal devices.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a system for powering and charging a target device. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, systems that supply power to a device and charge it by wireless power transmission are known. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a charging system in which a charger receives a beacon transmitted from a wireless power receiver and wirelessly transmits power to the wireless power receiver in response to the beacon. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 6632533 Summary of the Invention

[0004] A charging system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a wireless power supply unit, a detection unit that detects the presence of a terminal device in a target area to which power can be supplied wirelessly from the wireless power supply unit, and a control unit that, triggered by the detection of the presence of the terminal device in the target area, controls the wireless power supply unit to start wireless power supply to the terminal device or wireless power supply to the entire target area.

[0005] In the charging system, the detection unit may individually identify and detect the presence of multiple terminal devices in the target area, and the control unit may control the wireless power supply unit to individually start wireless power supply to each of the multiple terminal devices, triggered by the detection of the presence of each of the multiple terminal devices in the target area.

[0006] In the charging system, the detection unit may detect the presence of the terminal device in the target area by performing short-range wireless communication or proximity wireless communication with the terminal device that has entered the target area.

[0007] In the charging system, the detection unit may detect the presence of a terminal device in the target area by receiving information corresponding to an image from a terminal device that has read the image and is located in the target area.

[0008] In the charging system, the control unit may switch a power supply mode of wireless power supply from the wireless power supply unit to the terminal device based on designation information designated by a user of the terminal device or setting information of the terminal device.

[0009] In the charging system, the control unit may perform an authentication process for a terminal device whose presence is detected in the target area, and may control the control unit to start wireless power supply to the terminal device when authentication of the terminal device is successful, and to refuse or stop wireless power supply to the terminal device when authentication of the terminal device fails.

[0010] The charging system may further include an information processing unit that performs at least one of information processing related to billing for use of wireless power feeding from the wireless power feeding unit to the terminal device and information processing related to management of a usage history of the wireless power feeding.

[0011] The charging system may further include a relay device that relays communication between the terminal device, the relay device having at least one of the detection unit, the control unit, and the information processing unit.

[0012] In the charging system, the relay device may be a mobile communication base station that also serves as the wireless power supply unit.

[0013] The charging system may include a relay device that relays communication of the terminal device and a server, wherein the relay device transmits information related to wireless power feeding from the wireless power feeding unit to the terminal device to the server, and the server has the information processing unit and performs information processing related to billing for use of wireless power feeding from the wireless power feeding unit to the terminal device based on the information received from the relay device. Here, the server may be a cloud server or an MEC device.

[0014] The charging system may include a relay device that relays communications of the terminal device, and a blockchain network system in which a distributed ledger is constructed, wherein the relay device transmits information regarding wireless power supply from the wireless power supply unit to the blockchain network system, and the blockchain network system has the information processing unit and may perform information processing regarding management of the usage history of the wireless power supply based on the information received from the relay device.

[0015] The program used in the charging system of the present disclosure may include a trained model created using machine learning. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0016] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a basic configuration of a charging system according to an embodiment. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of detection of a terminal device entering a power supply area in the charging system of FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a ToF (Time of Flight) method used for three-point positioning of a terminal device in a position detection device of a charging system according to an embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an AoA (Angle of Arrival) method used for three-point positioning of a terminal device in a position detection device of a charging system according to an embodiment. [Figure 5]FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of three-point positioning that combines the ToF method and the AoA method. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of detection of a terminal device entering a power supply area using image reading in the charging system of FIG. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an entire operation system for a charging service including a charging system according to the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0017] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that each drawing merely schematically illustrates shapes, sizes, positional relationships, corresponding relationships, configurations, processing, steps, procedures, etc., to the extent that the contents of the present disclosure can be understood, and therefore the present disclosure is not limited to only the shapes, sizes, positional relationships, corresponding relationships, configurations, processing, steps, and procedures exemplified in each drawing. Furthermore, the numerical values ​​exemplified in the present disclosure are merely preferred examples, and therefore the present disclosure is not limited to the exemplified numerical values.

[0018] A system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is a charging system that detects the presence of a terminal device (e.g., an IoT terminal or an IoT tag) within a target area (power supply area) and, triggered by the detection of the presence of the terminal device within the target area, starts wireless power supply to the terminal device present in the target area or wireless power supply to the entire target area, thereby enabling simple and safe wireless power supply to the terminal devices within the target area. In particular, the charging system of this embodiment uses relay devices such as base stations, gateway devices, and router devices to perform on / off control of wireless power transmission (WPT) antennas based on terminal information held by users of the charging service, enabling power supply to multiple target devices (IoT devices) in a one-to-many manner, thereby contributing to the automation of power management and power supply management for multiple target devices (IoT devices) owned by individuals.

[0019] Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a basic configuration of a charging system according to an embodiment. In Fig. 1, the charging system includes a power supply system 10 as a wireless power supply unit, a position detection device 20 as a detection unit, and a base station 30 as a relay device (wireless relay device) that relays communication of a terminal device (hereinafter also referred to as a "terminal") 60 as a target device of wireless power supply.

[0020] The base station 30 has a control unit 310 that controls wireless power feeding to the terminal 60. The base station 30 may also include an information processing unit 320 that performs at least one of information processing related to billing for the use of wireless power feeding from the power feeding system 10 to the terminal 60 and information processing related to management of the usage history of wireless power feeding.

[0021] The base station 30 is a cellular base station that forms a communication area (cell) in which mobile communication with the terminal 60 is possible. The base station 30 is, for example, a base station (e.g., eNodeB, gNodeB) that complies with the standard of a mobile communication system such as the fifth generation or a later generation (e.g., B5G (Beyond 5G) or 6G) mobile communication system. The wireless medium for communication between the base station 30 and the terminal 60 is, for example, microwave or millimeter wave radio waves. The antenna of the base station 30 may be configured with a single antenna or multiple antennas. Furthermore, the antenna of the base station 30 may be shared for data transmission with the terminal 60 and wireless power transmission (WPT) to the terminal 60. The antenna (array antenna) of the base station 30 may also be used as an antenna device that performs communication with multiple terminals 60 using a massive MIMO (mMIMO) transmission method via, for example, microwave or millimeter wave radio waves.

[0022] In this embodiment, the relay device (wireless relay device, communication relay device) that relays communication of terminal 60 is shown as a mobile communication base station 30, but the relay device may also be a GW (gateway) device or router device that relays between a mobile communication network (core network) and another communication network, or a wireless LAN (local area) router device (access point device).

[0023] The power supply system 10 includes a power supply device 110, which is a power transmission device for wireless power transmission (WPT), a wireless power transmission (WPT) antenna (hereinafter also referred to as a "WPT antenna") 111, and a switch / monitor device 120. The power supply device 110 transmits wireless power transmission (WPT) radio waves of a predetermined frequency to a target area (hereinafter also referred to as a "power supply area") 112 via the WPT antenna 111. The wireless medium for WPT from the power supply device 110 to the terminal 60 is, for example, microwave or millimeter wave radio waves.

[0024] The switch / monitoring device 120 has a switch such as a relay that can be turned on / off and a power measuring device, and switches wireless power supply by the power supply device 110 on / off and monitors information such as the amount of power supplied wirelessly by the power supply device 110.

[0025] The switch monitoring device 120 is equipped with a mobile communication terminal module and has the function of performing mobile communication via the base station 30. For example, the switch monitoring device 120 can receive control information from the base station 30 that controls on / off of wireless power feeding by the power feeding device 110, and can transmit to the base station 30 wireless power feeding information (for example, power feeding information such as a power feeding log) such as the amount of power wirelessly fed by the power feeding device 110.

[0026] The WPT antenna 111 is, for example, a large-aperture (for example, several tens of cm x several tens of cm) antenna (rectenna array) having a plurality of antenna elements arranged two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally. When wireless power transmission (WPT) is performed, the transmission power of each of the plurality of antenna elements of the WPT antenna (array antenna) 111 is, for example, several hundreds of μW to several tens of mW.

[0027] The position detection device 20 detects the position of a terminal device (hereinafter also referred to as a "terminal") 60 as a target device in a power supply area 112 through short-range communication with the terminal 60, and detects the presence of the terminal 60 within the power supply area 112. The wireless communication method for short-range communication is, for example, a Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy (BLE) communication method or a communication method using UWB (ultra-wideband) radio waves as a wireless medium. UWB is a communication technology using weak radio waves in a wide band (for example, a bandwidth of several hundred megahertz centered on an arbitrary frequency in the several-GHz band) and is defined in IEEE802.15.4. The position detection device 20 may detect the presence of the terminal 60 in the power supply area 112 by measuring the field strength of radio waves transmitted from the terminal 60 that has entered the power supply area 112.

[0028] When a plurality of terminals 60 are present in the power supply area 112, the position detection device 20 may individually identify and detect the presence of each of the plurality of terminals 60.

[0029] The control unit 310 of the base station 30, when triggered by detecting the presence of a terminal 60 in the power supply area 112, controls the power supply device 110 of the power supply system 10 to start wireless power supply to the terminal 60 present in the power supply area 112 or wireless power supply to the entire power supply area 112.

[0030] When multiple terminals 60 are present in the power supply area 112, the control unit 310 may control the power supply device 110 of the power supply system 10 to individually start wireless power supply to each of the multiple terminals 60, triggered by detecting the presence of each of the multiple terminals 60.

[0031] The control unit 310 may switch the power supply mode (e.g., rapid power supply mode, power-saving power supply mode, rapid charging mode, power-saving charging mode) of wireless power supply from the power supply system (wireless power supply unit) 10 to the terminal 60 based on designation information designated by the user 65 of the terminal 60 or setting information of the terminal 60. By switching the power supply mode of wireless power supply, it is possible to optimize the charging service for each usage scenario and improve usability.

[0032] The control unit 310 may perform an authentication process for the terminal 60 whose presence is detected in the power supply area 112, and may control the device so that wireless power supply to the terminal 60 is started when authentication of the terminal 60 or the user 65 is successful, and wireless power supply to the terminal 60 is refused or stopped when authentication of the terminal 60 or the user 65 is unsuccessful.

[0033] The base station 30 may include an information processing unit 320. The information processing unit 320 performs at least one of information processing related to billing for the use of wireless power feeding from the power supply system (wireless power feeding unit) 10 to the terminal 60 and information processing related to management of the usage history of wireless power feeding from the power feeding system 10 to the terminal 60. For example, the information processing unit 320 receives and acquires information (power feeding information) such as the amount of power fed wirelessly from the switch monitoring device 120 of the power feeding system 10, and receives and acquires user information (e.g., a user ID) and terminal information (e.g., a terminal ID and a voltage log of the battery of the power feeding target (charge target)) from the terminal 60 of the user 65. Based on the power feeding information, user information, and terminal information, the information processing unit 320 performs information processing related to billing the user 65 for the use of wireless power feeding from the power feeding system 10 to the terminal 60, or information processing related to management of the usage history of wireless power feeding for each user 65 or each terminal 60. Furthermore, the information processing unit 320 may have a function of virtually performing authentication and status management for the user 65 or the terminal 60 (for example, a function as a virtual terminal management machine).

[0034] 1, the charging system of this embodiment includes a server 40 with which a base station 30 can communicate via a communication network. The server 40 stores charging service-related information that can be referenced by the base station 30, such as information about a terminal 60 and a user 65 that can use the charging service. The server 40 may have an information processing unit that performs at least one of information processing related to billing for the use of wireless power feeding from the power feeding system (wireless power feeding unit) 10 to the terminal 60 and information processing related to management of the usage history of wireless power feeding from the power feeding system (wireless power feeding unit) 10 to the terminal 60. For example, the server 40 receives and acquires information (power feeding information) such as the amount of power fed wirelessly from the switch monitoring device 120 of the power feeding system 10 via the base station 30, and receives and acquires user information (e.g., a user ID) and terminal information (e.g., a terminal ID and a voltage log of the battery of the power supply target (charging target)) from the terminal 60 of the user 65 via the base station 30. Based on the power supply information, user information, and terminal information, the server 40 processes information related to billing the user 65 for use of wireless power supply from the power supply system 10 to the terminal 60, or information related to management of the usage history of wireless power supply for each user 65 or each terminal 60. The server 40 may have a function to virtually perform authentication and status management for the user 65 or the terminal 60 (for example, a function as a virtual terminal management machine).

[0035] The server 40 (as well as the billing server described below) may be a server configured with a single computer device, or may be a cloud server configured with multiple computer devices that can communicate with each other via a network. The server 40 may also be an MEC device. The MEC device is a device with MEC (short for "multi-access edge computing" or "mobile edge computing") functionality that allocates computing resources near the base station 30 and processes various services. The MEC device is connected, for example, to a node in the core network of a mobile communication network or to a node on the path between the core network and the base station 30.

[0036] The server (cloud server) 40 may be a blockchain network system in which a distributed ledger is constructed, and the base station 30 may transmit information about wireless power feeding from the power feeding system 10 to the terminal 60 to the blockchain network (BCN) system. The BCN system may, as the information processing unit described above, perform information processing about management of the usage history of wireless power feeding based on the information about wireless power feeding received from the base station 30.

[0037] Here, the distributed ledger is a distributed ledger configured so that multiple nodes constituting a blockchain network (BCN) maintain the same database. In particular, the distributed ledger constructed in a BCN system is a distributed ledger in which the order of any transaction and its collection of blocks is determined according to a predetermined algorithm, and is recognized as correct by, for example, a base station 30, which is a BCN node. The distributed ledger of a BCN is tamper-resistant because the blocks are linked by hash and all transaction records remain intact.

[0038] Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of detection of the terminal 60 entering the power supply area in the charging system of Fig. 1. In Fig. 2, when a user 65 carrying the terminal 60 enters the power supply area 112, the position detection device 20 performs short-range communication with the terminal 60, for example, by a BLE communication method or a communication method using UWB wireless radio waves, detects the position of the terminal 60 by three-point positioning, which will be described later, and detects the presence of the terminal 60 within the power supply area 112.

[0039] FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a ToF (Time of Flight) system used for three-point positioning of a terminal 60 in a position detection device 20 of a charging system according to an embodiment. In FIG. 3, a distance D between a transceiver 210 for short-range communication in the position detection device 20 and the terminal 60 can be calculated based on a ToF measurement result obtained by transmitting and receiving radio waves between an antenna 211 of the transceiver 210 and an antenna 611 of the terminal 60. For example, BLE or UWB (ultra-wideband) radio waves can be used for the ToF measurement between the devices. For example, in the ToF system, time synchronization is performed in advance between the transceiver 210 and the terminal 60, and a time T0 when a radio signal pulse is transmitted from the transceiver 210, a time T1 when the radio signal pulse is received by the terminal 60, a time T2 when the radio signal pulse is returned (transmitted) from the terminal 60, and a time T3 when the returned radio signal pulse is received by the transceiver 210 are measured based on timestamps included in the radio signal pulse. The position detection device 20 uses the measurement results of these times T0, T1, T2, and T3 and the following equation (1) to calculate the propagation time ToF of the radio waves between the transceiver 210 of the position detection device 20 and the terminal 60, and can calculate the distance D between the transceiver 210 of the position detection device 20 and the terminal 60 by multiplying the propagation time ToF by the speed of light.

[0040]

number

[0041] 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an AoA (Angle of Arrival) method used for three-point positioning of a terminal 60 in a position detection device 20 of a charging system according to an embodiment. In FIG. 4, a short-range communication transceiver 210 of the position detection device 20 includes a plurality of antennas 211(1) to 211(3) having an antenna pitch d between them. The transceiver 210 receives BLE or UWB (ultra-wideband) radio waves transmitted from an antenna 611 of the terminal 60 with the antennas 211(1) to 211(3), and can calculate the angle θ (azimuth angle in two-dimensional coordinates) of the direction of the terminal 60 as seen from the transceiver 210 based on a measurement result of the reception phase difference Δφ between the antennas and the wavelength λ of the radio waves using the following equation (2):

[0042]

number

[0043] In the case of positioning in three-dimensional space, the azimuth angle θ and zenith angle (or elevation angle) ψ of the direction of terminal 60 based on the position of transceiver 210 at a specified coordinate can be calculated based on the measurement results of the reception phase difference Δφ between the antennas of transceiver 210, the wavelength λ of the radio wave, and information on the height h of transceiver 210.

[0044] FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of three-point positioning of a terminal 60 that combines the ToF and AoA methods described above. In FIG. 5, the position detection device 20 includes multiple transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) that use a short-range communication method and are arranged at three different locations (three points) on a two-dimensional plane. The installation locations of the multiple transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) are known. In FIG. 5, the multiple transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) can calculate distances D1 to D3 between the respective transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) and the terminal 60 using the ToF method described above, based on the received signal strength (RSSI) of a predetermined signal received from the terminal 60 to be positioned or the received signal strength (RSSI) of a predetermined signal transmitted to the terminal 60 and received by the terminal 60. The position detection device 20 can calculate and estimate with high accuracy the position coordinates of the target terminal 60 in a predetermined coordinate system defined in the target two-dimensional space, based on one or more intersection points of imaginary circles C1 to C3 with radii at distances D1 to D3 centered on each of the transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) and the azimuth angles θ1 to θ3 of the direction of the terminal 60 based on the positions of each of the transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) calculated by the AoA method described above.

[0045] In the case of positioning in a three-dimensional space, the position detection device 20 can calculate and estimate with high accuracy the position coordinates of the terminal 60 in a predetermined coordinate system defined in the target three-dimensional space, based on one or more intersection points of a virtual sphere having a radius equal to the distances D1 to D3 centered on each of the transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) calculated by the ToF method described above, and the azimuth angles θ1 to θ3 and zenith angles (or elevation angles) ψ1 to ψ3 of the direction of the terminal 60 based on the positions of each of the transceivers 210(1) to 210(3) calculated by the AoA method described above.

[0046] In the charging system of this embodiment, the detection unit that detects the presence of the terminal 60 in the power supply area 112 may detect the presence of the terminal 60 using proximity communication with the terminal 60 using the aforementioned BLE communication method or a communication method using UWB wireless waves. For example, a sensor device capable of proximity communication (hereinafter also referred to as a "proximity sensor") serving as the detection unit is arranged at one or more locations within the power supply area 112, and a communication module or communication device capable of proximity communication with the proximity communication device is mounted on the terminal 60. The proximity sensor (detection unit) and the terminal 60 are set up for proximity communication pairing in advance. When the terminal 60 approaches the proximity sensor arranged within the power supply area 112, the proximity is used as a trigger for the proximity sensor to detect, authenticate, and reconnect to the terminal 60, thereby detecting the entry (entry) and presence of the terminal 60 into the power supply area 112.

[0047] Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of detection of the terminal 60 entering the power supply area using reading of an image (for example, a two-dimensional code image) in the charging system of Fig. 1. The charging system of Fig. 6 detects the terminal 60 entering the power supply area using a simple detection and authentication method of reading an image that allows visual confirmation (visible). In Fig. 6, parts that are common to Figs. 1 and 2 described above are given the same reference numerals, and descriptions thereof will be omitted.

[0048] 6, a detection unit 330 is incorporated in the base station 30. A user 65 operates a terminal 60 to read an image (e.g., a two-dimensional code image) 113 located within a power supply area 112 with the camera of the terminal 60, and transmits data of the read image 113 or information corresponding to the image 113 (e.g., identification information and location information of the image 113) to the base station 30 via mobile communication. The detection unit 330 can detect the entry (entry) and presence of the terminal 60 into the power supply area 112 by receiving the data of the image 113 or the information corresponding to the image 113 from the terminal 60 via mobile communication.

[0049] Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an entire operation system for a charging service including a charging system according to an embodiment. In Fig. 7, parts common to those in Figs. 1, 2, and 6 described above are assigned the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. The operation system for a charging service in Fig. 7 includes the above-described charging system, a cloud server 41 capable of communicating with a base station 30, and a billing server 42 capable of communicating with the cloud server 41. The cloud server 41 transmits information relating to wireless power supply from a wireless power supply unit to the terminal device to the blockchain network system.

[0050] 7, the terminal 60 is, for example, a terminal device (hereinafter also referred to as "UE" (user equipment)) serving as a mobile station in a mobile communication system. The terminal 60 is equipped with a battery 61 to be charged, and is a device that can be carried and operated by a user. The terminal 60 may be a combination of a communication device (e.g., a mobile communication module) capable of wireless communication with the base station 30 and various devices such as sensors (e.g., an IoT device, an IoT tag, etc.).

[0051] The terminal 60 has a function of receiving power from the power supply device 110 of the power supply system 10 via wireless power transmission (WPT) and charging the battery 61. The terminal 60 may also have a function of receiving power from the power supply device 110 via a wire (cable) and charging the battery 61.

[0052] The terminal 60 may have a function to perform short-range wireless communication with the position detection device 20, such as the above-mentioned BLE communication method or a communication method using UWB radio waves. The position detection device 20 can detect the presence and position of the terminal 60 in the power supply area 112, for example, based on the received signal strength of a predetermined signal received in short-range communication with the terminal 60. The terminal 60 may be equipped with a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receiver such as GPS, and may identify the position (latitude, longitude, altitude) of the terminal (its own device) 60 based on the reception results of the receiver.

[0053] The terminal 60 may transmit information about the terminal 60 (terminal information) and information about the user 65 (user information) to the base station 30 via wireless communication (mobile communication) with the base station 30, either spontaneously or in response to a request from the base station 30 or the like. The terminal information includes, for example, information that can identify the terminal 60 (terminal ID), history information (voltage log) of the voltage of the battery 61 in the terminal 60, etc. The user information includes, for example, information that can identify the user 65 (user ID). The terminal information may include information about the position (latitude, longitude, altitude) of the terminal 60 that is measured and identified by the terminal 60 using GNSS.

[0054] The position detection device 20 transmits information (position information) on the detection result of the position of the terminal 60 in the power supply area 112 to the base station via wired communication or wireless communication.

[0055] The power supply system 10 is installed and operated, for example, by a power supply system installation company 80. The power supply device 110 has a wireless power transmission function for supplying power to the terminal 60 by wireless power transmission (WPT). The power supply device 110 may also have an outlet for supplying power to the terminal 60 via a wire (cable).

[0056] The switch monitoring device 120 of the power supply system 10 can switch on / off wireless power supply by the power supply device 110 based on ON / OFF control information received from the base station 30 via wireless communication (mobile communication) with the base station 30. The switch monitoring device 120 also monitors the amount of power wirelessly supplied by the power supply device 110, and transmits power supply information including history information (power supply log) such as the amount of power to the base station 30 via wireless communication (mobile communication) with the base station 30.

[0057] The base station 30 can transfer and record usage history information of wireless power supply from the power supply system 10 to the terminal 60 for one or more power supply systems 10 and one or more terminals 60 to a distributed ledger constructed in the BCN system of the cloud server 41. The usage history information includes, for example, a terminal ID, a user ID, power supply information, and other information necessary for billing for each of multiple sets of power supply from the power supply system 10 to the terminal 60 (use of the charging service). The cloud server 41 may collect data on usage history information of wireless power supply from the power supply system 10 to the terminal 60 from multiple base stations 30, and transfer and record the data to the distributed ledger.

[0058] The billing server 42 is operated and managed by, for example, an operator 70 of at least one of the mobile communication service and the charging service. The billing server 42, for example, refers to usage history information recorded in the BCN system of the cloud server 41, and performs billing processing to calculate a usage fee for the charging service via wireless power supply from the power supply system 10 to the terminal 60 for each of the multiple terminals 60 or each of the multiple users 65, and record the calculated fee in a database. The billing server 42 may calculate an electricity fee for power supply via one or multiple power supply systems 10, and record the calculated fee in the database. The operator 70 can refer to the database in the billing server 42 and perform processing to collect a usage fee from the charging service user 65 based on the usage fee for the charging service calculated by the billing server 42. The operator 70 can refer to the database in the billing server 42 and perform processing to pay the electricity fee for power supply via the power supply system 10 to the installation company 80 of the power supply system 10.

[0059] As described above, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the detection of the presence of a terminal 60 in the power supply area (target area) 112 is used as a trigger (condition), and trigger control based on physical space manipulation when the terminal 60 enters the power supply area 112 becomes possible, making it possible to easily detect the terminal 60 within the power supply area 112 and safely supply power.

[0060] Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the position detection device 20 can detect the presence of the terminal 60 in the power supply area 112 with high accuracy, so that power can be supplied to the terminal 60 more safely.

[0061] Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the detection unit 330 of the base station 30 performs visual ID confirmation based on an image captured by the camera of the terminal 60 in the power supply area 112, thereby enabling simple detection of the terminal 60 within the power supply area 112.

[0062] Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, relay devices such as a plurality of base stations 30 (or GW devices, router devices) autonomously control ON / OFF of wireless power feeding by the power feeding device 110 based on detection of the presence of a terminal 60 within the power feeding area 112, thereby realizing distributed cooperative control of wireless power feeding to the terminal 60 without relying on a central server, and making it possible to deal with temporary disconnection from an external communication network such as the Internet. Furthermore, the autonomous distributed control by relay devices such as the base stations 30 can improve the responsiveness of wireless power feeding to the terminal 60 and reduce the communication load for controlling wireless power feeding.

[0063] Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wireless power supply (WPT power supply) to the power supply area 112 can be kept OFF under normal circumstances, and wireless power supply (WPT power supply) to the terminal 60 can be turned ON only when the entry and presence of the terminal 60 is detected within the power supply area 112, thereby enabling a power-saving design of the charging system and safety measures to prevent erroneous power transmission.

[0064] Furthermore, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, a charging service by wirelessly supplying power to the terminal 60 of the user 65 can be adapted to a business model of energy billing on a per-user basis or per-terminal basis.

[0065] Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, by using a blockchain network system in which a distributed ledger is constructed on the server (cloud server) 40, it becomes possible to link billing by an external server and management of the usage history of wireless power supply, as well as to commercialize charging services, accommodate various service models, and manage charging services transparently.

[0066] Furthermore, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wireless power supply to terminal 60 is started when authentication of terminal 60 detected to be present in power supply area 112 is successful, and wireless power supply to terminal 60 is refused or stopped when authentication of terminal 60 fails, thereby preventing fraudulent use of the charging service and clarifying the user identification (or terminal identification) of the charging service.

[0067] In addition, the system disclosed herein can easily detect terminal devices present in a target area in a power supply infrastructure that supplies power to a large number of terminal devices and safely supply power to them, thereby contributing to the achievement of Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is to "build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and build resilient infrastructure."

[0068] The processing steps described in this specification and the components of the blockchain network system, cloud server, GW device, router device, base station, relay device, position detection device, power supply device, control device, terminal device, charging system, system providing charging service, and wireless power transmission system can be implemented by various means. For example, these steps and components may be implemented by hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof.

[0069] Regarding hardware implementation, means such as processing units used to realize the above steps and components in an entity (e.g., various wireless communication devices, base station devices (Node B, Node G), terminal devices, hard disk drive devices, or optical disk drive devices) may be implemented in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, electronic devices, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described in this specification, computers, or combinations thereof.

[0070] Furthermore, with regard to firmware and / or software implementations, the means, such as a processing unit, used to realize the above components may be implemented with a program (e.g., code, such as procedures, functions, modules, instructions, etc.) that performs the functions described herein. In general, any computer / processor-readable medium tangibly embodying firmware and / or software code may be used to implement the means, such as a processing unit, used to realize the above steps and components described herein. For example, the firmware and / or software code may be stored in a memory and executed by a computer or processor, such as in a controller. The memory may be implemented within the computer or processor or external to the processor. Furthermore, the firmware and / or software code may be stored in a computer- or processor-readable medium, such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, floppy disk, compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), magnetic or optical data storage device, etc. The code may be executed by one or more computers or processors and may cause the computers or processors to perform certain aspects of the functionality described herein.

[0071] The medium may be a non-transitory recording medium. The program code may be in any format as long as it can be read and executed by a computer, processor, or other device or machine. For example, the program code may be in any of source code, object code, and binary code, or may be a mixture of two or more of these codes.

[0072] Moreover, the description of the embodiments disclosed herein is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present disclosure. Various modifications to the present disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples and designs described herein, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. [Explanation of symbols]

[0073] 10: Power supply system 20: Position detection device (detection unit) 30:Base station 40: Server 41: Cloud Server 42: Billing server 60: Terminal (terminal device) 61: Battery 65: User 70: Operator 80: Power supply system installation company 110: Power supply device 111: WPT antenna 112: Power supply area 113: Image 120: Switch and monitor device 210: Transmitter / Receiver 211: Antenna 310: Control unit 320: Information Processing Department 330: Detection unit

Claims

1. A charging system, a relay device that relays mobile communications of the terminal device; a wireless power supply unit capable of wirelessly supplying power to the terminal device via an antenna for wireless power transmission in a target area; a detection unit that has a function of communicating with the relay device and detects the presence of the terminal device that has entered the target area from outside the target area and transmits a detection result of the presence of the terminal device in the target area to the relay device; a control unit provided in the relay device, the control unit transmitting, to the wireless power feeding unit, control information for controlling the wireless power feeding unit to start wireless power feeding to the terminal device or wireless power feeding to the entire target area, triggered by detection of the presence of the terminal device in the target area that has entered the target area from outside, based on the detection result received from the detection unit; A charging system comprising:

2. 2. The charging system of claim 1, the detection unit individually identifies and detects the presence of a plurality of terminal devices that have entered the target area from outside the target area, and transmits a detection result of the presence of the plurality of terminal devices in the target area to the relay device; the control unit of the relay device transmits, to the wireless power supply unit, control information for controlling the wireless power supply unit to individually start wireless power supply to each of the plurality of terminal devices, triggered by detection of the presence of each of the plurality of terminal devices in the target area that have entered the target area from outside the target area, based on the control information received from the relay device. A charging system characterized by:

3. 2. The charging system of claim 1, the detection unit detects the presence of the terminal device in the target area by performing short-range wireless communication or proximity wireless communication with the terminal device that has entered the target area; A charging system characterized by:

4. 2. The charging system of claim 1, the detection unit detects the presence of a terminal device in the target area by receiving information corresponding to the image from the terminal device that has read the image located in the target area; A charging system characterized by:

5. 2. The charging system of claim 1, the control unit switches a power supply mode of wireless power supply from the wireless power supply unit to the terminal device based on designation information designated by a user of the terminal device or setting information of the terminal device. A charging system characterized by:

6. 2. The charging system of claim 1, The control unit of the relay device performing an authentication process for the terminal device whose presence is detected in the target area; transmitting control information to the wireless power supply unit for controlling the terminal device so as to refuse or stop wireless power supply to the terminal device when authentication of the terminal device fails; A charging system characterized by:

7. 7. The charging system according to claim 1, A charging system comprising an information processing unit that performs at least one of information processing related to billing for use of wireless power feeding from the wireless power feeding unit to the terminal device and information processing related to management of a usage history of the wireless power feeding.

8. 8. The charging system of claim 7, the relay device includes the information processing unit, A charging system characterized by:

9. 8. The charging system of claim 7, Equipped with a server, the relay device transmits information regarding wireless power supply from the wireless power supply unit to the terminal device to the server; the server has the information processing unit, and processes information related to billing for use of wireless power supply from the wireless power supply unit to the terminal device based on the information received from the relay device. A charging system characterized by:

10. 8. The charging system of claim 7, It is equipped with a blockchain network system built on a distributed ledger, The relay device transmits, to the blockchain network system, information regarding wireless power supply from the wireless power supply unit to the terminal device for a plurality of wireless power supply units and a plurality of terminal devices; The blockchain network system has the information processing unit, and processes information regarding management of the usage history of the wireless power supply for the plurality of wireless power supply units and the plurality of terminal devices based on the information received from the relay device. A charging system characterized by:

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