Battery Status Monitoring in Network-Enabled Smoking Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Most smoking substitute devices operate in isolation, limiting their functionality and preventing users from accessing rich information about the device's power source without additional processing power or display capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A network-enabled smoking substitute device that communicates wirelessly with a portable communication terminal, allowing for the transmission and processing of battery status data, enabling notifications and providing users with detailed information about the device's power usage and remaining capacity through a mobile app.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If smoking substitute devices operate in isolation, then device simplicity is maintained, but functionality and information accessibility are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a portable communication terminal as an intermediary device that handles complex processing tasks. The smoking substitute device communicates battery status data to the terminal, which then processes the data and provides notifications to the user. This mediator approach allows the smoking device to gain enhanced functionality without increasing its own complexity.
2Loss of information
If battery status information is processed on the smoking substitute device, then real-time monitoring is achieved, but processing power and energy consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the processing function from the smoking substitute device and relocates it to a portable communication terminal. The smoking device only needs to collect and transmit raw battery status data, while the terminal performs the energy-consuming processing tasks. This extraction eliminates the need for additional processing power in the smoking device while maintaining full information accessibility.
3Measurement precision
If detailed battery status data is transmitted continuously, then monitoring accuracy is improved, but data transmission energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements selective data transmission where only relevant battery status information is sent to the terminal. The system determines which data points need transmission based on predefined criteria, avoiding continuous transmission of all possible data. This partial action approach maintains monitoring accuracy for critical parameters while reducing overall transmission energy consumption.
Data Source
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AI summary
The disclosure relates to a technique that enables a status of a battery in a smoking substitute device to be monitored through a portable communication terminal (e.g. mobile phone). The smoking substitute device is configured to communicate wirelessly with the portable communication terminal, e.g. via a wireless personal area network, to transmit status information concerning the battery. The status information is processed either locally or in the cloud to provide feedback or other notifications to a user of the device. Usage data may also be transmitted, whereby the battery status can be expressed in terms of a predicted remaining usage, e.g. predicted number of remaining activation events.