Patent Application
20130272099
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to electronic devices, and particularly to an electronic device capable of utilizing a communication device to calibrate its time, and time calibration system and method.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic devices, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic readers, digital photo frames, usually have a real time clock (RTC) for providing time information. The time of the electronic device should be calibrated at intervals. One common method of calibrating the time of the electronic device is manual calibration, typically, the user manually calibrates the time of the electronic device according to a standard time provided by a TV station or a broadcasting station. However, it is difficult to calibrate the time precisely by manual operation. Another method to calibrate the time of the electronic device is to connect the electronic device to a server via network, and then calibrate the time of the electronic device automatically by obtaining the standard time from the server via a corresponding program. However, if the electronic device cannot connect to the server, then the electronic device cannot calibrate its time by this method.
Therefore, an electronic device, a time calibration system and method, to overcome the described limitations are thus needed.
Many aspects of the present disclosure are better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
The RTC 14 provides system time for the electronic device 1. The connection module 15 is used to connect to the communication device 2. The connection module 15 can be a wired port, such as, a USB port, a PS/2 port, and an iEEE1394 port. The connection module 15 also can be a wireless communication module, such as a WIFI module, a BLUETOOTH module.
The trigger module 10 is used to provide a trigger signal to the communication device 2 via the connection module 15 in response to user's operation, after the electronic device 1 has connected to the communication device 2 via the connection module 15. Then the communication device 2 is triggered to update its time via obtaining a standard time from a system server 200.
In the embodiment, the user can operate a menu or a preset button to cause the trigger module 10 to produce the trigger signal.
The time obtaining module 11 is used to obtain the time provided by the RTC 14 and the updated time provided by the communication device 2. The time comparison module 12 is used to compare the time provided by the RTC 14 and the updated time provided by the communication device 2.
The time calibration module 13 is used to calibrate the time of the RTC 14 according to the updated time provided by the communication device 2. If the time comparison module 12 evaluates a difference between the time provided by the RTC 14 and the updated time provided by the communication device 2 is greater than a predetermined value, such as 2 seconds. In the embodiment, the time calibration module 13 calibrates the time of the RTC 14 to accord with the updated time provided by the communication device 2.
As shown in
The connection module 22 is used to communicate with the connection module 15 and establish the connection between the electronic device 1 and the communication device 2 via the operation of the user. The time calibration module 21 is used to receive the trigger signal from the trigger module 10, in addition, connects to the system server 200 via the communication device 2, and obtains the standard time from the system server 200, and then calibrates/updates its time according to the standard time.
Then the electronic device 1 obtains the updated time from the communication device 2 and calibrates the time of the electronic device 1 as described above. Namely, the time obtaining module 11, the time comparison module 12, and the time calibration module 13 execute their functions as described above to calibrate the time of the electronic device 1.
In the embodiment, the electronic device 1 can be a mobile phone, a digital camera, a digital photo frame, a tablet computer, for example. The connection module 22 can be a wired port, such as, a USB port, a PS/2 port, and an iEEE1394 port. The connection module 22 also can be a wireless communication module, such as a WIFI module, a BLUETOOTH module. The communication module 23 can be a wireless communication module which connects the system server 200 via a global system for mobile communication network, or a general packet radio service network.
Referring to
In step S202, the trigger module 10 produces a trigger signal to the communication device 2 in response to the operation of the user to trigger the communication device 2 to update the time of the communication device 2 via obtaining a standard time from a system server 200.
In step S203, the time obtaining module 11 obtains the time provided by the RTC 14 and the updated time provided by the communication device 2.
In step S204, the time comparison module 12 compares the time provided by the RTC 14 and the updated time provided by the communication device 2, and determines whether a difference between the time provided by the RTC 14 and the updated time provided by the communication device 2 is greater than a predetermined value.
If the difference between the time provided by the RTC 14 and the updated time provided by the communication device 2 is not greater than a predetermined value, the procedure is ended, otherwise, in step S205, the time calibration module 13 calibrates the time of the RTC 14 according to the updated time of the communication device 2. In the embodiment, the time calibration module 13 calibrates the time of the RTC 14 to accord with the updated time of the communication device 2.
It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201210109930.1 | Apr 2012 | CN | national |
