Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Cell or battery charger structure – Charging station for electrically powered vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-26
2004-11-23
Tibbits, Pia (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Cell or battery charger structure
Charging station for electrically powered vehicle
C235S381000, C700S231000, C379S091020, C379S143000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06822422
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a battery recycle system and, more particularly, to a battery recycle system for use in recycle of secondary batteries such as used in a cellular phone.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A cellular phone uses a secondary battery as a power source for operation thereof. The secondary battery used in the cellular phone is repeatedly charged and discharged, and has a relatively long operating time so long as the cellular phone is used for normal operations such as waiting, calling and message transmission. However, the secondary batteries used in cellular phones having numerous functions, such as accessing to a homepage by using a browser through the internet, reproducing a music, signal processing for image data or playing a game, have reduced operating time due to the operation for the increased number of functions. After the cellular phone is used for operating such functions, the remaining charge in the secondary battery may be too low to operate the cellular phone even in a waiting mode.
Thus, it may be considered to recommend a user having such a higher-function cellular phone to carry another secondary battery or a battery charger therewith for replacing or charging the discharged battery.
However, carrying another secondary battery is an economical burden for the user. In addition, if the user throws off or merely stores the discharged battery after the replacement, it raises an environmental problems due to the waste of the resource. On the other hand, if the user carries a battery charger, the battery charger requires a power source for the charging. Even if the user manages to use a power source for the charging, the charging itself takes a relatively long time to the user.
Thus, it is desired to prevent the cellular phone from being out of operation for a long time due to the discharge of the secondary battery even after operating many functions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a battery recycle system which is capable of solving the above problems and recycling the used secondary battery with less burden on the user and environment.
The present invention provides a battery recycle system including: a first server connected to a network and storing information of a minimum quality requirements of a typically used secondary battery; and a vending machine including a telecommunication terminal connected to the network to receive the information of minimum quality requirements from the first server, an inspecting device for inspecting a quality of a used secondary battery thrown into the vending machine in comparison with the minimum quality requirements to thereby judge the used secondary battery as a reusable battery or a non-reusable battery, a charging device for charging the reusable battery to obtain a charged battery, a storage device for storing the charged battery and new secondary batteries, and a fetching device for fetching one of the stored batteries from the storage device.
In accordance with the battery recycle system of the present invention, the vending machine receives a used secondary battery from a user, inspects the quality of the used secondary battery based on the minimum quality requirements provided from the first server and charges a reusable battery and stores the charged battery as a secondary battery to be supplied to another user. The first user receives a charged battery in exchange for the used secondary battery without awaiting the charging. The provision of information of the minimum quality requirements from the first server allows the vending machine to inspect a new type of used batteries without manually modifying data for the minimum quality requirements at the vending machine.
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NEC Corporation
Tibbits Pia
Whitham Curtis & Christofferson, P.C.
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