Method for displaying status of power consumption and portable device thereof

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for displaying electricity use status. The method comprising identifying at least one electronic appliance in an image on a screen captured through a camera; determining the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance; and displaying one of a plurality of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). Each of the GUIs corresponds to a stage of the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for displaying electricity use status, the method comprising:
 identifying at least one electronic appliance in an image on a screen captured through a camera;   determining the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance; and   displaying one of a plurality of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs),   wherein each of the GUIs corresponds to a stage of the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving electricity use information of the at least one electronic appliance,
 wherein determining the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance uses the received electricity use information.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein receiving the electricity use information uses one of a Wi-fi network, a Zigbee network, an NFC network, and a Bluetooth network. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein displaying the one of the plurality of GUIs comprises displaying a GUI that corresponds to the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance on the screen, so that the GUI matches a location where the at least one electronic appliance is displayed. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing at least one of location information and shape information of the at least one electronic appliance. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein identifying the at least one electronic appliance comprises identifying the at least one electronic appliance using the stored at least one of the location and shape information of the at least one electronic appliance. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of GUIs attributes one of a plurality of different colors to the electronic appliance, and
 wherein each of the colors corresponds to a different stage of the electricity use status.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of GUIs displays the electronic appliance using one of a plurality of icons, and
 wherein each of the icons corresponds to a different stage of the electricity use status.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining the electricity use status comprises determining whether the current electricity use exceeds a target use or whether the current pattern of using electronic appliances would lead to exceeding the target use. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving information about electricity pricing at a current time of day,
 wherein determining the electricity use status comprises determining whether electricity use at a current moment is relatively high based on electricity pricing at the current time of the day.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising generating, when the one of the plurality of GUIs is selected, a menu window including information about electricity use of a corresponding electronic appliance and a menu to control the electricity use of the corresponding electronic appliance. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising transmitting a control command to control the electricity use of the corresponding electronic appliance generated via the menu to the corresponding electronic appliance. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the electricity use information comprises at least one of a total electricity used so far, a current electricity use, and electricity pricing information regarding the at least one electronic appliance. 
     
     
         14 . A portable device comprising:
 a photographing unit comprising a camera that captures an image of at least one electronic appliance;   a Graphical User Interface (GUI) generating unit that generates a GUI;   a display unit; and   a control unit that identifies the at least one electronic appliances in the image on a screen, determines the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance, and displays one of a plurality of GUIs,   wherein each of the GUIs corresponds to a stage of the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance.   
     
     
         15 . The portable device of  claim 14 , further comprising a communicating unit that receives electricity use information of the at least one electronic appliance,
 wherein the control unit determines the electricity use status of the at least one electronic appliance using the received electricity use information.