Patent ID: 7181179

Claim:
A hand-held electronic device comprising: a contactless communication unit for performing contactless data communication with an external transmitter-receiver, wherein said contactless data communication unit (i) comprises a memory and a voltage power generating circuit for generating voltage power from a signal received from said external transmitter-receiver to supply the generated voltage power to a circuit in said contactless communication unit including said memory, (ii) receives data through contactless communication utilizing voltage power generated by said voltage power generating circuit, and (iii) writes in said memory data acquired by the contactless data communication or updates data in said memory with data acquired by the contactless data communication; a power source; a switch provided between said power source and said contactless communication unit; a display unit; an information processing unit which operates on power provided from said power source, for receiving data from said memory of said contactless communication unit to display the data on said display unit or process the data and then display the processed data on said display unit; a carrier detecting unit for detecting a carrier transmitted from said external transmitter-receiver; and a power supply controlling unit for bringing said switch into an on state, in response to a signal from said carrier detecting unit indicating that a carrier is no longer being input to said hand-held electronic device, so as to trigger a power supply from said power source to said contactless communication unit.