Smart advice to charge notification

• US 10,083,105 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2015
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: de la Cropte de Chanterac, Cyril, Stanley-Marbell, Phillip, Venkatraman, Kartik, Kapoor, Gaurav
• Primary Examiner(s): Tso, Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): OMAR, AHMED H
• Application Number:
  US14/871,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20160357654A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,091 Days
• Field of Search: 320132
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/327 Alarm or error message display
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for advising a user when an energy storage device in a computing system needs charging. State of charge data of the energy storage device can be measured and stored at regular intervals. The historic state of charge data can be queried over a plurality of intervals and a state of charge curve generated that is representative of a user'"'"'s charging habits over time. The state of charge curve can be used to generate a rate of charge histogram and an acceleration of charge histogram. These can be used to predict when a user will charge next, and whether the energy storage device will have an amount of energy below a predetermined threshold amount before the next predicted charging time. A first device can determine when a second device typically charges and whether the energy storage device in the second device will have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount before the next predicted charge time for the second device. The first device can generate an advice to charge notification to the user on either, or both, devices.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:

determining state of charge data for an energy storage device in an electronic device indicative of a charge level of the energy storage device over a plurality of intervals of time;

determining a forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to begin charging based on the state of charge data;

determining a forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below a predetermined threshold amount based on the state of charge data; and

before the forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount, taking an action in response to determining that the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount is before the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of intervals of time comprise at least a 24 hour period.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of intervals of time comprise one of:

a particular weekday of a first week and the particular weekday of a second week, or a first weekday and a second weekday of a week.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises generating a notification for displays on a device indicating that the energy storage device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below a predetermined threshold amount before the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the state of charge data for the energy storage device in the electronic device is generated for each of a plurality of sub-intervals of time for each of the plurality of intervals of time.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of intervals of time comprises an hour and each of the plurality of sub-intervals of time is 15 minutes.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining acceleration of charge data for the energy storage device in the electronic device indicative of an acceleration rate of the charge level of the energy storage device for a plurality of sub-intervals of time within the plurality of intervals of time based on the state of charge data, and wherein determining the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging comprises identifying, in the acceleration of charge data, a first sub-interval of time of the plurality of sub-intervals of time indicating an acceleration rate above a charging threshold adjacent to a second sub-interval of time of the plurality of sub-intervals of time indicating an acceleration rate below the charging threshold.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging is performed in response to determining that a rate of discharge of the energy storage device exceeds a threshold rate.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising

determining one or more times at which the energy storage device for the electronic device has historically been charged based on the state of charge data;

and

wherein determining the forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to begin charging is based on the one or more times at which the energy storage device for the electronic device has historically been charged.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium programmed with instructions that, when executed by a processing system, perform operations comprising:

determining state of charge data for an energy storage device in an electronic device indicative of a charge level of the energy storage device over a plurality of intervals of time;

determining a forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to begin charging based on the state of charge data; and

determining a forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below a predetermined threshold amount based on the state of charge data; and

before the forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount, taking an action in response to determining that the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to have an amount of energy less than the predetermined threshold amount is before the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging.

9. The medium of claim 8, wherein the plurality of intervals of time comprise at least a 24 hour period.

10. The medium of claim 8, wherein the plurality of intervals of time comprise one of:

a particular weekday of a first week and the particular weekday of a second week, or a first weekday and a second weekday of a week.

11. The medium of claim 8, wherein the action comprises generating a notification for display on a device indicating that the energy storage device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount before the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging.

12. The medium of claim 8, wherein the state of charge data for the energy storage device in the electronic device is generated for each of a plurality of sub-intervals of time for each of the plurality of intervals of time.

13. The medium of claim 12, wherein each of the intervals of time comprises an hour and each of the sub-intervals of time is 15 minutes.

14. The medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise determining acceleration of charge data for the energy storage device in the electronic device indicative of an acceleration rate of the charge level of the energy storage device for a plurality of sub-intervals of time within the plurality of intervals of time based on the state of charge data, and wherein determining the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging comprises using identifying, in the acceleration of charge data, a first sub-interval of time of the plurality of sub-intervals of time indicating an acceleration rate above a charging threshold adjacent to a second sub-interval of time of the plurality of sub-intervals of time indicating an acceleration rate below the charging threshold.

20. The medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise

determining one or more times at which the energy storage device for the electronic device has historically been charged based on the state of charge data;

and

wherein determining the forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to begin charging is based on the one or more times at which the energy storage device for the electronic device has historically been charged.

15. A processing system comprising:

one or more processors coupled to a memory programmed with executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform operations comprising;

determining state of charge data for an energy storage device in an electronic device indicative of a charge level of the energy storage device over a plurality of intervals of time;

determining a forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to begin charging based on the state of charge data; and

determining a forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below a predetermined threshold amount based on the state of charge data; and

before the forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount, taking an action in response to determining that the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount is before the forecasted time at which the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the action comprises generating a notification for display on a device indicating that the energy storage device is forecasted to have an amount of energy below the predetermined threshold amount before the energy storage device is forecasted to begin charging.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the state of charge data for the energy storage device in the electronic device is generated for each of a plurality of sub-intervals of time for each of the plurality of intervals of time.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise

determining one or more times at which the energy storage device for the electronic device has historically been charged based on the state of charge data;

and

wherein determining the forecasted time at which the energy storage device for the electronic device is forecasted to begin charging is based on the one or more times at which the energy storage device for the electronic device has historically been charged.