Electronic device and method for measuring position change

• US 10,198,057 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2014
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Bae, Dong-Hwan, Park, Jeong-Min, Son, Sung-Ho, Kim, Woo-Young
• Primary Examiner(s): Charioui, Mohamed
• Assistant Examiner(s): Delozier, Jeremy
• Application Number:
  US14/265,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20150066424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,742 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

An operating method of an electronic device is provided. The method includes determining, by a first processor using at least one sensor, whether a state change occurs, if it is determined that there is the state change, determining, by the first processor, whether to transmit state information to a second processor, and determining, by the second processor, whether to measure a changed position at each of set periods using a position measuring module on the basis of whether the state information is received.

Claims

1. A method of an electronic device, the method comprising:

detecting, by a first processor, that a state of the electronic device is changed, using at least one sensor;

determining, by the first processor, whether a degree by which the state of the electronic device is changed is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold;

in response to determining that the degree is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold, transmitting, by the first processor, information associated with the state of the electronic device to a second processor; and

controlling, by the second processor, a position measuring module to measure a position of the electronic device at a set time which is scheduled to measure the position of the electronic device, in response to receiving the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor,

wherein controlling the position measuring module further comprises controlling, by the second processor, when the second processor does not receive the information from the first processor or receives information that the degree is less than the predetermined threshold, the position measuring module such that the position measuring module does not measure the position of the electronic device at the set time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting comprises detecting, by the first processor, at least one of a position change, an altitude change, a temperature change, a pressure change, a humidity change, an illumination change, or a pressure change.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the degree is less than the predetermined threshold, storing, by the first processor, the information associated with the state of the electronic device without transmitting the information associated with the state of the electronic device to the second processor.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling comprises controlling, by the second processor, the position measuring module to measure the position of the electronic device at a next position measuring period which is the set time, based on the information associated with the state of the electronic device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the controlling further comprises:

reading, by the second processor, the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor when the next position measuring period arrives; and

identifying the read information.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein the second processor is changed from a sleep state into the wake-up state when the second processor that has been in the sleep state receives the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor, and

wherein the first processor operates at a first power consumption level and the second processor operates at a second power level greater than the first power consumption level in the wake-up state.

6. An electronic device comprising:

at least one sensor configured to detect a state of the electronic device;

a position measuring module configured to measure a position of the electronic device;

a first processor; and

a second processor,

wherein the first processor is configured to;

detect that the state of the electronic device is changed, using the at least one sensor,

determine whether a degree by which the state of the electronic device is changed is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold, and

in response to determining that the degree is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold, transmit information associated with the state of the electronic device to the second processor,

wherein the second processor is configured to;

control the position measuring module to measure the position of the electronic device at a set time which is scheduled to measure the position of the electronic device, in response to receiving the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor, and

wherein the second processor is further configured to control, when the second processor does not receive the information from the first processor or receives information that the degree is less than the predetermined threshold, the position measuring module such that the position measuring module does not measure the position of the electronic device at the set time.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the first processor is further configured to detect at least one of a position change, an altitude change, a temperature change, a pressure change, a humidity change, an illumination change, or a pressure change.

8. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

a memory,

wherein the first processor is further configured to store the information associated with the state of the electronic device in the memory without transmitting the information associated with the state of the electronic device to the second processor, in response to determining that the degree is less than the predetermined threshold.

9. The device of claim 6, wherein the second processor is configured to control the position measuring module to measure the position of the electronic device at a next position measuring period which is the set time, based on the information associated with the state of the electronic device.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the second processor is further configured to read the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor when the next position measuring period arrives and to identify the read information.

13. The device of claim 6,

wherein the second processor is changed from a sleep state into the wake-up state when the second processor that has been in the sleep state receives the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor, and

wherein the first processor operates at a first power consumption level and the second processor operates at a second power level greater than the first power consumption level in the wake-up state.

11. At least one non-transitory processor readable medium for storing a computer program of instructions configured to be readable by at least one processor for instructing the at least one processor to execute a computer process for performing a method comprising:

detecting, by a first processor, that a state of a electronic device is changed, using at least one sensor;

determining, by the first processor, whether a degree by which the state of the electronic device is changed is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold;

in response to determining that the degree is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold, transmitting, by the first processor, information associated with the state of the electronic device to a second processor; and

controlling, by the second processor, a position measuring module to measure a position of the electronic device at a set time which is scheduled to measure the position of the electronic device, in response to receiving the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor,

wherein controlling the position measuring module further comprise controlling, by the second processor, when the second processor does not receive the information from the first processor or receives information that the degree is less than the predetermined threshold, the position measuring module such that the position measuring module does not measure the position of the electronic device at the set time.

14. The at least one non-transitory processor readable medium of claim 11,

wherein the second processor is changed from a sleep state into the wake-up state when the second processor that has been in the sleep state receives the information associated with the state of the electronic device from the first processor, and

wherein the first processor operates at a first power consumption level and the second processor operates at a second power level greater than the first power consumption level in the wake-up state.