Communication between devices to determine priority of charging

• US 10,305,294 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2015
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Akbulut, Muhtar B., Bradley, Lisa, Lavery, Andrew, Maldari, Mario A., O'Donovan, Brian, Quirk, Aaron J., Sun, Lin, Tabachnik, Albert
• Primary Examiner(s): Fantu, Yalkew
• Application Number:
  US14/872,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20170098941A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,335 Days
• Field of Search: 320106
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/50 by future state prediction
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2260/54 Energy consumption estimation
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0047 with monitoring or indicating devices or circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0049 Detection of fully charged condition
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving

Abstract

A method and system are provided. The method includes monitoring power usage and predicting power requirements for the at least two mobile devices. The method further includes identifying a device charging order and a power threshold of each of the at least two devices to meet the predicted power requirements of each of the at least two devices. The method also includes notifying a user regarding the device charging order and the power threshold of each of the at least two devices. At least the monitoring, identifying, and notifying steps are performed by a processor-enabled charging manager.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

monitoring power usage and predicting power requirements for at least two mobile devices;

dynamically identifying a device charging order and a power threshold of each of the at least two devices to meet the predicted power requirements of each of the at least two devices; and

notifying a user regarding the device charging order and the power threshold of each of the at least two devices,

wherein at least said monitoring, identifying, and notifying steps are performed by a processor-enabled charging manager.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two devices are determined by a proximity criteria.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two devices are determined by a registration to a service.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the service collects information for the power usage from the at least two devices and notifies a user of the device charging order and the powering threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a first device of the at least two devices notifies a second device of the at least two devices of the power requirements of the first device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the device charging order specifies the at least two devices in an order of a lowest charged device to a highest charged device in descending order of priority.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the device charging order specifies the at least two devices in an order of a first to be charged to last to be charged in descending order of priority, based on the power usage and the predicted power requirement.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the power requirements are predicted from past usage history.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising exchanging communications between at the at least two devices specifying battery life information and the device charging order.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising informing a user when to charge another one of the at least two devices when a current charging session for a given one of the at least two devices has ceased.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the other one of the at least two devices is immediately after the given one of the at least two devices in the device charging order.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the power usage comprises monitoring currently opened applications.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the power threshold indicates at least one of a minimum charging time or a minimum charging amount.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the device charging order and the power threshold are identified based on a user indication to overcharge at least one of the at least two devices by a specified amount.

15. A non-transitory article of manufacture tangibly embodying a computer readable program which when executed causes a computer to perform the steps of claim 1.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said notifying step is performed by displaying a table that includes a device indicator and at least three items selected from the group consisting of a current percentage of charge, a current usage state, a predicted power requirement for next device usage, and a predicted next device usage time.

17. A system, comprising:

a processor-enabled charging manager for monitoring power usage and predicting power requirements for at least two mobile devices, and dynamically identifying a device charging order and a power threshold of each of the at least two devices to meet the predicted power requirements of each of the at least two devices,

wherein a user is notified regarding the device charging order and the power threshold of each of the at least two devices.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the power threshold indicates at least one of a minimum charging time or a minimum charging amount.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the device charging order and the power threshold are identified based on a user indication to overcharge at least one of the at least two devices by a specified amount.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor-enabled charging manager is comprised in a shared cloud server device.