Supplying power to a computer accessory from a captured wifi signal

• US 10,520,997 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2015
• Issued: 12/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Sen, Souvik, Gummeson, Jeremy, Lee, David, Fink, Martin R, Kim, Kyu Han
• Primary Examiner(s): Butcher, Brian M
• Application Number:
  US15/519,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20170300098A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,818 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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: G06F 2203/0384 Wireless input, i.e. hardware and software details of wireless interface arrangements for pointing devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0231 Cordless keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03543 Mice or pucks G06F3/03541 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/001 Energy harvesting or scavenging
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/20 using microwaves or radio frequency waves
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/80 involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices

Abstract

Examples herein disclose capturing a wifi signal from a computing device corresponding to a computing accessory and harvesting energy from the captured wifi signal. The examples power the computing accessory based on the harvested energy.

Claims

1. A method, executable by a computing accessory, the method comprising:

capturing a wifi signal from a computing device corresponding to the computing accessory;

determining an amount of energy available, from the wifi signal, to tune a circuit within the computing accessory;

harvesting the energy from the wifi signal; and

powering the computing accessory based on the harvested energy.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein capturing the wifi signal from the computing device corresponding to the computing accessory includes:

tuning an antenna circuit, internal to the computing accessory, to capture energy from the wifi signal between 0.01 milliwatts and two milliwatts.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the computing device transmits the wifi signal and an associated power between 50 milliwatts and 200 milliwatts.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein capturing the wifi signal from the corresponding computing device includes:

forming a radiation pattern no greater than 90 degrees from the computing accessory to the computing device.

5. A computing accessory comprising:

an antenna module to capture a wifi signal from a corresponding computing device;

a rectifying circuit to convert an analog power associated with the wifi signal from the antenna module to a direct current (DC) voltage;

a tuning circuit to match impedance of the antenna module to an expected received power of the wifi signal between 0.01 milliwatts and two milliwatts; and

a power management circuit to;

supply the DC voltage to the computing accessory for operation of the computing accessory, wherein the DC voltage is a primary source of power for the computing accessory,

wherein the corresponding computing device is a computer configured to receive input from the computing accessory.

6. The computing accessory of claim 5 wherein the computing accessory is a mouse and the antenna module includes a mono-polar antenna located below a scroll wheel of the mouse.

7. The computing accessory of claim 5 wherein a distance between the computing accessory and the corresponding computing device is no greater than one meter for capturing the wifi signal.

8. The computing accessory of claim 5 comprising:

a conditioning circuit to receive the DC voltage from the rectifying circuit and convert the DC voltage to a voltage for use by the computing accessory; and

a battery module, internal to the computing accessory, to receive the voltage for use by the computing accessory, the voltage is the primary source of power for operation of the computing accessory.

9. The computing accessory of claim 5 wherein the rectifying circuit includes at least two half-wave rectifiers to double the analog power for producing the DC voltage.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processor cause a computing accessory to:

capture a wifi signal of at least 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) from a computing device corresponding to the computing accessory;

determine an amount of energy available, from the wifi signal, to tune a circuit within the computing accessory;

convert an analog power extracted from the w fi signal to a direct current (DC) voltage; and

utilize the DC voltage as a primary source of power for operation of the computing accessory.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium including the instructions of claim 10 wherein to capture the wifi signal at least 2.4 GHz from the computing device associated with the computing accessory includes instructions that when executed by the processor cause the computing accessory to:

form a radiation pattern no greater than 90 degrees to the computing device; and

tune a circuit by matching an impedance of an antenna to the analog power transmitted with the wifi signal between 50 milliwatts and 200 milliwatts.