Battery life monitor system and method

• US 10,687,150 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2011
• Issued: 06/16/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: III Holdings 4, LLC
• Original Assignee: Audiotoniq, Inc
• Inventors: Neumeyer, Frederick Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Alkafawi, Eman A
• Application Number:
  US13/290,269
• Publication Number:
  US 20120130660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,144 Days
• Field of Search: 702 63, 702 62, 381323
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/367 Software therefor, e.g. for battery testing using modelling or look-up tables
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/392 Determining battery ageing or deterioration, e.g. state of health
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/31 Aspects of the use of accumulators in hearing aids, e.g. rechargeable batteries or fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/03 Aspects of the reduction of energy consumption in hearing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/305 Self-monitoring or self-testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/558 Remote control, e.g. of amplification, frequency

Abstract

An apparatus includes a battery, a plurality of circuit components operable independently, and a controller coupled to the battery and the plurality of circuit components and configured to control operation of the plurality of circuit components. The apparatus further includes a power consumption monitor coupled to the controller and configured to calculate a remaining battery life of the battery based on at least one operating time of a corresponding at least one of the plurality of circuit components.

Claims

1. A wearable device, comprising:

a battery having a remaining battery charge value;

a memory configured to store an energy counter corresponding to the remaining battery charge value;

a plurality of electronic components; and

a controller coupled to the battery, the memory, and the plurality of electronic components, wherein the controller is configured to—

receive, from a remote device, a first signal indicative of a request for information related to the remaining battery charge value, wherein the remote device is a portable computing device comprising a display, and wherein the remote device is a different type of device from the wearable device;

estimate an energy usage of an operation performed by at least one of the plurality of electronic components wherein the energy usage is normalized to create an energy characterization value per unit time of the operation, and wherein estimating the energy usage comprises multiplying the an operation time and the energy characterization value per unit time associated with the operation in an energy characterization table;

calculate an updated energy counter by subtracting the estimated energy usage from the energy counter; and

transmit a second signal indicative of the updated energy counter to the remote device,

wherein the operating time is determined from an operation table recording a start time and an end time for the operation performed by the at least one of the plurality of electronic components, and

wherein the change of battery charge value that occurs during the calculation and transmission steps is unnoticeable.

2. The wearable device of claim 1, further comprising:

a recharge circuit coupled to the battery and to the controller, wherein the recharge circuit is configured to couple the battery to a power source to recharge the battery during a recharge operation, and

wherein the controller is further configured to update the energy counter when the recharge operation ends.

3. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine a start time and an end time of each operation performed by one or more of the plurality of electronic components.

4. The wearable device of claim 1, further comprising:

a power consumption monitor coupled to the controller and the memory, wherein the power consumption monitor comprises;

at least one register configured to store the energy characterization table;

an address register; and

a plurality of digital gates coupled to the address register to set address bits within the address register corresponding to an operation of one or more of the plurality of electronic components wherein the energy characterization value per unit time corresponds to the operation that is stored in the energy characterization table at an address corresponding to the address bits from the address register.

5. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the energy characterization table is stored on the memory.

6. The wearable device of claim 1, further comprising:

a transceiver coupled to the controller and configured to receive the first signal and transmit the second signal.

7. The wearable device of claim 6, further comprising:

a user interface configured to output information related to the remaining battery charge value to a user.

8. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the controller keeps a record of an operating time for each operation performed by at least one of the plurality of electronic components in the operation table and the controller updates the battery charge value based on the record of the operating time for each operation.

9. The wearable device of claim 1, further comprising an alert interface, wherein the alert interface includes at least one of a graphical display, a speaker, a light-emitting diode, or tactile device.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions stored therein for causing a computer processor to perform:

storing a start time of an operation performed by a wearable device, wherein the operation is selected from one of a plurality of operations associated with a corresponding energy usage per unit of time in an energy characterization table stored in a memory of the wearable device;

receiving, from a remote device, a signal indicative of a trigger to provide information related to a battery charge value of the wearable device, wherein the signal is received during the operation, wherein the remote device is a portable computing device comprising a display, and wherein the remote device is a different type of device from the wearable device;

updating the battery charge value of the wearable device by an amount of energy corresponding to a product of the period of time and the corresponding energy usage per unit time of the operation; and

transmitting a value indicative of the updated battery charge value from the wearable device to the remote device in response to the signal, and

wherein the change of battery charge value that occurs during the calculation and transmission steps is unnoticeable.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 wherein updating the battery charge value includes subtracting the product of the period of time and the corresponding energy usage per unit time of the operation from the battery charge value.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the operation comprises a recharge operation including monitoring the increase in the battery charge value, and providing the recharge operation information to the wearable device for updating the battery charge value.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein receiving the signal includes receiving the signal from the remote device in response to user input requesting information related to the battery charge value of the wearable device.

14. A method of determining a battery charge value of a device, the method comprising:

recording a first time in a memory on the device, wherein the first time corresponds to a start time of an operation performed by an electronic component on the device;

receiving at the device a request from a remote device for information related to the battery charge value of the device, wherein the request is received during the operation, wherein the remote device is a portable computing device comprising a display, and wherein the remote device is a different type of device than the device;

in response to receiving the request at the device—

determining a duration of time between the first time and when the request is received;

calculating an amount of energy used during the duration of time, wherein calculating the amount of energy comprises multiplying the duration of time and an energy usage per unit of time associated with the operation; and

determining a difference between the calculated amount of energy used and the battery charge value to determine an updated battery charge value;

transmitting a signal indicative of the updated battery charge value to a computing device communicatively coupled to the device; and

displaying, at the computing device, information related to the updated battery charge value, and

wherein the change of battery charge value that occurs during the calculation and transmission steps is unnoticeable.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the plurality of operations include at least one audio signal processing operation for modulating an audio signal to compensate for a hearing deficiency of a user.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing a battery life indicator related to the battery charge value.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein providing the battery life indicator comprises activating a visual, audio, or tactile feedback element to provide a user-detectable indicator.