Software-directed, energy-aware control of display

• US 20030135288A1
• Filed: 12/27/2001
• Published: 07/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Compaq Information Technologies Group LP (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Hamburgen, William, Ranganathan, Parthasarathy, Gettys, James
• Granted Patent: US 6,801,811 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3218 of display devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0686 with two or more screen areas displaying information with different brightness or colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/00 Control arrangements or circuits for visual indicators common to cathode-ray tube indicators and other visual indicators image data processing or generation, in general G06T
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Energy-aware software control in a computer system requires a display capable of supporting control of individual portions thereof so at to reduce its energy consumption. The energy-aware software control involves profiling screen usage patterns and their impact on the energy consumption by the display. The profiling results in an energy model. A determination is made when to prompt the energy-aware software control of the display. As well, a determination is made as to which screen portions of the display and what display parameters to control based on the energy model. Then, for each portion of the display to be controlled, controlling its display parameters, wherein the screen portions are controlled to attain energy conservation.

Claims

19-1. The method of claim 1, wherein the energy-aware software control is prompted to provide either automatic control of the display based on monitored metrics or user-initiated control.

26. A system for energy-aware software control of a display in a computer system so as to reduce energy consumed by the display, comprising:

means for profiling screen usage patterns and their impact on energy consumption by the display, the profiling resulting in an energy model;

means for determining when to prompt the energy-aware software control of the display in order to decrease its energy consumption;

means for determining which screen portions of the display and what display parameters to control based on the energy model; and

for each portion of the display to be controlled, mans for controlling its display parameters, wherein the screen portions are controlled to attain energy conservation.

27. A system for energy-aware software control in a computer system, comprising:

a display capable of supporting control of individual portions thereof so at to reduce energy consumed by the display; and

an energy-aware software control product, in a computer readable medium, embodying program code including instructions to cause the computer to perform steps, including

profiling screen usage patterns and their impact on energy consumption by the display, the profiling resulting in an energy model;

determining when to prompt the energy-aware software control of the display in order to decrease its energy consumption;

determining which screen portions of the display and what display parameters to control based on the energy model; and

for each portion of the display to be controlled, controlling its display parameters, wherein the screen portions are controlled to attain energy conservation.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the display is configured with a display technology which is one of an organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology, liquid crystal display (LCD) technology, inorganic electroluminescent (EL) display technology, field emission display technology and CRT technology, each of which being capable of supporting the energy-aware software control at a fine level of granularity corresponding to elements of the individual portions of the display.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the fine level of granularity is a tile, grid, matrix or pixel.

31. The system of claim 28, wherein the power source is a battery and the power metrics include battery current, and wherein monitoring the battery current allows automatic prompting of the energy-aware software control.

32. The system of claim 28, further comprising:

means for allowing a user to turn the energy-aware software control on/off via the user interface.

30. A system for energy-aware software control in a computer system, comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU);

a memory embodying program code to be fetched and executed by the CPU, the program code including that of applications;

a display capable of supporting fine-grained control of screen portions via their respective display parameters;

a user interface, the display and user interface being directly or indirectly controlled by the CPU;

a monitor configured to monitor power metrics of a computer system power source;

an energy model creator using as an input profiling parameters to create an energy model; and

an energy-aware software control means capable of controlling the respective display parameters of the screen portions based on the energy model, wherein the energy-aware software means is prompted based on indications from the monitor, applications and/or user interface.