Intuitive energy management of a short-range communication transceiver associated with a mobile terminal
First Claim
1. A mobile terminal apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
- a user-interface having illumination capability;
a short-range communication transceiver; and
a processor in communication with the user-interface and the transceiver that controls illumination of the user-interface and provides a transceiver-controlling input to the transceiver upon illumination of the user-interface.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The method, terminal and computer program product of the present invention are capable of adjusting the power consumption of short-range communication transceivers, such as RFID, IR transceivers or the like. Energy management of the transceiver is achieved by limiting activation of the transceiver to periods of user-interface illumination. The transceiver, therefore, uses less power because it is only activated by an intentional gesture by the user, i.e., a gesture that will initiate the illumination of a user-interface. In addition, the user of terminal is aware, via observation of the illumination, that the terminal is in an active transceiver reading state and, thus, the invention provides for a safe environment in which inadvertent reading of tags or data communication is lessened.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A mobile terminal apparatus, the apparatus comprising:
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a user-interface having illumination capability;
a short-range communication transceiver; and
a processor in communication with the user-interface and the transceiver that controls illumination of the user-interface and provides a transceiver-controlling input to the transceiver upon illumination of the user-interface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for controlling activation of a short-range communication transceiver associated with a mobile terminal, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing an illuminating input to the mobile terminal;
illuminating a user-interface of the mobile terminal; and
activating the transceiver associated with the mobile terminal based upon illumination of the user-interface. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A computer program product for activating a short-range communication transceiver associated with a mobile terminal, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code routines stored therein, the computer-readable program code routines comprising:
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a first executable routine capable of detecting an illuminating input to the mobile terminal;
a second executable routine capable of illuminating a user-interface in response to the detection of the illuminating input; and
a third executable routine capable of activating the transceiver based upon illumination of the user-interface. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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Specification