Method and Apparatus for Controlling Power in a Battery-Powered Electronic Device

• US 20090094473A1
• Filed: 09/17/2008
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Mizutani, Akihiko
• Granted Patent: US 8,051,318 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode

Abstract

A method for controlling power in a battery-powered electronic apparatus is disclosed. The electronic apparatus includes a battery, a detection unit and a power consumption estimation unit. The battery supplies electric power to each device within the electronic apparatus. The detection unit periodically detects total power consumption of the electronic apparatus and device information representing an operating state of each device within the electronic apparatus. The power consumption estimation unit estimates power consumption of the each device based on the detected total power consumption and the detected device information of each device.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a battery for supplying electric power to each device within said electronic apparatus;

a detection unit for periodically detecting total power consumption of said electronic apparatus and device information representing an operating state of said each device within said electronic apparatus; and

a power consumption estimation unit for estimating power consumption of said each device based on said detected total power consumption and said detected device information of said each device.

2. The electronic apparatus of claim 1, wherein said total power consumption is approximated by the following equation:

$\begin{array}{cc}P<br><br>\left(t\right)=P_0+\underset{j}{\sum <br><br>}<br><br><br><br>p_j<br><br>I_j<br><br>\left(t\right)& \left(2\right)\end{array}$

where P is the total power consumption, P₀ is power consumption of each device during idling, I_j is device information, and p_j is a proportional coefficient with respect to said device information I_j.

3. The electronic apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a desired operation time setting unit for setting a desired operation time of said battery in response to a user'"'"'s operation;

a remaining battery capacity detection unit for detecting the remaining capacity of said battery; and

a power consumption control unit for determining a range of target power consumption based on the desired operation time of said battery set by the desired operation time setting unit and said remaining battery capacity detected by said battery capacity detection unit to control the operating state of each device based on said power consumption of each device estimated by said power consumption estimation unit so that the total power consumption falls in the range of a target power consumption when said total power consumption detected by said detection unit is out of the range of said target power consumption.

4. The electronic apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a battery usable time presentation unit for determining an estimated value of said total power consumption in each power mode based on the power consumption of each device estimated by said power consumption estimation unit and that estimates battery usable time in each power mode based on the estimated value of said total power consumption to display the time in a display screen.

5. The electronic apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a first battery extended time presentation unit that calculates battery extended time when the supply of the electric power to the device is stopped based on the power consumption of the device estimated by said power consumption estimation unit, to display the battery extended time in a display screen.

6. The electronic apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a second battery extended time presentation unit that monitors a use situation of the device with respect to each process and that calculates the battery extended time extendable when each process is stopped based on the power consumption of the device estimated by said power consumption estimation unit, to display the battery extended time in a display screen.

7. A method comprising:

supplying electric power to each device within said electronic apparatus by a battery;

periodically detecting total power consumption of said electronic apparatus and device information representing an operating state of each device; and

estimating power consumption of each device based on said total power consumption of said electronic apparatus and said detected device information of each device.

8. A computer readable medium having a computer program product for controlling power in a battery-powered electronic apparatus, said computer readable medium comprising:

computer program code for supplying electric power to each device within said electronic apparatus by a battery;

computer program code for periodically detecting total power consumption of said electronic apparatus and device information representing an operating state of each device; and

computer program code for estimating power consumption of each device based on said total power consumption of said electronic apparatus and said detected device information of each device.