LUMINOUS POWER CONTROL OF A LIGHT SOURCE OF A MULTIMEDIA PROCESSING SYSTEM

• US 20110006997A1
• Filed: 07/09/2009
• Published: 01/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: PORWAL, GUNJAN
• Granted Patent: US 8,508,520 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/14 Detecting light within display terminals, e.g. using a single or a plurality of photosensors
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/3406 Control of illumination source illumination devices structurally associated with liquid crystal cells G02F1/1336

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and system of luminous power control of a light source of a multimedia processing system are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method is described. The method includes capturing a digital image of a face of a user. The method also includes applying, with a processor, an algorithm capable of detecting a digital facial feature of the face of the user based on one or more markers of the digital image. In addition, the method includes determining whether the digital image includes the digital facial feature according to the marker. The method further includes causing a light source to illuminate an electronic display at an active-mode luminous power level that includes a luminous power level different than a power-saving mode luminous power level of the light source when the digital image includes the digital facial feature.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

capturing a digital image of a face of a user;

applying, with a processor, an algorithm capable of detecting a digital facial feature of the face of the user based on a marker of the digital image;

determining whether the digital image comprises the digital facial feature according to the marker; and

causing a light source to illuminate an electronic display at an active-mode luminous power level that is different than a power-saving mode luminous power level of the light source when the digital image comprises the digital facial feature.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

converting, with an image sensor, an optical image of the face of the user to the digital image.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the electronic display is located in a mobile device.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

instructing a light source driver to cause the light source to operate at the active-mode luminous power level when the digital image comprises the digital facial feature.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

instructing the light source driver to cause the light source to operate at the power-saving mode luminous power level when the digital image does not comprise the digital facial feature.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the power-saving mode luminous power level is sufficient to maintain a data in a memory of the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

setting a time period calculated by a light timer to an initial value when the digital image comprises the digital facial feature.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the electronic display comprises a touch screen.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

capturing the optical image from an area substantially parallel to a plane of the electronic display.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the active-mode luminous power level is sufficient for the user to ascertain a content presented on the display.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the user sets the active-mode luminous power level.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein a machine is caused to perform the method of claim 1 when a set of instructions in a form of a machine-readable medium is executed by the machine.

13. A multimedia processing system comprising:

an image sensor to convert an optical image to a digital image;

a facial detection module to determine whether the digital image comprises a digital facial feature, wherein the facial detection module is communicatively coupled to the image sensor;

a processor;

an electronic display;

a light source to illuminate the electronic display; and

a light-source driver to cause the light source to illuminate the electronic display at an active-mode luminous power level when the digital image comprises the digital facial feature, wherein the light-source driver is communicatively coupled with the facial detection module.

14. The multimedia processing system of claim 13, wherein the facial detection module analyzes the digital image with a facial detection algorithm.

15. The multimedia processing system of claim 14, wherein the multimedia processing system comprises a mobile device.

16. The multimedia processing system of claim 15, wherein the image sensor acquires the optical image at a periodic interval when the light source is in an active-mode.

17. The multimedia processing system of claim 16, wherein the image sensor acquires the optical image from an area substantially parallel to a plane of the electronic display.

18. A method comprising:

acquiring, with a digital camera of a mobile device, an image from an area substantially parallel to a display screen of the mobile device;

detecting a face of a user in the image; and

illuminating the display screen when the face of the user is detected in the image.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

illuminating the display screen at an illumination level sufficient to aid the user while viewing a content of the display screen when the face of the user is detected in the image.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

illuminating the display screen at a power-saving level when the face of the user is not detected in the image, wherein the power-saving level is different than the illumination level.