METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DYNAMIC POWER SAVINGS BASED ON LOCATION

• US 20120052873A1
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Published: 03/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Wong, Yoon Kean
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Techniques to dynamically manage power for a mobile computing device based on a location of the device are described. For example, a mobile computing device may comprise one or more wireless transceivers, a location module operative to monitor one or more location parameters for the mobile computing device, and a power management module operative to dynamically enable or disable one or more of the wireless transceivers based on a comparison of the one or more location parameters and information from a wireless communication technology database. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device, comprising:

one or more wireless transceivers;

a location module operative to monitor one or more location parameters for the mobile computing device; and

a power management module operative to dynamically enable or disable one or more of the wireless transceivers based on a comparison of the one or more location parameters and information from a wireless communication technology database.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the power management module is operative to dynamically disable one or more of the wireless transceivers if one or more wireless communication technologies associated with the one or more wireless transceivers is not available or does not provide a quality of service (QoS) above a predefined threshold at a location determined using the one or more location parameters.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the power management module is operative to periodically request one or more location parameters from the location module and perform the comparison with the information from the wireless communication technology database after a predetermined time period or after the mobile computing device has been moved a predetermined distance.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication technology database comprises one or more lists of correlated location information and wireless communication technology information generated by one or more users of the one or more wireless communication technologies, one or more service providers or one or more mobile computing device manufacturers.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 4, wherein the wireless communication technology information comprises one or more communications parameters comprising one or more of wireless communication technology availability, signal strength, bandwidth or cost.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 4, wherein the one or more wireless communication technologies comprise one or more of cellular, Wi-Fi, wireless local area network (WLAN), wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN) or personal area network (PAN) communication technologies.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the one or more location parameters comprise a current location or an estimated future location for the mobile computing device determined using one or more of global position system (GPS), wireless triangulation, dead reckoning or relative positioning.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the power management module is operative to request and receive the wireless communication technology database from a remote device.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 1, comprising:

one or more memory modules to store the wireless communication technology database.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining a location of a mobile computing device;

requesting a wireless communication technology database based on the location;

comparing the location with information contained in the wireless communication technology database; and

dynamically enabling or disabling one or more wireless transceivers based on the comparison.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

determining if one or more wireless communication technologies associated with the one or more wireless transceivers is available at the location;

determining if the one or more wireless communication technologies associated with the one or more wireless transceivers provides a quality of service (QoS) above a predefined threshold at the location; and

dynamically disabling the one or more of the wireless transceivers if the one or more wireless communication technologies associated with the one or more wireless transceivers is not available at the location or does not provide a quality of service (QoS) above the predefined threshold.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

measuring a time period or calculating a distance that the mobile computing has traveled since a last request for a wireless communication technology database; and

requesting an updated wireless communication technology database if a predetermined amount of time has lapsed or a predetermined distance has been traveled.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the wireless communication technology database comprises one or more lists of correlated location information and wireless communication technology information generated by one or more users of the one or more wireless communication technologies, one or more service providers or one or more mobile computing device manufacturers and wherein the wireless communication technology information comprises one or more communications parameters comprising one or more of wireless communication technology availability, signal strength, bandwidth or cost.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

requesting the wireless communication technology database from a remote device.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, comprising:

requesting the wireless communication technology database from a memory of the mobile computing device.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 10, comprising instructions that when executed by the processor enable the system to:

request the wireless communication technology database from a remote device; and

store the wireless communication technology database in a memory of the mobile computing device.

16. An article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed by a processor enable a system to:

determine a location of a mobile computing device;

request a wireless communication technology database based on the location;

compare the location with information contained in the wireless communication technology database; and

dynamically enable or disable one or more wireless transceivers based on the comparison.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, comprising instructions that when executed by the processor enable the system to:

determine if one or more wireless communication technologies associated with the one or more wireless transceivers is available at the location;

determine if the one or more wireless communication technologies associated with the one or more wireless transceivers provides a quality of service (QoS) above a predefined threshold at the location; and

dynamically disable the one or more of the wireless transceivers if the one or more wireless communication technologies associated with the one or more wireless transceivers is not available at the location or does not provide a quality of service (QoS) above a predefined threshold.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 16, comprising instructions that when executed by the processor enable the system to:

measure a time period or calculate a distance that the mobile computing device has traveled since a last request for a wireless communication technology database; and

request an updated wireless communication technology database if a predetermined amount of time has lapsed or a predetermined distance has been traveled.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the wireless communication technology database comprises one or more lists of correlated location information and wireless communication technology information generated by one or more users of the one or more wireless communication technologies, one or more service providers or one or more mobile computing device manufacturers and wherein the wireless communication technology information comprises one or more communications parameters comprising one or more of wireless communication technology availability, signal strength, bandwidth or cost.