SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING POWER CONSUMPTION IN AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE HAVING A TOUCH-SENSITIVE DISPLAY

• US 20120191993A1
• Filed: 01/21/2011
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Theimer, Wolfgang Michael, Drader, Marc
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,560 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041661 using detection at multiple resolutions, e.g. coarse and fine scanning; using detection within a limited area, e.g. object tracking window
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04

Abstract

A system and method for reducing power consumption in an electronic device by controlling the transition of the electronic device from a sleep mode to a full power mode. The electronic device comprises a main processor a touch-sensitive overlay, and an overlay controller. A sequence of touch inputs on the touch-sensitive overlay are detected and captured using the overlay controller while the main processor is in the sleep mode. A subset of the sequence of touch inputs is processed using the overlay controller to determine that the sequence of touch inputs corresponds to a coarse model of a pre-determined wake-up gesture prior to transitioning the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.

Claims

1. A method for reducing power consumption in an electronic device by controlling the transition of the electronic device from a sleep mode to a full power mode, the electronic device comprising a main processor, a touch-sensitive overlay, and an overlay controller, the method comprising:

detecting and capturing a sequence of touch inputs on the touch-sensitive overlay using the overlay controller while the main processor is in the sleep mode;

processing a subset of the sequence of touch inputs using the overlay controller to determine that the sequence of touch inputs corresponds to a coarse model of a pre-determined wake-up gesture, the pre-determined wake-up gesture being adapted to transition the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full-power mode; and

,

transitioning the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, prior to transitioning the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode, the method further comprises:

transitioning the main processor from the sleep mode to the full power mode;

processing the entire sequence of touch inputs using the main processor to determine that the sequence of touch inputs corresponds to a fine model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture to transition the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein, prior to capturing the sequence of touch inputs, the method further comprises:

maintaining the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller in a slow scan mode, the slow scan mode comprising duty cycling the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller between the full power mode for a first period of time and the sleep mode for a second period of time, the second period of time being substantially longer than the first period of time; and

,

upon detecting a touch input on the touch-sensitive overlay,

transitioning the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller to a fast scan mode, the fast scan mode comprising duty cycling the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller between the full power mode for the first period of time and the sleep mode for a third period of time, the third period of time being substantially shorter than the second period of time, to capture the sequence of touch inputs.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein upon detecting no further touch input on the touch-sensitive overlay within a predetermined period of time, maintaining the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller in the slow scan mode for a predetermined lock-out period of time.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein, upon determining that the sequence of touch inputs does not correspond to the coarse model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture, maintaining the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller in the slow scan mode for a predetermined lock-out period of time.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein each touch input of the sequence of touch inputs is associated with a measured parameter.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein processing the subset of the sequence of touch inputs using the overlay controller comprises comparing the measured parameter of each touch input in the subset of the sequence of touch inputs to a corresponding parameter of the coarse model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein processing the entire sequence of touch inputs using the main processor comprises comparing the measured parameter of each touch input in the entire sequence of touch inputs to a corresponding parameter of the fine model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the measured parameter is a location of the touch input, a time stamp of the touch input, or a pressure of the touch input.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-determined wake-up gesture is selected from a plurality of pre-recorded wake-up gestures stored in a wake-up gesture library of the electronic device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-determined wake-up gesture is a user-generated wake-up gesture.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-determined wake-up gesture corresponds to a user profile.

13. An electronic device comprising:

a main processor;

a touch-sensitive overlay; and

an overlay controller, the overlay controller being configured to;

detect and capture a sequence of touch inputs on the touch-sensitive overlay while the main processor is in a sleep mode;

process a subset of the sequence of touch inputs to determine that the sequence of touch inputs corresponds to a coarse model of a pre-determined wake-up gesture, the pre-determined wake-up gesture being adapted to transition the electronic device from the sleep mode to a full-power mode; and

,

transition the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein, prior to transitioning the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode, the overlay controller being further configured to:

transition the main processor from the sleep mode to the full power mode, the main processor being configured to;

process the entire sequence of touch inputs to determine that the wake-up gesture corresponds to a fine model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture to transition the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.

15. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein, prior to capturing the sequence of touch inputs, the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller being configured to be maintained in a slow scan mode, the slow scan mode comprising duty cycling the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller between the full power mode for a first period of time and the sleep mode for a second period of time, the second period of time being substantially longer than the first period of time;

and,

upon detecting a touch input on the touch-sensitive overlay, the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller being configured to transition to a fast scan mode, the fast scan mode comprising duty cycling the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller between the full power mode for the first period of time and the sleep mode for a third period of time, the third period of time being substantially shorter than the second period of time, to record the sequence of touch inputs.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein upon detecting no further touch input on the touch-sensitive overlay within a predetermined period of time, the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller being configured to be maintained in the slow scan mode for a predetermined lock-out period of time;

and

upon determining that the sequence of touch inputs does not correspond to the coarse model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture, the touch-sensitive overlay and the overlay controller being configured to be maintained in the slow scan mode for the predetermined lock-out period of time.

17. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein each touch input of the sequence of touch inputs is associated with a measured parameter.

18. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein processing the subset of the sequence of touch inputs comprises comparing the measured parameter of each touch input in the subset of the sequence of touch inputs to a corresponding parameter of the coarse model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture;

and

processing the entire sequence of touch inputs comprises comparing the measured parameter of each touch input in the entire sequence of touch inputs to a corresponding parameter of the fine model of the pre-determined wake-up gesture.

19. The electronic device of claim 17, wherein the measured parameter is a location of the touch input, a time stamp of the touch input, or a pressure of the touch input.

20. A computer-readable medium having tangibly recorded thereon a set of non-transitory instructions for execution by an electronic device having a main processor, a touch-sensitive overlay, and an overlay controller, the non-transitory instructions for carrying out a method for reducing power consumption in the electronic device by controlling the transition of the electronic device from a sleep mode to a full power mode, the method comprising:

detecting and capturing a sequence of touch inputs on the touch-sensitive overlay using the overlay controller while the main processor is in the sleep mode;

processing a subset of the sequence of touch inputs using the overlay controller to determine that the sequence of touch inputs corresponds to a coarse model of a pre-determined wake-up gesture, the pre-determined wake-up gesture being adapted to transition the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full-power mode; and

,

transitioning the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.