METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING SLEEP MODE IN PORTABLE TERMINAL

• US 20140013141A1
• Filed: 07/02/2013
• Published: 01/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: HEO, Changryong, PARK, Kenhyung
• Granted Patent: US 9,851,779 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/323
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/027 by controlling a display operation or backlight unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/028 switching on or off only a part of the equipment circuit blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0293 having a sub-controller with a low clock frequency switching on and off a main controller with a high clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for controlling a sleep mode in a portable terminal having a main controller and a sub-controller operating at low power are provided. The method includes detecting, by the sub-controller, a first sensor signal generated by a first sensor when the main controller is in the sleep mode, extracting a sensed pattern from the detected first sensor signal, determining whether the extracted sensed pattern is substantially identical with a preset wake-up pattern, and cancelling the sleep mode by waking-up the main controller when the extracted sensed pattern is substantially identical with the wake-up pattern.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a sleep mode in a portable terminal having a main controller and a sub-controller operating at low power, the method comprising:

detecting, by the sub-controller, a first sensor signal generated by a first sensor when the main controller is in the sleep mode;

extracting a sensed pattern from the detected first sensor signal;

determining whether the extracted sensed pattern is substantially identical with a preset wake-up pattern; and

cancelling the sleep mode by waking-up the main controller when the extracted sensed pattern is substantially identical with the wake-up pattern.

2. The method of claim 21, wherein the extracting of the visual pattern from the detected motion signal comprises:

determining whether the portable terminal is moving when the visual signal is detected;

extracting the visual pattern from the visual signal when the portable terminal is not moving.

3. The method of claim 21, wherein the detecting, by the sub-controller, of the visual signal generated by the camera comprises detecting the visual signal by using only some pixels included in the camera.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sensor comprises a microphone, the first sensor signal comprises a sound signal, the sensed pattern comprises a sound pattern and the wake-up pattern.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the extracting of the sensed pattern from the detected first sensor signal comprises:

converting an analog signal input from the microphone into a digital signal; and

extracting the sound pattern by analyzing the digital signal.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second sensor signal by the sub-controller;

determining whether the received second sensor signal satisfies a preset alarm condition;

cancelling the sleep mode by waking-up the main controller when the alarm condition is satisfied; and

limiting some of functions of the portable terminal when the alarm condition is satisfied.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising reporting an alarm notifying that some functions of the portable terminal are limited.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising storing the received second sensor signal in a protected area which a user is not able to access or delete.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sensor comprises a camera, the first sensor signal comprises a visual signal, the sensed pattern comprises a visual pattern and the wake-up pattern comprises a visual wake-up pattern.

7. (canceled)

10. An apparatus for controlling a sleep mode in a portable terminal, the apparatus comprising;

a main controller requesting entering the sleep mode;

a first sensor detecting a first sensor signal when the main controller is in the sleep mode; and

a sub-controller operating at a low power, the sub-controller being activated to extract a sensed pattern from the first sensor signal detected by the first sensor when the main controller is in the sleep mode and waking-up the main controller when the extracted sensed pattern is substantially identical with a preset wake-up pattern.

11. The apparatus of claim 22,

wherein some pixels included in the camera are activated in the sleep mode and the camera is connected to the sub-controller through a low speed interface.

12. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the sub-controller determines whether the portable terminal is moving when detecting the visual signal, and

wherein the sub-controller extracts the visual pattern from the detected visual signal when the portable terminal is not moving.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first sensor comprises a microphone, the first sensor signal comprises a sound signal, the sensed pattern comprises a sound pattern and the wake-up pattern comprises a sound wake-up pattern.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the sub-controller further comprises an analog-digital converter converting an analog signal corresponding to the sound signal received from the microphone into a digital signal.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a second sensor that is activated in the sleep mode, the sensor sensing a surrounding situation and a state of the portable terminal,

wherein the sub-controller wakes-up the main controller when the surrounding situation or the state of the portable terminal sensed through the second sensor satisfies a preset alarm condition, and

wherein the main controller limits some functions of the portable terminal when the preset alarm condition is satisfied.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the second sensor comprises at least one of an accelerometer sensor, a motion sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, an atmospheric sensor, a pressure sensor, a gravity sensor, and a vision sensor.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the main controller reports an alarm notifying that some functions of the portable terminal are limited.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the main controller stores sensor information sensed by the second sensor in a protected area which the user is not able to access or delete when the preset alarm condition to wake-up the main controller is satisfied.

22. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first sensor comprises a camera, the first sensor signal comprises a visual signal, the sensed pattern comprises a visual pattern and the wake-up pattern comprises a visual wake-up pattern.

17. (canceled)

20. A method of controlling a sleep mode in a portable terminal having a main controller and a sub-controller operating at low power, the method comprising:

activating the sub-controller when the main controller enters the sleep mode;

collecting, by the sub-controller, sensor information for at least one of surrounding situation information of the portable terminal and state information of the portable terminal;

determining whether the collected sensor information satisfies a preset alarm condition;

waking-up the main controller when the alarm condition is satisfied;

limiting some functions of the portable terminal; and

storing the collected sensor information in a protected area which a user is not able to access or delete.