Adaptive Touch Sensor Control Based on Identification of Attached Accessory

• US 20140267059A1
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Deokar, Itisha C., Bengtson, Dale F., Grivas, Chris J., Olley, Michael F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,041,671 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04166 Details of scanning methods, e.g. sampling time, grouping of sub areas or time sharing with display driving Synchronisation with the driving of the display or the backlighting unit to avoid interferences generated internally G06F3/04184
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00 Circuit arrangements for charging or depolarising batteries or for supplying loads from batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00034 Charger exchanging data with an electronic device, i.e. telephone, whose internal battery is under charge
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00045 Authentication, i.e. circuits for checking compatibility between one component, e.g. a battery or a battery charger, and another component, e.g. a power source

Abstract

A rechargeable touch sensor equipped device (102) is adapted to identify (1008) each of multiple external charging devices (118, 120, 122, 602) by an ID or other information received through an interface (230, 630) or to infer the identity (1020) based on location information derived from received wireless signals, the time and/or day. The rechargeable touch sensor equipped device (102) determines (1026) and records (1028) a touch screen operating frequency to be used when coupled to each external charging device (118, 120, 122, 602) at each battery charge state (or other indication of power draw) and in this way mitigates the adverse effect of variable charger generated noise on the operation of the touch screen.

Claims

1. A method of operating a rechargeable touch screen equipped device, the method comprising:

determining an identity of a coupled battery charger;

reading at least one measure indicative of power being drawn by the rechargeable touch screen equipped device from the coupled battery charger;

checking stored information to determine if there is a record corresponding to the identity and the at least one measure of power being drawn;

when a record is found;

reading configuration information stored in the record and operating a touch sensor at a first frequency based on the configuration information; and

when a record is not found;

selecting a second frequency from a plurality of frequencies and creating a new record in said stored information corresponding to said identity, and corresponding to said measure of power being drawn, said record including configuration information corresponding to said second frequency.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein reading at least one measure indicative of power being drawn by the rechargeable touch screen equipped device from the coupled battery charger comprises:

determining a charge state of the rechargeable touch screen equipped device.

3. The method according to claim 1,

wherein said second frequency is selected to satisfy one or more criteria selected from a group consisting of:

said second frequency yields a best performance, among said plurality of frequencies, of said touch sensor according to a performance metric, and

said second frequency yields performance for which said performance metric meets a minimum criteria.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining said identity of said coupled battery charger comprises:

reading identifying information from said coupled battery charger.

5. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining said identity of said coupled battery charger comprises:

reading identifying information from another connected device.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining said identity of said coupled battery charger comprises:

receiving wireless signals and deducing location information from said wireless signals.

7. The method according to claim 6 wherein the receiving wireless signals comprises:

construing received signal strengths of the wireless signals as at least a part of said identity of said coupled battery charger.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein the receiving wireless signals comprises:

receiving a wireless network device ID and construing the wireless network device ID as a location identifier and using the location identifier as at least a part of said identity of said coupled battery charger.

9. The method according to claim 6 wherein receiving of wireless signals comprises:

receiving a cellular site ID and construing the cellular site ID as a location identifier and using the location identifier as at least a part of said identity of said coupled battery charger.

10. The method according to claim 6 wherein receiving of wireless signals comprises:

receiving information derived from a Bluetooth link key and construing the information derived from the Bluetooth link key as a location identifier and using the location identifier as at least a part of said identity of said coupled battery charger.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining said identity of said coupled battery charger comprises:

checking at least one item of information selected from the group consisting of;

the current time and the current day of the week.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a rechargeable battery;

an interface coupled to said rechargeable battery and adapted to couple to each of a plurality of external battery chargers;

a touch sensor;

a memory;

at least one controller coupled to said touch sensor and said rechargeable battery, wherein said at least one controller is configured to;

deduce an identity of each of said plurality of external battery charger coupled to said interface;

read at least one measure indicative of power being drawn by the apparatus from each of the plurality of external battery chargers;

check stored information in said memory to determine if there is a record corresponding to the identity and the power being drawn;

when a record is found;

read configuration information stored in the record and operate the touch sensor at a first frequency based on the configuration information;

when a record is not found;

select a second frequency from a plurality of frequencies and create a new record in said stored information corresponding to said identity, and corresponding to said at least one measure indicative of power being drawn said including configuration information corresponding to said second frequency.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12 wherein in reading at least one measure indicative of power being drawn by the apparatus from each of the plurality of external battery chargers, said apparatus is configured to:

determine a charge state of said rechargeable battery.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12 wherein in selecting said second frequency said at least one controller is configured to:

select said second frequency such that said second frequency satisfies one or more criteria selected from a group consisting of;

said second frequency yields a best performance, among said plurality of frequencies, of said touch sensor according to a performance metric, and

said second frequency yields performance for which said performance metric meets a minimum criteria.

15. The apparatus according to claim 12 further comprising:

a wireless receiver and

wherein said at least one controller is configured to determine said identity of at least a first subset of said plurality of external battery chargers coupled to said interface by;

receiving information from said wireless receiver,

deducing location information from said information, and

construing said information as at least a part of said identity.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15 wherein said wireless receiver comprises a global positioning satellite receiver.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15 wherein said wireless receiver comprises a wireless network receiver.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15 wherein said wireless receiver comprises a cellular receiver.

19. The apparatus according to claim 15 wherein said at least one controller is coupled to said interface and said at least one controller is adapted to:

receive identifying information from at least a second subset of said plurality of external battery chargers through said interface.

20. The apparatus according to claim 12 wherein said at least one controller comprises:

a touch sensor controller coupled to said touch sensor;

a battery charge controller coupled to said rechargeable battery; and

a main controller coupled to said touch sensor controller and said battery charge controller.