Contextual Platform Power Management

• US 20150192976A1
• Filed: 09/25/2014
• Published: 07/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Jeganathan, Nithyananda S., Edwards, James W., Palanisamy, Kandasubramaniam K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,665,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 1/008 the input being air quality
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 2001/3255 related to temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 2001/3277 to control the air flow
• CPC Class Codes: B60H 2001/3282 to control the air flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/08 Clock generators with changeable or programmable clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/203 for portable computers, e.g. for laptops
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/202 Air convective hinge
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/76864 Thermal treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/962 Capacitive touch switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/94073 with capacitive detection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a processor including logic to determine from data received from one or more sensors, whether the apparatus is in physical contact with a user. The logic is further to set a power management policy of the apparatus based on a processor context, where the processor context is determined based at least in part on whether the apparatus is in physical contact with the user, and where the power management policy is used by the logic to determine a level of power consumption at which to operate the processor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor including logic to;

determine, from data received from at least one sensor, whether the apparatus is in physical contact with a user; and

set a power management policy of the apparatus based on a processor context, wherein the processor context is determined based at least in part on whether the apparatus is in physical contact with the user, and wherein the power management policy is used by the logic to determine a level of power consumption at which to operate the processor.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data received includes orientation data associated with orientation of the apparatus, wherein the processor context is further determined based on the orientation of the apparatus.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor includes a specific absorption rate (SAR) sensor, wherein the logic is to determine whether the apparatus is in physical contact with the user based at least in part on the data received from the SAR sensor.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor includes an inclinometer, wherein the data includes a plurality of orientation measurements received from the inclinometer, each orientation measurement taken at a distinct time over a determined time period, and wherein the logic is to determine whether the apparatus is in physical contact with the user based at least in part on a comparison of a standard deviation of the orientation measurements, to a threshold standard deviation.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a user interface, wherein the logic is to provide to the user, via the user interface, a suggestion to improve at least one of processor performance and battery life based upon the processor context.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logic is further to receive information that indicates whether the device is proximate to external airflow, and wherein the logic is to determine the device context further based on whether the device is proximate to the external air flow.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein when the device is proximate to the external airflow, the logic is to provide, to a user, a recommendation regarding whether to adjust an airspeed of the external airflow with respect to the device based on the power management policy.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the logic is to determine, based on the processor context, whether an adjustment of a usage parameter will increase a heat removal rate from the processor, wherein the usage parameter is one of an apparatus orientation and physical contact with the user.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the logic is to, responsive to a determination that the adjustment will increase the heat removal rate from the processor, provide a recommendation associated with the adjustment of the usage parameter to a user via a user interface.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensor includes at least one of a specific absorption rate (SAR) sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, and an inclinometer, wherein the logic is to determine whether the apparatus is in physical contact with the user based on data received from two or more sensors of the at least one sensor.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data includes a plurality of measurements taken by a first sensor, each measurement taken at a distinct time over a determined time period, and wherein the logic is to determine whether the apparatus is in physical contact with the user based at least in part on a comparison of a standard deviation of the measurements to a threshold standard deviation.

12. A method comprising:

determining, by a processor, whether a device that includes the processor is in physical contact with a user; and

setting, by the processor, a power management policy comprising a state machine by which to manage power consumption of the processor based at least in part on whether the device is in physical contact with the user.

13. The method of claim 12, including determining, by the processor, a device context of the device, wherein the device context includes a first indication of whether the device is in physical contact with the user and further includes a second indication of an orientation of the device with respect to a standard orientation, and wherein the method includes setting the power management policy based on the device context.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether an adjustment of a usage parameter will increase removal of heat from the processor, and responsive to a determination that the adjustment of the usage parameter will increase a rate of heat removal from the processor, providing a recommendation associated with the adjustment to the user via a user interface, wherein the usage parameter is one of an apparatus orientation, physical contact with the user, and airspeed of an external air flow proximate to the device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein responsive to the adjustment of the usage parameter, the user interface is to provide to the user an indication of whether the rate of heat removal from the processor has increased from the rate of heat removal from the processor prior to the adjustment of the usage parameter.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving data from at least two sensors selected from a specific absorption rate (SAR) sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, and an inclinometer, and wherein determining whether the apparatus is in physical contact with the user includes analyzing the data received from each of the at least two sensors.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the method includes setting the power management policy further based on whether the device is proximate to external air flow.

18. A computer readable medium to store instructions that when executed by a computer, to cause the computer to:

determine, based on data received from one or more sensors, a first factor comprising whether a device is in physical contact with a human being; and

set a power management policy that at least partially determines power usage of the device, wherein the power usage of the device is determined based at least in part the first factor.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions that when executed by the computer cause the computer to determine from the sensor data, at least one of a second factor comprising an orientation of the device with respect to a standard orientation, and a third factor comprising an airspeed of airflow that is proximate to the device, and to set the power management policy further based on at least one of the second factor and the third factor.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions to determine whether an adjustment of a usage parameter will increase removal of heat from the processor, and responsive to a determination that the adjustment will increase removal of heat from the processor, provide to the user via a user interface a recommendation associated with the adjustment, wherein the usage parameter is associated with one of the first factor, the second factor, and the third factor.