Method and apparatus for adaptive realtime system power state control

• US 7,251,350 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2002
• Issued: 07/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Tsirkel, Aaron M., Huang, Wilson X.
• Primary Examiner(s): MARIAM, DANIEL G
• Application Number:
  US10/279,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20040081337A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,742 Days
• Field of Search: 382115-124, 382/209, 382/218, 382/307, 340/5.82, 340/5.83, 345/212, 345/214
• US Class Current: 382/118
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/316 by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2139 Recurrent verification
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Method and Apparatus of the present invention provides innovative real-time system power management with respect to user presence by using an image-capturing device and computer vision technology. The image-capturing device is to capture an image that includes an area in front of a computer system. The image is to be analyzed to determine the user presence. When it is determined that the user is not present, one or more components of the computer system is placed in a power saving mode.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a camera image-capturing device configured to capture an image of an area in front of a display associated with mobile computing device of the system, wherein an image of a user is to be included in the image when the user is using the system;

an image-processing module in the mobile computing device coupled to the image-capturing device, wherein the image-processing module is to analyze the captured image to determine if the system is to be placed in a power saving mode and to analyze the captured image to determine a presence of the user; and

a DC power source to supply power to the image-capturing device, the display, and the image-processing module, wherein a power management component cooperating with the DC power source to place the system in a power saving mode based on the image of the user not being detected in the area in front of a display associated with mobile computing device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the image-processing module is to analyze the captured image to detect biometric characteristics of the user.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the biometric characteristics includes a facial contour.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a power management module coupled to the image-processing module, wherein the image-processing module is to generate a first signal to be received by the power management module when it is determined that no user is present.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein, responsive to receiving the first signal from the image-processing module, the power management module is to place the system in the power saving mode.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the power management module is to place the system in the power saving mode by reducing power consumption of one or more components in the system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the image-capturing device is to capture digital images.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the image-capturing device is integrated to the display.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the image-capturing device is to Capture the image based on a sampling rate.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein when presence of the user in the image is determined and the system is in the power saving mode, the image-processing module is to generate a second signal to cause the system to be placed in an active state.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the image-processing module is to analyze the captured image using a stored reference image.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the reference image is captured by the image-capturing device at an earlier time.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

an image-processing module to analyze an image to determine a presence or absence of a user, wherein the image is to include an area in front of a computer system, and wherein an image of the user is to be included in the image when the user is using the computer system;

a power management module coupled to the image processing module to manage power consumption in response to signals generated by the image-processing module;

a display;

a camera image-capturing device to the image of the area in front of a computer system

a DC power source to supply power to the image-capturing device, the display, the power management module, and the image-processing module, wherein the power management module to cooperating with the DC power source to place the computer system in a power saving mode based on the image of the user not being detected in the area in front of a display associated with the computer system and the image-capturing device, the display, the power management module, and the image-processing module are integrated into a single device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein when absence of the user is determined by the image-processing module a first signal is to be sent by the image-processing module to the power management module to reduce power consumption of one or more components of the computer system.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising an image-capturing device coupled to the image-processing module to capture the image to be analyzed by the image-processing module.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the image-capturing device is to capture the image based on a selected sampling rate.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the image-processing module is to further analyze the image to detect biometric characteristics of the user.

18. A method, comprising:

capturing an image with a camera that includes an area in front of a display coupled to a computer system, wherein an image of a user is to be included in the captured image when the user is using the computer system;

capturing the image based on a sampling rate;

analyzing the captured image to determine if the user is positioned in front of the display;

detecting if biometric characteristics of the user exists in the image when analyzing if the user is positioned in front of the display;

powering the camera with a DC power source; and

placing one or more components of the computer system in a power saving mode when the user is not positioned in front of the display.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating a signal to indicate that the computer system is to be placed in the power saving mode when it is determined that the user is not positioned in front of the display.

20. A machine-readable medium including machine readable instructions that, if executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method comprising:

capturing an image with a camera including an area in front of a display coupled to the computer system using a digital image capturing device, wherein an image of a user is to be included in the captured image when the user is using the computer system;

capturing the image based on a sampling rate;

detecting if biometric characteristics of the user exists in the image when analyzing if the user is positioned in front of the display;

powering the camera with a DC power source;

analyzing the captured image to determine if the display is to be placed in a power saving mode.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein analyzing the captured image comprises:

determining if the user is present in front of the display; and

placing the display in the power saving mode when the user is not present in front of the display.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein determining if the user is present in front of the display comprises detecting biometric characteristics of the user in the captured image.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 22, wherein a detection threshold is used to detect biometric characteristics of the user in the captured image.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein a presence threshold is used to determine if the user is present in front of the display.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the captured image is to be further analyzed to determine if one or more components in the computer system is to be placed in the power saving mode.

26. A system, comprising:

a direct current (DC) source;

a processor coupled to the DC source;

an image-processing module coupled to the processor; and

camera image-capturing device coupled to the image-processing module, wherein the image-processing module is to analyze a first image captured by the image capturing device using biometric characteristics to control power consumption of one or more components in the system, wherein the first image is to include an image of a user positioned in an area in front of a display coupled to the system when the user is using the system, wherein the DC source to supply power to the processor, the image-processing module, the camera image-capturing device, and the display and the image-capturing device, the display, and the image-processing module are integrated into a single device.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising a power management module coupled to the image-processing module, wherein the power management module is to receive one or more signals from the image-processing module to control power consumption of one or more components in the system.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the biometric characteristics includes a facial contour.

29. The system of claim 27 further comprising an activity detection module coupled to the processor, wherein the activity detection module is to monitor user'"'"'s activity to control the power consumption of the one or more components in the system.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein when no user'"'"'s activity is detected by the activity detection module during a predetermined period, the image-capturing module is to capture a second image to be analyzed by the image processing module.