Portable device with priority based power savings control and method thereof

• US 8,135,443 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Aleksic, Milivoje, Balatsos, Aris, O'Neil, Kevin, Esliger, James L., Plotnick, Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEDRICK, CHARLES TERRELL
• Application Number:
  US11/469,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20080057894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,021 Days
• Field of Search: 455/574, 455/572, 375/219, 320/120
• US Class Current: 455/574
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 9/002 in which a reserve is maintained in an energy source by disconnecting non-critical loads, e.g. maintaining a reserve of charge in a vehicle battery for starting an engine
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0258 controlling an operation mode according to history or models of usage information, e.g. activity schedule or time of day
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0277 according to available power supply, e.g. switching off when a low battery condition is detected
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A portable device includes a controller that is responsive to a remaining power capacity of the battery, and a power consumption level of the portable device and based on user prioritized functional processing capability features, dynamically controls functional processing capability features of the device. The controller provides power for a higher priority feature at the expense of a lower priority functional processing capability feature consistent with the user prioritized functional processing capability features. A wireless portable device is also disclosed that includes a wireless signal strength determinator that determines a received signal strength of the wireless device and a controller that adjusts the functional processing capability feature of the wireless device based on the determined received signal strength and based on battery capacity information. In this way, received signal strength information is used as a further input to determine how to best adjust functional processing capability features of the device.

Claims

1. A portable device comprising:

a battery; and

a controller, operatively coupled to the battery, and responsive to (i) a remaining power capacity of a battery, (ii) a power consumption rate of the portable device and (iii) received signal strength information, and wherein the controller, based on priority information about functional processing capability features of the portable device, dynamically controls the functional processing capability features of the device to provide power for higher priority features at the expense of lower priority functional processing capability features consistent with the priority information, wherein the priority information comprises an assigned priority level for each of the functional processing capability features, and wherein dynamically controlling the functional processing capability features comprises increasing transmit power in response to detecting a signal strength below a threshold and reducing power consumed by an application to at least partly offset the increased transmit power.

2. The portable device of claim 1 further comprising data representing a talk time threshold and wherein the controller is operative to dynamically control the functional processing capability features of the device to provide power for a voice communication feature at the expense of a lower priority feature consistent with the talk time threshold as the power capacity of the battery decreases.

3. The portable device of claim 1, further comprising a memory and a user interface operative to provide selectable functional processing capability feature priority data and to provide selected feature priority data to the memory for storage as the priority information.

4. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the assigned priority level for a particular functional processing capability feature is selected from at least three possible priority levels.

5. A wireless portable device comprising:

a wireless signal strength determinator operative to determine a received signal strength of the portable device; and

a controller, operatively coupled to the wireless signal strength determinator, and operative to adjust functional processing capability features of the wireless portable device based on the determined received signal strength, battery capacity information, and priority information about the functional processing capability features, wherein the priority information comprises an assigned priority level for each of the functional processing capability features, and wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features comprises increasing transmit power in response to detecting a signal strength below a threshold and reducing power consumed by an application to at least partly offset the increased transmit power.

6. The wireless device of claim 5, wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features of the device comprises controlling, at an application level, operation of applications operating on the device based on the determined received signal strength, the battery capacity information, and the priority information.

7. The wireless device of claim 5, further comprising:

a battery; and

a battery capacity determinator operatively coupled to the battery and operative to generate the battery capacity information based on a remaining battery capacity of the battery.

8. The wireless device of claim 5, wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features of the device comprises selecting which applications will operate on the device based on the determined received signal strength, the battery capacity information, and the priority information.

9. The wireless device of claim 5, further comprising a user interface operative to provide a user settable talk time threshold, and wherein the controller is operative to set the functional processing capability features based on the user settable talk time threshold to preserve a desired talk time indicated by the user settable talk time threshold.

10. The wireless device of claim 5, wherein the controller is operative to determine an amount of power that will be used to provide at least one of the functional processing capability features and is operative to reduce at least one of the functional processing capability features to preserve power for an emergency call.

11. The wireless device of claim 10, wherein the controller is operative to shut down at least one of the functional processing capability features of the wireless device to reduce power consumption to preserve power for the emergency call.

12. The wireless device of claim 5, further comprising memory, operatively coupled to the controller, that stores data representing functional processing capability feature setting data.

13. The wireless device of claim 11 wherein the controller reduces display capability of the wireless device when in an emergency call mode.

14. The wireless portable device of claim 5, wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features of the wireless portable device comprises adjusting quality of service of an application that is not used for voice communication based on the determined received signal strength, the battery capacity information, and the priority information.

15. A portable device comprising:

a wireless signal strength determinator operative to determine a received signal strength of the wireless device; and

a controller, operatively coupled to the wireless signal strength determinator, operative to adjust functional processing capability features of the wireless device based on the determined received signal strength, battery capacity information, network congestion information, and priority information about the functional processing capability features, wherein the priority information comprises an assigned priority level for each of the functional processing capability features, and wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features comprises increasing transmit power in response to detecting a signal strength below a threshold and reducing power consumed by an application to at least partly offset the increased transmit power.

16. The wireless device of claim 15, further comprising a wireless receiver operative to receive the network congestion information from a wireless network communication signal.

17. The wireless device of claim 15, wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features of the device comprises controlling, at an application level, operation of applications operating on the device based on the determined received signal strength, the battery capacity information, the network congestion information, and the priority information.

18. The wireless device of claim 15, further comprising:

a battery; and

a battery capacity determinator operatively coupled to the battery and operative to generate the battery capacity information based on a remaining battery capacity of the battery.

19. The wireless device of claim 15, wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features of the device comprises selecting which applications will operate on the device based on the determined received signal strength, the battery capacity information, the network congestion information, and the priority information.

20. The wireless device of claim 15, further comprising a user interface operative to provide a user settable talk time threshold, and wherein the controller is operative to set the functional processing capability features based on the user settable talk time threshold to preserve a desired talk time indicated by the user settable talk time threshold.

21. The wireless device of claim 15 wherein the controller is operative to determine an amount of power that will be used to provide at least one of the functional processing capability features and is operative to enter an emergency call mode prior to an out of power condition, to preserve power for an emergency call.

22. The wireless device of claim 21 wherein the controller is operative to shut down at least one of the functional processing capability features of the wireless device to reduce power consumption to preserve power for the emergency call.

23. The wireless device of claim 15, further comprising memory, operatively coupled to the controller, that stores data representing functional processing capability feature setting data.

24. The wireless device of claim 22 wherein the controller reduces display capability of the wireless device when in an emergency call mode.

25. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a portable device, priority information about functional processing capability features of the portable device, wherein the priority information comprises an assigned priority level for each of the functional processing capability features; and

based on the priority information and in response to a remaining power capacity of a battery in the device, a power consumption rate of the portable device and received signal strength information, dynamically controlling, by the portable device, the functional processing capability features of the device to provide power for higher priority functional processing capability features at the expense of lower priority functional processing capability features consistent with the priority information, wherein dynamically controlling the functional processing capability features comprises increasing transmit power in response to detecting a signal strength below a threshold and reducing power consumed by an application to at least partly offset the increased transmit power.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the portable device comprises data representing a talk time threshold and wherein the method includes dynamically controlling the functional processing capability features of the device to provide power for a voice communication feature at the expense of a lower priority functional processing capability feature consistent with the talk time threshold as the power capacity of the battery decreases.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising providing selectable functional processing capability feature priority data and storing data in memory representing selected user prioritized functional processing capability features.

28. A method comprising:

determining, by a portable device, a received signal strength for the portable device; and

adjusting, by the portable device, functional processing capability features of the portable device based on the determined received signal strength, battery capacity information, and priority information about the functional processing capability features, wherein the priority information comprises an assigned priority level for each of the functional processing capability features, and wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features comprises increasing transmit power in response to detecting a signal strength below a threshold and reducing power consumed by an application to at least partly offset the increased transmit power.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features of the device comprises controlling, at an application level, operation of applications operating on the device based on the determined received signal strength, the battery capacity information, and the priority information.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein adjusting the functional processing capability features of the device comprises selecting which applications will operate on the device based on the determined received signal strength, the battery capacity information, and the priority information.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising using a user settable talk time threshold and setting the functional processing capability features based on the user settable talk time threshold to in an effort to preserve a desired talk time indicated by the user settable talk time threshold.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising determining an amount of power that will be used to provide at least one of the functional processing capability features, and reducing at least one of the functional processing capability features to preserve power for an emergency call.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising shutting down at least one of the functional processing capability features of the wireless device to reduce power consumption to preserve power for the emergency call.

34. The method of claim 32, further comprising reducing display capability of the wireless device when in an emergency call mode.

35. The method of claim 28, wherein the adjusting of the functional processing capability features of the portable device is also based on network congestion information.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising causing the portable device to enter a reduced power mode in response to the network congestion information indicating a decrease in network congestion.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising determining if the network congestion information indicates a network congestion level at or beyond a desired high level threshold and if so, increasing signal transmit power of the portable device and reducing power consumption caused by other features, to partly offset the additional power consumption caused by the increase in transmit power.

38. The method of claim 35, further comprising determining if the network congestion information indicates a network congestion level at or beyond a desired high level threshold and if so, repeating a sending of packets at a current power level.

39. The method of claim 28, further comprising determining a power usage rate of the device based on a current operational condition of the device, predicting an amount of time that an application can continue to run based on the power usage rate;

determining whether a desired application quality of service level can be maintained for a desired application run-time;

if not, adjusting at least one of power consumption of the device and a quality of service level provided by the application in an attempt to meet the desired application run-time.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein adjusting at least one of the power consumption of the device and the quality of service level provided by the application comprises shutting down the application to maintain a minimum battery power energy reserve.

41. An apparatus, comprising:

means for obtaining priority information about functional processing capability features of a portable device, wherein the priority information comprises an assigned priority level for each of the functional processing capability features; and

means for dynamically controlling the functional processing capability features of the portable device based on the priority information, a remaining power capacity of a battery in the portable device, a power consumption rate of the portable device and received signal strength information, wherein the dynamic control of the functional processing capability features provides power for higher priority functional processing capability features at the expense of lower priority functional processing capability features consistent with the priority information, and wherein dynamically controlling the functional processing capability features comprises increasing transmit power in response to detecting a signal strength below a threshold and reducing power consumed by an application to at least partly offset the increased transmit power.

42. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that are executable to:

obtain priority information about functional processing capability features of a portable device, wherein the priority information comprises an assigned priority level for each of the functional processing capability features; and

dynamically control the functional processing capability features of the portable device based on the priority information, a remaining power capacity of a battery in the portable device, a power consumption rate of the portable device and received signal strength information, wherein the dynamic control of the functional processing capability features provides power for higher priority functional processing capability features at the expense of lower priority functional processing capability features consistent with the priority information, and wherein dynamically controlling the functional processing capability features comprises increasing transmit power in response to detecting a signal strength below a threshold and reducing power consumed by an application to at least partly offset the increased transmit power.