Apparatus and method for reducing power consumption in portable terminal

• US 9,167,527 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2010
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Song, Hee-Jun, Kim, Kwang-Choon, Lee, Yu-Jin, Kim, Nam-Woo, Kwon, Sung
• Primary Examiner(s): TAYLOR, BARRY W
• Application Number:
  US13/496,863
• Publication Number:
  US 20120185717A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,860 Days
• Field of Search: 455/574, 455/572, 455/343.1, 455/343.4
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• 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 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/028 switching on or off only a part of the equipment circuit blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• 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

An apparatus and method for reducing power consumption of a portable terminal are provided. More particularly, an apparatus and method for reducing power consumption generated in an idle state in order to solve a power consumption problem in a portable terminal are provided. The apparatus includes a state determination unit which is configured independently from an application processor for controlling applications and which wakes up when entering an idle mode to allow the application processor to sleep, and thereafter determines a state of the portable terminal, and if it is determined that the portable terminal escapes from the idle mode, allows the application processor to wake up.

Claims

1. A portable terminal for determining a pattern indicating a movement of a user, the portable terminal comprising:

a memory;

one or more sensors;

an application processor configured to control applications; and

a sensor processor configured to;

control the one or more sensors to obtain sensing information;

control the memory to store, while the application processor is in a sleep state, the sensing information for determining the pattern indicating the movement of the user of the portable terminal in the memory;

provide at least a portion of the stored sensing information to the application processor when the application processor is awakened; and

control the memory to delete at least the portion of the sensing information from the memory to ensure space in the memory.

2. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein:

the application processor is configured to, after waking up, analyze the provided sensing information to determine a life pattern of the user of the portable terminal.

3. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, and the sensor processor is configured to control the memory to accumulate and store a location and speed of the user on a periodic basis while the application processor is in the sleep state and to transmit data of the location to the application processor when the application processor wakes up.

4. The portable terminal of claim 3, wherein the application processor is configured to receive traffic information of a path that is expected to be used by the user, based on the data of the location.

5. The portable terminal of claim 4, wherein the application processor is configured to operate a heating system of the user'"'"'s house, based on an expected arrival time calculated using the data of the location and speed.

6. The portable terminal of claim 2, wherein the sensing information used to determine the life pattern of the user of the portable terminal is sensing information of which a sensing information value persistently changes in the obtained sensing information.

7. The portable terminal of claim 2, wherein, when the life pattern of the user of the portable terminal is determined, the application processor is further configured to provide control such that an operation corresponding to the determined life pattern is performed.

8. The portable terminal of claim 3, wherein the application processor is configured to operate a garage door of the user'"'"'s house, using the transmitted data of the location.

9. The portable terminal of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor, and at least one value received from the at least one of the proximity sensor and the ambient light sensor is used to determine whether the portable terminal is turned over.

10. A method for determining a pattern indicating a movement of a user, the method comprising:

controlling one or more sensors to obtain sensing information;

controlling a memory to store, at a sensor processor while an application processor is in a sleep state, the sensing information for determining the pattern indicating the movement of the user of the portable terminal;

providing at least a portion of the stored sensing information to the application processor when the application processor is awakened; and

controlling the memory to delete at least the portion of the sensing information from the memory to ensure space.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

analyzing, by the application processor, the provided sensing information to determine a life pattern of the user of the portable terminal.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more sensors comprise a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, and the sensor processor is configured to control the memory to accumulate and store a location and speed of the user on a periodic basis while the application processor is in the sleep state, and data of the location is transmitted to the application processor when the application processor wakes up.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the application processor is configured to receive traffic information of a path that is expected to be used by the user, based on the data of the location.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the application processor is configured to operate a garage door of the user'"'"'s house, using the transmitted data of the location.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the application processor is configured to operate a heating system of the user'"'"'s house, based on an expected arrival time calculated using the data of the location and speed.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensing information used to determine the life pattern of the user of the portable terminal is sensing information of which a sensing information value persistently changes in the obtained sensing information.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

when the life pattern of the user of the portable terminal is determined, performing an operation corresponding to the determined life pattern.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more sensors comprise at least one of a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor, and at least one value received from the at least one of the proximity sensor and the ambient light sensor is used to determine whether the portable terminal is turned over.