Method for performing power consumption management, and associated apparatus

• US 9,189,055 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2012
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Chun-Wei, Yang, Jen-Chieh, Lo, Yong-Sheng, Chang, Chih-Chieh
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai, Carol S
• Application Number:
  US13/550,621
• Publication Number:
  US 20140025322A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,218 Days
• Field of Search: 702/63, 455/405, 455/414.1, 455/556.2, 455/572, 455/574, 715/772
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3212 Monitoring battery levels, e.g. power saving mode being initiated when battery voltage goes below a certain level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken
• 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: 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

A method and an apparatus for performing power consumption management are provided, where the method is applied to an electronic device. The method includes: obtaining current information corresponding to an application from a database, the current information being of at least one current on at least one current path between a battery and at least one portion of the electronic device; and performing battery drain prediction corresponding to the application according to the current information. The method may further include: performing sampling operations to generate a plurality of samples of the current, and more particularly, utilizing an ADC to perform analog-to-digital conversion on a voltage difference corresponding to the current to generate the plurality of samples. The voltage difference can be obtained by probing two terminals of a resistor or a Hall component.

Claims

1. A method for performing power consumption management, the method being applied to an electronic device, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining current information corresponding to an application which is installed and currently running on the electronic device from a database, the current information being of at least one current on at least one current path between a battery and at least one portion of the electronic device; and

performing battery drain prediction corresponding to the application according to the current information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when the application is run on the electronic device for the first time, generating the current information and storing the current information into the database, for use of performing the battery drain prediction corresponding to the application, wherein the current information comprises an average of a plurality of samples of the current.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing calculation on a plurality of samples of the current, in order to establish/update the database.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

checking whether the application has previously run on the electronic device at least once.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when performing the battery drain prediction corresponding to the application, outputting battery drain prediction information comprising at least one prediction result of the battery drain prediction, allowing the user to determine whether to cancel running the application.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when performing the battery drain prediction corresponding to the application, providing a user interface and outputting battery drain prediction information comprising at least one prediction result of the battery drain prediction, allowing a user to determine whether to cancel running the application.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

when it is detected that the user cancels running the application, stopping running the application;

or

when it is detected that the user cancels running the application, temporarily preventing the application from running on the electronic device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to perform analog-to-digital conversion on a voltage difference corresponding to the current to generate a plurality of digital values of the voltage difference, and obtaining a plurality of samples of the current according to the digital values, for use of generating the current information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the voltage difference is a difference between a first voltage level at a first terminal of at least one resistor and a second voltage level at a second terminal of the resistor.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the voltage difference is a difference between a first voltage level at a first terminal of at least one Hall component and a second voltage level at a second terminal of the Hall component.

11. An apparatus for performing power consumption management, the apparatus comprising at least one portion of an electronic device, the apparatus comprising:

a fuel gauge circuit capable of generating data for establishing a database; and

a processing circuit capable of obtaining current information corresponding to an application which is installed and currently running on the electronic device from the database, the current information being of at least one current on at least one current path between a battery and at least one portion of the electronic device, wherein the processing circuit is capable of performing battery drain prediction corresponding to the application according to the current information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein when the application is run on the electronic device for the first time, the processing circuit is capable of generating the current information and storing the current information into the database, for use of performing the battery drain prediction corresponding to the application, wherein the current information comprises an average of a plurality of samples of the current.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is capable of performing calculation on a plurality of samples of the current, in order to establish/update the database.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is capable of checking whether the application has previously run on the electronic device at least once.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein when performing the battery drain prediction corresponding to the application, the processing circuit is capable of outputting battery drain prediction information comprising at least one prediction result of the battery drain prediction, allowing the user to determine whether to cancel running the application.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein when performing the battery drain prediction corresponding to the application, the processing circuit is capable of providing a user interface and outputting battery drain prediction information comprising at least one prediction result of the battery drain prediction, allowing a user to determine whether to cancel running the application.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein when it is detected that the user cancels running the application, the processing circuit is capable of stopping running the application;

or when it is detected that the user cancels running the application, the processing circuit is capable of temporarily preventing the application from running on the electronic device.

18. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus utilizes an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to perform analog-to-digital conversion on a voltage difference corresponding to the current to generate a plurality of digital values of the voltage difference, and obtains a plurality of samples of the current according to the digital values, for use of generating the current information.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the voltage difference is a difference between a first voltage level at a first terminal of at least one resistor and a second voltage level at a second terminal of the resistor.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the voltage difference is a difference between a first voltage level at a first terminal of at least one Hall component and a second voltage level at a second terminal of the Hall component.