Low power management of multiple sensor integrated chip architecture

• US 9,348,434 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2013
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hefner, Eric J, Jones, Ryan D, Rumpler, James A, Koh, Jason Jae Hyun, Lautner, Douglas A, Debates, Scott P, Hor-Lao, Mary K
• Primary Examiner(s): Pervan, Michael
• Application Number:
  US13/930,615
• Publication Number:
  US 20140347274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/80 comprising an array of processing units with common control, e.g. single instruction multiple data processors G06F15/82 takes precedence ; for correlation function computation G06F17/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method, device, system, or article of manufacture is provided for low-power management of multiple sensor chip architecture. In one embodiment, a method comprises, at a computing device that includes a first processor, a second processor and a third processor, receiving, by the first processor, sensor data from a first sensor; determining, by the first processor, a movement by the computing device using the sensor data; receiving, by the first processor, a modality of the computing device; in response to determining that the modality corresponds to a predetermined state, determining, by the first processor, a modality move distance associated with the predetermined state; determining, by the first processor, a move distance of the computing device using the modality move distance; determining, by the first processor, that the move distance of the computing device is at least a move distance threshold; and, in response to determining that the move distance of the computing device is at least a move distance threshold, reporting, by the first processor, to at least one of the second processor and the third processor, that the move distance of the computing device is at least the move distance threshold.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

at a computing device that includes a first processor, a second processor and a third processor,

receiving, by the first processor, sensor data from a first sensor;

detecting, by the first processor, a movement by the computing device using the sensor data;

in response to detecting the movement by the computing device, receiving, by the first processor, a modality of the computing device;

in response to determining that the modality corresponds to a predetermined state, determining, by the first processor, a modality move distance associated with the predetermined state;

determining, by the first processor, a move distance of the computing device using the modality move distance;

determining, by the first processor, that the move distance of the computing device is at least a move distance threshold; and

in response to determining that the move distance of the computing device is at least a move distance threshold, reporting, by the first processor, to at least one of the second processor and the third processor, that the move distance of the computing device is at least the move distance threshold.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first processor, from at least one of the second processor and the third processor, a request to determine an accumulated movement of the computing device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein receiving the request to determine the accumulated movement of the computing device includes receiving the move distance threshold.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the modality move distance is associated with a velocity of the predetermined state.

5. A method, comprising:

at a computing device that includes a first processor, a second processor and a third processor and a first sensor and a second sensor,

requesting, by at least one of the second processor and the third processor, a global navigational satellite system (GNSS) position from the second sensor;

receiving, by at least one of the second processor and the third processor, the GNSS position from the second sensor;

determining, by at least one of the second processor and the third processor, a move distance threshold from the GNSS position to a geofence boundary;

sending, by at least one of the second processor and the third processor, to the first processor, a request to accumulate a move distance of the computing device and the move distance threshold;

receiving, by the first processor, sensor data from the first sensor;

in response to the request to accumulate the move distance, detecting, by the first processor, a movement by the computing device using the sensor data from the first sensor;

in response to detecting the movement by the computing device, receiving, by the first processor, a modality of the computing device;

in response to determining that the modality corresponds to a predetermined state, determining, by the first processor, a modality move distance associated with the predetermined state;

determining, by the first processor, a move distance of the computing device using the modality move distance;

determining, by the first processor, that the move distance of the computing device is at least a move distance threshold; and

in response to determining that the move distance of the computing device is at least a move distance threshold, reporting, by the first processor, to at least one of the second processor and the third processor, that the move distance of the computing device is at least the move distance threshold.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein reporting includes reporting the move distance.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first sensor is an accelerometer.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the first processor is a sensor hub.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the second processor is a low power processor (LPC).

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the third processor is an application processor.

11. A method, comprising:

at a computing device that includes a first processor, a second processor and a third processor,

determining, by the second processor, a percentage of time that a modality of the computing device is a first predetermined state;

in response to determining that the percentage of time that the modality of the computing device is the first predetermined state is at least a first modality percentage threshold, performing, by the second processor, a first scan at a first time to determine first available access points (APs) using a sensor;

receiving, at the second processor, first access point (AP) identification data for each of the first available APs using the sensor;

sending, from the second processor, to a server, the first AP identification data for each of the first available APs;

receiving, at the second processor, from the server, a first location of the computing device at the first time;

performing, by the second processor, a second scan at a second time to determine second available APs using the sensor;

receiving, at the second processor, second AP identification data for each of the second available APs using the sensor;

sending, from the second processor, to the server, the second AP identification data for each of the second available APs;

receiving, at the second processor, from the server, a second location of the computing device at the second time;

determining, by the second processor, a velocity of the computing device using at least one of the first location, the second location, the first time and the second time; and

in response to the velocity of the computing device being at least a predetermined velocity threshold, reporting, by the second processor, to the third processor, that the modality is in vehicle.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

determining, by the second processor, that each of the first available APs is a static AP; and

determining, by the second processor, that each of the second available APs is a static AP.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein performing the first scan at the first time of the first available APs is while the modality is the first predetermined state.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein performing the second scan at the second time of the second available APs is while the modality is the first predetermined state.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

in response to the velocity of the computing device being at least the predetermined velocity threshold, activating, by the second processor, the third processor.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensor is a WiFi transceiver.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the first processor is a sensor hub.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the second processor is a low power processor (LPC).

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the third processor is an application processor.

20. A method, comprising:

at a computing device that includes a first processor, a second processor and a third processor,

determining, by the second processor, that a modality of the computing device is a first predetermined state;

in response to determining that the modality of the computing device is the first predetermined state, receive, by the second processor, sensor data from a sensor;

determining, by the second processor, a velocity of the computing device using the sensor data;

determining, by the second processor, that the velocity of the computing device is at least a velocity threshold; and

in response to determining that the velocity of the computing device is at least the velocity threshold, reporting, by the second processor, to the third processor, that the modality of the computing device is in vehicle.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the sensor is a GPS transceiver.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first processor is a sensor hub.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the second processor is a low power processor (LPC).

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the third processor is an application processor.