Method and apparatus for buffering sensor input in a low power system state

• US 9,383,851 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Issued: 07/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Wyatt, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheng, Joe H
• Application Number:
  US14/148,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20150193062A1
• Time in Patent Office: 911 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0416 Control or interface arrangements specially adapted for digitisers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/022 in absence of operation, e.g. no data being entered during a predetermined time
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0435 Change or adaptation of the frame rate of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/08 Power processing, i.e. workload management for processors involved in display operations, such as CPUs or GPUs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/18 Use of a frame buffer in a display terminal, inclusive of the display panel
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/045 using multiple communication channels, e.g. parallel and serial
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/10 Use of a protocol of communication by packets in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/003 to produce spatial visual effects
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/006 Electronic inspection or testing of displays and display drivers, e.g. of LED or LCD displays testing individual LED's G01R31/2635; testing lamps G01R31/44; testing of optical features of LCD displays G02F1/1309
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/393 Arrangements for updating the contents of the bit-mapped memory

Abstract

A solution is proposed for processing input in a lower power user interface of touch-sensitive display panels. According to an embodiment, a mobile computing device is placed in the low power mode. During this mode, the sensor controller produces a raw event/interrupts on a detected touch. Upon detecting a touch, the sensor controller also automatically increases the scan rate of the touch sensor, while the triggered event or interrupt proceeds to wake the system into a higher power state. Subsequent touch data received while the system is booting into the higher power state is buffered by the timing controller, or by a bridge chipset, while the processor(s) in the power up. When awake, the processor(s) collect the touch samples from the buffer, and processes the touch samples, generating updated displays where necessary.

Claims

1. A method for processing input in a touch-sensitive display panel, the method comprising:

placing a sensor controller in a low power scanning mode, the sensor controller comprised in a touch sensitive display panel of a mobile computing device;

placing a processing unit of the mobile computing device in a low power state;

detecting a sensor input in a sensor comprised in the display panel;

in response to detecting the sensor input, automatically changing the sensor controller from a lower power scanning mode to an active scanning mode;

initiating a change in the power state of the processing unit from the low power state to an active power state;

storing subsequently received sensor input in a frame buffer while the power state of the processing unit changes from the low power state to the active power state; and

collecting the sensor input from the frame buffer when the processing unit is operating in the active power state.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the placing the sensor controller in the low power scanning mode comprises at least one of step from a group of steps consisting of:

changing a scanning rate of the sensor comprised in the display panel to a lower frequency scanning rate;

using a wide touch matrix for detecting sensor input; and

decreasing a power consumption rate utilized by the sensor controller.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the changing the sensor controller from a lower power scanning mode to an active scanning mode comprises at least one of a group comprising:

changing a scanning rate of the sensor comprised in the display panel to a higher frequency scanning rate;

determining coordinate and intensity data corresponding to received sensor input; and

increasing a power consumption rate utilized by the sensor controller.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sensor controller is configured to generate at least one of:

a raw event and an interrupt when a sensor input is detected while in the low power scanning mode.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the frame buffer comprises a buffer in a chipset comprised in the mobile computing device, the chipset comprising an application processing unit.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the chipset comprises a self refreshing bridge chipset.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the frame buffer comprises a buffer in a timing controller comprised in the display panel.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the timing controller comprises a self refreshing timing controller.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises at least one sensor from a group of sensors consisting of:

a touch sensor array;

an accelerometer;

a GPU device;

an ambient light detector

a motion detector; and

a noise detector.

10. A system, comprising:

a display panel comprising;

a display screen;

a sensor configured to detect sensor input on the display screen;

a sensor controller coupled to the sensor and configured to control an operation of the sensor; and

a timing controller coupled to the display screen and configured to control

a plurality of timing operations corresponding to a graphical output displayed on the display screen; and

a processing unit configured to process sensor input received in the sensor and to render a plurality of updated images to display in the display screen,

wherein, the processing unit is operable to enter into a low power state,

wherein, while the processing unit is operating in a low power state, the processing unit is configured to initiate a change from the low power systcm state to an active power state in response to detecting a first sensor input of a plurality of sensor inputs,

further wherein, subsequent sensor inputs of the plurality of sensor inputs after the first sensor input are buffered in a frame buffer until the processing unit is operating in an active power state.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the system comprises at least one mobile device selected from a group of mobile devices consisting of:

a mobile phone;

a tablet;

a clamshell computing device;

a laptop computer.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the processing unit comprises at least one processing unit selected from a group of processing units consisting of:

an application processor;

a graphics processing unit;

a central processing unit;

a bridge chipset.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the bridge chipset comprises a self-refreshing bridge chipset.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the frame buffer comprises a buffer in the bridge chipset.

15. The system according to claim 12, wherein the sensor comprises at least one sensor selected from the group of sensor types consisting of:

a touch sensor array;

an accelerometer;

a GPU device;

an ambient light sensor;

a motion sensor;

a noise sensing device;

a radio sensor;

a wireless frequency sensor;

a tactile user input sensor; and

a fingerprint sensor.

16. The system according to claim 12, wherein the sensor controller comprises at least one sensor selected from the group of sensor types consisting of:

a touch controller;

an accelerometer controller;

GPS controller;

an ambient light controller;

a motion controller;

a noise controller;

a radio controller;

a wireless frequency controller;

a tactile user input controller; and

a fingerprint controller.

17. The system according to claim 10, wherein the frame buffer comprises a buffer in the timing controller.

18. The system according to claim 10, wherein the low power state corresponds to at least one power state selected from the group consisting of:

a power state using a lower frequency scanning rate used by the sensor controller for scanning the sensor array;

a power state using a wide touch matrix to detect sensor input in the sensor array;

a power state exhibiting a lower power consumption rate corresponding to the display panel;

a power state exhibiting a lower power consumption rate corresponding to the processing unit.

19. The system according to claim 10, wherein the processing unit is further configured to read the frame buffer for buffered sensor inputs and to process the sensor inputs when the processing unit is operating in the active power state.

20. The system according to claim 10, wherein the active power state comprises a high scanning rate used by the sensor controller for scanning the sensor.

21. The system according to claim 10, wherein the sensor controller is configured to generate a wake event when the first sensor input is detected while the processing unit is operating in a low power state, the wake event being configured to initiate the change the processing unit from operating in the low power state to the active power state.

22. A non-transitory computer readable medium with programmed instructions embodied therein for processing sensor input, the program instructions comprising:

instructions to place a sensor controller in a low power scanning mode, the sensor controller comprised in a touch sensitive display panel of a mobile computing device;

instructions to place a processing unit of the mobile computing device in a low power state;

instructions to detect a sensor input on the display panel;

instructions to place automatically change the sensor controller from a lower power scanning mode to an active scanning mode in response to detecting a sensor input on the display panel;

instructions to initiate a change in the power state of the processing unit from the low power state to an active power state;

instructions to store subsequently received sensor input in a frame buffer while the power state of the processing unit changes from the low power state to the active power state; and

instructions to collect the sensor input from the frame buffer when the processing unit is operating in the active power state,

wherein the frame buffer comprises a buffer in a timing controller comprised in the display panel.