Method and apparatus for modular power management and protection of critical services in ambulatory medical devices

• US 9,430,022 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2012
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Virginia Patent Foundation (University of Virginia)
• Original Assignee: University of Virginia Patent Foundation (University of Virginia)
• Inventors: Kovachev, Boris P., Keith-Hynes, Patrick T., Breton, Marc D., Patek, Stephen D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Bae, Ji H
• Application Number:
  US14/128,811
• Publication Number:
  US 20140215239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,530 Days
• Field of Search: 713/320, 713/340, 713/324
• 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 1/3212 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: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/34 Addressing or accessing the instruction operand or the result ; Formation of operand address; Addressing modes address translation G06F12/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/14 Balancing the load in a network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00306 Overdischarge protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 by selectively disabling software applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Architecture and associated methods are provided for power management of ambulatory medical devices. The medical devices is described by a suite of services, each assigned a level of priority (from discretionary to critical), and the power management architecture allows use interchangeable control modules of various levels. A Power Safety Controller supervises the system to ensure appropriate preservation of critical services and provide warnings for low battery level. A Fidelity Controller ensures optimal allocation of power between the different services. A device supervision module estimates device characteristics which can be used by the other levels. The overall architecture ensures a safe and optimal management of services, and allows for a bottom-up deployment of the device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing power consumption of a battery-operated device configured to provide a plurality of services, comprising, performing by a processor:

receiving a battery level of said device, at least one parameter of a user of the device, and the services being provided by the device, constructing time profiles encoding a probability of at least one of said battery level, user parameter, and services being provided having certain values at each of a number of time segments k;

setting a fidelity policy u(k) for each time segment k, said fidelity policy defining a level of fidelity for each service, based on said time profiles and battery level;

computing, based on said time profiles, an amount of time remaining before battery exhaustion under said battery level and a mode of operation having a predefine power consumption rate, and taking a predetermined action based on the computed amount of time remaining with respect to at least one preset threshold; and

regulating access of said services to resources of said device for performing said services, in accordance with said predetermined action.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of said services is a critical service being provided to said user, said at least one parameter is a risk level of said user with respect to said critical service, said amount of time remaining is computed based on said risk level of said user, and said predetermined action causes maximizing availability of said critical service to said user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation:

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation:

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation:

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation:

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, with respect to managing power consumption of a battery-operated device configured to provide a plurality of services, causing a computer to perform:

receiving a battery level of said device, at least one parameter of a user of the device, and the services being provided by the device, constructing time profiles encoding a probability of at least one of said battery level, user parameter, and services being provided having certain values at each of a number of time segments k;

setting a fidelity policy u(k) for each time segment k, said fidelity policy defining a level of fidelity for each service, based on said time profiles and battery level;

computing, based on said time profiles, an amount of time remaining before battery exhaustion under said battery level and a mode of operation having a predefine power consumption rate, and taking a predetermined action based on the computed amount of time remaining with respect to at least one preset threshold; and

regulating access of said services to resources of said device for performing said services, in accordance with said predetermined action.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein at least one of said services is a critical service being provided to said user, said at least one parameter is a risk level of said user with respect to said critical service, said amount of time remaining is computed based on said risk level of said user, and said predetermined action causes maximizing availability of said critical service to said user.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation:

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation:

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation:

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein said amount of time remaining is computed by the equation: