Automatically adjusting display areas to reduce power consumption

• US 9,436,269 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2013
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Yang, Wenlong
• Primary Examiner(s): Choudhury, Zahid
• Application Number:
  US14/126,897
• Publication Number:
  US 20140344608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3228 Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0686 with two or more screen areas displaying information with different brightness or colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method includes receiving user interface information having event registrations for a user interface to be displayed on a display of a system, partitioning the display into an unused display area and an active display area based on the event registrations, and power managing the unused display area while maintaining the active display area fully powered. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory storage medium having instructions stored thereon for causing a system to:

receive user interface information for a user interface to be displayed on a display of the system, the user interface information including one or more event registrations provided to an operating system (OS) by a software agent having the user interface;

determine whether a display event or a response event of the one or more event registrations is registered for a first display area of the display based on the user interface information;

determine whether a background related event of the one or more event registrations is registered for a second display area of the display based on the user interface information; and

if the display event or the response event is not registered for the first display area, adjust the first display area to reduce power consumption of the first display area.

2. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to compare a number of events of the one or more event registrations in the second display area to a threshold.

3. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 2, further comprising instructions to determine whether a portion of the second display area having events is greater than a threshold area and if so, maintain a control panel in a sub-display portion of the second display area and power off a remaining portion of the second display area.

4. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 3, wherein the control panel comprises at least a first selection button and a second selection button to enable the user to access additional selected items.

5. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, wherein the display area adjustment comprises controlling a brightness of the first display area.

6. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, wherein the display area adjustment comprises powering down the first display area.

7. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to receive a user selection of a display area adjustment mode and to configure the display for the display area adjustment mode responsive thereto.

8. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions to partition the display into a first plurality of display areas and a second plurality of display areas, and to enable the first plurality of display areas and to power down the second plurality of display areas.

9. The at least one non-transitory storage medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions to partition the display based on the user interface information.

10. A method comprising:

receiving user interface information including event registrations provided to an operating system (OS) by a software agent having a user interface to be displayed on a display of a system in a first logic of the system;

partitioning the display into at least one unused display area and at least one active display area based on the event registrations;

partitioning a first display area into the at least one unused display area if no display event is registered for the first display area;

partitioning a second display area into at least one minimally used display area if a background related event is registered for the second display area;

power managing the at least one unused display area; and

maintaining the at least one active display area fully powered.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising power managing the at least one minimally used display area, wherein the at least one minimally used display area is power managed differently than the at least one unused display area.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising power managing the at least one minimally used display area by adjusting a brightness thereof.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising power managing the at least one minimally used display area by displaying a control panel in a first portion of the at least one minimally used display area and powering down a second portion of the at least one minimally used display area.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a user selection of a display area automatic adjustment mode and configuring the display for the display area automatic adjustment mode responsive thereto.

15. A system comprising:

a processor to execute instructions and including a logic to configure a display for a first mode in which the display is partitioned into a plurality of display areas, and to control at least one first display area to operate at a first power consumption level and to control at least one second display area to operate at a second power consumption level based on event registration information for a first user interface to be displayed on the display, wherein the logic is to maintain a control panel in a sub-display portion of the at least one first display area and power off a remaining portion of the at least one first display area responsive to a determination based at least in part on the event registration information that a portion of the at least one first display area having one or more event registrations is greater than a threshold area, the control panel comprising a first selection button and a second selection button; and

the display to display the first user interface.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one first display area is to operate at the first power consumption level in the first mode and at the second power consumption level in a second mode, the first power consumption level less than the second power consumption level.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one first display area is to be powered off at the first power consumption level.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one second display area comprises an active display area and the at least one first display area comprises an unused display area.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one first display area is controlled to have at least one of a reduced brightness and a reduced resolution in the first mode.