Apparatus and method for controlling wearable devices using wireless energy harvesting

• US 9,841,784 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2014
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Belogolovy, Andrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US14/499,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20160091920A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,173 Days
• Field of Search: 307104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/263 Arrangements for using multiple switchable power supplies, e.g. battery and AC G06F1/30 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00024 by means of mobile telephony
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00026 involving a local wireless network, e.g. Wi-Fi, ZigBee or Bluetooth
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/0005 the elements or equipment being or involving power plugs or sockets
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/23 characterised by the type of transmitting antennas, e.g. directional array antennas or Yagi antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/00 Management or operation of end-user stationary applications or the last stages of power distribution; Controlling, monitoring or operating thereof

Abstract

Described is an apparatus which comprises: an antenna to sense or receive energy from an external source; a harvesting module to harvest power according to the sensed or received energy; a decoder coupled to the harvesting module, the decoder to decode the sensed or received energy and to generate one or more commands; and one or more switches operable to turn on or off according to the one or more commands.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an antenna to sense or receive energy from an external source;

a harvesting module to harvest power according to the sensed or received energy;

a decoder coupled to the harvesting module, the decoder to decode the sensed or received energy and to generate one or more commands; and

one or more switches operable to turn on or off according to the one or more commands.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more switches is a power switch which is operable to connect or disconnect power to at least a portion of the apparatus according to one of the one or more commands.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more switches is a reset switch which is operable to synchronize a clock edge with a clock edge of another device according to one of the one or more commands.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the antenna is to sense or receive energy which is WLAN based energy.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the harvesting module is to analyze function shape of the receive energy to generate a binary code.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the decoder is to decode the binary code to determine the one or more commands.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the decoder is to apply error correction on the binary code to determine the one or more commands.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 comprises logic to compare an identification code with at least a portion of the binary code.

9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the one or more commands include at least one of:

a command which is to turn on the apparatus;

a command which is to reset clock;

a command which is to turn on a sensor;

or

a command which is to turn on a high-rate data connection.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the external source is one of:

a smart phone;

a tablet PC;

or

a WLAN enabled device.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the harvesting module is to convert received energy into power and to supply the power to the decoder.

12. An apparatus comprising:

logic to generate WLAN packets of different lengths, the WLAN packets indicating one or more commands; and

an antenna to send the WLAN packets of different lengths to one or more wearable devices, wherein at least one of the one or more wearable devices includes one or more switches operable to turn on or off according to the one or more commands.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more commands include at least one of:

a command which is to turn on the apparatus;

a command which is to reset clock;

a command which is to turn on a sensor;

a command which is to turn on a high-rate data connection;

or

a command which is to synchronize two or more wearable devices.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein at least one of the wearable devices includes an antenna to sense or receive energy from the apparatus.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one of the wearable devices includes a harvesting module to harvest power according to the sensed or received energy.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one of the wearable devices includes a decoder coupled to the harvesting module, wherein the decoder is to decode the sensed or received energy and is to generate the one or more commands.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more wearable devices includes at least one of sensor, camera, and microphone.

18. A method comprising:

sensing or receiving energy from an external source;

harvesting power according to the sensed or received energy;

decoding the sensed or received energy and generating one or more commands; and

switching on or off one or more switches according to the one or more commands.

19. The method of claim 18 comprising:

providing the harvested power to enable decoding of the sensed or received energy.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more switches is a power switch which is operable to connect or disconnect power to at least a portion of an apparatus according to one of the one or more commands.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more switches is a reset switch which is operable to synchronize a clock edge with a clock edge of two or more devices according to one of the one or more commands.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the external source is one of:

a smart phone;

a tablet PC;

or

a WLAN enabled device.