Selective illumination of regions of an electronic display

• US 20050057539A1
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Published: 03/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ong, Dee Nai
• Granted Patent: US 7,145,558 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/204
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/062 Adjustment of illumination source parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0633 by amplitude modulation of the brightness of the illumination source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/064 by time modulation of the brightness of the illumination source
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2330/021 Power management, e.g. power saving
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/342 using several illumination sources separately controlled corresponding to different display panel areas, e.g. along one dimension such as lines

Abstract

There is disclosed the selective illuminating of a display (5) for an electronic device (1) that can reduce battery power consumption. The invention provides for detecting an event that will trigger an update of the display (5) and activation of illumination elements (27) for illuminating the display and determining whether the information to be displayed will occupy a region (B-L) of the display. If so, the region of the display is selectively illuminated by one or more of the illumination elements. The predetermined illumination time period may depend on a selected combination of a size of the region, a location of said region and/or a priority associated with the event.

Claims

1. A method for selectively illuminating regions of a display of a portable electronic device, the display comprising a plurality of illuminating regions, said method including:

detecting an event that will trigger an update of said display and activation of illumination elements for illuminating said display;

determining at least one region, from said regions, that require illuminating during said update; and

selectively illuminating at least one of said region of said display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining includes referring to a mapping table to determine said illumination elements to be activated to selectively illuminate said region of said display.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining includes referring to a mapping table to identify a predetermined illumination time period.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said predetermined illumination time period depends on a size of said region.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said predetermined illumination time period depends on a location of said region in said display.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein smaller regions are illuminated for shorter predetermined time periods than larger regions.

7. The method of claim 1, further including the step of referring to a mapping table to determine a priority of said event and applying a predetermined illumination time period in accordance with said priority of said event.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein said predetermined illumination time period is determined according to a selected combination of a size of said region, a location of said region and/or a priority of said event.

9. The method of claim 1, further including the step of referring to a mapping table to determine a priority of said event and applying an illumination brightness in accordance with said priority of said event.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selectively illuminating said region of said display includes activating one or more of said illumination elements adjacent at least one side of said display to illuminate a side region of said display.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selectively illuminating said region of said display includes activating one or more of said illumination elements adjacent opposing sides of said display to illuminate a substantially central region of said display.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selectively illuminating said region includes activating a selected combination of said illumination elements.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selectively illuminating said region includes activating said illumination elements illuminating said region to a first brightness and activating a remainder of said illumination elements to a second brightness.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selectively illuminating said region includes one or more of said illumination elements alternating between an activated state and a deactivated or partially activated state to produce flashing illumination.

15. A portable electronic device comprising:

a display for displaying information;

a plurality of illumination elements located adjacent said display for illuminating said display;

a display handling module coupled to said display for;

i) updating said display in response to said device detecting an event that will trigger an update of said display and activation of said illumination elements; and

ii) determining a region of said display in which said information will be displayed during said update; and

,

an illumination control module coupled to said display handling module for controlling selective illumination of said region.

16. The portable electronic device of claim 15, further comprising an illumination driver coupled to said illumination control module and to said illumination elements for controlling activation and deactivation of said illumination elements in response to signals from said illumination control module.

17. The portable electronic device of claim 15, further comprising a mapping table to which said display handling module and said illumination control module refer, said mapping table comprising identities of said illumination elements to be activated to selectively illuminate said regions.

18. The portable electronic device of claim 15, further comprising a mapping table to which said display handling module and said illumination control module refer, said mapping table comprising a predetermined illumination time period for each said region.

19. The portable electronic device of claim 15, further comprising a mapping table to which said display handling module and said illumination control module refer, said mapping table comprising a priority associated with each said event and a predetermined illumination time period associated with each said priority.

20. The portable electronic device of claim 15, further comprising a mapping table to which said display handling module and said illumination control module refer, said mapping table comprising a predetermined illumination brightness associated with a priority of each said event.