EXCHANGING ENERGY CREDITS WIRELESSLY

• US 20150230172A1
• Filed: 03/31/2014
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Open Garden Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Open Garden Incorporated
• Inventors: Shalunov, Stanislav, Hazel, Gregory, Benoliel, Micha
• Granted Patent: US 9,503,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0212 managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is master and terminal is slave
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0296 switching to a backup power supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A system and method for effectively “exchanging” battery power among physically distinct battery-powered devices communicating in a network for optimal conservation of aggregate battery power to preserve and extend the usable life of devices before requiring recharging. The network communication may be wired, wireless, or some combination; the devices may be mobile, fixed, or some combination. This invention improves Internet access where it already exists by making it faster, more reliable, and less expensive. It can also be used to provide Internet service in places where there is none.

Claims

1. A system for performing power management of network connected devices, comprising:

a compute engine running on a network connected computing platform;

a client running on a network-connected user device;

wherein;

the compute engine is programmed to receive battery data of the user device and calculate preferred communication and processing path and transmit the preferred communication and processing path to the user device; and

the client is programmed cause the user device to receive the preferred communication and processing path from the compute engine and perform wireless communication according to the preferred communication path and perform computations according to the preferred processing path.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the preferred communication path comprises one of direct connection to an Internet gateway or re-route connection via a secondary user device that is connected to an Internet gateway.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the secondary user device is indirectly connected to the Internet Gateway.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the compute engine is further programmed to maintain power credit entries corresponding to the battery data received from the user device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device is further programmed to maintain power credit entries corresponding to the battery data of the user device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device is programmed to perform computations according to the preferred processing path by connecting to a secondary user device and sending a request to the secondary user device to perform requested computation and to send a reply to the user device with outcome of the computation.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device is programmed to connect send the request to the secondary user device over a Bluetooth connection.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the user device is programmed to connect send the request to the secondary user device over a WiFi connection.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the user device is programmed to perform computations according to the preferred processing path by further turning off its network transceiver and communicate only over a Bluetooth or WiFi connection.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the client is further programmed to obtain battery charge status and, when battery charge status is low, cause the user device to turn off its network transceiver and communicate only over a Bluetooth or WiFi connection.

11. A method for controlling battery utilization of a plurality of user devices, each of the devices having a network transceiver and at least one secondary transceiver, the method comprising:

monitoring battery status of the user devices;

when a battery of one device of the user devices is indicated to be low, performing at least one of;

directing all wireless communications though the secondary transceiver;

or

avoiding performing complex computation by sending to another device of the plurality of user devices a request to perform the complex computation and to transmit a reply containing the outcome of the complex computation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein when the battery of the one device of the user devices is indicated to be low, further comprising:

turning off the network transceiver.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of sending to another device comprises sending a transmission over the secondary transceiver.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the secondary transceiver comprises one of a Bluetooth transceiver and WiFi transceiver.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising maintaining a log of power credits allocated to the plurality of user devices.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising monitoring signal strength of the network transceiver of each of the plurality of user devices.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising using the battery status and the signal strength to allocate network connection optimally among the plurality of user devices so as to maximize battery life of the plurality of user devices as a whole.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of allocating network connection optimally comprises determining for each of the plurality of user devices whether to communicate using the network transceiver or the secondary transceiver.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of allocating network connection optimally comprises causing user devices having low battery charge to communicate with the network through other user devices having high charge.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising, estimating power consumption of computing operation required by the one device and, if the estimated power consumption is high with respect to the battery status of the one device, requesting another user device to perform the operation and to send the result to the one device.

21. A method for a device participating in energy exchange transactions for reducing power consumption by a plurality of devices, comprising:

receiving by the device a message from a second device, the message including a processing request;

performing the processing request by the device, to thereby obtain a processing request result;

transmitting from the device a message to the second device, the message including the processing request result;

receiving in the device an indication of increasing a level of energy credits available to the device.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising forwarding the processing request message result to a requesting application in the second device.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising after receiving the request, but prior to performing the processing request, checking battery level in the device and, if the battery level is below a threshold, rejecting the request by sending a rejection message to the second device.

24. A method for a device participating in energy exchange transactions for reducing power consumption by a plurality of devices, comprising:

generating a message and sending the message to a second device, the message including a processing request;

receiving in the device an indication of decreasing a level of energy credits available to the device;

receiving a message from the second device, the message including a processing request result.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising prior to sending the processing request checking battery level in the device and sending the processing request only if the battery level is below a threshold.

26. A method for a device participating in energy exchange transactions for reducing power consumption by a plurality of devices, comprising:

receiving by the device a message from a second device, the message including a transmission request;

performing the transmission request by sending a message to a third device;

transmitting an acknowledgement message to the second device, indicating performance of the transmission request;

receiving in the device an indication of increasing a level of energy credits available to the device.

27. A method for a device participating in energy exchange transactions for reducing power consumption by a plurality of devices, comprising:

receiving a transmission request from an application running on the device;

checking battery level in the device and;

when the battery level above a threshold, executing the transmission request, but when the battery level is below the threshold sending a message to a second device, the message requesting the second device to perform the transmission request.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising, after sending the message to the second device, receiving in the device an indication of reducing a level of energy credits available to the device.