Method and apparatus for power management according to a situation mode

• US 9,043,619 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2012
• Issued: 05/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Getac Technology Company Limited (MiTAC Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Getac Technology Company Limited (MiTAC Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Lee, Yun-Hsien, Chang, Chin-Jung
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chan, Danny
• Application Number:
  US13/527,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339764A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The disclosure discloses a power management method, for setting a power supply arrangement of an electronic device intelligently, comprising providing at least two sensors, corresponding to at least one threshold respectively; detecting a state of the electronic device for generating a detecting signal respectively; comparing the at least two detecting signals with the at least one threshold corresponding to the at least two sensors respectively; generating at least two situation signals when the at least two detecting signals meet the at least one threshold corresponding to the at least two sensors respectively; looking up a look-up table according to the at least two detecting signals for generating a control command; and writing in at least one independent bit of a register according to the control command for changing or maintaining a power supply arrangement of at least one peripheral component.

Claims

1. A power management method, for setting a power supply arrangement of an electronic device intelligently, comprising:

providing at least two sensors, the at least two sensors configured to detect two different physical properties, wherein each physical property corresponds to a state of the electronic device;

generating a detecting signal respectively by each of the at least two detecting sensors according to the detected state of the electronic device;

respectively comparing each of the detecting signals with at least one corresponding threshold and generating a respective situation signal when the detecting signal meets the at least one corresponding threshold;

looking up a look-up table according to the situation signals to determine a situation mode selected from a predetermined plurality of situation modes, wherein the situation modes represent different kinds of external environmental conditions according to the interaction between the electronic device and a user;

looking up a look-up table according to the situation mode for generating a control command; and

writing in at least one independent bit of a register according to the control command for changing or maintaining a power supply arrangement of at least one peripheral component;

wherein the situation modes comprise an off mode in which the electronic device is not in use, a still mode in which the electronic device is in use while disposed on a support surface, and a handheld mode in which the electronic device is in use in a handheld manner; and

wherein the step of writing in the at least one independent bit of the register according to the control command for changing or maintaining the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component comprises;

sending a reminding signal according to the control command; and

receiving a confirming message for changing or maintaining the at least one independent bit and changing or maintaining the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component according to the at least one independent bit.

2. The power management method according to claim 1, further comprises:

adjusting a brightness of a display module according to the control command.

3. The power management method according to claim 1, further comprises:

adjusting a frequency of a processor according to the control command.

4. The power management method according to claim 1, further comprises:

writing in the at least one independent bit according to a user command; and

changing or maintaining the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component according to the at least one independent bit and ignoring the control command.

5. The power management method according to claim 4, further comprises:

generating a counting value according to a time parameter and a number of times of writing in the at least one independent bit in response to the user command; and

comparing the counting value with a number-of-times threshold; and

writing in a time-situation mode of the look-up table when the counting value is greater than the number-of-times threshold;

wherein the step of writing in the at least one independent bit of the register according to the control command for changing or maintaining the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component further comprises;

determining whether the time-situation mode of the look-up table meets the control command and the time parameter; and

changing or maintaining the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component according to the time-situation mode.

12. The power management method according to claim 1, wherein the at least two sensors comprise a motion sensor and a pressure sensor.

6. An electronic device comprising:

at least two sensors, each of the at least two sensors configured to detect two different physical properties and generate a respective detection signal

at least one peripheral component; and

a control module, electrically connected to the at least one peripheral component and the at least two sensors, wherein the control module comprises a register, the control module is configured to compare each of the detecting signals with at least one corresponding threshold and generate a respective situation signal when the detecting signal meets the at least one corresponding threshold, look up a look-up table according to the situation signals to determine a situation mode selected from a predetermined plurality of situation modes, wherein the situation modes represent different kinds of external environmental conditions according to the interaction between the electronic device and a user, look up a look-up table according to the situation mode for generating a control command, send a reminding signal according to the control command, receive a confirming message for changing or maintaining at least one independent bit of the register and changing or maintaining the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component according to the at least one independent bit, and write in the at least one independent bit of the register according to the confirming message for changing or maintaining a power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component;

wherein the situation modes comprise an off mode in which the electronic device is not in use, a still mode in which the electronic device is in use while disposed on a support surface, and a handheld mode in which the electronic device is in use in a handheld manner.

7. The electronic device according to claim 6, further comprises a display module and a processor, wherein the control module adjusts a brightness of the display module and a frequency of the processor according to the control command.

8. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component corresponds to the at least one independent bit of the register respectively.

9. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein, the control module is configured to adjust the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component according to a change in the situation mode.

10. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein in the control module is configured such that when the electronic device receives a user command for changing the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component, the control module directly changes the power supply arrangement of the at least one peripheral component according to the user command and ignores the control command.

11. The electronic device having the at least two sensors according to claim 6, wherein the at least one peripheral component comprises a web camera module, an internal local area network, a wireless local area network, a touch panel module, a heat dissipation module, a processor frequency control module, an audio module, an audio input module, a bluetooth module and an interface connector.

13. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein the at least two sensors comprise a motion sensor and a pressure sensor.

14. The electronic device according to claim 13, further comprising a thermal sensor and a light sensor.