Power saving method for handheld mobile electronic device and device using the same

• US 9,367,098 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2014
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Original Assignee: HTC Corporation
• Inventors: Cheng, Mao-Sung
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Kent
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lu, William
• Application Number:
  US14/147,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20140225660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 890 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3262 Power saving in digitizer or tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883

Abstract

The present disclosure proposes a power saving technique to be used by a handheld mobile electronic device. In particular, the handheld mobile electronic device would execute functions including determining a tilting angle of the handheld mobile electronic device above and relative to a level surface by using a sensor, determining whether the tilting angle exceeds a first angle threshold and falls below a second angle threshold, using a first counting threshold when the tilting angle is above the first angle threshold and is below the second angle threshold, using a second counting threshold which is less than the first counting threshold when the tilting angle falls below the first angle threshold or exceeds the second angle threshold, and darkening a touch screen of the handheld mobile electronic device when the handheld mobile electronic does not receive an input within the first counting threshold or the second counting threshold.

Claims

1. A power saving method to be used by a handheld mobile electronic device with a touch screen comprising:

determining whether any touch input is received within a second counting threshold;

in response to not receiving any touch input within the second counting threshold;

determining a tilting angle of the handheld mobile electronic device above and relative to a level surface by using a sensor;

determining whether the tilting angle exceeds a first angle threshold and falls below a second angle threshold;

using a first counting threshold and entering a reading mode when the tilting angle is above the first angle threshold and is below the second angle threshold, wherein in the reading mode, the handheld mobile electronic device does not darken or turn off the touch screen;

using the second counting threshold which is less than the first counting threshold when the tilting angle falls below the first angle threshold or exceeds the second angle threshold;

darkening the touch screen of the handheld mobile electronic device in response to the handheld mobile electronic using the first counting threshold but does not receive any touch input within the first counting threshold; and

darkening the touch screen of the handheld mobile electronic device in response to the handheld mobile device using the second counting threshold but does not receiving any touch input within the second counting threshold; and

using the first counting threshold when the handheld mobile electronic device is in a landscape orientation or in a right side up portrait orientation such that an speaker which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device is situated higher than a microphone which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of using the first counting threshold and entering the reading mode when the tilting angle is above the first angle threshold and is below the second angle threshold further comprises using the first counting threshold when any touch input is received within a non-zero default period.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of using the second counting threshold which is less than the first counting threshold when the tilting angle falls below the first angle threshold or exceeds the second angle threshold further comprises using the second counting threshold when no touch input is received within the non-zero default period.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprises using the second counting threshold when the handheld mobile electronic device is in an upside down portrait orientation such that the microphone which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device is situated higher than the speaker which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second counting threshold is configured through a menu from a list of discrete second counting thresholds.

6. The method of claim 1, in response to the second counting threshold is configured through the menu, the first counting threshold is scaled according to a non-zero linear proportion.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining whether the tilting angle exceeds the first angle threshold and falls below the second angle threshold comprising determining whether the tilting angle exceeds the first angle threshold which is 30 degrees above and relative to the level surface and falls below the second angle threshold which is 150 degrees above and relative to the level surface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first counting threshold is one minute, and the second counting threshold is 10 seconds.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a G-sensor.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the tilting angle is determined according to an angle between an axis normal to the level surface and an axis normal to the touch screen.

10. A handheld electronic device comprising:

a touch screen;

a G-sensor; and

a processing circuit coupled to the touch screen and the G-sensor and is configured for;

determining whether any input is received within a second counting threshold;

in response to not receiving any input within the second counting threshold;

determining a tilting angle of the handheld mobile electronic device above and relative to a level surface by using the G-sensor sensor;

determining based on outputs from the G-sensor whether the tilting angle exceeds a first angle threshold and falls below a second angle threshold;

using a first counting threshold and entering a reading mode when the tilting angle is above the first angle threshold and is below the second angle threshold, wherein in the reading mode, the handheld mobile electronic device does not darken or turn off the touch screen;

using the second counting threshold which is less than the first counting threshold when the tilting angle falls below the first angle threshold or exceeds the second angle threshold;

darkening the touch screen in response to the processing circuit using the first counting threshold but does not receive any touch input within the first counting threshold; and

darkening the touch screen in response to the processing circuit using the second counting threshold but does not receiving any input within the second counting threshold; and

using the first counting threshold when the handheld mobile electronic device is in a landscape orientation or in a right side up portrait orientation such that an speaker which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device is situated higher than a microphone which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the processing circuit is further configured for using the first counting threshold and entering a reading mode when the tilting angle is above the first angle threshold and is below the second angle threshold and a touch input is received within a non-zero default period.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the processing circuit is further configured for using the second counting threshold which is less than the first counting threshold when the tilting angle falls below the first angle threshold or exceeds the second angle threshold and when no touch input is received within the non-zero default period.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the processing circuit is further configured for using the second counting threshold when the handheld mobile electronic device is in an upside down portrait orientation such that the microphone which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device is situated higher than the speaker which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device.

14. The device of claim 10, wherein the second counting threshold is configured through a menu from a list of discrete second counting thresholds displayed on the touch screen.

15. The device of claim 10, in response to the second counting threshold is configured through the menu displayed on the touch screen, the processing circuit scales the first counting threshold according to a non-zero linear proportion.

16. The device of claim 10, wherein the processing circuit is configured for determining whether the tilting angle exceeds the first angle threshold and falls below the second angle threshold comprising determining whether the tilting angle exceeds the first angle threshold which is 30 degrees above and relative to the level surface and falls below the second angle threshold which is 150 degrees above and relative to the level surface.

17. The device of claim 10, wherein the processing circuit configures first counting threshold as one minute, and the processing circuit configures the second counting threshold as 10 seconds.

18. A non-transitory storage medium which stores a plurality of computer readable programming codes to be loaded into a handheld electronic device to execute functions comprising:

determining whether any touch input is received within a second counting threshold;

in response to not receiving any touch input within the second counting threshold;

determining a tilting angle of the handheld mobile electronic device above and relative to a level surface by using a sensor;

determining whether the tilting angle exceeds a first angle threshold and falls below a second angle threshold;

using a first counting threshold and entering a reading mode when the tilting angle is above the first angle threshold and is below the second angle threshold, wherein in the reading mode, the handheld mobile electronic device does not darken or turn off the touch screen;

using the second counting threshold which is less than the first counting threshold when the tilting angle falls below the first angle threshold or exceeds the second angle threshold;

darkening the touch screen of the handheld mobile electronic device in response to the handheld mobile electronic using the first counting threshold but does not receive any touch input within the first counting threshold; and

darkening the touch screen of the handheld mobile electronic device in response to the handheld mobile device using the second counting threshold but does not receiving any touch input within the second counting threshold; and

using the first counting threshold when the handheld mobile electronic device is in a landscape orientation or in a right side up portrait orientation such that an speaker which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device is situated higher than a microphone which is native to the handheld mobile electronic device.