The present invention relates to determining remaining usage time for mobile telephones, and more particularly, to a self learning method for predicting remaining usage time for different modes of a mobile telephone.
Users of portable battery powered communication devices are dependent on a fully functional device. More specifically, the users need to know exactly for how long their devices will remain functional, until the electrical energy stored in the battery has been consumed and the battery has to be recharged. This is particularly true for users of mobile telephones.
In order to determine a precise estimation of the remaining operational time of a mobile telephone, the user needs an accurate and well functioning battery capacity indicator or “fuel gauge”. Determining the remaining battery capacity includes two separate current measurements One measurement from the current flowing into the battery “charging” and one measurement for the current consumed from the battery “discharging”. The charging current is often relatively easy to measure. A microprocessor “CPU” may determine the current signal which is directly proportional to the current flowing through a small resistor. Since a microprocessor controls the charging process, it will also have access to all relative data for calculating the total energy, that has been supplied to the battery during a certain period of time.
Determining the discharge current or current consumption is much more difficult, particularly for advanced telephones with complex functionalities and many operating modes. Traditionally, discharged current is measured by calculating the expected current consumption, when the telephone is in different operating modes. Earlier mobile telephones basically had two operating modes, talk mode and standby mode. With such telephones, the current consumption for talk modes and standby modes was measured once in a test laboratory environment and stored in memory in the telephone as respective, predetermined consumption values. In operation, the telephone would keep track of the time spent in talk mode and standby modes and subsequently calculate the total amount of energy consumed within the battery by multiplying the respective operational times by the predetermined consumption values.
Recently it has been possible to use application specific integrated circuits (ASICS) to measure current flowing in and out of a battery. To be able to predict remaining operating time, existing mobile telephones are required to track how each setting of the mobile telephone sets current consumption from a battery. The added current consumption for each setting must be measured in a lab and stored within the mobile telephone's non-volatile memory at production. The software in the mobile telephone is configured to consider the different menu settings when calculating remaining operating time for the battery. Additionally, the mobile telephone must track activities towards the network within various modes such as standby and call. This could be done by counting the number of RX, TX and SYNT strobes in the different modes of telephone. Each strobe contains a certain amount of energy that is measured in the lab and stored as a parameter in the non-volatile memory. These networks activities must be included when estimating the current power consumed in each mode of the mobile telephone.
These methods, however, are quite complex to use in practice due to the large amount of measurements that must be done in the lab, and the large amount of data that must be stored in the mobile phone. Each increases the complexity and cost associated with a mobile telephone
The present invention comprises an apparatus and method for determining usage time for a plurality of modes of a mobile device. A processor, in conjunction with circuitry for determining current usage values for various modes of the mobile device determines a current usage value for a first mode of the mobile telephone. The current usage value is stored in a table for storing the current usage values at a location associated with the mode of the mobile device. A determination may then be made of remaining usage time for the mode responsive to the current usage value stored in the table.
A more complete understanding of the method and apparatus of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following Detailed Description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying Drawings wherein:
Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to
According to the present invention, a remaining usage time for a battery 20 may be calculated using a processor 30, a power applications specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 35 and a self learning table 40 stored within a memory 45 of the mobile terminal 10. The power ASIC 35 is able to determine a current usage into or out of the battery 20 and is further able to determine a current usage associated with various modes of operation of the mobile telephone 10. The various modes of operation of the mobile telephone 10 may include various software configurations according to which the mobile telephone 10 is operated under control of mode software 50 executed by the processor 30; the operation of various hardware components 55 contained within and operated by the mobile terminal 10 under the control of processor 30, such as LCD, camera, MP3 audio player; or various combinations of the hardware and software. Options for various modes of use of interest to the user may be presented to the user via a menu. The user can select various modes from the menu and receive information on a usage time for the selected modes without actually putting the mobile terminal 10 into the selected mode.
The table 40 within memory 45, as more fully illustrated in
Furthermore, when a new mode of the terminal 10 is first accessed by the mobile terminal and no entry 60 for the mode is currently available, a new entry 60 may be created within the table 40 such that a current usage value may be generated by the power ASIC 35 and stored as a new entry 70 in the table 40. In this way, the table is able to self learn and determine remaining time usage in any number of modes representing various hardware/software combinations. The first time a particular mode is assessed by the mobile telephone 10, remaining usage time may not be determined since a current usage value entry is not available for the mode. Thus, the mobile terminal 10 displays, for example, “LEARNING” during this time period. The next time the mode 50 is accessed by the mobile terminal, or after a value is stored, the current usage value is retrieved by the processor 30 from the table 40 and used to determine a remaining usage time for presentation upon the display 25.
Referring now to
If the mobile terminal has previously entered the mode and an entry exists within the table 40 for the mode, a present current usage value is determined for the mode at step 115 using power ASIC 35. Inquiry step 120 determines whether an update of the existing current usage entry is necessary and if so, the current usage value for the mode is updated at step 125. The updated value may be filtered if necessary at step 130 to prevent drastic changes within the presently stored current usage value for a mode. Filtering may in one embodiment be performed by averaging the current measurements over time but other filtering options may be used After updating at step 125 or if inquiry step 120 determines that no update is necessary, the obtained current usage value in the table 40 is used to determine a remaining usage time for the mode at step 135 which is displayed to a user at step 140. If desired, the table 40 can be preloaded with default values for use before a first use of a mode.
The previous description is of a preferred embodiment for implementing the invention, and the scope of the invention should not necessarily be limited by this description. The scope of the present invention is instead defined by the following claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5248929 | Burke | Sep 1993 | A |
5333176 | Burke et al. | Jul 1994 | A |
5587924 | Rossi | Dec 1996 | A |
5635813 | Shiga et al. | Jun 1997 | A |
5654623 | Shiga et al. | Aug 1997 | A |
5684861 | Lewis et al. | Nov 1997 | A |
5838140 | Rosenthal | Nov 1998 | A |
6038515 | Kikuchi et al. | Mar 2000 | A |
6046574 | Baranowski et al. | Apr 2000 | A |
6088431 | LaDue | Jul 2000 | A |
6389474 | Chien et al. | May 2002 | B1 |
6404753 | Chien et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
6408020 | Kaji et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
6564073 | Uggmark et al. | May 2003 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
0 593 198 | Apr 1994 | EP |
0 794 438 | Sep 1997 | EP |
0 854 583 | Jul 1998 | EP |
11023678 | Jan 1999 | JP |
11069442 | Mar 1999 | JP |
2001147259 | May 2001 | JP |
514 258 | Jan 1999 | SE |
WO 0045189 | Aug 2000 | WO |
WO 0045189 | Aug 2000 | WO |
WO 0045568 | Aug 2000 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20040098222 A1 | May 2004 | US |