Method, apparatus and system for power management through backlight and other peripheral controls

摘要

A method, apparatus and system for power management in a mobile computing device is provided. In one aspect, the mobile computing device comprises a display with a backlight that is power by a power supply under the control of a processor. The mobile computing device is also configured to execute a web browser or other application that access a network resource. Activation of the backlight is controlled in coordination with the network resource in order to manage drain of power from the power supply.

主权项

1. A method for power management in a mobile computing device comprising:
activating a display in said mobile computing device such that a first amount of power is drawn from a power supply of said mobile computing device; maintaining a timer for measuring periods of inactivity at said mobile computing device; said timer configured to deactivate said display when said timer reaches a predefined threshold; initiating a data transfer operation to retrieve content for presentation on said display; in response to said initiating, advancing said timer to said predefined threshold by setting said timer to a value greater than a current period of inactivity, to deactivate said display such that a second amount of power is drawn from said power supply, said second amount being less than said first amount; during retrieval of said content, detecting a flag in said content indicating that a predefined portion of said content has been downloaded, said flag at a location in said content that indicates the predefined portion being downloaded, the flag comprising a warning that download of said content is complete or nearly complete; in response to said detecting, automatically reactivating said display; and automatically activating at least one of a light emitting diode indicator, a speaker, or a haptic output device in response to said detecting; wherein: said data transfer operation is for retrieving said content from a remote computing apparatus connected to said mobile computing device; said remote computing apparatus is at least one of a server connected to said computing device via a network and said data transfer operation is a download from said server; another computing device connected via a peer-to-peer connection to said computing device; a storage device locally connectable to said computing device; said display comprises a backlight and said activating comprising activating said backlight and said deactivating comprises deactivating said backlight; and said data transfer operation comprises at least one of a file transfer, an application installation, playing an audio file, implementing a device boot-up sequence, and installation of a device theme.