POWER MANAGEMENT OF A MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE

[0001] Mobile communication devices (e.g., wireless phones) have become an integral part of everyday life. However, the form factor and functionality employed by conventional mobile communications devices is typically limited to promote mobility of the device.

[0002] For example, mobile communications devices are powered by batteries that are typically sized to promote mobility of the mobile communications device. Even if the mobile communications device has a relatively large battery, however, the amount of power that may be obtained from the battery is finite. Accordingly, conventional mobile communications devices include an output that indicates an amount of power that is available from the battery, e.g., 40%. However, this indication is typically the sole indication provided to a user of the mobile communications device, which may make it difficult for the user to judge the remaining usefulness of the mobile communications device based on the current amount of power available from the battery.

[0003] A user interface for power management of a mobile communications device is described. In an implementation, power consumption used in performance of a plurality of tasks is monitored by a mobile communications device. A determination is made as to an amount of power that remains in a battery of the mobile communications device. A user interface is displayed on a display device of the mobile communications device that describes an amount of time each of the plurality of tasks may be performed based on the determined amount of power that remains in the battery.

[0004] In an implementation, one or more computer-readable storage media comprise instructions that are executable by a mobile communications device to provide an operating system that is executable to monitor battery usage of the mobile communications device to perform one or more tasks and expose data generated from the monitored usage via an application programming interface (API) to one or more applications that are executable on the mobile communications device to adjust power consumption by the one or more applications.

[0005] In an implementation, a mobile communications device includes a battery, a processor, and memory configured to maintain instructions that are executable on the processor to monitor an amount of power that remains in the battery and if the amount of power drops below a threshold level that is set to enable a telephone call, restrict telephone calls from being performed that are directed at a non-emergency telephone number.

[0006] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0014] Mobile communications devices typically have a small form factor to aide mobility of the mobile communications device. For example, the mobile communications device (e.g., a mobile phone) may be configured with a relatively minimal amount of display area and limited input devices (e.g., a keypad) so that the device may be easily transported. Additionally, the mobile communications device may have a limited amount of power available to perform tasks due to use of a battery. However, conventional techniques that were used to inform a user as to a current state of the battery had limited functionality. For example, by simply displaying an amount of power that remains in the battery using a percentage forced the user to roughly determine what that meant.

[0015] Power management techniques are described for use by a mobile communications device or other device with a battery. In an implementation, a user interface is output that describes a plurality of tasks that are performable by the mobile communications device. The user interface also describes an amount of time that may be used to perform the tasks based on an amount of power that is currently available from a battery of the mobile communications device. For example, the user interface may display an amount of time each application may be executed on the mobile communications device. Further, as applications are booted, the result of this action (e.g., execution of each additional application) may be reflected in the user interface. In this way, a user may make an informed decision as to which tasks may be performed based on a current state of the battery, further discussion of which may be found in relation to FIG. 3. A variety of other implementations are also described in the following sections, including implementations to enable applications to conserve power as further discussed in relation to FIG. 4, implementations to restrict functionality to extend an ability to make emergency telephone calls as further discussed in relation to FIG. 5, and so on.

[0016] In the following discussion, a variety of example implementations of a mobile communications device (e.g., a wireless phone) are described. Additionally, a variety of different functionality that may be employed by the mobile communications device is described for each example, which may be implemented in that example as well as in other described examples. Accordingly, example implementations are illustrated of a few of a variety of contemplated implementations. Further, although a mobile communications device having one or more modules that are configured to provide telephonic functionality are described, a variety of other mobile devices are also contemplated, such as personal digital assistants, mobile music players, dedicated messaging devices, portable game devices, netbooks, and so on.

[0017] Example Implementations

[0018] FIG. 1 is an illustration of an example implementation 100 of a mobile communications device 102 in accordance with one or more embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications. The mobile communications device 102 is operable to assume a plurality of configurations, examples of which include a configuration as illustrated in FIG. 1 in which the mobile communications device 102 is “open” and a configuration in which the mobile communications device 102 is “closed” as illustrated in FIG. 2.

[0019] The mobile communications device 102 is further illustrated as including a first housing 104 and a second housing 106 that are connected via a slide 108 such that the first and second housings 104, 106 may move (e.g., slide) in relation to one another. Although sliding is described, it should be readily apparent that a variety of other movement techniques are also contemplated, e.g., a pivot, a hinge and so on.

[0020] The first housing 104 includes a display device 110 that may be used to output a variety of content, such as a caller identification (ID), contacts, images (e.g., photos) as illustrated, email, multimedia messages, Internet browsing, game play, music, video, and so on. In an implementation, the display device 110 is configured to function as an input device by incorporating touchscreen functionality, e.g., through capacitive, surface acoustic wave, resistive, optical, strain gauge, dispersive signals, acoustic pulse, and other touchscreen functionality. The touchscreen functionality (as well as other functionality such as track pads) may also be used to detect gestures as further described below.

[0021] The second housing 106 is illustrated as including a keyboard 112 that may also be used to provide inputs to the mobile communications device 102. Although the keyboard 112 is illustrated as a QWERTY keyboard, a variety of other examples are also contemplated, such as a keyboard that follows a traditional telephone keypad layout (e.g., a twelve key numeric pad found on basic telephones), keyboards configured for other languages (e.g., Cyrillic), and so on.

[0022] The form factor employed by the mobile communications device 102 may be suitable to support a wide variety of features. For example, the keyboard 112 is illustrated as supporting a QWERTY configuration. This form factor may be convenient to a user to utilize the previously described functionality of the mobile communications device 102, such as to compose texts, play games, check email, “surf” the Internet, provide status messages for a social network, and so on.

[0023] The mobile communications device 102 is also illustrated as including a communication module 114. The communication module 114 is representative of functionality of the mobile communications device 102 to communicate via a network 116. For example, the communication module 114 may include telephone functionality to make and receive telephone calls. The communication module 114 may also include a variety of other functionality, such as to capture content, form short message service (SMS) text messages, multimedia messaging service (MMS) messages, emails, status updates to be communicated to a social network service, and so on. A user, for instance, may input a status update for communication via the network 116 to the social network service. The social network service may then publish the status update to “friends” of the user, e.g., for receipt by the friends via a computer, respective mobile communications devices, and so on. A variety of other examples are also contemplated, such as blogging, instant messaging, and so on.

[0024] The mobile communications device 102 is also illustrated as including a power management module 118 that is representative of functionality of the mobile communications device 102 to manage and assist in management of power consumption of a battery 120. For example, the display device 110 is illustrated as outputting a user interface 122 that includes a representation 124 of a current power level of the battery 120, e.g., 40 percent. Selection of the representation 124 by a user's finger 126 or other implement causes the power management module 118 to output a user interface configured to manage power consumption of the mobile communications device 102, further discussion of which may be found in relation to the following figure.

[0025] FIG. 2 illustrates an example system 200 showing the mobile communications device 102 of FIG. 1 as displaying a user interface 202 configured to assist a user to manage power consumption of the device. A variety of different information may be displayed in the user interface 202 to assist the user that is expressed in terms that are readily understandable by the user.

[0026] For example, the power management module 118 may incorporate functionality to monitor use of the battery 120 to perform a variety of different tasks. This monitored usage may then be used to store data that describes the tasks and the amount of power consumed to perform the tasks, which is illustrated as a task power consumption list 204 in this example. A variety of different tasks may be monitored and described, such as applications 206, network power profiles 208, data sync 210, media output 212, telephone usage 214, and so on.

[0027] For example, the applications 206 may describe power used during execution of the application as a whole, such as an amount of power typically consumed over a period of time. The applications 206 may also describe specific tasks performed through execution of the applications 206, such as to access a network, render video, emulate hardware functionality typically found on a full-feature computing device (e.g., 3D acceleration), and so on. Thus, the applications 206 may describe how a user typically interacts with the application and thus be used to give an accurate assessment of this usage.

[0028] The network power profiles 208 may be used to describe usage of different wireless networks. For example, the communication module 114 may include functionality to communicate over a mobile phone network (e.g., as a wireless phone, access point, or so on) as well as over a local wireless network, such as IEEE 802.11, WiFi, Bluetooth, and so on. Because usage of these different networks may consume different amounts of power, the power management module 118 may track the performance of tasks in relation to the different networks to aid in management of the battery 120.

[0029] Data sync 210 describes an amount of power used to perform data synchronization. For example, an operating system of the mobile communications device 102 may provide a utility to synchronize data such email, contacts, to send and text messages, appointments, and so on. Accordingly, the power management module 118 may track an amount of power used to perform these various synchronization tasks as well as a frequency at which these tasks are typically performed.

[0030] The power management module 118 may also monitor media output 212, such an amount of power used to obtain and render streaming media, play songs or movies, games, and so on. Telephone usage 214 may also be monitored by the power management module 118, such as an amount of power used in a typical phone call placed by a user of the mobile communications device 102. Although a few examples have been listed of tasks that may be monitored by the power management module 118, it should be readily apparent that a wide variety of other tasks are also contemplated without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, such as to monitor the battery 120 itself for decreasing amounts of power as time goes on, such as due to a “memory effect” of the battery 120.

[0031] Additionally, although monitoring by the power management module 118 has been described, it should be apparent that an amount of power used to perform tasks may be determined in a variety of ways. For example, the power management module 118 may output a user interface via which a user may pre-enter statistics that describe power consumption, e.g., per minute for a phone call, browser application, and so on. In another example, the power management module 118 may receive these statistics from an outside source, e.g., downloaded via the network 116. In a further example, these statistics may be entered by a manufacturer or supplier of the mobile communications device 102.

[0032] The power management module 118 may then leverage the monitored usage described by the task power consumption list 204 in a variety of ways to aid power management of the mobile communications device 102. One such example is illustrated in FIG. 2 by the user interface 202. As previously described the user interface 202 was output in response to selection of the representation 124 of the current power level of the battery 120 in FIG. 1. It should be readily apparent, however, that the user interface 202 may be output in response to a wide variety of criteria, such as when the amount of power available from the battery 120 drops below a threshold.

[0033] The user interface 202 as displayed in FIG. 2 is configured to inform and therefore aid a user as to which actions may be performed to manage power consumption and the effect of those actions. In one illustrated example, the user interface 202 describes an amount of time the mobile communication device 102 may continue to function as currently configured. For example, this amount of time may be based on which applications are currently being executed by the device as well as other tasks are currently configured to execute, such as data synchronization.

[0034] The user interface 202 also shows a possible effect of adding additional tasks to be performed by the mobile communications device 102. For example, the user interface 202 shows the effect of adding another application (a fifth application to the other four currently executing applications) to an amount of standby time and talk time. The user interface 202 also shows that media streaming may be performed for 3.5 hours and internet browsing may be performed for 8 hours based on an amount of power that is currently available from the battery 120. Therefore, the user interface 202 illustrates a result of an action of selecting performance of these additional tasks and informs the user in a readily understood manner how.

[0035] The user interface 202 also displays an option that is selectable to initiate a battery conservation mode. In the illustrated example, the battery conservation mode promotes conservation by terminating applications, setting data synchronization to manual, reducing brightness of the display, and turning vibrate off. Additionally, the user interface 202 shows an effect of this mode in which the standby time of the mobile communications device 102 is increased. Thus, in the example of FIG. 2 the user interface 202 may be used to increase or decrease “battery life” of the battery 120 based on the desires of the user. A variety of other examples are also contemplated, further discussion of which may be found in relation to the following procedures.

[0036] Example Procedures

[0037] The following discussion describes power management techniques that may be implemented utilizing the previously described systems and devices. Aspects of each of the procedures may be implemented in hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. The procedures are shown as a set of blocks that specify operations performed by one or more devices and are not necessarily limited to the orders shown for performing the operations by the respective blocks. In portions of the following discussion, reference will be made to the environment 100 and systems 200 of FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively.

[0038] FIG. 3 depicts a procedure 300 in an example implementation in which a user interface is output that describes an amount of time that is available to perform one or more tasks based on monitored usage of a mobile communications device. Power consumption is monitored that is used in performance of a plurality of tasks by a mobile communications device (block 302). For example, the power management module 118 of FIG. 2 may monitor tasks that are performed by the device and store data that describes this monitoring as a task power consumption list 204. As previously described, a variety of tasks may be described, such as execution of one or more applications, use of different wireless networks, data synchronization, rendering of media, usage of telephone functionality of the mobile communications device 102 by a user, and so on.

[0039] A determination is made as to an amount of power that remains in a battery of the mobile communications device (block 304). Continuing with the previous example, the power management module 118 may also monitor usage of the battery 120. In an implementation, this monitoring may take into account a decreased ability of the battery 120 to store power over time, such as due to a “memory effect.”

[0040] A user interface is displayed on a display device of the mobile communications device that describes an amount of time each of a plurality of tasks may be performed based on the determined amount of power that remains in the battery (block 306). As shown in the user interface 202 of FIG. 2, for example, the plurality of tasks may be described along with the effect of performance of the task on the amount of power that is available from the battery 120. This may be expressed in a variety of ways, such as by displaying an amount of time the task may be performed, an amount of time a mobile communications device 102 remains operational, and so on. For example, the user interface may describe an amount of time that a Web browser may be used to browse the Internet. In another example, the user interface describes an amount of time that media may be rendered, such as music, video, games, and so on. In a further example, the user interface describes a number of times a task may be performed, e.g., data synchronization. In an implementation, the steps may be repeated at predetermined intervals of time to update the user interface as the amount of power in the battery 120 decreases or increases, e.g., due to charging.

[0041] Although this example described output of the user interface to aid a user in managing power consumption of the mobile communications device, a variety of other functionality may also be employed that does not involve user intervention. Further discussion of power management functionality that may be performed automatically and without user intervention may be found in relation to the following figures.

[0042] FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an example implementation in which data that describes monitored battery usage is exposed via an application programming interface (API) to one or more applications. Battery usage is monitored of the mobile communications device to perform one or more tasks (block 402). Data generated from the monitored usage is exposed via an application programming interface (API) to one or more applications that are executable on the mobile communications device to adjust power consumption by the one or more applications (block 404).

[0043] For example, the power management module 118 to be part of an operating system that exposes an application programming interface to one or more other applications that executable on the mobile communications device 102. Data exposed via the API may be used by the application to address performance of one or more tasks by the application.

[0044] For example, the mobile communications device 102 may be configured such that 3-D acceleration functionality is not included. Therefore, the application may be configured to emulate this functionality on a processor of the mobile communications device 102, which may consume a significant amount of power. Consequently, if the application detects that the amount of power that is available from the battery 120 is decreased below a certain threshold, the application may restrict this emulation from being performed to conserve power of the battery 120. In this way, the application may change how hardware resources of the mobile communications device 102 are used to perform tasks and may do so automatically and without user intervention.

[0045] A variety of other thresholds may also be employed by the power management module 118. In an implementation, a plurality of threshold levels are set (e.g., by a user, a manufacturer, and so on) in terms of a combinatory list of tasks (e.g., execution of applications) that are allowed to be performed at different power levels of the battery 120. Therefore, when the power management module 118 determines that a particular power level of the battery 120 has been achieved, for instance, the power management module 118 may query the list to determine which tasks the mobile communications device 102 is permitted to perform, either simultaneously or individually. In this way, the mobile communications device 102 may use the list to determine a priority of tasks for various power levels of the battery 120.

[0046] A variety of other examples are also contemplated, such as by reducing a frequency at which tasks are performed (e.g., data synchronization), a frame rate used to display content, and so on. For instance, the power management module 118 may communicate data that causes the application to terminate execution on the mobile communications device 102.

[0047] FIG. 5 depicts a procedure 500 in an example implementation in which power in a battery is conserved to enable emergency telephone calls. In the previous example, the power management module 118 provided information to applications to perform power management, which may be done automatically and without user intervention. This power management may also be performed by the power management module 118 to prevent certain tasks from being performed based on power consumption that would prevent emergency features, such as telephone calls to emergency telephone numbers, global positioning system (GPS) functionality, and so on as further described below.

[0048] An amount of power that remains in a battery is monitored (block 502). If the amount of power drops below a threshold level that is set to enable a telephone call, telephone calls are restricted from being performed that are directed at non-emergency telephone numbers (block 504). For example, the threshold level may be set to enable a plurality of telephone calls of a specific duration. Therefore, if the power drops below this level, the power management module 118 may restrict features from being performed that are related to non-emergency tasks, such as data synchronization, media rendering (e.g., playing music), and so on. For example, the power management module 118 may use a list (e.g., that may be user specified) that indicates a priority for each task to determine whether to interrupt a current activity based on the priority. In this way, the power management module 118 may interrupt a current task (e.g., terminate execution of an application) based on user priority.

[0049] Example Device

[0050] FIG. 6 illustrates various components of an example device 600 that can be implemented in various embodiments as any type of a mobile device to implement embodiments of devices, features, and systems for mobile communications. For example, device 600 can be implemented as any of the mobile communications devices 102 described with reference to respective FIGS. 1-2. Device 600 can also be implemented to access a network-based service.

[0051] Device 600 includes input 602 that may include Internet Protocol (IP) inputs as well as other input devices, such as the keyboard 112 of FIG. 1. Device 600 further includes communication interface 604 that can be implemented as any one or more of a wireless interface, any type of network interface, and as any other type of communication interface. A network interface provides a connection between device 600 and a communication network by which other electronic and computing devices can communicate data with device 600. A wireless interface enables device 600 to operate as a mobile device for wireless communications.

[0052] Device 600 also includes one or more processors 606 (e.g., any of microprocessors, controllers, and the like) which process various computer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 600 and to communicate with other electronic devices. Device 600 can be implemented with computer-readable media 608, such as one or more memory components, examples of which include random access memory (RAM) and non-volatile memory (e.g., any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM, EEPROM, etc.).

[0053] Computer-readable media 608 provides data storage to store content and data 610, as well as device applications and any other types of information and/or data related to operational aspects of device 600. For example, an operating system 612 can be maintained as a computer application with the computer-readable media 608 and executed on processor 606. Device applications can also include a communication manager module 614 (which may be used to provide telephonic functionality) and a media manager 616.

[0054] Device 600 also includes an audio and/or video output 618 that provides audio and/or video data to an audio rendering and/or display system 620. The audio rendering and/or display system 620 can be implemented as integrated component(s) of the example device 600, and can include any components that process, display, and/or otherwise render audio, video, and image data. Device 600 can also be implemented to provide a user tactile feedback, such as vibrate and haptics.

[0055] Generally, the blocks may be representative of modules that are configured to provide represented functionality. Further, any of the functions described herein can be implemented using software, firmware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manual processing, or a combination of these implementations. The terms “module,” “functionality,” and “logic” as used herein generally represent software, firmware, hardware or a combination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, the module, functionality, or logic represents program code that performs specified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can be stored in one or more computer readable memory devices. The features of the techniques described above are platform-independent, meaning that the techniques may be implemented on a variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety of processors.

[0056] Although the invention has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claimed invention.