WO2018013068A1

WO2018013068A1 - Power management in a display unit

Info

Publication number: WO2018013068A1
Application number: PCT/US2016/041686
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lee Atkinson; John Chow
Original assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Priority date: 2016-07-11
Filing date: 2016-07-11
Publication date: 2018-01-18

Abstract

An example display system is disclosed. The display system comprises a flexible display screen, a sensor unit to identify an active side of the display screen, and a viewable area of the active side of the display screen. The system also comprises a power engine to supply operating power to the display screen, and a control unit to manage power by preventing the power engine to supply the operating power to areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display screen.

Description

POWER MANAGEMENT IN A DISPLAY UNIT

BACKGROUND

[0001] With the recent development, new display technologies have been recently introduced to electronic devices such as laptops, tablet and smartphones to fulfils the requirements of various multimedia applications. Such display technologies may include OLED and AMOLED. However, as a screen's power consumption is determined by the display content, multimedia or other various applications are often limited by the battery life of the device they are running on, inspiring many technologists to develop new power management schemes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] Examples are described in the following detailed description and in reference to the drawings, in which:

[0003] Fig. 1 illustrates a schematic representation of an example display unit in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure;

[0004] Fig. 2 illustrates an example display unit in accordance with an implementation; and

[0005] Fig. 3 illustrates an example process flow diagram in accordance with an implementation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0006] Various aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a display system for an electronic device. More specifically, and as described in greater detail below, various aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a manner by which power and/or content can be managed on one flexible screen based on identifying the amount of display area visible to the user by allowing a controller to physicaiiy size and segment the display that is enabled.

[0007] In one example in accordance with the present disclosure, a method for managing power of a display unit is provided. The method comprises determining, by a sensor unit, an active side of the display unit by sensing user gesture, Identifying, by the sensor unit, a viewable area of the active side of the display unit, and controlling, by a controller, power supplied to areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display unit. [0008] In another example in accordance with the present disclosure, a system is provided. The system comprises a flexible display screen, a sensor unit to identify an active side of the display screen, and a viewable area of the active side of the display screen, a power engine to supply operating power to the display screen, and a control unit to manage power by preventing the power engine to supply the operating power io areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display screen.

[0009] In a further example in accordance with the present disclosure, a non- transitory computer readable medium is provided. The non-transitory computer-readable medium comprises instructions which, when executed, cause a device to (i) determine an active side of the display unit based on gesture detection, (ii) identify a viewable area of the active side of the display unit, and (iii) manage power supplied to areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display unit

[00010] Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of an exampie display unit 100. The display unit 100 may comprise an electronic device, or it may be connected to a plurality of devices 180-190, it should be readily apparent that ihe present illustration should not be interpreted to be limited by this particular illustrative architecture shown in Fig. 1 , and the display unit 100 represents a generalized illustration and that other elements may be added or the illustrated elements may be removed, modified, or rearranged in many ways.

[00011] In one implementation, the display unit 100 has a texibie display body. The display body may be a reliable, bendable and/or foidable display. The flexible display body may be bent, crooked, folded and roiled, such as electronic papers. The flexible displays are light, unbreakable and robust displays including a thin and flexible substrate which can be bent, crooked, folded and roiled, such as a paper, while maintaining display features typically included in rigid fiat displays, in various implementations, the flexible display unit 100 may have a variety of structural configuration and material composition. The display unit 100 may be a transparent an organic light emitting diode (QLED) display, or any other suitable display. Further, the flexible display unit 100 may include a substrate (made of for example, flexible plastics, metal foil, thin glass or the like), a flexible displaying part (for example, an electroluminescent display (ELD), electrophoretic display (EPD), eiectrochromic display (ECD), liquid crystal display (LCD), active matrix LCD (AMLCD), active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) or the like), a driver unit (for exampie, a-Si thin film transistor (TFT), low temperature poly silicon (LTPS) TFT, organic TFT (OTFT), oxide TFT, nano TFT or the like) which drives the displaying part, and a protection film which protects the displaying part. In other implementations, the display unit 100 may be a flexible display that can be wrapped and unwrapped (e.g., foidable) from around a bar. An attachment section of the display unit 100 facilitates a coupling of flexible display to the bar in any conventional manner, in one implementation, the flexible display may have a magnetic disclosure, and the display wrapped around the bar may be heid in place with the magnetic disciosure. Alternatively, a band may be used to hoid the wrapped display around the bar. In another example, the display unit 100 may be a sphere display that resembles a globe or bail. In other examples, the display screen may be an accessory like a smart wrist band or a smart watch.

[00012] The display unit 100 includes a processor 110 (e.g., a central processing unit, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, or another suitable programmable device), a flexible display screen 120, a memory unit 130, input interfaces 140, and a communication interface 150. Each of these components or any additional components of the display unit 100 is operativel/ coupled to a bus 105. The bus 105 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controlier, a peripheral bus, and a iocal bus using any of a variety of bus architectures, in other examples, the display unit 100 includes additional, fewer, or different components for carrying out similar functionality described herein.

[00013] The processor 110 includes a control unit 115 and may be implemented using any suitable type of processing system where at least one processor executes computer-readable instructions stored in the memory 130. The processor 110 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a semiconductor-based microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) configured to retrieve and execute instructions, other electronic circuitry suitable for the retrieval and execution instructions stored on a computer readable storage medium (e.g., the memory 130), or a combination thereof. The machine readable medium 130 may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores machine readable instructions, codes, data, and/or other information. The instructions, when executed by processor 110 (e.g., via one processing element or multiple processing elements of the processor) can cause processor 110 to perform processes described herein.

[00014] Further, the computer readable medium 130 may participate in providing insta!ctions to the processor 110 for execution. The machine readable medium 130 may be one or more of a non-volatile memory, a volatile memory, and/or one or more storage devices. Examples of non-volatile memory include, but are not limited to, electronically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) and read only memory (ROM). Examples of volatile memory include, but are not limited to, static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), Examples of storage devices inciude, but are not limited to, hard disk drives, compact disc drives, digital versatile disc drives, optical devices, and flash memory devices. As discussed in more detail above, the processor 110 may be in data communication with the machine readable medium 130, which may include a combination of temporary and/or permanent storage. The machine readable medium 130 may include program memory that includes ail programs and software such as an operating system, user detection software component, and any other application: software programs. The machine readable medium 130 may also include data memory that may include multicast group information, various table settings, and any other data required: by any element of the ASIC.

[00015] The communication interface 150 enables the display unit 100 to communicate with a plurality of networks and communication links. In some examples, the communication interface of the display unit 100 may include a Wi-Fi® interface, a Bluetooth interface, a 3G interface, a 4G interface, a near filed communication (NFC) interface, and/or any other suitable interface that allows the computing device to communicate via one or more networks. The networks may inciude any suitable type or configuration of network to allow the display unit 100 to communicate with any external systems or devices (e.g., the devices 180-190).

[00016] The input interfaces 140 can process information from the various external system, devices and networks that are In communication with the display unit 100. For example, the input interfaces 140 include an application program interface 145. In other examples, the input interfaces 140 can inciude additional interfaces. Wore specificaiiy, the application program interface 145 receives content or data (e.g., video, images, data packets, graphics, etc.) from the devices 180-190.

[00017] As discussed above, the display unit 100 may be an electronic device (e.g., a mobile phone, a smart phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a tablet, a phablet, a laptop, a wearable accessory such as a watch, and/or aiike). In another implementation, the display unit 100 may be connected to the devices 180-130 (e.g., a mobile phone, a smart phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a tablet, a phablet, a laptop and/or aiike) via VGA, HDMl, USB Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, over the local network or over the internet cloud. In other implementations, the devices 180-190 may be computing device, which includes one of various computing devices that have a keyboard/battery portion and a display screen portion. These devices 180-190 may operate as a stationary computing device {e.g., personal computers (i.e., desktops), server computers, laptop computers (with permanently attached display screens), all in one devices, and other similar devices that possess comparable characteristics). In other implementations, these devices can be handheld devices, such as tablets and smart phones.

[00018] The display unit 100 comprises a sensor unit 160. The sensor unit may include one or more sensors, such as a capaciiive sensor, a motion sensor, a G-sensor (e.g., accelerometer), a resistive film type sensor, infraRed (IR) sensors and a flexible bend sensor. More specifically, the capaciiive sensor uses a capacitive coupling effect and is typically made of glass with high conductivity such as indium fin oxide (ITO) In one implementation (not shown in Fig. 1 ), the capaciiive sensor may be attached to the flexible display screen 120 and detects a change of current flowing through the flexible display screen 120. In one implementation, the capacitive sensor may be a flexible capacitive sensor array. The flexible touch-sensing surface may include the capacitive sensor array with a highly flexible overlay made of a material such as Poly(methyl methacryfate), or PMMA.

[00019] The sensor unit determines an active side of the display unit by detecting a user gesture input. More specificaiiy, the sensor unit may detect the users hand, finger or palm position to determine which side of the display the user is intending to use. Further, the sensor unit identifies a viewable area of the active side of the display unit. The viewable area is the display area that Is not foided or roiled away. More specificaiiy, the sensor unit measures noise levels as noise is induced when the display is foided, and determines the folded or rolled portion of the active side of the unit. The foided portion of the display unit may be set to a status of blank, black, and/or not energized, engaged, or off. By reducing the viewable area and not using the foided portion of the display, the power consumption of the display unit 100 may be reduced.

[00020] The power engine 170 supplies operating power to the flexible display unit and other components in the flexible display unit The power engine 170 may convert commercial AC power into power suitable for use in various components in the ffexibie display unit. In addition, the power engine 170 may further include a battery (not shown) which has a predetermined capacity for charging with power from the power engine. The battery may serve as a secondary power supply for assisting the power engine 170 in supplying operating power to the flexible display unit. The power engine 170 and the battery (not shown) may selecfively supply power to the flexible display unit under control of the control unit 115. For example, the control unit 115 controls the power engine 170 to supply power if commercial AC power is input, while controlling the battery to supply power if the commercial AC power is not input. The control unit 115 controls the power engine 170 to stop supply of the operating power to the fiexible display unit depending on the active side and area that the fiexibie display unit detected by the sensor unit 160.

[00021] in other implementation, there may be additional components that are not shown in Fig. 1. For example, the display unit 100 may have an operation engine, which handles an operating system, such as iOS®, Windows®, Android, and any other suitable operating system. The operating system can be multi-user, multiprocessing, multitasking, multithreading, and real-time. in one implementation, the operating system is stored in a memory (e.g. , the memory 130 as shown in Fig. 1 ) performs various tasks related to the use and operation of the display unit 100. Such task may include installation and coordination of the various hardware components of the display unit, operations relating to instances from various devices in the display, recognizing input from users, such as touch on the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on memory (e.g., the memory 130 as shown in Fig. 1); and managing traffic on bus (e.g., as shown in Fig. 1 ).

[00022] Moreover, in another implementation, the display unit 100 may comprise a connection engine, which includes various components for establishing and maintaining device connections, such as computer-readable instructions for implementing communication protocols including TCP/IP, HTTP, Ethernet®, USB®, and FireWire®. The connection engine supports the pairing process between the display unit and various devices providing instances to be displayed on the display unit

[00023] Fig, 2 illustrates a display unit 200, according to an example. As illustrated in Fig, 2, the display unit 200 may have a flexible touch sensitive display body . The display body may be bent, folded and roiled. The touch sensitive display body has a front side and a rear side. In one implementation, the front side of the display body may be actively being used by a user. In another implementation, the rear side of the display body may be used by the user. The display unit 200 may detect a touch based gesture in either the front side or the rear side of the fiexibie touch sensitive display body. A user's palm, fingers or hand position may be detected to determine which side the user is using. For example, the user may touch an image of an application shown on the display screen on the front surface to interact with that application. In such example, the front surface is identified as the active side of the display body.

[00024] in one implementation, the display body may include a viewable area, which may include the entire display , or some portion of the display. More specifically, a portion of the display surface may be roiled or folded away. The folded or rolled area of the display body may not be visible to the user. In such an example, the unfolded or unrolled portion of the display body may be identified as the viewable area, and user interface is adjusted to include visual icons of appitcations, pictures, menus, or other depictions in the viewable area only. Fig. 2 illustrates a folded area 210 and a viewable area 220. The folded portion of the display unit may be blank, black, and/or not energized, engaged, or off. By reducing the viewable area and not using the folded portion of the display, the power consumption of the display unit 200 may be reduced. If the display unit 200 is using battery power, the battery life may increase in response to the viewable area of the display being reduced.

[00025] it should be readily apparent that the present Illustration should not be interpreted: to be limited by this particular illustrative architecture shown in Fig. 2, and the display unit 200 represents a generalized illustration and that other elements may be added or the illustrated elements may be removed, modified, or rearranged in many ways. For example, the screen unit may have a spherical form, where the display body is bent 380 degrees, Such form may allow the unit to be used by a plurality of users at the same time. The curved angle may be to provide privacy to the user viewing the screen, in one implementation, the sphere display unit may comprise a camera in the center of the sphere.

[00026] it should be noted that the display unit 200 is to display content from one or more applications communicated to the display unit 200, The display screen may have a plurality of sections, and each section may display different content, in one implementation, the display screen comprises various display properties such as resolution, display pixel density, display orientation and/or display aspect ratio. The display screen may be of different sizes and may support various types of display resolution, where display resolution is the number of distinct pixeis in each dimension that can be displayed on the display screen. For example, the display screen may support high display resolutions of 1920x1080, or any other suitable display resolutions. When the display screen supports a 1920x1080 display resolution, 1920 is the total number of pixeis across the height of the display and 1080 is the total number of pixels across the height of the display screen.

[00027] Turning now to the operation of the system 100 or 200, Fig. 3 depicts a process flow diagram 300 in accordance with an example implementation. It should be readily apparent that the processes depicted in Fig. 3 represent generalised illustrations, and that other processes may be added or the illustrated processes may be removed, modified, or rearranged in many ways. Further, it should be understood that the processes may represent executable instructions stored on memory that may cause a processing device to respond, to perform actions, to change states, and/or to make decisions, for instance. Thus, the described processes may be implemented as executable instructions and/or operations provided by a memory associated with the computing device 300.

[00028] The illustrated process 300 begins at block 305, where a sensor unit in a display unit determines an active side of a display unit by detecting a user gesture input. More specifically, the display unit may detect the user's hand, finger or palm position to determine which side of the screen the user is intending to use. For example, if the palm is detected on the rear side of the display screen, the unit identifies the front side of the display screen as the active side. In another example, if the user's fingers are detected on the front side of the display screen, the unit identifies the front side of the display screen as the active side. At block 310, the sensor unit identifies a viewable area of the active side of the display unit. The viewable area is the display area that is not folded or rolled. More specifically, at least one capacitive sensor measures noise levels as noise is induced when the display is folded, and determines the folded or rolled portion of the active side of the unit. At block 315, the display unit adjusts the user interface to be only in the viewable area and therefore, manages power consumption. More specifically, the folded portion of the display unit may be set to be in a blank, biack, and/or not energized, engaged, or off mode. By reducing the viewable area and not using the folded portion of the display, the power consumption of the display unit may be reduced,

[00029] While the above disclosure has been shown arid described with reference to the foregoing examples, it should be understood that other forms, details, and implementations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure that is defined in the following claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A display system , comprising :

a flexible display screen;

a sensor unit, to identify an active side of the display screen, and a viewable area of the active side of the display screen;

a power engine to supply operating power to the display screen; and

a control unit to manage power by preventing the power engine to suppiy the operating power to areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display screen.

2. The display system of claim 1, wherein the flexible display screen is foldabie and scrollable,

3. The display system of claim 1 , wherein the areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display screen are set to be in a blank, black, and/or not energized, engaged, or off mode

4. The display system of claim 1. comprising a communications interface to connect the flexible display screen to other display systems via USB, VGA, HDMI, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

5. The display system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor unit identifies the active side of the display screen by detecting gestures of a user.

6. The display system of claim 5, wherein the gestures of the user includes position of the user's hand, fingers or palm.

7. The display system of claim 5, wherein the display screen comprises a front side and a rear side, and the active side of the display screen is side that the user intends to use,

8. The display system of claim 1, wherein the sensor unit comprises a capacitive sensor.

9. The display system of claim 8, wherein the capacltive sensor measures noise levels to determine folded or rolled portions of the display screen, and wherein the viewable area is portions of the display screen other than the folded or rolled portions.

10. The display system of claim 1 , the display screen may be in the form of a sphere or a wearable accessory such as a band or a watch,

1 1. A processor-implemented method for managing power of a display unit,

comprising:

determining, by a sensor unit, an active side of the display unit by sensing user gesture;

identifying, by the sensor unit, a viewable area of the active side of the display unit; and

controlling, by a controller, power supplied to areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display unit.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein controlling the power comprises preventing a power engine from supplying power to areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display unit.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein sensing user gesture comprising identifying location of the user's hands or fingers or palms.

14. . non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a display unit to;

determine an active side of the display unit based on gesture detection;

identify a viewable area of the active side of the display unit; and

manage power supplied to areas other than the viewable area of the active side of the display unit.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, further comprising insirucfions which cause the device to adjust and segment content to be visible in the viewable area of the active side of the display unit.