Temperature management in wearable devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11068034-B2
Application number	US-201916723663-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2019
Priority date	Aug 31, 2017
Publication date	Jul 20, 2021
Grant date	Jul 20, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing temperatures of wearable device components are disclosed. In one aspects, a method includes determining a temperature of an electronic component of the wearable device, determining a rate of temperature change of the electronic component, and determining whether to increase or decrease a transmission rate limit of the electronic component based on the temperature and the rate, adjusting the transmission rate limit based on the determination, and limiting a rate of transmission of the electronic component based on the adjusted transmission rate limit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wearable electronic device, comprising:
electronic hardware memory storing instructions that when executed by a hardware processing circuitry of the wearable electronic device, configures the hardware processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:
computing a remaining time for completing transfer of data from the wearable electronic, device;
determining a current rate of temperature change and a current temperature of the wearable electronic device;
computing a completion temperature of the wearable electronic device based on the remaining time for completing the transfer of the data, the current rate of temperature change, and the current temperature of the wearable electronic device; and
performing a transmission rate function in response to determining that the completion temperature of the wearable electronic device is less than a specified threshold.

2. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise performing the computing of the remaining time in response to determining whether to decrease a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device.

3. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the transmission rate function comprises decreasing a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device.

4. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the wearable electronic device comprises glasses that comprise a frame, and the wearable electronic device further comprises a frame temperature sensor configured to measure a temperature of the frame, and wherein the determining of the current temperature of the wearable electronic device is based on the frame temperature sensor.

5. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining an amount of the data that remains unacknowledged by a remote device to which the data is being transmitted; and
determining a current transmission rate of the wearable electronic device.

6. The wearable electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise:
computing the remaining time by dividing the amount of data by the current transmission rate; and
computing the completion temperature by adding the current temperature of the wearable electronic device to the remaining time multiplied by the rate of temperature change.

7. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further comprising a wireless transmitter temperature sensor, the operations further comprising reading data from the wireless transmitter temperature sensor, and determining the current temperature of the wearable electronic device based on the data read from the wireless transmitter temperature sensor.

8. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
comparing the current rate of temperature change to a first rate threshold or a second rate threshold in response to the current temperature of the wearable electronic device falling within a first temperature range or a second temperature range, respectively; and
adjusting a transmission rate limit in response to the comparison.

9. The wearable electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise adjusting the transmission rate of the wearable electronic device by delaying transmissions to avoid exceeding the adjusted transmission rate limit.

10. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining which of one of a first temperature range and a second adjacent temperature range the current temperature of the wearable electronic device is within; and
adjusting a transmission rate limit based on the determination of which of one of the first temperature range and the second adjacent temperature range the current temperature of the wearable electronic device is within.

11. The wearable electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise increasing the transmission rate limit in response to the current rate of temperature change exceeding a first or second rate threshold and decreasing the transmission rate limit otherwise.

12. The wearable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise increasing or decreasing the transmission rate limit by 2 Mbit/sec.

13. The wearable electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the first rate threshold is 15 degrees Celsius per minute, and the second rate threshold is 10 degrees Celsius per minute.

14. A method comprising:
computing, by one or more processors, a remaining time for completing transfer of data from a wearable electronic device;
determining a current rate of temperature change and a current temperature of the wearable electronic device;
computing a completion temperature of the wearable electronic device based on the remaining time for completing the transfer of the data, the current rate of temperature change, and the current temperature of the wearable electronic device; and
performing a transmission rate function in response to determining that the completion temperature of the wearable electronic device is less than a specified threshold.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising performing the computing of the remaining time in response to determining whether to decrease a transmission rate.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the transmission rate function comprises decreasing a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the wearable electronic device comprises glasses that comprise a frame, and the wearable electronic device further comprises a frame temperature sensor configured to measure a temperature of the frame, and wherein the determining of the current temperature of the wearable electronic device is based on the frame temperature sensor.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, configure hardware processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:
computing a remaining time for completing transfer of data from a wearable electronic device;
determining a current rate of temperature change and a current temperature of the wearable electronic device;
computing a completion temperature of the wearable electronic device based on the remaining time for completing the transfer of the data, the current rate of temperature change, and the current temperature of the wearable electronic device; and
performing a transmission rate function in response to determining that the completion temperature of the wearable electronic device is less than a specified threshold.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise performing the computing of the remaining time in response to determining whether to decrease a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the transmission rate function comprises decreasing a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device.

Assignees

• Snap Inc

Inventors

• Ashwood Andrea
• Wollman Michael
• Larson Nicholas
• Simons Patrick Timothy Mcsweeney

Classifications

• H04N23/661

  Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title

• H04B2001/3866

  carried on the head · CPC title

• G06F1/163

  Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt · CPC title

• G06F1/206 Primary

  comprising thermal management · CPC title