Temperature management in wearable devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11599171-B2
Application number	US-202117304567-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2021
Priority date	Aug 31, 2017
Publication date	Mar 7, 2023
Grant date	Mar 7, 2023

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 an amount of time for exchanging data with the wearable electronic device;
determining a temperature of the wearable electronic device;
computing a completion temperature of the wearable electronic device based on the amount of time for exchanging the data and the temperature of the wearable electronic device; and
performing a transmission rate function associated with exchange of the data based on the completion temperature of the wearable electronic device.

2. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise performing the computing of the completion temperature in response to determining that a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device should be decreased.

3. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein determining the temperature of the wearable electronic device comprises determining a current rate of temperature change and the transmission rate function comprises decreasing a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device.

4. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the temperature is a current temperature, 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:
transmitting the data to a remote device from the wearable electronic device;
determining an amount of data that remains unacknowledged by the remote device to which the data is being transmitted; and
determining a current transmission rate of the wearable electronic device based on the amount of data that remains unacknowledged by the remote device.

6. The wearable electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise:
computing a remaining time for transmission of the data by dividing the amount of data that remains unacknowledged by the remote device by the current transmission rate; and
computing the completion temperature by adding a current temperature of the wearable electronic device to the remaining time multiplied by a 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 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 a 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 comparing the current rate of temperature change to the first rate threshold or the second rate threshold.

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 whether the temperature of the wearable device is within a first temperature range or a second adjacent temperature range; and
adjusting a transmission rate limit based on determining that the temperature of the wearable device is in the first temperature range or the second adjacent temperature range.

11. The wearable electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise increasing the transmission rate limit in response to a current rate of temperature change of the wearable device exceeding a first or second rate threshold or decreasing the transmission rate limit in response to the current rate of temperature change of the wearable device not exceeding the first or second rate threshold.

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, an amount of time for exchanging data with a wearable electronic device;
determining a temperature of the wearable electronic device;
computing a completion temperature of the wearable electronic device based on the amount of time for exchanging the data and the temperature of the wearable electronic device; and
performing a transmission rate function associated with exchange of the data based on the completion temperature of the wearable electronic device.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising performing the computing of the completion temperature in response to determining that a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device should be decreased.

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 temperature is a current temperature, 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 an amount of time for exchanging data with a wearable electronic device;
determining a temperature of the wearable electronic device;
computing a completion temperature of the wearable electronic device based on the amount of time for exchanging the data and the temperature of the wearable electronic device; and
performing a transmission rate function associated with exchange of the data based on the completion temperature of the wearable electronic device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise performing the computing of the completion temperature in response to determining that a transmission rate of the wearable electronic device should be decreased.

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

• Y02D10/00

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

• H04B1/385

  Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets · CPC title

• H04B1/036

  Cooling arrangements · CPC title

• G06F1/206 Primary

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• H04N23/661

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