Measuring power consumption of a display assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11656255-B2
Application number	US-202117234855-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 20, 2021
Priority date	May 7, 2018
Publication date	May 23, 2023
Grant date	May 23, 2023

Abstract

Systems and methods for measuring power consumption in a display assembly are provided. Images are displayed at an electronic display subassembly. A simulated electric meter is electrically interposed between a utility electric supply and at least the electronic display subassembly and measures power consumed by at least said electronic display subassembly. Cumulative power measurements may be recorded by the simulated electric meter for each image displayed at the electronic display subassembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A display assembly for measuring power consumption comprising:
an electronic display subassembly for displaying images; and
a simulated electric meter electrically interposed between a utility electric supply and at least the electronic display subassembly configured to measure power consumed by at least said electronic display subassembly.

2. The display assembly of claim 1 further comprising:
a time keeping device; and
a database for storing average power consumption measurements generated by said simulated electric meter in association with dates determined by said time keeping device.

3. The display assembly of claim 2 further comprising:
a remote electronic device configured to generate predicted power consumption measurements for said display assembly by retrieving at least one of said average power consumption measurements associated with a date within, or equivalent to, a prediction time period and multiplying said retrieved average power consumption measurement(s) by a factor sufficient to extrapolate said retrieved average power consumption measurement(s) to match a length of said prediction time period.

4. The display assembly of claim 1 further comprising:
a housing at least partially surrounding said electronic display subassembly;
a cover panel located forward of, and spaced apart from, said electronic display subassembly and forming a forward portion of said housing, wherein said electronic display subassembly comprises an electronic display layer located rearward of, and spaced apart from, said cover panel, and a number of illumination elements located behind or adjacent to said electronic display layer; and
one or more electrically powered components located within said housing, wherein said simulated electric meter is electrically interposed between said one or more electrically powered components and said utility power supply, and wherein said simulated electric meter is configured to measure power consumed by at least said one or more electrically powered components.

5. The display assembly of claim 4 wherein:
the simulated electric meter is electrically interposed between the utility electric supply and all electricity consuming equipment of the display assembly to measure power consumption of all electricity consuming equipment of the electronic display assembly.

6. The display assembly of claim 4 wherein:
said electronic display layer comprises liquid crystals; and
said one or more illumination elements comprise light emitting diodes arranged to directly backlight, or edge light, the electronic display layer.

7. The display assembly of claim 4 further comprising:
at least one intake located at said housing;
at least one exhaust located at said housing;
an open loop airflow pathway through said housing between said at least one intake and said at least one exhaust, and extending along said one or more illumination elements; and
one or more open loop fans for forcing ambient air through at least a portion of said open loop airflow pathway when operated.

8. The display assembly of claim 7 further comprising:
a front channel extending between said cover panel and said electronic display subassembly;
a rear chamber located rearward of said electronic display subassembly, wherein said one or more electrically powered components are mounted within said rear chamber;
a closed loop airflow pathway through said housing comprising said front channel and said rear chamber; and
one or more closed loop fans for forcing circulating gas through at least a portion of said closed loop airflow pathway when operated.

9. The display assembly of claim 1 further comprising:
at least one current sensor associated with said simulated electric meter, wherein said simulated electric meter is configured to measure said power consumed by multiplying one or more current measurements taken by said at least one current sensor with a predetermined voltage level.

10. The display assembly of claim 9 wherein:
said predetermined voltage level is equal to or between 110 and 130 volts, or equal to or between 210 and 230 volts.

11. The display assembly of claim 9 wherein:
said simulated electric meter is configured to:
receive multiple current measurements from said at least one current sensor;
determine an average current level by averaging said multiple current measurements; and
measure said power consumed by multiplying said average current level with said predetermined voltage level.

12. The display assembly of claim 9 further comprising:
at least one timing device associated with said simulated electric meter, wherein said simulated electric meter is configured to:
determine a time elapsed from when a first one of multiple current measurements is taken from said at least one current sensor and a second one of said multiple current measurements is taken from said at least one current sensor;
determine multiple power consumption levels by multiplying each one of said multiple current measurements with said predetermined voltage level, wherein each of said multiple current measurements is taken during said elapsed time; and
sum said each of said multiple power consumption levels occurring during said elapsed time.

13. The display assembly of claim 12 further comprising:
a video player for controlling, at least in part, images displayed at said electronic display subassembly, wherein said database is configured to receive and store said summed power consumption measure received from said simulated electric meter in association with data received from said video player indicating a particular one of said images displayed at the electronic display subassembly during said elapsed time.

14. The display assembly of claim 12 wherein:
said simulated electric meter is configured to divide the summed power consumption measure by the elapsed time to determine an average power consumption measurement for the elapsed time.

15. The display assembly of claim 1 further comprising:
a network connection device for transmitting power consumption measurements from said simulated electric meter to a remote electronic device.

16. The display assembly of claim 15 wherein:
said remote electronic device comprises a server comprising data for hosting a website or application for displaying the power consumption measurements at a user electronic device.

17. The display assembly of claim 1 further comprising:
a current sensor associated with the simulated electric meter; and
a voltage sensor associated with the simulated electric meter, wherein said simulated electric meter is configured to take multiple current measurements from the current sensor during an elapsed time, take multiple voltage measurements from the voltage sensor during the elapsed time, and multiply each respective one of said multiple current measurements with a corresponding one of said multiple voltage measurements to arrive at multiple power consumption metrics.

18. A display assembly for measuring power consumption comprising:
an electronic display subassembly for displaying images;
one or more fan assemblies for thermally managing said electronic display subassembly when operated; and
a simulated electric meter electrically interposed between a utility electric supply and all electricity consuming components of said display assembly, including at least said electronic display subassembly and said one or more fan assemblies, said simulated electric meter comprising a current sensor and a voltage sensor, wherein said simulate

Assignees

• Mri Inc

Inventors

• Dunn William
• Schuch John

Classifications

• H04L67/51

  Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services · CPC title

• G01R22/061 Primary

  Details of electronic electricity meters · CPC title

• G09G2330/021

  Power management, e.g. power saving · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• G01R22/10 Primary

  using digital techniques · CPC title