Electronic device functionality in low power mode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11693467-B2
Application number	US-202117464482-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2021
Priority date	Sep 1, 2021
Publication date	Jul 4, 2023
Grant date	Jul 4, 2023

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to reducing a power consumption of an electronic device while maintaining some functionality of the electronic device while the electronic device is in a low power mode. The device may be in the low power mode due to a battery level being below a threshold. If the battery level is below the threshold, the electronic device may enter the low power mode. However, before entering the low power mode, some functionality of an application processor may be transferred to a communication controller. Once the functionality is transferred, the application processor may be disabled to reduce power consumption while maintaining functionality of the application processor. The electronic device may also utilize various communication protocols to communicate with a peripheral device. Even though the electronic device may be in the low power mode, the communication controller may be used to cause the peripheral device to perform various actions.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
detecting a battery level of an electronic device;
causing the electronic device to enter a low power mode based on the battery level by:
transferring functionality of an application processor of the electronic device to a communication controller of the electronic device; and
deactivating the application processor; and

in response to the electronic device entering the low power mode, causing the communication controller to perform the functionality of the application processor using one or more radios of the electronic device, wherein the functionality comprises authenticating, via the one or more radios and the communication controller, a peripheral device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the functionality comprises controlling at least one of a lock, a light, a motor, a starter, an alarm system, an electrical appliance, or other electrical device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein transferring the functionality of the application processor to the communication controller comprises transmitting the functionality to the communication controller via a serial interface.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
receiving, via the one or more radios and the communication controller, a signal from the peripheral device;
establishing, via the one or more radios and the communication controller, a connection with the peripheral device based on the signal;
determining, via the one or more radios and the communication controller, a distance to the peripheral device;
authenticating, via the one or more radios and the communication controller, the peripheral device; and
transmitting, via the one or more radios and the communication controller, instructions to the peripheral device to perform an action.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein determining the distance to the peripheral device is based on a time-of-flight of an ultra-wideband signal.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the action is based at least on the distance between the peripheral device and the electronic device.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the action includes at least one of unlocking an access point, starting a motor, turning on a light, disabling an alarm, or any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 4 , wherein authenticating the peripheral device comprises:
receiving, via the one or more radios and the communication controller, authentication credentials from the peripheral device; and
comparing the authentication credentials to authentication data stored via a secure element of the electronic device.

9. An electronic device comprising:
a battery;
one or more antennas;
a wireless communication controller communicatively coupled to the one or more antennas and configured to communicate with and authenticate a peripheral device when a power level of the battery is below a threshold; and
processing circuitry coupled to the wireless communication controller and configured to:
determine the power level of the battery; and
in response to detecting that the power level of the battery is below the threshold, transfer functionality of the wireless communication controller to communicate with and authenticate the peripheral device to the wireless communication controller, and deactivate the processing circuitry.

10. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein transferring the functionality to the wireless communication controller comprises transmitting the functionality to the wireless communication controller via a serial interface.

11. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the wireless communication controller is configured to cause the peripheral device to perform at least one of unlocking an access point, starting a motor, turning on a light, disabling an alarm, or any combination thereof, in response to a user input, a distance between the electronic device and the peripheral device being below a distance threshold, or both.

12. The electronic device of claim 9 , comprising an ultra-wideband communication controller communicatively coupled to the wireless communication controller and configured to:
receive a signal from the peripheral device via the one or more antennas and the wireless communication controller; and
determine a distance to the peripheral device based at least in part on the signal from the peripheral device.

13. The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the distance is based at least in part on a time-of-flight of a signal between the wireless communication controller and the peripheral device.

14. The electronic device of claim 12 , comprising:
a secure element communicatively coupled to the wireless communication controller and configured to store authentication keys for at least the peripheral device; and
a near-field communication controller communicatively coupled to the secure element and configured to authenticate the peripheral device using the authentication keys in response to the processing circuitry being deactivated.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the near-field communication controller is configured to:
receive authentication credentials from the peripheral device via the one or more antennas; and
authenticate the peripheral device based on comparing the authentication credentials to the authentication keys stored in the secure element.

16. A user equipment comprising:
a power source;
one or more antennas;
transmit circuitry communicatively coupled to the one or more antennas;
receive circuitry communicatively coupled to the one or more antennas;
an application processor communicatively coupled to the one or more antennas via the transmit circuitry and the receive circuitry;
a first communication controller communicatively coupled to the application processor and to the one or more antennas via the transmit circuitry and the receive circuitry, wherein the first communication controller is configured to perform one or more functions of the application processor while the user equipment is in a low power mode;
a secure element communicatively coupled to the first communication controller, the secure element comprising a second communication controller; and
a third communication controller communicatively coupled to the secure element, the third communication controller communicatively coupled to the first communication controller via the secure element.

17. The user equipment of claim 16 , wherein the application processor is configured to disable itself when causing the user equipment to enter the low power mode.

18. The user equipment of claim 16 , wherein the first communication controller is associated with a first communication protocol, the second communication controller is associated with a second communication protocol, and the third communication controller is associated with a third communication protocol.

19. The user equipment of claim 18 , wherein the first communication controller is configured to communicate with an additional first communication controller of a peripheral device using the first communication protocol, wherein the second communication controller is configured to communicate with an additional second communication controller of the peripheral device using the second communication protocol, and wherein the third communication controller is configured to communicate with an additional third communication controller of the peripheral device using the third communication protocol.

20. The user equipment of claim 16 , wherein the application processor is configured to transfer

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Wasada Langford M
• Unkn Arun
• Chang Andrew C
• Hariharan Sriram
• Brumley Robert W
• Thiara Raman S

Classifications

• G06F21/44

  Program or device authentication · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• G06F1/3206 Primary

  Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality · CPC title

• G06F21/305

  by remotely controlling device operation · CPC title

• G06F13/4282

  on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus (on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247) · CPC title