Brown out condition detection and device calibration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11983057-B2
Application number	US-202117335825-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2021
Priority date	Mar 15, 2016
Publication date	May 14, 2024
Grant date	May 14, 2024

Abstract

Streaming content using a data streaming device having limited power is described. A data streaming device receives streaming content from a network and provides the streaming content for display on a content display device. Data streaming device includes power supplies that receive power from the content display device. The power supplies use the power to operate components of data streaming device that process the streaming content. A measuring module measures the power provided to the data streaming device. When the power is insufficient, a controller generates an indication that there is insufficient power to operate the components of the data streaming device. The controller may also modify functionality of the components to operate using available power or disable a component of the data streaming device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A data streaming device, comprising:
a port operatively coupled to a content display device and configured to receive power from the content display device, wherein the content display device receives content from the data streaming device and displays the received content, and the data streaming device provides the content to the content display device;
a plurality of components,
wherein the plurality of components provides a functionality to the data streaming device, and a component of the plurality of components includes at least one of a network connectivity component and a content processing component which controls at least one of a resolution or a frame rate of the content; and
a controller operatively coupled to the component, wherein the controller is configured to:
determine an amount of power supposed to be consumed by the component;
determine an amount of available power received from the content display device that receives the content from the data streaming device;
determine the amount of available power from the content display device is not sufficient to operate the component based on the amount of power supposed to be consumed;
determine a first color for a power level indicator light as a warning to a user to indicate that the data streaming device does not receive enough power from the content display device and that the data streaming device should be connected to a secondary power source, wherein the first color is different from a second color for the power level indicator light indicating the data streaming device does not receive enough power from the content display device and the controller is about to shut down, and different from a third color for the power level indicator light indicating the data streaming device has sufficient amounts of power received from the content display device to provide the content; and
calibrate a functionality of the component based on the amount of available power to continue to provide the content to the content display device.

2. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to reduce the functionality of the component.

3. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein the component is a network connectivity component, and wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to decrease a bandwidth or a network speed provided by the component.

4. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to decrease a resolution of the content or process the content with a decreased number of pixels.

5. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to decrease a frame rate of the content.

6. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of components comprises a first component to provide a first functionality and a second component to provide a second functionality, and the controller is configured to calibrate the first functionality of the first component and the second functionality of the second component based on the amount of available power received from the content display device.

7. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein the component is configured to operate at a plurality of power levels including a first power level and a second power level, wherein each level of the plurality of power levels operates using a preconfigured amount of power, and wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to change the component from operating at the first power level to the second power level.

8. The data streaming device of claim 7 , wherein the first power level or the second power level determines a frame rate, a content resolution, a processor clock speed, a network bandwidth, or a network speed of the data streaming device.

9. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein the port operatively coupled to the content display device includes a universal serial bus (USB) port.

10. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein the port coupled to the content display device is a first port, and the data streaming device further includes a second port coupled to an additional power source, and the controller is configured to calibrate the functionality of the component by increasing a network bandwidth, a resolution of the content, or a frame rate of the content when the second port receives power from the additional power source.

11. The data streaming device of claim 1 , wherein the content includes media content, video content, audio content, visual content, textual documents, images, games, music, software, or real-time games.

12. A data streaming device, comprising:
a measuring module configured to measure an amount of available power received from a content display device that receives content from the data streaming device, and determine whether the amount of available power received from the content display device is sufficient for the data streaming device to provide the content to the content display device, wherein the content display device receives the content from the data streaming device and displays the received content;
a plurality of components,
wherein the plurality of components provide a functionality to the data streaming device, and a component of the plurality of components includes at least one of a network connectivity component and a content processing component which controls at least one of a resolution or a frame rate of the content; and

a controller coupled to the measuring module and the component, and configured to:
determine a first color for a power level indicator light as a warning to a user to indicate that the data streaming device does not receive enough power from the content display device and that the data streaming device should be connected to a secondary power source, wherein the first color is different from a second color for the power level indicator light indicating the data streaming device does not receive enough power from the content display device and the controller is about to shut down, and different from a third color for the power level indicator light indicating the data streaming device has sufficient amounts of power received from the content display device to provide the content, and
calibrate a functionality of the component based on the amount of available power to continue to provide the content to the content display device when the amount of available power is not sufficient to operate the component based on an amount of power supposed to be consumed by the component.

13. The data streaming device of claim 12 , wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to reduce the functionality of the component.

14. The data streaming device of claim 12 , wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to decrease a bandwidth or a network speed provided by the component.

15. The data streaming device of claim 12 , wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to decrease a resolution of the content or process the content with a decreased number of pixels.

16. The data streaming device of claim 12 , wherein to calibrate the functionality of the component, the controller is configured to decrease a frame rate of the content.

17. The data streaming device of claim 12 , wherein the measuring module includes

Assignees

• Roku Inc

Inventors

• Garner Gregory
• Wood Anthony
• Martin Simon
• Stern David
• Johnson Neil Edward

Classifications

• G06F1/30 Primary

  Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations (for resetting only G06F1/24) · CPC title

• G06F1/266

  Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips · CPC title

• G06F13/385

  for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices · CPC title

• G06F13/4282

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

• H04L65/60

  Network streaming of media packets · CPC title