Device and/or method for adaptive computation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021390360-A1
Application number	US-202016898085-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 10, 2020
Priority date	Jun 10, 2020
Publication date	Dec 16, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, systems and devices for varying operations of a transponder device based, at least in part, on an availability of energy and/or power that may be harvested and/or collected. In one particular implementation, operations to generate one or more signals from sensor circuitry and/or to perform computations may be varied based, at least in part, on an availability of harvestable and/or collectable energy and/or power.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method at a transponder device, comprising:
collecting and/or harvesting energy and/or power from a received incident power signal; generating one or more signals from sensing circuitry responsive to one or more physical conditions; performing computing operations to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry; and varying the computing operations to be performed to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or varying operations to generate the one or more signals from the sensing circuitry based, at least in part, on an availability of energy and/or power that is collectable and/or harvestable from the received incident power signal.

2 . The method of claim 1 , and further comprising displaying on a label one or more computational results based, at least in part, on the computing operations.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein varying the operations to generate the one or more signals from the one or more sensors comprises varying a number of observations and/or rate of observations to be obtained from the sensing circuitry over a duration.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein varying the computing operations to be performed to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or operations to generate the one or more signals from the one or more sensors comprises selecting one or more algorithms to be applied in processing the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry based, at least in part, on the availability of energy and/or power collectable and/or harvestable from the received incident power signal.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein varying computing operations to be performed to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or operations to generate the one or more signals from the one or more sensors comprises varying a cyclic redundancy check, varying a number of iterations of a processing loop, varying a processor vector-length, selecting between use of fixed-point operations and use of floating-point operations or selecting between use of multi-cycle operations and use of single-cycle accelerated operations, or a combination thereof.

6 . The method of claim 1 , and further comprising determining the availability of energy and/or power collectable and/or harvestable from the received incident power signal based, at least in part, on an intensity and/or duration of a pulse of the received incident power signal.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein varying computing operations to be performed to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or operations to generate the one or more signals from the one or more sensors further comprises:
storing in a non-volatile memory device observations, samples and/or measurements obtained based, at least in part, on the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry powered by energy collected and/or harvested from a first pulse of the received incident power signal; and powered by energy collected and/or harvested from a second pulse of the received incident power signal, performing computing operations to process the stored observations, samples and/or measurements and to process observations, samples and/or measurements obtained based, at least in part, on the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry powered by the energy collected and/or harvested from the second pulse of the received incident power signal.

8 . The method of claim 7 , and further comprising storing in the non-volatile memory device at least partial computations based, at least in part, on the obtained observations, samples and/or measurements and/or a processor state.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the operations to generate the one or more signals by the sensing circuitry comprise obtaining observations, samples and/or measurements contemporaneously with receipt of respective pulses of the incident power signal powered by energy and/or power collected and/or harvested from receipt of the respective pulses, and wherein the method further comprises: obtaining a message from an initial pulse of the incident power signal, the message comprising an indication of a number of observations, samples and/or measurements to be obtained from the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry over a subsequent duration; and varying, over one or more pulses of the incident power signal to be received over the subsequent duration, the computations to be performed and/or the operations to generate the one or more signals from the sensor circuitry based, at least in part, on the indication of the number and an expected availability of collectable and/or harvestable energy and/or power to be incident from receipt of one or more pulses of the incident power signal transmitted over the subsequent duration.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the indication of the number of observations, samples and/or measurements to be obtained from the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry over the subsequent duration specifies an average number of observations, samples and/or measurements to be obtained and/or a minimum number of observations, samples and/or measurements to be obtained contemporaneously with receipt per pulse of the incident power signal.

11 . A transponder device comprising:
circuitry to collect and/or harvest energy and/or power from a received incident power signal; sensing circuitry to generate one or more signals responsive to one or more physical conditions; one or more processors to perform computing operations to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry; and circuitry to vary the computing operations to be performed by the one or more processors to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or operations to generate the one or more signals from the sensing circuitry based, at least in part, on an availability of energy and/or power collectable and/or harvestable from the received incident power signal.

12 . The transponder device of claim 11 , and further comprising a display device formed on a label, and wherein the one or more processors are further to initiate display of a computing result on the display device determined, at least in part, based on the computing operations.

13 . The transponder device of claim 11 , wherein the circuitry to vary computing operations to be performed by the one or more processors to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or operations to generate the one or more signals from the sensing circuitry to vary a number of observations and/or rate of observations to be obtained from the sensing circuitry over a duration.

14 . The transponder device of claim 11 , wherein the circuitry to vary computing operations to be performed by the one or more processors to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or operations to generate the one or more signals from the sensing circuitry to select one or more algorithms to be applied in processing the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry based, at least in part, on the availability of energy and/or power collected and/or harvested from the received incident power signal.

15 . The transponder device of claim 11 , wherein the circuitry to vary computing operations to be performed by the one or more processors to process the one or more signals generated by the sensing circuitry and/or operations to generate the one or more signals from the sensing circuitry to vary a cycl

Assignees

• Advanced Risc Mach Ltd

Inventors

• Myers James Edward
• Cherkasova Ludmila
• Savanth Parameshwarappa Anand Kumar
• Gamage Sahan Sajeewa Hiniduma Udugama
• Eyole Mbou

Classifications

• G06K19/0709 Primary

  the source being an interrogation field · CPC title

• G06K7/10009

  sensing by radiation using wavelengths larger than 0.1 mm, e.g. radio-waves or microwaves · CPC title

• G06K19/0712 Primary

  the arrangement being capable of triggering distinct operating modes or functions dependent on the strength of an energy or interrogation field in the proximity of the record carrier (active means for hindering electromagnetic reading or writing G06K19/07336) · CPC title

• G06K19/0723

  the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs · CPC title

• G06K7/10217

  parameter settings controlling the transmission power of the interrogator · CPC title