Apparatus and methods for thermal management of electronic user devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022350385-A1
Application number	US-202217732173-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 28, 2022
Priority date	Dec 27, 2019
Publication date	Nov 3, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for thermal management of electronic user devices are disclosed herein. An example apparatus includes at least one of a user presence detection analyzer to identify a presence of a user relative to an electronic device based on first sensor data generated by a first sensor or at least one of an image data analyzer or a motion data analyzer to determine a gesture of the user relative to the device based on second sensor data generated by a second sensor; a thermal constraint selector to select a thermal constraint for a temperature of an exterior surface of the electronic device based on one or more of the presence of the user or the gesture; and a power source manager to adjust a power level for a processor of the electronic device based on the thermal constraint.

First claim

1 . (canceled)

2 . An electronic device comprising:
a housing having an exterior surface; a fan within the housing; memory; machine readable instructions; and processor circuitry to execute the machine readable instructions to:
detect a user within a defined distance of the electronic device based on first sensor data;
initiate a timer in response to the detection of the user;
predict a likelihood of user interaction with the electronic device occurring within a first period of time based second sensor data, the first period of time later than a second period of time associated with the timer; and
cause at least one of (a) a rotational parameter of the fan to be adjusted or (b) an operating parameter of hardware of the electronic device to be adjusted based on the likelihood of the user interaction.

3 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the operating parameter includes a power consumption level.

4 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the processor circuitry is to cause the operating parameter of the hardware to be adjusted based on a first thermal constraint associated with the exterior surface of the housing.

5 . The electronic device of claim 4 , wherein the first thermal constraint is associated with a lower surface temperature of the exterior surface of the housing than a second thermal constraint, the second thermal constraint defining a maximum surface temperature of the exterior surface of the housing.

6 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the processor circuitry is to cause the rotational parameter of the fan to be adjusted based on a first thermal constraint associated with the exterior surface of the housing.

7 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the second sensor data includes at least one of (a) image data from an image sensor or (b) motion data from a motion sensor.

8 . The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the likelihood of user interaction is based on detection of a gesture of the user relative to the electronic device in the image data or the motion data.

9 . The electronic device of claim 7 wherein the likelihood of user interaction is based on detection of a facial feature of the user relative to the electronic device in the image data.

10 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the rotational parameter of the fan corresponds to at least one of (a) a rotational speed of the fan or (b) a rotational direction of the fan.

11 . The electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the processor circuitry is to:
detect a noise level of ambient noise in an environment in which the electronic device is located based on third sensor data; and when the noise level exceeds a threshold value, at least one of (a) cause the rotational speed of the fan to increase or (b) cause the rotational direction of the fan to reverse.

12 . The electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the processor circuitry is to:
determine whether the user is wearing headphones based on fourth sensor data; and when the user is wearing headphones, at least one of (a) cause the rotational speed of the fan to increase or (b) cause the rotational direction of the fan to reverse.

13 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the processor circuitry to:
detect a user input received at the electronic device within the second period of time; identify, based on third sensor data, the user input as received via (a) a user input device carried by the electronic device or (b) a user input device external to the electronic device; and cause at least one of (a) the rotational parameter of the fan to be adjusted or (b) the operating parameter of hardware of the electronic device to be adjusted based on the identification.

14 . At least one non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause processor circuitry to at least:
detect a presence of a user within a predefined distance relative to an electronic device based on signals output by a first sensor; initiate a timer in response to the detection of the presence of the user; predict, based on signals output by a second sensor, a likelihood of a user interaction with the electronic device within a first duration of time; and adjust at least one of (a) a rotational parameter of a fan and (b) an operating parameter of hardware of the electronic device based on the prediction.

15 . The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the operating parameter includes a level of power consumed by the hardware.

16 . The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the second sensor includes an image sensor and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuitry to:
detect, based on image data generated by the image sensor, a gesture by the user; and predict the likelihood of the user interaction based on the gesture.

17 . The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the second sensor includes an image sensor and the instructions, when executed, cause the processor circuitry to:
detect an eye of the user in image data generated by the image sensor; and predict the likelihood of the user interaction based on the detection of the eye.

18 . The at least one non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the rotational parameter of the fan corresponds to at least one of (a) a rotational speed of the fan and (b) a rotational direction of the fan.

19 . An electronic device comprising:
means for cooling hardware in the electronic device; means for detecting a presence of a user relative to the electronic device, the presence detecting means to detect the presence of the user within a defined distance of the electronic device; means for detecting motion; means for monitoring to measure a duration of time from the detection of the user; means for analyzing to:
detect a gesture performed by the user based on data output by the motion detecting means;
predict a likelihood of user interaction with the electronic device occurring within a first amount of time based the gesture, the first amount of time later than a second amount of time measured by the monitoring means; and
means for controlling cooling means, the controlling means to cause a parameter of the cooling means to be adjusted based on the likelihood of the user interaction.

20 . The electronic device of claim 19 , wherein the parameter of the cooling means corresponds to an operational speed of the cooling means.

21 . The electronic device of claim 19 , further including a display screen, where the analyzing means is to:
detect the gesture as occurring proximate to the display screen; and predict the likelihood of the user interaction based on the detection of the gesture relative to the display screen.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Mishra Columbia
• Ruiz Carin
• Cao Helin
• Soe Soethiha
• Hermerding Ii James
• Singh Bijendra
• Singh Navneet

Classifications

• G06V10/774

  Generating sets of training patterns; Bootstrap methods, e.g. bagging or boosting · CPC title

• G06V40/165

  using facial parts and geometric relationships · CPC title

• H04B1/3827

  Portable transceivers · CPC title

• G10L25/51

  for comparison or discrimination · CPC title

• G06F11/3058

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations (thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206) · CPC title