Keyboard backlight event messaging system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9779591-B2
Application number	US-201615057917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 1, 2016
Priority date	Mar 1, 2016
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

A keyboard backlight event messaging system includes a backlit keyboard that includes a plurality of keys and a plurality of light emitting subsystems. Each respective light emitting subsystem of the plurality of light emitting subsystems is configured to backlight a respective key of the plurality of keys. The keyboard backlight event messaging system also includes a computing system that is coupled to the backlit keyboard. The computing system includes a controller that is coupled to the backlit keyboard and that is configured, in response to an event occurring in the computing system, to receive event messaging information that is associated with the event and activate a subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to an event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight a respective subset of the plurality of keys to provide an event message.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An event messaging system, comprising:
a backlit keyboard including:
a plurality of keys; and
a plurality of light emitting subsystems, wherein each respective light emitting subsystem of the plurality of light emitting subsystems is configured to backlight a respective key of the plurality of keys; and

a computing system that is coupled to the backlit keyboard, wherein the computing system includes a controller that is coupled to the backlit keyboard and that is configured, in response to an event occurring in the computing system, to
receive event messaging information that is associated with the event; and
activate a subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to an event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight a respective subset of the plurality of keys to provide an event message.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a basic input/output system (BIOS) coupled to the controller, wherein the controller is configured to receive the event messaging information as an error text string from the BIOS, and translate the error text string to the event messaging sequence.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the activating the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to the event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight the respective subset of the plurality of keys includes backlighting the respective subset of the plurality of keys that include keys that include an alphabet in order to spell out an indication of the event.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the embedded controller is configured to:
determine a severity level of the event; and
activate the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems to indicate the severity level of the event.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the embedded controller is configured to:
activate the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems to emit a first color of light in response to determining a first severity level for the event; and
activate the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems to emit a second color of light in response to determining a second severity level for the event that is different than the first severity level.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the embedded controller is configured to:
activate a first subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to the event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight a first respective subset of the plurality of keys to provide a first portion of the event message;
receive an input that requests more information about the event and, in response, activate a second subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to the event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight a second respective subset of the plurality of keys to provide a second portion of the event message.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of emitting subsystems is a red light emitting device that is configured to emit red light, a green light emitting device that is configured to emit green light, and a blue light emitting device that is configured to emit blue light.

8. An information handling system (IHS), comprising:
a chassis;
a keyboard connector that is located on the chassis and that is configured to couple to a backlit keyboard that includes:
a plurality of keys; and
a plurality of light emitting subsystems, where each respective light emitting subsystem of the plurality of light emitting subsystems is configured to backlight a respective key of the plurality of keys; and

a controller that is coupled to the keyboard connector and that is configured to:
receive event messaging information that is associated with an event; and
provide an instruction through the keyboard connector that is configured to activate a subset of a plurality of light emitting subsystems according to an event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight a respective subset of the plurality of keys to provide an event message.

9. The IHS of claim 8 , further comprising a basic input/output system (BIOS) coupled to the controller, wherein the controller is configured to receive the event messaging information as an error text string from the BIOS, and translate the error text string to the event messaging sequence.

10. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the providing the instruction through the keyboard connector that is configured to activate the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to the event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight the respective subset of the plurality of keys includes backlighting the respective subset of the plurality of keys that include keys that include an alphabet in order to spell out an indication of the event.

11. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to:
determine a severity level of the event; and
activate the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems to indicate the severity level of the event.

12. The IHS of claim 11 , wherein the controller is configured to:
activate the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems to emit a first color of light in response to determining a first severity level for the event; and
activate the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems to emit a second color of light in response to determining a second severity level for the event that is different than the first severity level.

13. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein the instructions to activate the subset of the plurality of light indicators of the backlit keyboard based on the system condition includes:
instructions to activate a first subset of the plurality of light indicators to communicate to a user a first subset of the system condition; and
instructions to activate a second subset of the plurality of light indicators to communicate to the user a second subset of the system condition.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the embedded controller is configured to:
activate a first subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to the event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight a first respective subset of the plurality of keys to provide a first portion of the event message;
receive an input that requests more information about the event and, in response, activate a second subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to the event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information in order to backlight a second respective subset of the plurality of keys to provide a second portion of the event message.

15. A method for providing event messaging, comprising:
receive, by a controller that is included in a computing system and coupled to a backlit keyboard, event messaging information that is associated with an event that is occurring in the computing system; and
activating, by the controller, a subset of a plurality of light emitting subsystems included on the backlit keyboard according to an event messaging sequence defined by the event messaging information;
wherein the activation of the subset of the plurality of light emitting subsystems according to the event messaging sequence results in the backlighting of a plurality of keys included on the backlit keyboard to provide an event message.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:
receiving,

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Montero Adolfo S
• Hsu Isaac

Classifications

• G06F3/0219 Primary

  Special purpose keyboards · CPC title

• G06F11/326

  for error or online/offline status · CPC title

• G06F11/0721

  within a central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title

• G06F9/4406

  Loading of operating system · CPC title

• G06F11/0784

  Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow · CPC title