Method and system for remote battery notification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9942576-B2
Application number	US-201514862016-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2015
Priority date	Apr 6, 2015
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

There is a need to provide an intuitive way for a battery-powered device to send a low battery notification to another device that can properly notify a user that the battery-powered device has a low battery. The user can be notified by the other device even after the battery-powered device has exhausted its battery to the point where it can no longer report its battery state. A second electronic device (e.g., a remote control) can send a low battery notification to a first electronic device (e.g., a set-top box) so that the first electronic device can alert a user that the second electronic device has a low battery.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a first electronic device with one or more processors and memory in communication with a second electronic device, cause the first electronic device to perform a method comprising:
while in an inactive state, receiving an instruction from the second electronic device to wake from the inactive state;
in response to receiving the instruction to wake from the inactive state, entering an active state;
while in the active state:
receiving, from the second electronic device, an indication of a low battery level of the second electronic device;
in response to receiving the indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device and before displaying a visual indication of the low battery level at a display associated with the first electronic device, reentering the inactive state; and

after reentering the inactive state and without receiving a second indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device:
reentering the active state; and
displaying, at the display associated with the first electronic device, the visual indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein:
the first electronic device reenters the active state in response to input at a power button of the first electronic device or in response to a power on command received from the second electronic device.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , the method further comprising:
before reentering the inactive state, sending a notification of the low battery level of the second electronic device to a third electronic device, different from the first and second electronic devices.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the low battery level indicates a particular battery level of the second electronic device.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the low battery level indicates an estimated time of battery life remaining for the second electronic device.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1 , wherein the second electronic device wakes from an inactive state and determines a battery level of the second electronic device before sending the first electronic device the instruction to wake.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the second electronic device wakes from the inactive state in response to physical movement of the second electronic device.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the second electronic device wakes from the inactive state in response to input at the second electronic device.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 6 , wherein the second electronic device wakes from the inactive state in response to a determination that a predetermined duration of time has passed since entering the inactive state.

10. A first electronic device in communication with a second electronic device, the first electronic device comprising:
one or more processors;
memory; and
one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for:
while in an inactive state, receiving an instruction from the second electronic device to wake from the inactive state;
in response to receiving the instruction to wake from the inactive state, entering an active state;
while in the active state:
receiving, from the second electronic device, an indication of a low battery level of the second electronic device;
in response to receiving the indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device and before displaying a visual indication of the low battery level at a display associated with the first electronic device, reentering the inactive state; and

after reentering the inactive state and without receiving a second indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device:
reentering the active state; and
displaying, at the display associated with the first electronic device, the visual indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device.

11. A method comprising:
at a first electronic device in communication with a second electronic device:
while in an inactive state, receiving an instruction from the second electronic device to wake from the inactive state;
in response to receiving the instruction to wake from the inactive state, entering an active state;
while in the active state:
receiving, from the second electronic device, an indication of a low battery level of the second electronic device;
in response to receiving the indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device and before displaying a visual indication of the low battery level at a display associated with the first electronic device, reentering the inactive state; and

after reentering the inactive state and without receiving a second indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device:
reentering the active state; and
displaying, at the display associated with the first electronic device, the visual indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs, the one or more programs comprising instructions, which when executed by a second electronic device with one or more processors and memory in communication with a first electronic device, cause the second electronic device to perform a method comprising:
determining, at the second electronic device, a battery level of the second electronic device;
in accordance with a determination that the battery level is beneath a predetermined threshold:
while the first electronic device is in an inactive state, sending an instruction to the first electronic device to wake from the inactive state to an active state; and
while the first electronic device is in the active state, sending an indication of a low battery level of the second electronic device to the first electronic device, wherein after sending the indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device to the first electronic device, and without sending a second indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device to the first electronic device, the first electronic device:
reenters the inactive state before displaying a visual indication of the low battery level at a display associated with the first electronic device,
reenters the active state, and
displays, at the display associated with the first electronic device, the visual indication of the low battery level of the second electronic device.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , the method further comprising:
the second electronic device waking from an inactive state before determining the battery level of the second electronic device.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 , the method further comprising:
detecting physical movement of the second electronic device, wherein the second electronic device wakes from the inactive state in response to the physical movement of the second electronic device.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13 ,

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Belk Andrew
• Centazzo Alessio
• Fletcher Daniel R
• Bumgarner William M

Classifications

• H04N21/4436

  Power management, e.g. shutting down unused components of the receiver (power management in computer systems G06F1/3203; hibernate or awake process in computer systems G06F9/4418) · CPC title

• H04N21/43615

  Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals (home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805) · CPC title

• H04N21/4126

  The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones · CPC title

• H04N21/00 Primary

  Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] (real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 {; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18}) · CPC title

• H04N21/41265 Primary

  having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device (unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204) · CPC title