Thermal management in wearable devices

Abstract

In one aspect, a wearable device includes a first set of one or more temperature sensors configured to generate a first set of one or more temperature signals indicative of one or more temperatures proximate to one or more skin locations of a user; a thermal controller configured to generate a signal indicative of a level of thermal mitigation based on the set of one or more temperature signals; a set of one or more subsystems configured to throttle their respective operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal to reduce power consumption such that the wearable device generates less heat; and a communication interface configured to communicate the thermal mitigation level signal and metadata related to the throttling of the one or more operations to a companion device. In another aspect, a companion device is configured to assist the wearable device in thermal management by offloading a process from the wearable device and providing reduced data to the wearable device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wearable devices (e.g., smart glasses, augmented reality (AR) viewers, virtual reality (VR) viewers, wearable fitness devices, wearable health monitors, smart watches, etc.), and specifically relate to thermal management in wearable devices including assistance from companion devices. Background Art

[0002] Wearable devices, smart glasses, augmented reality (AR) viewers or glasses, virtual reality (VR) viewers or glasses, fitness measurement and tracking devices, health monitoring devices, medical treatment management devices, smart watches, etc. are becoming more complex, providing multiple functions. Therefore, wearable devices are designed with more powerful processors, integrated circuits (ICs), systems on chips (SOCs), and other circuits that can perform multiple functions at generally higher speeds. As a result, wearable devices generate more heat. Since these wearable devices are in direct or indirect contact with the user, the heat generated by such devices may become uncomfortable and / or harmful to the user. Therefore, it may be necessary to implement thermal management for such wearable devices. Summary of the invention

[0003] The following content presents a simplified summary of one or more implementations in order to provide a basic understanding of such implementations. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of all contemplated implementations, and is not intended to identify key or important elements of all implementations, nor is it intended to delineate the scope of any or all implementations. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more implementations in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is subsequently presented.

[0004] One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a wearable device. The wearable device includes: a first set of one or more temperature sensors, the first set of one or more temperature sensors being configured to generate a first set of one or more temperature signals indicating one or more skin temperatures of a user; a thermal controller, the thermal controller being configured to generate a signal indicating a thermal mitigation level based on the first set of one or more temperature signals; a set of one or more subsystems, the set of one or more subsystems being configured to perform one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal, respectively; and a communication interface, the communication interface being configured to transmit the thermal mitigation level signal to a companion device.

[0005] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for applying thermal management at a wearable device, the method comprising: generating a first set of one or more temperature signals indicating one or more temperatures; generating a signal indicating a thermal mitigation level based on the first set of one or more temperature signals; performing one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal; and transmitting the thermal mitigation level signal to a companion device.

[0006] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a companion device for a wearable device, the companion device comprising: a communication interface configured to receive a thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters and a first data set from the wearable device; a thermal controller configured to generate a thermal mitigation scheme based on the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters for the benefit of the wearable device; and a first set of one or more subsystems, the first set of one or more subsystems configured to generate a second data set based on the first data set and the thermal mitigation scheme, wherein the second data set is transmitted to the wearable device via the communication interface.

[0007] Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for providing thermal management for the benefit of a wearable device, the method comprising: receiving a thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters and a first data set from the wearable device; generating a thermal mitigation scheme based on the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters for the benefit of the wearable device; generating a second data set based on the first data set and the thermal mitigation scheme; and transmitting the second data set to the wearable device.

[0008] To achieve the foregoing and related purposes, one or more implementations include the features fully described below and specifically pointed out in the claims. The following description and the attached figures set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of one or more implementations. However, these aspects are merely indicative of several of the various ways in which the principles of each implementation may be employed, and the specification implementations are intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 A block diagram of an example system including an example wearable device tethered to an example companion device according to an aspect of the disclosure is illustrated.

[0010] Figure 2-1 and Figure 2-2 Another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated in Figure 1 Flowchart of an example method for performing thermal management in a wearable device.

[0011] Figure 3-1 and Figure 3-2 According to another aspect of the present disclosure, Figure 1 The supporting equipment for Figure 1 Flowchart of an example method for performing thermal management for the benefit of a wearable device.

[0012] Figure 4 A perspective view of example augmented reality (AR) glasses according to another aspect of the disclosure is illustrated.

[0013] Figure 5A A block diagram of example augmented reality (AR) glasses according to another aspect of the disclosure is illustrated.

[0014] Figure 5B Another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated in Figure 5A Table of example thermal mitigation solutions applied in augmented reality (AR) glasses.

[0015] Fig. 6A According to another aspect of the present disclosure, Figure 5A Block diagram of an example companion device for augmented reality (AR) glasses.

[0016] Figure 6B According to another aspect of the present disclosure, Fig. 6A The supporting equipment for Figure 5A Table of example thermal mitigation solutions applied for the benefit of augmented reality (AR) glasses.

[0017] Figure 7 A flow chart illustrating an example method of performing thermal mitigation by a wearable device and a companion device for the benefit of the wearable device according to another aspect of the present disclosure.

[0018] Figure 8 A block diagram of another example wearable device according to another aspect of the disclosure is illustrated.

[0019] Fig. 9 A block diagram illustrating another example companion device with respect to a wearable device according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0020] Fig.10 A block diagram of another example wearable device according to another aspect of the disclosure is illustrated.

[0021] Fig.11 A flow chart illustrating an example method of applying thermal management at a wearable device according to another aspect of the disclosure.

[0022] Fig.12 A block diagram illustrating another example companion device with respect to a wearable device according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0023] Fig.13 A flow chart illustrating an example method for providing thermal management for the benefit of a wearable device according to another aspect of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] The specific embodiments described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings are intended as descriptions of various configurations and are not intended to represent the only configurations with which the concepts described herein can be practiced. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the various concepts, the specific embodiments include specific details. However, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts can be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, in order to avoid obscuring such concepts, well-known structures and components are shown in block diagram form.

[0025] Wearable devices have become very popular and ubiquitous. Such wearable devices include smart glasses, augmented reality (AR) viewers or glasses, virtual reality (VR) viewers or glasses, fitness measurement and tracking devices, health monitoring devices, medical treatment management devices, smart watches, etc. These wearable devices are constantly being designed to provide more functionality, operate at higher speeds, and operate for longer periods of time (e.g., continuously based on battery capacity).

[0026] As a result of these enhancements, wearable devices generate more heat. When these devices are worn by a user and in contact with or close to the user's skin, the increased heat may make them uncomfortable and / or unsafe for the user. For example, heat from such wearable devices that results in skin temperatures of about 40 to 45 degrees Celsius (°C) may be unacceptable, and thresholds for thermal management may be set within or near such ranges. In addition, wearable devices typically have integrated circuits (ICs), such as systems on chips (SOCs), which may be adversely affected by the heat generated by such devices (e.g., in terms of operation and / or physical damage). Therefore, it is also of interest to monitor temperatures within such ICs (such as junction temperatures) to maintain them below safe operating limits (e.g., 70°C to 95°C), thereby improving the reliability of such wearable devices.

[0027] Figure 1A block diagram of an example system 100 including an example wearable device 110 (also referred to as a "primary device") and an example companion device 150 (also referred to as a "secondary device") according to an aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. As previously discussed, the wearable device 110 can take various form factors, such as smart glasses, AR viewers or glasses, VR viewers or glasses, fitness measurement and tracking devices, health monitoring devices, medical treatment management devices, smart watches, etc. The companion device 150 can also take various form factors, such as smart phones, pucks, personal computers (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablet devices, etc.), servers, etc. The companion device 150 and the wearable device 110 can be part of a personal area network (PAN). The companion device 140 can be a portable device. In some aspects, the companion device 150 can be carried by the user without being worn (continuously).

[0028] The companion device 150 is tethered (e.g., wirelessly tethered) to the wearable device 110 and works with the wearable device when executing a particular application. For example, as in the case of an AR viewer or glasses, the wearable device 110 may perform object detection, object pose processing (e.g., six degrees of freedom (6DOF) object pose processing, in which the x, y, z position coordinates and pitch, yaw, and roll orientations of an object are determined), eye tracking, head tracking, hand tracking, and provide this information to the companion device 150. The companion device 150 may then generate AR content based on the received object pose and tracking information, display rendering to include such AR content, encode the rendered display information, and transmit the information back to the AR glasses. The AR glasses then process the rendered display information for displaying the AR content together with the scene captured by the camera of the AR glasses.

[0029] Specifically, the wearable device 110 includes a set of one or more subsystems 115-1, 115-2 to 115-M, where M is any positive integer. As an example, in the case of an AR viewer, subsystem 115-1 may be one or more 6DOF cameras, subsystem 115-2 may be a video camera, subsystem 115-3 may be one or more displays (e.g., a display for each eye), subsystem 115-4 may be an engine for visual analysis (EVA) (which may be implemented as a hardware accelerator for object detection and post-reprojection (LSR) processing), subsystem 115-5 may be a digital signal processor (DSP) (also referred to as a data processing unit (DPU)) for performing object pose (6DOF) processing, subsystem 115-6 may be an eye tracking camera, and subsystem 115-7 may be an infrared (IR) lighting system. It should be understood that the foregoing are merely examples of subsystems and may vary significantly based on the specific AR glasses or other wearable devices. The subsystems may be characterized in that they require power and generate heat when operating.

[0030] The wearable device 110 also includes a power (supply voltage) rail Vdd coupled to a set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M. Although one power rail Vdd is shown for purposes of explanation, it should be understood that the wearable device 110 may include a set of power rails, wherein the subsystems 115-1 to 115-M may be coupled to different combinations of such power rails. For example, in a case where the wearable device 110 is an AR viewer, there may be a multimedia power rail for supplying power to a 6DOF camera, a video camera, an eye tracking camera, and an EVA hardware accelerator; a computing power rail for supplying power to the DSP; and an IR lighting power rail for supplying power to the IR lighting system. The wearable device 110 also includes a data bus 135 for data coupling one or more of the subsystems 115-1 to 115-M and other components.

[0031] For thermal management, the wearable device 110 includes a set of one or more skin temperature sensors 120-1, 120-2 to 120-N, where N is any positive integer. When the wearable device 110 is worn by a user, the set of one or more skin temperature sensors 120-1 to 120-N can be placed in contact with different locations of the user's skin or close to different locations of the user's skin (as depicted). The set of one or more skin temperature sensors 120-1, 120-2 to 120-N can be configured to generate one or more temperature signals T respectively indicating one or more temperatures of one or more skin locations close to the user. S1 、T S2 To T SN A collection of .

[0032] In addition, the wearable device 110 includes a thermal controller 125 for providing thermal management of the wearable device 110. The thermal controller 125 is configured to receive one or more temperature signals T from a set of one or more skin temperature sensors 120-1 to 120-N, respectively. S1 To T SN The temperature signal T S1 To T SN Compare with one or more temperature thresholds; generate a thermal mitigation level signal ML(j) based on the temperature threshold comparison; generate one or more thermal mitigation scheme signals M 11 To M 1M to respectively control the operation of a set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M; and transmit the thermal mitigation level signal ML(j) to the supporting device 150 via a (wired or wireless) communication interface 130 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular or other).

[0033] In response to one or more thermal mitigation scheme signals M 11 To M 1M The set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M can adjust their respective operations to reduce power consumption so that the wearable device 110 generates less heat, and the one or more temperature signals T S1 To T SN The set of then indicates a temperature below the threshold. For example, in the case where the wearable device 110 is an AR viewer, based on the thermal mitigation scheme signal M 11 , the 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1 may reduce the frames per second (FPS) rate associated with image capture by one or more 6DOF cameras, may reduce the resolution associated with image capture by one or more 6DOF cameras, and / or may reduce the number of enabled 6DOF cameras (e.g., disabling one or more of the head, eye (e.g., eye tracking subsystem 115-6, if separate from 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1), hand, mouth, eyebrow, and / or facial tracking cameras). Based on the thermal mitigation level scheme signal M 12 , the video camera subsystem 115 - 2 may reduce its video capture FPS rate, its resolution, and / or may disable video capture entirely.

[0034] Display subsystem 115-3 may optionally reduce its FPS rate, its resolution, disable one or more of the displays (e.g., the left eye display, the right eye display, or both) based on eye position as detected by the eye tracking subsystem, and / or reduce the FPS rate based on the thermal mitigation scheme signal M. 13 The DSP subsystem 115-5 may reduce the display brightness based on the thermal mitigation scheme signal M 15 offload some or all of its object pose (6DOF) processing to companion device 150. As an extension of the offload feature, DSP subsystem 115-1 may, based on thermal mitigation scheme signal M 15 To perform a jump in processing between the DSP subsystem 115-1 and the companion device 150. A jump means a jump between a configuration in which the algorithm is executed in the wearable device (e.g., when the mitigation level is relatively low) and a configuration in which the algorithm is offloaded to the companion device (e.g., when the mitigation level is relatively high). For example, the jump in processing may be based on the degree of movement of the user's head and eyes. For example, if such movement is below a threshold, it may be better to offload more processing to the companion device 150 because the delay associated with offloading may not affect the data processing associated with relatively small movements; otherwise, the delay associated with offloading may affect the data processing associated with relatively large movements. The IR lighting subsystem 115-7 may be configured to perform a jump in processing between the DSP subsystem 115-1 and the companion device 150 based on the thermal mitigation scheme signal M. 17To disable one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs), reduce their brightness, and / or disable one or more IR illumination sources. It should be understood that the aforementioned thermal mitigation schemes are merely examples, and a different set of thermal mitigation schemes may be employed.

[0035] The companion device 150 includes a communication interface 155 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular, or other), a thermal controller 160, a collection of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K, and a data bus 170. The collection of one or more subsystems may include one or more subsystems that share functions or functionality with or supplement the functions or functionality of one or more subsystems of the wearable device 110. For example, in a case where the companion device 150 is assisting an application provided by the AR viewer wearable device 110, subsystem 165-1 may be a DSP (or DPU) for performing part or all of object pose (6DOF) processing based on object-related data received from the AR viewer wearable device 110, subsystem 165-2 may be a processor for adding AR content based on object-related data received from the AR viewer wearable device 110, and subsystem 165-3 may be a display rendering and encoding system for generating graphics or image rendering data (frame pixels) information of AR content to transmit to the AR viewer wearable device 110 for processing and display purposes.

[0036] With respect to providing thermal management on behalf of wearable device 110, thermal controller 160 receives a thermal mitigation level signal ML(j) from wearable device 110 via communication interface 155. Thermal controller 160 generates one or more thermal mitigation scheme signals M 21 To M 2K to control the operation of the set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K respectively. Considering the AR application example again, the DSP subsystem 165-1 may be based on the thermal mitigation scheme signal M 21 Offload some or all of the object pose (6DOF) processing from the wearable device 110. The AR content generation subsystem 165-2 may be based on the thermal mitigation scheme signal M 22 To reduce the amount of AR content in the object image signal received from the wearable device 110. Also, the display rendering subsystem 165-3 can reduce the resolution and FPS rate associated with the image signal or data to be provided to the wearable device 110.

[0037] Offloading some or all of the object pose (6DOF) processing from the wearable device 110, the reduction of the AR content in the image signal, and / or the reduced resolution and FPS of the image rendering signal or data provided to the wearable device 110 results in less processing (workload) and, therefore, less power consumption in the wearable device 110; and, therefore, less heat generated by the wearable device 110 to dissipate the power generated by the temperature signal T S1 To T SN The indicated skin temperature decreases and is maintained below the corresponding threshold. More specifically, with respect to less AR content and reduced resolution and FPS in the image signal or data provided to the wearable device 110, the EVA hardware accelerator subsystem 115-4 for late stage reprojection (LSR) (which is used to correct the rendered data to match the latest pose data in the AR viewer wearable device 110) has less data to process; thereby reducing its power consumption and heat generation.

[0038] Figure 2-1 and Figure 2-2 A flow chart illustrating an example method 200 of performing thermal management in a wearable device 110 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0039] The method 200 includes a set of one or more subsystems 115 - 1 to 115 -M based on one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 11 (0) to M 1M (0) to perform a set of one or more operations (block 205). As an example, one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 11 (0) to M 1M A first set of (0) may be suitable for unmitigated thermal operation (eg, where "0" indicates an unmitigated level), where one or more skin temperature signals T S1 To T SN The set of indicates a skin temperature below all thresholds. The thermal mitigation scheme parameters may include any parameters that control the operation of the corresponding one or more subsystems. In some aspects, the thermal mitigation scheme parameters may include control parameters for operating one or more subsystems that affect heat generation of the corresponding subsystems, such as by having an impact on the current power consumption of the corresponding subsystems. A first set of one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters may be associated with normal or standard operation of the corresponding subsystems, such as associated with operating the corresponding subsystems at a nominal power level.

[0040] Considering again the example AR viewer wearable device 110, the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 11 (0) may indicate a specific FPS (e.g., 81 FPS) for the 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1; thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 12(0) may indicate a specific resolution of the video camera subsystem 115-2 (e.g., 1600×1200 pixels). 2 ); Thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 13 (0) may indicate a specific resolution of the display subsystem 115-3 (e.g., 1280×960 pixels). 2 ); Thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 15 (0) may instruct the DSP subsystem 115-5 to perform 80 percent (%) of the 6DOF processing (while the companion device 150 performs 20% of the 6DOF processing); and the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 17 (0) may indicate that 80% of the output lighting power of the IR lighting subsystem 115-7 is being used. When performing the above operations, the power consumption of the wearable device 110 may be represented as P 01 .

[0041] The method 200 also includes the set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M generating a first data set when performing the set of one or more operations (block 210). Considering the example AR viewer wearable device 110, the 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1, the EVA subsystem 115-4, and the DSP subsystem 115-5 can collectively generate object pose (6DOF) data (first data set) of objects of the scene captured by the 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1. In addition, the method 200 includes transmitting the first data set to the companion device 150 via the communication interface 130 (block 215). Figure 1 As depicted, the communication interface 130 may be coupled to the data bus 135 to receive a first set of data and transmit the first set of data to the companion device 150 according to any transmission protocol (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular, etc.).

[0042] Then, according to method 200, the set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M receives a second data set from the companion device 150 via the communication interface 130 (box 220). The second data set may be based on the first data set. For example, in the case of an AR viewer wearable device 110, the second data set may include AR content associated with object pose data (first data set) of one or more detected objects (for example, the object pose data may be a detected face, and the AR content may be graphic glasses for the detected face). In some aspects, offloading operations to the companion device includes generating data at the companion device, which may alternatively be generated at the wearable device itself. For example, the second data set may be generated at the wearable device itself based on the first data set. By offloading the corresponding one or more operations, the processing load and heat generation of the corresponding one or more subsystems of the wearable device are reduced.

[0043] Additionally, the method 200 includes the set of one or more subsystems 115 - 1 through 115 -M based on one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 11 (0) to M 1M (0) to process the second data set (block 225). For example, in the AR viewer wearable device 110, the EVA subsystem 115-4 may receive the second data set via the data bus 135 and perform a late reprojection (LSR) process to correct the rendered second data set to match the latest pose data (because there is some time delay between the captured pose and the time when the second data set will be rendered by the display subsystem 115-3). The display subsystem 115-3 then displays the LSR-corrected second data set for viewing by the user. The thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 13 (0) A specific resolution and FPS (e.g., 1280×960 pixels) may be specified for displaying the LSR-corrected second data set. 2 , 480 Hz per eye). When processing and displaying the second data set, the power consumption of the wearable device 110 can be represented as P 02 Therefore, depending on the thermal unmitigated level, the wearable device 110 may consume energy equal to P0 and P 01 The total power P of the sum 02 (For example, P0 = P 01 +P 02 ).

[0044] The method 200 also includes the thermal controller 125 receiving one or more temperature signals T from the set of one or more skin temperature sensors 120-1 to 120-N, respectively. S1 To T SN Although this operation is shown as the sixth operation of the method 200, it should be understood that the thermal controller 125 may continuously receive one or more temperature signals T S1 To T SN Then, according to method 200, the thermal controller 125 generates a temperature signal based on one or more temperature signals T S1 To T SN The temperature signal T is a set of temperature signals that determine one or more thermal violations (eg, temperatures above corresponding thresholds) (block 235). S1 A skin temperature above a temperature threshold of 40°C may be indicated.

[0045] Furthermore, the method 200 includes the thermal controller 125 directing the set of one or more subsystems 115 - 1 through 115 -M to perform operations based on one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 11 (1) to M 1M(1) to perform a set of one or more operations (block 240). Considering again the example AR viewer wearable device 110, the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 11 (1) A specific FPS (e.g., 55 FPS) may be indicated for the 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1; the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 12 (1) may indicate a specific resolution of the video camera subsystem 115-2 (e.g., 800×600 pixels). 2 ); Thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 13 (1) may indicate a specific resolution of the display subsystem 115 - 3 (e.g., 640×480 pixels). 2 ); Thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 15 (1) The DSP subsystem 115-5 may be instructed to perform 40 percent (%) of the 6DOF processing (while the companion device 150 performs 60% of the 6DOF processing); and the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 17 (1) may indicate 60% output illumination power of the IR illumination subsystem 115-7. In general, the second set of one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters may be associated with reduced or limited operation (compared to normal or standard operation) of the corresponding subsystem, e.g., associated with operating the corresponding subsystem at a lower than nominal power level.

[0046] In addition, according to the method 200, the thermal controller 125 transmits the thermal mitigation level signal ML(j=1) to the companion device 150 via the communication interface 130 (block 245). As further discussed herein, the companion device 150 also throttles its operation and / or offloads processing from the wearable device 110 in response to the thermal mitigation level signal ML(j=1) indicating a higher thermal mitigation level.

[0047] Additionally, the method 200 includes the set of one or more subsystems 115 - 1 through 115 -M based on one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 11 (1) to M 1M (1) to perform a set of one or more operations (block 250). When performing the above operations, the power consumption of the wearable device 110 can be represented as P 11 It should be noted that based on one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 11 (1) to M 1M (1) to throttle (reduce) the operation of the set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M. Therefore, according to the power consumption P of the wearable device 110 at the mitigation level "1", 11 Less than the power consumption P according to the unmitigated level "0" 01 Therefore, the wearable device 110 generates less heat to keep the skin temperature or the temperature near the skin below a threshold value (eg, 40° C.), which may be more comfortable for the user.

[0048] The method 200 also includes the set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M generating a third set of data when performing the set of one or more operations as indicated in block 250 (block 255). For example, in the AR viewer wearable device 110, the 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1, the EVA subsystem 115-4, and the DSP subsystem 115-5 may collectively generate object pose (6DOF) data (third set of data) of objects of the scene captured by the 6DOF camera subsystem 115-1. In addition, the method 200 includes transmitting the third set of data to the companion device 150 via the communication interface 130 (block 260).

[0049] Then, according to method 200, the set of one or more subsystems 115-1 to 115-M receives a fourth data set from the companion device 150 via the communication interface 130 (box 265). The fourth data set may be based on the third data set. For example, in the case of an AR viewer wearable device 110, the fourth data set may include AR content associated with object pose data (third data set) of one or more detected objects. Since the companion device 150 has throttled its operation in response to receiving the thermal mitigation level signal ML (j=1) in box 245, the fourth data set is reduced compared to the second data set received from the companion device 150 in a thermally unmitigated state in accordance with box 220.

[0050] Additionally, the method 200 includes the set of one or more subsystems 115 - 1 through 115 -M based on one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M 11 (1) to M 1M (1) to process the fourth data set (block 270). As previously discussed, in the AR viewer wearable device 110, the EVA subsystem 115-4 may receive the fourth data set via the data bus 135 and perform a late reprojection (LSR) process to correct the rendered fourth data set to match the latest pose data. The display subsystem 115-3 then displays the LSR-corrected fourth data set for viewing by the user. The thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 13 (1) A specific resolution and FPS (e.g., 640×480 pixels) may be specified for displaying the LSR-corrected second data set. 2 , 240Hz per eye).

[0051] When processing and displaying the fourth data set, the power consumption of the wearable device 110 may be represented as P 12 When the fourth data set is reduced due to the throttling performed by the companion device 150, the power P 12 is less than the power P associated with processing and displaying the second data set in accordance with block 22502 Therefore, in mitigation level “1”, the wearable device 110 consumes energy equal to P 11 With P 12 The total power P1 (for example, P1 = P 11 +P 12 ), which is less than the total power P0 consumed in the thermal unmitigated level "0". This will reduce the skin temperature so that it is below the threshold for user comfort and safety.

[0052] Figure 3-1 and Figure 3-2 A flow chart illustrating an example method 300 of performing thermal management by a companion device 150 for the benefit of a wearable device 110 according to another aspect of the present disclosure.

[0053] The method 300 includes the set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K receiving a first data set from the wearable device 110 via the communication interface 155 (block 305). As previously discussed with respect to the AR viewer wearable device 110, the first data set may include object pose data from one or more objects detected by the wearable device 110. The method 300 also includes the set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K based on the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 21 (0) to M 2K (0) to process the first data set (block 310). With respect to the AR viewer example, the DSP subsystem 165-1 may process the first data set based on the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 21 (0) to perform a certain object pose (6DOF) processing on the first data set; the AR content subsystem 165-2 may be based on the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 22 (0) to add AR content based on the first data set; and the display rendering subsystem 165-3 may be based on the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 23 (0) to render and encode image signals or data containing AR content for sending back to the wearable device 110.

[0054] The set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K generates a second set of data when performing the set of one or more operations in accordance with block 310 (block 315). As discussed with respect to the AR viewer example, the DSP subsystem 165-1 may perform certain object pose (6DOF) processing of the first set of data; the AR content subsystem 165-2 may add AR content based on the first set of data; and the display rendering subsystem 165-3 may respectively perform the processing of the object pose (6DOF) of the first set of data; 21 (0) to M 23(0) to render and encode an image signal (a second data set) containing AR content for transmission back to the wearable device 110. In addition, the method 300 includes transmitting the second data set to the wearable device 110 via the communication interface 155 (block 320). Figure 1 As depicted, communication interface 155 can be coupled to data bus 170 to receive the second set of data and transmit the second set of data to wearable device 110 according to any transmission protocol (eg, Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular, etc.).

[0055] The method 300 further includes the thermal controller 160 receiving a thermal mitigation level signal ML(j=1) from the wearable device 110 via the communication interface 155 (block 325). As indicated by the level "j" of the thermal mitigation level signal ML(j) being one (1), the companion device 150 is informed of a thermal problem in the wearable device 110. In response to the thermal mitigation level signal ML(j=1), the thermal controller 160 directs the set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K to perform thermal mitigation based on one or more thermal mitigation solution parameters M 21 (1) to M 2K (1) to perform a set of one or more operations (block 330). Considering the AR viewer example, the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 21 (1) The DSP subsystem 165-1 may be specified to offload more object pose (6DOF) processing from the wearable device 110; the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 22 (1) The AR content subsystem 165-2 may be specified to add less AR content to the image signal or data to be transmitted to the wearable device 110 (e.g., by ignoring one or more detected objects); and the thermal mitigation scheme parameter M 23 (1) The display rendering subsystem 165 - 3 may be specified to reduce the resolution and / or FPS associated with the image signal or data to be transmitted to the wearable device 110 .

[0056] In addition, the method 300 includes the set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K receiving a third data set from the wearable device 110 via the communication interface 155 (block 335). With respect to the AR viewer example, the third data set may include object pose data from one or more objects detected by the wearable device 110 at a later time (e.g., after the thermal mitigation level is changed from j=0 to j=1). The method 300 also includes the set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K based on the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters M. 21 (1) to M 2K(1) to process the third data set (block 340). As previously discussed, this may require the DSP subsystem 165-1 to perform more object pose (6DOF) processing to offload some of the processing from the wearable device 110; the AR content subsystem 165-2 to add (albeit less) AR content (e.g., by ignoring one or more detected objects) to the image signal to be transmitted to the wearable device 110; and the display rendering subsystem 165-3 to render the image signal or data including the AR content at a reduced resolution and / or FPS.

[0057] In addition, the method 300 includes the set of one or more subsystems 165-1 to 165-K generating a fourth data set when performing the set of one or more operations in accordance with block 340 (block 345). Finally, the method 300 includes transmitting the fourth data set to the wearable device 110 via the communication interface 155 (block 350). As previously discussed, the amount of data in the fourth data set generated during the thermal mitigation level ML(1) may be less than the amount of data in the second data set generated during the thermal mitigation level ML(0). Therefore, the wearable device 110 consumes less power when processing the fourth data set, which helps reduce the heat generated by the wearable device 110 so that the skin temperature or the temperature near the skin is reduced below the threshold.

[0058] Figure 4 A perspective view of example augmented reality (AR) glasses 400 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. As previously discussed, the AR glasses 400 are an example of a wearable device 110. In addition, as previously mentioned, it should be understood that the wearable devices described herein can take many different forms, such as fitness measurement and tracking devices, health monitoring devices, medical treatment management devices, smart watches, headphones, etc.

[0059] The AR glasses 400 include a set of skin temperature sensors 405, 410, and 415. The skin temperature sensor 405 may be positioned on the right temple side of the AR glasses 400. The skin temperature sensor 410 may be positioned on the left temple side of the AR glasses 400. The skin temperature sensor 415 may be positioned on the inner nose bridge of the AR glasses 400.

[0060] The AR glasses 400 also include a right 6DOF camera 420 and a left 6DOF camera 425 pointing generally forward and located on the outer right and left edges, respectively, near the right and left hinges of the AR glasses 400. The AR glasses 400 also include a right infrared (IR) LED 430 and a left infrared (IR) LED 435 also pointing generally forward and located on the outer right and left edges, respectively, below the right 6DOF camera 420 and the left 6DOF camera 425. In addition, the AR glasses 400 include a video (e.g., red, green, blue (RGB)) camera 440 pointing generally forward and located on the outer nose bridge of the AR glasses 400.

[0061] For eye tracking, the AR glasses 400 include a right eye tracking camera 445 and a left eye tracking camera 450 that point in the direction of the right eye and the left eye of the user when the AR glasses are worn and are located on the inner side of the beam of the right edge and the left edge, respectively. In addition, the AR glasses 400 include a right infrared (IR) LED ring (e.g., LEDs connected in series or in parallel) 455 and a left infrared (IR) LED ring 460 for illuminating the right eye area and the left eye area of ​​the user when the AR glasses are worn and are located along the inner surface of the right edge and the left edge, respectively. The AR glasses 400 include a right display lens 465 and a left display lens 470. It should be understood that the aforementioned components, placements, and orientations are merely examples, and this configuration of the AR glasses can take many different forms.

[0062] Figure 5A A block diagram of example augmented reality (AR) glasses 500 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. The AR glasses 500 may be a hardware / functional example of the previously discussed AR glasses 400. In addition, the AR glasses 500 are based on the previously discussed wearable device 110.

[0063] Specifically, the AR glasses 500 include a 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1, a video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2, a display subsystem 515-3, an EVA (object detection and late reprojection (LSR) processing) hardware accelerator subsystem 515-4, an eye tracking camera subsystem 515-5, and a DSP (or DPU) subsystem 520. The AR glasses 500 may also include a set of junction temperature sensors 525-1, 525-2, and 525-3 (e.g., three (3) in this example, but may include more or less) located at various locations (e.g., hot spots) within the SOC (e.g., near the DSP core 520, the EVA core 515-4, etc.).

[0064] From the perspective of power rails, the AR glasses 500 include a multimedia power (supply voltage) rail Vmm coupled to the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1, the video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2, the display subsystem 515-3, the EVA (object detection and late reprojection (LSR) processing) hardware accelerator subsystem 515-4, and the eye tracking camera subsystem 515-5. In this example, the AR glasses 500 include a separate power (supply voltage) rail Vdsp coupled to the DSP subsystem 520. From the perspective of data exchange, the AR glasses 500 include a data bus 530 coupled to the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1, the video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2, the display subsystem 515-3, the EVA (object detection and late reprojection (LSR) processing) hardware accelerator subsystem 515-4, the eye tracking camera subsystem 515-5, and the DSP subsystem 520.

[0065] The AR glasses 500 also include an infrared (IR) illumination subsystem 540 coupled to its own power (supply voltage) rail Vir. In addition, the AR glasses 500 include a communication interface 560 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular, etc.) for communicating with companion devices as previously discussed. The communication interface 560 is coupled to the data bus 530 for receiving data therefrom and providing data thereto.

[0066] In addition, the AR glasses 500 include a thermal controller 550 that includes a thermal violation detector 552 and a thermal mitigator 554. In addition, the AR glasses 500 include a set of skin temperature sensors 555-1 to 555-3 (e.g., three (3) in this example, but may include more or less). For example, the temperature sensor 555-1 may be positioned on the right temple side of the AR glasses 500, the temperature sensor 555-2 may be positioned on the left temple side of the AR glasses 500, and the temperature sensor 555-3 may be positioned on the bridge of the nose of the AR glasses 500, as previously discussed with reference to the AR glasses 400.

[0067] The thermal violation detector 552 of the thermal controller 550 includes a plurality of thermal sensors coupled to the surface temperature sensors 555-1 to 555-3 and the junction temperature sensors 525-1 to 525-3 to receive the temperature signals T generated by the sensors, respectively. S1 To T S6 The thermal violation detector 552 is configured to detect the temperature based on the temperature signal T S1 To T S6 and a set of one or more temperature thresholds to generate a thermal mitigation level signal ML(x).

[0068] For example, as discussed further herein, if the temperature signal T S1 To TS6 If the skin (glass temple) temperature signal T S1 and T S2 If one or both of the skin (nose bridge) temperature signal T exceeds a first (e.g., minimum) temperature threshold TH1 (e.g., 40° C.), the thermal violation detector 552 may set the thermal mitigation level signal to ML(1) indicating a first (aggressive) thermal mitigation level. S3 If a second (eg, second low) temperature threshold TH2 (eg, 45° C.) is exceeded, the thermal violation detector 552 may set the thermal mitigation level signal to ML(2) indicating a second (aggressive) thermal mitigation level. S4 ) exceeds a third (e.g., third lowest) temperature threshold TH3 (e.g., 70° C.), the thermal violation detector 552 may set the thermal mitigation level signal to ML(3) indicating a third (aggressive) thermal mitigation level. It should be understood that the above thermal mitigation levels and corresponding temperature thresholds are merely examples and may be set differently depending on the thermal management strategy. In some aspects, a higher thermal mitigation level may indicate a more aggressive thermal mitigation level. For example, setting the thermal mitigation level signal to ML(3) may result in more aggressive thermal mitigation than setting the thermal mitigation level signal to ML(2), where more aggressive thermal mitigation may, for example, involve offloading a larger portion of processing, throttling additional operations, and / or even more reducing certain operations.

[0069] The thermal violation detector 552 includes an input coupled to a thermal mitigator 554 and an output of a communication interface 560 at which a thermal mitigation level signal ML(x) is generated. The thermal mitigator 554 is configured to generate a wearable device (primary) thermal mitigation technique or scheme signal MPT(x) based on the thermal mitigation level signal ML(x). The thermal mitigator 554 includes an output coupled to a 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1, a video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2, a display subsystem 515-3, an EVA (object detection and post-reprojection (LSR) processing) hardware accelerator subsystem 515-4, an eye tracking camera subsystem 515-5, a DSP subsystem 520, and an IR illumination subsystem 540 at which a primary thermal mitigation scheme signal MPT(x) is generated.

[0070] Figure 5B A table illustrating an example primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(x) applied in augmented reality (AR) glasses 500 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is shown. The table includes seven (7) rows and six (6) columns.

[0071] From left to right, the first column represents the thermal mitigation level ML(x) and the corresponding primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(0) to MPT(5), which, for example, includes a set of thermal mitigation scheme parameters, where x may indicate a mitigation level index. The second column represents an example primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(0) to MPT(5) applied to the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1. The third column represents an example primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(0) to MPT(5) applied to the video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2. The fourth column represents an example primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(0) to MPT(5) applied to the display subsystem 515-3. The fifth column represents an example primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(0) to MPT(5) applied to the DSP subsystem 520. The sixth column represents an example primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(0) to MPT(5) applied to the IR illumination subsystem 540.

[0072] For example, regarding the unmitigated thermal level ML(0), the corresponding primary thermal unmitigated solution MPT(0) includes: operating the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1 at 81 FPS for both right and left cameras (x2); 2 The video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 operates in stereo (S) at a frame rate of 48 Hertz (Hz); at a resolution of 1280 × 960 pixels 2 The display subsystem 515-3 is operated at a frame rate of 480 Hz with a resolution of 480 Hz; the DSP subsystem 520 is operated to perform 6DOF processing; and the IR illumination subsystem 540 is operated in a normal manner (e.g., all IR LEDs are enabled and illumination power is at a normal level).

[0073] Regarding thermal mitigation level ML(1), the corresponding primary thermal mitigation solution MPT(1) includes: operating the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1 at 55 FPS for both right and left cameras (x2); 2 The video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 operates in stereo (S) at a frame rate of 48 Hz; the video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 operates in stereo (S) at a resolution of 1280 × 960 pixels at a frame rate of 48 Hz; 2 The display subsystem 515-3 is operated at a frame rate of 480 Hz at a resolution of 480 Hz; the DSP subsystem 520 is operated to perform 6DOF processing; and the IR illumination subsystem 540 is operated in a normal manner (e.g., all IR LEDs are enabled and the illumination power is at a normal level). It should be noted that the first primary thermal mitigation scheme, MPT(1), can be the least aggressive mitigation scheme, where in this example, operation of the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1 is throttled (e.g., to 55 FPS for MPT(1) compared to 81 FPS for MPT(0)).

[0074] Regarding thermal mitigation level ML(2), the corresponding primary thermal mitigation solution MPT(2) includes: operating the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1 at 34 FPS for both right and left cameras (x2); 2 The video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 operates in mono (S) at a frame rate of 48 Hz; at a resolution of 1280 × 960 pixels 2 The display subsystem 515-3 is operated at a frame rate of 480 Hz at a resolution of 480 Hz; the DSP subsystem 520 is operated to perform 6DOF processing; and the IR illumination subsystem 540 is operated in a normal manner (e.g., all IR LEDs are enabled and the illumination power is at a normal level). It should be noted that the second primary thermal mitigation scheme, MPT(2), can be more aggressive than the first primary thermal mitigation scheme, MPT(1), where in this example, the operation of the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1 is further throttled (e.g., 34 FPS for MPT(2) compared to 55 FPS for MPT(1)); and additionally, the operation of the video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 is also throttled (e.g., mono video capture for MPT(2) compared to stereo video capture for MPT(1)).

[0075] Skipping to thermal mitigation level ML (4), the corresponding main thermal mitigation solution MPT (4) includes: operating the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1 at 15 FPS for both right and left cameras (x2); 2 The video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 operates in stereo (S) at a frame rate of 15 Hz; the video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 operates in stereo (S) at a resolution of 640 × 480 pixels at a frame rate of 15 Hz; 2 The display subsystem 515-3 is operated at a frame rate of 240 Hz at a resolution of 480 Hz; the DSP subsystem 520 is operated to offload at least a portion of the 6DOF processing (which is performed in the other mitigation levels MPT(0) through MPT(3)); and the IR illumination subsystem 540 is operated in a normal manner (e.g., all IR LEDs are enabled and illumination power is at a normal level). It should be noted that the fourth primary thermal mitigation scheme, MPT(4), can be significantly more aggressive than the second primary thermal mitigation scheme, MPT(2), where in this example, the operation of the 6DOF camera subsystem 515-1 is further throttled (e.g., to 15 FPS for MPT(4) compared to 34 FPS for MPT(2); the operation of the video (RGB) camera subsystem 515-2 is also throttled (e.g., to 1600×1200 pixels in mono (M) at a frame rate of 48 Hz compared to MPT(2)). 2 In comparison, for MPT (4) 800 × 600 pixels in stereo (S) at a frame rate of 15 Hz 2); and the operation of the DSP subsystem 520 is throttled when it offloads at least some 6DOF processing to a companion device.

[0076] Other exemplary primary thermal mitigation schemes MPT(3) and MPT(5) are explained in the table. It should be understood that these thermal mitigation schemes are merely examples and that the schemes employed may vary significantly based on the thermal management strategy employed.

[0077] Fig. 6A A block diagram of an example companion device 600 relative to an example augmented reality (AR) glasses 500 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. The companion device 600 may be a hardware / functional example of a companion device used when executing an AR application in conjunction with the previously discussed AR glasses 500. Additionally, the companion device 600 is based on the previously discussed companion device 150.

[0078] Specifically, the supporting device 600 includes a communication interface 610 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular, etc.) for communicating with the AR glasses 500 (such as receiving object-related data and thermal mitigation level ML(x) information from the AR glasses 500, and providing display rendering data to the AR glasses 500). In addition, the supporting device 600 includes a thermal controller 620, which is coupled to the communication interface 610 to receive the thermal mitigation level ML(x) from the AR glasses 500. The thermal controller 620 is configured to generate an auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(x) based on the thermal mitigation level ML(x).

[0079] In addition, the supporting device 600 includes a DSP (or DPU) subsystem 625-1, an AR content generator subsystem 625-2, and a display rendering subsystem 625-3. As previously discussed, the DSP subsystem 625-1 can receive object pose (6DOF) data from the AR glasses 500 via the communication interface 610 and the data bus 630, and can perform additional object pose (6DOF) processing on the data. The AR content generator subsystem 625-2 can generate AR content based on the object pose (6DOF) data received from the AR glasses 500 via the data bus 630 and / or additionally processed by the DSP subsystem 625-1. The display rendering subsystem 625-3 can receive AR content from the AR content generator 625-2 via the data bus 630, and generate an image signal or data including the AR content. The image signal is then transmitted to the AR glasses 500 via the data bus 630 and the communication interface 610 for further processing and display.

[0080] Regarding thermal management, the thermal controller 620 is configured to control the operation of the DSP subsystem 625-1, the AR content generator 625-2 and / or the display rendering subsystem 625-3 based on an auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(x) corresponding to a thermal mitigation level ML(x) received from the AR glasses 500 via the communication interface 610.

[0081] Figure 6B A table illustrating an example auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme applied by companion device 600 for the benefit of AR glasses 500 according to another aspect of the present disclosure. The table includes seven (7) rows and four (4) columns.

[0082] From left to right, the first column represents the thermal mitigation level ML(x) and the corresponding auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(0) to MST(5), which, for example, includes a set of thermal mitigation scheme parameters, where x may indicate a mitigation level index. The second column represents an example auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(0) to MST(5) applied to the DSP subsystem 625-1. The third column represents an example auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(0) to MST(5) applied to the AR content generator subsystem 625-2. The fourth column represents an example auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(0) to MST(5) applied to the display rendering subsystem 625-3.

[0083] For example, with respect to the unmitigated thermal level ML(0), the corresponding auxiliary thermal unmitigated scheme MPT(0) includes: operating the DSP subsystem 625-1 so that it does not perform object pose (6DOF) processing or at a level consistent with the absence of thermal issues associated with the AR glasses 500 (e.g., 6DOF processing is not offloaded from the AR glasses 500); operating the AR content generator subsystem 625-2 to generate AR content based on all detected objects as indicated in data received from the AR glasses 500; and operating the display rendering subsystem 625-3 to display the AR content at 1280×960 pixels at a frame rate of 480 Hz. 2 to generate image signals for the AR glasses 500.

[0084] With respect to thermal mitigation level ML(1), the corresponding auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(1) includes operating the AR content generator subsystem 625-2 to reduce the AR content by a first level (e.g., ignoring one (1) or 10% of the detected objects for the purpose of generating AR content). Operation of the DSP subsystem 625-1 and the display rendering subsystem 625-3 may be performed at thermal mitigation level ML(0). Since there is less AR content in the image signal or data, the AR glasses 500 perform less processing on the image signal compared to ML(0) to reduce power consumption and heat generation.

[0085] Jumping to thermal mitigation level ML(3), the corresponding auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(3) includes operating the AR content generator subsystem 625-2 to further reduce the AR content by a second level (e.g., ignoring two (2) or 20% of the detected objects for the purpose of generating AR content); and the display rendering subsystem 625-3 reducing the resolution and frame rate of the image signal to 640×480 pixels. 2 and 240 Hz. The operation of the DSP subsystem 625-1 may be performed at the thermal mitigation level ML(0). Since there is less AR content in the image signal and the resolution and frame rate of the image signal are lower, the AR glasses 500 perform less processing on the image signal compared to ML(1) to further reduce power consumption and heat generation.

[0086] Jumping to thermal mitigation level ML(5), the corresponding auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(5) includes operating the DSP subsystem 625-1 to offload (i.e., take over from the wearable device) at least a portion of the object pose (6DOF) processing performed by the AR glasses 500; and the operation of the AR content generator subsystem 625-2 further reduces the AR content by a third level (e.g., ignoring four (4) or 40% of the detected objects for the purpose of generating AR content). The operation of the display rendering subsystem 625-3 can be performed in accordance with thermal mitigation level ML(3). Because the DSP subsystem 625-1 has offloaded some 6DOF processing from the AR glasses 500 and there is less AR content in the image signal, the AR glasses 500 performs less processing on the image signal compared to ML(3) to further reduce power consumption and heat generation.

[0087] Other exemplary primary thermal mitigation schemes MST(2) and MST(4) are explained in the table. It should be understood that these thermal mitigation schemes are merely examples and that the schemes employed may vary significantly based on the thermal management strategy employed.

[0088] Figure 7 A flowchart of an example method 700 of performing thermal mitigation on behalf of a wearable device by a wearable device and a companion device according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. The method 700 includes: a first memory (e.g., non-volatile memory or flash memory), which may reside in the wearable device, including a set of predefined thermal mitigation levels ML(x), x=1,2,3..., including a corresponding set of thermal mitigation scheme parameters, and a set of predefined primary thermal mitigation schemes MPT(x), x=1,2,3...; and a second memory (e.g., non-volatile memory or flash memory), which may reside in the companion device, including a set of predefined auxiliary thermal mitigation schemes MST(x), x=1,2,3..., including a corresponding set of thermal mitigation scheme parameters (block 710).

[0089] The method 700 also includes a thermal controller, which may reside in the wearable device, monitoring the temperature T S1 To T SL As previously discussed, the temperature signal T S1 To T SL Some of the set of may be generated by a skin temperature sensor, for example, residing in a printed circuit board (PCB) in a wearable device. S1 To T SL Others of the set may be generated, for example, by junction temperature sensors residing in one or more integrated circuits (ICs) (e.g., a system on a chip (SOC)) of the wearable device. Subsequently, according to method 700, the thermal controller determines whether thermal mitigation is required (e.g., whether x of ML(x) is greater than zero (0)) (block 730).

[0090] If, in block 730 , the thermal controller determines that thermal mitigation is not required (x=0), the thermal controller continues to monitor the temperature signal T as per block 720 S1 To T SL On the other hand, if in block 730 the thermal controller determines that thermal mitigation is required, the wearable device transmits the thermal mitigation level ML(x) to the companion device (block 740). In addition, the wearable device or the thermal controller applies a corresponding primary thermal mitigation scheme MPT(x) (block 750), and the companion device (or its thermal controller) applies a corresponding secondary thermal mitigation scheme MST(x) (block 760).

[0091] The method 700 may also include the wearable device transmitting metadata of the thermal mitigation applied at the wearable device to the companion device (block 770). For example, the metadata may inform the companion device of one or more of the following, depending on the thermal mitigation applied: the resolution and FPS of the camera subsystem have been reduced to certain settings, the FPS of the video camera has been reduced to another setting, the FPS and resolution of the display have been reduced to lower settings, and certain subroutines of the 6DOF processing are being offloaded to the companion device. The metadata informs the companion device of the thermal mitigation applied in the wearable device so that the companion device can associate its thermal mitigation with the thermal mitigation of the wearable device. Referring to the wearable device 110, the thermal controller 125 may transmit the metadata to the companion device 150 (e.g., specifically, to its thermal controller 160) via the communication interface 130.

[0092] In addition, method 700 may also include the companion device transmitting metadata of thermal mitigation applied at the companion device to the wearable device (box 780). For example, the metadata may notify the wearable device of one or more of the following based on the thermal mitigation applied: an offload subroutine for 6DOF processing performed by the companion device, the amount of AR content generated is reduced to a certain level, and the FPS and resolution of the rendered image signal transmitted to the wearable device have been reduced to a lower setting. The metadata notifies the wearable device of the thermal mitigation applied in the companion device so that the wearable device can associate its thermal mitigation with the thermal mitigation of the companion device. Referring to companion device 150, thermal controller 160 may transmit the metadata to wearable device 110 (e.g., specifically, to its thermal controller 125) via communication interface 155. Method 700 may then continue back to box 720 for the thermal controller to continue monitoring temperature signal T S1 To T SL A collection of .

[0093] Figure 8 A block diagram of another example wearable device 800 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. The wearable device 800 is a variation of the wearable device 500 previously discussed. Specifically, the wearable device 800 includes a 6DOF camera subsystem 815-1, a video (RGB) camera subsystem 815-2, a display subsystem 815-3, an EVA (object detection and LSR processing) hardware accelerator subsystem 815-4, an eye tracking camera subsystem 815-5, and a DSP subsystem 820, all data coupled together via a data bus 830. Subsystems 815-1 to 815-5 can be coupled to the same power (supply voltage) rail Vmm. The DSP subsystem 820 can be coupled to different power (supply voltage) rails Vdsp. The operation of the above subsystems has been discussed in detail above.

[0094] The wearable device 800 may include a set of junction temperature sensors 825 configured to generate a temperature signal T indicative of the temperature of various subsystems (or cores) of the SOC. S4 To T S6 The wearable device 800 may also include a central processing unit (CPU) 835 for running user applications (e.g., a vehicle driving augmented reality (AR) application, a sports AR application, an educational AR application, a gaming AR application, etc.). The CPU 835 may be data coupled to the data bus 830. In addition, the CPU 835 may be coupled to different power (supply voltage) rails Vcpu. In addition, the CPU 835 may be configured to generate information app_info about the current user application being run.

[0095] The wearable device 800 also includes an IR illumination subsystem 840 coupled to a different power (supply voltage) rail Vir. The operation of the IR illumination subsystem 840 has been discussed in detail previously. In addition, the wearable device 800 includes skin temperature sensors 855-1 to 855-3 (three (3) in this example, but may be more or less), which are configured to generate temperature signals T S1 To T S3 In addition, the wearable device 800 includes a communication interface 860 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular, etc.) configured to communicate with a companion device as previously discussed. The communication interface 860 can be coupled to the data bus 830 for receiving data therefrom and providing data thereto.

[0096] The wearable device 800 includes a thermal controller 850, which includes a dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 and a dynamic thermal mitigation component 854. The dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 includes a set of inputs configured to receive a skin temperature signal T S1 To T S3 The collection and junction temperature signal T S4 To T S6 The dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 also includes an input configured to receive user application information app_info. Therefore, the dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 is configured to detect the temperature based on the temperature signal T S1 To T S6 The dynamic thermal mitigation level ML(x) is generated by using the user application information app_info, as further discussed herein. As shown, the dynamic thermal mitigation level ML(x) may be provided to the communication interface 860 for transmission to a companion device.

[0097] The dynamic thermal mitigation component 854 in turn includes a first input configured to receive a thermal mitigation level ML(x) from the dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 and a second input configured to receive user application information app_info. The dynamic thermal mitigation component 854 is configured to generate a dynamic primary thermal mitigation solution MPT(x), as further discussed herein. The dynamic primary thermal mitigation solution MPT(x) is provided to the various subsystems 815-1 to 815-5, the DSP 820, the CPU 835, and the IR lighting 840. As shown, the user application information app_info is provided to the communication interface 860 for transmission to a companion device.

[0098] The dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 can employ machine learning to dynamically generate a thermal mitigation level ML(x) based on the specific application being run by the CPU 835 and how the user is interacting with the application (as indicated by the user application information app_info). For example, the dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 can generate a thermal mitigation level ML(x) based on the current application and user activity. S1 To T S6 For example, the dynamic thermal violation detection component 852 may reduce or increase the thermal mitigation level ML(x) when generating the thermal mitigation level ML(x). S1 To T S6 The associated threshold.

[0099] Similarly, the dynamic thermal mitigation component 854 may employ machine learning to dynamically generate a primary thermal mitigation solution MPT(x) based on the specific application being run by the CPU 835 and how the user is interacting with the application (as indicated by the user application information app_info). For example, the dynamic thermal mitigation component 854 may understand which one or more subsystems to throttle and the degree to which the subsystems are to be throttled based on the specific application being run by the CPU 835 and how the user is interacting with the application. For example, thermal mitigation may be in descending order of the amount of heat that can be mitigated by each subsystem. Additionally, thermal mitigation may be in increasing order of impact on the user experience. For example, reducing the resolution of the display subsystem 815-3 may have less impact on the user experience than disabling one of the displays.

[0100] Fig. 9 A block diagram of another example companion device 900 relative to the wearable device 800 according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. The companion device 900 is a variation of the companion device 600 discussed previously. Specifically, the companion device 900 includes a communication interface 910 (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, USB, cellular, etc.), a dynamic thermal controller 920, a DSP (or DPU) subsystem 925-1, an AR content generator 925-2, and a display rendering subsystem 925-3. The companion device 900 also includes a data bus 930, which is data coupled to the DSP subsystem 925-1, the AR content generator subsystem 925-2, the display rendering subsystem 925-3, and the communication interface 910.

[0101] For dynamic thermal management on behalf of the wearable device 800, the dynamic thermal controller 920 is configured to receive a dynamic thermal mitigation level ML(x) and user application information app_info from the wearable device 800 via the communication interface 910. The dynamic thermal controller 920 may employ machine learning to generate a dynamic auxiliary thermal mitigation scheme MST(x) based on the dynamic thermal mitigation level ML(x) and the user application information app_info.

[0102] Similarly, the dynamic thermal controller 920 may know which subsystem or subsystems to throttle and the degree to which to throttle the subsystems based on the specific application being run by the CPU 835 and how the user is interacting with the application. For example, thermal mitigation may be in descending order of the amount of heat that can be mitigated by each subsystem. Additionally, thermal mitigation may be in increasing order of impact on the user experience.

[0103] Fig.10 1 is a block diagram of another example wearable device 1000 according to another aspect of the present disclosure. The wearable device 1000 includes a device configured to generate one or more temperature signals T indicating one or more temperatures. S The wearable device 1010 further includes a thermal controller 1020 configured to detect temperature changes based on the one or more temperature signals T S The wearable device 1000 generates a signal indicating a thermal mitigation level ML based on a first set of signals. In addition, the wearable device 1000 includes a set of one or more subsystems 1030 configured to perform one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal ML. Furthermore, the wearable device 1000 includes a communication interface 1040 configured to transmit the thermal mitigation level signal ML to a companion device.

[0104] Fig.11 A flow chart illustrating an example method 1100 for applying thermal management at a wearable device according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. The method 1100 includes generating a first set of one or more temperature signals indicating one or more temperatures (block 1110). The method 1100 also includes generating a signal indicating a thermal mitigation level based on the first set of one or more temperature signals (block 1120). Additionally, the method 1100 includes performing one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal (block 1130). And, the method 1100 includes transmitting the thermal mitigation level signal to a companion device (block 1140).

[0105] Fig.12A block diagram of another example companion device 1200 relative to a wearable device according to another aspect of the present disclosure is illustrated. The companion device 1200 includes a communication interface 1210 configured to receive at least one of a thermal mitigation level signal ML or one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters MST and a first data set from the wearable device. The companion device 1200 also includes a thermal controller 1220 configured to generate a thermal mitigation scheme MST based on the thermal mitigation level signal ML or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters MSTP for the benefit of the wearable device. Furthermore, the companion device 1200 includes a first set of one or more subsystems 1230 configured to generate a second data set based on the first data set and the thermal mitigation scheme MST, wherein the second data set is transmitted to the wearable device via the communication interface 1210.

[0106] Fig.13 A flow chart illustrating an example method 1300 for providing thermal management for the benefit of a wearable device in accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure. The method 1300 includes receiving a thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters and a first data set from a wearable device (block 1310). The method 1300 also includes generating a thermal mitigation scheme based on the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters for the benefit of the wearable device (block 1320). Additionally, the method 1300 includes generating a second data set based on the first data set and the thermal mitigation scheme (block 1330). And, the method 1300 includes transmitting the second data set to the wearable device (block 1340).

[0107] A processor may be used to implement some of the components described herein, such as one or more of the subsystems, thermal controllers, and communication interfaces. As used herein, a processor may be any dedicated circuit, processor-based hardware, a processing core of a system on a chip (SOC), etc. Hardware examples of processors may include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), state machines, gate logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform various functionalities described throughout this disclosure.

[0108] The processor may be coupled to a memory (e.g., typically a computer-readable medium or media) such as a magnetic storage device (e.g., a hard disk, a floppy disk, a magnetic stripe), an optical disk (e.g., a compact disc (CD) or a digital versatile disc (DVD)), a smart card, a flash memory device (e.g., a card, stick, or key drive), a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), registers, a removable disk, and any other suitable medium for storing software and / or instructions that can be accessed and read by a computer. The memory may store computer executable code (e.g., software). Software should be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, codes, code segments, program code, programs, subroutines, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executable files, threads of execution, procedures / processes, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.

[0109] The following provides an overview of various aspects of the disclosure:

[0110] Aspect 1: A wearable device, comprising: a set of one or more temperature sensors, the set of one or more temperature sensors being configured to generate a first set of one or more temperature signals indicating one or more temperatures; a thermal controller, the thermal controller being configured to generate a signal indicating a thermal mitigation level based on the first set of one or more temperature signals; a set of one or more subsystems, the set of one or more subsystems being configured to perform one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal; and a communication interface, the communication interface being configured to transmit the thermal mitigation level signal to a companion device.

[0111] Aspect 2: A wearable device according to Aspect 1, wherein the thermal controller is configured to increase the thermal mitigation level to a first mitigation level above the unmitigated level in response to a first set of the one or more temperature signals indicating that one or more temperatures rise above one or more temperature thresholds.

[0112] Aspect 3: A wearable device according to Aspect 2, wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to throttle the one or more operations in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating that the thermal mitigation level is higher than the unmitigated level, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations is related to the throttling performed by the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal.

[0113] Aspect 4: The wearable device according to aspect 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a camera subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the camera subsystem includes reducing the frames per second (FPS) of captured images.

[0114] Aspect 5: The wearable device of aspect 3 or 4, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a camera subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the camera subsystem includes reducing the resolution of an image being captured.

[0115] Aspect 6: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 5, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a camera subsystem, the camera subsystem includes a set of cameras, and the throttling of the one or more operations of the camera subsystem includes disabling one or more of the set of cameras.

[0116] Aspect 7: A wearable device according to any one of aspects 3 to 6, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) object pose camera subsystem.

[0117] Aspect 8: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 7, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a video camera subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the video camera subsystem includes reducing the frames per second (FPS) of captured images.

[0118] Aspect 9: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 8, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a display subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display subsystem includes reducing the frames per second (FPS) of a rendered image.

[0119] Aspect 10: A wearable device according to any one of aspects 3 to 9, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a display subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display subsystem includes reducing the brightness of the display subsystem.

[0120] Aspect 11: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 10, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a display subsystem, the display subsystem includes a set of displays, and wherein the moderation of the one or more operations of the display subsystem includes disabling one or more of the set of displays.

[0121] Aspect 12: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 11, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes an infrared (IR) illumination subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the IR illumination subsystem includes reducing the brightness of IR emissions from the IR illumination subsystem.

[0122] Aspect 13: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 12, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes an infrared (IR) illumination subsystem, the infrared (IR) illumination subsystem includes a set of light emitting diodes (LEDs), wherein the moderation of the one or more operations of the IR illumination subsystem includes disabling one or more of the set of LEDs.

[0123] Aspect 14: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 11, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes an infrared (IR) illumination subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the IR illumination subsystem includes disabling the IR illumination subsystem.

[0124] Aspect 15: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 14, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a camera subsystem and a digital signal processing (DSP) subsystem, wherein the DSP subsystem is configured to process an image signal received from the camera subsystem, and wherein the moderation of one or more operations includes offloading at least a portion of the image signal processing to the companion device or jumping at least the portion of the image signal processing between the DSP subsystem and the companion device.

[0125] Aspect 16: The wearable device according to Aspect 15, wherein the image signal processing includes object posture six degrees of freedom (6DOF) image processing.

[0126] Aspect 17: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 16, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a display subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display subsystem includes displaying fewer images due to reduced image data received from the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal transmitted to the companion device.

[0127] Aspect 18: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 17, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a late reprojection (LSR) processing subsystem, wherein the moderation of the one or more operations of the LSR processing subsystem includes performing less LSR processing due to reduced image data received from the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal transmitted to the companion device.

[0128] Aspect 19: A wearable device according to any one of aspects 3 to 18, wherein the thermal controller is configured to transmit metadata related to the moderation of the one or more operations to the companion device via the communication interface.

[0129] Aspect 20: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 3 to 19, wherein the thermal controller is configured to receive metadata related to throttling of one or more operations at the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal from the companion device via the communication interface.

[0130] Aspect 21: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 1 to 20, wherein the thermal controller is configured to increase the thermal mitigation level to a second thermal mitigation level that is higher than the first thermal mitigation level in response to a first set of the one or more temperature signals indicating that one or more additional temperatures rise above one or more additional temperature thresholds.

[0131] Aspect 22: The wearable device of aspect 19, wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to apply more moderation of the one or more operations in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating that the elevated thermal mitigation level is higher than the other thermal mitigation level.

[0132] Aspect 23: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 1 to 22, wherein the first set of one or more temperature signals indicates one or more skin temperatures of a user, and further includes a second set of one or more temperature sensors, wherein the second set of one or more temperature sensors is configured to generate a second set of one or more temperature signals indicating one or more junction temperatures of an integrated circuit (IC) that includes at least a portion of the set of one or more subsystems.

[0133] Aspect 24: A wearable device according to Aspect 23, wherein the thermal controller is configured to increase the thermal mitigation level to a second thermal mitigation level higher than the first thermal mitigation level in response to a second set of the one or more temperature signals indicating that one or more node temperatures rise above one or more temperature thresholds.

[0134] Aspect 25: A wearable device according to Aspect 24, wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to, in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating the second thermal mitigation level, apply more moderation of the one or more operations than the moderation of the one or more operations applied in response to the thermal mitigation level indicating the first mitigation level.

[0135] Aspect 26: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 1 to 25, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a processor configured to run a user application, wherein the thermal controller is configured to dynamically generate the thermal mitigation level based on a first set of one or more temperature signals and information associated with the user application.

[0136] Aspect 27: A wearable device according to any one of Aspects 1 to 26, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a processor configured to run a user application, and wherein the thermal controller is configured to dynamically set a thermal mitigation scheme for the set of one or more subsystems based on a first set of one or more temperature signals and information associated with the user application.

[0137] Aspect 28: The wearable device of aspect 27, wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to throttle the one or more operations based on the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme.

[0138] Aspect 29: The wearable device of aspect 28, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in decreasing order of the amount of heat that can be mitigated by each of the set of one or more subsystems.

[0139] Aspect 30: The wearable device of aspect 28 or 29, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in increasing order of impact on user experience.

[0140] Aspect 31: A method for applying thermal management at a wearable device, the method comprising: generating a first set of one or more temperature signals indicating one or more temperatures; generating a signal indicating a thermal mitigation level based on the first set of one or more temperature signals; performing one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal; and transmitting the thermal mitigation level signal to a companion device.

[0141] Aspect 32: A companion device for a wearable device, the companion device comprising: a companion device for a wearable device, the companion device comprising: a communication interface, the communication interface being configured to receive a thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters and a first data set from the wearable device; a thermal controller, the thermal controller being configured to generate a thermal mitigation scheme based on the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters for the benefit of the wearable device; and a first set of one or more subsystems, the first set of one or more subsystems being configured to generate a second data set based on the first data set and the thermal mitigation scheme or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters, wherein the second data set is transmitted to the wearable device via the communication interface.

[0142] Aspect 33: A companion device according to Aspect 32, wherein the first data set includes image data, wherein the first set of the one or more subsystems includes a digital signal processing (DSP) subsystem, and wherein the DSP subsystem is configured to offload image processing of the first data set from the wearable device based on the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters.

[0143] Aspect 34: A companion device according to Aspect 33, wherein the offloaded image processing includes six degree of freedom (6DOF) object pose image processing of the first data set.

[0144] Aspect 35: A companion device according to any one of Aspects 32 to 34, wherein the first set of the one or more subsystems is configured to throttle one or more operations in response to the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters.

[0145] Aspect 36: A companion device according to Aspect 35, wherein the first data set includes image data related to a set of objects, wherein the first set of the one or more subsystems includes an augmented reality (AR) content generator subsystem configured to generate an AR content based on the first data set, and wherein the moderation of the one or more operations of the AR content generator subsystem includes ignoring one or more of the set of objects in the image data.

[0146] Aspect 37: A companion device according to Aspect 36, wherein the image data associated with the set of objects includes six degrees of freedom (6DOF) posture data of the set of objects.

[0147] Aspect 38: A companion device according to any one of Aspects 35 to 37, wherein the first set of one or more subsystems includes a display rendering subsystem, the display rendering subsystem being configured to generate the second set of data as image data for display at the wearable device, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display rendering subsystem includes reducing the number of frames per second of the image data to be rendered at the wearable device.

[0148] Aspect 39: A companion device according to any one of Aspects 35 to 38, wherein the thermal controller is configured to transmit metadata related to the moderation of the one or more operations to the wearable device via the communication interface.

[0149] Aspect 40: A companion device according to any one of Aspects 35 to 39, wherein the thermal controller is configured to receive metadata related to moderation of one or more operations associated with the thermal mitigation level signal at the wearable device via the communication interface.

[0150] Aspect 41: A companion device according to any one of Aspects 32 to 40, wherein the thermal controller is configured to: receive user application information from the wearable device via the communication interface; and further dynamically generate the thermal mitigation scheme based on the user application information.

[0151] Aspect 42: The companion device according to Aspect 41, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in descending order of the amount of heat that can be mitigated by each of the second set of one or more subsystems in the wearable device.

[0152] Aspect 43: The companion device according to Aspect 41 or 42, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in increasing order of impact on user experience.

[0153] Aspect 44: A method for providing thermal management for the benefit of a wearable device, the method comprising: receiving a thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters and a first data set from the wearable device; generating a thermal mitigation scheme based on the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters for the benefit of the wearable device; generating a second data set based on the first data set and the thermal mitigation scheme; and transmitting the second data set to the wearable device.

[0154] The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples described herein, but should be granted the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A wearable device, comprising: a first set of one or more temperature sensors configured to generate a first set of one or more temperature signals indicative of one or more temperatures; a thermal controller configured to generate a signal indicative of a thermal mitigation level based on the first set of the one or more temperature signals; a set of one or more subsystems configured to perform one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal; as well as A communication interface configured to transmit the thermal mitigation level signal to a companion device.

2. The wearable device of claim 1 , wherein the thermal controller is configured to set the thermal mitigation level to a first mitigation level that is higher than an unmitigated level in response to a first set of the one or more temperature signals indicating that one or more temperatures have risen above one or more temperature thresholds.

3. A wearable device according to claim 2, wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to throttle the one or more operations in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating that the thermal mitigation level is higher than the unmitigated level, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations is related to the throttling performed by the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal.

4. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems comprises a camera subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the camera subsystem comprises reducing a frames per second (FPS) at which images are captured.

5. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a camera subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the camera subsystem includes reducing a resolution of an image being captured.

6. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems comprises a camera subsystem comprising a set of cameras, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the camera subsystem comprises disabling one or more of the set of cameras.

7. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a six degree of freedom (6DOF) object pose camera subsystem.

8. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a video camera subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the video camera subsystem includes reducing a frames per second (FPS) at which images are captured.

9. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems comprises a display subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display subsystem comprises reducing a frames per second (FPS) of a rendered image.

10. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a display subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display subsystem includes reducing brightness of the display subsystem.

11. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems comprises a display subsystem comprising a set of displays, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display subsystem comprises disabling one or more of the set of displays.

12. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes an infrared (IR) illumination subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the IR illumination subsystem includes reducing the brightness of IR emissions from the IR illumination subsystem.

13. The wearable device of claim 3 , wherein the set of one or more subsystems comprises an infrared (IR) illumination subsystem comprising a set of light emitting diodes (LEDs), wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the IR illumination subsystem comprises disabling one or more of the set of LEDs.

14. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes an infrared (IR) illumination subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the IR illumination subsystem includes disabling the IR illumination subsystem.

15. A wearable device according to claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a camera subsystem and a digital signal processing (DSP) subsystem, wherein the DSP subsystem is configured to process an image signal received from the camera subsystem, and wherein the moderation of one or more operations includes offloading at least a portion of the image signal processing to the companion device or jumping at least the portion of the image signal processing between the DSP subsystem and the companion device.

16. The wearable device of claim 15, wherein the image signal processing comprises object pose six degrees of freedom (6DOF) image processing.

17. A wearable device according to claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a display subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display subsystem includes displaying fewer images due to reduced image data received from the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal transmitted to the companion device.

18. A wearable device according to claim 3, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a late re-projection (LSR) processing subsystem, wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the LSR processing subsystem includes performing less LSR processing due to reduced image data received from the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal transmitted to the companion device.

19. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the thermal controller is configured to transmit metadata related to the moderation of the one or more operations to the companion device via the communication interface.

20. The wearable device of claim 3, wherein the thermal controller is configured to receive metadata from the companion device via the communication interface related to throttling of one or more operations at the companion device in response to the thermal mitigation level signal.

21. The wearable device of claim 2, wherein the thermal controller is configured to increase the thermal mitigation level to a second thermal mitigation level that is higher than the first mitigation level in response to a first set of the one or more temperature signals indicating that one or more additional temperatures rise above one or more additional temperature thresholds.

22. The wearable device of claim 21 , wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to, in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating the second thermal mitigation level, apply more moderation of the one or more operations than was applied in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating the first mitigation level.

23. A wearable device according to claim 2, wherein the first set of one or more temperature signals indicates one or more skin temperatures of a user, and further includes a second set of one or more temperature sensors, wherein the second set of one or more temperature sensors is configured to generate a second set of one or more temperature signals indicating one or more junction temperatures of an integrated circuit (IC) that includes at least a portion of the set of one or more subsystems.

24. The wearable device of claim 23, wherein the thermal controller is configured to increase the thermal mitigation level to a second thermal mitigation level that is higher than the first mitigation level in response to a second set of the one or more temperature signals indicating that one or more node temperatures have risen above one or more temperature thresholds.

25. The wearable device of claim 24, wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to, in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating the second thermal mitigation level, apply more moderation of the one or more operations than was applied in response to the thermal mitigation level signal indicating the first mitigation level.

26. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more subsystems comprises a processor configured to run a user application, wherein the thermal controller is configured to dynamically generate the thermal mitigation level based on a first set of the one or more temperature signals and information associated with the user application.

27. A wearable device according to claim 1, wherein the set of one or more subsystems includes a processor configured to run a user application, and wherein the thermal controller is configured to dynamically set a thermal mitigation scheme for the set of one or more subsystems based on a first set of the one or more temperature signals and information associated with the user application.

28. The wearable device of claim 27, wherein the set of one or more subsystems is configured to throttle the one or more operations based on the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme.

29. The wearable device of claim 28, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in decreasing order of the amount of heat that can be mitigated by each of the set of one or more subsystems.

30. The wearable device of claim 28, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in increasing order of impact on user experience.

31. A method of applying thermal management at a wearable device, the method comprising: generating a first set of one or more temperature signals indicative of one or more temperatures; generating a signal indicative of a thermal mitigation level based on the first set of the one or more temperature signals; performing one or more operations based on the thermal mitigation level signal; as well as Transmit the thermal mitigation level signal to a companion device.

32. A supporting device for a wearable device, the supporting device comprising: a communication interface configured to receive at least one of a thermal mitigation level signal or one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters and a first data set from the wearable device; a thermal controller configured to generate a thermal mitigation scheme for the benefit of the wearable device based on the thermal mitigation level signal or the at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters; as well as A first set of one or more subsystems is configured to generate a second set of data based on the first set of data and the thermal mitigation scheme, wherein the second set of data is transmitted to the wearable device via the communication interface.

33. A companion device according to claim 32, wherein the first data set includes image data, wherein the first set of the one or more subsystems includes a digital signal processing (DSP) subsystem, and wherein the DSP subsystem is configured to offload image processing of the first data set from the wearable device based on the thermal mitigation level signal or at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters.

34. A companion device according to claim 33, wherein the offloaded image processing includes six degrees of freedom (6DOF) object pose image processing of the first data set.

35. The companion device of claim 32, wherein a first set of said one or more subsystems are configured to throttle one or more operations in response to said thermal mitigation level signal or said at least one of said one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters.

36. A companion device according to claim 35, wherein the first data set includes image data related to a set of objects, wherein the first set of the one or more subsystems includes an augmented reality (AR) content generator subsystem configured to generate AR content based on the first data set, and wherein the moderation of the one or more operations of the AR content generator subsystem includes ignoring one or more of the set of objects in the image data.

37. A supporting device according to claim 36, wherein the image data associated with the set of objects includes six degrees of freedom (6DOF) posture data of the set of objects.

38. A companion device according to claim 35, wherein the first set of one or more subsystems includes a display rendering subsystem, which is configured to generate the second data set as image data for display at the wearable device, and wherein the throttling of the one or more operations of the display rendering subsystem includes reducing the frames per second of the image data to be rendered at the wearable device.

39. The companion device of claim 35, wherein the thermal controller is configured to transmit metadata related to the moderation of the one or more operations to the wearable device via the communication interface.

40. The companion device of claim 35, wherein the thermal controller is configured to receive metadata from the wearable device via the communication interface related to moderation of one or more operations associated with the thermal mitigation level signal at the wearable device.

41. The kit of claim 32, wherein the thermal controller is configured to: receiving user application information from the wearable device via the communication interface; and The thermal mitigation scheme is dynamically generated further based on the user application information.

42. A companion device according to claim 41, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is based on one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in descending order of the amount of heat that can be mitigated by each of a second set of one or more subsystems in the wearable device.

43. The companion device of claim 41, wherein the dynamic thermal mitigation scheme is one of a set of dynamic thermal mitigation schemes organized in increasing order of impact on user experience.

44. A method of providing thermal management for the benefit of a wearable device, the method comprising: receiving at least one of a thermal mitigation level signal or one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters and a first data set from the wearable device; generating a thermal mitigation scheme based on the thermal mitigation level signal or the at least one of the one or more thermal mitigation scheme parameters for the benefit of the wearable device; generating a second set of data based on the first set of data and the thermal mitigation scheme; as well as The second set of data is transmitted to the wearable device.

Images