Touch Overlay Controller Gesture Recognition Power Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic devices with touch-sensitive displays face high power consumption when transitioning from sleep mode to full power mode due to the need to process every touch input to determine if it is a wake-up gesture, leading to battery drain.
Innovation Solution
The method involves distributing the processing of touch inputs between the overlay controller and the main processor, using the overlay controller for preliminary gesture recognition to reduce power usage, and implementing duty cycling between full power and sleep modes to capture and process touch inputs efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the main processor processes every touch input to determine wake-up gestures, then the reliability of wake-up detection is improved, but the power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The touch input processing is divided into two segments: preliminary gesture recognition handled by the overlay controller in low-power mode, and full processing handled by the main processor only when necessary. This segmentation allows the system to maintain wake-up detection reliability while significantly reducing power consumption by not requiring the main processor to continuously analyze every touch input.
Solution Approach 2:
The overlay controller acts as an intermediary between the touch-sensitive display and the main processor. It performs preliminary gesture recognition and filters touch inputs, only passing relevant wake-up gestures to the main processor for full processing. This intermediary function reduces the processing burden on the main processor and lowers overall power consumption while maintaining detection reliability.
2Speed
If the device processes touch inputs continuously in sleep mode, then the responsiveness to wake-up gestures is improved, but the power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The overlay controller performs preliminary gesture recognition in advance during sleep mode, analyzing touch inputs before the main processor needs to be fully activated. This preliminary action ensures the system remains responsive to wake-up gestures while keeping power consumption low, as the overlay controller processes touch inputs in a lower-power state compared to the main processor.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts its processing state based on detected touch inputs. When the overlay controller detects a potential wake-up gesture, it triggers the main processor to activate from sleep mode. This dynamic state transition allows the device to maintain wake-up responsiveness while minimizing power consumption by keeping the main processor in sleep mode during normal operation.
3Use of energy by moving object
If the overlay controller performs preliminary gesture recognition, then the power consumption is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The overlay controller is designed with multi-functionality, serving both as the display controller and as the preliminary gesture recognition unit. By making the overlay controller universal, the system avoids adding a separate dedicated gesture recognition module, thereby reducing the increase in device complexity while still achieving lower power consumption through preliminary processing.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system and method for reducing power consumption in an electronic device by controlling the transition of the electronic device from a sleep mode to a full power mode The electronic device comprises a main processor a touch-sensitive overlay, and an overlay controller. A sequence of touch inputs on the touch-sensitive overlay are detected and captured using the overlay controller while the main processor is in the sleep mode. A subset of the sequence of touch inputs is processed using the overlay controller to determine that the sequence of touch inputs corresponds to a coarse model of a pre-determined wake-up gesture prior to transitioning the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.