Protocols for reporting power status over multiple buses

Abstract

An automated power reporting system is provided in one aspect. The system includes one or more devices that can report or transmit power status information over a bus or network. A protocol component utilizes a generalized protocol to process or convert the power status information over the network in order to facilitate power management operations for a plurality of devices. In this manner, devices that send power information can interact and exploit personal computing resources in order to better help users manage limited power resources for their respective devices.

1 . An automated power reporting system, comprising: 
 a plurality of devices that report power status information over a bus or network, the plurality of devices comprise at least one of a driver, processor network card, system controller, cell phone, and camera; and    a protocol component that employs a generalized protocol to process the power status information over the bus or network in order to facilitate power management operations for the plurality of devices, the generalized protocol is scalable to enable differing vendors of the plurality of devices to control power management in a proprietary manner and still enable centralized reporting of device power status of the plurality of devices according to prescribed interfaces of the protocol component.    
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1 , the network includes at least one personal computer bus, or at least one wireless connection, or at least one wired network connection.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1 , the protocol component enables current battery status to be automatically sent by the device or programmatically retrieved from the devices.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 3 , further comprising a threshold component that triggers a notification when the battery status crosses a predetermined threshold or set of thresholds.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 4 , the predetermined thresholds are adjustable per user.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 1 , the protocol component enables multiple sources to report battery information to at least one host.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an interface that enables one or more components to be added for specific battery types or devices.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a component to facilitate battery life profiling that provides a representative battery status to time left mappings.  
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a user interface that displays battery status of each device associated with a system.  
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a component to notify a user when to charge or replace a battery based at least in part on the user's schedule and usage history.  
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 1 , the protocol component supports a HID boot protocol mode.  
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 1 , the protocol component includes at least one identifier code for battery reporting.  
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 1 , the protocol component includes at least one report descriptor for reporting devices.  
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 13 , the report descriptor includes a usage page, a usage parameter, a collection parameter, a charging or discharging parameter, or a battery strength indication.  
   
   
       15 . A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for implementing the components of  claim 1 .  
   
   
       16 . A method for reporting device power status, comprising: 
 defining a generic reporting protocol for devices to report power status to a host, the generic protocol is scalable to enable differing vendors of the devices to control power management in a proprietary manner and still enable centralized reporting of device power status of the devices according to prescribed interfaces of the generic protocol;    communicating the power status from the devices to the host over local or remote networks; and    displaying power status of the devices at the host according to the reporting protocol, the reporting protocol is a human interface device (HID) protocol.    
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising creating a generalized operating system service to monitor power messages and report power status from the devices.  
   
   
       18 . (canceled)  
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising creating at least one device driver application programming interface extension to enable device power reporting.  
   
   
       20 . A system to facilitate automated device power status reporting, comprising: 
 means for defining a generic reporting protocol for a plurality of devices to report power status to a host, the generic protocol is scalable to enable differing vendors of the plurality of devices to control power management in a proprietary manner and still enable centralized reporting of device power status of the plurality of devices according to prescribed interfaces of the generic protocol    means for communicating power status information from the plurality of devices to at least one host computer;    means for displaying the power status information at the host computer; and    means for triggering notification events to users based at least in part on the power status information;    wherein the plurality of devices comprise at least one of a driver, processor, network card, system controller, cell phone, and camera.