Appeal 2007-1630 Application 10/422,661 THE INVENTION The disclosed invention generally relates to a method and system for controlling power consumption of battery-powered portable devices such as handheld computers, cordless telephones, cellular telephones, and specialized portable terminal devices (e.g., handheld bar coding equipment, portable point-of-sale devices, and the like) (Spec. 2). Upon detection of signal loss, the portable device enters a “smart nap” mode where the device stops searching for a network signal until a later time when the network signal is likely to be reliably available again. The duration of the “smart nap” mode is determined by searching “smart nap records” which store an accumulated history of signal conditions for the device (Spec. 17-18). Independent claim 1 is illustrative: 1. A method for managing battery energy usage by a mobile wireless network device comprising: determining that a period of signal intermittence has started by detecting threshold conditions for a transient network signal being intermittently found and intermittently lost; recording events of said threshold conditions with operational criteria associated with operational conditions of the events; upon each detection of network signal loss, determining from said event records a nap termination condition upon which network signal has been historically reliable following said period of signal intermittence; and entering a nap mode until said nap termination condition is met, during said nap mode a state of lower power consumption being achieved including defeating searching for said network signal. 2Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013