Meta patents wristband that lowers video quality to save battery
This patent describes a method for wearable devices, like a smartwatch, to manage power usage during video calls. If the device detects that processing a high-quality video stream is using too much battery or processing power, it automatically switches to a simpler, lower-quality video format.
In the filing’s own words
A computer-implemented method for conserving resources on constrained devices may include (i) identifying a media stream on a resource-constrained device, (ii) detecting that a utilization, at least in part by the media stream, of a hardware resource on the resource-constrained device meets a predetermined threshold for hardware resource strain, and (iii) in response to detecting that the utilization meets the predetermined threshold for hardware resource strain, reducing the utilization of the hardware resource by the media stream by downgrading a codec used by the resource-constrained device to process the media stream. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: initiating, via a resource-constrained device, a connection with an augmented-reality system, wherein the resource-constrained device comprises a wrist-wearable device; receiving, from the augmented-reality system, information identifying one or more available codecs including a high-complexity codec and a low-complexity codec; identifying, via the resource-constrained device, the high-complexity codec to use for a media stream between the resource-constrained device and the augmented-reality system; initiating, via the resource-constrained device, a media stream using the high-complexity codec; detecting that a utilization, at least in part by the media stream using the high-complexity codec, of a hardware resource on the resource-constrained device meets a predetermined threshold for hardware resource strain; and in response to detecting that the utilization meets the predetermined threshold for hardware resource strain, reducing the utilization of the hardware resource by the media stream by downgrading from the high-complexity codec used by the resource-constrained device to the low-complexity codec to process the media stream.
Facts
- Company
- Meta (Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC)
- Official title
- Reducing utilization of a hardware resource by a media stream by downgrading from a high-complexity codec to a low-complexity codec to process the media stream
- Patent number
- US12731596B1
- Application number
- 17878095
- Filed
- Aug 1, 2022
- Granted
- Sep 8, 2026
- Inventors
- 3
- Claims
- 19
Classified under
G10L 19/18 Physics & computingG06F 1/206 Physics & computingG06F 1/3293 Physics & computingMore from Meta in Wearables
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.