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EP-3869875-B1 - DETERMINING A DUTY SCHEDULE FOR A GROUP OF ELECTRONIC SERVICE-PROVIDING DEVICES PROVIDING A SIMILAR AUDIO AND/OR VIDEO SERVICE

EP3869875B1EP 3869875 B1EP3869875 B1EP 3869875B1EP-3869875-B1

Inventors

  • ÖZCAN, Evren
  • MAES, Jérôme, Eduard
  • VAN DE LAARSCHOT, Huon, Urbald, Ogier, Norbert

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20180529

Claims (15)

  1. An electronic service-providing device (1,31,71) for enabling energy conservation, comprising: at least one transmitter (3,33,73); and at least one processor (5,35,75) configured to: - determine a group of electronic service-providing devices, said group comprising at least two electronic service-providing devices capable of performing a similar or a same service, wherein that said at least one processor is further configured to: - determine a schedule for said electronic service-providing devices in said group for energy conservation, said schedule indicating for each electronic service-providing device of said group in which time period said electronic service-providing device is able to receive messages such that at least one device of the determined group of electronic service-providing devices is able to receive messages and to perform at least part of the service on behalf of a service-providing device of said group that is momentarily not able to receive messages, and - use said at least one transmitter (3,33,73) to transmit said schedule to said electronic service-providing devices, wherein the service is at least one of: an audio reproduction service, an audio capture service, a video reproduction service, and a video capture service.
  2. An electronic service providing device (1,31,71) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one processor (5,35,75) is configured to determine said group of service-providing devices by selecting said group of service-providing devices from a set of service-providing devices based on information identifying which services said service-providing devices of said set are capable of providing.
  3. An electronic service providing device (1,31,71) as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said at least one processor (5,35,75) is configured to determine said group of service-providing devices by selecting said group of service-providing devices from a set of service-providing devices based on spatial locations of said service-providing devices of said set.
  4. An electronic service providing device (1,31,71) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said at least one processor (5,35,75) is configured to determine the durations of said time periods of said schedule based on at least one of: energy consumption of said service-providing devices, spatial locations of said service-providing devices, spatial service-provisioning areas of said service-providing devices, usage of said service-providing devices, time required by said service-providing devices to enter and/or leave a standby mode, and identifiers of services provided by said service-providing devices.
  5. An electronic service providing device (31) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a user interface (39), wherein said at least one processor (35) is configured to use said user interface to provide said schedule to a user and allow said user to adapt said schedule.
  6. An electronic service providing device (1,71) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising at least one receiver (3,73) and wherein said at least one processor (5,75) is configured to: - use said at least one receiver (3,73) to receive a command message addressed to at least a first service-providing device of said group, said command message commanding at least said first service-providing device to perform a specified service at a specified service level, - determine a service level in dependence on said specified service level, and - cause a second service-providing device of said group to start performing a service similar to or the same as said specified service at said determined service level upon receipt of said command message.
  7. An electronic service providing device (1,71) as claimed in claim 6, wherein said at least one processor (5,75) is configured to use said at least one transmitter (3,73) to transmit said command message to said first service-providing device at a moment which depends on a start of said time period in which said first service-providing device is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule.
  8. An electronic service providing device (1,71) as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein said at least one processor (5,75) is configured to cause said second service-providing device to stop performing said service at a current service level at a moment which depends on a start of said time period in which said first service-providing device is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule.
  9. An electronic service providing device (1,71) as claimed in any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein said group further comprises at least a third service-providing device, said time period in which said third service-providing device is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule is sooner than a time period in which any other service-providing device of said group is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule, and said at least one processor (5,75) is configured to: - determine a further service level in dependence on said specified service level, and - cause said second service-providing device to stop performing said service at said determined service level and start performing said service at said determined further service level at a moment which depends on a start of said time period in which said third service-providing device is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule.
  10. An electronic service providing device (1,71) as claimed in any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein said group further comprises at least a third service-providing device, said time period in which said first service-providing device is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule is later than a time period in which any other service-providing device of said group is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule, and said at least one processor (5,75) is configured to: - cause said second service-providing device to stop performing said service at said determined service level at a moment which depends on a start of said time period in which said first service-providing device is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule.
  11. An electronic service providing device (1,71) as claimed in any of claims 6 to 8, wherein said command message is addressed to only said first service-providing device and said at least one processor (5,75) is configured to cause said second service-providing device to stop performing said service at a moment which depends on a start of said time period in which said first service-providing device is able to receive messages as specified in said schedule.
  12. An electronic service providing device (1,71) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the schedule is determined such that during the schedule at least one of said service-providing devices in said group for energy conservation is configured to receive messages and to perform at least part of the service on behalf of a service-providing device of said group that is momentarily not able to receive messages.
  13. An electronic service providing system comprising: - an electronic service providing device (31,71) of any one of claims 1 to 11; and - a further electronic service providing device (41-49, 62-69), said further electronic service providing (41-49, 62-69) comprising at least one receiver and at least one processor configured to use said at least one receiver to receive said schedule from said electronic service providing device, use said at least one receiver to receive a command message addressed to at least a first service-providing device of said group, said command message commanding at least said first service-providing device to perform a specified service at a specified service level, determine a service level in dependence on said specified service level, and cause a second service-providing device of said group to start performing a service similar to or the same as said specified service at said determined service level upon receipt of said command message, wherein the service is at least one of: an audio reproduction service, an audio capture service, a video reproduction service, and a video capture service.
  14. A method for enabling energy conservation in an electronic service providing device, comprising: - determining (201) a group of service-providing devices, said group comprising at least two service-providing devices capable of performing a similar or a same service; wherein the method further comprises: - determining (203) a schedule for said service-providing devices in said group for energy saving, said schedule indicating for each service-providing device of said group in which time period said service-providing device is able to receive messages such that at least one device of the determined group of service-providing devices is able to receive messages and to perform at least part of the service on behalf of a service-providing device of said group that is momentarily not able to receive messages; and - transmitting (205) said schedule to said service-providing devices, wherein the service is at least one of: an audio reproduction service, an audio capture service, a video reproduction service, and a video capture service.
  15. A computer program or suite of computer programs comprising at least one software code portion or a computer program product storing at least one software code portion, the software code portion, when run on a processor of an electronic service providing device, the electronic service providing device having at least one transmitter (3,33,73), the software code portion being configured for enabling the method of claim 14 to be performed.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an audio or video service-providing device for enabling energy conservation and an audio or video system comprising such an audio or video service-providing device. The invention further relates to a method for enabling energy conservation in an audio or video service-providing device. The invention also relates to a computer program product enabling a processor of an audio or video service-providing device to perform such a method. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The Internet of Things (IoT) provides opportunities for (smart) devices to be connected. The number of devices that communicate with each other will therefore increase. In order to reduce power consumption, such devices will often not be active all the time but stay in a standby mode most of the time. In this standby mode, the receivers of the IoT devices are normally still listening to signals and become active after being triggered by a signal. The IoT devices that are in standby mode and are listing still consume a certain amount of power. Although this certain amount of power is minor, taken over time, such power consumption will still add up to a significant amount and may still exceed the requirements of certain governments. US patent application US2016/0196106 A1 discloses a system for audio/video reproduction comprising multiple wireless speakers. The wireless speakers receive the audio signal from a wireless audio/video processor or a mobile device 120 via a wireless protocol such as 802.11 or Bluetooth®. A timing standard, like TSF or 802.1AS, is utilized to adjust and synchronize the audio channel streams to ensure each channel plays back through all speakers at the correct time. Playback of all channels simultaneously achieves the desired spatial effect of stereo or surround sound. International application WO2015125054A2 discloses a method to implement automatic lighting control that can save power, which takes into account user occupancy in a monitored area. Wherein lights in a spatial location near a monitored area can be turned on (after a small time gap, if required), after confirming that a person is staying near that location and is not simply passing by. To this end it is proposed to monitor user activity near that spatial location. "Geography-informed Energy Conservation for Ad-hoc Routing" by Y. Xu, J. Heidemann and D. Estrin, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking, pages 70-84, 2001, discloses an algorithm that allows nodes to stop listening during certain periods, thereby reducing power consumption. This publication describes an energy-aware location-based routing algorithm designed for mobile ad hoc networks. The network area is first divided into fixed zones and forms a virtual grid. Inside each zone, nodes collaborate with each other to play different roles. A node that is awake is responsible for monitoring and reporting data to the base station on behalf of the nodes in the zone. Hence, energy is conserved by turning off unnecessary nodes in the network without affecting the level of routing fidelity. A drawback of this energy conservation mechanism is that it only works well if the nodes of a network perform network routing and is not suitable for networks with devices that provide other non-communication services, e.g. an audio-related or video-related service Moreover, US 2018/0234919 A1 discloses a system for energy conservation where a processor-controlled device (eNB/relay) determines and transmits a schedule (DRX/ eDRX parameters) to a group of terminal devices. This schedule defines specific time periods (wake periods) when the group members are synchronously able to receive messages ("exchange predetermined signalling"), allowing them to sleep at other times. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a first object of the invention to provide an electronic service-providing device, which enables energy conservation in one or more audio and/or video service-providing devices as defined in claim 1. It is a second object of the invention to provide a method, which enables energy conservation in an electronic audio and/or video service-providing device as defined in claim 14. In a first aspect, the electronic audio or video service-providing device comprises at least one transmitter and at least one processor configured to determine a group of service-providing devices, said group comprising at least two service-providing devices capable of performing a similar or a same service, determine a schedule for said service-providing devices in said group, said schedule indicating for each service-providing device of said group in which time period said service-providing device is able to receive messages such that at least one device of the determined group of service-providing devices is able to receive messages and to perform at least part of the service on behalf of a service-providing device that is momentarily not able