A Camera-Driven Power Management of Computer Display

Effective display power management is essential to reduce the cost of operating desktop computers as well as prolonging the lifetime of battery-operated notebooks and laptops between consecutive battery recharges. Although displays are dedicated for our eyes, existing display power management technologies “sense” only our fingers or temperature or motion through keyboard, mouse, or special sensors. Therefore, display may either switch off when its user looks at the screen or loose energy by keeping the screen on when nobody looks at it. This paper discusses a new display power management technology and outlines its implementation in personal computer systems. Unlike presently used power management, our technology “watches” the user through a single video camera. The technology tracks the user's eyes, keeping the display active only if the user looks at the screen. Otherwise, it dims the display down or even switches it off to save energy. We implemented the technology in field programmable gate array-based hardware and present results of its experimental evaluation.