Nothing sucks quite as badly as having your mobile device run out of juice before the day is out. It’s an all too frequent problem with plenty of interesting vendor solutions. Google’s latest patent reveals one unusual solution, namely dropping screen resolution when the battery gets too low.
DroidLife reports on the patent — if you’re having trouble sleeping tonight, you can read it in its entirety here — which would allow Google devices to dynamically change the display qualities based on remaining power. The first step would be to disable certain blur and animation features, and if no extra power was forthcoming, to then drop the screen resolution to aid in keeping a device running even longer. As per Google’s own design drawings to support the patent, there’s even the possibility of dropping to a two-tone red and black display to further eke out a few more electrons along the way.
It’s an unusual idea, even if you’re entirely happy with the world of software patents. Would you be happy with having your next high-def Nexus device drop to VGA-only mode late in the day?
[USPTO via Droidlife]
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