Control and management method for the status of the battery of a portable multimedia device

1. A method to control and manage a status of a battery of a device equipped with means to memorize data and means to process said data, the method comprising:

determining energy required to process said data;

evaluating energy available in the battery; and

selecting processing of the data based on a comparison of the energy required to process said data with the energy available in the battery so as to conserve a predetermined quantity of battery energy.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the data includes a video sequence, and the processing includes a first processing that displays all frames of the video sequence, and a second processing that displays only a part of the frames of said sequence.

3. The method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein coding of the data is according to MPEG standards, and the second processing displays only the frames of Intra type, or a fraction of said Intra frames.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising downloading the data into the means to memorize.

5. A device with means to memorize data and means to process said data, comprising:

means to determine energy required to process the data;

means to evaluate energy available in a battery; and

means to select processing of the data based on a comparison of the energy required to process the data with the energy available in the battery so as to conserve a predetermined quantity of battery energy.

6. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the data includes a video sequence, and the processing includes a first processing that displays all frames of the video sequence, and a second processing that displays only a part of the frames of said sequence.

7. The device according to claim 6 , wherein coding of the data is according to MPEG standards, and the second processing displays only the frames of Intra type, or a fraction of said Intra frames.

8. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the device is a telephone, a micro-computer, or a PDA, or a combination thereof.

9. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the device further comprises an interface to download the data to the means to memorize.

10. A computer readable medium including a program comprising instructions, which when executed, cause a device to:

determine energy required to process data stored in a memory of the device;

evaluate energy available in a battery of the device; and

select processing of the data based on a comparison of the energy required to process the data with the energy available in the battery so as to conserve a predetermined quantity of battery energy.

11. A method to control and manage a status of a battery of a device equipped with means to memorize data and means to process the data, the method comprising:

determining a first duration of time required to process the data;

determining a second duration of time representing energy of the battery of the device as a function of available communication time; and

selecting processing of the data based on a comparison of the first duration of time with the second duration of time so as to conserve a predetermined quantity of battery energy.

12. A device with means to memorize data and means to process the data, comprising:

means to determine a first duration of time required to process the data;

means to determine a second duration of time representing energy of a battery of the device as a function of available communication time; and

means to select processing of the data based on a comparison of the first duration of time with the second duration of time so as to conserve a predetermined quantity of battery energy.