Persistent display device with power harvesting

1. A display device, comprising:

an electronic paper display;

power harvesting circuitry for recovering energy from at least one of motion of the display device or one or more attributes of an environment surrounding the display device; and

display update circuitry for:

controlling updating of content displayed on the electronic paper display based at least in part on a sensed power harvesting level; and

selecting, based at least in part on the sensed power harvesting level, an update mode from a set of candidate update modes, the set of candidate update modes comprising at least one or more progressive update modes that update the electronic paper display by:

rendering the content using a first set of colors in a first display update and a second set of colors in one or more subsequent second display updates, wherein the second set of colors comprises a greater number of colors than the first set of colors;

for each pixel in the electronic paper display, applying different portions of a driving waveform over multiple display updates;

varying a refresh rate of the electronic paper display; or

rendering a first amount of the content in a first display update and a second amount of the content in one or more subsequent second display updates, wherein the second amount of the content comprising a greater amount of content than the first amount of the content.

2. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein the sensed power harvesting level is an indicator of an incoming power level from the power harvesting circuitry.

3. The display device according to claim 1 , further comprising a power storage device connected to the power harvesting circuitry such that the power harvesting circuitry can provide energy for storage in the power storage device and wherein the sensed power harvesting level is an indicator of a stored amount of energy in the power storage device.

4. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein the set of candidate modes further includes a candidate update mode that does not perform an update to the display.

5. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein the set of candidate modes further includes a partial update mode.

6. The display device according to claim 5 , wherein the electronic paper display comprises a plurality of pixels and the partial update mode is configured to update only a proper subset of the pixels in the electronic paper display.

7. The display device according to claim 6 , wherein the partial update mode is configured to render a small version of the content on only a portion of the electronic paper display.

8. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein the set of candidate modes includes a mode that is configured to use a reduced applied voltage.

9. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein the display update circuitry prevents updates to the electronic paper display when the sensed power harvesting level falls below a threshold value.

10. The display device according to claim 9 , further comprising a power storage device connected to the power harvesting circuitry and wherein the sensed power harvesting level is an incoming power level from the power harvesting circuitry.

11. The display device according to claim 1 , further comprising sensing circuitry, wherein the display update circuitry activates and deactivates the sensing circuitry based on the sensed power harvesting level.

12. The display device according to claim 1 , wherein:

the sensed power harvesting level is a modulated signal;

the display device further comprises a decoder circuit for decoding the sensed power harvesting level to extract data; and

the display update circuitry updates the display based at least in part on the extracted data.

13. A method of operating a display device comprising:

detecting a power harvesting level associated with power harvesting circuitry in the display device;

selecting an update mode from a set of candidate update modes based on the sensed power level, the set of candidate update modes comprising at least one or more progressive update modes, wherein at least one progressive update mode is configured to update an electronic paper display by:

rendering the content using a first set of colors in a first display update and a second set of colors in one or more subsequent second display updates, wherein the second set of colors comprises a greater number of colors than the first set of colors;

for each pixel in the electronic paper display, applying different portions of a driving waveform over multiple display updates;

varying a refresh rate of the electronic paper display; or

rendering a first amount of the content in a first display update and a second amount of the content in one or more subsequent second display updates, wherein the second amount of the content comprising a greater amount of content than the first amount of the content; and

updating the electronic paper display in the display device using the selected update mode.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein, for at least one candidate update mode in the set of candidate update modes, updating the electronic paper display further comprises downloading updated content.

15. An autonomous display device, comprising:

an electronic paper display;

circuitry for harvesting power from RF signals; and

display update circuitry for controlling how the electronic paper display is updated based on a sensed power harvesting level based at least in part on an update mode selected from a set of candidate update modes, the set of candidate update modes comprising at least one or more progressive update modes that update the electronic paper display by:

rendering the content using a first set of colors in a first display update and a second set of colors in one or more subsequent second display updates, wherein the second set of colors comprises a greater number of colors than the first set of colors;

for each pixel in the electronic paper display, applying different portions of a driving waveform over multiple display updates;

varying a refresh rate of the electronic paper display; or

rendering a first amount of the content in a first display update and a second amount of the content in one or more subsequent second display updates, wherein the second amount of the content comprising a greater amount of content than the first amount of the content.

16. The autonomous display according to claim 15 , wherein the circuitry for harvesting power from RF signals harvests cellular signals generated by a proximate cellular user device.

17. The autonomous display device according to claim 15 , wherein the sensed power harvesting level is a modulated signal, the autonomous display device further comprises a decoder circuit for decoding the sensed power harvesting level to extract data, and wherein the display update circuitry updates the electronic paper display based at least in part on the extracted data.

18. The method according to claim 13 , wherein selecting the update mode from the set of candidate update modes based on the sensed power level comprises:

selecting a first progressive update mode when the sensed power level equals or exceeds a first threshold level; and

selecting a different second progressive update mode when the sensed power level equals or exceeds a second threshold level that is greater than the first threshold level.