One of the most energy-consuming elements of any laptop is its display. To reduce display battery consumption on laptops, Intel has developed a system that automatically turns off a laptop’s screen when it is not being viewed and turns it back on when the user needs it again. There is a webcam based system that monitors the user.
Image source: PCMag/Michael Kan
The power saving feature has become part of Intel Intelligent Display technology, which can be used for various purposes. For example, the refresh rate and brightness of the screen can be automatically lowered to reduce the overall power consumption of the laptop. The technology was demonstrated by Intel at the Innovation 2023 conference in California.
It’s no secret that reducing the display brightness or refresh rate will extend your laptop’s battery life. But in such cases, compromises often have to be made. Intel technology, in turn, can dynamically change display settings without affecting image quality. In theory, the user doesn’t need to make any changes at all and the laptop can work longer in the meantime.
Intel Intelligent Display Technology includes a throttling feature.Screen refresh rate based on user presence“(User-Based Refresh Rate, UBRR). When turned on, the laptop camera detects whether the user’s face is facing the screen or not. Accordingly, the system independently increases or decreases the display brightness and its refresh rate. And when the function detects that a Once the person has completely removed or turned away from the laptop, they turn off the screen completely to save even more battery power.
Additionally, Intel Intelligent Display Technology can automatically change the display refresh rate based on the content displayed on the screen. An example would be running a video calling application where the refresh rate is limited to 30 frames per second and a high refresh rate provides no benefit. In addition, the system can automatically adjust brightness and contrast to the content in certain scenes in films, for example.
Intel estimates that its new power saving technology can reduce battery consumption by up to 24%. And if the regulation function is activated “Update frequency based on user presence“, which allows you to turn off the display completely, energy savings reach 42%.
Intel notes that Intelligent Display technology is not integrated into its new processors. Its operation requires a special chip built into the display. This chip also uses the Intel graphics driver to operate. The company is working with laptop manufacturers to integrate this technology into their products.
Low-power Intel Intelligent Display technology is expected to be available in December in new laptops based on the recently launched Intel Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) processors. The company clarifies that integrating the technology is currently expensive and therefore only premium laptop models will initially receive it.
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