US Patent 7612527 Communicative and virtual battery chargers and methods

A physical battery charger (104) connects to a computer (102) using a communications link such as a universal serial bus (USB) connection. Application software (114) resident on the computer (102) presents a virtual battery charger (116) on a display (110) associated with the computer (102). The virtual charger (116) provides information regarding the status of the physical charger (104) and allows the user to control the operation of or otherwise interact with the physical charger (104). The physical charger (104) also adjusts the charging rate of batteries (222) being charged based on the available power.