Modular electronic devices with contextual task management and performance

• US 10,025,636 B2
• Filed: 04/15/2016
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Eric H C, Brune, Kevin D., Matsuoka, Yoshimichi, Cabillic, Gilbert, Shah, Gaurav
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Sisley
• Application Number:
  US15/130,242
• Publication Number:
  US 20170300363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5019 Workload prediction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/503 Resource availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/548 Queue
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

The present disclosure provides modular electronic devices that are capable of managing task performance based on a particular context of computing resources currently available from the ad hoc combination of devices.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for contextual task management, the method comprising:

identifying, by a modular electronic device comprising at least a first electronic module, a plurality of computing tasks to be performed, wherein the modular electronic device is physically movable between a plurality of different locations by a user of the modular electronic device, and wherein a plurality of different and dynamically-changing ad hoc combinations of devices are respectively available at the plurality of different locations;

determining, by the modular electronic device, a plurality of required sets of computing resources respectively required to perform the plurality of computing tasks; and

for each of two or more locations of the plurality of different locations and while the modular electronic device is respectively present at each of the two or more locations;

determining, by the modular electronic device, a current set of computing resources that are currently available to the modular electronic device at such location via the respective dynamically-changing ad hoc combination of devices available at such location;

comparing, by the modular electronic device, the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources;

identifying, by the modular electronic device, at least one computing task that is currently performable based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of the at least one performable computing task by the respective dynamically-changing ad hoc combination of devices available at such location.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the modular electronic device, a notification to a user of the modular electronic device that identifies the at least one performable computing task; and

receiving, by the modular electronic device, data descriptive of a user input that instructs performance of the at least one performable computing task;

wherein causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of the at least one performable computing task by the ad hoc combination of devices comprises causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of the at least one performable computing task by the ad hoc combination of devices in response to the user input that instructs performance of the at least one performable computing task.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

identifying, by the modular electronic device, the at least one performable computing task comprises identifying, by the modular electronic device, a plurality of performable computing tasks based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources;

the method further comprises;

providing, by the modular electronic device, a notification to a user of the modular electronic device that identifies the plurality of performable computing tasks; and

receiving, by the modular electronic device, data descriptive of a user input that selects a first performable task of the plurality of performable computing tasks and that instructs performance of the first performable task; and

causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of the at least one performable computing task comprises causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of the first performable task by the ad hoc combination of devices in response to the user input that instructs performance of the first performable task.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

identifying, by the modular electronic device, the plurality of computing tasks to be performed comprises predicting, by the modular electronic device, a first computing task that a user of the modular electronic device will request to be performed in at least one future time period; and

identifying, by the modular electronic device, at least one computing task that is currently performable comprises determining, by the modular electronic device, that the predicted first computing task is currently performable.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

identifying, by the modular electronic device, the at least one performable computing task comprises identifying, by the modular electronic device, a plurality of performable computing tasks based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

the method further comprises;

assigning, by the modular electronic device, a priority to each of the plurality of computing tasks; and

after identifying, by the modular electronic device, the plurality of performable computing tasks, selecting, by the modular electronic device, at least one of the plurality of performable computing tasks for performance based at least in part on the respective priority assigned to each of the plurality of performable computing tasks.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning, by the modular electronic device, the plurality of computing tasks into a plurality of queues, the plurality of queues respectively associated with the plurality of required sets of computing resources;

wherein identifying, by the modular electronic device, at least one performable computing task comprises identifying, by the modular electronic device, at least one performable queue based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

wherein causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of the at least one performable computing task comprises causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

assigning, by the modular electronic device, an intra-queue priority to each of the plurality of computing tasks; and

after identifying, by the modular electronic device, the at least one performable queue, selecting, by the modular electronic device, the at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue for performance based at least in part on the respective intra-queue priority assigned to each of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising:

assigning, by the modular electronic device, an inter-queue priority to each of the plurality of queues;

wherein identifying, by the modular electronic device, at least one performable queue based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources comprises;

identifying, by the modular electronic device, a plurality of performable queues based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

selecting, by the modular electronic device, at least a first performable queue of the plurality of performable queues for performance based at least in part on the inter-queue priorities respectively assigned to the plurality of performable queues; and

wherein causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue comprises causing, by the modular electronic device, performance of at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the selected first performable queue.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the respective dynamically-changing ad hoc combination of devices available at each of the two or more of the plurality of different locations comprises

an additional computing device that is communicatively coupled to the modular electronic device but not physically coupled to the modular electronic device; and

the at least one performable computing task is performed at least in part by the additional computing device.

10. A modular electronic device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one electronic module,

wherein the modular electronic device is physically movable between a plurality of different locations by a user of the modular electronic device;

wherein a plurality of different and dynamically-changing ad hoc combinations of devices are respectively available at the plurality of different locations; and

wherein the modular electronic device;

identifies a plurality of computing tasks to be performed;

determines a plurality of required sets of computing resources respectively required to perform the plurality of computing tasks; and

for each of two or more locations of the plurality of different locations and while the modular electronic device is respectively present at each of the two or more locations;

senses a current set of computing resources that are currently available to the modular electronic device at such location via the respective dynamically-changing ad hoc combination of devices available at such location;

compares the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources;

identifies at least one computing task that is currently performable based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

causes performance of the at least one performable computing task by the respective dynamically-changing ad hoc combination of devices available at such location.

11. The modular electronic device of claim 10, wherein the modular electronic device:

provides a notification to a user of the modular electronic device that identifies the at least one performable computing task; and

receives data descriptive of a user input that instructs performance of the at least one performable computing task; and

causes performance of the at least one performable computing task by the ad hoc combination of devices in response to the user input that instructs performance of the at least one performable computing task.

12. The modular electronic device of claim 10, wherein the modular electronic device:

identifies a plurality of performable computing tasks based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources;

provides a notification to a user of the modular electronic device that identifies the plurality of performable computing tasks;

receives data descriptive of a user input that instructs performance of a first performable task of the plurality of performable computing tasks; and

causes performance of the first performable task by the ad hoc combination of devices in response to the user input that instructs performance of the first performable task.

13. The modular electronic device of claim 10, wherein:

to identify the plurality of computing tasks to be performed, the modular electronic device predicts a first computing task that a user of the modular electronic device will request to be performed in at least one future time period; and

to identify the at least one computing task that is currently performable, the modular electronic device determines that the predicted first computing task is currently performable in advance of the at least one future time period.

14. The modular electronic device of claim 10, wherein the modular electronic device:

assigns a priority to each of the plurality of computing tasks;

identifies a plurality of performable computing tasks based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

after identifying the plurality of performable computing tasks, selects at least one of the plurality of performable computing tasks for performance based at least in part on the respective priority assigned to each of the plurality of performable computing tasks.

15. The modular electronic device of claim 10, wherein:

the modular electronic device assigns the plurality of computing tasks into a plurality of queues, the plurality of queues respectively associated with the plurality of required sets of computing resources;

to identify the at least one performable computing task, the modular electronic device identifies at least one performable queue based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

to cause performance of the at least one performable computing task, the modular electronic device causes performance of at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue.

16. The modular electronic device of claim 15, wherein the modular electronic device:

assigns an intra-queue priority to each of the plurality of computing tasks; and

after identifying the at least one performable queue, selects the at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue for performance based at least in part on the respective intra-queue priority assigned to each of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue.

17. The modular electronic device of claim 15, wherein:

the modular electronic device assigns an inter-queue priority to each of the plurality of queues;

to identify the at least one performable queue, the modular electronic device;

identifies a plurality of performable queues based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources; and

selects at least a first performable queue of the plurality of performable queues for performance based at least in part on the inter-queue priorities respectively assigned to the plurality of performable queues; and

to cause performance of the at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the at least one performable queue, the modular electronic device causes performance of at least one of the computing tasks assigned to the selected first performable queue.

18. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of an electronic device that is physically movable between a plurality of different locations that respectively have a plurality of different and dynamically-changing ad hoc device combinations available, cause the at least one processor to:

identify one or more computing tasks to be performed; and

for each of two or more locations of the plurality of different locations and while the electronic device is respectively present at the two or more locations;

determine a current set of computing resources that are currently available to the electronic device via the respective dynamically-changing ad hoc device combination available at such location, wherein the respective dynamically-changing ad hoc combination available at such location comprises at least one additional computing device that is communicatively coupled to the electronic device but not physically coupled to the electronic device;

select at least one of the computing tasks based at least in part on the current set of computing resources; and

cause performance of the at least one computing task at least in part by the at least one additional computing device.

19. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein execution of the instructions further causes the at least one processor to:

determine one or more required sets of computing resources respectively required to perform the one or more computing tasks; and

compare the current set of computing resources to the one or more required sets of computing resources; and

wherein the instructions that cause the at least one processor to select at least one of the computing tasks based at least in part on the current set of computing resources cause the at least one processor to identify at least one computing task that is currently performable based on the comparison of the current set of computing resources to the plurality of required sets of computing resources.

20. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein execution of the instructions causes the at least one processor to:

provide a notification to a user of the electronic device that identifies the at least one selected computing task;

receive data descriptive of a user input that instructs performance of the at least one selected computing task; and

cause performance of the at least one selected computing task by the ad hoc combination of devices in response to the user input that instructs performance of the at least one performable computing task.