Optimizing use of location services in mobile applications to improve battery consumption

• US 10,372,194 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2016
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Abadi, Aharon, Abadi, Moria, Nisenson, Mordechai
• Primary Examiner(s): Brophy, Matthew J
• Application Number:
  US15/018,880
• Publication Number:
  US 20170228011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3234 Power saving characterised by the action undertaken
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/433 Dependency analysis; Data or control flow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/52 Binary to binary
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30145 Instruction analysis, e.g. decoding, instruction word fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A method for optimizing use of location services in mobile applications, comprising: analyzing a computer code executable on a processor of a mobile device; identifying in the computer code program instructions for receiving location data from at least one location service device of the mobile device; analyzing the program instructions according to a set of location request rules to identify program instructions violating at least one of the location request rules; and providing at least one suggested change to the program instructions according to the at least one of the location request rules.

Claims

1. A method for modifying a computer code of a mobile application to become adapted to an optimized use of location services, comprising:

analyzing a computer code of a mobile application executable on a processor of a mobile device;

identifying, in said computer code, at least one code segment which includes program instructions for requesting location data from at least one location service device of said mobile device;

identifying, in said computer code, an other code segment which includes program instructions for using the data acquired from said at least one location service device;

obtaining a pre-defined set of location request rules defining preferred practices for requesting location services to achieve optimized use of said location services;

analyzing said program instructions of said at least one code segment and said other code segment to identify a relation between a location, within said computer code, of said at least one code segment and a location of said other code segment;

determining when said relation violates at least one of said location request rules, wherein said at least one of said location request rules requires a reduction in time window during which said at least one location service device provides location data updates as a result of said request for said location data, before said location data is used; and

upon said determination, providing at least one suggested modification to said program instructions, to adapt said computer code to said optimized use, according to said at least one of said location request rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said computer code is edited by a graphical user interface (GUI) of an integrated development environment (IDE) executed on a client terminal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said at least one suggested change is presented in said GUI.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said computer code is included in a software development kit (SDK) for mobile applications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said computer code is included in a mobile application currently installed on said mobile device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one location service device includes global positioning system (GPS).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one location service device includes network location service.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically changing said computer code according to said at least one suggested change.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying includes representing said computer code as a finite state machine (FSM).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying includes representing at least parts of said computer code with intermediate representation (IR).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said intermediate representation (IR) is one of abstract syntax tree (AST), control flow graph (CFG), static single assignment form (SSA) and program dependence graph (PDG).

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said analyzing of said program instructions includes at least one of dynamic profiler, symbolic execution and control flow analysis.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said defined relation is a defined proximity, in said computer code, between said location of said code segment responsible for requesting location data and said location of said other code segment responsible for said use of said acquired location data from said at least one location service device, said defined proximity is determined by an algorithm.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of location request rules includes a rule for using network location service instead of GPS location service when possible.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of location request rules includes a rule for using existing location information instead of requesting location updates received from said at least one location service device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of location request rules includes a rule for maximal frequency of location updates received from said at least one location service device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein said suggested change includes adding a command to stop requesting location.

18. A computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions adapted to perform the method of claim 1.

19. A system for modifying a computer code of a mobile application to become adapted to an optimized use of location services, comprising:

a memory storing a pre-defined set of location request rules defining preferred practices for requesting location services;

a code store storing a code of an application; and

at least one processor coupled to a graphical user interface (GUI), the memory and the program store for executing the stored code, the code comprising;

code instructions to analyze a computer code of a mobile application executable on a processor of a mobile device;

code instructions to identify in said computer code at least one code segment which includes program instructions for requesting location data from at least one location service device of said mobile device;

code instructions to identify, in said computer code, an other code segment which includes program instructions for using the data acquired from said at least one location service device;

code instructions to analyze said program instructions of said at least one code segment and said other code segment to identify a relation between a location, within said computer code, of said at least one code segment and a location of said other code segment;

code instructions to determine when said relation violates at least one of said location request rules, wherein said at least one of said location request rules requires a reduction in time window during which said at least one location service device provides location data updates as a result of said request for said location data, before said location data is used; and

code instructions to provide, upon said determination, at least one suggested modification to said program instructions, to adapt said computer code to said optimized use, according to said at least one of said location request rules.

20. A software program product for modifying a computer code of a mobile application to become adapted to an optimized use of location services, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;

first program instructions for analyzing a computer code of a mobile application, executable on a processor of a mobile device;

second program instructions for identifying in said computer code at least one code segment which includes program instructions for requesting location data from at least one location service device of said mobile device;

third program instructions for identifying, in said computer code, an other code segment which includes program instructions for using the data acquired from said at least one location service device;

fourth program instructions for obtaining a pre-defined set of location request rules defining preferred practices for requesting location services to achieve optimized use of said location services;

fifth program instructions for analyzing said program instructions of said at least one code segment and said other code segment to identify a relation between a location, within said computer code, of said at least one code segment and a location of said other code segment;

sixth program instructions for determining when said relation violates at least one of said location request rules, wherein said at least one of said location request rule requires a reduction in time window during which said at least one location service device provides location data updates as a result of said request for said location data, before said location data is used; and

seventh program instructions for providing, upon said determination, at least one suggested modification, to adapt said computer code to said optimized use, according to said at least one of said location request rules;

wherein said first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh program instructions are executed by at least one computerized processor from said non-transitory computer readable storage medium.