DEVICE THAT DETERMINES WHETHER TO LAUNCH AN APPLICATION LOCALLY OR REMOTELY AS A WEBAPP

• US 20080268828A1
• Filed: 04/25/2007
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Nagaraja, Nagendra
• Granted Patent: US 8,355,709 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5019 Workload prediction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

A utility program executing on a mobile communication device decides whether to launch an application remotely as a Webapp or whether to launch the application locally on the mobile communication device. The decision is based at least in part on an estimate of how much of a resource the application would consume were the application to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device. Examples of resources include battery capacity, memory capacity, and processing power capacity. If the total amount of a resource consumed by currently executing applications and the application to be launched would exceed a threshold amount, then the utility uses a browser on the mobile communication device to launch the application remotely as a Webapp, otherwise the utility program causes the application to be launched locally. The utility program has a graphical user interface (GUI) whereby utility program operation can be configured and customized.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) storing a first value that is indicative of a first amount of a resource, wherein the first amount of the resource is an amount of the resource that is being used on a mobile communication device;

(b) storing a second value that is indicative of a second amount of the resource, wherein the second amount of the resource is an amount of the resource that a local instance of an application program would use if the local instance were executed on the mobile communication device, wherein the application program is a program to be launched;

(c) based at least in part on the first value and the second value, determining whether the application program to be launched should be executed on the mobile communication device or should not be executed on the mobile communication device;

(d) if the determination in (c) is that the application program should be executed on the mobile communication device, then causing the local instance of the application program to be launched on the mobile communication device; and

(e) if the determination in (c) is that the application program should not be executed on the mobile communication device, then

     1) causing a remote instance of the application program to be launched on a remote computer, and

     2) executing a web browser on the mobile communication device, wherein the web browser is usable by a user of the mobile communication device to interact with the remote instance across a wide area network and to view data output by the remote instance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote instance of the application program is a Webapp, wherein the wide area network includes the Internet, wherein the mobile communication device is a cellular telephone, and wherein (a) through (e) are performed by a utility program executing on the cellular telephone.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the utility program has a graphical user interface (GUI).

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the GUI is usable to specify that the determination in (c) will be that the application program should be executed on the mobile communication device regardless of the first and second values.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the GUI causes a list of application programs to be displayed on a display of the mobile communication device, and wherein the GUI causes an associated list of resource amount values to be displayed on the display, wherein each resource amount value in the list of resource amount values is associated with an respective one of the application programs in the list of application programs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein (c) involves determining if a sum of the first value and the second value exceeds a predetermined threshold value, wherein if the sum is determined to exceed the predetermined threshold value then it is determined in (c) that the application program should not be executed on the mobile communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is taken from the group consisting of:

battery capacity, memory capacity, processing power capacity, battery usage, memory usage, and processing power usage.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the application program is taken from the group consisting of:

a multi-user electronic game, a video game, a video editing program, a video messaging program, and a computationally-intensive financial analysis program.

9. A method comprising:

(a) on a mobile communication device making a decision of whether to launch a first instance of an application program locally on the mobile communication device or whether to launch a second instance of the application program remotely as a Webapp, wherein the decision is based at least in part on an estimate of how much of a resource the first instance of the application program would consume were the first instance of the application to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

(b) displaying a list of application programs on a display of the mobile communication device, wherein the application programs in the list include application programs that are executing on the mobile communication device, and wherein the application programs in the list include application programs that are being executed remotely as Webapps, wherein a utility program executing on the mobile communication device determines the application programs in the list and also makes the decision in (a).

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the mobile communication device is a cellular telephone that executes a browser program, where the browser program is used to render display data received from the Webapp.

12. A mobile communication device comprising:

a memory that stores a first instance of an application program, a web browser, and a utility program; and

a processor that executes the utility program, wherein execution of the utility program determines whether the first instance of the application program will be launched locally on the mobile communication device or whether a second instance of the application program will be launched remotely as a Webapp on a remote computer, wherein the determination is made based at least in part on an amount of a resource that the application program would consume were the application program to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

13. The mobile communication device of claim 12, further comprising:

a display that displays a list of application programs, wherein the list also includes a resource amount value for each of the application programs listed in the list, wherein execution of the utility program by the processor causes the list to be displayed on the display.

14. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein the determination involves determining whether a threshold usage value for the resource would be exceeded if the first instance of the application program were to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

15. The mobile communication device of claim 14, further comprising:

a battery; and

a power management integrated circuit coupled to the battery, wherein the power management integrated circuit provides battery information to the processor, and wherein the processor uses the battery information in determining whether the threshold usage value would be exceeded.

16. The mobile communication device of claim 12, wherein no part of the second instance of the application program is executed on the mobile communication device if the second instance of the application program is launched remotely as a Webapp.

17. A mobile communication device comprising:

a memory that stores a web browser and a first instance of an application program; and

means for determining whether the first instance of the application program will be launched locally on the mobile communication device or whether a second instance of the application program will be launched remotely as a Webapp on a remote computer.

18. The mobile communication device of claim 17, wherein the determination is made based at least in part on an amount of a resource that the first instance of the application program is estimated to consume were the first instance to be launched and executed on the mobile communication device.

19. The mobile communication device of claim 17, wherein the mobile communication device has a graphical user interface, wherein the graphical user interface is usable to change conditions under which the means will determine that an application program will be launched remotely as a Webapp.

20. The mobile communication device of claim 17, wherein the means has an ability to terminate execution of a Webapp on the remote computer.

21. A set of processor-executable instructions stored on a processor-readable medium, wherein the set of processor-executable instructions is for performing the steps of:

(a) maintaining information indicative of an amount of a resource that a local instance of an application program would use if the local instance were executed on a mobile communication device; and

(a) determining whether the local instance should be launched locally on a mobile communication device or whether a remote instance of the application program should be launched remotely so that it is usable from the mobile communication device as a Webapp, wherein the determination is based at least in part on the information maintained in (a), and wherein the processor-readable medium is a part of the mobile communication device.