APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT ENVIROMENT FOR PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES

• US 20120317555A1
• Filed: 06/10/2011
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sarda, Pankaj Kachrulal, Vadlapudi, Madhu, Aluru, Vamsee R K
• Granted Patent: US 9,535,817 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/134
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3652 in-circuit-emulation [ICE] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/33 Design verification, e.g. functional simulation or model checking

Abstract

A method for developing and testing an application for a device with one or more sensors using a sensor emulation environment that may allow testing of the application in a programmatic manner. The sensor emulation environment may emulate actual physical sensors. The sensor emulation environment may receive sensor simulation data from multiple types of sources of sensor data. A sensor data engine may receive sensor simulation data from a selected data source via an API. The data engine may provide data values at times that represent operation of a sensor. The sensor emulation environment may further include a sensor interface component that emulates a hardware interface to the emulated sensor in a physical target device such that application components, such as a driver, may interact with the sensor emulation environment.

Claims

1. In a computer comprising at least one processor, a method of testing an application for a mobile computing device, the method comprising:

with the at least one processor;

connecting a sensor emulation environment to a source of sensor simulation data;

receiving, via an application programming interface, the sensor simulation data from the source of sensor simulation data;

providing, from the application programming interface, the sensor simulation data to a sensor interface component that emulates an interface to a physical sensor; and

providing the sensor simulation data from the sensor interface component to a driver for use in operating the application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the source of sensor simulation data comprises selecting the source of sensor simulation data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the source of sensor simulation data comprises a simulation model for generating the sensor simulation data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the source of sensor simulation data comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a device, a file, or a process.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the source of sensor simulation data is the device, and the device is different from the mobile computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the application programming interface and the sensor interface component execute in the sensor emulation environment and the application executes in an application environment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the sensor emulation environment and the application environment are located on a same computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, via a sensor data engine, a time to provide the sensor simulation data to the sensor interface component.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the time to provide the sensor simulation data to the sensor interface component comprises processing at least one timing parameter of the sensor simulation data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one timing parameter of the sensor simulation data comprises a timestamp.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one timing parameter of the sensor simulation data comprises an offset.

12. A computer system comprising at least one processor for testing an application guest environment configured to execute an application for a mobile device, the computer system comprising:

a sensor emulation environment configured to;

receive, by a sensor data engine via an application programming interface, sensor simulation data from a source of sensor simulation data;

provide, from the sensor data engine, the sensor simulation data to at least one sensor interface component; and

provide, from the at least one sensor interface component via a driver for use in operating the application, the sensor simulation data to an application.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the sensor simulation data comprises a plurality of data points and each data point from the plurality of data points is associated with at least one parameter that is utilized by the sensor data engine to determine a time to provide the sensor simulation data to the application.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one of a timestamp and an offset.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the at least one sensor interface component receives the plurality of data points at the same time.

16. The computer system of claim 13, wherein:

the at least one parameter further comprises an identifier of the at least one sensor interface component; and

the sensor data engine determines at least one sensor interface component based on the identifier.

17. At least one computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform a method of supplying simulated sensor data for testing an application for a mobile computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, via at least one sensor interface component, a request for sensor data from a driver for use in operating the application;

in response to the request, obtaining, by a sensor data engine, the sensor simulation data from an application programming interface, wherein the application programming interface receives the sensor simulation data from a source of sensor simulation data;

providing, by the sensor data engine, the sensor simulation data to the at least one sensor interface component; and

providing, by the at least one sensor interface component, the sensor simulation data to the driver.

18. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises connecting to the source of sensor simulation data, the connecting comprising selecting the source of sensor simulation data.

19. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the source of sensor simulation data comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a device, a file, a process or a simulation model.

20. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the device is different from the mobile computing device.