FRAGMENT-BASED MOBILE DEVICE APPLICATION STREAMING UTILIZING CROWD-SOURCING

• US 20140221093A1
• Filed: 04/11/2014
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Nextbit Systems, Inc. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: Quan, Justin, Chan, Michael A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,717,985 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/215 comprising means for detecting acoustic signals, e.g. using a microphone
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/34 using peer-to-peer connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/358 Adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection speeds between clients
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/60 Generating or modifying game content before or while executing the game program, e.g. authoring tools specially adapted for game development or game-integrated level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5017 Task decomposition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355

Abstract

Technology for decomposing an application into fragments and streaming the application in fragments is disclosed herein. According to at least one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes steps of sending one or more messages to cause a plurality of computing devices that can be used to execute the compute task to be identified, sending at least one message to initiate execution of the compute task to determine the plurality of application fragments including a first application fragment and a second application fragment, collecting fragment information associated with the application fragments from one or more of the plurality of computing devices, storing the fragment information at a storage device, determining that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment based on a fragments relationship data structure, and streaming the second application fragment to a mobile game computing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

in response to an indication from a party to initiate a crowd sourced compute task, sending one or more messages to cause a plurality of computing devices that can be used to execute the crowd sourced compute task to be identified, the crowd sourced compute task to involve execution of a plurality of computer simulations to determine a plurality of application fragments of a mobile game application, the computing devices being made available for use in association with the crowd sourced compute task by a plurality of people;

sending at least one message to initiate execution of the crowd sourced compute task to determine the plurality of application fragments, including a first application fragment and a second application fragment,

wherein each application fragment of the plurality of application fragments corresponds to a portion of the mobile game application,

wherein the portion of the mobile game application that the first application fragment corresponds to is any of a scene in the mobile game application, a level of the mobile game application, or a help portion of the mobile game application;

collecting fragment information associated with the application fragments from one or more of the plurality of computing devices;

storing the fragment information at a storage device;

determining that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment based on a fragments relationship data structure, the fragments relationship data structure associating the first application fragment with the second application fragment, based on an analysis of the fragment information that indicates that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment during operation of the mobile game application; and

streaming, via a network component, the second application fragment to a mobile game computing device based on the determination that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the fragments relationship data structure, wherein the fragments relationship data structure associates one or more next application fragments with the first application fragment to indicate that each of the one or more next application fragments follows the first application fragment, each of the one or more next application fragments respectively following the first application fragment at different times of operation of the mobile game application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to an indication to initiate a second crowd sourced compute task, sending at least one additional message to initiate execution of the second crowd sourced compute task to generate the fragments relationship data structure, wherein the fragments relationship data structure associates one or more next application fragments with the first application fragment to indicate that each of the one or more next application fragments follows the first application fragment, each of the one or more next application fragments respectively following the first application fragment at different times of operation of the mobile game application.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

streaming the first application fragment to the mobile game computing device, wherein the streaming of the second application fragment follows sequentially the streaming of the first application fragment.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a resource dependency data structure, wherein for each specific application fragment of the plurality of application fragments, the resource dependency data structure indicates resources that are needed to run the specific application fragment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the streaming of the second application fragment comprises streaming the second application fragment along with resources that are needed by the second application fragment as indicated by the resource dependency data structure.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

incorporating resources that are needed to run the second application fragment into the second application fragment, based on the resource dependency data structure.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second application fragment includes all resources that are needed by the second application fragment.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the resources that are needed by the second application fragment include any of a portion of code of the mobile game application, images, icons, text, audio, video, or 3D models.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to an indication to initiate a second crowd sourced compute task, sending at least one additional message to initiate execution of the second crowd sourced compute task to generate a resource dependency data structure, wherein for each specific application fragment of the plurality of application fragments, the resource dependency data structure indicates resources that are needed to run the specific application fragment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a portion of resources that are needed by the second application fragment are not included in the second application fragment, and wherein the streaming of the second application fragment comprises streaming the second application fragment along with the portion of the resources that are needed by the second application.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein none of the plurality of people receive financial compensation from the party in association with making the computing devices available for the use, and wherein the plurality of computing devices are independent from the party in that the party has no legal right to administratively control any of the plurality of computing devices

13. A server comprising:

a processor;

a network component, coupled to the processor, through which to communicate over a network with remote devices; and

a storage device coupled to the processor, the storage device storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the server to perform operations including;

collecting fragment information associated with a plurality of application fragments that were previously determined as a result of a crowd sourced compute task, that involved execution of a plurality of computer simulations to determine application fragments of a mobile game application, the plurality of application fragments including a first application fragment and a second application fragment, wherein each application fragment of the plurality of application fragments corresponds to a portion of a mobile game application;

storing the fragment information at the storage device;

receiving, from a mobile device, an indication to stream the first application fragment;

streaming, via the network component, the first application fragment to the mobile device in response to the indication to stream the first application fragment;

determining that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment based on a fragments relationship data structure, the fragments relationship data structure associating the first application fragment with the second application fragment, based on an analysis of the fragment information that indicates that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment during operation of the mobile game application; and

streaming, via the network component, the second application fragment to the mobile device based on the determination that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the first application fragment corresponds to a first user interface that corresponds to displaying a first level of the mobile game application, wherein the second application fragment corresponds to a second user interface that corresponds to displaying a second level of the mobile game application, and wherein the second application fragment follows the first application fragment in response to a transition from the first level of the mobile game application to the second level of the mobile game application.

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the first application fragment corresponds to a first scene in the mobile game application, wherein the second application fragment corresponds to a second scene in the mobile game application, and wherein the second application fragment follows the first application fragment in response to a transition from the first scene to the second scene.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further include:

sending one or more messages to initiate the crowd sourced compute task, to determine the plurality of application fragments of the mobile game application.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the first application fragment was determined based on an analysis of a first user interface by running the mobile game application on an emulator, that simulates the mobile game application running on a selected mobile device, to determine resources needed to display the first user interface.

18. A method comprising:

in response to an indication to initiate a crowd sourced compute task, sending one or more messages to initiate execution of the crowd sourced compute task, the crowd sourced compute task to involve execution of a plurality of computer simulations to determine a plurality of application fragments, including a first application fragment and a second application fragment,

wherein each application fragment of the plurality of application fragments corresponds to a portion of a mobile entertainment application;

collecting fragment information associated with the plurality of application fragments;

storing the fragment information at a storage device;

determining that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment based on a fragments relationship data structure, the fragments relationship data structure associating the first application fragment with the second application fragment, based on an analysis of the fragment information that indicates that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment during operation of the mobile game application;

receiving, from a mobile device, an indication to stream the first application fragment;

in response to the indication to stream the first application fragment, streaming, via a network component, the first application fragment to the mobile device for execution by the mobile device;

receiving, from the mobile device, an indication that the execution of the first application fragment is to transition to another application fragment; and

streaming, via the network component, the second application fragment to the mobile device based on an analysis of the fragment information that indicates that the second application fragment follows the first application fragment during operation of the mobile game application.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the storage device is provided as part of a cloud storage service.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, from the mobile device, resource information indicating that the mobile device has adequate resources to accommodate the second fragment.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the plurality of application fragments include multiple versions.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the multiple versions include an Android environment version and an iOS environment version.