Mobile photo application migration to cloud computing platform

• US 8,725,800 B1
• Filed: 01/21/2014
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• 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: Chan, Michael A., Moss, Tom, Bornstein, Daniel R., Fleming, Michael K., Quan, Justin, Tong, Linda
• Primary Examiner(s): SERRAO, RANODHI N
• Application Number:
  US14/160,351
• Publication Number:
  US 20140136611A1
• Time in Patent Office: 112 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Technology is disclosed herein for migrating execution of at least a portion of a photo application to a server. According to at least one embodiment, a computing device monitors the photo application executing at the mobile device to identify a background thread and a foreground thread of the photo application, determine a current workload of the mobile device, transmit a received photo and an instance of the background thread to the server when the determined current workload exceeds a predefined threshold, receive a processed photo from the server, and provide access to the processed photo through the mobile device using the user interface generated by the foreground thread of the photo application.

Claims

1. A method for executing a photo application at a mobile device, the method comprising:

monitoring the photo application executing at the mobile device to identify a background thread and a foreground thread of the photo application, the background thread performing a photo processing task of a given photo, the foreground thread of the photo application providing a user interface to access a processed image through the mobile device, wherein the background thread does not directly interact with a user of the mobile device;

receiving a photo for processing and displaying using the photo application;

determining a current workload of the mobile device;

transmitting, from the mobile device to a server, the received photo and an instance of a background component of the photo application when the determined current workload exceeds a predefined threshold, the background component of the photo application including information to enable the server to run an instance of the background thread, the instance of the background component of the photo application being transferred when the server does not have a pre-existing instance of the background component;

receiving a processed photo from the server, wherein the processing of the photo is performed by executing the background thread at the server; and

providing access to the processed photo through the mobile device using the user interface generated by the foreground thread of the photo application, wherein the foreground thread utilizes the processed photo to provide access through the user interface as if the processed photo was generated by an instance of the background thread executed at the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting, from the mobile device to the server, the received photo and the instance of the background component of the photo application further comprises:

stopping executing of the background thread at the mobile device;

transmitting, from the mobile device to the server, the received and other data on which the mobile device has been operating.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the photo processing being performed on the given photo by the background thread includes resizing, filtering, exposure adjusting, color adjusting, file format changing or editing.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a given background thread includes a CPU intensive task, a GPU intensive task, a memory intensive task, a power intensive task, or a data input/output intensive task.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an optimization factor for the background thread of the photo application executing at the server;

if the optimization factor is less than a predefined threshold value, sending, from the mobile device to the server, an instruction to stop executing the instance of the background thread at the server;

executing the background thread of the photo application at the computing device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

retrieving, from the server, data generated by the instance of the background thread executing at the server before the instance of the background thread is stopped.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the optimization factor depends on a CPU resource, a GPU resource, a memory resource, a power, a data input/output amount, or a completion time needed for the instance of the background thread to continue executing at the server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the foreground thread is notified of the receiving of the processed photo via an inter-thread communication as if an instance of the background thread executed at the mobile device initiated the inter-thread communication.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the foreground thread is configured to allow the user of the mobile device access to the processed photo using the user interface generated using the foreground thread.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the processed photo and other access related data on which the foreground thread operates at the mobile device is synchronized with the received photo and other processing related data on which the background thread operates at the server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the background thread is configured to handle a given photo processing task without sending data to or receiving data from an output module of the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the current workload of the mobile device further includes determining whether the current workload of the computing device is reduced by executing the instance of the background thread on the server.

13. A method for executing a photo application at a server, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a mobile device to provide information regarding an access to an instance of a background component of the photo application, the background component of the photo application including information to enable the server to run an instance of a background thread, the background thread performing a photo processing task of a given photo;

receiving the instance of the background component of the photo application from the mobile device when the server does not have access to the instance of the background component;

receiving a photo to be processed by executing the background thread at the server;

processing the photo by executing the instance of the background thread at the server, wherein an instance of the photo application executing at the mobile device includes another instance of the background thread and an instance of a foreground thread, the foreground thread of the photo application providing a user interface to access a processed image through the mobile device, wherein the processing of the photo by another instance of the background thread executing at the mobile device is stopped before the processing the photo at the server; and

transmitting the processed photo and other related data to the mobile device, wherein the foreground thread executing at the mobile device provides access to the processed photo through the mobile device using the user interface generated by the foreground thread.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving, from the mobile device, an instruction to stop executing the instance of the background thread at the server, the instruction being sent my mobile device when an optimization factor is less than a predefined threshold value, wherein the optimization factor depends on a CPU resource, a GPU resource, a memory resource, a power, a data input/output amount, or a completion time needed for the instance of the background thread to continue executing at the server.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

transmitting, from the server, data generated by the instance of the background thread executing at the server before the instance of the background thread is stopped.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the photo processing being performed on a given photo by the background thread includes resizing, filtering, exposure adjusting, color adjusting, file format changing or editing.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein a given background thread includes a CPU intensive task, a GPU intensive task, a memory intensive task, a power intensive task, or a data input/output intensive task.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the foreground thread is notified of the transmitted processed photo via an inter-thread communication as if an instance of the background thread executed at the mobile device initiated the inter-thread communication.

19. A mobile device comprising:

a processor;

a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform a process including;

monitoring a photo application executing at the mobile device to identify a background thread and a foreground thread of the photo application, the background thread performing a photo processing task of a given photo, the foreground thread of the photo application providing a user interface to access a processed image through the mobile device, wherein the background thread does not directly interact with a user of the mobile device;

receiving a photo for processing and displaying using the photo application;

determining a current workload of the mobile device;

transmitting, from the mobile device to a server, the received photo and an instance of a background component of the photo application when the determined current workload exceeds a predefined threshold, the background component of the photo application including information to enable the server to run an instance of the background thread, the instance of the background component of the photo application being transferred when the server does not have a pre-existing instance of the background component;

receiving a processed photo from the server, wherein the processing of the photo is performed by executing the background thread at the server; and

providing access to the processed photo through the mobile device using the user interface generated by the foreground thread of the photo application, wherein the foreground thread utilizes the processed photo to provide access through the user interface as if the processed photo was generated by an instance of the background thread executed at the mobile device.

20. The mobile device of claim 19, wherein transmitting, from the mobile device to the server, the received photo and the instance of the background component of the photo application further comprises:

stopping executing of the background thread at the mobile device;

transmitting, from the mobile device to the server, the received and other data on which the mobile device has been operating.

21. The mobile device of claim 19, wherein the photo processing being performed on the given photo by the background thread includes resizing, filtering, exposure adjusting, color adjusting, file format changing or editing.

22. The mobile device of claim 19, wherein a given background thread includes a CPU intensive task, a GPU intensive task, a memory intensive task, a power intensive task, or a data input/output intensive task.

23. The mobile device of claim 19, further comprising:

determining an optimization factor for the background thread of the photo application executing at the server;

if the optimization factor is less than a predefined threshold value, sending, from the mobile device to the server, an instruction to stop executing the instance of the background thread at the server;

executing the background thread of the photo application at the computing device.

24. The mobile device of claim 23, further comprising:

retrieving, from the server, data generated by the instance of the background thread executing at the server before the instance of the background thread is stopped.

25. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the optimization factor depends on a CPU resource, a GPU resource, a memory resource, a power, a data input/output amount, or a completion time needed for the instance of the background thread to continue executing at the server.