Intelligent management for an electronic device

• US 9,740,268 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2015
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Parivar, Nima, Ho, Kelsey Y.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kessler, Gregory A
• Application Number:
  US14/598,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20150130739A1
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/027 by controlling a display operation or backlight unit
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

An electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device includes a first input device; a second input device capable of operating in a first operating mode; and a system management module in communication with the first input device and the second input device. The system management module is configured for switching the second input device to a second operating mode in response to detecting, by the first input device, a presence of a user without receiving any operation-specific input from the user.

Claims

1. A method for managing an application running on an electronic device, comprising:

detecting an interaction between a user and the device;

determining whether a first application is in an idle mode in response to the detected interaction between the user and the device, wherein the detected interaction is unrelated to the first application;

suspending the first application if the first application is determined to be in the idle mode;

determining whether a second application different from the first application is in a normal mode in response to the detected interaction between the user and the device; and

running the second application in the normal mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein suspending the first application comprises allocating fewer resources of the electronic device to the first application.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the resources of the electronic device comprise an area of a display of the electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the first application is in an idle mode further comprises determining whether the user is likely to interact with the first application with the detected interaction between the user and the device based on a detected type of the detected interaction.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for performing a method for managing an application running on an electronic device, the method comprising:

detecting an interaction between the user and the device;

determining whether a first application is in an idle mode in response to the detected interaction between the user and the device, wherein the detected interaction is unrelated to the first application;

suspending the first application if the first application is determined to be in the idle mode;

determining whether a second application different from the first application is in a normal mode in response to the detected interaction between the user and the device; and

running the second application in the normal mode.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein suspending the first application comprises allocating fewer resources of the electronic device to the first application.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the resources of the electronic device comprise an area of a display of the electronic device.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein determining whether the first application is in an idle mode further comprises determining whether the user is likely to interact with the first application with the detected interaction between the user and the device based on a detected type of the detected interaction between the user and the device.

9. An electronic device comprising:

a processor configured to run one or more applications on the electronic device;

a first input device configured to detect user input; and

a device management module configured to allocate system resources of the electronic device to the one or more applications based on whether or not user input is detected by the first input device using a method comprising;

determining whether a first application is in an idle mode in response to the user input detected by the first input device, wherein the user input detected by the first input device is unrelated to the first application;

suspending the first application if the first application is determined to be in the idle mode;

determining whether a second application different from the first application is in a normal mode in response to the user input detected by the first input device; and

running the second application in the normal mode.

10. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the device management module is configured to reduce an amount of system resources allocated to the second application when no user input is detected by the first input device.

11. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein reducing an amount of system resources to the second application comprises suspending the application or minimizing the application.

12. The electronic device of claim 10, further comprising a display, wherein the system resources comprise an area of the display occupied by the one or more applications.

13. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the device management module is configured to increase an amount of system resources allocated to the second application when user input is detected by the first input device.

14. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein increasing the amount of system resources allocated to the second application comprises moving the second application to a foreground of a display or increasing processor or memory resources to the second application.

15. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the first input device comprises at least one of a keyboard, mouse, touch panel, proximity sensor, and camera.

16. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the first input device comprises a touch-sensing keyboard, and wherein the device management module increases an amount of system resources to the second application in response to detecting a touch on the keyboard based on a determination that the second application is configured to receive input from the keyboard.

17. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the second application comprises a video game, and wherein the device management module suspends the game when no user input is detected by the first input device.

18. The electronic device of claim 10, wherein the system resources comprises at least one of processor cycles and memory.

19. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the user input is a first user input, and the electronic device further comprises:

a second input device different from the first input device, the second input device configured to detect a second user input, wherein

the device management module is further configured to, in response to receiving the second user input;

determine whether the first application is in the normal mode in response to the second user input detected by the second input device;

run the first application in the normal mode;

determine whether the second application is in the idle mode in response to the second user input detected by the second user input device, wherein the second user input detected by the first input device is unrelated to the second application; and

suspending the second application if the second application is determined to be in the idle mode.