Optimizing preemptive operating system with motion sensing

• US 9,940,161 B1
• Filed: 11/09/2015
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kahn, Philippe Richard, Kinsolving, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): Swift, Charles M
• Application Number:
  US14/936,629
• Time in Patent Office: 883 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/48 Program initiating; Program switching, e.g. by interrupt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4818 Priority circuits therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4887 involving deadlines, e.g. rate based, periodic
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4893 taking into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/50 Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5005 to service a request
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5055 considering software capabilities, i.e. software resources associated or available to the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5094 where the allocation takes into account power or heat criteria power management in computers in general G06F1/3203; thermal management in computers in general G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation

Abstract

A method and apparatus to provide a scheduler comprising determining a current use characteristic for the device based on motion information and active applications, and scheduling a future task.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

predicting a future use characteristic for a device based on current motion information, predicted future motion information, and one or more currently active applications; and

scheduling a future task for execution at a future time based on the predicted future use characteristics.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scheduling the task to be immediately executed, when the task utilizes resources not currently used by the one or more currently active applications.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a conflict between a particular currently active application and the task; and

when the task is a higher priority than the particular currently active application, reducing resource availability to the particular currently active application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein reducing resource availability comprises terminating the particular currently active application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein when an existing operation of the particular currently active application is terminated, the existing operation is placed on a future task list to be executed when the resource becomes available again.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prioritizing tasks based on resource use and application profile.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the task is transmitting data to a server, and wherein the data transmission task is scheduled when the motion information and the currently active applications indicate that the device is idle.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the future task is a data call comprising one or more of:

uploading, downloading, and synchronizing data with a server.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the device is idle when the device is motionless, and no user interaction with the device is occurring.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the device is idle when the device is motionless and no voice call is being made.

11. A device comprising:

a motion sensor to obtain motion information;

an active application detector to detect one or more currently active applications; and

a processor to identify a future use characteristic for the device, based on the one or more currently active applications, current motion information, and predicted future motion information; and

a scheduler to schedule a task for execution at a future time based on the future use characteristics of the device.

12. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

the scheduler to schedule the task to be immediately executed, when the task utilizes resources not currently used by the currently active applications.

13. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

a prioritizer to determine a conflict between the currently active application and the task; and

when the task is a higher priority than the currently active application, a resource restrictor to reducing resource availability to the currently active application.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein reducing resource availability comprises terminating the currently active application.

15. The mobile device of claim 14, wherein when the existing operation is terminated, the existing operation is placed on a future task list to be executed when the resource becomes available again.

16. The device of claim 11, further comprising:

the scheduler to prioritize tasks based on resource use and application profile.

17. The device of claim 11, wherein the task is transmitting data to a server, and wherein the data transmission task is scheduled when the motion information and the currently active applications indicate that the device is idle.

18. The device of claim 11, wherein the future task is a data call comprising one or more of:

uploading, downloading, and synchronizing data with a server.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the device is idle when one of the following is occurring:

the device is motionless and no user interaction with the device is occurring, or when the device is motionless and no voice call is being made.

20. A device including a network connection comprising:

a motion information logic to receive motion information from a device, and to predict future motion information;

an active application detector to detect one or more currently active applications and resource usage of the one or more currently active applications;

a processor to determine future use characteristics based on the one or more currently active applications, the current motion information, and the predicted future motion information;

a current task scheduler to schedule a first task for immediate execution based on data from the active application detector;

a future task scheduler to receive a second task to be scheduled, the future task scheduler to schedule the second task for execution at a future time based on the predicted future use characteristics.