Mobile device operations with battery optimization

• US 9,152,202 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2011
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Seinfeld, Marc, Kuo, Chengi Jimmy, Putnam, Aaron, Williams, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Jung
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stoica, Adrian
• Application Number:
  US13/162,133
• Publication Number:
  US 20120324578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 by selectively disabling software applications
• 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

Techniques for conserving battery power in devices are provided. One or more deferrable tasks are queued for later execution. An initiation of a subsequent charging event for a battery of the device is detected. The queued deferrable task(s) are enabled to be executed during the charging event. For instance, the queued deferrable task(s) may be enabled to be executed if the charging event is predicted to be a long duration charging event, such as by referring to a charging profile of the mobile device. In this manner, battery power is conserved while the device is in use and not connected to a battery charger.

Claims

1. A method in a device, comprising:

queuing at least one deferrable task for later execution;

detecting an initiation of a charging event for a battery of the device subsequent to said queuing;

predicting that the charging event is a long duration charging event based on a charging profile for the device, the long duration charging event being a charging event with a duration greater than a predetermined threshold, to enable a deferrable task of the at least one deferrable task to be performed or executed during the charging event; and

enabling the queued at least one deferrable task to be executed during the charging event after a predetermined amount of time, has elapsed since said detecting.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling said executing as a result of said predicting.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

monitoring a charging of the battery of the device over time; and

generating the charging profile based on said monitoring.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

enabling a user of the device to manually configure the charging profile.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to execute a particular task;

determining that the particular task is not deferrable; and

enabling the particular task to be executed prior to the charging event.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

queuing a deferrable task associated with a file for later execution;

receiving a request from a user related to the file;

removing the deferrable task from the queue due to the received request; and

performing an operation with regard to the file as a result of the received request.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a lightweight scan on a file to generate a scan result;

transmitting the scan result to a remote server;

receiving an indication from the remote server whether the file is malicious; and

queuing a full scan task associated with the file if the file is indicated to not be malicious.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one deferrable task includes at least one of a file download task, a virus scan task, a backup task, or a configuration management task.

20. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating the charging profile based at least on a charging capacity of the battery and a charging rate of the battery; and

generating the charging profile further based on at least one of usage of GPS (global positioning system) functionality, a microphone input, light sensitivity, motion, whether a voice call is being made, or calendar contents.

9. A task scheduler in a mobile device, the task scheduler enabling conserving of battery power of the mobile device during mobile operation, the task scheduler, comprising:

a task queuing module configured to determine that at least one task is deferrable and to queue the at least one deferrable task for later execution;

a charge monitor configured to detect an initiation of a charging event for a battery of the mobile device subsequent to queuing the at least one deferrable task; and

a queue enabler module configured to enable the at least one deferrable task to be executed during the charging event and after a predetermined amount of time has elapsed since the detection if the charging event is predicted to be a long duration charging event, the long duration charging event being a charging event with a duration greater than a predetermined threshold, to enable a deferrable task of the at least one deferrable task to be performed or executed during the charging event.

10. The task scheduler of claim 9, wherein the queue enabler module comprises:

a charge event analyzer configured to predict that the charging event is a long duration charging event based on a charging profile for the mobile device; and

the queue enabler module being configured to enable the queued at least one deferrable task to be executed during the charging event as a result of the prediction.

11. The task scheduler of claim 10, wherein the charge event analyzer is configured to determine whether the charging event has a duration greater than the predetermined threshold to predict whether the charging event is a long duration charging event.

12. The task scheduler of claim 10, wherein the queue enabler module is configured to monitor a charging of the battery over time to generate charge history data, and to generate the charging profile based on the charge history data.

13. The task scheduler of claim 10, further comprising:

a user interface module configured to enable a user of the mobile device to manually configure the charging profile.

14. The task scheduler of claim 9, wherein the task queuing module receives a request to execute a particular task, and determines whether the particular task is not deferrable, the queue enabler module enabling the particular task to be executed prior to receiving the charge current if the particular task is determined to be not deferrable.

15. The task scheduler of claim 9, wherein the task queuing module queues a deferrable task associated with a file for later execution, receives a request from a user related to the file, and removes the deferrable task associated with the file from the queue due to the received request.

16. The task scheduler of claim 9, wherein a scanning module of the mobile device performs a lightweight scan on a file to generate a scan result, and the scan result is transmitted from the mobile device to a remote server;

the task queuing module being configured to queue a full scan task associated with the file if the file is indicated to not be malicious in a response received from the remote server.

17. The task scheduler of claim 9, wherein the at least one deferrable task includes at least one of a file download task, a virus scan task, a backup task, or a configuration management task.

18. A computer program product device comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer program code embodied in said storage medium for enabling a processing unit to perform battery management for a device, the computer program code comprising:

first computer program code that enables the processing unit to queue at least one deferrable task for later execution; and

second computer program code that enables the processing unit to;

predict an initiation of a charging event for a battery of the device that is subsequent to the at least one deferrable task being queued,

predict that the charging event is a long duration charging event based on a charging profile for the device, the long duration charging event being a charging event with a duration greater than a predetermined threshold, to enable a deferrable task of the at least one deferrable task to be performed or executed during the charging event, and

enable the queued at least one deferrable task to begin execution.

19. The computer program product device of claim 18, wherein the second computer program code comprises:

computer program code that enables the processing unit to enable the queued at least one deferrable task to be executed as a result of the prediction that the charging event is a long duration charging event.

21. A method in a device, comprising:

queuing at least one deferrable task for later execution, the at least one deferrable task including a security operation;

predicting an initiation of a charging event for a battery of the device that is subsequent to the at least one deferrable task being queued;

predicting that the charging event is a long duration charging event based on a charging profile for the device, the long duration charging event being a charging event with a duration greater than a predetermined threshold, to enable a deferrable task of the at least one deferrable task to be performed or executed during the charging event; and

enabling the queued at least one deferrable task to begin execution.