Software

AI + ML

AI lifeline to help devs craft smartmobe apps that suck a whole lot less... battery capacity

Remember the days when you didn't have to charge your phone several times a day?


Artificial intelligence can help developers design mobile phone apps that drain less battery, according to new research.

The system, dubbed DiffProff, will be presented this week at the USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation conference in California, was developed by Charlie Hu and Abhilash Jindal, who have a startup devoted to better battery testing via software.

DiffProf rests on the assumption that apps that carry out the same function perform similar tasks in slightly different ways. For example, messaging apps like Whatsapp, Google Hangouts, or Skype, keep old conversations and bring up a keyboard so replies can be typed and sent. Despite this, Whatsapp is about three times more energy efficient than Skype.

"What if a feature of an app needs to consume 70 percent of the phone's battery? Is there room for improvement, or should that feature be left the way it is?" said Hu, who is also a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University.

The research paper describing DiffProf is pretty technical. Essentially, it describes a method that uses “differential energy profiling” to create energy profiles for different apps. First, the researchers carry out a series of automated tests on apps by performing identical tasks on each app to work out energy efficiency.

Next, the profile also considers the app’s “call tree” also known as a call graph. These describe the different computer programs that are executed in order to perform a broader given task.

A volt out of the blue: Phone batteries reveal what you typed and read

READ MORE

Apps that have the same function, like playing music or sending emails, should have similar call trees. Slight variances in the code, however, lead to different energy profiles. DiffProf uses an algorithm to compare the call trees and highlights what programs are causing an app to drain more energy.

Developers running the tool receive a list of Java packages, that describe the different software features, which appear in the both apps being compared. They can then work out which programs in the less energy efficient app suck up more juice and if it can be altered or deleted altogether. The tool is only useful if the source code for similar apps have significant overlap.

The researchers used an Android device to test eight different app groups that perform various tasks such as streaming music, scanning for viruses or sending emails. They found that Soundcloud saps more energy than Spotify or Pandora.

Google Hangouts was less energy efficient than Facebook’s Messenger or Whatsapp. DiffProf even managed to spot bugs wasting energy in Kaspersky antivirus mobile app and Pandora. Both bugs were confirmed and the Pandora one was fixed afterwards. ®

Send us news
5 Comments

AI researchers have started reviewing their peers using AI assistance

ChatGPT deems your work to be commendable, innovative, and comprehensive

CNCF boss talks 'irrational exuberance' in an AI-heavy Kubecon keynote

Kubecon? More like Queuecon as Paris show's registration system experiences temporary borkage

Samsung preps inferencing accelerator to take on Nvidia, scores huge sale

PLUS: Tencent's profit plunge; Singtel to build three AI datacenters; McDonald's China gobbles Microsoft AI

Dell adds Nvidia's next GPUs to its portfolio of AI platforms

Nvidia is a kingmaker, and who wouldn't want to be king?

Can AI shorten PC replacement cycles? Dell seems to think so

Might be wishful thinking from finance exec following two-year computer sector recession

Nvidia rival Cerebras says it's revived Moore's Law with third-gen waferscale chips

Startup is also working with Qualcomm on optimized models for its Cloud AI 100 Ultra inference chips

Belgian beer study acquires taste for machine learning

Researchers reckon results could improve recipe development for food and beverages

Homeland Security will test out using genAI to train US immigration officers

It's all about privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, ok?

Intel chases smaller code shops with expanded AI PC dev program, NUC kit

Chipzilla wants more apps coded for NPUs, not Nvidia

In the rush to build AI apps, please, please don't leave security behind

Supply-chain attacks are definitely possible and could lead to data theft, system hijacking, and more

Intel throws chips on the table, Microsoft plays the Copilot card in wild bet on AI PCs

Does anyone actually want one?

Microsoft says AI alliances are needed to compete with Google

Only the Chocolate Factory is 'vertically integrated' to win at 'every AI layer from chips to a thriving mobile app store'
BREAKING NEWS: FTX crypto-crook Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years in prison