Cross-OS Background Task Offloading for Wearable Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic devices like smartwatches and bands struggle to efficiently execute background tasks due to limited memory and processing capabilities, leading to difficulties in monitoring task execution conditions when memory and processor usage are high.
Innovation Solution
A distributed system, such as HarmonyOS, is installed on a more capable device (e.g., a mobile phone) to monitor and trigger background tasks on less capable devices (e.g., smartwatches or bands) by detecting task execution conditions and sending notifications to execute tasks when conditions are met.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the smartwatch monitors device status information locally, then the background tasks can be executed, but the memory usage and processor usage become too high
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile phone acts as an intermediary device that receives background task requests from the smartwatch, monitors device status information, and triggers task execution. This mediator approach transfers the memory and processor monitoring burden from the smartwatch to the mobile phone, resolving the contradiction between task execution efficiency and resource consumption.
2Productivity
If the smartwatch monitors device status information locally, then the background tasks can be executed, but the processor usage becomes too high
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile phone serves as a computational intermediary that handles the processor-intensive monitoring of device status information. By offloading this function to the mobile phone's more powerful processor, the smartwatch can execute background tasks without experiencing excessive processor usage, thus resolving the contradiction between productivity and power consumption.
3Productivity
If the smartwatch executes background tasks frequently, then task completion improves, but the limited processing capability causes struggles
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the background task execution process into two parts: request generation on the smartwatch and monitoring/triggers execution on the mobile phone. This segmentation allows the smartwatch to maintain simple processing capabilities while achieving high task completion rates through the mobile phone's computational power.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile phone functions as an intermediary that handles the complex monitoring and triggering operations, enabling the smartwatch to execute background tasks frequently without straining its limited processing capability. The intermediary absorbs the computational complexity while the smartwatch maintains simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
The method includes: the second electronic device may send, in response to a first user operation, a first background task request to a first distributed system of the first electronic device by using a second distributed system. The first electronic device detects, by using the first distributed system, whether a task execution condition of a first background task is met. When the task execution condition is met, the first electronic device sends a first notification to the second distributed system of the second electronic device by using the first distributed system. In response to the received first notification, the second electronic device notifies, by using the second distributed system, a first application to execute the first background task.