Efficient power usage in position tracking operations

摘要

Techniques and tools for reducing power consumption of computing devices (e.g., mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers) that perform position tracking operations are described. In described examples, a low-power processor calculates (e.g., in real time) position information (e.g., GPS position fixes) based on information received from a positioning system (e.g., GPS) and stores the position information for later use in a buffer associated with the low-power processor (e.g., in storage on the low-power processor). Described examples allow position information to be calculated in real time and stored while the device is in a low-power state, and can be used with location-based applications that do not require position information to be delivered to the application in real time.

主权项

1. In a mobile computing device having first and second processors, the first processor being a low-power processor compared to the second processor, a method comprising, by the first processor:
receiving condition information that specifies one or more conditions for buffering of positions between notifications; calculating plural positions of the mobile computing device at different time instances based on information received from a positioning system; according to the one or more conditions, storing at least some of the plural positions as position entries in a multiple-entry buffer associated with the first processor; and providing position information for the position entries from the multiple-entry buffer in a notification to the second processor, where the providing is responsive to at least one of:
determining that the multiple-entry buffer has reached a buffer fullness level;receiving a request for position information from a location service executing on the second processor when the second processor is in a high-power state; ordetermining that a distance between two of the positions stored as position entries exceeds a distance threshold.