A
researcher
at
Waterloo
Engineering
has
helped
find
a
novel
method
to
extend
the
battery
life
of
smartphones
for
up
to
an
hour
each
day.
Kshirasagar
Naik,
a
professor
of
electrical
and
computer
engineering,
collaborated
with
researchers
in
India
to
develop
an
app
that
can
reduce
the
energy
consumption
of
smartphones
without
any
significant
impact
on
performance.
Kshirasagar Naik
“The
built-in
multi-window
feature
released
with
the
new
Android
operating
system
allows
users
to
have
multiple
windows
and
files
open
at
the
same
time
similar
to
a
laptop,
but
this
results
in
unnecessary
energy
drain,”
said
Naik.
“We
have
developed
an
app
which
users
can
install
on
their
devices
and
use
to
reduce
the
brightness
of
non-critical
applications.
So,
when
you’re
interacting
with
one
application,
the
brightness
of
the
other
window
goes
down
and
thereby
reduces
the
energy
consumption
of
the
device.”
The
app
was
evaluated
in
an
experiment
involving
200
smartphone
users,
who
downloaded
the
software
on
their
devices
and
used
it
while
they
had
multiple
windows
open.
It
was
found
that
when
the
energy-saving
technique
was
used
it
extended
battery
life
by
10
to
25
per
cent.
App relieves 'big pain' for smartphone users
“What
happens
now
is
that
you
put
the
phone
on
a
charger
for
the
night
and
when
you
leave
home
the
next
day
the
battery
is
at
100
per
cent,
but
there
is
a
lot
of
behind
the
scenes
computation
and
communication
going
on,
and
it
drains
the
battery,”
said
Naik.
“By
midday
the
charge
is
reduced
to
30
per
cent.
So,
you
need
to
charge
the
battery
many
times
in
a
day,
and
from
the
user’s
perspective
that
is
a
big
pain.
“Due
to
the
excess
energy
consumption,
the
phone
becomes
warmer
and
warmer
while
the
frequent
charging
reduces
the
life
of
the
battery.
So,
batteries
that
are
meant
to
last
for
three
years
may
have
to
be
replaced
in
two
years.”
The
study, MultiDroid:
An
Energy
Optimization
Technique
for
Multi-Window
Operations
on
OLED
Smartphones,
was
co-authored
by
Naik and
Milind
Kumar
Rohit,
Chiranjeev
Kumar
and
Ginny,
all
of
the
Indian
Institute
of
Technology.
It was
recently
published
in
IEEE
Access,
an
open
access
journal
of
the
Institute
of
Electrical
and
Electronics
Engineers.