System and method for fast starting an application

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10114661-B2
Application number	US-201414536481-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2014
Priority date	Nov 7, 2014
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

One or more applications are started in suspend mode during a boot up sequence of the operating system. The one or more applications are added to a suspended list. The system continues by monitoring a plurality of application programming interface (API) calls made from the application layer to one or more graphic rendering modules; and processing the plurality of API calls to the one or more graphic rendering modules based on whether each API call belongs to an application on the suspended list. Fast starting a channel application can also be done in a predictive manner via the search function or based on feeds in a notification area.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for fast starting an application in an operating system, the method comprising:
starting a plurality of channel applications during a boot up sequence of the operating system;
placing a first channel application of the plurality of channel applications into a suspend mode after an initial time has passed, wherein the initial time allows the plurality of channel applications to finish the boot up sequence and load resources;
adding the first channel application to a suspended list of channel applications that have booted up, wherein a second channel application of the plurality of channel applications is not on the suspended list;
receiving an application programming interface (API) call from the first channel application on the suspended list;
preventing, by a processor, the API call from being executed based upon a determination that the first channel application from which the API call is received is on the suspended list, such that processing resources associated with an execution of the API call are made available for processing functions other than executing the API call from the first channel application on the suspended list based upon the prevention of the execution;
incrementing a block count indicating a number of times that the API call to the processor is determined to be received from the first channel application while on the suspended list;
terminating the first channel application based on the block count exceeding a certain level, wherein the terminating includes removing the first channel application from the suspended list;
receiving a search term;
identifying a group of channels based on the search term;
determining that a particular channel from the group of channels is associated with the second channel application that is not on the suspended list; and
starting the second channel application associated with the particular channel in a background mode prior to receiving a selection of the particular channel from a user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a command to view a list of channels associated with the plurality of channel applications, wherein the suspended list includes one or more most frequently used channel applications associated with channels from the list of channels; and
removing a particular one of the most frequently used channel applications from the suspended list in response to the received command to view the list of channels.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
sending a resume instruction to the particular channel application, wherein the particular channel application is on the suspended list; and
switching the particular channel application from the suspended list to a foreground application in response to receiving a user command to run the particular channel application.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
re-adding the removed particular channel application to the suspended list in response to receiving a command not pertaining to the removed particular channel application.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the starting comprises:
starting one or more of the plurality of channel applications in a background mode;
loading, in the background mode, resources to execute a particular one of the one or more channel applications; and
adding the particular channel application to the suspended list, wherein the loading of resources enables subsequent fast starting of the particular channel application from the suspended list relative to a starting of the particular channel application from a cold boot operation in which such resources are not loaded in the background mode.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the particular channel is associated with the second channel application that is not on the suspended list comprises:
determining that the user has a subscription to the particular channel.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying a plurality of feeds on a notification area of a display screen;
determining one or more channel applications relevant to the plurality of feeds;
determining that at least one of the channel applications relevant to the plurality of feeds is on the suspended list; and
removing the determined at least one relevant channel application from the suspended list.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining that a particular one of the plurality of feeds is rolled off and no longer displayed in the notification area, wherein the particular one feed corresponds to a particular one of the channel applications; and
terminating the particular one of the channel applications based on the determination that the particular one feed is no longer displayed in the notification area.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
loading resources and performing an update on at least one of the channel applications associated with at least one of the relevant channel applications while at least one channel application is operating in the background mode; and
adding the at least one channel application to the suspended list based on a determination that the resources have been loaded and the update completed.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first channel application started in the suspend mode during the boot up sequence of the operating system is one of a plurality of are most frequently used channel applications.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that no user selection is received of the particular channel; and
terminating the second channel application associated with the particular channel based upon the determination that no user selection for the particular channel was received.

12. A non-transitory processor-readable medium having one or more instructions operational on a client device, wherein the processor executing the instructions performs operations comprising:
starting a plurality of channel applications during a boot up sequence of the operating system;
placing a first channel application of the plurality of channel applications into a suspend mode after an initial time has passed, wherein the initial time allows the plurality of channel applications to finish the boot up sequence and load resources;
adding the first channel application to a suspended list of channel applications that have booted up, wherein a second channel application of the plurality of channel applications is not on the suspended list;
receiving an application programming interface (API) call from the first channel application on the suspended list;
preventing the API call from being executed based upon a determination that the first channel application from which the API call is received is on the suspended list, such that processing resources associated with an execution of the API call are made available for processing functions other than executing the API call from the first channel application on the suspended list based upon the prevention of the execution;
incrementing a block count indicating a number of times that the API call to the processor is determined to be received from the first channel application while on the suspended list;
terminating the first channel application based on the block count exceeding a certain level, wherein the terminating includes removing the first channel application from the suspended list;
receiving a search term;
identifying a group of channels based on the search term;
determining that a particular channel from the group of channels is associated with the second channel application that is not on the suspended list; and
starting the second channel application associated w

Assignees

• Roku Inc

Inventors

• Funk Jim
• Johnson Craig
• Mendenhall David

Classifications

• G06F9/541

  via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications · CPC title

• G06F9/44578 Primary

  Preparing or optimising for loading · CPC title

• G06F9/4418

  Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake · CPC title

• G06F9/485

  Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution (G06F9/4881 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L65/00

  Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication (real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00) · CPC title