Selective blocking of background activity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9292080-B2
Application number	US-201313922104-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2013
Priority date	Jun 19, 2013
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

Controlling background activity in a computing device or system during a low-power mode is described. In some example techniques, when a computing device or system is in a low power mode, a determination is made whether to block one or more trigger events from causing an activation of one or more respective background task operations. Based at least in part on the determination, at least one trigger event may be allowed to cause an activation of a respective background task operation during the low power mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
one or more processors;
memory;
a user interface module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to:
generate a user interface configured to accept input of settings for a low power mode of the computing system, the low power mode being a connected standby mode, the user interface including a background task interface configured to accept input of task-specific settings for the low power mode;
a quiet mode module stored in the memory and executable by the one or more processors to:
determine if conditions for the low power mode are satisfied;
in response to determining that the conditions for the low power mode are satisfied, cause the computing system to enter the low power mode;
during the low power mode, determine whether to block one or more trigger events from causing activation of one or more respective background task operations; and
allow at least one trigger event of the one or more trigger events to cause an activation of a respective background task operation during the low power mode based at least in part on the determining whether to block the at least one allowed trigger event from causing activation of the respective background task operation.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the quiet mode module is further executable by the one or more processors to:
block at least one trigger event of the one or more trigger events from causing activation of at least one respective background task operation based at least in part on the determining whether to block the at least one blocked trigger event.

3. The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the quiet mode module is further executable by the one or more processors to buffer at least one blocked trigger event in a trigger event buffer.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the quiet mode module determines to allow an allowed trigger event to cause activation of the respective background task operation during the low power mode based at least in part on a background task related to the allowed trigger event and the respective background task operation.

5. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein a condition of the conditions for the low-power mode comprises a time period and the quiet mode module determines the time period based at least in part on a history of user interaction with the computing system.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein one of the conditions for the low power mode comprises a threshold period of time during which no user interaction is detected.

7. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein one of the conditions for the low power mode comprises a time of day being within a predefined quiet mode time period in a day.

8. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface includes a select task interface configured to display information associated with one more tasks presented in the background task interface.

9. One or more computer storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing system, cause the one or more processors to perform acts comprising:
entering a low power mode for a set period of time or until user interaction is detected;
during the low power mode;
determining whether to block one or more trigger events from causing an activation of one or more respective background task operations;
blocking at least one trigger event of the one or more trigger events from causing an activation of a respective background task operation; and
buffering the at least one trigger event in a trigger event buffer; and

responsive to an end of the set period of time or detecting user interaction, exiting the low power mode and allowing the at least one trigger event in the trigger event buffer to cause the activation of the respective background task operation.

10. One or more computer storage computer media of claim 9 , the acts further comprising:
discarding a first blocked trigger event blocked from causing a first activation of another respective background task operation when a second blocked trigger event blocked from causing a second activation of the other respective background task operation is present in the trigger event buffer.

11. One or more computer storage media of claim 10 , the acts further comprising:
buffering the first blocked trigger event blocked from causing the first activation of the other respective background task operation when the second blocked trigger event blocked from causing the second activation of the other respective background task operation is already present in the trigger event buffer.

12. One or more computer storage media of claim 9 , the acts further comprising:
for a first blocked trigger event blocked from causing a first activation of another respective background task operation, discarding a second blocked trigger event already present in the trigger event buffer where the second blocked trigger event was blocked from causing a second activation of the other respective background task operation; and
buffering the first blocked trigger event in the trigger event buffer.

13. One or more computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein at least one notification sound related to a respective background task operation of a blocked trigger event is suppressed when the computing system is in the low power mode.

14. One or more computer storage media of claim 9 , wherein a first allowed trigger event causes the computing system to leave the low-power mode when the respective background task operation is activated; and
a second allowed trigger event is prevented from causing the computing system to leave the low-power mode when the respective background operation is activated.

15. One or more computer storage media of claim 9 , the acts further comprising
determining a time occurring prior to the end of the set period of time and allowing one or more buffered trigger events to cause the activation of one or more respective background task operations the buffered trigger events were blocked from activating without leaving the low power mode.

16. A computer implemented method comprising:
under control of one or more computer systems comprising one or more processors and memory, the memory storing executable instructions,
during an instance of a quiet mode for at least one of the computer systems, determining, for each of a plurality of trigger events, whether to block the trigger event from causing activation of one or more respective background task operations, a first respective background task operation that corresponds to a first trigger event of the plurality of trigger events being a first type of a plurality of types of background task operations, a second respective background task operation that corresponds to a second trigger event of the plurality of trigger events being a second type of background task operation of the plurality of types of background task operations;
blocking a trigger event of the plurality of trigger events from causing an activation of a respective background task operation based at least in part on the determining whether to block the blocked trigger event;
buffering the blocked trigger event in a trigger event buffer; and
determining a time occurring prior to the end of the instance of the quiet mode and allowing, at the determined time, one or more buffered trigger events to cause the activation of one or more respective background task operations the buffered trigger events were blocked from activating without leaving the quiet mode.

17. The com

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Pulapaka Hari
• Gefflaut Alain
• Berry Jon Robert
• Wilson Emily
• Liu Qian

Classifications

• G06F1/3206 Primary

  Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality · CPC title

• G06F1/3293 Primary

  by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU · CPC title

• G06F1/329 Primary

  by task scheduling · CPC title