June 14, 2012

'No-sleep energy bugs' drain smartphone batteries

Professor Y. Charlie Hu

Professor Samuel Midkiff

Researchers have proposed a method to automatically detect a new class of software glitches in smartphones called "no-sleep energy bugs," which can entirely drain batteries while the phones are not in use.

A research team consisting of ECE graduate students Abhinav Pathak and Abhilash Jindal and ECE faculty Prof. Y. Charlie Hu and Prof. Samuel Midkiff, performed the first characterization study of a type of new software glitches, called “no-sleep” energy bugs by the team. These no-sleep energy bugs are caused by programming mistakes when using the explicit power control APIs used when programming in smartphones such as Android-based phones. These bugs can entirely drain a phone’s battery even when the phone is not being used. The research paper, titled "What is keeping my phone awake? Characterizing and Detecting No-Sleep Energy Bugs in Smartphone Apps”, published by the team in the ACM MobiSys 2012 Conference in June, has received widespread media attention, including

· ACM Tech News: 'No-Sleep Energy Bugs' Drain Smartphone Batteries

· The Verge: Android's power management API can lead to 'no-sleep energy bugs,' according to Purdue researchers

· NBC News: Buggy Apps Killing Your Smartphone Battery

· Yahoo! News: Buggy Apps Killing Your Smartphone Battery

· Science Daily: ‘No-Sleep Energy Bugs' Drain Smartphone Batteries

· National Science Foundation News: "No-sleep Energy Bugs" Drain Smartphone Batteries

· and many more...