tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/oled-43209/articlesOLED – The Conversation2019-01-14T04:49:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1095122019-01-14T04:49:58Z2019-01-14T04:49:58ZRoll-up screens and 8K resolution: what the future of television looks like<p>The Consumer Electronics Show (<a href="https://www.ces.tech/">CES</a>) wrapped-up in Las Vegas last week. The annual event gives enthusiasts a taste of the latest gadgets and devices on the horizon of consumer technology.</p>
<p>This year, we saw advances in digital health, new <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46818797">integrations</a> for voice assistants, an expanding door to secure your deliveries (which can be heated or cooled), a machine to fold your clothes, and even a flying vehicle.</p>
<p>Television technology was, once again, a focus. LG introduced a roll-up TV screen, we saw more inbuilt technology and integrations, and bigger and better pictures.</p>
<p>So what does this mean for the future of television in Australia?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/noisivision-radiospects-tellser-what-indeed-is-television-31741">Noisivision, radiospects, tellser ... what, indeed, is television?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What we mean when we talk about TV</h2>
<p>Before we get into the technology, let’s have a chat about screens.</p>
<p>Television content is no longer limited to the television screen: we can now view it on our mobiles, tablets, desktop computers and laptops.</p>
<p>And research shows Australians are increasingly consuming media across multiple screens. In 2017, the <a href="https://oztam.com.au/documents/Other/AVVR-Q4-2017-Med%20Res%20Final.pdf">average</a> Australian home had 6.6 screens, up from 5.4 in <a href="https://oztam.com.au/documents/Other/Australian%20Multi%20Screen%20Report%20Q1%202016%20FINAL.pdf">2012</a>. This trend is likely to continue with the expansion of screen-based technology.</p>
<p>Companies such as Microsoft and Google are continuing to invest in the development of virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology. Take mixed reality glasses, for example, which were again <a href="https://www.scmp.com/tech/gear/article/2181165/ex-magic-leap-employee-launches-mixed-reality-glasses-nreal-light-bid">showcased</a> at CES this year. </p>
<p>These types of glasses have the potential to make the traditional television screens obsolete, by effectively giving users a mobile screen that allows them to view media of size, anywhere they want.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qym11JnFQBM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Microsoft HoloLens.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The future of the TV screen as we know it</h2>
<p>After flirting with 3D television earlier in the decade, manufacturers have decided to <a href="https://theconversation.com/3d-television-is-dead-so-what-next-72192">cease investing</a> in the technology, which means there was no 3D television at CES this year. Instead, we saw upgrades to traditional screen technology.</p>
<p>The most talked about was <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/7/18171013/lg-rollable-tv-oled-4k-tv-features-photos-video-release-ces-2019">LG’s rollable screen television</a>. It’s not quite origami, but it’s close. Imagine those old roll up projector screens integrated into a low TV unit, with a 65 inch OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV screen and 4K resolution. The screen also allows you to partly roll it down to remove those annoying top and bottom black bars, used in films of a wider aspect ratio.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jBhO-8gq_LQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">LG Display rollable OLED TV hands-on.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to rollable televisions, a number of brands <a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/01/every-8k-tv-announced-at-ces-2019/">showcased</a> their 8K televisions. Unfortunately the increase in image quality won’t mean much for Aussies, other than a potential drop in the price of 4K televisions. Here’s why.</p>
<p>Currently, the maximum broadcast quality of free-to-air television in Australia is <a href="https://au.mouser.com/applications/display-technology/">high definition</a> (1920 x 1080 pixels). Some secondary channels are broadcast in standard definition (720 x 576 pixels). If you’re watching on a 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) or 8K (7680 x 4320 pixels) screen, the image will be a much lower quality than you would expect, essentially pixelated.</p>
<p>While Foxtel has recently launched its dedicated 4K cricket channel, there is no clear sign of when, or if, other broadcasters plan to embrace broadcast technologies that offer greater resolutions – even though freeing up spectrum space was part of the reason for <a href="https://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/the-future-of-community-tv">ending community television</a> use of the broadcast spectrum. </p>
<p>So take note anyone planning to purchase an 8K television in the near future: you may have difficulty accessing image quality that will match the screen’s potential.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/community-tvs-last-stand-from-the-governments-spectrum-grab-42478">Community TV's last stand from the government's spectrum grab</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>VOD continues to grow</h2>
<p>One technology that has the potential to deliver higher image quality is video streaming. Operating via the internet, video-on-demand (VOD) services could adapt far quicker than Australia’s traditional broadcasters.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253570/original/file-20190114-43507-1kev0os.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Image quality on HD, 4K and 8K screens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/television-display-comparison-resolutions-full-ultra-301869398?src=3QudifTb7BRIer8dXPwOTA-1-34">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And the VOD market will continue to expand in Australia in 2019. </p>
<p>We recently saw the launch of Network Ten’s subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service, <a href="https://tenplay.com.au/tenplay-trending/articles/introducing-10-all-access">Ten All Access</a>. It integrates Ten’s local programming with programming from the service of their US owner, CBS All Access. </p>
<p>A new dedicated sports streaming service, <a href="https://kayosports.com.au">Kayo Sports</a>, has also recently launched. The service leverages the current media rights obtained by Fox Sports, which allows for more than 50 sports to be delivered by the service.</p>
<p>Stan, one of the original SVoD services launched in Australia, has had a recent upgrade, obtaining the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/disney-stan-sign-new-content-deal-20181212-p50lvf.html">rights</a> to stream Disney content. Disney has announced in will launch its own VOD service in 2019, although it’s currently unclear whether it will be available outside of US. But the deal with Stan will give Disney an indication of Australia’s appetite for its content.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-digital-divide-is-not-going-away-91834">Australia's digital divide is not going away</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Bandwidth is an issue</h2>
<p>In addition to the introduction of new services, streaming continues to be integrated into Smart TVs, with Samsung announcing at CES that it will <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46790015">integrate iTunes</a> into its TVs. </p>
<p>The use of internet-connected televisions is <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8146.0">increasing</a> in Australia. While 27% of households owned one in 2014-15, the figure jumped to 42% in 2016-17. But bandwith could impede streaming services from delivering higher resolution content. While more than <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8146.0">86%</a> of Australian households have internet access, speed is an issue. </p>
<p>Netflix already offers a 4K option, but <a href="https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306">recommends</a> “a steady internet connection speed of 25 megabits per second or higher”. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/australia-s-broadband-slower-than-kazakhstan-20180108-p4yyb1.html">According</a> to a 2017 Ookla Speed Test Global Index, Australia was ranked 55th in the world for fixed broadband. With an average download speed of 25.88 Mbps. This speed is to be shared across devices in the home, making the Netflix 4K recommendation unattainable for many.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109512/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc C-Scott is a board member of C31 Melbourne (Community Television Station).</span></em></p>Take note anyone planning to purchase an 8K television in the near future: Australians may have difficulty accessing image quality that will match the screen’s potential.Marc C-Scott, Senior lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1034872018-09-21T11:07:54Z2018-09-21T11:07:54ZSamsung’s foldable phone could soon be a reality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237125/original/file-20180919-158225-4dixv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-displays-unbreakable-panel-certified-underwriters-laboratories/">Samsung</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We rarely see a truly remarkable new technology more than once a decade. After <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-flexible-computer-screens-taking-so-long-to-develop-53143">years of undelivered promises</a>, such a technology looks finally set to enter the market: the flexible computer screen.</p>
<p>Imagine, a tablet display you can fold up and put in your pocket, a smart watch whose strap is the screen, or a handbag that is also a monitor and keyboard. Nokia <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/cambridge-and-nokia-introduce-new-stretchable-and-flexible-mobile-phone-concept">originally called</a> this proposed technology “Morph” back in 2008 because of the plethora of applications it would make possible. Now it looks like it will become a reality.</p>
<p>After nearly <a href="https://www.militaryaerospace.com/articles/print/volume-15/issue-10/features/technology-focus/display-technology-leaps-to-the-next-generation.html">two decades of work</a>, Samsung <a href="https://bgr.com/2018/09/05/samsung-foldable-galaxy-phone-more-design-details/">is rumoured</a> to be getting ready for the launch of the first flexible smartphone. The company’s head of mobile <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/04/samsung-unveiling-a-foldable-smartphone-this-year.html">recently said</a> it was “time to deliver” such a phone, and that the development process for it was “nearly concluded”.</p>
<p>But perhaps more significantly, the Samsung Display division of the company <a href="https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-displays-unbreakable-panel-certified-underwriters-laboratories/">recently said</a> it had developed an “unbreakable smartphone panel” that had passed rigorous safety testing. Even after being subjected to temperatures of 71˚C and -32˚C, and dropped from a height of 1.8 metres, the display showed no signs of damage and functioned normally. </p>
<p>This display is a flexible organic light emitting diode (OLED) panel made of an unbreakable surface with a plastic overlay window attached to it, making it simultaneously lightweight and tough as glass but a lot more robust. Manufacturers have yearned for many years to make displays with flexible, bendable properties and a paper-like feel with electronic functionality. If Samsung has truly found a way to protect a flexible OLED then it has solved a major technical challenge in removing the need for the glass screens used on most other displays today.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237326/original/file-20180920-129859-13xw3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237326/original/file-20180920-129859-13xw3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237326/original/file-20180920-129859-13xw3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237326/original/file-20180920-129859-13xw3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237326/original/file-20180920-129859-13xw3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237326/original/file-20180920-129859-13xw3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237326/original/file-20180920-129859-13xw3qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Smartphone of the near future?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/flexible-smartphone-concept-illustration-screen-layout-159538328?src=kg8nz5EEKv0q5zuQsPTtGg-1-2">Grzegorz Petrykowski/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Glass was originally needed to actually stop displays from bending. Old-fashioned liquid crystal displays easily distorted when bent because the molecules in the liquid inside them would become misaligned. <a href="https://www.whathifi.com/advice/what-oled-tech-benefits-best-oled-tvs-and-oled-phones">Today’s OLED screens</a> are based on a solid layer of light-emitting material that doesn’t easily distort in this way. But glass is also used to protect the organic molecules in an OLED display from being degraded by water vapour and other gases that would shorten their lifespan. Until now, encapsulating displays in flexible plastic hasn’t been enough to protect them.</p>
<p>A more advanced, <a href="https://www.androidauthority.com/quantum-dot-vs-oled-explained-659321/">better quality</a> kind of screen known as a <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/how-quantum-dots-could-challenge-oled-for-best-tv-picture/">quantum dot light emitting diode</a> (QLED) display can also be made flexible. These use nano-crystals to produce high-quality, pure and sharp monochromatic light. They convert the backlight into the pure basic colours without the use of filters. But encapsulating QLED displays is even harder than OLEDs and so are likely to take a lot longer to turn into a flexible product.</p>
<h2>Increasing flexibility</h2>
<p>Samsung’s flexible OLED screen is likely to be have the most basic level of flexibility, with the ability to be bent and curved without distorting the display but not completely folded. The level of flexibility might be increased as the nanotechnology in the screens improves, as the nanowires used to carry electricity through the displays become <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45903">more flexible at smaller diametres</a>. </p>
<p>In the future we may eventually see rollable displays that can be rolled up like a scroll. The most advanced type of flexible screen will be one that can be folded or even crushed like a sheet of paper and still produce a seamless image. The newest and most exciting idea for creating these screens is to use <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00399-6">new “auxtetic” materials</a>, which become thicker as they are stretched rather than thinner.</p>
<p>These materials can absorb high energy impacts and are made of single molecules or crystals that can self-align once distorted. They are typically lightweight and would allow the creations of screens with hinge-like design features that can flex significantly.</p>
<p>In the meantime, appears that within a year we could be able to snuggle up in bed reading from a screen that we don’t have to worry about damaging if we fall asleep on it. I, for one, can’t wait to get my hands on this new tech.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ravi Silva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After two decades of work, the technical challenges of a bendable screen may have been overcome.Ravi Silva, Director, Advanced Technology Institute, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/839012017-09-13T13:29:14Z2017-09-13T13:29:14ZNever mind the iPhone X, battery life could soon take a great leap forward<p>Another suite of Apple iPhones, another media frenzy. Much has been written about the $999/£999 iPhone X, the demise of the home button, the “face ID” function, wireless charging and so on. Somewhere down the list of improvements was <a href="https://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-iPhone-X-iPhone-8-and-iPhone-8-Plus-battery-life_id97985">extra battery life</a>, at least for the iPhone X, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/12/iphone-x-release-date-apple-home-button-screen">thanks to</a> its new souped up A11 bionic processor. </p>
<p>Apple says the new device will charge for up to two hours more than the iPhone 7, <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone-7/specs/">suggesting</a> 14 hours of internet use, for instance. Battery life on the iPhone 8, on the other hand, appears to be about comparable with its predecessor. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/13/apple-iphone-8-iphone-x-what-is-wireless-charging-do-i-need-it">Wireless charging</a>, to which Apple is late to the party, makes no difference to the amount of power devices can store. </p>
<p>Improvements to batteries are usually a key part of smartphone launches, as you would expect for one of the major specifications on which consumers judge new devices. Samsung <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/samsung-galaxy-note-8-review/3">had much to say</a> on this subject when it launched the Galaxy Note 8 last month – albeit less about extending battery life than ensuring no repeats of <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/samsung-galaxy-note-7-battery-fires-heres-why-they-exploded">the flaws</a> in Note 7s that made them prone to catch fire. </p>
<p>Yet several decades into the mobile computing revolution, even the best products are still relatively limited in how long they can function on a single charge. The original iPhone was <a href="https://www.itworld.com/article/2832547/mobile/is-the-iphone-s-battery-life-actually-better-after-five-years-.html">good for</a> eight hours of internet browsing, for example, so Apple’s devices have only advanced modestly in ten years. </p>
<p>So far, manufacturers have tended to focus on improving battery technology, packing more and more energy into less and less space. Those fiery Galaxy Note 7s were a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-batteries-have-started-catching-fire-so-often-68602">cautionary tale</a> of what can go wrong when this energy gets released as heat. </p>
<p>Manufacturers also look to improve other mobile hardware that consumes energy – including the display, WiFi, GPS and the central processing unit (CPU). The new iPhones’ improved CPUs and OLED screens have made them more battery friendly, for example.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mMV_LcrZtLg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But one area that has received surprisingly little attention is the energy consumed by software, or rather the energy consumed by the CPU when running particular software. Neither Samsung nor Apple seemed to make any noises in this direction with their latest launches, but this emerging field could make a major difference to how long we need to charge our devices in future. </p>
<h2>Software sap</h2>
<p>Decades ago, when computers were thousands of times slower, developers would hand-tune code to near perfection to squeeze out every last drop of performance. But as software has become more complicated – thanks to new features, improved user experience and so forth – this stopped being possible. </p>
<p>Software development is now several layers removed from the raw binary machine code that the CPU deals in. Developers also rely on libraries of existing code because it would take too long to build each instruction from scratch every time. Both changes reduce duplicated effort and greatly speed up development time. But the final code often contains parts that are redundant in a particular app, or it could be improved with more efficient tailor-made segments. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185835/original/file-20170913-23134-1hixvqd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Phone brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/3d-illustration-cpu-over-digital-background-711010207?src=AtsySJkQRWmXEVG9knvRFw-1-0">Mmaxer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Developers often try to mitigate these disadvantages by making their code run as fast as possible, which in theory reduces energy consumption. Yet this doesn’t always work in practice, since some instructions are more power-hungry than others and can end up neutralising the benefits. </p>
<p>The net result is that the energy consumption of software has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/HPCA.2016.7446054">increased considerably</a> over the years. Nobody much cared until the last decade or so, since most software ran on machines that were mains powered. This has changed with the rise of mobile devices – while mounting concerns about the links between electricity consumption and climate change have added extra urgency. </p>
<h2>The AIs have it</h2>
<p>There is another reason why developers were slow to address this problem, which is that the energy consumption from each piece of software was very difficult to measure. This is because each device’s configuration is different. Energy use can change depending on whether a program has run before, or whether other programs are running. </p>
<p>Lately, however, there have been advances. They involve <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7393719/">using machine learning</a> to estimate energy use by analysing particular lines of code or software components, and referencing energy data from other programs running on many other devices. Do this well and you can get the computer to do the hard part: search for alternative software designs that make the software more efficient. </p>
<p>Welcome to search-based software engineering. It can be as simple as <a href="https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/46709">finding redundant code</a> that can be skipped or <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084804517301285">fine-tuning</a> the configuration, or it can extend to <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2754752">making changes to</a> existing source code. Our <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TETCI.2017.2699193">own work</a> has looked at both choosing alternative software components from existing libraries and generating new parts of code from scratch. We even managed to <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-09940-8_22">find and repair</a> several hundred bugs in <a href="https://mapr.com/products/apache-hadoop/">Hadoop</a>, a very widely used software framework.</p>
<p>Our vision is that these search-based methods for improving energy efficiency will be incorporated into what is known as the “compiler” stage, when human-readable computer code is converted into the zeroes and ones the machine understands. These searches would happen automatically and developers wouldn’t need to think about them – their code would be efficient out of the box. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/185836/original/file-20170913-23106-19djmfu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The long and winding code.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/programs-hacking-hard-disk-software-codes-651473887?src=Ls889xOGMP8MziSFB0VtHw-1-31">Dmitry A</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is still a long way to go, it should be said. The main difficulty is getting the estimates of software energy consumption right, especially for lots of different devices at the same time. But the potential over the next five years looks exciting. We were able to show a 40% to 70% reduction in CPU energy use for a couple of specific tasks, and it’s not inconceivable that this could be replicated over all running software. </p>
<p>Combined with better batteries and more improvements to hardware performance, such as <a href="http://grist.org/cleantech/2011-03-10-meet-the-zero-energy-transparent-tv">zero energy screens</a>, we could be talking about serious gains on battery life. In future, the leading manufacturers may no longer be talking up incremental improvements to battery life capabilities – instead they could be adding many hours and maybe even days.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Brownlee receives funding from EPSRC and Microsoft.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerry Swan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It feels like we’ve seen less progress on charge time than almost anything else in smartphones. Could software efficiency be the answer?Alexander Brownlee, Senior Research Assistant, University of StirlingJerry Swan, Senior Research Fellow, Computer Science, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.