On Smartphone Power Consumption in Acoustic Environment Monitoring Applications

Sergey Zhidkov,Alexander Petrov,Andrey Sychev,Alexander Zhidkov

doi:10.3390/asi1010008

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a systematic analysis of smartphone power consumption in background audio recording scenarios. We report comprehensive measurement results for several Android smartphone models with diverse hardware specifications, running different types of Android operating systems (OS). Our experimental results show that with respect to background audio sensing applications, the major impact on smartphone power consumption is associated with the core audio recording functionality. On the other hand, moderately complex digital signal processing algorithms (e.g., sound pressure level estimation, acoustic feature extraction, and audio fingerprinting) that operate simultaneously with background audio recording do not significantly affect overall smartphone power consumption or battery life. Power consumption varies significantly from model to model, and we found no obvious correlation between the power consumption of background audio recording scenarios and factors such as the year of release, the OS version, or the model of smartphone processor or system-on-chip (SoC) hardware.

Highlights

There has been growing interest in the use of inexpensive off-the-shelf smartphones in various innovative applications beyond regular voice calls
We provide a systematic analysis of smartphone power consumption in background audio recording scenarios
Our analysis provides ample evidence that the major impact on smartphone power consumption of background audio monitoring applications is caused by the core audio recording functionality, whereas moderately complex audio processing algorithms that run simultaneously with background audio recording do not significantly impact overall smartphone power consumption and battery life

Summary

Introduction

There has been growing interest in the use of inexpensive off-the-shelf smartphones in various innovative applications beyond regular voice calls. One of the major challenges in developing practical applications that require background audio monitoring is the power consumption of the microphone sensor and the associated digital signal processing. The Android operating system (OS), which is one of the most widely used OSs in the smartphone market, allows audio recording in background mode. The commercial feasibility of the abovementioned applications strongly depends on the impact of background audio sensing on a smartphone’s battery life [13]

Methods

Results

Conclusion