JP2012248200A - Electronic apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic apparatus capable of suitably executing a new application without troubling a user during executing a plurality of applications.SOLUTION: When there is an application which is being executed or interrupted, if execution of a new application is requested and a determination unit 61 determines that no memory capacity required for the execution of the new application remains in a volatile memory 12, an execution unit 2 terminates the application being executed or interrupted other than termination inhibition applications by referring to termination inhibition application information in a nonvolatile memory 11.

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus capable of executing a plurality of applications.

At present, electronic devices such as portable terminals can execute a wide variety of applications.
Examples of applications that can be executed by the mobile terminal include e-mail, calendar, address book, web browser, map and GPS navigation, music playback, and games.

  Although the mobile terminal can execute various applications as described above, since the mobile terminal is necessarily required to be small in terms of usability, information necessary for executing the requested application is obtained. It was difficult to increase the capacity of the memory to be stored, and it was basically specified that only one application can be executed at a time. For example, if the calendar application is to be executed while the e-mail application is being executed, the e-mail application that is currently being executed must be terminated once, and then the calendar application needs to be executed again. There was a disadvantage.

In order to eliminate such a first disadvantage, there is a mobile terminal that temporarily suspends an application that is currently being executed and waits, and executes another application in the meantime.
In such a mobile terminal, another application is executed while waiting for the suspended application, and when the other application ends, the suspended application is executed again in the state when it was interrupted. Usability was improved.

  However, as described above, generally, the memory capacity of a mobile terminal is small, and when a running application is interrupted and waited for another application to be newly executed, depending on the memory usage of the newly executed application, The sum of the memory usage of the application inside and the memory usage of the newly executed application may exceed the maximum memory capacity of the mobile terminal. In this case, a new application may be executed. There was a second disadvantage of being unable to do so. In particular, such a second disadvantage is remarkable in a portable terminal capable of executing a new application in a state in which a plurality of applications are suspended and in a standby state.

  As a technique for solving the second disadvantage, for example, there is a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-63567

In Patent Document 1, when execution of a new application is requested in a state where a plurality of applications are being executed, it is determined whether or not the memory capacity necessary for executing the new application exceeds the remaining memory capacity. When the remaining memory capacity is smaller than the memory capacity necessary for executing a new application, a memory shortage display method for notifying the fact and displaying the memory usage status of the application being executed is disclosed.
That is, in the memory shortage display method disclosed in Patent Document 1, when the memory capacity necessary for executing a new application is insufficient, the memory usage of each application being executed by the user is displayed. It is necessary to perform an operation such as manually ending the execution of an application that uses the most memory capacity. Therefore, in the memory shortage display method disclosed in Patent Document 1, the user does not know whether the memory capacity necessary for executing the application is larger or smaller than the remaining memory capacity until a new application execution request is made. The third disadvantage is that the operation cannot be executed until the user performs a new application execution request operation (unless the application being executed is terminated), and the operation is complicated.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device capable of suitably executing a new application without bothering a user during execution of a plurality of applications in order to eliminate the disadvantages described above. And

  In order to achieve the above-described object, in the electronic device according to the first aspect, when a predetermined parameter exceeds an allowable value by newly executing an application, termination of the application being executed or suspended is restricted. The control unit terminates an application different from the specific application, and the control unit sets, as the specific application, an application in which a predetermined function of the application is being executed among the applications being executed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus comprising: a control unit configured to terminate an application different from a specific application whose termination is limited among applications being executed or suspended in order to newly execute an application. The unit sets, as the specific application, an application in which a predetermined function of the application is operating among the applications being executed or suspended.
In the electronic device according to the third aspect, when the memory capacity required by newly executing an application exceeds the remaining memory capacity of the volatile memory, the application that has already used the volatile memory is terminated. A control unit that terminates an application different from the restricted specific application is provided, and the control unit sets, as the specific application, an application in which a predetermined function of the application is operating among the running applications. .
When the electronic device according to the fourth invention newly executes an application and the application is being executed, the number of applications being executed or the number of applications being executed and suspended exceeds a predetermined number. A control unit that terminates an application that is different from a specific application whose termination is restricted among applications being executed or suspended, and the control unit includes a predetermined function of the application among the applications during the execution; The application in operation is set as the specific application.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an electronic device that can suitably execute a new application without bothering the user during execution of a plurality of applications.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration example of the mobile terminal 100. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the appearance of the mobile terminal 100. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart for explaining an operation example of the mobile terminal 100.

Hereinafter, the portable terminal 100 as an example of the electronic apparatus of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a configuration example of the mobile terminal 100.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the mobile terminal 100 includes a storage unit 1, an execution unit 2, a display unit 3, an operation unit 4, a notification unit 5, and a control unit 6.

The storage unit 1 stores various data related to the operation of the mobile terminal 100.
The storage unit 1 further includes a nonvolatile memory 11 and a volatile memory 12.
The non-volatile memory 11 is a rewritable memory such as a flash memory, and the data does not disappear even when the power is turned off. The nonvolatile memory 11 stores programs for various applications that operate on the mobile terminal 100. Examples of applications stored in the nonvolatile memory 11 include a music application, a TV application, and a radio application (corresponding to the broadcast application of the present invention), a position information acquisition application, an e-mail application, a web browser application, a game application, and function settings. There are applications.

The music application is an application that reproduces music data separately stored in the nonvolatile memory 11 and outputs it from an audio output unit (not shown in FIG. 1).
The TV application and the radio application reproduce a television broadcast wave or a radio broadcast wave received by an antenna not shown in FIG. 1, and display a video on the display unit 3 or output a sound from the audio output unit in accordance with this. Application.
The position information acquisition application, for example, causes a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiving unit (not shown) to communicate with a GPS satellite, acquires current position information where the mobile terminal 100 is currently located, or displays the acquired current position on a map. It is an application that displays.

The e-mail application is an application that has an e-mail creating function for creating an e-mail, and performs wireless communication with a mail server via, for example, a communication unit (not shown in FIG. 1) to send and receive e-mail.
The web browser application is an application that performs wireless communication with various web servers via a communication unit, downloads web page data, and displays the web page on the display unit 3.
The game application is an application that executes a game program.
The function setting application is, for example, a setting related to each function of the mobile terminal 100 (for example, setting of a wallpaper displayed on the display unit 3 when the mobile terminal 100 is in a standby state, or a ring tone to be notified when a voice call is received) This is an application for setting (for example, setting the volume of a ringtone).
Further, the nonvolatile memory 11 stores termination prohibited application information that is information of applications that are not terminated without user approval. The termination prohibited application information will be described later.

The volatile memory 12 is a memory that temporarily stores programs and data used when executing the above-described applications. When the execution of the applications is completed, the temporarily stored programs and data are controlled by the control unit 8. Will be erased under. The volatile memory 12 has a predetermined maximum memory capacity, but each application described above has a memory capacity that needs to be stored on the volatile memory 12 at the time of execution. The memory capacity is such that the total memory capacity used by the running application does not exceed the maximum memory capacity.
Note that the memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 corresponds to the parameter of the present invention, and the maximum memory capacity corresponds to the allowable value of the present invention.

The execution unit 2 executes an application requested to be executed by a user operation or the like using the operation unit 4 described later, among various applications stored in the nonvolatile memory 11 described above.
When executing the various applications, the execution unit 2 can interrupt the application being executed and newly execute another application.
Specifically, for example, when activation of an e-mail application is requested during execution of a music application, the e-mail application is executed by temporarily suspending the music application.
However, since the application is still being executed even when the application is interrupted, the application requires a memory capacity on the volatile memory 12 that is the same as that being executed.

The execution unit 2 must prevent the total memory capacity required for the suspended and executing application from exceeding the maximum memory capacity of the volatile memory 12. Therefore, an application that requires a memory capacity larger than the remaining memory capacity obtained by subtracting the memory capacity used by the suspended and executing application from the maximum memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 is newly added. When an execution request is made, the newly requested application cannot be executed unless one of the suspended and running applications is terminated. Here, which of the suspended and running applications is to be terminated is determined according to the termination prohibited application information stored in the nonvolatile memory 11 described above.
Note that the termination of the application mentioned above means that the execution of the application is completely terminated, unlike the interruption. That is, the application to be terminated completely erases the memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 used during execution.
In addition, the execution unit 2 executes a new application that requires a memory capacity larger than the remaining memory capacity under the control of the control unit 6 in a state where any one of the various applications described above is being executed or suspended. This is information related to an application that is never executed by the execution unit 2 (an application for which the end of execution is set to be restricted in advance) among the currently executing or suspended applications. Based on the end-prohibited application information, an application that terminates the execution or interruption is determined from applications other than the end-prohibited application, and the application is terminated. Run the new application that is requested to run. In the present invention, the method for determining which of the applications other than the end-prohibited application is to be terminated or stopped is not limited in the present invention. For example, the execution unit 2 determines an application to be ended at random from applications other than the end-prohibited application, determines an application to be ended based on a predetermined priority order of applications, It may be determined as an application that terminates the old application. This determination may be made for a plurality of applications.
A method for setting the termination prohibited application information will be described later.

  The display unit 3 is a display device such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or an organic EL (electroluminescence) display, and displays a screen related to the operation according to various operations of the mobile terminal 100. For example, information on the destination is displayed when a voice call is made, information on the called party is displayed when an incoming call is received, and a screen corresponding to each application is displayed when the execution unit 2 executes various applications.

The operation unit 4 is an input device such as a numeric keypad or a cross key, and accepts user input during various operations of the mobile terminal 100. In addition, the operation unit 4 may be, for example, a touch sensor arranged so as to overlap the display unit 3.
The alerting | reporting part 5 alert | reports with respect to a user by various means, such as a vibrator, an alarm, light emission, for example. In addition, the alerting | reporting part 5 does not limit about the means to alert | report in this invention.
In this case, the notification unit 5 is executing when an application requiring a memory capacity larger than the remaining memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 is newly requested while a plurality of applications are being executed or suspended. When the suspended application is only the application set in the termination prohibited application information, the control unit 6 is controlled to notify the user to that effect.

The control unit 6 is a central processing unit that controls the mobile terminal 100 in an integrated manner. That is, during various operations of the mobile terminal 100, the respective configurations of the mobile terminal 100 as described above, that is, the nonvolatile memory 11, the volatile memory 12, the execution unit 2, the display unit 3, the operation unit 4, and the notification unit 5 are controlled. Then, a process for performing the operation is executed.
In addition, the control unit 6 includes a determination unit 61. When the execution unit 2 tries to execute a new application during execution or interruption of a plurality of applications, the remaining memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 is new. Whether it is larger or smaller than the memory capacity required by the application to be executed. In other words, the determination unit 61 determines whether or not the maximum memory capacity (allowable value) of the volatile memory is exceeded when the memory capacity necessary for executing the newly requested application is stored in the volatile memory 12. To do. Thereby, it is possible to determine whether or not a new application can be executed without ending any of the applications being executed or being interrupted.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the appearance of the mobile terminal 100.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the mobile terminal 100, an upper housing 101 and a lower housing 102 are connected by a hinge portion 103 so as to be opened and closed.
2A shows a state where the casing of the portable terminal 100 is opened, and FIG. 2B shows a state where the casing of the portable terminal 100 is closed.
The upper housing 101 has a display unit 3.
The lower housing 102 has an operation unit 4 such as a numeric keypad or a cross key.

Next, a method of setting termination prohibited application information stored in the nonvolatile memory 11 will be described.
As a first method, there is a method in which a user can freely set an end-prohibited application by an operation via the operation unit 4.
That is, the non-volatile memory 11 stores end-prohibited application information including information related to the end-prohibited application set by the user via the operation unit 4, and the execution unit 2 is executing a plurality of applications under the control of the control unit 6. Alternatively, when the determination unit 61 determines that a new application that requires a larger memory capacity than the remaining memory capacity is being executed during the interruption, the application other than the termination-prohibited application is being executed or is being interrupted. An application to be terminated is determined from the applications, and the requested application is executed after the application is terminated.

A specific example is given.
For example, it is assumed that the user sets an e-mail application in advance as an end-prohibited application.
Assume that the user is requested to execute the web browser application while the e-mail application is being executed, and the remaining memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 in this case is larger than the memory capacity required by the web browser application. And Then, the web browser application is executed next, the execution of the e-mail application is interrupted, and at this time, a new music application execution request is input by the user via the operation unit 4 or the like. Furthermore, it is assumed that the remaining memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 in this state is smaller than the memory capacity required by the music application.
In this case, since the e-mail application is prohibited from ending, the execution unit 2 ends the web browser application, and as a result, the remaining memory capacity of the volatile memory 12 becomes larger than the memory capacity necessary for executing the music application. If the determination part 61 determines, a music application will be newly performed.

  In this way, for example, before execution of a specific application, the application may be set as a termination-prohibited application. Alternatively, the application may be set as an end-prohibited application during the execution. In this case, for example, the user may be able to easily perform the setting by pressing a predetermined button on the operation unit 4. In addition, once the termination prohibition application is set, the setting may be canceled by an operation through the operation unit 4 of the user.

Next, as a second method, there is a method in which, when a specific application is performing a specific operation, the control unit 6 sets the application as an end-prohibited application.
That is, when an application that is already being executed performs a specific operation, the control unit 6 sets the application as an end-prohibited application so that the application is not ended.

A specific example is given.
For example, it is assumed that a music playback function or a music recording function is in operation during execution of a music application. In this case, if the music application is forcibly terminated by the execution unit 2 with the execution of a new application, the user who has enjoyed playing the music is strongly discomforted or the music is recorded. In some cases, the recorded data may be lost and cannot be recovered. Therefore, even if the music playback function is not set to the termination prohibition application as described above, the control unit 6 automatically sets the music application as the termination prohibition application during music playback or music recording, When execution of a new application is requested while a music application and another application are being executed or suspended, the execution unit 2 terminates one of the applications being executed or suspended other than the music application. And run a new application. However, while the music application is running, when the music playback function or the music recording function is not operating, for example, when only the operation for selecting a song to be played back or recorded is performed, Since it is understood that there will be no irreversible situation such as giving the user such a strong discomfort even if the process is terminated, the application is not automatically set as a termination prohibited application.

Note that an application that the control unit 6 automatically sets as an end-prohibited application during a specific operation is not limited to a music application. Specific examples are shown below.
For example, in the TV application and radio application (broadcast application of the present invention), as with the music application, it was forcibly terminated during broadcast reception (broadcast playback function operation) or broadcast recording (broadcast recording function operation). In this case, a strong discomfort is given to the user. Therefore, during broadcast reception and broadcast recording, the control unit 6 sets the TV application and the radio application as end-prohibited applications.

  In addition, in the position information acquisition application, if it is forcibly terminated during the position information acquisition operation, the position information acquisition process ends without acquiring the current position. It is necessary to execute the information acquisition application and perform the position information acquisition process from the beginning, which wastes time and memory resources. For this reason, during acquisition of position information, the control unit 6 sets the position information acquisition application as an end-prohibited application.

  In addition, if the e-mail application is forcibly terminated during the operation of the e-mail creating function for creating an e-mail, information about the e-mail being created is lost, and the user is uncomfortable. For this reason, during the operation of the e-mail creation function, the control unit 6 sets the e-mail application as an end-prohibited application.

As described above, termination prohibited application information is set for the application stored in the nonvolatile memory 11.
Next, an operation example of the mobile terminal 100 of the present embodiment will be described.
The flowchart is shown in FIG.
Step ST1:
The execution unit 2 starts executing the application stored in the nonvolatile memory 11 in response to an operation via the operation unit 4 by the user.
Step ST2:
If execution of the application is newly requested by an operation or the like via the operation unit 4 of the user while the application whose execution has been started in step ST1 is being executed, the process proceeds to step ST3. If not, the process proceeds to step ST3. Return to ST2.

Step ST3:
When the determination unit 61 determines that the memory capacity necessary for executing the new application requested to be executed in step ST2 remains in the volatile memory 12, the process proceeds to step ST9. Proceed to step ST4.
Step ST4:
Whether the application being executed in step ST1 or the application newly executed or interrupted in step ST9 described later is an application included in the termination prohibited application information included in the nonvolatile memory 11 is determined by the control unit 6. If all the applications that are determined to be executed or interrupted are included in the end-prohibited application information, the process proceeds to step ST5. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step ST8.

Step ST5:
In step ST4, since it is determined that all the applications being executed or suspended are applications included in the termination prohibited application information, the notification unit 5 notifies the user accordingly.
Step ST6:
Since it was notified that all the applications being executed or suspended in step ST5 were applications included in the termination prohibition application information, the control unit 6 discards the termination prohibition application information in the nonvolatile memory 11.

Step ST7:
The execution unit 2 ends at least one of the applications being executed or interrupted, and proceeds to step ST9.
Step ST8:
The control unit 6 ends at least one of the applications not included in the end-prohibited application information among the applications being executed or suspended, and returns to step ST3.

Step ST9:
The execution unit 2 starts executing a new application because the determination unit 61 determines that the remaining memory amount of the volatile memory 12 is larger than the memory amount required by the newly executed application in step ST3. Suspend the application that was running when

  As described above, according to the mobile terminal 100 of the first embodiment, the execution unit 2 is requested to execute a new application when there is an application being executed or suspended, and the determination unit 61 When it is determined that the memory capacity necessary for executing the new application does not remain in the volatile memory 12, the termination prohibition application information in the nonvolatile memory 11 is referred to, and an execution other than the termination prohibition application is being executed or interrupted. Since the application is terminated, there is no need for the user himself / herself to decide which of the running or interrupted applications is terminated and the new application is executed, and the usability of the mobile terminal 100 is improved.

  Note that the present invention does not limit which application is to be terminated when there are a plurality of applications that are being executed or suspended other than the termination prohibited application. For example, an application selected at random may be terminated, or a detailed priority order may be set in advance, and an application determined according to the priority may be terminated.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above.
That is, when implementing the present invention, various modifications, combinations, sub-combinations, and alternatives may be made to the components of the above-described embodiments within the technical scope of the present invention or an equivalent scope thereof.

  In the above-described embodiment, the memory capacity required when executing each application is given as an example of the predetermined parameter of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to this. That is, for example, the predetermined parameter may be the number of applications being executed or suspended. In this case, for example, when the number of applications being executed or interrupted exceeds four, the application selected at random or the application with the lowest priority may be terminated.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Portable terminal, 101 ... Upper housing | casing, 102 ... Lower housing | casing, 103 ... Hinge part, 1 ... Memory | storage part, 11 ... Nonvolatile memory, 12 ... Volatile memory, 2 ... Execution part, 3 ... Display part, 4 ... operation part, 5 ... notification part, 6 ... control part, 61 ... determination part

Claims (4)

When a predetermined parameter exceeds an allowable value by newly executing an application, the application includes a control unit that terminates an application that is different from a specific application whose termination is restricted among applications being executed or suspended,
The said control part makes the said application the application in which the predetermined | prescribed function of the said application is running among the said applications currently running. The electronic device characterized by the above-mentioned. In order to newly execute an application, a control unit that terminates an application that is different from a specific application whose termination is restricted among applications being executed or suspended,
The said control part makes the application in which the predetermined | prescribed function of the said application is working among the said applications currently performed or being interrupted as said specific application. The electronic device characterized by the above-mentioned. When the memory capacity required by newly executing an application exceeds the remaining memory capacity of the volatile memory, the application that already uses the volatile memory is different from the specific application whose termination is restricted. It has a control unit that terminates the application,
The said control part makes the said application the application in which the predetermined function of the said application is operating among the said applications under execution. The electronic device characterized by the above-mentioned. When a new application is executed and the application is running, the number of running applications, or the number of running and suspended applications exceeds the specified number, the running or suspended applications A control unit that terminates an application different from the specific application whose termination is restricted,
The control unit sets the application in which a predetermined function of the application is operating among the applications during the execution as the specific application.

Images