'Microsleep' software could double battery life for gadgets

COMPUTER science graduate could be set to rake in the cash after developing software that doubles the battery life of gadgets.

A COMPUTER science graduate at Duke University developed new software that doubles the battery life of internet-connected devices

Scientific American reported Justin Manweiler, from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, developed the SleepWell software to allow a mobile device to shift into power-saving mode while it searches for and establishes a connection to a WiFi network.

The software, which allows the unit to 'microsleep', was designed for use with any mobile device, meaning it is compatible with devices using Apple OS X, Google Android, Windows and other platforms.

Mr Manweiler said the software was different from existing sleep modes already available on mobile devices. He said the software allows short "sleep" periods - sometimes several per second - that save battery life without affecting the device's functioning.

"These sleep periods are so short, the user remains unaware and unaffected," he said.

"We ran lots of live experiments using real off-the-shelf smartphones, mostly Google Android phones. We tested with a variety of use cases, including the user watching a movie trailer on YouTube, playing music on Pandora and Last.FM internet radio, and downloading a large file from the web," he said.