You probably won’t hear it, but in the not-so-distant future, your computer may be talking in its sleep.
The new ‘sleep talking’ mode is part of an energy-saving system for personal computers developed by a team of UCSD computer scientists.
Currently, PCs alternate between an ‘awake’ mode ‘mdash; during which they consume power even when not in use ‘mdash; and a low-power ‘sleep’ mode, which makes them unresponsive to network and Internet traffic.
Doctoral researcher Yuvraj Agarwal’s USB-connected hardware and software plug-in enables a compromise between these two modes, saving power while maintaining the network connections associated with the ‘awake’ mode that do not require human interaction.
The new system ‘mdash; dubbed Somniloquy, defined as ‘the act or habit of talking in one’s sleep’ ‘mdash; supports Web downloads, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, virus scans and more.
‘Reducing energy consumed by wall-powered devices, especially computing equipment, offers a huge opportunity to save money and reduce greenhouse gases,’ Agarwal said.