Offloading computing from your headsets - how viable is a HomeCloud?
Xinghan Chen, Weiqiang Sun · 2024
Demand for computing in households is increasing fast, due to the increased demand for Virtual, Augmented, or Mixed Reality to achieve an immersive user experience. Expensive and energy-hungry headsets and smart devices with increased computing and communication capacity are being built. Yet, as users spend more time on such devices, the computing power of personal desktop or laptop devices are often left unused. An interesting question to ask is: can we use available personal computing power to make headset lighter, cheaper and more durable? In this study, we investigate the concept of a HomeCloud, where computations on portable smart devices can be offloaded to household personal computers. We investigate how the energy efficiency of mobile computing and wireless transmission technologies, and the storage density of portable device batteries, may affect the gain one can achieve in a HomeCloud. We also study the impact of computing resource availability and smart device use pattern on battery life.