Power to the people: Leveraging human physiological traits to control microprocessor frequency

Any architectural optimization aims at satisfying the end user. However, modern architectures execute with little to no knowledge about the individual user. If architectures could determine whether their users are satisfied, they could provide higher efficiency; improved reliability, reduced power consumption, increased security, and a better user experience. A major reason for this limitation is their input devices. Specifically, the traditional input devices (e.g., the mouse and keyboard) provide limited information about the user. In this paper, we make a case for the addition of new biometric input devices for providing the computer information about the user’s physiological traits. We explore three biometric devices as potential sensors: an eye tracker, a galvanic skin response (GSR) sensor, and force sensors. We first present two user studies that explore the link between the sensor readings and user satisfaction when the performance of the processor is varied as a video g...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: MICRO
• Authors: Alex Shye, Yan Pan, Benjamin Scholbrock, J. Scott Miller, Gokhan Memik, Peter A. Dinda, Robert P. Dick
• Keywords: Hardware, Input Devices, MICRO 2008, Physiological Traits, User’s Physiological Traits