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While energy-efficient GUIs use minimal energy for certain
functions, energy-aware GUIs should also be able to trade other
aspects of the software for saving energy.
As shown in Section V, the display is a large
source of energy consumption. Thus, GUI platforms can be augmented
to capitalize on new display management
technologies [21,3,9].
As some of the insights offered for improving energy efficiency
contradict traditional wisdom, energy efficiency may sometimes be
improved only with some sacrifice in another area. Not showing
progress bars may be somewhat awkward. Inconsistent menus may be
slightly confusing. A plain theme may make users unhappy.
Therefore, instead of using an energy-efficient GUI all the time,
a GUI should be able to adapt to energy availability to make the
best tradeoff. Moreover, users should be able to decide whether
and when to use the energy-efficient GUI, thus overriding the
automatic adaptation.
Lin Zhong
2003-10-13