Wearable device and mobile terminal for supporting communication with the device

• US 10,001,869 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2015
• Issued: 06/19/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Yim, Soyeon, Ahn, Shinhui, Jeon, Youjin, Kim, Soomin
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Benjamin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lin, Chun-Nan
• Application Number:
  US14/885,563
• Publication Number:
  US 20160110012A1
• Time in Patent Office: 977 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0384 Wireless input, i.e. hardware and software details of wireless interface arrangements for pointing devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/64 file transfer between terminals download of applications H04M1/72406; transfer of messages, e.g. SMS, e-mail or MMS H04M1/7243

Abstract

A mobile terminal including a wireless communication unit configured to perform wireless communication with a wearable device; a touch screen; a sensor unit configured to sense at least one of a mobile terminal acceleration signal and a mobile terminal vibration signal; and a controller configured to display a screen corresponding to an application executing on the mobile terminal, receive first state information from the wearable device indicating at least one of a wearable device acceleration signal and a wearable device vibration signal of the wearable device, receive second state information from the sensor unit indicating said at least one of the mobile terminal acceleration signal and the mobile terminal vibration signal of the mobile terminal, and transfer operations of the application executing on the mobile terminal to the wearable device, based on the first and second state information.

Claims

1. A wearable device, comprising:

a touch screen;

a short-range communication circuit configured to perform wireless communication with a mobile terminal;

a sensor configured to sense at least one of a wearable device acceleration signal and a wearable device vibration signal; and

a controller configured to;

receive first state information from the sensor indicating the at least one of the wearable device acceleration signal and the wearable device vibration signal,

receive second state information from the mobile terminal indicating sensed at least one of a mobile terminal acceleration signal and a mobile terminal vibration signal of the mobile terminal, and

set one of the wearable device and the mobile terminal as an auxiliary device based on the first and second state information, respectively,

wherein the auxiliary device performs an auxiliary function, wherein an application is executed in the wearable device and the mobile terminal, and

wherein the controller is further configured to;

display an enlargement user interface (UI) on the touch screen corresponding to a partial area of an application screen of the application being executed on the mobile terminal responsive to the wearable device being set as the auxiliary device according to sensing the at least one of the wearable device acceleration signal and the wearable device vibration signal.

2. The wearable device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to display an image received from the mobile terminal on the touch screen when only the wearable device vibration signal is sensed by the sensor.

3. The wearable device according to claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to transfer an image displayed on the touch screen to at least part of a screen where an application is executed on the mobile terminal.

4. The wearable device according to claim 3, wherein the image displayed on the touch screen comprises at least one menu for controlling an operation of the application being executed on the mobile terminal.

5. The wearable device according to claim 3, wherein the image displayed on the touch screen comprises a list of at least one content information or content relating to the application executing on the mobile terminal.

6. The wearable device according to claim 3, wherein the image displayed on the touch screen comprises event information occurring on the mobile terminal.

7. The wearable device according to claim 1, wherein the application being executed on the mobile terminal corresponds to a map application and the enlargement UI corresponds to a partial area of a map application screen of the map application, and

wherein the controller is further configured to:

turn off the touch screen, and

turn on the touch screen and display the enlargement UI on the touch screen when the wearable device is set as the auxiliary device.

8. A mobile terminal, comprising:

a short-range communication circuit configured to perform wireless communication with a wearable device;

a touch screen;

a sensor configured to sense at least one of a mobile terminal acceleration signal and a mobile terminal vibration signal; and

a controller configured to;

receive first state information from the wearable device indicating sensed at least one of a wearable device acceleration signal and a wearable device vibration signal of the wearable device,

receive second state information from the sensor indicating said at least one of the mobile terminal acceleration signal and the mobile terminal vibration signal of the mobile terminal, and

set one of the wearable device and the mobile terminal as an auxiliary device, based on the first and second state information, respectively,

wherein the auxiliary device performs an auxiliary function, wherein an application is executed in the wearable device and the mobile terminal, and

wherein the controller is further configured to;

remotely control the wearable device via said short-range communication circuit to display an enlargement user interface (UI) corresponding to a partial area of an application screen of the application being executed on the mobile terminal responsive to the wearable device being set as the auxiliary device according to receiving the first state information from the wearable device.

9. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein, when the first state information includes only the wearable device vibration signal and the second state information includes both the mobile terminal acceleration signal and the mobile terminal vibration signal, the controller is configured to transfer partial operations of the executing application to the wearable device.

10. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to transfer, to the wearable device, identical information of the executing application displayed on the touch screen with a reduce size to match a display of the wearable device.

11. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to transfer information including a menu for controlling an operation of the executing application to the wearable device.

12. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to transfer event information occurring from a second application different from the executing application to the wearable device.

13. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein when the first state information includes both the wearable device acceleration signal and the wearable device vibration signal and the second state information includes only the mobile terminal vibration signal, the controller is configured to execute an application corresponding to an image displayed on the wearable device.

14. The mobile terminal according to claim 13, wherein the controller is further configured to:

display a virtual keyboard on the touch screen, and

transfer text input through the virtual keyboard to the wearable device.

15. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the controller is further configured to transfer event information to the wearable device corresponding to an event occurring on the mobile terminal.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 8, wherein when the first state information includes only the wearable device vibration signal and the second state information includes both the mobile terminal acceleration signal and the mobile terminal vibration signal, the controller is configured to designate the mobile terminal as a main device executing the application and the wearable terminal as a sub device displaying partial information the application executing on the mobile terminal.

17. The mobile terminal of claim 8, wherein when the first state information includes both the wearable device vibration signal and wearable device acceleration signal, and the second state information includes only the mobile terminal vibration signal, the controller is configured to designate the wearable device as a main device and the mobile terminal as a sub device displaying partial information the application executing on the wearable device.

18. A method of controlling a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

performing, via a short-range communication circuit, wireless communication with a wearable device;

sensing, via a sensor, at least one of a mobile terminal acceleration signal and a mobile terminal vibration signal;

receiving, via a controller, first state information from the wearable device indicating sensed at least one of a wearable device acceleration signal and a wearable device vibration signal of the wearable device;

receiving, via the controller, second state information from the sensor indicating said at least one of the mobile terminal acceleration signal and the mobile terminal vibration signal of the mobile terminal; and

setting, via the short-range communication circuit, one of the wearable device and the mobile terminal as an auxiliary device based on the first and second state information, respectively,

wherein the auxiliary device performs an auxiliary function, wherein an application is executed in the wearable device and the mobile terminal, and

wherein the method further comprises;

remotely controlling by the controller, via the short-range communication circuit, the wearable device to display an enlargement user interface (UI) corresponding to a partial area of an application screen of the application being executed on the mobile terminal responsive to the wearable device being set as the auxiliary device according to receiving the first state information from the wearable device.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein, when the first state information includes only the wearable device vibration signal and the second state information includes both the mobile terminal acceleration signal and the mobile terminal vibration signal, the method further comprises transferring partial operations of the executing application to the wearable device.

20. The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

transferring, to the wearable device, identical information of the executing application displayed on the touch screen with a reduce size to match a display of the wearable device.

21. The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

transferring information including a menu for controlling an operation of the executing application to the wearable device.