Switching between watches or other accessories

• US 10,110,722 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2017
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Donley, David C., Poumailloux, Julien A., De Filippis, Pierre J., Hawkins, Tyler D., Dooley, Craig P., Pollack, Daniel B., Grandy, James C., Novick, Gregory B., Shortlidge, Todd A., Pahwa, Aroon, Wilson, David T., Yang, Yan, Circosta, Nicholas Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Rachedine, Mohammed
• Application Number:
  US15/829,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20180103140A1
• Time in Patent Office: 326 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/67 by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6018 Subscriber or terminal logon/logoff
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6054 Biometric subscriber identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0025 synchronizing potentially movable access points

Abstract

Systems, methods and non-transitory computer readable media for allowing a user to switch between watches that have been paired with a device such as a smartphone are described. In one embodiment, the watches automatically detect a removal of a first watch from a user'"'"'s wrist and an attachment of a second watch to the user'"'"'s wrist. Messages from the watches are transmitted to the device to allow the device to switch the active watch from the first watch to the second watch. The switch can occur while the device is in a locked state, and the device can synchronize the second watch with data received from the first watch. Other embodiments are also described.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing executable program instructions which when executed by a data processing system cause the data processing system to perform a method, the method comprising:

detecting removal of a first wearable item which has been synchronized at least partially with a companion device and detecting attachment of a second wearable item, each of the first wearable item and the second wearable item having been paired with the companion device; and

transmitting data to the second wearable item to synchronize the second wearable item in response to detecting attachment of the second wearable item and removal of the first wearable item, the transmitted data providing data from the first wearable item.

2. The medium of claim 1 wherein detecting removal comprises receiving a first position state from the first wearable item and wherein detecting attachment comprises receiving a second position state from the second wearable item and wherein the second position state indicates a higher on-body confidence level than the first position state and wherein the companion device transmits the data to the second wearable item to synchronize the second wearable item with the companion device.

3. The medium as in claim 2 wherein the transmitting is performed while the companion device is locked and wherein the first wearable item and the second wearable item are accessories of the companion device and wherein the first wearable item and the second wearable item are different types of accessories.

4. The medium as in claim 3 wherein the companion device is locked when it requires a user'"'"'s security input to unlock it to allow the companion device to receive further user input.

5. The medium as in claim 4 wherein the detecting removal and the detecting attachment is performed while the companion device is locked, and wherein the user'"'"'s security input is one of or a combination of two or more of:

a password;

a numeric passcode;

a 2-D gesture on a touch screen; and

a biometric input.

6. The medium as in claim 4 wherein the second position state is received through a Bluetooth advertisement which includes an advertising identifier.

7. The medium as in claim 6 wherein the position state from each wearable item is derived from one or more sensors on each wearable item and wherein the companion device is one of a smartphone or a tablet computer which includes at least one of a cellular telephone transceiver, a WiFi transceiver, or a Bluetooth transceiver, and wherein the companion device is paired through Bluetooth with the first wearable item and the second wearable item.

8. The medium as in claim 7 wherein the first wearable item and the second wearable item use a same advertising identifier.

9. The medium as in claim 7 wherein the companion device provides a user interface to allow a user to select one of either:

automatic wearable item switching or manual wearable item switching.

10. The medium as in claim 9 wherein the transmitted data is provided to the second wearable item automatically without user input.

11. The medium as in claim 10 wherein after detecting the removal and after detecting the attachment but prior to the second wearable item becoming an active wearable item the first wearable item provides health data to the companion device.

22. The medium as in claim 1, wherein the first wearable item or the second wearable item is one of or a combination of two or more of:

a watch;

a GPS tracker;

a fitness tracker;

glasses;

a head mounted display;

jewelry;

shoes;

clothing;

a heart monitor;

a health sensor;

a glucose monitor; and

an audio accessory.

12. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing executable program instructions which when executed by a processing system cause the processing system to perform a method on a wearable item that is paired with a companion device, the method comprising:

transmitting, through a Bluetooth advertisement message, a position state of the wearable item to the companion device, the position state indicating an on-body confidence level that is higher than an on-body confidence level of another wearable item, a difference in on-body confidence levels indicating a switch from the another wearable item to the wearable item; and

receiving data to synchronize the wearable item with at least one of the companion device or the another wearable item in response to the switch, the data having originated from the another wearable item.

13. The medium of claim 12 wherein the companion device is one of:

a smartphone or a tablet computer and wherein the data is received from the companion device and comprises health data collected by the another wearable item through sensors on the another wearable item, and wherein the another wearable item and the wearable item are paired with the companion device for Bluetooth communication.

23. The medium as in claim 12, wherein the first wearable item or the second wearable item is one of or a combination of two or more of:

a watch;

a GPS tracker;

a fitness tracker;

glasses;

a head mounted display;

jewelry;

shoes;

clothing;

a heart monitor;

a health sensor;

a glucose monitor; and

an audio accessory.

14. A data processing system comprising:

one or more application processors for executing an operating system and one or more applications on the data processing system which is a wireless communication device, the one or more application processors having at least one sleep state and at least one run state which consumes more power than the sleep state;

a radio controller which includes filter logic, the radio controller coupled to the one or more application processors to receive, from the one or more application processors, one or more values representing position states for processing by the filter logic; and

a radio transceiver coupled to the radio controller, the radio transceiver configured to receive one or more position states from an active paired wearable item and one or more position states from one or more inactive paired wearable items and provide these position states to the radio controller, wherein the radio controller is configured, through the filter logic, to prevent waking up the one or more application processors from the sleep state when all of the one or more inactive paired wearable items have a position state that indicates a lower on-body confidence level than a most recent position state from the active paired wearable item, and the radio controller is configured, through the filter logic, to wake up the one or more application processors from the sleep state when any one of the one or more inactive paired wearable items has a position state that indicates a higher on-body confidence level than the most recent position state from the active paired wearable item.

15. The system as in claim 14 wherein the wireless communication device is one of either a smartphone or a tablet computer and wherein the active paired wearable item and one of the inactive paired wearable items are different types of accessories of the wireless communication device.

16. The system as in claim 14 wherein the active paired wearable item and the one or more inactive paired wearable items are paired with the data processing system through Bluetooth.

17. The system as in claim 16 wherein the one or more inactive paired wearable items use Bluetooth advertisements with a same identifier in the Bluetooth advertisements.

18. The system as in claim 17 wherein the Bluetooth advertisements include the position states from the one or more inactive paired wearable items and wherein the radio transceiver is a Bluetooth radio.

19. The system as in claim 18 wherein the one or more application processors wake up to switch which paired wearable item is the active paired wearable item.

20. The system as in claim 19 wherein the data processing system and the active paired wearable item use an encrypted communication protocol on Bluetooth communication signals, the encrypted communication protocol established after the data processing system and the active paired wearable item have both been unlocked by a user'"'"'s input.

21. The system as in claim 20 wherein the one or more application processors provide to the radio controller one or more parameters representing a scan interval to cause the radio transceiver to scan for Bluetooth advertisements from the one or more inactive wearable items.

24. The system as in claim 14, wherein the active paired wearable item and the one or more inactive paired wearable items are each one of or a combination of two or more of:

a watch;

a GPS tracker;

a fitness tracker;

glasses;

a head mounted display;

jewelry;

shoes;

clothing;

a heart monitor;

a health sensor;

a glucose monitor; and

an audio accessory.