Switching between watches or other accessories

• US 10,389,865 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2018
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• 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:
  US16/131,452
• Publication Number:
  US 20190020751A1
• Time in Patent Office: 340 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 wearable accessories can scan for one or more on-body states from one or more paired accessories, determine based on a difference in on-body states that a switch between accessories has occurred, the switch being to a second accessory from a first accessory, and transmit synchronization data to the second accessory in response to determining that the second accessory has established a communication connection for data exchange with the companion device. Other embodiments are also described.

Claims

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

scanning for one or more on-body states from one or more paired accessories;

determining, based on a difference in on-body states, that a switch between accessories has occurred, the switch being to a second accessory from a first accessory; and

transmitting synchronization data to the second accessory in response to determining that the second accessory has established a communication connection for data exchange with the companion device.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 1, the operations additionally comprising transmitting the synchronization data automatically to the second accessory in response to detecting the switch to the second accessory.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 1, the operations additionally comprising:

starting a timer in response to determining that the switch between accessories has occurred;

ceasing, during a period of time before the timer expires, scanning for on-body states of other accessories;

determining, during the period of time before the timer expires, whether the second accessory has established the communication connection for data exchange with the companion device; and

reverting, in response to expiration of the time, to scanning for one or more on-body states from the one or more paired accessories, wherein the one or more on-body states indicate a state of a position of a wearable accessory relative to a body of a user of the companion device.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 3, wherein the scanning includes scanning for Bluetooth advertisements which include the one or more on-body states.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 4, wherein the first accessory and the second accessory use a same advertising identifier.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 1, wherein the companion device transmits synchronization data while the companion device is locked.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 1, wherein the companion device is one of a smartphone or a tablet computer.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 7, wherein the companion device includes at least one of a cellular telephone transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver, or a Bluetooth transceiver, and wherein the companion device is paired through Bluetooth with the first accessory and the second accessory.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as in claim 1, wherein the first accessory or the second accessory 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.

10. A method performed on a companion device that is paired with multiple wearable accessories, the method comprising:

scanning for one or more on-body states from one or more paired accessories;

determining, based on a difference in on-body states, that a switch between accessories has occurred, the switch being to a second accessory from a first accessory; and

transmitting synchronization data to the second accessory in response to determining that the second accessory has established a communication connection for data exchange with the companion device.

11. The method as in claim 10, additionally comprising transmitting the synchronization data automatically to the second accessory in response to detecting the switch to the second accessory.

12. The method as in claim 10, additionally comprising:

starting a timer in response to determining that the switch between accessories has occurred;

ceasing, during a period of time before the timer expires, scanning for on-body states of other accessories;

determining, during the period of time before the timer expires, whether the second accessory has established the communication connection for data exchange with the companion device; and

reverting, in response to expiration of the time, to scanning for one or more on-body states from the one or more paired accessories, wherein the one or more on-body states indicate a state of a position of a wearable accessory relative to a body of a user of the companion device.

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein the scanning includes scanning for Bluetooth advertisements which include the one or more on-body states.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein the first accessory and the second accessory use a same advertising identifier.

15. The method as in claim 10, wherein the companion device transmits synchronization data while the companion device is locked.

16. The method as in claim 10, wherein the companion device is one of a smartphone or a tablet computer.

17. The method as in claim 16, wherein the companion device includes at least one of a cellular telephone transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver, or a Bluetooth transceiver, and wherein the companion device is paired through Bluetooth with the first accessory and the second accessory.

18. The method as in claim 10, wherein the first accessory or the second accessory 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.

19. A data processing system comprising:

memory to store instructions;

one or more processors to execute instructions, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

scanning for one or more on-body states from one or more paired accessories;

determining, based on a difference in on-body states, that a switch between accessories has occurred, the switch being to a second accessory from a first accessory;

starting a timer in response to determining that the switch between accessories has occurred;

ceasing, during a period of time before the timer expires, scanning for on-body states of other accessories;

determining, during the period of time before the timer expires, whether the second accessory has established a communication connection for data exchange with a companion device; and

transmitting synchronization data to the second accessory in response to determining that the second accessory has established the communication connection for data exchange with the companion device.

20. The data processing system as in claim 19, the operations additionally comprising:

reverting, in response to expiration of the timer, to scanning for one or more on-body states from the one or more paired accessories, wherein the one or more on-body states indicate a state of a position of a wearable accessory relative to a body of a user of the companion device.

21. The data processing system as in claim 19, wherein the companion device is one of a smartphone or a tablet computer, the companion device includes at least one of a cellular telephone transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver, or a Bluetooth transceiver, and the companion device is paired through Bluetooth with the first accessory and the second accessory.

22. The data processing system as in claim 19, wherein the first accessory or the second accessory 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.