Method for expanding in friendly manner the functionality of a portable electronic device and corresponding portable electronic device

• US 20020147859A1
• Filed: 12/28/2001
• Published: 10/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics SRL (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics SRL (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Navoni, Loris Giuseppe, Borgatti, Michele, Rolandi, Pierluigi, Caliʼ, Lorenzo
• Granted Patent: US 7,036,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/328
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of expanding the functional capabilities of portable electronic devices with user friendly modes, wherein a host device is associated a quick-connect function-expanding module. In this method, at each installation of a given module, the functional expansion module and the host device recognize each other; on first installation of a given module in the host device, a series of checking operations are carried out automatically; the user can select to activate the available expansion; and once a given application is selected, the configuration and functions required for each application are stored.

Claims

1. A method of expanding the functional capabilities of portable electronic host devices with user-friendly modes, wherein a host device has a quick-connect functional expansion module associated therewith, comprising:

at each installation of a given module, the module and the host device recognizing each other;

on first installation of the given module in the host device, performing a series of checking operations automatically;

the user of the host device selecting to activate the available expansion; and

upon a given application being selected, storing the configuration and functions required for each application.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of performing the series of checking operations comprises:

listing the applications installed in the host device;

checking said expansion for compatibility with each application;

searching out the required modes to implement the expansion, for each application or the first time that an application is called to work; and

constructing a “

vocabulary”

of correspondence between the minimum of functions afforded by the expansion module and the minimum of functions demanded by the application in the host device.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

once a given application is selected, finding the components of the “

vocabulary of functions”

from the sets that pertain to the other applications involved in the expansion made possible by the supplementary module;

optionally requesting training or verifying the vocabulary entered;

warning the user of the availability of the expansion; and

activating the expansion on request by the user.

4. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that said storing step comprises storing the configuration, the “

vocabularies of functions”

for every application, and the current state of each activated application.

5. A system, comprising:

a portable electronic host device with expanded function capability; and

a quick-connect function-expanding module, comprising;

a host device loading and connecting program;

an expansion module control program; and

an API (Application Programming Interface) for the module to dialog with the operating system of the host device;

wherein the host device includes tables of correspondence between the applications and the commands of the installed module and an operating system path for detaining the functions to be expanded.