Method and apparatus for determining the context of a device
First Claim
1. A method for sensing the context of an electronic device, the method comprising:
- receiving contact information which represents a contact pattern acting on the device;
determining a contextual characteristic associated with the contact pattern;
determining a function operational in response to the contextual characteristic; and
executing the function.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A handheld electronic device (100) includes at least one context sensing circuit and a microprocessor (204), and a user interface (212). The sensing circuit detects (205) either a contextual characteristic of the device (e.g., ambient light, motion of the device or proximity to or contact another object) or how the user is holding the device and generates a virtual output (207) representative of the sensed characteristic. The sensed contextual characteristic is associated with a data management function of the device and a virtual physical representation to be output in response to the execution of the data management function is determined. The virtual physical representation is related to the sensed contextual characteristic or the data management function. The virtual physical representation is output by a user interface of the device.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for sensing the context of an electronic device, the method comprising:
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receiving contact information which represents a contact pattern acting on the device;
determining a contextual characteristic associated with the contact pattern;
determining a function operational in response to the contextual characteristic; and
executing the function. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for sensing the context of an electronic device, the method comprising:
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receiving touch sensor information from at least a subset of touch sensors for a plurality of touch sensors;
determining a contact pattern which corresponds to the subset of touch sensors;
receiving contextual information at the device;
determining the position of the device relative to a foreign object based on the contact pattern;
determining a function operational in response to the position of the device and the and the received contextual information; and
executing the function. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A method in a wireless communication device comprising:
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receiving a plurality of input signals from corresponding capacitive touch sensors carried on a housing of the wireless communication device;
determining a touch pattern corresponding to the plurality of input signals received from the capacitive touch sensors;
determining a relative position to a foreign object; and
activating an event in response to receiving the plurality of input signals and the motion input signal.
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22. An electronic device comprising:
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a housing;
a microprocessor;
a plurality of touch sensors carried on the housing an activatable from the exterior of the housing, wherein the location of each touch sensor of the plurality of touch sensors is configured to determine the poison of foreign objects relative to the housing; and
a context sensor module coupled to the microprocessor and receiving input from the plurality of touch sensors. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification