Methods and apparatuses for operating a portable device based on an accelerometer

• US 20060017692A1
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Falkenburg, David R., Leiba, Aaron, Williams, Richard C., Wehrenberg, Paul J., Chang, Ray L., Gerbarg, Louis G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,688,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1605 Multimedia displays, e.g. with integrated or attached speakers, cameras, microphones
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• 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 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• 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 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1636 Sensing arrangement for detection of a tap gesture on the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/162 Interface to dedicated audio devices, e.g. audio drivers, interface to CODECs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for operating a portable device based on an accelerometer are described. According to one embodiment of the invention, an accelerometer attached to a portable device detects a movement of the portable device. In response, a machine executable code is executed within the portable device to perform one or more predetermined user configurable operations. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting movement of a portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device; and

executing machine-executable code to perform one or more predetermined user configurable actions in response to the detection of the movement of the portable device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a direction of the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

comparing the determined direction of the movement with a predetermined direction to determine whether the determined direction relatively matches the predetermined direction in order to execute the machine-executable code.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the movement of the portable device includes moving the portable device towards a direction parallel to surface of the portable device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the movement of the portable device includes rotating the portable device with respect to at least one of an edge and a corner of the portable device.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the movement of the portable device includes a combination of at least two of moving the portable device towards a direction parallel to surface of the portable device, rotating the portable device with respect to an edge of the portable device, and rotating the portable device with respect to a corner of the portable device.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining an orientation of the portable device after the movement based on movement data collected by the accelerometer, wherein the one or more predetermined user configurable actions are performed based on the determined orientation.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more predetermined user configurable actions include displaying an image on a display of the portable device according to an orientation that is relatively identical to an orientation of the image prior to the movement.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the image comprises one of a page of a document, a Web page, and a page of slide presentation.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

displaying a first page of a document on a display of the portable device prior to the movement; and

displaying a second page of the document different than the first page on a display of the portable device if the determined direction of the movement relatively matches the predetermined direction.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying one or more intermediate pages between the first and second pages of the document, the one or more intermediate pages representing a transition from the first page to the second page.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the portable device is placed on a supporting surface when the movement of the portable device is detected, and wherein the movement of the portable device is detected when a sudden force is tabbed on the supporting surface.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

detecting oscillation of the portable device via the supporting surface caused by tabbing the supporting surface; and

generating the movement data based on the detected oscillation of the portable device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second page of the document is displayed as a next page advanced from the first page of the document.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the second page of the document is displayed as a previous page reversed from the first page of the document.

15. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

displaying a first portion of a document page on a display of the portable device prior to the movement; and

displaying a second portion of the document page different than the first portion on the display of the portable device if the determined direction of the movement relatively matches the predetermined direction.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising displaying one or more intermediate portion of the document page between the first and second portions of the document page, the one or more intermediate portions representing a transition from the first portion to the second portion.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second portion is displayed transitioned from the first portion as if the portable device is moving while the document page is steady.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the transition from the first portion to the second portion is performed in accordance with the determined direction of the movement from a viewpoint of a user.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the document page cannot entirely be displayed on one page within the display of the portable device.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the document page is one of a map, a newspaper, and a video game scene.

21. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

displaying a sequence of images transitioning towards a direction from a first scene to a second scene from a viewpoint of a user;

detecting whether the movement of the portable device is in accordance with a direction associated with the direction of the transition from the viewpoint of the user; and

performing a predetermined operation if the movement is not detected in accordance with a direction associated with the direction of the transition.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the predetermined operation includes one of causing a vibration of the portable device, generating an audio alert, and a combination of a vibration and an audio alert.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining an acceleration of the movement of the portable device based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

adjusting displaying the sequence of images with an acceleration relatively related to the acceleration of the movement.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the sequence of images represents a moving scene of a video game and wherein the portable device represents a moving object facing the moving scene from a viewpoint of a user holding the portable device.

25. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

activating at least one interface of the portable device that is best suitable for given the determined orientation; and

optionally deactivating at least one interface of the portable device that is less suitable for the given determined orientation.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

determining whether the portable device is held by a user after the movement based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

predicting locations of the hands of the user for holding the portable device, wherein the at least one interface is activated or deactivated based the predicted locations of the hands.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

activating at least one interface that is not within the predicted locations; and

deactivating at least one interface that is within the predicted locations.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more wireless transceiver.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

activating at least one wireless transceiver that communicates with relative strong signals; and

deactivating at least one wireless transceiver that communicates with relative weak signals.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more speakers.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising driving at least one speaker to have a best sound effect given the determined orientation of the portable device after the movement.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more cameras.

33. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more microphones.

34. The method of claim 25, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more video output interfaces.

35. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether the movement is a repetitive movement based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

determining a repetitive rate of the movement, wherein the machine-executable code is executed based on the determined repetitive rate of the movement.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the portable device is a multimedia player and wherein executing the machine-executable code includes playing a multimedia content via the portable device.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising adjusting a rhythm of the multimedia content currently being played to relatively match the determined repetitive rate of the movement.

38. The method of claim 36, further comprising selecting and playing a multimedia content that has a tempo relatively matched with the determined repetitive rate of the movement.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the portable device is a digital audio player.

40. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an operating state of the portable device including one of an active and inactive operating states, wherein the machine-executable code is executed based on the determined operating state.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising transitioning the portable device into a relative low power mode if it is determined that the portable device is in the inactive state and is moving based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer.

42. The method of claim 40, further comprising transitioning the portable device into a hibernated mode if it is determined that the portable device is in the inactive state and is not moving based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein transitioning the portable device into the hibernated mode comprises:

swapping at least a portion of contents in a system memory of the portable device into a permanent storage of the portable device; and

shutting down substantially all power consumed by the portable device.

44. The method of claim 40, wherein a cover of the portable device is closed when the portable device is in the inactive state.

45. The method of claim 40, wherein a user interface of the portable device is locked when the portable device is in the inactive state.

46. The method of claim 40, wherein an interface device of the portable device is disabled when the portable device is in the inactive state.

47. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

requesting a user to move the portable device as a part of entering a password prior to detecting the movement of the portable device; and

indicating whether the password is entered correctly based on whether the moving direction of the portable device relatively matches the predetermined direction.

48. The method of claim 47, further comprising prompting the user to enter a first portion of the password prior to requesting the user to move the portable device, wherein the indication of whether the password is entered successfully is determined based on the movement of the portable device and the entered first portion of the password.

49. The method of claim 48, further comprising prompting the user to enter a second portion of the password after requesting the user to move the portable device, wherein the indication of whether the password is entered successfully is determined based on the movement of the portable device and the entered first and second portions of the password.

50. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

recording a sequence of movements of the portable device over a period of time using the accelerometer; and

subsequently plotting a trail representing the sequence of movements using the recorded sequence of movements.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein recording the sequence of movements comprises:

determining a moving direction of each movement based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

recording a period of time between each movement having different moving directions, wherein the plotting is performed based on the determined direction of each movement and the period of time between each movement.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising storing the recorded sequence of movements in a storage within the portable device prior to the plotting.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the plotting is performed off-line by retrieving the recorded sequence of movements from the storage of the portable device.

54. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether a predetermined surface of the portable device is facing a predetermined direction based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

putting the portable device into a relatively low power mode if the predetermined surface of the portable device is facing the predetermined direction.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein the portable device is put into the relatively low power mode if a display surface of the portable device is facing down.

56. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether the portable device is in a locked state; and

generating an alert to indicate the movement of the portable device if the portable device is in a locked state.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein generating the alert comprises generating an auditable audio alarm.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein generating the alert comprises transmitting a signal to a remote facility over a network.

59. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining a location profile for the portable device based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

configuring the portable device according to the determined location profile.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein configuring the portable device comprises disabling a wireless network interface and enabling a cellular interface of the portable device if the portable is associated with a mobile profile.

61. The method of claim 1, wherein the portable device is one of a laptop computer, a tablet PC, a PDA (personal digital assistant), a cellular phone, a personal communicator, and a multimedia player.

62. A portable device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having instructions stored therein; and

an accelerometer coupled to the processor and the memory to detect movement of the portable device, wherein the processor executes instructions from the memory to perform one or more predetermined user configurable actions in response to the detection of the movement of the portable device.

63. The portable device of claim 62, further comprising a controller coupled to the accelerometer and the processor to

determine a direction of the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer, and

compare the determined direction of the movement with a predetermined direction to determine whether the determined direction relatively matches the predetermined direction in order to execute the instructions.

64. A machine-readable medium having executable code to cause a machine to perform a method, the method comprising:

detecting movement of a portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device; and

executing machine-executable code to perform one or more predetermined user configurable actions in response to the detection of the movement of the portable device.

65. The machine-readable medium of claim 64, wherein the method further comprises:

determining a direction of the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

comparing the determined direction of the movement with a predetermined direction to determine whether the determined direction relatively matches the predetermined direction in order to execute the machine-executable code.

66. An apparatus, comprising:

means for detecting movement of a portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device; and

means for executing machine-executable code to perform one or more predetermined user configurable actions in response to the detection of the movement of the portable device.

67. The apparatus of claim 66, further comprising:

means for determining a direction of the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

means for comparing the determined direction of the movement with a predetermined direction to determine whether the determined direction relatively matches the predetermined direction in order to execute the machine-executable code.

68. A method, comprising:

detecting movement of a portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device;

determining an orientation of the portable device after the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

displaying an image on a display of the portable device according to an orientation that is relatively identical to an orientation of the image prior to the movement.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein the image is one of a page of a document, a Web page, and a page of slide presentation.

70. A method, comprising:

displaying a first page of a document on a display of a portable device;

detecting movement of the portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device; and

displaying a second page of the document different than the first page in response to the detection of the movement.

71. The method of claim 70, further comprising determining a direction of the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer, wherein the second page is displayed if the determined direction relatively matches a predetermined direction.

72. The method of claim 71, further comprising displaying one or more intermediate pages between the first and second pages of the document, the one or more intermediate pages representing a transition from the first page to the second page.

73. The method of claim 71, wherein the portable device is placed on a supporting surface when the movement of the portable device is detected, and wherein the movement of the portable device is detected when a sudden force is tabbed on the supporting surface.

74. The method of claim 73, further comprising:

detecting oscillation of the portable device via the supporting surface caused by tabbing the supporting surface; and

generating the movement data based on the detected oscillation of the portable device.

75. The method of claim 73, wherein the second page of the document is displayed as a next page advanced from the first page of the document.

76. The method of claim 73, wherein the second page of the document is displayed as a previous page reversed from the first page of the document.

77. A method, comprising:

displaying a first portion of a document page on a display of the portable device;

detecting movement of the portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device; and

displaying a second portion of the document page different than the first portion on the display of the portable device in response to the detection.

78. The method of claim 77, further comprising determining a direction of the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer, wherein the second portion of the document page is displayed if the determined direction relatively matches a predetermined direction.

79. The method of claim 78, wherein the second portion is displayed transitioned from the first portion as if the portable device is moving while the document page is steady.

80. The method of claim 78, wherein the transition from the first portion to the second portion is performed in accordance with the determined direction of the movement from a viewpoint of a user.

81. The method of claim 77, wherein the document page cannot entirely be displayed on one page within the display of the portable device.

82. The method of claim 77, wherein the document page is one of a map, a newspaper, and a video game scene.

83. A method, comprising:

displaying on a display of a portable device a sequence of images transitioning towards a direction from a first scene to a second scene from a viewpoint of a user;

detecting a movement of the portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device; and

performing a predetermined operation if the detected movement is not in accordance with a direction associated with the direction of the transition from the viewpoint of the user.

84. The method of claim 83, wherein the predetermined operation includes one of causing a vibration of the portable device, generating an audio alert, and a combination of a vibration and an audio alert.

85. The method of claim 83, further comprising:

determining an acceleration of the movement of the portable device based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

adjusting displaying the sequence of images with an acceleration relatively related to the acceleration of the movement.

86. The method of claim 83, wherein the sequence of images represents a moving scene of a video game and wherein the portable device represents a moving object facing the moving scene from a viewpoint of a user holding the portable device.

87. A method, comprising:

detecting a movement of a portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device;

determining an orientation of the portable device after the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

activating at least one interface of the portable device that is best suitable for given the determined orientation.

88. The method of claim 87, further comprising optionally deactivating at least one interface of the portable device that is less suitable for the given determined orientation.

89. The method of claim 88, further comprising:

determining whether the portable device is held by a user after the movement based on the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

predicting locations of the hands of the user for holding the portable device, wherein the at least one interface is activated or deactivated based the predicted locations of the hands.

90. The method of claim 89, further comprising:

activating at least one interface that is not within the predicted locations; and

deactivating at least one interface that is within the predicted locations.

91. The method of claim 88, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more wireless transceiver.

92. The method of claim 91, further comprising:

activating at least one wireless transceiver that communicates with relative strong signals; and

deactivating at least one wireless transceiver that communicates with relative weak signals.

93. The method of claim 88, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more speakers.

94. The method of claim 93, further comprising driving at least one speaker to have a best sound effect given the determined orientation of the portable device after the movement.

95. The method of claim 88, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more cameras.

96. The method of claim 88, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more microphones.

97. The method of claim 88, wherein the at least one interface includes one or more video output interfaces.

98. A method, comprising:

determining whether movement of a portable device is a repetitive movement using an accelerometer;

determining a repetitive rate of the movement based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

playing a multimedia content via the portable device based on the determined repetitive rate of the movement.

99. The method of claim 98, further comprising adjusting a rhythm of the multimedia content to relatively match the determined repetitive rate of the movement.

100. The method of claim 98, further comprising selecting and playing a multimedia content that has a tempo relatively matched with the determined repetitive rate of the movement.

101. The method of claim 98, wherein the portable device is a digital audio player.

102. A method, comprising:

detecting whether a portable device is moving using an accelerometer attached to the portable device;

determining an operating state of the portable device, the operating state including one of an inactive state and an active state; and

configuring the portable device into a predetermined power mode based on the determined operating state if the portable device is moving.

103. The method of claim 102, further comprising transitioning the portable device into a relative low power mode if it is determined that the portable device is in the inactive state and is moving based on movement data provided by the accelerometer.

104. The method of claim 102, further comprising transitioning the portable device into a hibernated mode if it is determined that the portable device is in the inactive state and is not moving based on movement data provided by the accelerometer.

105. The method of claim 104, wherein transitioning the portable device into the hibernated mode comprises:

swapping at least a portion of contents in a system memory of the portable device into a permanent storage of the portable device; and

shutting down substantially all power consumed by the portable device.

106. The method of claim 102, further comprising:

determining whether a predetermined surface of the portable device is facing a predetermined direction based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

configuring the portable device into a relatively low power mode if the predetermined surface of the portable device is facing the predetermined direction.

107. The method of claim 106, wherein the portable device is configured into the relatively low power mode if a display surface of the portable device is facing down.

108. The method of claim 102, wherein a cover of the portable device is closed when the portable device is in the inactive state.

109. The method of claim 102, wherein a user interface of the portable device is locked when the portable device is in the inactive state.

110. The method of claim 102, wherein an interface device of the portable device is disabled when the portable device is in the inactive state.

111. A method, comprising:

detecting a movement of a portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device;

determining a moving direction of the portable device based on movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

adjusting a position of a displayed object on a display of the portable device to compensate the movement of the portable device, such that the adjusted displayed object remain relatively identical position with respect to a user of the portable device.

112. The method of claim 111, wherein detecting the movement of the portable device comprises detecting the movement of the portable device as a function of time from a predetermined location.

113. The method of claim 111, further comprising:

extracting one or more relatively high frequency components of the movement data provided by the accelerometer; and

performing determining the moving direction based on the extracted one or more relatively high frequency components while ignoring relatively low frequency components.

114. The method of claim 113, wherein the one or more relatively high frequency components represent sudden movement of the portable device.

115. The method of claim 111, wherein the displayed object comprises an electronic document.

116. A method, comprising:

detecting a movement of a portable device using an accelerometer attached to the portable device, in response to a force applied to the portable device;

calculating a magnitude and a direction of the force based on acceleration information provided by the accelerometer; and

moving a displayed object from a first location to a second location on a display of the portable device, wherein the direction and distance between the first and second locations are determined based on the calculated magnitude and direction of the force.