Apparatus and method for controlling portable terminal

• US 20060111093A1
• Filed: 11/08/2005
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Chang, Wook, Park, Joon-ah, Cho, Sung-jung, Lee, Hyun-jeong, Kim, Kee-eung, Shim, Jung-hyun, Kim, Hyun-jin, Chung, Seung-nyang, Lee, Ho-yeal
• Granted Patent: US 8,103,263 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• 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 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• 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 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72442 for playing music files
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• 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 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and method for controlling a portable terminal. The apparatus includes a contact sensing unit which senses an area of an external surface of the portable terminal contacted by a user as the user holds the portable terminal, a recognizing unit which recognizes a function mode of the portable terminal based on information about the contacted area sensed by the contact sensing unit, and a control unit which changes the portable terminal to a function mode recognized by the recognizing unit. Since a function mode of the portable terminal is controlled according to the way a user holds the portable terminal, convenience of changing a function mode of the portable terminal is provided through a single manipulation.

Claims

14. A method for controlling a portable terminal, the method comprising:

sensing a signal of the portable terminal when a user holds the portable terminal;

recognizing a function mode of the portable terminal using sensed signal; and

changing the function mode of the portable terminal to the recognized function mode of the portable terminal.

1. An apparatus for controlling a portable terminal, the apparatus comprising:

a sensing unit which senses an area of an external surface of the portable terminal contacted by a user as the user holds the portable terminal;

a recognizing unit which recognizes a function mode of the portable terminal based on information sensed by the sensing unit; and

a control unit which sets a function mode of the portable terminal into a recognized function mode of the portable terminal recognized by the recognizing unit.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensing unit comprises:

one or more contact sensors which output signals indicating whether a user contacts the contact sensors; and

A contact signal processor which combines the signals output from the contact sensors and generates the information about a contact area.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the contact sensors are mounted on the external surface of the portable terminal.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the contact sensors are contact-type sensors that determine a contact has occurred when there is a direct contact by a user or contactless sensors that determine a contact has occurred when a user is within a predetermined distance of the contact sensors without directly contacting the contact sensors.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensing unit comprises a motion sensing unit which senses a rotation angle of the portable terminal with respect to a predetermined reference axis that is preset in the portable terminal or an angle of the predetermined reference axis with respect to the gravity direction as the user holds the portable terminal, wherein the recognizing unit additionally uses information sensed by the motion sensing unit to recognize the function mode of the portable terminal.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the recognizing unit comprises:

a storing unit which stores a recognition model that is used to recognize the function mode of the portable terminal;

a determining unit which compares the information sensed by the contact sensing unit and the motion sensing unit with the recognition model stored in the storing unit and determines the function mode to be recognized; and

an updating unit which updates the recognition model according to whether the function mode determined by the determining unit is a function mode desired by the user.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the recognition model is proportional to a probability P(M)Π

_iP(I_i|M),

where M represents a predetermined function mode of the portable terminal, I_i represents the information about the contacted area, which is sensed by the contact sensing unit, the rotation angle, or the angle with respect to the gravity direction, which is sensed by the motion sensing unit, P(M) represents a probability of the function mode M being selected when the user holds the portable terminal, P(I_i |M) represents a probability that the user contacts the contacted area I_i when the function mode M is selected, the portable terminal rotates the rotation angle I_i, or the reference axis of the portable terminal is inclined by the angle I_i with respect to the gravity direction.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein P(M) is calculated by

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the function mode determined by the determining unit satisfies arg max_meMP(m|I)=arg max_meMP(m)Π

_iP(I_i|m),

wherein m represents a specific function mode of the portable terminal.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein updating of the recognition model is made such that the P(M) is updated with

11. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the motion sensing unit further comprises an inertial sensor or an acceleration sensor to sense the motion of the portable terminal.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an external device sensing unit which senses attachment or detachment of an external device of the portable terminal,

wherein the recognizing unit additionally uses information sensed by the external device sensing unit as information for recognizing the function mode of the portable terminal.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the external device is any of an earphone, a headphone, secure digital (SD) card or multi media card (MMC).

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the sensing comprises:

outputting signals indicating whether there is the user'"'"'s contact from one or more contact sensors sensing whether there is a user'"'"'s contact; and

combining the signals output from the one or more contact sensors with each other and generating the information about a contact area.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more contact sensor are mounted on the external surface of the portable terminal.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more contact sensor are contact-type sensors that determine a contact has occurred when there is a direct contact by a user or contactless sensors that determine a contact has occurred when a user is within a predetermined distance of the contact sensors without directly contacting the contact sensors.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein said sensing comprises sensing a rotation angle of the portable terminal with respect to a predetermined reference axis that is preset in the portable terminal or an angle of the predetermined reference axis with respect to the gravity direction as the user holds the portable terminal, wherein in the sensing, the information is additionally used to recognize the function mode of the portable terminal.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the recognition model is proportional to probability P(M)Π

_iP(I_i|M),

where M represents a predetermined function mode of the portable terminal, I_i represents the information about the contacted area, which is sensed by the contact sensing unit, the rotation angle, or the angle with respect to the gravity direction, which is sensed by the motion sensing unit, P(M) represents a probability of the function mode M being selected when the user holds the portable terminal, P(I_i|M) represents a probability that the user contacts the contacted area I_i when the function mode M is selected, the portable terminal rotates the rotation angle I_i, or the reference axis of the portable terminal is inclined by the angle I_i with respect to the gravity direction.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein P(M) is calculated by

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the function mode determined by the determining unit satisfies arg max_meMP(m|I)=arg max_meMP(m)Π

_iP(I_i|m),

wherein m represents a specific function mode of the portable terminal.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising updating a recognition model according to whether the recognized function mode is a function mode desired by the user.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein updating of the recognition model is made such that P(M) is updated with

24. The method of claim 14, further comprising sensing attachment or detachment of an external device of the portable terminal, wherein in the sensing, the information is additionally used to recognize the function mode of the portable terminal.

25. The method of claim 14, further comprising requesting to the user whether to be changed and/or changed the function mode of the portable terminal is correct.

24-1. The method of claim 14, wherein the function mode of the portable terminal is any of SMS (Short Message Service) mode, MP3 mode, camera mode, left-hand call mode or right-hand call mode.