System and method of controlling a feature of a portable electronic device

• US 20070242154A1
• Filed: 04/18/2006
• Published: 10/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Cope, Jason
• Application Number:
  US11/406,101
• Publication Number:
  US 20070242154A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/370
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/22 Illumination; Arrangements for improving the visibility of characters on dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/048 Arrangements providing optical indication of the incoming call, e.g. flasher circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means

Abstract

A camera-equipped portable electronic device captures an image responsive to an occurrence of a predetermined event. The captured image is processed to derive color information. This color information is then employed to control one or more multicolor lighting elements of the portable electronic device to emit a selected color of light.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device comprising:

a camera to capture an image of an object having a color responsive to a predetermined event;

a lighting element; and

a controller communicatively connected to the camera and the lighting element and configured to generate a control signal to cause the lighting element to emit a selected color of light based on color information derived from the captured image.

2. The device of claim 1 further comprising an image processor configured to process a portion of the captured image to derive a plurality of average color values, each average color value being indicative of a different primary color in the captured image.

3. The device of claim 2 wherein the controller is configured to generate the control signal to control the lighting element to emit the selected color of light based on the derived average color values.

4. The device of claim 2 wherein the image processor is further configured to derive an average intensity value indicative of the intensity of the average color values.

5. The device of claim 4 wherein the controller is configured to generate the control signal to control an intensity of the lighting element based on the average intensity value.

6. The device of claim 1 further comprising a light management unit to receive the control signal from the controller and to control the lighting element to emit the selected color of light based on the control signal.

7. The device of claim 1 wherein the selected color of light represents the color of an object in the captured image.

8. The device of claim 7 wherein the lighting element comprises one or more multicolor Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) connected to a housing of the portable electronic device.

9. The device of claim 7 wherein the lighting element comprises an array of multicolor lighting elements used in a display of the portable electronic device.

10. The device of claim 7 wherein the lighting element comprises one or more multicolor lighting elements associated with a user interface of the portable electronic device.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the portable electronics device further comprises a transceiver to communicate with a wireless communications network, and wherein the controller is configured to control the camera to capture the image responsive to an indication received from the network.

12. The device of claim 1 further comprising an image sensor to detect light representing the object being captured by the camera.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the image sensor comprises a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein the image sensor comprises a charge-coupled device (CCD).

15. The device of claim 1 further comprising memory to store the color information derived from the captured image.

16. The device of claim 15 wherein the controller is further configured to retrieve the derived color information from memory responsive to the predetermined event, and generate the control signal to cause the lighting element to emit the selected color of light based on the retrieved color information.

17. A method of controlling a feature of a portable electronic device, the method comprising:

capturing an image of an object having a color responsive to a predetermined event;

processing the captured image to derive color information; and

controlling a multicolor lighting element of the portable electronic device to emit a selected color of light based on the derived color information.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein capturing an image of an object having a color responsive to a predetermined event comprises controlling a camera of the portable electronic device to capture the image responsive to detecting the predetermined event.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the predetermined event comprises a received signal received from a wireless communications network.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the predetermined event comprises a command manually entered by a user at a user interface of the portable electronic device.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein processing the captured image to derive color information comprises processing raw image data of at least a portion of the captured image to calculate an average color value for each of a red, green, and blue primary color.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the raw image data being processed comprises one or more pixels, and wherein generating an average color value for each of a red, green, and blue primary color comprises:

summing a first value indicative of the red primary color in each pixel being processed to calculate a first summed value;

summing a second value representing the green primary color in each pixel being processed to calculate a second summed value;

summing a third value representing the blue primary color in each pixel being processed to calculate a third summed value; and

dividing each of the first, second, and third summed values by the number of pixels that were processed to generate the average color values.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein controlling the multicolor lighting element to emit a selected color of light comprises generating a control signal based on the average color values.

24. The method of claim 22 further comprising processing the captured image to derive an average intensity value for the average color values, and controlling the multicolor lighting element to emit the selected color of light at an intensity based on the average intensity value.

25. The method of claim 17 further comprising retrieving the color information from memory responsive to detecting the predetermined event, and generating the control signal to control the multicolor lighting element based on the retrieved color information.

26. The method of claim 17 wherein the selected color of light emitted by the multicolor lighting element represents the color of an object in the captured image.

27. The method of claim 17 wherein controlling a multicolor lighting element comprises controlling one or more multicolor Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) connected to a housing of the portable electronic device to emit the selected color of light.

28. The method of claim 17 wherein controlling a multicolor lighting element comprises controlling an array of multicolor lighting elements used in a display of the portable electronic device to emit the selected color of light.

29. The method of claim 17 wherein controlling a multicolor lighting element comprises controlling an array of multicolor lighting elements used in a user interface of the portable electronic device to emit the selected color of light.