PORTABLE ELECTRONIC APPARATUS, USER INTERFACE CONTROLLING METHOD, AND PROGRAM

• US 20080001770A1
• Filed: 04/09/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Makino, Kenichi, Takai, Motoyuki, ITO, Hiroshi, Sano, Akane, Inoue, Makoto, Tamori, Hirofumi, Shirai, Katsuya
• Granted Patent: US 8,264,456 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/669
• 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 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• 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 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 3/0346 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: G11B 27/105 of operating discs

Abstract

An electronic apparatus is disclosed which includes: a main body motion determination device configured to determine whether a predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on a main body of the electronic apparatus in a predetermined axial direction; and a control device configured to control the electronic apparatus to perform a predetermined action based on a pattern of the predetermined accelerated motion determined to occur by the main body motion determination device.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a main body motion determination device configured to determine whether a predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on a main body of said electronic apparatus in a predetermined axial direction; and

a control device configured to control said electronic apparatus to perform a predetermined action based on a pattern of said predetermined accelerated motion determined to occur by said main body motion determination device.

2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said main body motion determination device determines whether said predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on said main body based on whether a rate of change in acceleration per unit time in said predetermined axial direction is determined to exceed a predetermined value.

3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said main body motion determination device determines whether said predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on said main body based on whether a reciprocal motion is sensed within a predetermined time period in said predetermined axial direction.

4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said main body motion determination device includes an acceleration sensing device configured to sense acceleration in said axial direction;

and

wherein said main body motion determination device determines whether said predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on said main body based on a sensing output coming from said acceleration sensing device.

5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control device controls said electronic apparatus to perform said predetermined action if said predetermined accelerated motion is determined to have occurred a predetermined number of times within a predetermined time period by said main body motion determination device.

6. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said main body motion determination device determines whether said predetermined accelerated motion is exerted in each of at least two predetermined axial directions;

and

wherein said control device controls said electronic apparatus to perform a different predetermined action based on a pattern of said predetermined accelerated motion determined to occur by said main body motion determination device in each of said at least two axial directions.

7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an inclination angle sensing device configured to sense an inclination angle in said predetermined axial direction;

wherein said control device controls said electronic apparatus to perform said predetermined action based on whether said predetermined accelerated motion is determined to be exerted on said main body of said electronic apparatus in said predetermined axial direction by said main body motion determination device and in accordance with the inclination angle sensed by said inclination angle sensing device when said predetermined accelerated motion is determined to be exerted on said main body of said electronic apparatus in said predetermined axial direction.

8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an operation device; and

an operation determination device configured to determine whether an operation is performed on said operation device;

wherein said control device controls said electronic apparatus to perform said predetermined action based on whether said operation is determined to be performed on said operation device by said operation determination device.

9. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a reproduction device configured to reproduce content data;

wherein said predetermined action is an action for changing a reproduction mode in which to reproduce said content data.

10. The electronic apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said action for changing said reproduction mode involves changing a shuffle reproduction mode in which said content data is reproduced in a random sequence.

11. A controlling method comprising the steps of:

determining whether a predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on a main body of an apparatus in a predetermined axial direction; and

controlling said apparatus to perform a predetermined action based on a pattern of said predetermined accelerated motion determined to occur in the main body motion determining step.

12. The controlling method according to claim 11, wherein said main body motion determining step determines whether said predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on said main body based on whether a rate of change in acceleration per unit time in said predetermined axial direction is determined to exceed a predetermined value in said determining step.

13. The controlling method according to claim 11, wherein said main body motion determining step determines whether said predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on said main body based on whether a reciprocal motion is sensed within a predetermined time period in said predetermined axial direction.

14. The controlling method according to claim 11, wherein said controlling step controls said apparatus to perform said predetermined action if said predetermined accelerated motion is determined to have occurred a predetermined number of times within a predetermined time period.

15. The controlling method according to claim 11, wherein said main body motion determining step determines whether said predetermined accelerated motion is exerted in each of at least two predetermined axial directions;

and

wherein said controlling step controls said apparatus to perform a different predetermined action based on a pattern of said predetermined accelerated motion determined to occur in said main body motion determining step in each of said at least two axial directions.

16. The controlling method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of sensing an inclination angle in said predetermined axial direction;

wherein said controlling step controls said apparatus to perform said predetermined action based on whether said predetermined accelerated motion is determined to be exerted on said main body of said apparatus in said predetermined axial direction and in accordance with the inclination angle sensed in the inclination angle sensing step when said predetermined accelerated motion is determined to be exerted on said main body of said apparatus in said predetermined axial direction.

17. The controlling method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of determining whether an operation is performed on an operation device of said apparatus;

wherein said controlling step controls said apparatus to perform said predetermined action based on whether said operation is determined to be performed on said operation device in said determining step.

18. The controlling method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of reproducing content data;

wherein said predetermined action is an action for changing a reproduction mode in which to reproduce said content data.

19. The controlling method according to claim 18, wherein said action for changing said reproduction mode involves changing a shuffle reproduction mode in which said content data is reproduced in a random sequence.

20. A recording medium which records a program in a manner readable by a computer, said program causing said computer to execute a procedure comprising the steps of:

determining whether a predetermined accelerated motion is exerted on a main body of an apparatus in a predetermined axial direction; and

controlling said apparatus to perform a predetermined action based on a pattern of said predetermined accelerated motion determined to occur in the main body motion determining step.