Using Tags to Modify Program Behavior

• US 20080252427A1
• Filed: 03/02/2006
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Bergevoet, Bas Arnold Jan
• Granted Patent: US 8,564,414 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.41
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/06 using polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

A first electronic device (201) can gather information about itself or another electronic device (206, 208), which is preferably situated within a same room of a user premises. This information can come from an RF-ID tag (204, 207, 209) or other transmitter The information can relate to a state or identity of the other device. The first electronic device can alter program behavior (309, 409, 509) in response to the state or identity. The program might be an entertainment type program or a software type program. The information can be used to select brand specific program code (604, 605, 606) for execution.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

at least one output device (103);

at least one receiver (213); and

at least one processor (102) adapted to execute operations including;

polling the receiver to identify signals from transmitters (204, 207, 209) associated with at least one device situated in or near the system;

identifying a type of the one device;

determining a state of the one device;

adapting an output of the output device based on the type and state.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the state includes a shape or color attribute of the one device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the state includes the value of the one device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the state includes whether the device is in operation.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the state includes date information about the one device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein

the output device comprises an audio output device;

and

the adapting comprises changing a sound of the audio output device in response to the state.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein

the processor is located within a consumer electronics device;

the at least one device comprises a telephone;

the state of the telephone is ringing;

the adapting comprises lowering the volume of the consumer electronics device, so that a user can hear the telephone ringing.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein

the output device comprises a video output device;

and

the adapting comprises changing a visual attribute on the video output device to coordinate aesthetically with the state.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the visual attribute is a skin.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the adapting comprises selecting transmitted programming relating to the state.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the transmitters have a range comparable with an expected size of a room in the user premises.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the transmitters are bluetooth based.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the transmitters are WiFi based.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmitters are RF tags

15. A method comprising executing the following operations in a data processing device:

polling a receiver (213) associated with the data processing device to identify signals from transmitters (204, 207, 209) associated with at least one device (201, 206, 208) situated in or near the data processing device (102);

identifying a type of the one device;

determining a state of the one device; and

adapting an output of an output device (103) based on the type and state.

16. A medium, readable by a data processing device, and embodying code adapted to cause the data processing device to perform the following operations:

polling a receiver (213, 105) associated with the data processing device (102) to identify signals from transmitters (204, 207, 209) associated with at least one device (101, 106, 201, 206, 208) situated in or near the data processing device;

identifying a type of the one device;

determining a state of the one device; and

adapting an output of an output device based on the type and state.

17. A system comprising:

at least one receiver 213; and

at least one processor 102 adapted to execute operations including;

polling the receiver to identify signals from transmitters (204, 207, 209) associated with at least one device situated in or near the system;

identifying a type of the one device;

choosing software behavior for a user possessing devices of the type identified.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein choosing software behavior comprises changing flow of control of the software.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the one device containing the transmitter also contains the receiver, and changing the flow of control of the software comprises adapting general purpose software to operate in accordance with the requirements of the one device.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the receiver is adapted to use a heuristic or algorithm to determine whether the transmitter is in the same device with the receiver.

21. A method comprising executing operations in a data processing device (102), the operations comprising:

polling the receiver (213) to identify signals from transmitters (204, 207, 209) associated with at least one device situated in or near the system;

identifying a type of the one device; and

choosing software behavior for a user possessing devices of the type identified

22. A medium embodying code readable by a data processing device (102) and adapted to cause execution of operations comprising:

polling the receiver (213) to identify signals from transmitters (204, 207, 209) associated with at least one device situated in or near the system;

identifying a type of the one device; and

choosing software behavior for a user possessing devices of the type identified.

23. A consumer electronics device for customizing content, comprising:

at least one output device (103);

at least one receiver (213); and

at least one processor (102) adapted to execute operations including;

polling the receiver to identify signals from transmitters associated with at least one consumer electronics device (101) situated in or near the system within a user premises;

identifying what type of consumer electronics device has transmitted the signals;

customizing content based on the type of consumer electronics device; and

causing the customized content to be presented on the output device.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein customizing content comprises causing selection of a broadcast signal from amongst a plurality of possible broadcast signals.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein customizing content comprises choosing plot variations in entertainment style programming.