METHODS, ELECTRONIC DEVICES, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR GENERATING PRESENCE INFORMATION ASSOCIATED WITH A USER OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE BASED ON ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION

• US 20080278312A1
• Filed: 05/09/2007
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kristensson, Andreas, Aronsson, Par-Anders
• Granted Patent: US 8,456,300 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

An electronic device includes an environmental sensor that is configured to obtain information associated with an environment surrounding the electronic device and a presence client module that is configured to generate a presence indicator associated with a user of the electronic device based on the information associated with the environment surrounding the electronic device.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

an environmental sensor that is configured to obtain information associated with an environment surrounding the electronic device; and

a presence client module that is configured to generate a presence indicator associated with a user of the electronic device based on the information associated with the environment surrounding the electronic device.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the environmental sensor comprises a movement detector that is configured to generate data that are indicative of movement of the electronic device.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the movement detector comprises at least one accelerometer.

4. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein the movement detector further comprises a gyroscope that is configured to generate data that are indicative of rotational movement of the electronic device.

5. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the movement detector comprises a Global Positioning System (GPS) module.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the environmental sensor comprises a microphone that is configured to capture audio information from the surrounding environment.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the environmental sensor comprises a camera and/or a video recorder that is configured to capture graphic and/or video information from the surrounding environment.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one application module that is configured to publish the presence indicator such that the presence indicator is accessible by potential communication partners of the user.

9. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the at least one application module comprises an Instant Messaging (IM) module, a chat module, and/or a Second Life module.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a mobile terminal.

11. A method of operating an electronic device, comprising:

obtaining information associated with an environment surrounding the electronic device; and

generating a presence indicator associated with a user of the electronic device based on the information associated with the environment surrounding the electronic device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining information associated with the environment comprises using a movement detector to generate data that are indicative of movement of the electronic device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the movement detector comprises at least one accelerometer.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the movement detector further comprises a gyroscope, the method further comprising:

using the gyroscope to generate data that are indicative of rotational movement of the electronic device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the movement detector comprises a Global Positioning System (GPS) module.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining information associated with the environment comprises using a microphone to capture audio information from the surrounding environment.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining information associated with the environment comprises using a camera and/or a video recorder to capture graphic and/or video information from the surrounding environment.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

publishing the presence indicator such that the presence indicator is accessible by potential communication partners of the user.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein publishing the presence indicator comprises publishing the presence indicator using an Instant Messaging (IM) module, a chat module, and/or a Second Life module.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the electronic device is a mobile terminal.

21. A computer program product for operating an electronic device, comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to obtain information associated with an environment surrounding the electronic device; and

computer readable program code configured to generate a presence indicator associated with a user of the electronic device based on the information associated with the environment surrounding the electronic device.