Movement-based interfaces for personal media device

• US 20090088204A1
• Filed: 10/01/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Michael M., Culbert, Michael, Forstall, Scott, King, Nicholas V.
• Granted Patent: US 8,942,764 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.100
• 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 2203/0381 Multimodal input, i.e. interface arrangements enabling the user to issue commands by simultaneous use of input devices of different nature, e.g. voice plus gesture on digitizer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• 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: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for a media device including one or more movement-based interfaces for interfacing with or controlling the media device.

Claims

1. A media device comprising:

a sensor for generating a sensor signal based on at least one of a position, orientation, and movement of the media device,

a data store including a plurality of known movement patterns, each movement pattern being associated with an operation of the media device, and

a processor for receiving the sensor signal and controlling one or more operations of the media device based at least in part on the sensor signal and plurality of known movement patterns.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein controlling includes comparing the sensor signal with one or more of the known movement patterns to determine the associated operation of the media device.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein comparing includes employing a pattern recognition algorithm.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the pattern recognition algorithm includes a statistical model.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the operation includes stepping through a list of elements associated with an application.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein stepping occurs in an increment, the increment being proportional to an intensity of at least one of a rate of change in position, a rate of change in orientation, and a rate of movement.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein an operation includes at least one of starting or launching one or more applications, stopping or ending one or more applications, selecting or de-selecting one or more elements, increasing or decreasing one or more settings, moving through a list of elements, initiating or ending a communications session, playing music or video, pausing music or video, and initiating or ending an audio or video recording session.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the element includes at least one of a song, a video, a music file, an audio file, a video file, a photograph, a media file, an application icon, an activation icon, a control button, a data file, and contact data.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the sensor includes at least one accelerometer.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the sensor includes one or more of an accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, IR detector, sonic detector, altimeter, magnetic field detector, RF detector, GPS, light sensor, and doppler detector.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein generating a sensor signal is based on sensing a sequence of the at least one of position, orientation, and movement of the media device over a period of time.

12. The device of claim 1 comprising an activation interface for receiving a user input to enable or disable the controlling of the operation of the media device based at least in part on the sensor signal.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the media device includes at least one of a cellular telephone, a wireless communications device, a media player, an MP3 player, a video player, a PDA, and a portable computer.

14. The device of claim 1 comprising a vibration source for generating one or more vibration patterns.

15. The device of claim 14 comprising a data store of one or more vibration patterns, each vibration pattern being associated with at least one element of an application of the media device.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein generating a vibration pattern occurs when an element is selected.

17. The device of claim 1 comprising an audio source for generating one or more audio patterns.

18. The device of claim 17 comprising a data store of one or more audio patterns, each audio pattern being associated with at least one element of an application of the media device.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein generating an audio pattern occurs when an element is selected.

20. The device of claim 1 comprising an input interface for receiving the sensor signal and storing a known movement pattern associated with the sensor signal.

21. A media device comprising:

a vibration source for generating a plurality of vibration signals, each vibration signal being associated with a known vibration pattern,

a data store including a plurality of known vibration patterns, each vibration pattern being associated with an operation of the media device, and

a processor for i) determining an operation of the media device, ii) identifying a vibration pattern associated with the operation of the media device, and iii) controlling the vibration source to generate a vibration signal associated with the vibration pattern.

22. A media device comprising:

a vibration source for generating a plurality of vibration signals, each vibration signal being associated with a known vibration pattern,

an audio source for generating a plurality of audio signals, each audio signal being associated with a known audio pattern,

a data store including a plurality of combined vibration and audio patterns, each combined vibration and audio pattern being associated with an operation of the media device, and

a processor for i) determining an operation of the media device, ii) identifying a combined vibration and audio pattern associated with the operation of the media device, and iii) controlling the vibration source and audio source to generate a vibration signal and audio signal associated with the combined vibration and audio pattern.

24. The media device of claim 22, wherein identifying is based at least in part on a statistical model.

23. A media device comprising:

a transceiver for sending and receiving user communications,

a movement pattern sensor for sensing a movement pattern based on a sequence of changes in at least one of the position, orientation, and movement of the media device, and

a pattern recognition unit for receiving and identifying the movement pattern.

25. A media device comprising:

a movement pattern sensor for sensing a movement pattern based on at least one of the position, orientation, and movement of the media device,

a pattern recognition unit for receiving and identifying the movement pattern, and

a communications application for i) providing user-based communications to and from the media device and ii) navigating through a contact list of entities associated with the user in response to the identified movement pattern.