MOBILE TERMINAL AND OPERATION METHOD FOR THE SAME

• US 20110021243A1
• Filed: 07/19/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KIM, Hyang Ah, KIM, Kyoung Taek, UM, Tae Won, KIM, Kyung Hwa, SHIN, Dong Jun
• Granted Patent: US 8,351,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/550.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72472 wherein the items are sorted according to specific criteria, e.g. frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/551 Call history recording a computer conference H04L12/1831
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A mobile terminal and operational method may store or output log information related to usage histories according to at least one of a condition, location, and status indicated by situation information. The mobile terminal can be conveniently operated on the basis of past usage histories. The operation method for the mobile terminal includes: creating situation information on the basis of at least one of location information, status information and condition information of the mobile terminal; collecting log information related to usage histories of the mobile terminal from the time of situation information creation or within a preset time after situation information creation; linking the situation information with the log information and storing the linked information; and outputting, when new situation information equal to the stored situation information is created, log information linked to the stored situation information.

Claims

1. A method for providing situational-based functionality for a mobile terminal, comprising:

(a) creating situation information by a control unit on a basis of at least one of location information, status information and condition information of the mobile terminal;

(b) collecting log information related to usage histories of the mobile terminal from a time situation information is created in (a) or within a preset time subsequent to the creation of situation information in (a); and

(c) linking the situation information with the log information and storing the linked information in a storage unit to provide situationally-based functionality.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal displays an output of situationally-based functions corresponding to the stored linked information when the mobile terminal subsequently encounters a matching situational information determined by a situation information collector/determiner.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising activating at least one of the situationally-based functions indicated by a most recently recorded log information.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising (d) outputting, when new situation information substantially equal to the stored situation information is created, log information linked to the stored situation information.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising one of:

collecting, after log information output, new log information related to usage histories of the mobile terminal, and adding the new log information to log information linked to the stored situation information for update;

or

automatically activating, when a preset time elapses after log information output, a user function of the mobile terminal indicated by the most recently recorded log information, and activating, when an item of the output log information is selected, a user function of the mobile terminal indicated by the selected item of the log information.

6. The operation method of claim 1, wherein the creation time of situation information is determined by at least one of a period, date and time, location, state and condition specified by an input signal from an input unit.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein creating situation information comprises at least one of:

(i) generating situation information by linking two or more of coordinate information of the mobile terminal, surrounding image information, surrounding audio information, connection list information related to short range communication, motion status information of the mobile terminal, and information regarding the surroundings of the mobile terminal; and

(ii) obtaining one of coordinate information of the mobile terminal using a location measurement module or a radio frequency unit, surrounding image information using a camera module, sensing information using a sensor module, connection list information related to devices connectable through a short range communication module, and surrounding audio information using a microphone.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting log information includes collecting information regarding usage histories of user functions of the mobile terminal related to call processing, file search, file playback, broadcast reception, audio recording, and camera photographing.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

outputting a list of items of the stored situation information; and

changing the name of the list according to an input signal from an input unit.

10. A mobile terminal comprising:

a situation information collecting unit for collecting at least one of location information, status information and condition information of the mobile terminal;

a control unit for creating situation information on a basis of the information collected by the situation information collecting unit, and for collecting log information related to usage histories of the mobile terminal from a time of creation of the situation information or within a preset time after situation information creation; and

a storage unit for storing the situation information and log information in a linked form.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit controls, when new situation information is created that substantially equals the stored situation information, output to a display unit of log information linked to the stored situation information.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein the control unit controls one of:

collecting by a log information collector, after log information output, new log information related to usage histories of the mobile terminal, and adding the new log information to log information linked to the stored situation information for update;

automatically activating, when a preset time elapses after log information output, a user function of the mobile terminal indicated by the most recently recorded log information; and

activating, when an item of the output log information is selected, a user function of the mobile terminal indicated by the selected item of the log information.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the creation time of situation information is determined by at least one of a period, date and time, location, state and condition specified by an input signal from an input unit.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the situation information collecting unit comprises at least one of:

at least one of a camera module, a microphone, and a short range communication module to collect condition information;

one of a radio frequency unit and a location measurement module to collect location information; and

a sensor module to collect status information.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 14, wherein the control unit creates situation information on a basis of at least one of coordinate information of the mobile terminal obtained using the location measurement module or radio frequency unit, surrounding image information captured using the camera module, sensing information collected using the sensor module, connection list information related to connectable devices obtained through the short range communication module, and surrounding audio information collected using the microphone.

16. The mobile terminal of claim 11, wherein the display unit outputs a list of items of the stored situation information according to an input signal.

17. The mobile terminal of claim 16, wherein the control unit changes the name of the list of items according to an input signal from an input unit.

18. The mobile terminal of claim 16, wherein the control unit changes the name of at least one item on the list of items according to an input signal from an input unit.

19. The mobile terminal of claim 10, wherein the control unit includes a situation information collector/determiner for controlling an activation time of the situation information collecting unit, and for collecting information from one or more components of the situation information collecting unit.

20. The mobile terminal of claim 19, wherein the situation information collector/determiner determines whether or not newly collected situation information matches situation information stored in the storage unit.