ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20110084897A1
• Filed: 10/13/2009
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: MANOHARAN, Mohanraj, REMA SHANMUGAM, Rajeev
• Application Number:
  US12/577,764
• Publication Number:
  US 20110084897A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• 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 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: G09G 5/26 for modifying the character dimensions, e.g. double width, double height
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72481 for visually impaired users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

An electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device comprises a distance sensor for sensing a distance between the electronic device and a face of a user of the electronic device, an image sensor for providing an image of the face of the user, and a display for displaying text and/or graphical objects. The electronic device further comprises a control unit operatively connected to the display for controlling the displaying of text and/or a graphical object thereon, to the distance sensor for receiving distance data indicative of said distance, and to the image sensor for receiving image data representing said image. The control unit is adapted to control a font size of said text and/or a size of said graphical object based on the distance data and/or the image data.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a distance sensor for sensing a distance between the electronic device and a face of a user of the electronic device;

an image sensor for providing an image of the face of the user;

a display for displaying text and/or graphical objects; and

a control unit operatively connected to the display for controlling the displaying of text and/or a graphical object thereon, to the distance sensor for receiving distance data indicative of said distance, and to the image sensor for receiving image data representing said image;

wherein

the control unit is adapted to control a font size of said text and/or a size of said graphical object based on the distance data and/or the image data.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is adapted to control the font size and/or the size of said graphical object based on the distance data such that the font size and/or the size of said graphical object increases with an increasing distance between the electronic device and the face of the user.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is adapted control the font size and/or the size of said graphical object based on the distance data such that the font size and/or the size of said graphical object increases with an increasing absolute difference between said distance between the electronic device and the face of the user and a threshold distance.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the distance data comprises, for each of a plurality of directions, data indicative of a distance between the electronic device and an object closest to the electronic device in that direction, and the control unit is adapted to determine which of said directions is the direction towards the users face based on the image data.

5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein said distance data indicative of the distance between the electronic device and the face of the user is data indicative of the distance from the electronic device and the object closest to the electronic device that can be sensed by the distance sensor.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit is adapted to determine a current gesture of an eye of the user based on the image data and to control the font size and/or the size of said graphical object based on the determined current gesture.

7. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein the control unit is adapted to

determine whether the determined current gesture belongs to a first set of gestures or a second set of gestures;

and

control the font size and/or the size of said graphical object such that the font size and/or the size of said graphical object is larger if the determined current gesture belongs to the second set of gestures than if the determined current gesture belongs to the first set of gestures.

8. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the first set of gestures indicates that the user'"'"'s eye is relaxed and the second set of gestures indicate that the user'"'"'s eye is peering.

9. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein the control unit is adapted to, in a calibration routine of the control unit:

prompt the user to perform a plurality of eye gestures;

fetch, from the image sensor, one or more images of the user for each gesture performed by the user.

10. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the control unit is adapted to determine the current gesture of the user'"'"'s eye by comparing one or more characteristics of the image data received from the image sensor with one or more corresponding characteristics of image data representing the images fetched from the image sensor during the calibration routine.

11. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a portable electronic device.