Intelligent Input Handling

• US 20110300901A1
• Filed: 06/02/2010
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shen, Albert, Begun, Andrew P.
• Application Number:
  US12/792,598
• Publication Number:
  US 20110300901A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• 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 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector

Abstract

Various embodiments enable a device to utilize environmental state information and/or application state information to determine an appropriate response to received input. In at least some embodiments, a device receives input, obtains environmental information and/or application state information of the device, and evaluates input validity. Based upon the evaluated information and input, the device can behave in a manner that ignores the input, allows execution of associated operations, and or modifies the resultant behavior.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving input from a device;

responsive to receiving said input, obtaining device state information;

evaluating the input based upon the device state information to ascertain whether the input should be processed to cause an operation associated with the input;

allowing the operation responsive to a first evaluation result; and

disallowing the operation responsive to a second evaluation result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the device state information comprises obtaining information associated with the device'"'"'s environment.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining device environment state information further comprises using a proximity sensor to ascertain whether the device is near one or more objects.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining device state information comprises obtaining information associated with one or more device application states.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein allowing the operation responsive to a first evaluation result further comprises modifying the operation based upon device state information.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising dynamically obtaining one or more rules by which the device state information is evaluated.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving input from a device comprises receiving the input via a keypad.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein evaluating the input comprises evaluating the input without data from key-lock functionality.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media embodying computer-executable instructions that are executable to:

receive input from a telephone;

responsive to receiving said input, obtain state information associated with the telephone;

evaluate the input based upon the state information to ascertain whether the input should be processed to cause an operation associated with the input;

allow the operation responsive to a first evaluation result; and

disallow the operation responsive to a second evaluation result.

10. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein instructions to obtain state information associated with the telephone comprise instructions to obtain information associated with the telephone'"'"'s environment state.

11. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein instructions to obtain state information associated with the telephone further comprise instructions to use a proximity sensor to ascertain whether the telephone is near one or more objects.

12. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein instructions to obtain state information associated with the telephone further comprise instructions to obtain information associated with one or more telephone application states.

13. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein instructions to allow the operation responsive to a first evaluation result further comprise instructions to modify the operation based upon telephone state information.

14. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein instructions to evaluate the input further comprise instructions to evaluate the input without data from key-lock functionality.

15. A device comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more sensors;

one or more input mechanisms;

one or more computer-readable storage media;

an evaluation module embodied on the computer-readable storage media, the evaluation module configured to implement a method, under the influence of the one or more processors, the method comprising;

receiving input via at least one of the one or more input mechanisms;

obtaining device state information;

evaluating the input based upon the device state information to ascertain whether the input relative to the device state information satisfies one or more criteria associated with an inadvertent input; and

determining a device behavior based upon the input and said evaluation.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein obtaining device state information comprises obtaining information associated with the device'"'"'s environment.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein one or more sensors comprise a proximity sensor.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the evaluating the input comprises evaluating the input without data from key-lock functionality.

19. The device of claim 15, wherein the determining the device behavior comprises determining to suppress execution of the input if the input satisfies the one or more criteria.

20. The device of claim 15, wherein one or more one or more input mechanisms is a keypad.