MOBILE TICKET VIRTUAL SENSOR FOR CONTEXT DETECTION

• US 20120104084A1
• Filed: 10/27/2010
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: WANG, Shu, ZHANG, Fan
• Granted Patent: US 8,313,018 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/375
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding

Abstract

An apparatus and method for are provided. The method includes determining that a barcode displayed on a mobile terminal has been scanned, retrieving metadata corresponding to the barcode when the barcode has been scanned, and triggering a context-aware action in the mobile terminal based on the barcode and/or the retrieved metadata.

Claims

1. A method for providing context-aware functions in response to scanning a barcode, the method comprising:

determining that a barcode displayed on a mobile terminal has been scanned;

retrieving metadata corresponding to the barcode when the barcode has been scanned; and

triggering a context-aware action in the mobile terminal based on the barcode and/or the retrieved metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering of the context-aware action comprises performing a function of the mobile terminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggering of the context-aware function comprises executing an application stored in the mobile terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the barcode is included in a mobile ticket.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a message including the barcode and the metadata;

extracting the metadata from the message; and

storing the metadata in a storage unit of the mobile terminal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the barcode has been scanned comprises:

receiving light intensity values corresponding to a light focused on the display unit of the mobile terminal; and

determining that the barcode has been scanned based on the light intensity values and/or additional information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining based on the light intensity values comprises:

determining that the barcode has been scanned when the light intensity value is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

8. A mobile terminal, comprising:

a communication unit for receiving a barcode;

a display unit for displaying the barcode;

a mobile ticket virtual sensor for determining whether the barcode has been scanned while the display unit is displaying the barcode; and

a context-aware engine for performing a predetermined action when the barcode has been scanned.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 8, further comprising:

a light sensor for sensing predetermined frequencies of light corresponding to frequencies employed by a barcode scanner,

wherein the mobile ticket virtual sensor determines that the barcode has been scanned based on the sensed frequencies of light and additional information.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 9, wherein the mobile ticket virtual sensor determines that the barcode has been scanned when an intensity of the light sensed by the light sensor is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold.

11. The mobile terminal of claim 8, wherein the communication unit receives a message including the barcode and metadata corresponding to the barcode.

12. The mobile terminal of claim 11, further comprising:

a mobile code reader for extracting the metadata from the message; and

a storage unit for storing the barcode and the metadata,

wherein the context-aware engine performs the predetermined action based on the stored metadata.

13. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein, when the mobile ticket virtual sensor determines that the barcode has been scanned, the mobile ticket virtual sensor obtains the metadata from the mobile code reader and provides the metadata to the context-aware engine.

14. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the context-aware engine performs a function of the mobile terminal based on the metadata when the barcode has been scanned.

15. The mobile terminal of claim 12, wherein the context-aware engine executes an application stored in the mobile terminal based on the metadata when the barcode has been scanned.