MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20120206414A1
• Filed: 10/15/2010
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ROHM Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: ROHM Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Tada, Yoshihiro, Nakata, Yuichiro, Fujino, Junji, Uedaira, Yoshitsugu, Yamada, Nobuyuki, Yoshida, Takeshi, Tanaka, Masahide
• Application Number:
  US13/502,173
• Publication Number:
  US 20120206414A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1643 the display being associated to a digitizer, e.g. laptops that can be used as penpads details related to the relative motion of the display enclosure with respect to the body enclosure, e.g. to move between laptop and tablet PC configuration G06F1/1615
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• 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 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• 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: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Disclosed is a mobile device comprising an acceleration detection unit for detecting acceleration relative to the device; a condition identification unit; and a power supply controller which determines, from a combination of the output of the acceleration detection unit and the output of the condition identification unit, whether or not to begin to supply power to the device.

Claims

1. A mobile device comprising:

an acceleration detection unit for detecting acceleration relative to the device;

a condition identification unit; and

a power supply controller for deciding whether or not to begin to supply power to the device according to a combination of an output of the acceleration detection unit and an output of the condition identification unit.

2. The mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the condition identification unit has a state identification unit for identifying a first state and a second state, wherein the power supply controller begins supplying power to the device when the acceleration detection unit has detected acceleration and the state identification unit has identified the first state, and does not begin supplying power to the device when the state identification unit has identified the second state, even when the acceleration detection unit has detected acceleration.

3. The mobile device according to claim 2, wherein the state identification unit has a light-emitting unit and a light-receiving unit capable of receiving reflected light of the light of the light-emitting unit, and identifies the first state and the second state in accordance with a light-receiving state of the light-receiving unit.

4. The mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the condition identification unit has a contactless input unit operating by detecting movement around the device using a light-emitting unit and a light-receiving unit capable of receiving reflected light of the light of the light-emitting unit, and the power supply controller decides whether or not to begin supplying power to the device according to a combination of an output of the light-receiving unit with the acceleration detection of the acceleration detection unit.

5. The mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the condition identification unit identifies whether or not the acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit conforms to a predetermined pattern, and the power supply controller begins to supply power to the device when acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit conforms to the predetermined pattern and does not begin to supply power to the device when, even though the acceleration detection unit has detected the acceleration, the acceleration is not in the predetermined pattern.

6. The mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the condition identification unit has a contact detector for detecting contact made with the device by a human body, and the power supply controller begins to supply power to the device when the acceleration detection unit detects acceleration and the contact detector detects the contact of a human body, and does not begin supplying power to the device when the contact detector does not detect the contact of a human body, even when the acceleration detection unit has detected acceleration.

7. The mobile device according to claim 1 comprising:

a display screen; and

input means for inputting on the basis of the display of the display screen and on the basis of the gravitational acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit.

8. The mobile device according to claim 1 comprising:

a display screen;

a display controller for causing the display screen to display different instructions for input on the display screen; and

a determination unit for determining whether there has been made, on the display screen, an input based on the instruction displayed on the display screen.

9. A mobile device comprising:

an acceleration detection unit for detecting acceleration relative to the device;

a display screen; and

input means for inputting on the basis of the display of the display screen and on the basis of the gravitation acceleration detected by the acceleration detection unit.

10. The mobile device according to claim 9 comprising a movement detector for detecting the movement of a hand being moved on the display screen, wherein the input means inputs on the basis of the movement detection made by the movement detector and on the basis of the acceleration detection made by the acceleration detection unit

11. The mobile device according to claim 10, wherein the display screen is rectangular, having long sides and short sides;

the input means detects, on the basis of the detection made by the acceleration detection unit, whether the mobile device is in a posture in either of a position such that the display screen is horizontal or a position such that the display screen is vertical, and the input means inputs a like associated meaning on the basis of the movement of a hand in a like direction, irrespective of the posture of the display screen, on the basis of the detection results.

12. The mobile device according to claim 9 further comprising updating means for updating a reference value of gravitation acceleration detection necessary for input.

13. The mobile device according to claim 9 comprising an infrared-light-emitting unit, and an infrared-light-receiving unit for receiving infrared light from the infrared-light-emitting unit reflected from a hand moving on the display screen, wherein the input means inputs a first associated meaning in relation to the display screen on the basis of information from the acceleration detection unit, and also inputs a second associated meaning in relation to the display screen on the basis of information from the infrared-light-receiving unit.

14. The mobile device according to claim 9 further comprising an infrared-light-emitting unit, and an infrared-light-receiving unit for receiving the infrared light from the infrared-light-emitting unit reflected from a hand moving on the display screen, wherein the input means inputs a like associated meaning in relation to the display screen irrespective of whether there is information from the acceleration detection unit or information from the infrared-light-receiving unit

15. A mobile device comprising:

a display screen;

a display controller for causing the display screen to display different instructions for input on the display screen; and

a determination unit for determining whether there has been made, on the display screen, an input based on an instruction displayed on the display screen

16. The mobile device according to claim 15, characterized by further comprising a movement detector for detecting the movement of a hand being moved on the display screen, wherein the display controller causes the display screen to display an instruction to move a hand that is to be moved on the display screen, and the determination unit determines whether or not the movement detector has detected a movement corresponding to the instruction that has been displayed on the display screen

17. The mobile device according to claim 15, wherein the display controller causes the display screen to display different instructions in the case of a right hand operation and in the case of a left hand operation for the input of a like meaning on the display screen

18. The mobile device according to claim 15 further comprising a movement detector for detecting the movement of a hand being moved on the display surface, and an input unit for inputting a like meaning on the basis of an output of the movement detector, which is different in the case of a right hand operation and in the case of a left hand operation.

19. The mobile device according to claim 15 further comprising a movement detector for detecting the movement of a hand being moved on the display surface, wherein the determination unit determines that detection results of the movement detector are the input of a like meaning on the basis of different determination criteria in the case of a right hand operation and the case of a left hand operation.

20. The mobile device according to claim 15 further comprising:

an input unit;

a camera unit for capturing an image of the direction opposite to the display screen;

a facial recognition unit for processing an image from the camera unit and recognizing a face; and

a controller for performing an input using the input unit whenever a face opposite to the display screen is recognized by the facial recognition unit.