AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION OF SELF-CONFIGURABLE ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20130197674A1
• Filed: 01/30/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lowry, Thomas Ethan
• Application Number:
  US13/361,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20130197674A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/19
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/02 electric constitutive elements
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/30 Detection related to theft or to other events relevant to anti-theft systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0002 Automatic control, details of type of controller or control system architecture
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0075 Automatic parameter input, automatic initialising or calibrating means
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0082 for initialising the control system
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2050/0083 Setting, resetting, calibration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/10 Historical data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/08 Interaction between the driver and the control system

Abstract

A user'"'"'s portable electronic device can learn configuration preferences from a first environment, such as the user'"'"'s car, and when the user visits another similar environment, such as a rented automobile, those configuration preferences can be imported into the visited environment and used to automatically configure the environment according to the imported preferences.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a configurable component of a configurable environment;

a configuration module of the configurable environment, the configuration module of the configurable environment being configured to receive a configuration variable, and instruct the configurable component of the configurable environment to configure itself according to the configuration variable; and

a configuration application of a portable consumer electronic device, the configuration application being configured to send a configuration variable to the configuration module of the configurable environment to initiate configuration of the configurable environment.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an environment-translation module configured to translate a standard configuration variable into a configuration variable specific to the configurable environment.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

an environment-translation module configured to translate a configuration variable specific to the configurable environment into a standard configuration variable.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration application includes a database configured to store the configuration variable.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration application includes an environment translation module configured to translate the configuration variable between a variable specific to the configurable environment and a standard variable that is not specific to any configurable environment.

6. A method executed on a portable electronic device comprising:

storing a configuration variable on the portable electronic device;

sending the configuration variable to a configurable environment; and

instructing the configurable environment to configure itself according to the configuration variable.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

receiving by a configuration application running on the portable electronic device an identification of the configurable environment.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

translating the configuration variable into a device specific configuration variable associated with the identified configurable environment.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

receiving the configuration variable from a first configurable environment before storing the configuration variable on the portable electronic device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein a subset of a plurality of configuration variables do not require translation.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-readable instructions thereon, effective for causing a computer to execute the computer-readable instructions comprising:

receiving a configuration variable from a first configurable environment;

storing the configuration variable in a portable electronic device;

sending the configuration variable to a second configurable environment; and

instructing the second configurable environment to configure itself according to the configuration variable.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving by a configuration application running on the portable electronic device an identification of the second configurable environment.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12 further comprising:

translating the configuration variable into a environment specific configuration variable associated with the identified second configurable environment.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein a subset of a plurality of configuration variables do not require translation.