SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MODIFYING A USER EXPERIENCE BASED ON PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

• US 20140237400A1
• Filed: 02/18/2013
• Published: 08/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Higgins, Krystal Rose, Farraro, Eric J., Tapley, John
• Granted Patent: US 9,501,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/765
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces

Abstract

A method of dynamically altering a user interface on an electronic device is provided. A user interface is presented to a user, wherein the user interface includes one or more elements. Then, a first aspect of a physical environment of the electronic device is determined. One or more elements of the user interface can then be dynamically modified based on the determined first aspect of the physical environment of the electronic device.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a user interface configured to present one or more elements on a display of the electronic device; and

a physical environment tracking module configured to determine a first aspect of a physical environment of the electronic device, and to dynamically modify one or more of the one or more elements based on the determined first aspect of the physical environment of the electronic device.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a global positioning system (GPS) module, and wherein the physical environment tracking module is configured to:

obtain location information from the GPS module; and

obtain current weather information corresponding to the location information from a weather server.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a thermometer, and wherein the physical environment tracking module is configured to obtain temperature information from the thermometer.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising one or more hardware buttons, wherein the physical environment tracking module is configured to dynamically alter a mapping of one or more physical buttons on the electronic device to activate one or more elements of the user interface.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the one or more of the elements dynamically modified include a virtual button.

6. A system comprising:

an electronic device;

a weather server; and

a web server,

the web server is configured to;

obtain location information from the electronic device;

obtain current weather information from the weather server using the location information; and

based on the current weather information, dynamically modify one or more elements of a user interface based on the weather information.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the user interface is a web page and the dynamically modifying includes increasing a size of the one or more elements on the web page as the weather information changes.

8. A method of dynamically altering a user interface on an electronic device, the method comprising:

presenting a user interface to a user, the user interface including one or more elements;

determining a first aspect of a physical environment of the electronic device; and

dynamically modifying one or more elements of the user interface based on the determined first aspect of the physical environment of the electronic device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first aspect of the physical environment is ambient temperature.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the dynamically modifying includes increasing a size of the one or more elements as the ambient temperature decreases.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the dynamically modifying includes dynamically engaging a voice-recognition system on the electronic device as the ambient temperature decreases.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the dynamically modifying includes dynamically altering a mapping of one or more physical buttons on the electronic device to activate the one or more elements of the user interface.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising causing the electronic device to heat itself at an increased rate as the ambient temperature decreases.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the causing includes cycling a central processing unit (CPU) of the electronic device so that the CPU is utilized at a maximum rate.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the causing includes increasing a brightness level of a display of the electronic device.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein the dynamically modifying includes activating a haptic mode to provide tactile feedback upon activation of the one or more elements of the user interface.

17. A method of dynamically altering a user interface on an electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving physical environment information from the electronic device;

dynamically modifying one or more elements of a user interface based on the physical environment information; and

transmitting the dynamically modified user interface to the electronic device for display.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the method is performed at a web server communicatively coupled to the electronic device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the physical environment information includes ambient temperature.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the physical environment information includes rain patterns.