MOBILE TERMINAL CONTROL APPARATUS

• US 20150079969A1
• Filed: 03/22/2013
• Published: 03/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PANASONIC AUTOMOTIVE SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kawase, Kazushi
• Granted Patent: US 9,451,384 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/34 Context aware guidance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6083 by interfacing with the vehicle audio system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72442 for playing music files
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

The objective of the invention is to arrange that, when a plurality of mobile terminals are connected to, for example, a vehicle-mounted device, a to-be-controlled application be automatically determined in accordance with the connection history and the types of applications on the mobile terminals. A mobile terminal control apparatus (1) comprises: a device control unit (12) that detects whether a plurality of mobile terminals (2) are connected or not and that holds device information and application information into a connection history (11); and an application control unit (14) that determines, out of a plurality of applications held by connected mobile terminals (2), a to-be-controlled application on the basis of the connection history (11) and an application DB (13). In this way, when a plurality of mobile terminals are connected to a vehicle-mounted device, a to-be-controlled application can be automatically determined in accordance with the connection history and the types of applications on the mobile terminals.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal control apparatus comprising:

a device control unit that detects whether plural mobile terminals are connected or not and that holds device information and application information in a connection history; and

an application control unit that determines an application to be controlled, out of plural applications held on the connected mobile terminals, on the basis of the connection history and an application DB,

the connection history being a history of control of the device information and the application information of the connected mobile terminals, and

the application DB being a list holding a list of controllable application IDs by each category indicating a type of application.

2. The mobile terminal control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the connection history includes the device information made up of a device ID of the mobile terminal, a number of times of connection, and a flag indicating that it is under control, and the application information made up of a last application ID controlled in a previous connection, a held application that has been controlled in the past, a number of times of control, and a flag indicating that it is under control.

3. A mobile terminal control method comprising causing a control unit of a mobile terminal control apparatus to carry out:

a controlled app information acquisition step in which, if it is determined that plural mobile terminals are connected when connection of a mobile terminal is detected, a controlled application ID of a controlled application that is under control in the already connected mobile terminal is acquired;

a held app acquisition step in which a held application ID of a held application that is held on the mobile terminal detected as connected is acquired from a connection history held in the mobile terminal control apparatus;

a category determination step in which it is determined whether a category of the controlled application and a category of the held application match each other or not; and

an app decision step in which the held application that is determined as different in category from the controlled application in the category determination step is decided as a control target.

4. The mobile terminal control method according to claim 3, wherein in the category determination step, the mobile terminal control apparatus determines whether an application to be compared belongs to the same category or not in an application DB where controllable applications are classified and recorded by category, and if it belongs to the same category, it is determined that the category matches, and if it does not belong to the same category, it is determined that the category does not match.

5. The mobile terminal control method according to claim 4, wherein in the category determination step, a last application that is used in previous control of the mobile terminal detected as connected is acquired from the connection history, and it is first determined whether a category of the last application matches a category of the controlled application or not.

6. The mobile terminal control method according to claim 5, wherein in the category determination step, a number of times of control in the past of the held application of the mobile terminal detected as connected is acquired from the connection history, and it is determined whether the held application matches the category of the controlled application or not, in order from a held application with a large number of times of control, following the last application.