GESTURE-BASED INFORMATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN DEVICES IN PROXIMITY

• US 20170038847A1
• Filed: 12/18/2013
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Schorsch, Brent W., Kudchadkar, Kamlesh, Shoemaker, David J., Dvortsov, Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 10,007,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• 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: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2094 Proximity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/33 using wearable devices, e.g. using a smartwatch or smart-glasses
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/68 Gesture-dependent or behaviour-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 : using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 : Transfer of terminal data

Abstract

Information items can be exchanged between user devices worn or carried by two different users in response to the devices detecting a “greeting event” in which the devices are in proximity and the users of the devices concurrently execute a greeting gesture. In response to detecting an event, each device can select zero or more information items or data objects to send to the other, with the selection being based on contextual information available to the device making the selection.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, at a first user device, a greeting event based at least in part on proximity to a second user device and an acceleration of the first user device and the second user device;

determining, by the first user device, context information for the greeting event;

selecting, by the first user device, an information item to be sent to the second user device, the selection being based at least in part on the context information; and

sending, by the first user device, the selected information item to the second user device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

subsequently to detecting the greeting event and while the first user device remains in proximity to the second user device, receiving, by the first user device, a data object from the second user device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the context information includes one or more of:

a location of the first user device;

a user input indicating a context and received prior to detecting the greeting event;

presence or absence of a reference electronic device other than the first and second user devices;

schedule data pertaining to a user of the first user device;

or

activity data pertaining to the user of the first user device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting the greeting gesture includes identifying the greeting gesture as one of a plurality of defined greeting gestures and wherein the context information includes the one of the plurality of defined greeting gestures that was detected.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting a greeting event includes:

detecting that the first user device experiences an acceleration consistent with execution of a greeting gesture by a user of the first electronic device while the first electronic device is in proximity to the second electronic device; and

receiving a communication from the second electronic device, the received communication indicating that the second electronic device experienced an acceleration consistent with execution of a greeting gesture by a user of the second electronic device.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the acceleration consistent with execution of a greeting gesture by the user of the first electronic device includes an acceleration consistent with one or more of:

a handshake;

a bow;

or

a high-five.

7. A wearable electronic device comprising:

a motion sensor operable to detect a movement of the wearable electronic device;

a wireless communication interface operable to communicate with another electronic device;

a storage subsystem configured to store data including a plurality of shareable data objects; and

a processing subsystem coupled to the motion sensor, the wireless communication interface, and the storage subsystem, the processing subsystem configured to;

detect, based at least in part on a signal from the wireless communication interface, that another electronic device is in proximity to the wearable electronic device;

detect, based at least in part on a signal from the motion sensor, an occurrence of a greeting gesture while the other electronic device is in proximity to the wearable electronic device;

determine one or more items of context information in response to detecting the greeting gesture;

select, based at least in part on the one or more items of context information, a shareable data object from the plurality of shareable data objects; and

send via the wireless communication interface, the shareable data object to the other electronic device.

8. The wearable electronic device of claim 7 wherein the one or more items of context information include one or more of:

a location of the wearable electronic device;

presence or absence of a reference electronic device other than the wearable electronic device and the other electronic device;

schedule data pertaining to a user of the wearable electronic device;

or

activity data pertaining to the user of the wearable electronic device.

9. The wearable electronic device of claim 7 wherein the one or more items of context information include a number of greeting gestures previously detected by the wearable electronic device while in proximity to the other electronic device.

10. The wearable electronic device of claim 7 wherein the one or more items of context information include whether a social-network connection has been established between a user of the wearable electronic device and a user of the other electronic device.

11. The wearable electronic device of claim 7 wherein the processing subsystem is further configured such that detecting the occurrence of the greeting gesture includes receiving a communication from the other electronic device confirming that the other electronic device also detected the occurrence of the greeting gesture.

12. The wearable electronic device of claim 7 wherein the wearable electronic device is wearable on a user'"'"'s wrist.

13. The wearable electronic device of claim 7 wherein the motion sensor includes an accelerometer.

14-24. -24. (canceled)

25. A computer readable storage medium storing program code instructions that, when executed by a processor in a wearable electronic device, cause the processor to execute a method comprising:

detecting that another electronic device is in proximity to the wearable electronic device;

detecting a greeting event based at least in part on proximity to the other electronic device and an acceleration of the wearable electronic device and the other electronic device;

determining context information for the greeting event;

selecting an information item to be sent to the other electronic device, the selection being based at least in part on the context information; and

sending the selected information item to the other electronic device.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the context information includes one or more of:

a location of the wearable electronic device;

or

activity data pertaining to the user of the wearable electronic device.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the context information includes information indicating presence or absence of a reference electronic device other than the wearable electronic device and the other electronic device.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein the context information includes schedule data pertaining to a user of the wearable electronic device.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein detecting the greeting gesture includes identifying the greeting gesture as one of a plurality of defined greeting gestures and wherein the context information includes the one of the plurality of defined greeting gestures that was identified.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 29 wherein the plurality of defined greeting gestures includes a handshake gesture and a high-five gesture.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 wherein selecting the data object to be sent to the other electronic device includes:

determining, based on the context information, whether a user of the wearable electronic device is at a work-related event or a non-work-related event;

in response to determining that the user of the wearable electronic device is at a work-related event, selecting a work-related data object containing work contact information of the user of the wearable electronic device; and

in response to determining that the user of the wearable electronic device is at a non-work-related event, selecting a non-work-related data object containing personal contact information of the user of the wearable electronic device.