METHODS OF AUTOMATICALLY ANSWERING A PHONE CALL WITH A MOBILE TERMINAL AND ASSOCIATED MOBILE TERMINALS

• US 20170245144A1
• Filed: 03/16/2016
• Published: 08/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huizhou TCL Mobile Communication Company Limited (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Huizhou TCL Mobile Communication Company Limited (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Chen, Qiong
• Granted Patent: US 9,894,522 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04104 Multi-touch detection in digitiser, i.e. details about the simultaneous detection of a plurality of touching locations, e.g. multiple fingers or pen and finger
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/752 Contour matching
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/166 using acquisition arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/171 Local features and components; Facial parts eye characteristics G06V40/18; Occluding parts, e.g. glasses; Geometrical relationships
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication

Abstract

Methods of automatically answering a phone call with a mobile terminal and associated mobile terminals are disclosed. A method includes: if there is an incoming phone call, obtaining every predetermined period of time a pressure value and coordinates of each contact point between an ear of a current user and a touch screen; obtaining an outer contour of the ear based on the pressure values and coordinates; selecting among the outer contour three parts of the ear to establish reference coordinate axes; obtaining relative coordinates of each contact point corresponding to each part in the outer contour with respect to the reference coordinate axes; comparing the relative coordinates with pre-stored sample coordinates that comprise coordinates of each part of an ear of an authorized user relative to reference coordinate axes; and if the relative coordinates match with the pre-stored sample coordinates, unlocking the mobile terminal and answering the phone call.

Claims

1. A method of automatically answering a phone call with a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

obtaining a coordinate pair of each part of an ear of an authorized user relative to reference coordinate axes and storing the coordinate pair as a sample coordinate pair;

obtaining, at every predetermined period of time, a pressure value and a coordinate pair of each contact point between an ear of a current user and a touch screen of the mobile terminal when there is an incoming phone call, each pressure value comprising a pressure magnitude and pressure area;

determining whether a number of the contact points as detected is smaller than a first predetermined value;

if so determined, prompting the current user to re-contact the ear with the touch screen; and

if not so determined, obtaining an outer contour of the ear of the current user based on the pressure values and the coordinate pairs;

selecting among the outer contour three parts of the ear to establish reference coordinate axes;

calculating a relative coordinate pair of each contact point corresponding to each part of the ear in the outer contour with respect to the reference coordinate axes;

comparing the relative coordinate pairs against the sample coordinate pairs of each part of the ear of the authorized user relative to the reference coordinate axes; and

unlocking and automatically answering the phone call when the relative coordinate pairs match the sample coordinate pairs.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the comparing the relative coordinates with the sample coordinate pair comprises:

computing and recording, between each relative coordinate pair and a corresponding sample coordinate pair, an absolute difference between abscissas as a first absolute value, and an absolute difference between ordinates as a second absolute value, the relative coordinate pair and the corresponding sample coordinate pair both corresponding to a same part of the ear;

obtaining a number of the relative coordinate pairs each of which the first absolute value lies within a first predetermined range and the second absolute value lies within a second predetermined range; and

determining the relative coordinates match the stored sample coordinates when the number of the relative coordinate pairs is greater than or equal to a second predetermined value.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the selecting among the outer contour the three parts of the ear to establish the reference coordinate axes comprises:

selecting from the outer contour a crus of helix, tragus, and antitragus of the ear to establish the reference coordinate axes.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein a magnitude of the first predetermined value is set depending on application, comprising:

if a fast matching speed is required, a relatively small first predetermined value is configured; and

if a high matching accuracy is required, a relatively great first predetermined value is configured.

15. The method according to claim 2, wherein each part of the ear of the authorized user corresponds to a plurality of sample coordinate pairs, and computing the absolute differences between the abscissas and between the ordinates comprises:

computing an absolute difference between an abscissa and an ordinate of each relative coordinate pair and an abscissa and an ordinate of any one of the plurality of sample coordinate pairs, the relative coordinate pair and the plurality of sample coordinate pairs both corresponding to a same part of the ear, the absolute difference between abscissas being recorded as a first absolute value and the absolute difference between ordinates as a second absolute value.

4. A method of automatically answering a phone call with a mobile terminal, the method comprising:

obtaining, at every predetermined period of time, a pressure value and coordinates of each contact point between an ear of a current user and a touch screen of the mobile terminal when there is an incoming phone call, each pressure value comprising a pressure magnitude and pressure area;

obtaining an outer contour of the ear of the current user based on the pressure values and the coordinates;

selecting among the outer contour three parts of the ear to establish reference coordinate axes;

calculating a relative coordinate pair of each contact point corresponding to each part of the ear in the outer contour with respect to the reference coordinate axes;

comparing the relative coordinates against pre-stored sample coordinate pairs, of each part of an ear of an authorized user relative to the reference coordinate axes; and

unlocking and automatically answering the phone call when the relative coordinate pairs match the pre-stored sample coordinate pairs.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising, after the obtaining, at every predetermined period of time the pressure value and coordinates of each contact point:

determining whether a number of the contact points as detected is smaller than a first predetermined value;

if so determined, prompting the current user to recontact the ear with the touch screen; and

if not so determined, obtaining an outer contour of the ear of the current user based on the pressure values and coordinates.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the comparing the relative coordinates with the pre-stored sample coordinate pairs comprises:

computing an absolute difference of abscissas and an absolute difference of ordinates between each relative coordinate pair and a pre-stored sample coordinate pair the relative coordinate pair and the pre-stored sample coordinate pair both corresponding to a same part of the ear, the absolute difference between the abscissas being recorded as a first absolute value and the absolute difference between the ordinates being recorded as a second absolute value;

obtaining a number of the relative coordinate pairs each of which the first absolute value lies within a first predetermined range and the second absolute value lies within a second predetermined range; and

determining whether the relative coordinates match the pre-stored sample coordinates when the number is greater than or equal to a second predetermined value.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the selecting among the outer contour the three parts of the ear to establish the reference coordinate axes comprises:

selecting from the outer contour a crus of helix, tragus, and antitragus of the ear to establish the reference coordinate axes.

8. The method according to claim 4, further comprising, before obtaining at every predetermined period of time the pressure value and coordinates of each contact point:

obtaining coordinate pairs of each part of an ear of an authorized user relative to reference coordinate axes and storing the coordinates as sample coordinate pairs.

16. The method according to claim 5, wherein a magnitude of the first predetermined value is set depending on application, comprising:

if a fast matching speed is required, a relatively small first predetermined value is configured; and

if a high matching accuracy is required, a relatively great first predetermined value is configured.

9. A mobile terminal for automatically answering a phone call, the mobile terminal comprising a touch screen and a Digital Processing Unit (DSP), wherein

the touch screen is configured to obtain, at every predetermined period of time, a pressure value and coordinate pairs of each contact point between an ear of a current user and the touch screen when there is an incoming phone call, each pressure value comprising a pressure magnitude and pressure area;

and

the DSP unit is configured to;

obtain an outer contour of the ear of the current user based on the pressure values and coordinate pairs;

select among the outer contour of the ear, parts of the ear to establish reference coordinate axes;

compute relative coordinate pairs, of the contact points, each corresponding to one of the parts of the ear in the outer contour of the ear with respect to the reference coordinate axes;

compare the relative coordinate pairs against pre-stored sample coordinate pairs of each part of an ear of an authorized user relative to reference coordinate axes; and

unlock the mobile terminal and automatically answer the phone call when determining the relative coordinate pairs match the pre-stored sample coordinate pairs.

10. The mobile terminal according to claim 9, wherein

the DSP unit is further configured to:

determine whether a number of the contact points as detected is smaller than a first predetermined value; and

if so determined, prompt the current user to recontact the ear with the touch screen, and if not so determined, perform the operation of obtaining the outer contour of the ear of the current user based on the pressure values and the coordinates.

11. The mobile terminal according to claim 10, wherein

the DSP unit is further configured to:

compute and record an absolute difference between an abscissa and an ordinate of each relative coordinate pair and an abscissa and an ordinate of a sample coordinate pair the relative coordinate pair and the sample coordinate pair both corresponding to a same part of the ear, the absolute difference between the abscissas being recorded as a first absolute value and the absolute difference between the ordinates being recorded as a second absolute value;

obtain a number of the relative coordinate pairs each of which the first absolute value lies within a first predetermined range and the second absolute value lies within a second predetermined range; and

determine whether the number of relative coordinate pairs match the pre-stored sample coordinate pairs is greater than or equal to a second predetermined value.

12. The mobile terminal according to claim 9, wherein the DSP unit is further configured to select from the outer contour a crus of helix, tragus, and antitragus of the ear to establish the reference coordinate axes.

13. The mobile terminal according to claim 9, further comprising an application processor configured to:

package the sample coordinates into firmware that is recognizable by the DSP unit;

control the DSP unit to switch from operating mode to download mode to download the firmware to the DSP unit; and

continue to control the DSP unit to switch from the download mode back to the operating mode.

17. The mobile terminal according to claim 9, wherein the touch screen is a piezoelectric touch screen.

18. The mobile terminal according to the claim 17, wherein the piezoelectric touch screen employs piezoelectric multi-touch technology and high-precision analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) to analyze variation of strength of voltage or current at the each contact point to obtain the corresponding pressure value and coordinate pairs.

19. The mobile terminal according to claim 11, wherein each part of the ear of the authorized user corresponds to a plurality of sample coordinate pairs, and the DSP unit computing the absolute differences between the abscissas and between the ordinates comprises:

computing, by the DSP unit, an absolute difference between an abscissa and an ordinate of each relative coordinate pair and an abscissa and an ordinate of any one of the plurality of sample coordinate pairs, the relative coordinate pair and the plurality of sample coordinate pairs both corresponding to a same part of the ear, the absolute difference of the abscissas being recorded as a first absolute value and the absolute difference of the ordinates being recorded as a second absolute value.

20. The mobile terminal according to claim 10, wherein a magnitude of the first predetermined value is set depending on application, comprising:

if a fast matching speed is required, a relatively small first predetermined value is configured; and

if a high matching accuracy is required, a relatively great first predetermined value is configured.