Mobile electronic device having a geographical position dependent light and method of and system for achieving the same

• US 7,831,260 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2009
• Issued: 11/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Knowles, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, HUY Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elcenko; Eric
• Application Number:
  US12/566,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20100007638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 410 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/22 Illumination; Arrangements for improving the visibility of characters on dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and system for controlling an illuminating device on a mobile electronic device comprising determining in a global position of the device in real-time, determining a state of at least one light condition currently affecting ambient light at the global position and adjusting the intensity of the illuminating device in response to the state of the at least one light condition. Light conditions include weather conditions and a position of the sun at a particular global position. A mobile electronic device having a geographically dependent illuminating device is also provided.

Claims

1. A method for controlling backlighting of a display on a mobile electronic device, the method comprising steps of:

determining a current global position of the device;

retrieving current weather conditions for the current global position by downloading weather condition data through a wireless network;

predicting ambient light for the current global position of the device based on a time of day, a time of year and the current weather conditions at the current global position of the device; and

dynamically adjusting the backlighting of the display in response to changes in the predicted ambient light.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the current global position of the device comprises using a global positioning system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving the current weather conditions for the current global position comprises wirelessly accessing weather condition data stored in memory residing on a server connected to the mobile device via said wireless network.

4. The method according to claim 1, comprising the step of enabling a user to predefine a range of backlighting intensities corresponding to a predefined ambient light conditions.

5. The method according to claim 1, comprising the step of enabling a user to select an outdoor mode for the device.

6. The method according to claim 1, comprising the step of predicting whether the device is outdoors or indoors by comparing outdoor temperature conditions at the current global position of the device to an actual temperature measured by a temperature sensor on the device.

12. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code means adapted to perform all of the steps of the method of claim 1 when said program is run on a computer.

7. A mobile electronic device having automatically controlled backlighting, the device comprising:

a backlit display having adjustable backlighting;

a means for determining a current global position of the device;

a means for retrieving current weather conditions for the current global position of the device by downloading weather condition data through a wireless network; and

a microprocessor for dynamically adjusting the backlighting of the backlit display in response to ambient light conditions that are predicted based on a time of day, a time of year, and the current weather conditions for the current global position of the device.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the means for determining the current global position of the device is a global positioning system.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein the means for retrieving current weather conditions for the current global position comprises a wireless data connection via said wireless network to a server that stores global weather data.

10. A system for automatically controlling backlighting on a mobile electronic device connected to a wireless network, the system comprising:

a positioning system for determining a current global position of the device;

a server for storing data relating to current weather conditions prevailing at various global positions; and

a wireless link connecting the mobile electronic device to the server for enabling the mobile device to download weather condition data through a wireless network for an ambient light condition for the current global position for providing to a microprocessor of the mobile device which is configured to dynamically adjust the backlighting of the display in response to ambient light conditions that are predicted based on a time of day, a time of year, and the current weather conditions for the current global position of the device.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the positioning system is a global positioning system.