Handheld electronic device

• US 8,346,284 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2009
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Khokhlov, Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG-HURST, KATHY W
• Application Number:
  US12/618,959
• Publication Number:
  US 20100203900A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,142 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/456.6, 455/457, 455/550.1, 455/556, 455/418, 455/566, 455/435, 455/436, 455/466, 715/810, 715/751, 715/700
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

PDAs can be used to provide their users with a variety of functions. One function provided by PDAs is enabling their users to contact particular users of other devices who are stored as contacts, for example by a telephone call or text message. The present invention provides a PDA in which contacts that the user of the PDA may be more likely to want to contact at any given time can be determined and displayed. Whether or not a user may be likely to want to contact a user at any given time may be based on the status of the user of the PDA, and optionally also the status of the other user'"'"'s PDA. For example, if the user of the PDA is listening to a particular genre of music, then they may want to contact other contacts who a also listening to that particular genre of music. Similarly, if the user is at their place of work, then they may want to contact a specific list of contacts related to work. In this way, the user of the PDA can be provided with a list of relevant contacts.

Claims

1. A handheld electronic device for use in a network to which other electronic devices, with respective users, are connected and for performing at least one function, the handheld electronic device comprising:

a screen configured to display information to a user of the handheld electronic device;

a location determining unit that determines a current location of the handheld electronic device;

a function determining unit that determines at least one function performed by the handheld electronic device; and

a receiving unit configured to receive status information relating to the users of the other electronic devices, the status information comprising information indicating functions performed by and locations of the other electronic devices, wherein the handheld electronic device is configured to be able to;

compare a status of the handheld electronic device with the respective status information of the other electronic devices;

determine users of other electronic devices connected to the network who the user of the handheld electronic device may be interested in contacting based on the status information of the respective other electronic devices of the other users matching the status of the handheld electronic device;

update the determined users of other electronic devices when there is a change on the status of the user of the handheld electronic device; and

display on the screen information relating to the updated determined users of the other electronic devices, the information relating to the updated determined users including a respective user name, a graphical representation corresponding to the user, and status information so as to indicate the updated determined users as users who the user of the handheld electronic device may be interest in contacting based on the matching status information.

2. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, configured to receive said status information relating to the users of the other electronic devices from a server.

3. The handheld electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the handheld electronic device is configured to obtain said status information from the server as XML data forming in an RSS feed.

4. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one function includes at least one of:

displaying videos;

displaying photographs;

taking photographs;

playing music;

sending emails;

accessing the internet;

playing games; and

acting as a telephone.

5. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the information relating to the updated determined users that is displayed on the screen comprises:

(i) contact information for the determined users.

6. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the status information of the respective other electronic devices also indicates:

the power status of the electronic device of the determined user; and

the status of the handheld electronic device also indicates the power status of the handheld electronic device.

7. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising hardware configured to determine the status of the handheld electronic device.

8. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising software configured to determine the status of the handheld electronic device.

9. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, further comprising a transmitting unit configured to transmit status information about the handheld electronic device.

10. The handheld electronic device according to claim 9, configured to transmit status information about itself to a server.

11. The handheld electronic device according to claim 9, configured to transmit status information about itself as XML data forming an RSS feed.

12. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, further configured to re-determine the users of other electronic devices who the user of the handheld electronic device may be interested in contacting when the status of the handheld electronic device changes.

13. The handheld electronic device according to claim 1, further configured to be able to display the location of the determined users on a map.

14. A method of determining specific contacts for display on the screen of a handheld electronic device comprising:

determining a current location of the handheld electronic device;

determining at least one function performed by the handheld electronic device;

receiving status information relating to users of other electronic devices, the status information comprising information indicating functions performed by and locations of the other electronic devices;

comparing the respective status information of the other electronic devices with a status of the handheld electronic device;

determining users of other electronic devices who a user of the handheld electronic device may be interested in contacting based on the status information of the respective other electronic devices of the other users matching the status of the handheld electronic device;

updating the determined users of other electronic devices when there is a change on the status of the user of the handheld electronic device; and

displaying the updated determined users of other electronic devices with their respective user name, graphical representation corresponding to the user, and status information so as to indicate the updated determined users as users who it is determined that the user of the handheld electronic device may be interested in contacting based on the matching status information.

15. The method of determining specific contacts for display on the screen of a handheld electronic device according to claim 14, wherein the method steps are performed by the handheld electronic device.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including computer program instructions, which when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform a process comprising:

determining a current location of the electronic device;

determining at least one function performed by the electronic device;

receiving status information relating to users of other electronic devices, the status information comprising information indicating functions performed by and locations of the other electronic devices;

comparing the respective status information of the other electronic devices with a status of the electronic device;

determining users of other electronic devices who a user of the electronic device may be interested in contacting based on the status information of the respective other electronic devices of the other users matching the status of the handheld electronic device;

updating the determined users of other electronic devices when there is a change on the status of the user of the electronic device; and

displaying the updated determined users of other electronic devices with their respective user name, graphical representation corresponding to the user, and status information so as to indicate the updated determined users as users who it is determined that the user of the handheld electronic device may be interested in contacting based on the matching status information.