Motion-based disabling of messaging on a wireless communications device
First Claim
1. A method of restricting access to one or more applications on a wireless communications device, the method comprising:
- determining a current speed of the device;
where the current speed of the device is greater than a lower thresholddisplaying a randomly generated visual challenge, wherein a difficulty level of the randomly generated visual challenge is based on a current location of the device; and
restricting access to at least one application on the device until a correct response to the randomly generated visual challenge is received.
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Accused Products
Abstract
When a wireless communications device is traveling a speed exceeding a first predetermined threshold but less than a second predetermined threshold, the device is presumed traveling in a motor vehicle. In order to inhibit operation of the wireless communication device when traveling, access to certain device functions or applications such as e-mail, text messaging, etc. are limited by requiring the user of the device to respond correctly to a randomly generated visual challenge, such as, for example, a CAPTCHA (in which a user is prompted to recognize the characters in a visually distorted string of text). This visual challenge presents a sufficient obstacle that the user will be less likely to use the wireless communications device for e-mailing or texting while operating a motor vehicle.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of restricting access to one or more applications on a wireless communications device, the method comprising:
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determining a current speed of the device; where the current speed of the device is greater than a lower threshold displaying a randomly generated visual challenge, wherein a difficulty level of the randomly generated visual challenge is based on a current location of the device; and restricting access to at least one application on the device until a correct response to the randomly generated visual challenge is received. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising code which, when loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device, is adapted to restrict access to one or more applications by:
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determining a current speed of the device; where the current speed of the device is greater than a lower threshold displaying a randomly generated visual challenge, wherein a difficulty level of the randomly generated visual challenge is based on a current location of the device; and restricting access to at least one application on the device until a correct response to the randomly generated visual challenge is received. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A wireless communications device comprising:
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a positioning subsystem for determining a current location and a current speed of the device; and a processor operatively coupled to a memory and to the positioning subsystem for receiving the current speed from the positioning subsystem and for determining whether the current speed is greater than a first predetermined threshold, and if the current speed exceeds the first predetermined threshold, for randomly generating a visual challenge wherein a difficulty level of the visual challenge is based on the current location of the device, wherein the processor and memory are further coupled to a display for displaying the visual challenge to be solved in order to gain access to at least one application on the device. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification