Multi-segment wearable accessory

• US 8,872,729 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2012
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Lyons, Kenton M., Nguyen, David H., White, Sean
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, NICHOLAS J
• Application Number:
  US13/604,670
• Publication Number:
  US 20130271351A1
• Time in Patent Office: 782 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 17/083 Watches distributed over several housings
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/02 Detectors of external physical values, e.g. temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1641 the display being formed by a plurality of foldable display components G06F1/1647 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1647 including at least an additional display G06F1/1692 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1649 the additional display being independently orientable, e.g. for presenting information to a second user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1692 the I/O peripheral being a secondary touch screen used as control interface, e.g. virtual buttons or sliders
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• 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 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1446 display composed of modules, e.g. video walls
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2356/00 Detection of the display position w.r.t. other display screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/02 Flexible displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0206 Portable telephones comprising a plurality of mechanically joined movable body parts, e.g. hinged housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0247 comprising more than two body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/16 : including more than one display unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 : including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to facilitate the use of a multi-segment wearable accessory. In this regard, methods, apparatus and computer program products are provided for controlling and, in some instances, interacting with a multi-segment wearable accessory. In the context of a method, an orientation of each of a plurality of segments of a multi-segment wearable accessory is determined relative to an axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory, such as by determining an angle of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory. A relative ordering of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory may then be determined based upon the orientation of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to at least:

determine an orientation of each of a plurality of segments of a multi-segment wearable accessory relative to an axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory; and

determine a relative ordering of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory based upon the orientation of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis,

wherein one or more of the segments are removable relative to the multi-segment wearable accessory,

wherein the relative ordering of the plurality of segments is changeable, and

wherein determining the relative ordering comprises identifying segments adjacent to a particular segment and a sequence of adjacent segments.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to determine an orientation of the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to determine the orientation of the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory based upon a comparison of the orientation of the axis to at least one of a gravity vector or a geomagnetic field.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to determine the orientation of each of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory by determining an angle of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to determine whether a first segment is a member of the multi-segment wearable accessory based upon the orientation of each of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory relative to the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to determine whether the first segment is a member of the multi-segment wearable accessory by comparing the orientation of the first segment relative to the axis to the orientations of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory relative to the axis and determining whether the orientation of the first segment is within a predefined range of a median of the orientations of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface; and

user interface circuitry configured to control at least some functions of one or more elements of the user interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is embodied by at least one segment of the multi-segment wearable accessory.

9. A method comprising:

determining an orientation of each of a plurality of segments of a multi-segment wearable accessory relative to an axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory; and

determining, with a processor, a relative ordering of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory based upon the orientation of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis,

wherein one or more of the segments are removable relative to the multi-segment wearable accessory,

wherein the relative ordering of the plurality of segments is changeable, and

wherein determining the relative ordering comprises identifying segments adjacent to a particular segment and a sequence of adjacent segments.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining an orientation of the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the orientation of the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory comprises determining the orientation of the axis based upon a comparison of the orientation of the axis to at least one of a gravity vector or a geomagnetic field.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein determining the orientation of each of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory comprises determining an angle of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining whether a first segment is a member of the multi-segment wearable accessory based upon the orientation of each of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory relative to the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining whether the first segment is a member of the multi-segment wearable accessory comprises comparing the orientation of the first segment relative to the axis to the orientations of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory relative to the axis and determining whether the orientation of the first segment is within a predefined range of a median of the orientations of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory.

15. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code portions stored therein, the computer-executable program code portions comprising program code instructions for:

determining an orientation of each of a plurality of segments of a multi-segment wearable accessory relative to an axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory; and

determining a relative ordering of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory based upon the orientation of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis,

wherein one or more of the segments are removable relative to the multi-segment wearable accessory,

wherein the relative ordering of the plurality of segments is changeable, and

wherein determining the relative ordering comprises identifying segments adjacent to a particular segment and a sequence of adjacent segments.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable program code portions further comprise program code instructions for determining an orientation of the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the program code instructions for determining the orientation of the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory comprise program code instructions for determining the orientation of the axis based upon a comparison of the orientation of the axis to at least one of a gravity vector or a geomagnetic field.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the program code instructions for determining the orientation of each of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory comprise program code instructions for determining an angle of each of the plurality of segments relative to the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable program code portions further comprise program code instructions for determining whether a first segment is a member of the multi-segment wearable accessory based upon the orientation of each of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory relative to the axis through the multi-segment wearable accessory.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the program code instructions for determining whether the first segment is a member of the multi-segment wearable accessory comprise program code instructions for comparing the orientation of the first segment relative to the axis to the orientations of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory relative to the axis and program code instructions for determining whether the orientation of the first segment is within a predefined range of a median of the orientations of the plurality of segments of the multi-segment wearable accessory.