Computing device operable to work in conjunction with a companion electronic device

• US 9,998,580 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2011
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hu-Do Limited
• Original Assignee: Hu-Do Limited
• Inventors: Brogan, Hugh, Rice-Jones, Margaret, Schaeffer, Ron, Newby-House, Nigel, Hines, George
• Primary Examiner(s): Htun, San
• Application Number:
  US13/643,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20130109371A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,604 Days
• Field of Search: 455418-420, 4555561-559
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1633 Constructional details or arrangements of portable computers not specific to the type of enclosures covered by groups G06F1/1615 - G06F1/1626
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1639 the display being based on projection
• 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 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• 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 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72409 by interfacing with external accessories hands-free H04M1/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A computing device is operable to work in conjunction with a companion electronic device. The computing device and the companion electronic device each have their own electronics and/or own operating system and each is able to construct a partial or complete user environment. The computing device is operable to send data to the companion device, on request of the companion device, which the companion electronic device then uses to locally construct its own user environment, in whole or in part.

Claims

1. A system including a mobile phone computing device and a companion electronic device, the mobile phone computing device including a first processor, a first input interface, a first output interface, a first memory storing instructions, and a first transceiver operable to communicate with the companion electronic device;

the companion electronic device including a second processor, a second input interface, a second output interface, a second memory storing instructions, and a second transceiver operable to communicate with the mobile phone computing device;

wherein the mobile phone computing device is

i) informed of the presence of the companion electronic device or is informed by the companion electronic device of its presence through hardware or software including connector type, a hardware configuration, type of connector used, a protocol, or IP address; and

ii) operable to detect either manually or automatically the presence of the companion electronic device, or in which the companion electronic device is operable to detect either manually or automatically the presence of the mobile phone computing device, and the mobile phone computing device or the companion electronic device is operable to adjust its functionality in accordance with being informed or detected;

iii) operable to switch between being a master to the companion electronic device and being a slave to the companion electronic device, and

wherein the mobile phone computing device is connected over an interface to the companion electronic device, and operable to switch the interface to another type of interface or adjust the interface characteristics dependent on the capabilities or resources available to either the companion electronic device or the mobile phone computing device, and

wherein the mobile phone computing device enables the control or simultaneous use of at least one of the same applications, or at least one of modified versions of the same applications, or at least one of different applications, or different companion electronic devices; and

wherein the mobile phone computing device is operable to work synchronously or asynchronously in conjunction with the companion electronic device, in which the mobile phone computing device and the companion electronic device each have their own electronics and/or own operating system and each is able to construct a complete user environment, and

wherein the complete user environment is a complete set of software and hardware components that together provide for output to and input from a user, wherein the complete user environment includes at least one of graphics assets, GUI gadgets or widgets, input/output control methods, audio, commands, haptic or other feedback method or instructions;

wherein the mobile phone computing device is operable to send data defining at least one of the following;

graphics assets, GUI gadgets or widgets, input/output control methods, audio, commands, haptic or other feedback method or instructions, to the companion electronic device, on request of the companion electronic device, which the companion electronic device then uses to locally construct its own constructed complete user environment adapted to its form factor and modality of usage, wherein the constructed complete user environment includes at least one of;

the graphics assets, GUI gadgets or widgets, input/output control methods, audio, commands, haptic or other feedback method or instructions, defined in data sent by the mobile phone computing device.

2. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device includes at least one processor core and that core is used, under the instruction of the companion electronic device, to provide and/or generate the data that is sent from the mobile phone computing device to the companion electronic device and to provide services to the companion electronic device.

3. The system of claim 2 in which the core is used in conjunction with other electronics, to provide and/or generate the data that is sent from the mobile phone computing device to the companion electronic device and to provide services to the companion electronic device.

4. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device communicates over the interface or over interfaces with the companion electronic device, where the interface or interfaces include one or more of the following:

a physical connection, a wireless connection, or a network connection, and in which the mobile phone computing device and companion electronic device are local or remote to one another.

5. The system of claim 1 in which a user is a person, persons or another device in a machine to machine (M2M) application, or a peripheral.

6. The system of claim 1 in which the data the mobile phone computing device sends to the companion electronic device includes elements that are directly or indirectly used in the constructed complete user environment of the companion electronic device, using mechanisms on the mobile phone computing device or the companion electronic device.

7. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device operates independently of or in conjunction with the companion electronic device and in which the data that is sent to the companion electronic device can include but is not limited to one or more of:

content, data, application results, applications themselves, input/output, user feedback, information and/or data application results, which may be modified, enhanced, or adapted on the mobile phone computing device or companion electronic device to be suitable for user preferences, capabilities and/or the configuration of the mobile phone computing device or companion electronic device,

and this data is combined, at the companion electronic device, with elements generated locally at the companion electronic device to build the companion electronic device constructed complete user environment.

8. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device provides services or additional capabilities on request to the companion electronic device.

9. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device which provides functions including application execution on the mobile phone computing device, elements of which of which are provided to the companion electronic device.

10. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device is one in which the data sent from the mobile phone computing device includes data that is an abstraction or generalisation of data and/or information that defines some elements of a complete user environment and therefore may not be specific to any single type or class of companion electronic devices, but instead can be used by the companion electronic device to construct the constructed complete user environment appropriate to fit with its own configuration, settings or capabilities.

11. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device is one in which a graphical image is described and sent by the mobile phone computing device using a method which is the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) specification of XML, or another standards or non-standards based method, and is interpreted and rendered by the companion electronic device, or some elements of the constructed complete user environment are sent by commands or library calls, or data is sent as data abstractions which are then received and interpreted by the companion electronic device.

12. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device is one for which a connected server retains the status of the mobile phone computing device, and/or the companion electronic device.

13. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device shares a common physical or logical memory device or file system for the storage and/or manipulation of data with the companion electronic device.

14. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device shares a common file management system for the storage and manipulation of data with the companion electronic device.

15. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device does not share a common file management system for the storage and manipulation of data with the companion electronic device.

16. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device itself has no knowledge of the capabilities of the companion electronic device.

17. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device is not originally intended to be operable with the companion electronic device but which may be made so operable through the addition of hardware components, software components and/or intermediary or peripheral devices, whether local or remote to the mobile phone computing device and companion electronic devices.

18. The system of claim 1, the system including additional mobile phone computing devices, in which the mobile phone computing device is one which, singularly or together with the additional mobile phone computing devices, is connected over one or more interfaces to multiple companion electronic devices at the same time.

19. The system of preceding claim 18 in which the mobile phone computing device is one interfacing with multiple companion electronic devices that are each connected over one or more interfaces to each other, wherein one or more companion electronic devices act as a computing device.

20. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device functions independently of, or in conjunction with, another device or token, and/or independently or in conjunction with software resident on one or both of the companion device and the another device or token, as a security or access control device to either the hardware or software, or to both the hardware and software, on the companion electronic device, or to other hardware or software or devices.

21. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device is one in which the settings on the mobile phone computing device can tell the companion electronic device what preferences the user or an application wants and what mode it needs to be in, or vice versa, based on the companion electronic device'"'"'s or the mobile phone computing device'"'"'s capabilities, or the capabilities of peripheral devices attached to either of the mobile phone computing device or the companion electronic device.

22. The system of claim 1 in which the mobile phone computing device is one which is selected from the list:

Feature phone;

Smartphone;

Electronic navigation device;

PDA;

Media player;

Camera;

eReader;

Tablet;

Netbook/smartbook;

Laptop;

Convertible computer.

23. The system of claim 1 in which the companion electronic device is a tablet computer, a notebook computer, or a TV/PC monitor.