Electronic device and method for activating applications therefor

• US 10,481,698 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2017
• Issued: 11/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Park, Kyungmin, Go, Hyunsung
• Primary Examiner(s): McLoone, Peter C
• Application Number:
  US15/602,447
• Publication Number:
  US 20170357329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 910 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G04C 3/002 Position, e.g. inclination dependent switches
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 21/00 Input or output devices integrated in time-pieces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3215 Monitoring of peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3265 Power saving in display device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3278 Power saving in modem or I/O interface
• 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 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves
• 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: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A method and an electronic device implementing the method are disclosed. The electronic device may include sensors, a memory and a processor executing instructions stored in the memory to: select at least one sensor of the one or more sensors to detect movement of the electronic device and select a sampling frequency of the selected at least one sensor based on usage state information of the electronic device, detect the movement of the electronic device using the selected at least one sensor at the selected sampling frequency, and when the detected movement corresponds to at least one preset condition of the one or more preset conditions, execute a specific application of the one or more applications associated with the at least one preset condition.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

one or more sensors;

a processor; and

a memory electrically coupled with the processor, storing one or more applications associated with one or more preset conditions,

wherein the memory stores instructions executable by the processor to;

select at least one sensor of the one or more sensors to detect movement of the electronic device and select a sampling frequency of the selected at least one sensor based on usage state information of the electronic device and a user activity state;

detect the movement of the electronic device using the selected at least one sensor at the selected sampling frequency; and

when the detected movement corresponds to at least one preset condition of the one or more preset conditions, execute a specific application of the one or more applications associated with the at least one preset condition.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the usage state information comprises at least one of:

a count indicating a number of activations of the specific application during a first preset period of time, and

information indicating a state of a user of the electronic device.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

generate the count indicating the number of times the specific application is activated during the first preset period of time, the first preset time indicating a time duration after an initial activation of the specific application; and

when the specific application is reactivated after expiration of the time duration after the initial activation, count a second number of times that the specific application is activated in a second preset period of time starting from a time at which the specific application is reactivated.

4. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein the at least one sensor and the sampling frequency are selected according to whether the generated count exceeds at least one threshold.

5. The electronic device of claim 3, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

reselect a sensor of the one or more sensors and a sampling frequency to be utilized during the second preset period of time, based on the generated count indicating the number of times the specific application is activated during the first preset period of time.

6. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

switch to another sensor of the one or more sensors for detecting the movement of the electronic device, and switch to another sampling frequency, based on the second number of times that the specific application is activated during the second preset period of time.

7. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

receive the information indicating the state of the user based on sensing data detected by at least one sensor of the one or more sensors, and detecting a user input indicating the user activity state.

8. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

control a display to display a user interface (UI) including one or more selectable user activity states; and

detect the user input selecting one of the one or more selectable user activity states from the displayed UI,

wherein the at least one sensor of the one or more sensors and the selected sampling frequency are selected at least partially based on the detected user input selecting one of the one or more selectable user activity states.

9. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein when the specific application is activated in response to the user input, a user interface of the application includes a plurality of icons, each representing a different user activity state.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a wearable device comprising a display, wherein the one or more sensors include a gyro sensor and an acceleration sensor, and wherein the specific application includes a clock-based function.

11. A method in an electronic device comprising:

storing in a memory one or more applications associated with one or more preset conditions;

selecting, by a processor, at least one sensor among one or more sensors for detecting a movement of the electronic device, and selecting a sampling frequency for the selected at least one sensor based on usage state information of the electronic device and a user activity state;

detecting the movement of the electronic device using the selected at least one sensor operating at the selected sampling frequency; and

if the movement satisfies a preset condition of the one or more preset conditions, executing a specific application of the one or more applications associated with the preset condition.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the usage state information comprises information of at least one of:

a count indicating a number of activations of the specific application during a first preset period of time, and

information indicating a state of a user of the electronic device.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating the count indicating the number of times the specific application is activated during the first preset period of time, the first preset time indicating a time duration after an initial activation of the specific application; and

when the specific application is reactivated after expiration of the time duration after the initial activation, counting a second number of times that the specific application is activated in a second preset period of time starting from a time at which the specific application is reactivated.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one sensor and the sampling frequency are selected according to whether the generated count exceeds at least one threshold.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

reselecting a sensor of the one or more sensors and a sampling frequency to be utilized during the second preset period of time, based on the generated count indicating the number of times the specific application is activated during the first preset period of time.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising switching to another sensor of the one or more sensors for detecting the movement of the electronic device, and switching to another sampling frequency, based the second number of times that the specific application is activated during the second preset period of time.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving the information indicating the state of the user based on sensing data detected by at least one sensor of the one or more sensors, and detecting a user input indicating the user activity state.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising

controlling a display to display a user interface (UI) including one or more selectable user activity states;

and

detecting the user input selecting one of the one or more selectable user activity states from the displayed UI,

wherein the at least one sensor of the one or more sensors and the selected sampling frequency are selected at least partially based on the detected user input selecting one of the one or more selectable user activity states.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein, when the specific application is activated in response to the user input, a user interface of the application includes a plurality of icons, each representing a different user state.

20. An electronic device comprising:

a housing;

a fastener mounted on a portion of the housing and removably attachable to a user;

a display exposed through a portion of the housing;

at least one sensor disposed within the housing and configured to detect movement of the electronic device;

a processor disposed within the housing and electrically coupled with the display and the at least one sensor; and

a memory electrically coupled with the processor, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor to;

receive first data from the at least one sensor when the display is deactivated;

in response to detecting that the first data indicates a first pattern of movement of the electronic device, activate the display;

receive second data from the sensor after the display is activated; and

in response to detecting that the second data indicates that a repetition of the first pattern exceeds a reference value, deactivate the display.

21. The electronic device of claim 20, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:

in response to the detecting that the second data indicates that the repetition of the first pattern exceeds the reference value, change a designated pattern for activating the display from the first pattern to a second pattern so that the display is not activated by detecting the first pattern.