EVENT RECORDER FOR PORTABLE MEDIA DEVICE

• US 20090289789A1
• Filed: 08/04/2009
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Tupman, David, Fadell, Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 8,044,795 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/540
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/18 Error detection or correction; Testing , e.g. of drop-outs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

Operational parametric sensing and event recording capabilities are provided for portable electronic devices such as media players, cell phones, laptop computers, and the like that takes the can take the form of a standalone sensing unit or as an integrated component of the portable electronic device.

Claims

1. A user operated portable electronic device, comprising:

a sensing circuit adapted to monitor a physical status of the portable electronic device and generate corresponding physical status data;

a recording device coupled with the sensing circuit adapted to record the physical status data received from the sensing circuit; and

a processor coupled to the recording device, wherein the processor executes computer code for using the retrieved physical status data to determine if a manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device is improper.

2. The user operated portable electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor executes computer code for determining a likely cause of a portable electronic device malfunction.

3. The user operated portable electronic device as recited in claim 2, wherein the processor further executes computer code for determining if the likely cause of the portable electronic device malfunction is due to the improper manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device.

4. The user operated portable electronic device as recited in claim 3, wherein if it is determined that the improper manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device is not the likely cause of the device malfunction, then the processor executes computer code for determining if the device malfunction is due to a manufacturing defect or a design defect.

5. The user operated portable electronic device as recited in claim 3, wherein if it is determined that the improper manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device is the likely cause of the device malfunction, then the processor further executes computer code for determining if a repair operation to correct the device malfunction is covered by a manufacturer warranty.

6. The user operated portable electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensing circuit includes a plurality of sensing devices each adapted to monitor a corresponding physical parameter.

7. The user operated portable electronic device as recited in claim 6, wherein the plurality of sensing devices includes at least a temperature sensing device, or an accelerometer, or a battery charging sensing device.

8. The user operated portable electronic device as recited in claim 1, wherein the portable electronic device is a portable media player.

9. A method of evaluating an operational status of a user operated portable electronic device having at least a processor, comprising:

monitoring a physical status of the portable electronic device

generating corresponding physical status data in accordance with the monitoring;

recording the physical status data;

using at least some of the recorded plurality of physical status data to determine if a manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device is improper.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising:

determining a likely cause of a portable electronic device malfunction.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

determining if the likely cause of the portable electronic device malfunction is due to the improper manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

determining if the device malfunction is due to a manufacturing defect or a design defect if it is determined that the improper manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device is not the likely cause of the device malfunction.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

determining if a repair operation to correct the device malfunction is covered by a manufacturer warranty if it is determined that the improper manner in which the user is operating the portable electronic device is the likely cause of the device malfunction.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the monitoring is carried out by a plurality of sensing devices each adapted to monitor a corresponding physical status data.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the plurality of sensing devices includes at least a temperature sensing device, or an accelerometer, or a battery charging sensing device.

16. An automated troubleshooting guide used by a user of a portable electronic device to evaluate a cause of a malfunction in the operation of the portable electronic device and to provide a corrective action, comprising:

a sensing circuit adapted to monitor a physical status of the portable electronic device and generate corresponding physical status data;

a recording device coupled with the sensing circuit adapted to record the physical status data received from the sensing circuit; and

a processor coupled to the recording device, wherein the processor provides a fault analysis based on at least recorded physical status data retrieved from the recording device, wherein the fault analysis includes at least a fault analysis summary, wherein the fault analysis summary includes at least an indication of a detected fault and a corrective action.

17. The automated troubleshooting guide as recited in claim 16, wherein when a fault analysis summary request is provided to the portable electronic device, the processor responds to the fault analysis summary by providing the requested fault analysis summary in real time.

18. The automated troubleshooting guide as recited in claim 17, wherein the user of the portable electronic device provides the fault analysis summary request.

19. The automated troubleshooting guide as recited in claim 16, wherein the user of the portable electronic device uses the corrective action to correct the detected fault without requiring customer service intervention.

20. A method of automatically providing a troubleshooting guide used by a user of a portable electronic device to evaluate a cause of a malfunction in the operation of the portable electronic device and to provide a corrective action, comprising:

monitoring a physical status of the portable electronic device;

generating corresponding physical status data based on the monitoring;

recording the physical status data; and

providing a fault analysis based on at least recorded physical status data, wherein the fault analysis includes at least a fault analysis summary, wherein the fault analysis summary includes at least an indication of a detected fault and a corrective action.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein when a fault analysis summary request is provided to the portable electronic device, the processor responds to the fault analysis summary by providing the requested fault analysis summary in real time.

22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the user of the portable electronic device provides the fault analysis summary request.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the user of the portable electronic device uses the corrective action to correct the detected fault without requiring customer service intervention.