SELF-AWARE PROFILE SWITCHING ON A MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE

• US 20120115501A1
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Published: 05/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Zheng, Lantian
• Granted Patent: US 8,478,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/04 the ringing-current being generated at the substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

In one implementation, a computer-implemented method includes detecting, by a mobile computing device, a current context associated with the mobile computing device, the current context being external to the mobile computing device and indicating a current state of the mobile computing device in its surrounding environment. The method can also include identifying, based on at least a first portion of the current context, a location description for the mobile computing device, wherein the location description includes a textual description of the location; and determining, based on the identified location description and at least a second portion of the current context, whether to switch the mobile computing device from operating using a current profile to operating using a second profile, wherein the current profile and the second profile each define one or more settings of the mobile computing device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

detecting, by a mobile computing device, a current context associated with the mobile computing device, the current context being external to the mobile computing device and indicating a current state of the mobile computing device in its surrounding environment;

identifying, based on at least a first portion of the current context, a location description for the mobile computing device, wherein the location description includes a textual description of the location;

determining, based on the identified location description and at least a second portion of the current context, whether to switch the mobile computing device from operating using a current profile to operating using a second profile, wherein the current profile and the second profile each define one or more settings of the mobile computing device; and

in response to determining whether to switch to the second profile, adjusting one or more setting of the mobile computing device based on the second profile.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the location description describes a physical location or a physical structure that is associated with a name and not with a unique geographic location identifier.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the location description is selected from the group consisting of:

home, car, work, and public location.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the current context includes first information that identifies one or more other computing devices that are located nearby the mobile computing device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the other computing devices are identified through, at least, one or more wired or wireless connections that are available to the mobile computing device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more wired or wireless connections include a wired connection through which the mobile computing device is docked.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more wired or wireless connections include one or more wireless networks detected by the mobile computing device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second portion of the current context includes second information indicating a current activity of a user associated with the mobile computing device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the second information includes an electronic calendar for the user and a current time.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the second information includes social network information associated with the user on one or more social networks.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising, at a previous time before identifying the location description for the mobile computing device, learning the location description based on a detected context for the mobile computing device at the previous time and additional information that indicates a name for the location description.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the additional information comprises user input that indicates the name for the location description.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the additional information comprises a location specified as part of a scheduled activity in an electronic calendar associated with the mobile computing device.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the additional information comprises an inferred location based on, at least, a time of day and a generic schedule inferred for a user of the mobile computing device.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether to switch the mobile computing device to operating using the second profile is based on application of one or more learned rules to the identified location description and at least a second portion of the current context.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising, over a period of time before determining whether to switch the mobile computing device to operating using the second profile, learning the rules based on user adjustment of the settings of the mobile computing device and a detected context or change in context of the mobile computing device at or around a time the settings are adjusted.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein a new rule is learned by the mobile computing device once a particular setting adjustment has been made at least a threshold number of times in association with a particular context of the mobile computing device.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the settings of the mobile computing device defined by the current profile and the second profile include one or more of the following:

speaker activation, speaker volume, microphone activation, display activation, display brightness, ringer activation, ringer volume, vibrate activation, ringtone, communications network connection, and communications filter activation.

19. A system for switching profiles on mobile computing device, the system comprising:

a mobile computing device;

a context determination unit of the mobile computing device that is configured to detect a current context associated with the mobile computing device, the context being external to the mobile computing device and indicating a current state of the mobile computing device in its surrounding environment;

a location description unit of the mobile computing device that is configured to identify, based on at least a first portion of the current context, a location description for the mobile computing device, wherein the location description includes a textual description of the location;

a profile rule unit of the mobile computing device that is configured to determine, based on the identified location description and at least a second portion of the current context, whether to switch the mobile computing device from operating using a current profile to operating using a second profile, wherein the current profile and the second profile each define one or more settings of the mobile computing device; and

a settings management unit of the mobile computing device that is configured to adjust one or more setting of the mobile computing device based on the second profile in response to determining whether to switch to the second profile.

20. A computer program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage device, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, cause operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

detecting, by a mobile computing device, a current context associated with the mobile computing device, the context being external to the mobile computing device and indicating a current state of the mobile computing device in its surrounding environment;

identifying, based on at least a first portion of the current context, a location description for the mobile computing device, wherein the location description includes a textual description of the location;

determining, based on the identified location description and at least a second portion of the current context, whether to switch the mobile computing device from operating using a current profile to operating using a second profile, wherein the current profile and the second profile each define one or more settings of the mobile computing device; and

in response to determining whether to switch to the second profile, adjusting one or more setting of the mobile computing device based on the second profile.