GESTURE BASED CONTEXT-SENSITIVE FUNTIONALITY

• US 20140108927A1
• Filed: 10/16/2012
• Published: 04/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: VAIDYA, Samir S., CALDEIRA DE ANDRADA, Mauricio P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,977,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/708
• 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 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/56 including a user help function

Abstract

Gesture based, context sensitive help and search functionalities are provided for application programs on a mobile device. In response to detecting movement at a mobile device in the form of a gesture, it is determined whether the movement corresponds to a predetermined gesture for invoking a help or search functionality. When the movement corresponds to a predetermined gesture, a current context of mobile device is identified and help content associated with the identified current context is retrieved for the help functionality, or a search query associated with the context is invoked and search results are obtained for a search functionality, for presentation to the user of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a communication interface configured to enable communication via a mobile network;

a processor coupled with the communication interface;

a sensor accessible to the processor and configured to detect movement at the mobile device;

a storage device accessible to the processor; and

an executable program in the storage device, wherein execution of the program by the processor configures the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to;

determine whether a detected movement corresponds to either a predetermined help gesture or a predetermined search gesture;

identify a current context of the mobile device when the user input is determined to correspond to either a predetermined help gesture or a predetermined search gesture;

identify a requested functionality as a help functionality or as a search functionality based on the determined corresponding gesture;

obtain content related to the requested functionality and based on the current context of the mobile device; and

present the content to the user of the mobile device.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the current context of the mobile device further includes status information for the application program displayed on the mobile device when the movement was detected.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the current context of the mobile device further includes at least a portion of the contents displayed by the mobile device when the movement was detected.

4. The mobile device of claim 3, wherein the current context of the mobile device further includes information entered into at least one field of an interface of the application program displayed on the mobile device when the movement was detected.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein obtained content related to a requested help functionality includes one or more results of a search query formulated based on the current context of the mobile device.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a touch screen configured to detect movement across the touch screen in a predetermined pattern.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a camera configured to detect movement within its view in a predetermined pattern.

8. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a sensor to detect movement of the mobile device in a predetermined pattern.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the determine function further includes a function to determine whether the movement of the mobile device meets one or more predetermined threshold parameters associated with a predetermined gesture.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the one or more threshold parameters include a predetermined rate of acceleration and a predetermined time period.

11. A mobile device, comprising:

a communication interface configured to enable communication via a mobile network;

a processor coupled with the communication interface;

a sensor accessible to the processor and configured to detect movement at the mobile device;

a storage device accessible to the processor; and

an executable program in the storage device, wherein execution of the program by the processor configures the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to;

determine whether a detected movement corresponds to a predetermined help gesture;

identify a current context of the mobile device when the user input is determined to correspond to the predetermined help gesture;

obtain help content based on the current context of the mobile device; and

present the content to the user of the mobile device.

12. A mobile device, comprising:

a communication interface configured to enable communication via a mobile network;

a processor coupled with the communication interface;

a sensor accessible to the processor and configured to detect movement at the mobile device;

a storage device accessible to the processor; and

an executable program in the storage device, wherein execution of the program by the processor configures the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to;

determine whether a detected movement corresponds to a predetermined search gesture;

identify a current context of the mobile device when the user input is determined to correspond to the predetermined search gesture;

obtain a response to the search query that includes search results; and

present one or more of the search results to the user of the mobile device.

13. A mobile device, comprising:

a communication interface configured to enable communication via a mobile network;

a processor coupled with the communication interface;

a sensor accessible to the processor and configured to detect movement at the mobile device;

a storage device accessible to the processor; and

an executable program in the storage device, wherein execution of the program by the processor configures the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to;

determine whether a detected movement corresponds to a predetermined gesture;

identify a current context of the mobile device when the user input is determined to correspond to a predetermined gesture, wherein the current context of the mobile device includes an indicator of an application program displayed on the mobile device when the movement was detected;

determine whether the current context of the mobile device indicates that there is an issue requiring help;

if it is determined that the current context of the mobile device indicates that there is an issue requiring help, obtain help content based on the current context of the mobile device; and

present the content to the user of the mobile device.