Terminal control method, terminal apparatus and program

• US 7,574,270 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2006
• Issued: 08/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Imai, Atsushi, Takahashi, Hidehiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Hartman, Jr.; Ronald D
• Application Number:
  US11/458,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,118 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412.1, 455/414.2, 455/456.3, 455/550.1, 379/201.05, 379/207.02, 379/207.03, 379/207.12, 379/207.16, 700/19
• US Class Current: 700/19
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/14 including a card reading device

Abstract

A terminal control method includes device processing executed by using a device that a terminal includes, an application program installed on the terminal, a service definition file for storing user setting required when the application program is executed and a broker for judging the device processing, judging whether or not an item corresponding to user setting condition defined by the service definition file is executed by the device processing and executing processing defined to the application program if the corresponding item is executed by the device processing.

Claims

1. A terminal control method comprising:

executing, at a device function unit, processing of a plurality of device applications, each device application corresponds to a separate function of the terminal and is configured to have its present condition transmitted to a control unit of the terminal;

transmitting to the control unit a present condition of at least one of the plurality of device applications;

storing at least one application program in an application program storage unit which is located separately from the control unit and the device function unit, said control unit being configured to communicate with both the device function unit and the application program storage unit;

storing a user setting for the at least one application program in a service definition file, the user setting indicating a condition in one of the device applications for which the application program is to be executed;

receiving at the control unit the present condition of the at least one of the plurality of device applications;

judging whether or not the received present condition of the at least one of the plurality of device applications corresponds to the condition indicated by the user setting; and

executing defined processing of the at least one application program if said received present condition corresponds to the condition indicated by the user setting.

2. A terminal control method according to claim 1, wherein said service definition file transmits serialized data to said at least one application program so that said control unit can judge said service definition file.

3. A terminal control method according to claim 1, wherein data from respective device applications is serialized so that said control unit can judge respective device processing.

4. A terminal control method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of device applications include a GPS device application, a timer application, and a contact-less IC card application.

5. A terminal control method according to claim 1, wherein the storing at least one application program includes storing a plurality of application programs and the storing a user setting includes storing a separate user setting for each of the plurality of application programs.

6. A terminal apparatus comprising:

a device function unit configured to execute processing of a plurality of device applications and transmit to a control unit of the terminal apparatus a present condition of at least one of the plurality of device applications, each device application corresponds to a separate function of the terminal apparatus and is configured to have its present condition transmitted to the control unit;

an application program storage unit for storing at least one application program which is located separately from the control unit and the device function unit, said control unit being configured to communicate with both the device function unit and the application program storage unit;

a service definition file storage unit for storing a user setting for the at least one application program, the user setting indicating a condition in one of the device applications for which the application program is to be executed; and

the control unit configured to receive the present condition of the at least one of the plurality of device applications from said device function unit, judge whether or not a received present condition of the at least one of the plurality of device applications corresponds to the condition indicated by the user setting, and execute defined processing of the at least one application program if said received present condition corresponds to the condition indicated by the user setting.

7. A computer readable storage medium encoded with computer executable instructions, which when executed by a terminal, cause the terminal to perform a method comprising:

executing, at a device function unit, processing of a plurality of device applications, each device application corresponds to a separate function of the terminal and is configured to have its present condition transmitted to a control unit of the terminal apparatus;

transmitting to the control unit a present condition of at least one of the plurality of device applications;

storing at least one application program in an application program storage unit which is located separately from the control unit and the device function unit, said control unit being configured to communicate with both the device function unit and the application program storage unit;

storing a user setting for the at least one application program in a service definition file, the user setting indicating a condition in one of the device applications for which the application program is to be executed;

receiving at the control unit the present condition of the at least one of the plurality of device applications;

judging whether or not the received present condition of the at least one of the plurality of device applications corresponds to the condition indicated by the user setting; and

executing defined processing of the at least one application program if said received present condition corresponds to the condition indicated by the user setting.