Activating applications based on accelerometer data

• US 9,201,841 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2014
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Rubin, Andrew E., Conway, David P.
• Primary Examiner(s): BUTLER, DENNIS
• Application Number:
  US14/536,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20150066823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 386 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6898 Portable consumer electronic devices, e.g. music players, telephones, tablet computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/12 executed aboard the object being navigated; Dead reckoning
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• 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 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72451 according to schedules, e.g. using calendar applications
• 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 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information

Abstract

In some implementations, a computer-implemented method includes storing a plurality of acceleration profiles in a mobile device; receiving accelerometer data from an accelerometer in the mobile device; correlating the accelerometer data with one accelerometer profile in the plurality of accelerometer profiles; and activating a user application of the mobile device that is associated with the correlated accelerometer profile. Each acceleration profile can correspond to a sequence of acceleration forces a mobile device would be subjected to when carried with a user during an activity that corresponds to the correlated acceleration profile.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing, by a computing system, a plurality of acceleration profiles, wherein each acceleration profile from the plurality of acceleration profiles is associated with;

(i) a respective sequence of acceleration forces to which an accelerometer in the computing system would be subject during a respective activity,

(ii) a respective time or a respective geographical location, and

(iii) a respective application program;

receiving, by the computing system after the computing system has stored the plurality of acceleration profiles, acceleration data from the accelerometer in the computing system;

determining, by the computing system, responsive to the computing system identifying a current time or a current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received, a particular application program to activate, based on the particular application program being associated with a particular acceleration profile from the plurality of acceleration profiles; and

activating, by the computing system, the particular application program responsive to the computing system having determined that the particular application program should be activated.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the particular acceleration profile is associated with:

(i) a particular sequence of acceleration forces that the computing system has identified as correlating to the received acceleration data, and

(ii) a particular time that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current time, or a particular geographical location that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current geographical location.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

identifying the current time or the current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received includes identifying the current time; and

determining the particular application program to activate is based on the particular acceleration profile being associated with the particular time that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current time.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

identifying the current time or the current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received includes identifying the current geographical location; and

determining the particular application program to activate is based on the particular acceleration profile being associated with the particular geographical location that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current geographical location.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein:

identifying the current time or the current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received includes identifying the current time and the current geographical location; and

determining the particular application program to activate is based on the particular acceleration profile being associated with (i) the particular time that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current time, and (ii) the particular geographical location that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current geographical location.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising generating the particular acceleration profile as a result of the computing system receiving user input to launch the particular application while (i) receiving the particular sequence of acceleration forces, and (ii) the device has the particular time or is at the particular geographical location.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising adaptively refining the particular acceleration profile based on a second sequence of acceleration forces, as a result of receiving second user input to launch the particular application while receiving the second sequence of acceleration forces.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein activating the particular application program includes automatically launching the particular application program as a background application program.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

an application program to which a second acceleration profile in the plurality of acceleration profiles is associated is a second application program that is different than the particular application program; and

a time or a geographical location to which the second acceleration profile is associated is a second time that is different than the particular time or is a second geographical location that is different than the particular geographical location.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable device including instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations that comprise:

storing, by a computing system, a plurality of acceleration profiles, wherein each acceleration profile from the plurality of acceleration profiles is associated with;

(i) a respective sequence of acceleration forces to which an accelerometer in the computing system would be subject during a respective activity,

(ii) a respective time or a respective geographical location, and

(iii) a respective application program;

receiving, by the computing system after the computing system has stored the plurality of acceleration profiles, acceleration data from the accelerometer in the computing system;

determining, by the computing system, responsive to the computing system identifying a current time or a current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received, a particular application program to activate, based on the particular application program being associated with a particular acceleration profile from the plurality of acceleration profiles; and

activating, by the computing system, the particular application program responsive to the computing system having determined that the particular application program should be activated.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 10, wherein the particular acceleration profile is associated with:

(i) a particular sequence of acceleration forces that the computing system has identified as correlating to the received acceleration data, and

(ii) a particular time that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current time, or a particular geographical location that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current geographical location.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 11, wherein:

identifying the current time or the current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received includes identifying the current time; and

determining the particular application program to activate is based on the particular acceleration profile being associated with the particular time that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current time.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 11, wherein:

identifying the current time or the current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received includes identifying the current geographical location; and

determining the particular application program to activate is based on the particular acceleration profile being associated with the particular geographical location that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current geographical location.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 11, wherein:

identifying the current time or the current geographical location at which the acceleration data was received includes identifying the current time and the current geographical location; and

determining the particular application program to activate is based on the particular acceleration profile being associated with (i) the particular time that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current time, and (ii) the particular geographical location that the computing system has identified as correlating to the current geographical location.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise generating the particular acceleration profile as a result of the computing system receiving user input to launch the particular application while (i) receiving the particular sequence of acceleration forces, and (ii) the device has the particular time or is at the particular geographical location.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise adaptively refining the particular acceleration profile based on a second sequence of acceleration forces, as a result of receiving second user input to launch the particular application while receiving the second sequence of acceleration forces.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 10, wherein activating the particular application program includes automatically launching the particular application program as a background application program.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable device of claim 10, wherein:

an application program to which a second acceleration profile in the plurality of acceleration profiles is associated is a second application program that is different than the particular application program; and

a time or a geographical location to which the second acceleration profile is associated is a second time that is different than the particular time or is a second geographical location that is different than the particular geographical location.