Title: Movement and attitude controlled mobile station control
Abstract: A mobile station embodiment (400) is provided with a reflection detector (401) which may provide supplemental inputs along with keys (402) such that a character encoding, such as, e.g. ASCII, is selected on the basis of the reflection detector (401) alone, or in combination with keys (402) either pushed down or released. A movable target or pendulum (405) may provide an ability to sense the near space along a direction that the reflection detector is sensitive to. Signals may be transmitted from the reflection detector (401) and pass across a void or other great distance before being reflected, if at all. If such signals are reflected toward the reflection detector (401), and the signals have not been overly attenuated, the reflection detector (401) may provide a 'reflect' signal to any on-board processor of the mobile station (400). The pendulum (405) may be influenced by wind, gravity or acceleration (405) to operate as a reflector to cooperate with the reflection detector (401) and generate a 'reflect' signal.
Patent Number: 7,024,228 Issued on 04/04/2006 to Komsi, et al.
| Inventors:
|
Komsi; Asko (Cambridge, MA);
Rolnik; Robert C. (Southlake, TX)
|
| Assignee:
|
Nokia Corporation (Espoo, FI)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
834197 |
| Filed:
|
April 12, 2001 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
455/566; 455/418 |
| Current Intern'l Class: |
H04B 1/38 (20060101) |
| Field of Search: |
455/5501,556.1,556.2,575.1,418-419,567,566,569.1,569.2
|
References Cited [Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
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| 5307055 | Apr., 1994 | Baskin et al.
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| 5758267 | May., 1998 | Pinder et al.
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| 5802506 | Sep., 1998 | Hutchison.
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| 5846086 | Dec., 1998 | Bizzi et al.
| |
| 6067046 | May., 2000 | Nichols.
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| 6067460 | May., 2000 | Alanara et al.
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| 6195559 | Feb., 2001 | Rapeli et al.
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| 6311078 | Oct., 2001 | Hardouin.
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| 6353814 | Mar., 2002 | Weng.
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| 6411828 | Jun., 2002 | Lands et al.
| |
| 6442404 | Aug., 2002 | Sakajiri.
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| 6487421 | Nov., 2002 | Hess et al.
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| 6529144 | Mar., 2003 | Nilsen et al.
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| 6560467 | May., 2003 | Kim.
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| 6577849 | Jun., 2003 | Eaton et al.
| |
| 6603420 | Aug., 2003 | Lu.
| |
| 6681120 | Jan., 2004 | Kim.
| |
| 2001/0014616 | Aug., 2001 | Matsuda et al.
| |
Other References
Harrison, Beverly L. et al.; "Squeeze Me, Hold Me, Tilt Me! An Exploration of
Manipulative User Interfaces"; CHI '98; Apr. 18-23, 1998; pp. 17-24; CHI 98 Los
Angeles, CA, USA.
Bartlett, Joel F.; "Rock 'n' Scroll Is Here to Stay"; Information Appliances;
May/Jun. 2000; pp. 4045; 0272-1716/2000 IEEE.
Verplaetse, C.; "Inertial Proprioceptive Devices: Self-Montion-Sending Toys and
Tools"; IBM Systems Journal, vol. 35, Nos. 3&4, 1996; pp. 639-650; 0018-8670/96.
|
Primary Examiner: Nguyen; Lee
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Harrington & Smith, LLP
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A user status device for a mobile station having at least one wireless transceiver comprising:
a proprioceptive sensor having a state; and
at least one mobile station conduit coupled to the proprioceptive sensor for
carrying a signal of the proprioceptive sensor to the mobile station, further comprising
a processor for converting a keypad event to a character encoding selected from
a set of character encodings based on the orientation state.
2. The user status device of claim 1 wherein the processor comprises a mobile
station coupled to the mobile station conduit.
3. The user status device of claim 1 wherein the proprioceptive sensor further comprising:
a reflection detector.
4. The user status device of claim 3 wherein the orientation state comprises:
a reflect state wherein said reflection detector detects a reflection signal
above a magnitude.
5. The user status device of claim 3 wherein the orientation state comprises
a neutral state wherein said reflection detector detects a reflection signal below
a magnitude.
6. The user status device of claim 3 wherein the reflection detector further comprises:
a directional transmitter transmitting a signal in at least one direction;
a directional receiver sensitive to the signal in the at least one direction; and
a pendulum attached to the mobile station near the directional receiver.
7. The user status device of claim 1 wherein the proprioceptive sensor comprises
an inclinometer having a state selectable from at least two orientation states.
8. The user status device of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises:
means for detecting a first keypad event and a first orientation state; and
means for selecting a character encoding based on the first keypad event and
first orientation state.
9. The user status device of claim 8, wherein the means for detecting comprises
a means for detecting a key-up event and a key-down event for a key of the mobile station.
10. The user status device of claim 1, wherein the processor comprises:
means for detecting at least one keypad event selected from at least two keypad
events; and
means for selecting a character encoding based on the at least one keypad event
and the state.
11. A user status device for a mobile station having at least one wireless transceiver comprising:
a proprioceptive sensor having a state; and
at least one mobile station conduit coupled to the proprioceptive sensor for
carrying a signal of the proprioceptive sensor to the mobile station, wherein the
mobile station has a processor and a local storage and a keypad having at least
one key, the user status device comprising:
means for converting a keypad event to a character encoding selected from a set
of character encodings based on an orientation state.
12. A method to control an entity in a mobile station having at least one wireless
transceiver, the entity being responsive to a plurality of commands for eliciting
a plurality of entity functions, comprising:
detecting an acceleration vector of a proprioceptive sensor; and
transmitting a message through the at least one wireless transceiver based on
the acceleration vector, the message comprising at least one instruction that governs
behavior of the entity wherein the message is used to control movement of an entity
in another device.
13. A method to propagate a mobile entity from a first wireless device to a second
device, comprising:
detecting an orientation of the first wireless device from an output of a proprioceptive sensor;
based on the detected orientation, changing a display of at least a location
of the mobile entity on a display device of the first wireless device;
if the changed display of at least the location of the mobile entity meets a
criterion, transmitting a description of the mobile entity from the first wireless
device to the second device, and
storing the description in a memory of the second device and displaying the mobile
entity on a display of the second device.
14. The method of claim 13, further comprising deleting the description of the
mobile entity from a memory of the first wireless device.
15. A method to send a mobile entity from a first wireless device to a second
device, comprising:
detecting a change in an orientation of the first wireless device from an output
of a proprioceptive sensor; and
based on the detected change in orientation, transmitting a description of the
mobile entity from the first wireless device to the second device; and
determining whether to accept or refuse the transmitted description based on
an orientation of the second device as detected from an output of a proprioceptive
sensor of the second device.
16. A wireless device comprising a wireless transceiver, a visual display, a
memory, a proprioceptive sensor and a data processor operating under control of
a stored program having program instructions to propagate a mobile entity from
the wireless device to another device, comprising first program instructions to
detect an orientation of the wireless device from an output of the proprioceptive
sensor; based on the detected orientation, second program instructions to change
a display of at least a location of the mobile entity on the visual display; third
program instructions, responsive to changed display of at least the location of
the mobile entity meeting a criterion, to transmit a description of the mobile
entity via the wireless transceiver to the another device for storage of the description
and display of the mobile entity on a display of the another device.
17. The wireless device of claim 16, further comprising additional program instructions
to delete the description of the mobile entity from the memory of the wireless device.
18. A wireless device comprising a wireless transceiver, a proprioceptive sensor
and a data processor operating under control of a stored program having program
instructions to send a mobile entity from the wireless device to another device,
comprising first program instructions to detect a change in an orientation of the
wireless device from an output of the proprioceptive sensor; and second program
instructions, responsive to the detected change in orientation, to transmit a description
of the mobile entity via the wireless transceiver to the another device and further
comprising additional program instructions to determine whether to accept or refuse
a received description of a mobile entity based on an orientation of the wireless
device as detected from the output of the proprioceptive sensor.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a means for influencing a processor operation based
on the present orientation, rotation, acceleration or other environmental factors
of a input device, and more particularly to a user interface used to respond, forward,
and dispatch messages, including those having program instructions, as well as
respond, route and prioritize multimedia streams prepared for transmission over
a wireless network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Desktop computers, as popularized by the Personal Computer (PC) of the 1980s,
depended heavily on keyboards for data input and control. Additional flexibility
occurred shortly afterward by the use of mice and other pointing devices. The keyboard
permitted rapid inputs—to the limits of expert touch typists, while mice
permitted rapid operation of ephemeral controls such as pull-down and pop-up menus.
Such input devices are so pervasive now, that after several generations, the keyboards
have been designed to unfold, and pointing devices have been reduced to miniature
joysticks positioned in the interstices between keys. This has led to miniaturization
of the user interface to snuggly fit under a display in most laptop computers.
Even PDA form-factors have been accommodated with keyboards that fold up in a manner
similar to accordions.
While computers have long been constructed for serious, deliberative work,
and occasionally games, the efforts by makers of mobile stations, particularly
mobile telephones, have provided devices that put a premium on compactness, and
secondarily addressed issues such as getting serious, non-voice work done. Consequently,
advances in user interface have concentrated on making the mobile station perform
voice functions ever-so-quickly and with minimal demands of attention from, e.g.
eyeballs. This push has led to innovations such as one-touch dialing, last (and
second-to-last, and third-to-last) number redial, and voice recognized dialing.
The mobile telephone is a mobile station having all mechanical parts and electrical
circuits necessary to make the digital entries, e.g. keypads, graffiti surfaces,
roller-keys, and display output, e.g. LCDs, lights or other visual stimuli. Such
mechanical parts and electrical circuits are not essential to the operation of
a mobile station operated for its central purpose of transmitting and receiving
voice frequencies.
Even further leading to the drive of making the ubiquitous mobile telephone
unobtrusive and invisible is a movement to make phone operation relatively hands-free,
such as, by addition of a handset or speaker phone that permits operation of the
phone while focussing eyes and hands on other activities.
Concurrent with a design evolution of ever-smaller mobile phones, has
been a improvement in various proprioceptive sensors or motion sensors—both
in size and in price. A proprioceptive sensor is a sensor that has the ability
to sense the position or orientation or movement of itself without the need to
sense pressure on a button or a connection with a contacting external conductor.
Proprioceptive sensors include inclinometers, accelerometers, gyroscopes and compasses
among others. Proprioceptive sensors do not include limit switches or other devices
that require contact with an external object for proper operation. Proprioceptive
sensors operate on a number of different principals that detect the force of gravity,
accelerations such as caused by vibration, centripetal forces among others. Some
devices may operate without reference to outside objects or entities. For example,
a gyroscope will typically indicate a change from a starting position, wherein
the starting position is arbitrary. On the other hand, inclinometers typically
are highly influenced by, and thus are referenced to the center of the earth's
gravitational pull, and thus tend to operate with reference to this well known location.
Motion sensing has been in use many years for such things as security systems,
weapon systems, spacecraft among others. Inertial sensors such as accelerometers
and gyroscopes have aided aircraft and submarines for decades now.
Externally referenced sensors include infrared reflection sensors, sometimes
called electronic eyes. Such a sensor detects position relative to another object.
In the case of the infrared reflection sensors, the device provides one signal
when there is a direct line of sight to a nearby reflector, and another signal
when there is no direct line of sight to a nearby reflector. In many cases, an
infrared reflection sensor is very cheap compared to more sophisticated proprioceptive
sensors, e.g. gyroscopes. Moreover, infrared is well understood in terms of sizing
and packaging, and easily incorporated into many devices, though for generally
higher value-added functions of communications.
The mobile phone type of mobile station has inherited the nearly universal 12-key
arrangement of its desktop predecessors, i.e. the digits 1 through 10 and the pound
'#' and star '*' keys. The relative shrinkage in the mobile phone form factor concurrently
has driven keytops to be reduced such that the surface area of all keys tends to
be smaller than the combined surface area of four keys of a typical QWERTY keypad.
The keypad's ergonomics have come under increasing scrutiny as a critical mass
of users of the Short Messaging Service available in Global Systems for Mobiles
(GSM) (and other systems) has been achieved. In other words, so many people have
access to a phone-as-messenger, that billions of brief text-based messages are
exchanged globally each month. The success of this mode of communication has even
surprised the architects of the GSM standard.
Heavy use of a keypad may be necessary when a mobile station supports forms
of internet browsing, such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and I-mode. One
response to heavy text input has been U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,437, "Reduced keyboard
disambiguating computer", which may be implemented in the popular T9™ user
interface. T9 requires a substantial memory space to be devoted to store at least
one language database. Nevertheless, the T9 interface rarely provides accurate
translation to intended words and names in situations where abbreviations, family
names, school names, website addresses, slang, street names or small company names
are being input.
Computer text handling involves processing and encoding. Consider, for example,
a word processor user typing text at a keyboard. The computer's system software
receives a message or signal that the user pressed a key combination for "T", which
it encodes, using a character encoding standard such as Unicode, as U+0054, a number.
The word processor stores the number in memory, and also passes it on to the display
software responsible for putting the character on the screen. The display software,
which may be a window manager or part of the word processor itself, uses the number
as an index to find an image of a "T", which it draws on the monitor screen. The
process continues as the user types in more characters.
It should be noted, that a character encoding is an abstract entity which may
correspond to a mark made on a display or paper, known as a glyph. Such a character
encoding may just as easily be used as a command to control, e.g. a game display.
A character encoding may correspond to glyphs such as letters in the Latin alphabet,
or to pictograms in a Chinese alphabet. A glyph may have different forms, such
as may be provided by a font. A glyph may be presented in a number of different
ways, controlled by application software. Such ways may include point size variations,
color variations and various ornamentation to a character, such as by way of underlining
or italicizing.
Just as keyboards may provide a control mechanism for generally desk-bound computer
games, a keypad of a mobile station may be relied upon to provide inputs for computer
mediated games, either built-in or accessed wirelessly. This may provoke wear on
the diminutive 12-key keypad, as well as occasional discomfort in a user's hands.
To extend the life of keypads, and diminish unsightly wear on the outer cover of
a mobile station, it would be helpful if a non-impact input method could be used
to produce or simulate game inputs, which may appear as code point entries or character encodings.
Complexity of a digital mobile phone has risen markedly in recent years.
The Nokia 6100 series of mobile phones, provided nine main menus of functionality.
Each menu averages about four submenus. Frequently a list of choices under the
submenu is provided. A manual to describe the features has over 70 pages. Even
more pages are in manuals of the new variants of the Nokia 6100 mobile phone which
provide a text message origination feature. Supplemental contextual help may be
displayed on the small screens of such mobile phones, but many features remain
inaccessible to people because the features are buried within an increasingly convoluted
menu tree. One way to alleviate such difficulties is to make common features a
one to three keystroke task. Examples include:
One-touch dialing, wherein a continuous press of a button causes a call
to be made to a preset number;
Keypad locking and unlocking, wherein two keystrokes enable and disable the feature;
Profile swapping, wherein a rapid press of a button associated with the power-on
function and a two-stroke menu selection choose the loudness and melody (among
other) of incoming calls.
Such features, using an economy of user inputs, are very easy to learn and tend
to be disseminated also by word of mouth. Unfortunately, a person's ability to
remember keystroke sequences is limited, and it is likely that for most people,
no more features can be remembered than are available in the current phone models
being made. Moreover, word-of-mouth training is best achieved where the control
mechanism is simple, particularly if it requires no knowledge of alphanumeric symbols.
In many western cultures amongst school aged children, there is a minority of
kids that get caught up in a trading culture or fad; e.g., trade in baseball cards,
Pokemon™, Magic: the Gathering. Such a culture of face-to-face discussion,
swapping, gaming based on portable trading elements has created a large following
of hobbyists. An electronic trading system that may be similar to such a trading
system is shown by U.S. Pat. NC13994, (Mobile entities) wherein electronic agents
having multimedia capabilities may be transmitted by, e.g. wireless modes, between
supporting hardware, e.g. mobile stations. It would be beneficial to overlay a
UI onto a mobile phone interface to facilitate such trade and interaction with
mobile entities or other forms of agents. Unfortunately, this creates yet another
menu branch in an already detailed menuing system—which amounts to clutter
to people not engaged in such a trading culture. Nevertheless, such Mobile entities,
which may be elaborate scripts, may be commanded to transmit themselves by short
wireless links to a nearby device. Triggering such a transfer also requires an
input method.
Incoming calls may occur at inopportune times. Examples include, during
a meal, while exercising or while traveling. Stories in the press describe situations
where people take calls in movie theaters, and even a case of a doctor taking a
call during surgery. Often, it would be helpful to inform a caller of the context
in which a call is received—or even to provide a uniformly simple and visible
way to silence operation of the ringer. Nevertheless, a principal way of dealing
with an inopportune call, for at least 20 years, is to permit a voice messaging
system to make a voice recording of the caller. An educated guess as to the condition
of the owner of a phone can be discerned if it is known what position a phone is
in or what sort of vibrations or other accelerations are acting on it, including
acceleration due to gravity. For example, a mobile station is frequently stored
in a fixed position in relation to a dashboard when a user of the mobile station
is driving. If a calling party were to know this, such a caller would be in a position
to be more conscientious concerning the duration and subject matter of their call.
Less time could be spent inquiring about the driver's current status and location,
and more conversation time could be spent discussing the matter at hand.
In addition, a universally understood act of politeness, visible at a distance,
would help assure people that in situations calling for respectful silence, the
phone will remain silent.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An embodiment of the invention may be a user status device in providing data
to
a processor for controlling a function. The user status device may have a proprioceptive
sensor having an orientation state. A conduit may connect the proprioceptive sensor
so that orientation state information controls a function.
A second embodiment of the invention may control an agent in a mobile station
having
at least one wireless transmitter. A step of the second embodiment may detect a
changed orientation of the mobile station. Another step of the second embodiment
may be a transmitting step, whereby a message option is transmitted through the
at least one wireless transmitter.
Yet another embodiment of the invention may send a feedback response to a calling
voice device. The invention may detect at least one acceleration during a time
interval. When the embodiment detects an incoming signal from the calling device,
the embodiment may select an announcement based on the at least one acceleration.
In addition the embodiment may transmit the announcement.
One or more of the embodiments may eliminate the need for multiple key-presses
to select a character encoding where several possible character encodings are assigned
to the same key. In addition an embodiment may accomplish this with fairly compact
databases that need not be language specific.
One or more of the embodiments may be amenable to text entry of acronyms, abbreviations
and slang in that single-stroke-per-character entries may be accomplished for such
words not commonly found in abridged dictionaries. Attendant with this benefit,
may be increased user satisfaction because firstly, each character encoding is
resolved and presented as a glyph at the conclusion of a keypad event, and secondly,
less abrasion and fatigue on fingertips will occur.
An embodiment may enable a user to hasten inputs to a mobile station, thus permitting
more rapid replies to queries that arrive by messaging or world wide web modes.
In cases where a person is waiting to receive text entered in this manner, a quicker
response may be perceived.
An embodiment may permit a user to rapidly, and without resort to a complex menu,
transmit machine instructions from a mobile station through a simple gesture that
may not include a keystroke. Similarly, a mobile station, to which such instructions
are directed, may be controlled by gestures that are not dependent on a menu system.
Such benefits, coupled with the highly visible gesture, may make such input and
control methods easily learned and accepted amongst illiterate and semi-literate people.
An embodiment may have an orientation state that is sensed in response to voice
or other calls. The orientation state may operate as a basis for selecting an announcement,
wherein the announcement may provide a calling party a context in which the called
party is taking the call. Benefits of this feedback system may include briefer
calls to people who are traveling in vehicles.
An embodiment of the invention may visibly display to others at a distance that
a mobile station has its ability to ring or alert disabled. Several benefits spring
from this. First, on being picked up or re-oriented, a mobile station may select
a different ring or alert to be enabled—largely transparent to the user.
Second, a gesture, of e.g. placing a mobile face-down may send a not-too-subtle
signal that all should do likewise—provided such a gesture is commonly known
to silence a mobile station.
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
a is a mobile station of the prior art;
FIG. 1
b is a block diagram of a mobile station with an embodiment of
the invention;
FIG. 1
c is a view of a mobile station connected to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 shows a pin-out of a connector that may be used to connect an embodiment
with a mobile station;
FIG. 3
a is a view of a reflection detector portion of an embodiment interacting
with an environment;
FIG. 3
b is another view of a reflection detector portion of an embodiment
interacting with an environment;
FIG. 4
a is a view of a front of a mobile station having a reflection
detector embodiment;
FIG. 4
b is a close-up view of a front and side of a mobile station having
a reflection detector embodiment operated under a first acceleration;
FIG. 4
c is another close-up view of a front and side of a mobile station
having a reflection detector embodiment operated under a second acceleration;
FIG. 5
a is a flow-chart of steps to select an announcement according
to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 5
b is a flow-chart of steps to select an announcement according
to another embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 5
c is a flow-chart of steps to select an announcement according
to yet another embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 6
a is a side view of a mobile station operating with acceleration
through the base of the mobile station;
FIG. 6
b is a side-view of a mobile station secured to a car-kit;
FIG. 6
c is a mobile station showing a space of possible acceleration
vectors; and
FIG. 7 is a mobile station having an embodiment of the invention communicating
with other devices.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1
a shows a mobile station
100 of the prior art. The mobile
station may have an antenna
101, a display
103 and a mobile station
interface
105. The mobile station shown may be a mobile telephone, however
it is appreciated that devices such as pagers may be mobile stations also. FIG.
1
b shows a block diagram of a mobile station with the parts that comprise
an embodiment of the invention. Mobile station may have a transceiver
151.
The transceiver may be a transmitter that transmits sound or electromagnetic signals.
The transceiver may include a receiver. Transceiver modulates data from a processor
153 onto a carrier for wireless transmission. The transceiver may receive
signals and provide a demodulated data stream to the processor
153. The
processor may provide data to and receive data from a physical port
155,
which may be a serial interface. The embodiment of the invention may have a mobile
station interconnect
161, which may couple a proprioceptive sensor
163
to the mobile station. The embodiment of the invention may be located within the
common enclosure of the mobile station, or be an external accessory, which may
be connected by wire. FIG. 1
c shows the situation where the embodiment may
be contained in a separate enclosure
171 and attach to a mobile station
170 through an external port of the mobile station. A connector
173
may attach by means known in the art the mobile station to the separate enclosure
171 housing the embodiment.
FIG. 2 shows a pin-out for an accessory cable that may be used with a popular
mobile station design for the Nokia™ 6100 series mobile phone. Serial interface
pins
201,
203 and
205 may be used to communicate with a mobile
station, through an available serial interface protocol, e.g. universal asynchronous
receiver-transmitter. Another embodiment may have the proprioceptive sensor internal
to the mobile station enclosure and use a data bus as an alternative to the serial
interface
151 and mobile station interconnect
161 combination. Outputs
of a proprioceptive sensor may be in analog waveforms that are later converted
to digital forms within the mobile station. A mobile station conduit of some kind
must extend from the proprioceptive sensor so that the changes in state or mode
of the proprioceptive sensor may be acted upon by an application. Such a mobile
station conduit may include conductive traces on circuit boards and pins on a connector,
e.g., mobile station interconnect
161. The mobile station conduit need not
be a contiguous conductor, since electrical fields may pass signals between at
least two conductive plates. Moreover, the mobile station conduit may pass signals
encoded in the visible and near-visible spectrum. The mobile station conduit may
be connectable to the transceiver of the mobile station, or the mobile station
conduit may be connectable to an intermediate device, e.g. a processor or CPU of
the mobile station, to filter or store signals carried by the mobile station conduit.
FIG. 3A shows a reflection detector
300 type of proprioceptive sensor.
The reflection detector may operate using electromagnetic signals and reflections
thereto. A suitable reflection detector may transmit and receive a sound for range-finding
purposes as is known in the art. Alternatively, such a device may be made using
a micro-impulse radar (MIR) as is known in the art. A cheap and reasonably accurate
reflection detector
300 may be made using a directional transmitter paired
with a directional receiver, such as an infrared transmitter
301 and an
infrared receiver
303. The directional transmitter may transmit in at least
one direction
350. The directional receiver may be sensitive to signals
in substantially the same at least one direction
350. Typically such a device
combination has an effective sensitivity for only a narrow beam in front of the
device, and then, only to a limited distance. Reflection sensitivity will vary
with a number of factors. Objects having high reflectivity in the spectrum being
detected will produce a positive detection at a greater distance and with a smaller
surface presented for reflection than an object that doesn't reflect well. Similarly,
an object that is roughly orthogonal to the transmitted signal, e.g. the finger
311 of FIG. 3A, will provide a better reflection, than a pencil
313
of FIG. 3B that is obliquely presented to the beam.
The reflection detector
300 does not necessarily detect the orientation
of the device to which it is attached, e.g. a mobile station. Rather, the reflection
detector
300 detects the relationship of the environment around the mobile
station, e.g. a combination of alignment, proximity, reflectivity, size and squareness
to the beam. Information from this data may be used to infer the orientation of
the mobile station. A reason for using a reflection detector
300 as a means
to detect positioning of a mobile station in relation to an object is that an infrared
transmitter may be built into many mobile stations currently in use. Converting
an infrared transmitter of a mobile station to a reflection detector has not been
shown until now.
One way to avoid spuriously detecting reflection, e.g. incandescent light bulbs
or sunlight, is to place a red filter over the infrared transmitter and receiver.
In addition, the transmitter may be modulated using pulse width modulation. A receiver
at the mobile station may reject all signals except those that match the modulation
of the transmitter. Triggering detection of a reflection signal may be accomplished
in two ways with a mobile station thus equipped. The first way is to re-orient
the mobile station to point the detector at a reflective object when it is desired
to detect a reflection. A second way is to move an object in front of the reflection
detector. Such a relative position of the environment to the reflection detector
is known as the reflect-mode, or simply 'reflect'. To end reflection, the mobile
station may be pointed to a void, or at objects that do not reflect substantially.
A mobile station embodiment that is in a position that fails to receive a sufficiently
strong reflected signal is said to be in a 'neutral', or natural mode. Whether
a reflected signal is sufficiently strong may be controlled by the inherent sensitivity
of a receiver in the reflection detector. Suffice it to say that if the signal
is below a magnitude the sensor provides a 'neutral' signal, and that above the
magnitude, the sensor provides a 'reflect' signal. Orientation events may be transitions
between the reflect-mode and the neutral-mode.
In a situation where the reflection detector is positioned on a long side of
an
oblong mobile station, the detector may detect reflection when the mobile station
rests on the long side. Similarly, if the mobile station is dropped into a shirt
pocket, the reflection detector may sense that as reflect mode. The states of 'neutral'
or 'reflect' may be inferred to be orientation states. This is distinct from the
notion of connectivity states, wherein a mobile station identifies a connection
based on current or shorted circuits across pins at a mobile phone connector, by
connecting a charger to a mobile station external connector or connecting to a
mobile station headset.
FIG. 4A shows a distant view of a reflection detector embodiment
400.
An area of detail
404 is circled. A reflection detector may be built into
a mobile station. The mobile station may have a CPU, a keypad and a display, wherein
the CPU mediates the operation of the reflection detector with the other components
of the mobile station. FIG. 4B shows a cut-away view of the area of detail including
an object with which the reflection detector
401 interacts. The mobile station
may have one or more buttons
402 located on a front side of the mobile station
410. The object may be a pendulum
403 suspended near the reflection
detector
401, wherein the pendulum
403 may be attached to the mobile
station
410. Such a pendulum
403 may swing in front of the transmitted
signal of the reflection detector transmitter such that the pendulum
403
may be detected by a strongly reflected signal. A tilt of a mobile station
410
may move the pendulum
403 out of the way so that there is no reflection
detected by the reflection detector
401. The pendulum may detect, in an
approximate way, an acceleration vector
405 that points to the back of the
mobile station. A reflected signal from the pendulum may be detected at the reflection
detector
401 as a reflect mode.
FIG. 4C shows the effects of tilting a mobile station such that the left side
of the mobile station hangs lower than the right side of the mobile station, or
where the effects of movement may pull the acceleration vector outward and away
from the mobile station body. Again, there is a pendulum
413 attached to
the mobile station
420. The reflection detector
411 may transmit
a beam away from the mobile station. The pendulum
413, acted on by gravity
and other accelerations, hangs or swings towards an acceleration vector
415.
Thus the reflection detector may detect an acceleration vector
415. Because
the pendulum
413 may be moved out of the way of a transmitted beam, or otherwise
is unable to reflect a sufficiently strong signal back to the reflection detector
411, the reflection detector may provide a neutral mode signal to any processor
to which it is operatively coupled. Thus it is seen that the reflection detector
may not necessarily detect strict orientation, but rather the reflection detector
detects changes in the environment in the vicinity of the beam cast by the reflection detector.
A keypad event may occur in several ways. A key may be pressed, and a circuit
closure
or other indicator of pressure may be detected, the so-called, key-down event.
This action is well known for devices having key-dome switches under a rubber or
plastic key. Less known is that a key-down may occur in a graphics tablet or other
pointing device where the location of a stylus is mapped to a key. A good example
of this would be where a personal digital assistant (PDA) has a hunt-and-peck keyboard
displayed to its pressure sensitive display screen. Therein, a key-down event occurs
when a stylus strikes a surface having the appropriate character symbol or function
name. A pressure sensitive display screen may be an input device for a mobile station.
Generally, any device capable of sensing pressure changes may be used in lieu of
a keyboard to detect key-down and key-up events. Thus applying sufficient pressure
on such a device provides a signal that operates as a key-down event. Conversely,
upon removing sufficient pressure, a key-up event is provided. For example, in
a PDA context, this may occur when a stylus is lifted.
A key-duration may be the time between a key-down event on a particular key,
and
a key-up event on that same key. A key-duration may be the time between a key-down-event
on a first key and a key-down event on a second key prior to a key-up event on
the first key.
A dwell period may be a preset duration wherein any key-duration longer than
the
dwell period is registered to be a hold-down event. The dwell period may be established
according to the preferences of the user. A hold-down event is also a keypad event.
Similarly, a key-punch may be an occurrence of a key-duration shorter than the
dwell period.
Selection of a character encoding or function associated with a key may
occur by a combination of at least one keypad event, and the mode of the reflection
sensor, which may be either neutral or reflect. A brief key-press or keypunch is
any key-press having a key-duration shorter than the dwell period. Because keypunches
may be easier and quicker to make than longer key-presses that are detected as
a hold-down event, a character assignment of frequently used characters to such
acts is preferred. Moreover, since it is believed that for most situations using
infrared sensors a mobile station will have predominantly voids around it, a neutral
mode will predominate and be easier to achieve than the reflect mode. A quadruplet
scheme of selecting one of four characters on a single keypress may include selecting
a first character on detecting a key-down event in neutral; selecting a second
character on detecting a key-down event in reflect; selecting a third character
on detecting a hold-down event in neutral and selecting a fourth character on detecting
a hold-down event in reflect.
| TABLE 1 |
|
| |
Keypunch |
Keypunch |
Hold-down |
Hold-down |
| I |
neutral |
reflect |
neutral |
reflect |
|
| II |
I |
M |
1 |
G |
| III |
A |
B |
2 |
Q |
| IV |
E |
F |
3 |
X |
| V |
H |
L |
4 |
J |
| VI |
U |
W |
5 |
Z |
| VII |
N |
C |
6 |
K |
| VIII |
S |
P |
7 |
′ |
| IX |
T |
R |
8 |
, |
| X |
D |
V |
9 |
Y |
| XI |
Space |
O |
0 |
. |
| XII |
Key-down; |
Key-down; in- |
Key-down; in- |
In-event; key- |
| |
key- |
event; key-up |
event; out- |
down; key-up |
| |
up |
|
event; key-up |
|
Table 1 shows a mapping of keys that could be used with the four keypress-combined-with-reflection
events in row I. This scheme of selecting characters is known as the key-duration
method, wherein the duration of the key-press influences the character encoding selected.
An alternative scheme of selecting character encodings is known as the event
sequence
method. For example, row XII shows keypad events using combinations without reference
to dwell periods. An in-event may be the act of putting a reflector in the detection
zone, i.e. making a transition from neutral mode to reflect mode. An out-event
may be the act of removing a reflector from the detection zone, i.e. making a transition
from reflect mode to neutral mode. Row XII in table 1 shows events that may each
comprise key-down and key-up events, wherein the occurrence of the key-up triggers
a character selection based on the previous at least one keypad event or orientation event.
As an example, if a key having the identity shown in row II is pressed, e.g.
by
a keypunch, the orientation of the mobile station may influence the selection of
the character encoding that the CPU will assign to the event. In this situation,
the selection of the letter 'I' or the letter 'M' is based on the orientation state
of either 'neutral' or 'reflect' as is detected from the reflection detector. For
example in the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), such
letters have character encodings of 73 and 77 respectively. A CPU may, if it operates
using ASCII encodings, select from the set of character encodings, 73 and 77, the
one character encoding based on the orientation state. A set of character encodings
may be more than two character encodings in a situation where a proprioceptive
sensor has more states or modes that it can detect. A tilt sensor may be able to
detect a tilt in a negative direction to the horizon, or a positive tilt to the
horizon. In addition a tilt sensor may be able to detect the substantial absence
of tilt. Thus a spectrum of tilt could be broken up into several ranges, each assigned
to a character encoding from among several character encodings in a set of character
encodings. Thus upon detecting a keypad event, an orientation state such as tilt
could be what a CPU bases selection of characters upon.
Both the quadruplet scheme, and the event sequence scheme are methods that convert
an ordinary keypad event to a character encoding based on the orientation or other
state of the proprioceptive sensor. The proprioceptive sensor may be installed
as a peripheral device to a mobile station and enclosed in a separate peripheral
enclosure, yet coupled by a connector to the mobile station. The peripheral enclosure
may include a lookup table that is indexed by bits of a digitized key signal arriving
from the mobile station, and with at least one additional bit established by the
state of the proprioceptive sensor. The resultant data looked-up may be transmitted
back to the mobile station from the peripheral enclosure using interface methods
known in the art. In such a configuration, the proprioceptive sensor, and attendant
look-up table are a kind of filter for converting a limited set of digitized signals
to a richer set of digitized signals that span a greater number of character encodings.
A mobile agent is a program that operates on a mobile station and provides a
number
of functions, including for entertainment. Because a principal function of mobile
entities is to entertain, a mobile entity may use several outputs of a mobile station,
or other device. Singing or talking output may make use of a speaker. Animation
may make use of a display output and any associated lights. In addition a mobile
entity may trigger vibration functions or the transmission of data through a wireless port.
Mobile entity commands may be detected by a mobile station by sampling the
outputs of a proprioceptive sensor over time and matching the waveforms of, e.g.
tilt in a first direction and in a second direction, against various profiles or
filters. A proprioceptive sensor, such as an inclinometer may detect more dynamic
movements of the mobile station. For example, swinging of the device will provide
a fairly low frequency oscillation in an acceleration vector detected by an inclinometer.
Shaking the device will generate a higher frequency oscillation, to the acceleration
vector, perhaps with a greater magnitude. An inclinometer located away from a mobile
station's center of gravity may detect a spinning motion as a large amplitude acceleration
vector pointing down and away from the axis of rotation which may gradually settle
into a straight down acceleration vector. The changes in the acceleration over
a input sampling period, such as, for example a few seconds, may be used to select
a function in a mobile entity, which may be perceived as a behavior of an animation
on a display and any associated output of the mobile station.
Such inputs delivered through the proprioceptive sensor may elicit a functionality
only available in mobile stations, which is the ability to transmit a message through
a wireless port. In some cases, the message may be a set of instructions. The transmitted
instructions may be a copy of any instructions that govern the behavior of the
mobile entity on the mobile station. Transmitting such instructions is known as
propagating the mobile entity. This is true even if no device is able to receive
and store these instructions.
Moreover, a mobile device that is capable of receiving such instructions
may be commanded to do so by input detected through the proprioceptive sensor.
The instructions may be evaluated and moved to different parts of memory also based
on inputs of the proprioceptive sensor. In addition, the instructions may be discarded
based on an input of the proprioceptive sensor. In short each of the mobile entity
commands may control the reception, operation, and removal of mobile entity instructions.
The foregoing mobile entity commands are by no means a complete catalog of all
distinguishable movements of a mobile station that may be detected through a proprioceptive
sensor. Such movements may be an intricate choreography of gestures which may occur
over an extended period of time. A string of movements could be a word, wherein
the simplest movement distinguishable by a CPU of a mobile station is called a
gesture. Upon detecting a completed gesture, a sound or other output may be issued
through the mobile station speaker. Other outputs, such as light or vibration may
signal as feedback the detection of a complete gesture. Such a feedback may be
uniquely paired or associated with the gesture detected.
For example, a musical note of 'C' may be played via a mobile station speaker
if the mobile station senses a swinging gesture. In the same example, a musical
note of 'A' may be played if the mobile station when the mobile station senses
a shaking gesture. In the example the note of 'C' is played for no other gesture,
and the musical note of 'A' is played for no other gesture.
A specialized program operating under the programmed control of a mobile station
having a CPU coupled to a proprioceptive sensor may issue a feedback response to
a calling voice device. As an example, an inclinometer may be the proprioceptive
sensor. Such a feedback response may be an out going message, however the feedback
response may be something involving transfer of less data traffic, e.g. ringing
tones audible in the earpiece or speaker of the calling device.
FIG. 5
a shows some steps that may be performed by a mobile station receiving
an incoming wireless signal, such as a call request. A call request may be a preliminary
data message to a mobile station, which may include a page. The call request may
be a voice call request. The first step may be to receive a voice call request
501. The mobile station may respond with an alert
503, wherein an
audible sound may be made at the mobile station, through, e.g. a speaker. The CPU
may sense the orientation of the mobile station to detect an orientation state
507. The orientation may be sensed several times to detect the presence
of acceleration or changes in acceleration.
For example the vector of acceleration shown by an inclinometer may change over
a few seconds to reflect activities such as walking. Moreover, by extracting a
predominant frequency of any oscillation in the vector a change in acceleration
or orientation may be mapped to an activity. A simple waveform fitting a sampling
of data may be a substantially unchanging, and steady acceleration through the
front face of the mobile station. If the sampling of a proprioceptive sensor such
as an inclinometer is within a tolerance of the same vector, then a selection of
an announcement, which may be an out going message (OGM)
509, may be made
on that basis. This functionality works best under the assumption that the user
of the called mobile station oriented the mobile station in a deliberate manner
to convey the situation the owner is in. In order to permit a user to re-orient
a mobile station following an alert
503 to clarify the situation, the mobile
station may be set to pause
505 for a predetermined period, thus providing
time to grasp the mobile station and signal the new situation of the user by adjusting
its position. Some situations that correspond to a position or orientation of the
mobile station are enumerated in table 2. In table 2, the announcement listed alongside
each position is a message that may be stored in the mobile station, or in a relay
device. Selection of the message
509 may be by simply selecting an index
to the message. The index of the announcement may correspond to the content of
the message. The index of the announcement may correspond to the mode of delivery
of the message, e.g. the mode may be a voice message (e.g. OGM), a text message
(e.g. a page), or a culturally accepted feedback such as, e.g. a tone, vibration
or lighting effect of the calling device. If the calling device is a mobile station,
then there may be more available modes to select from to provide feedback. The
culturally accepted feedback may be encoded on a few bits of data that the calling
device is able to interpret as distinct from an inbound call. The index of the
message, e.g. OGM selection, may be transmitted
511 using a few bits modulated
on a wireless carrier as is known in the art. The relay device may select a larger
piece of multimedia feedback data for transport over a voice channel to the calling
device. If the calling device is a mobile station a wireless signaling channel
may be used to carry the mode or content to the calling mobile station. The relay
device may be a cellular base station, or a telephony switch.
FIG. 5
b shows an alternative method of selecting an announcement that
includes detecting an orientation state in advance
521, which may be accompanied
by storing that orientation state in memory, such as a historical queue. An incoming
signal, such as an incoming call
523 may initiate a process, which includes
making an alert
525. A CPU of the mobile station may select the announcement
527, which may be an OGM. The CPU of the mobile station may command the
transceiver to send out the announcement selection
529.
Announcements associated with a mobile station position or orientation
are shown in Table 2. An announcement message, coupled to mobile station positions
may become customarily standardized to establish better etiquette in the use of
mobile stations. Moreover, such minor ceremonies are much more obvious than button
pressing and may be a better way to communicate to others that are in sight of
the mobile station user, of the user's intentions relating to incoming calls. Such
announcements may be mere index numbers. Such announcements may be outgoing messages
or multimedia streams.
| |
TABLE 2 |
| |
|
| |
index |
Position |
Message |
| |
|
| |
1 |
Facing down: |
Phone owner is eating or sleeping |
| |
2 |
On left side: |
Phone owner is engaged in water sports |
| |
3 |
On right side: |
Phone owner is travelling or in meetings |
| |
|
FIG. 5
b shows a procedure that may be used for purposes of signaling
to a calling party the current or recent operation of a vehicle. The step of detecting
an orientation state
551 may be a continuous sampling of an inclinometer
or other proprioceptive device to detect oscillations
552, e.g. 0 to 20
Hz frequency domain, of a magnitude and frequency associated with a moving vehicle.
Marking a bit in the historical queue
554, a sufficient sampling window
to sample the occurrence of the vehicle moving between stops may be necessary.
In addition, once sampled data that is too old is discarded, a sequence of bits
