Patent Application
20140007019
The present application relates generally to user inputs and how to control functionality of a device. Certain disclosed aspects or embodiments relate to portable electronic devices which may be hand-held in use.
Electronic devices, such as home computers, mobile telephones and tablet computers, may be used for many purposes via different user applications. For example, a user of a mobile telephone may use an in-built camera of the mobile telephone to take photos or movies using a camera application. The user may send and receive different types of message (such as SMS, MMS and e-mail) using the mobile telephone and messaging applications. The user may also use the mobile telephone to play games via gaming applications, and view and update social networking profiles using one or more social networking applications. Many other tasks may be performed using the mobile telephone and appropriate user applications and the user may be enabled to influence the way the user applications perform the tasks.
When the user creates content, such as by taking a new photo or composing a new e-mail, the time and date when the content was created may be stored. Storing the time and date may be optional and the user may determine, using input means, if the date and time is to be stored, and if so, in which format. For example, the user may determine that if the user takes a photo with a digital camera, the photo may be stored alongside the time and date when the photo was taken. As another example, if a user replies to an e-mail then the time and date when the reply was transmitted may be included with the reply, so that, for example, the sender and recipient of the e-mail have a record of when the message was transmitted. The user may determine this and use input means to select this to happen.
Various aspects of examples of the invention are set out in the claims.
For a more complete understanding of example embodiments of the present invention, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:
a to 3d form an illustration of an example embodiment involving a camera component;
a an 4b form an illustration of an example embodiment involving an antenna;
a to 5c form an illustration of an example embodiment involving a memory card slot;
a to 6c form an illustration of an example embodiment involving a headset;
a to 7d form an illustration of an example embodiment involving at least one SIM card slot and
Example aspects/embodiment of the present invention and its potential advantages are understood by referring to
The input 130 enables the apparatus 100 to receive signaling from further components while the output 140 enables onward provision of signaling from the apparatus 100 to further components. The processor 110 may be a general purpose processor dedicated to execution and/or processing information. Information may be received via the input 130. The execution or processing of information is done in accordance with instructions stored as a computer program code in the memory 120. The operations performed by the processor 110 produce the signaling that may be provided onward to further components via the output 140. The memory 120 is a computer-readable medium that stores computer program code. The memory may comprise one more memory units. The computer-readable medium may be for example, but not limited to, a solid state memory, a hard drive, ROM, RAM or Flash. The computer program code comprises instructions that are executable by the processor 110, when the program code is run on the processor 110. The memory 120 and the processor 110 are connected such that an active coupling between the processor 110 and memory 120 allows the processor to access the computer program code stored on the memory 120. The processor 110, memory 120, input 130 and output 140 may be electrically connected internally to allow the components to communicate with each other. The components may be integrated to a single chip or circuit for installation in an electronic device. In other embodiments one or more or all of the components may be located separately, for example, throughout a portable electronic device, such as device 200 shown in
One or more examples of apparatus 100 may be used as a component for a device as in
The example device 200 depicted in
The memory 220 may comprise computer program code in the same way as the memory 120 of the apparatus 100. In addition, the memory 220 may also comprise other data. The memory 220 may be an internal built-in component of the device 200 or it may be an external, removable memory such as a USB memory stick, a memory card or CD/DVD ROM for example. The memory 220 is connected to the processor 210 and the processor may store data for later use to the memory 220.
The user interface 230 may include one or more components for receiving user input, for example, a keypad, a touch display, a microphone and a physical button. The user interface 230 may also comprise a proximity sensing feature that enables the device to detect hover gestures made by a user using his thumb, finger, palm, or other object, over a proximity-sensitive region of the device 200. The proximity-sensitive region may be located at a certain part of the device 200 or it may extend such that hover gestures may be detected proximate to any part of the device 200. The proximity sensing feature may be provided by capacitive sensing technology, for example, or by any other suitable method. The user interface may also include one or more components for providing output to the user. Such components may include for example a display, which may be for example a touch display, an LCD display, an eInk display or a 3D display, components for providing haptic feedback, a headset and loud speakers. It should be noted that the components for receiving user input and the components for providing output to the user may be components integrated to the device 200 or they may be components that are removable from the device 200.
The communication unit 240 may comprise for example a receiver, a transmitter and/or a transceiver. The communication unit 240 may be in contact with an antenna and thus enable connecting to a wireless network and/or a port for accepting a connection to a network such that data may be received or sent via one or more types of networks. The types of network may include for example a cellular network, a Wireless Local Area Network, Bluetooth or the like. The communication unit 240 may also comprise a module enabling the device 200 to connect to a wired network such as a Local Area Network, LAN, for example.
A device offering a user a possibility to interact with and control functionality of its components enables the user to choose suitable settings for the functionality of the components. A component of the device may be a physical part of the device that performs certain functionality. The component may be removable or it may be integrated into the device. Examples of such components are a camera, a removable memory unit, a keyboard, a display, a headset or an antenna. As a component of the device performs certain functionality, there may be one or more settings that characterize that functionality. A setting may be a predefined value that has been selected to characterize one or more aspects of the functionality of the component. The selection of a predefined value may be done automatically or by the user. Settings may characterize, for example, how the layout of a virtual keyboard looks, how loudly the device plays audio files, what the quality of the pictures taken with the camera of the device is, etc. In other words, the settings offer a user a way to control the functionality of one or more components of the device. Using existing technologies, in order to adjust the settings the user usually first has to navigate on the user interface of the device to reach a view in which the user is enabled to view and change current settings. In order to change a setting, the user may typically select one of a set of predefined values for the setting.
When the user decides to influence the functionality of at least one component of the device, the user might not know how to access the particular setting, or settings, characterizing the functionality. For example, if a user wishes to change settings that characterize the functionality of a camera, the camera being a component included in the device, the user might not know if he should open a certain application (such as the camera application, which is an application associated with the camera component) available on the device or if there is an application for settings in general, such as a general settings application, available on the device from which the user could access the settings characterizing the functionality of the camera. In an example of an existing device, it might be that the settings of the camera are to be accessed via the general settings application, but settings relating to functionality of a SIM card included in the device are not, for example, which could cause confusion to the user: if the device contains several components and the functionality of those components can be controlled by adjusting settings, it would be tedious for the user to memorize how to access settings relating to the functionality of each component. It might also be that the user does not know how to access the general settings application. There might be an icon for the general settings application visible in some view of the device. Yet, if the settings relating to functionality of the camera are found from an application associated with the camera instead of the general settings application, it might not be obvious to the user that the settings relating to the functionality of the camera are accessed from the application associated with the camera. Further, it could be that the application associated with the camera contains a menu dialog in which the settings relating to functionality of the camera are listed as selectable objects from which the user may then select suitable ones.
In another example, the viewfinder of the camera may contain an icon representing the settings relating to the functionality of the camera and these settings can be accessed by selecting the icon. As there can be various ways to interact with a component included in a device, from the user's point of view, it would be desirable to be able to interact with each component in a consistent, intuitive way.
One way to offer the user a more intuitive way to interact with the device, such that the user is enabled to easily access settings relating to functionalities of components, is to have a new approach toward accessing the settings. In example embodiments the invention provides such new approaches. In one example embodiment of the invention, if there is an icon for the settings application visible in an application view of the device, then the combination of the icon becoming selected and detecting an input at a location of a component would enable a user to interact with the component and thus access the settings relating to functionality of the component. Accessing the settings may provide the user a possibility to view the settings relating to the functionality of the component and, if the user desires, change them. That is, the user may be enabled to interact with the component. In one example, the user provides a user input by touching the settings icon displayed on a touch display of the device, which causes the icon to become selected. After this the user provides another user input by hovering over the lens of the camera of the device and holding the finger still for a while near the camera. As a result, the settings view for the camera is displayed and the user is enabled to interact with the camera, which is a component included in the device, and thus view and/or change the settings relating to the functionality of the camera. In another example, the user provides a user input by touching the lens of the camera first. After that the settings icon may be displayed on the touch display of the device and may be tapped by the user, the tapping being now another user input provided by the user causing the settings icon to become selected. This causes the settings menu to be displayed to the user on the touch display such that the user is now enabled to interact with the camera, in this example by accessing the settings relating to the functionality of the camera.
a-3d depict an example embodiment in which the user wants to interact with a component included in a smart phone 300 and located outside a graphical user interface area by accessing the settings relating to the functionality of the component. The graphical user interface area of the smart phone 300 comprises a display that is configured to display a graphical user interface 303. In general, the graphical user interface area may enable a user to interact with images, text or other data visible on a display of a device. If there is an input detected outside the graphical user interface area, then the input is detected at a location of a component that is not part of the graphical user interface area. Such a location may be, for example, a location of a camera component, a location of an antenna component or any other location of a component that has no direct association to the interaction that happens using images in addition, or alternatively, to text as means for the interaction. In this example embodiment, the display on the smart phone 300 is capable of detecting touch input received on the display thus allowing the user to interact with the smart phone 300 by using touch inputs as user input. In addition to detecting touch inputs, the smart phone 300 in this example embodiment is also able to detect hovering of a finger 301 in close proximity to the smart phone 300 and determine at least an approximate location of the finger. In this example embodiment, the hovering can be detected not just above the display but, for example, proximate to the back of the phone as well. It should be noted that in this example embodiment, if a user input is detected outside the graphical user interface area, the user input is detected outside the area of the display of the smart phone 300. In
In this example embodiment, the user wishes to access the settings of the camera incorporated in the smart phone 300, so the user first touches the icon 302 that represents a settings application. Touching the icon 302, representing the settings application, causes the icon 302 to become selected as is illustrated in
However, if the icon 302 is selected, which has triggered the smart phone 300 to enter a detection state, in which it detects if the subsequent user input is to be determined to relate to the user input that caused the icon 302 to become selected, and the user hovers on top of the camera lens 304 using his finger 301 as illustrated in
In this example embodiment, causing the settings icon 302 to become selected causes the smart phone 300 to enter the detection state in which it can detect a subsequent user input and determine if such subsequent user input is related to the detected user input that caused the settings icon 302 to become selected. If no user input is received during a pre-determined time after entering the detection state, the smart phone 300 may exit the detection state. In this example embodiment, as the smart phone 300 is in the detection state and the subsequent user input is detected at the location of the camera lens 304 within the pre-determined time, it may be checked from a database if the combination of the user inputs is such that an interpretation of the user inputs being related to each other can be made. That is, the database may contain information that defines the user inputs that may be interpreted to relate to each other. For example, once the user input causing the icon 302 to become selected has been detected, a query may be sent to the database to see which user inputs, in combination with the detected user input, may be interpreted to relate to each other. Alternatively, other methods may be used to determine if two user inputs may be interpreted to relate to each other. For example, computer code executed in the smart phone 300 may include an algorithm that checks if two user inputs are related to each other and thus a database is not needed. Whether two user inputs may be interpreted to relate to each other or not may depend on the context in which the user inputs are detected. For example, the application that is active at the time the first user input is detected, the type of the detected user input or the location in which the user input is detected.
Once it has been detected that the two detected user inputs relate to each other, the smart phone 300 in this example embodiment enables the user to interact with the camera by providing a settings view 305 relating to the functionality of the camera on the display. This settings view 305 includes all the selectable options that relate to the functionality of the camera. Each option may have different pre-defined values that can be selected. Each pre-determined value may cause the camera to function in a different way. Yet it should be noted that the options shown in settings view 305 do not comprise an exhaustive list of options that may exist. One selectable value, for example, relates to aspects of the functionality of a flash light of the camera. For example, if the setting for the flash is “on”, the camera will capture an image using flash light. If the flash light is “off”, the camera will not use the flash light when capturing an image even if the detected ambient light conditions would suggest that flash light would be useful. If the flash light setting is set to be “automatic”, then the camera itself detects the conditions regarding ambient light and determines if the flash light is to be used or not. By enabling the user to interact with the settings relating to the functionality of the camera, the camera is caused to function in a way that meets the user's wishes. The user can change the settings relating to the functionality of the camera by using the input means of the smart phone 300. For example, the user may use the touch display and tap the setting that the user wishes to change. If all of the settings are not visible on the screen at the same time, then the user may scroll through the screen by using a flicking gesture, for example. The user could also interact with a voice user interface of the smart phone 300 and control the settings relating to the functionality of the camera by dictating commands. The smart phone 300 could then use its speech recognition capabilities to control the settings view and select the correct pre-determined value.
It should be noted that even though the user is enabled to interact with the camera component by making the settings icon selected and then providing an input at the location of the camera component, it is not implicated that there are no alternative ways to access the settings of the camera component of the smart phone 300. For example, the settings application could include the settings relating to the functionality of the camera and those could be accessed by navigating in the settings application, for example in a conventional manner. On the other hand, it could also be that the settings application does not include the settings for the camera component of the smart phone 300, but accessing an application relating to the camera may provide the user the possibility to interact with the camera component and access and edit the settings relating to the functionality of the camera component. Each of these means for interacting with the camera component may be present at the same time as alternatives to each other.
A further alternative to the example embodiment described above is that once the user has tapped the settings icon 302, the settings application is opened instead of the settings icon 302 becoming selected. Yet, if the user, within the pre-determined time after the settings application has been opened, hovers at the location of the camera component 304, then the detection of the hover input causes the settings application to display the dialog 305.
a and 4b illustrate another example embodiment.
The mobile phone 400 has an antenna, which is a part of a communications unit, and is located in the upper part of the back-side of the mobile phone 400 outside of a graphical user interface area. The graphical user interface area comprises, in this example embodiment, an area of the mobile phone 400 that enables the user to interact with the mobile phone 400 using images instead of or in addition to text as means for interaction. In this example it further comprises physical or virtual keys that are intended to be used when for example entering text or numbers or which are used when scrolling a list or selecting an item displayed on the graphical user interface. In
Once the user has tapped at the location of the antenna, in this example embodiment, there may be an indication that guides the user towards the notification bar 403. The guidance may be desirable as it helps the user to locate the area of the notification bar on the display quickly. The indication may comprise, for example, highlighting the notification bar 403 or highlighting an icon indicating the signal strength of the network in the notification bar 403. This may prompt a user to provide an input targeted towards the notification bar. The input targeted to the notification bar could be a touch input for example. In such case, the user may tap with his finger 401 on the notification bar 403. In this example embodiment, if such a tap is detected within a pre-defined time period, the tap detected at the location of the antenna and the tap detected at the notification bar are determined to relate to each other. In this example embodiment, since the user inputs are determined to relate to each other, the mobile phone 400 displays on the display 404 a dialog 405. The dialog 405 indicates current settings relating to the functionality of the communications module. For example, the mobile phone 400 may be set to use only a 3 G network. The dialog 405 also indicates the other options that can be selected. The dialog 405 in this example embodiment displays some, but not necessary all, options that relate to the functionality of the communication module. The options displayed by the dialog 405 are such that only one of those can be selected at a time. That is, the user is not enabled to choose more than one option at a time. To ensure that only one option is selected, radio buttons are used in the dialog 405. The user may interact with the dialog 405 by touching the radio button he wishes to select. Once a new radio button is selected, the previous selection is removed. Alternatively, the user may use the keypad 402 of the mobile phone 400 in order to interact with the dialog 405. The keypad 402 can be used to navigate between the selectable options and to verify a selection. The keypad may be for example a QWERTY keypad, ITU-T or the like.
A variation of the example embodiment illustrated in
a-5c illustrate another example embodiment. In this example embodiment, the user wants to interact with a memory card located in a memory card slot 520 of a tablet device 500. The memory card slot is located outside of a graphical user interface area of the tablet device 500. The purpose of this interaction is that the user wants to copy a file stored on a memory of the tablet device 500 to the memory card.
In the example embodiment depicted in
After double-tapping the icon 501, the user may, in this example embodiment, provide a subsequent user input, as is illustrated in
In order to be able to determine that the double-tap input and the hover input at the location of the memory card slot 520 of this example embodiment relate to each other, the tablet device, after detecting the double-tap, enters a detection state in which it detects for a pre-determined time period if a hover input is detected at the location of the memory card slot 520, within the pre-determined time period. If so, then it is determined that the double-tap and the hover detected relate to each other.
In this example embodiment, the memory card slot 520 may contain a memory card and the memory card is able to store a file. Once it has been determined that the double-tap and hover relate to each other, the file represented by the icon 501 may automatically be copied to the memory card. The tablet device 500 may also be configured such that after determining that the double-tap and hover relate to each other, there is a dialog 530 displayed on the display 540 as is illustrated in
There may be variations to the example embodiment illustrated in
In case the memory card slot 520 does not contain a memory card, the tablet device 500 may for example ignore the input received at the location of the memory card slot 520. In another example embodiment, the tablet device 500 may be configured to open a dialog informing the user that there is no memory card inserted in the memory card slot 520.
a-6c address an example embodiment relating to a music player application. A user may at times have a headset 650 plugged into his mobile phone 600. This enables the user to listen to music files that are stored on the mobile phone 600. The mobile phone 600 in this example embodiment is able to play the music even if there is another application running on the mobile phone 600 at the same time. In this example embodiment, the user may wish to listen to music while reading his emails using an email application that is open and active on the display 610 of the mobile phone 600. When listening to music, the user may wish to, for example, skip a song. In this example embodiment, because the user has his e-mails open, it may be inconvenient for the user to have to navigate away from the e-mail application and select to open the view of the music player application from which he can then skip the song. It could be more convenient for example to have a dialog presented on top of the e-mail application that enables the user to skip the song. However, it would not be appropriate for such a dialog to be open constantly as it would be a distraction to the user and would unnecessarily occupy an area on the display 610 that could instead be utilized by the e-mail application. Instead, it would be preferable for the dialog to be easily available on demand.
In the example embodiment depicted in
While interacting with the e-mail application, in this example embodiment, the user may wish to quickly interact with the music player application as well without leaving the e-mail application. In this example embodiment, the user taps with his finger 660 the icon 630, causing the icon 630 to become selected. If the user then, within a certain period of time, subsequently hovers over the socket 640, as is illustrated in
Once the options 670 relating to the music player application are displayed, the user may scroll though the list of options, select a desired option and return to the e-mail application. In this example embodiment, the user selects to skip the song that is currently being played. So the user taps on the option skip 680 with his finger 660. Now the mobile phone 600 plays the next song and the options 670 relating to the music player application are no longer displayed. Alternatively, the smart device 600 may continue to display the options 670 relating to the music player application until they are closed by the user.
Enabling the user to interact with the music player application as described above when the headset 650 has been connected to the mobile phone 600 may enable the user to have a larger display area dedicated to the e-mail application compared to a situation in which the options relating to the music player application 670 are constantly available. Further, this way the user can have the e-mail application visible in the background all the time which may be beneficial as it creates a feeling that the user does not have to leave the e-mail application in order to interact with the music player application. Embodiments of the invention can thus provide an improved ease of use compared with some other implementations.
Some example embodiments of the invention may be implemented on devices with wireless communication functionality. To be able to connect to a network when using a wireless communication device, a user may need to insert a subscriber identity module, which is from now on is referred to as a SIM card, into the device. In general, a SIM card is specific to a network operator providing wireless communication services. Network operators commonly have various options and prices for the services they offer. For example, operator A might offer cheap voice calls but have a higher price for all the data connection based services, whereas operator B might offer very cheap data connection based services but have a high price for phone calls made during office hours. Data connection based services refer to all network activity the device does that involves uploading or downloading data using packet data connections. Examples of these types of services are sending and receiving emails, downloading an application from the Internet, uploading a photo to social media sites etc. Because of the different pricing the operators may have for their services, a user may be inclined to use a data connection related services using a SIM card from operator B but to make phone calls that take place during office hours using a SIM card from operator A. In the following example, in order to be able to do this easily the user has a device that is able to use at least two different SIM cards simultaneously.
a is an illustration of an example embodiment in which there is a mobile device 700 that has a touch display 710. The touch display 710 uses capacitive sensing technology and may be able to detect not only touch user inputs on the screen but also hover user inputs above the display as well as around other parts of the mobile device 700. Alternatively or in addition, there may be one sensor dedicated to detection of touch user inputs on the screen and one or more other sensors dedicated to detection of hover inputs around all parts of the mobile device 700. On the touch display 710, in this example embodiment, there are various icons that represent applications, such as the icon 720 that represents a settings application. In this example the mobile device 700 is capable of using two SIM cards simultaneously, which means that the user may be connected to two different networks simultaneously. If the user wishes to define which SIM card is to be used for particular network related services, the user can access settings related to the functionalities that involve usage of the SIM cards. In this example, to access the settings the user taps the icon 720 using his finger 730. This causes the icon 720 to become selected, which is indicated to the user by highlighting the icon 720. After this the mobile device 700 detects if the next user input is related to the tap. The mobile device 700 in this example embodiment is aware of a number of user inputs that may be determined to relate to each other. The awareness is achieved by using programming methods to detect received user inputs and then determine if subsequent user inputs are related.
b illustrates a side view of the mobile device 700 of this example embodiment. On the side of the mobile device 700, outside of the graphical user interface area there is a SIM card slot 740 to which a SIM card may be inserted. There is, in this example embodiment, a further SIM card slot, though not illustrated in
As the hover input was detected at the SIM card slot 740, the view 750 to the settings relating to the functionalities involving usage of the SIM cards is displayed on the display 710. The graphical user interface area in this example comprises the display 710. Had the hover been detected at the location of another component of the mobile device 700, then the view relating to the settings relating to the functionalities of that other component may be displayed on the touch display 710. By means of the view 750 to the settings relating to the SIM cards, the user is enabled to interact with the settings related to the functionalities involving usage of the SIM cards. That is, the user may view the current settings. If the user wishes to make changes, the user may provide user input, for example using the touch sensitive display 710. For example, if the user wishes to be asked which SIM card to use each time the user initiates a phone call, the user may change the setting of the voice call from SIM 1 to always ask. The SIM settings that the user may access may include for example, voice calls, messages, data connections. The options associated with each setting may include for example SIM 1, SIM 2 and always ask.
In another example embodiment, after the user has tapped the icon 720 and the icon 720 has become selected, the user may also be guided visually to hover at a location of the SIM card slot 740. This visual guidance is illustrated in
Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in software, hardware, application logic or a combination of software, hardware and application logic. In an example embodiment, the application logic, software or an instruction set is maintained on any one of various conventional computer-readable media. In the context of this document, a “computer-readable medium” may be any media or means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate or transport the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer, with one example of a computer described. A computer-readable medium may comprise a computer-readable storage medium that may be any media or means that can contain or store the instructions for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer.
If desired, the different functions discussed herein may be performed in a different order and/or concurrently with each other. Furthermore, if desired, one or more of the above-described functions may be optional or may be combined.
Although various aspects of the invention are set out in the independent claims, other aspects of the invention comprise other combinations of features from the described embodiments and/or the dependent claims with the features of the independent claims, and not solely the combinations explicitly set out in the claims.
It is also noted herein that while the above describes example embodiments of the invention, these descriptions should not be viewed in a limiting sense. Rather, there are several variations and modifications which may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.
