Patent Application
20200304628
This disclosure is related to management of portable electronic devices such as wireless phones, personal data assistants (PDA), .mp3 players, handheld computers, laptop computers and the like.
Over the last few decades as portable electronic devices have proliferated, these devices have become more integrated with a user's lifestyle. For a variety of reasons, portable electronic devices typically will periodically interact with a user. For example, portable electronic devices may interact with a user responsive to an event. As one example, a PDA typically provides an audible notification for a scheduling event, in order to invite a user to interact with the PDA. A user may interact with the PDA to acknowledge and/or silence the audible notification. Additionally, a wireless phone may receive a call and may provide an audible notification that a call is being received, to invite the user to interact with the phone. As some additional examples, portable electronic devices may employ batteries that may be occasionally recharged, may utilize software that may be occasionally upgraded, and/or may require data uploading, data downloading, rebooting, firmware upgrades, and the like, and a portable electronic device may invite a user to interact with the device in response to these events. When a portable electronic device invites a user to interact with the device, the device may provide a notification, such as an audible, visual or physical notification.
Subject matter is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed. Claimed subject matter, however, both as to organization and method of operation, together with objects, features, and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference of the following detailed description when read with the accompanying drawings in which:
In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subject matter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and/or circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure claimed subject matter.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of claimed subject matter. Thus, the appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” and/or “an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, and/or characteristics may be combined in one or more embodiments.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout this specification discussions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,” “selecting,” “sending,” “receiving,” “transmitting,” “determining”, “obtaining”, “interacting”, “storing”, “alerting” and/or the like refer to the actions and/or processes that may be performed by a portable electronic device, which manipulates and/or transforms data represented as physical, electronic and/or magnetic quantities and/or other physical quantities within the computing platform's processors, memories, registers, and/or other information storage, transmission, reception and/or display devices. Accordingly, a portable electronic device refers to a system or a device that includes the ability to process and/or store data in the form of signals. Thus, embodiments of a portable electronic device may comprise hardware, software, firmware and/or any combination thereof. Further, unless specifically stated otherwise, a process as described herein, with reference to flow diagrams or otherwise, may also be executed and/or controlled, in whole or in part, by a portable electronic device.
As mentioned previously, portable electronic devices may periodically invite a user to interact with the device. In this context, inviting a user to interact with the device may be referred to as “user interaction” and may refer generally to the portable electronic device interacting with a user by providing a notification, such as an audible, visual or physical notification. However, as will be explained in more detail hereinafter, inviting a user to interact with a device may be performed for a variety of reasons and in a variety of manners, and claimed subject matter is not so limited. Furthermore, a user may interact with the portable electronic device in response to the invitation. In this context, a user interacting with a device may be referred to as “device interaction”. Accordingly, in this context “device interaction” refers generally to use of the portable electronic device by the user. The portable electronic device may be used by the user responsive to an event. For example, as will be explained in more detail later, a user may use a device responsive to an event such as a need for a battery recharge, a received message, a received phone call, a need for device rebooting, a need for data downloading, a need for updating device software, a need for saving and/or deleting data, and the like. In accordance with these examples, device interaction may comprise charging a battery, message acknowledgement, answering a phone call, rebooting a device, downloading data, updating device software, saving and/or deleting data, and the like. A user may interact with the portable electronic device by employing a user interface, such as a keypad, touch screen, mouse and/or additional interface methods and devices, but claimed subject matter is not so limited.
As one example of inviting a user to interact with a device, a portable electronic device may utilize batteries that can be periodically recharged. The portable electronic device may detect an event, such as a need for a battery recharge. The device may notify the user that a recharge is needed in response to the detected event. The notification may comprise an audible notification such as an alarm, as just an example. Accordingly, the user may perform device interaction in response to the notification by silencing the audible alarm and/or placing the device in a cradle and/or plugging the device into a power supply, as just a few examples. However, an invitation to interact with a device may not always occur at a time or in a manner convenient for a user. For example, batteries of a portable electronic device may run low on charge in the middle of the night, and the device may provide an audible notification in the middle of the night, which may be undesirable to the user. As an additional example, a user may attend a meeting and may forget to mute a wireless phone before the meeting. The wireless phone may receive a call and in response, may provide an audible notification to the user while the user is in the meeting, which may also be inconvenient. Accordingly, it may be desirable, for a variety of reasons, to synchronize a user notification with a user's characteristics, such as a user's behavior or habits, so that a device may invite user interaction at a time or in a manner that is convenient for the user. In at least one embodiment, this may comprise determining one or more characteristics of a user, and synchronizing a notification with a user's characteristics, such that the device may invite user interaction at a time or in a manner convenient for the user. In this manner, management of a portable electronic device may comprise synchronously managing a device such that a notification is synchronized with characteristics of the user, in order to improve user convenience and/or reliability and/or availability of the device. In one context, this may result in forming a symbiotic relationship between a device and a user.
User characteristics may comprise data obtained from numerous sources that may at least partially identify a user's behavior or habits, for example. In one embodiment, user characteristics may comprise a user's daily schedule, a user's location, when a user is awake and asleep, when a user typically uses a particular device, when a user is busy or not busy, how long the user uses the device, and the like. As will be explained in more detail later, user characteristics may be obtained in a variety of ways. User characteristics may be employed such that a device invites a user to interact with the device at a time or in a manner convenient for the user. For example, a user may only be able to charge a device that employs rechargeable batteries at particular times, such as when at home, when in the office or while driving. It may be desirable for a portable electronic device to invite user interaction during these particular times, regardless of whether a battery charge is needed at that specific time, for example. As an additional example, a device may periodically detect an event, such as a need for data to be downloaded, such as for an operating system update. The device may employ user characteristics to determine when a user may be able to download the data, or when a user may be in a location conducive to downloading the data, such as at home or in the office. As yet an additional example, a device may periodically detect an event, such as a received text message. The device may employ user characteristics to determine when a user may be awake or asleep, or busy or not busy, and may provide a user notification in a manner consistent with this determination. For example, user characteristics may be employed to determine that a user is asleep. Accordingly, in this example, a visual notification instead of an audible notification may be provided to a user that the text message was received. User characteristics may be employed to invite a user to download data via a notification at a time convenient for the user. However, these are merely examples, and numerous other types and categories of synchronizing a notification with characteristics of the user are within the scope of claimed subject matter.
As some additional examples, a device may utilize rechargeable batteries, and the device may detect an event in the form of an indication that the batteries may need to be charged in 12 hours. However, user characteristics may be employed by a device to determine that a user will be unavailable to charge the batteries in 12 hours. In response to this determination, a device may invite a user to interact with the device before the end of the 12 hours when there is a need to recharge, such that the device will not run out of battery charge at a time inconvenient for the user. Furthermore, a device such as a wireless phone may detect an event in the form of a received call. The wireless phone may employ user characteristics to determine that a user is in a meeting and will be unable to answer the call. In response to the determination, the wireless phone may not provide a notification in response to the call, but may provide a notification after the meeting, which would be more convenient for the user. As set forth the in examples described above, in at least one embodiment, management of portable electronic devices may comprise synchronizing a user's behavior with the need for device interaction of the portable electronic device. However, as mentioned previously, it is worthwhile to note that claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect.
Continuing with this particular embodiment, portable electronic device 100 further comprises a power port 106. Power port 106 is adapted to receive a connection to a power source, and may enable charging of batteries of the portable electronic device, for example. Additionally, in alternative embodiments, a power port may not be employed as part of portable electronic device 100. For example, a device may not employ rechargeable batteries, and may operate via other power sources such as disposable batteries, a wired power source such as an external power outlet, solar power, and the like. Portable electronic device 100 further comprises a user interface 108. User interface 108 may comprise numerous types of components such as an LCD screen, one or more LEDs, a phone receiver and microphone, and/or the like. In an alternative embodiment, user interface 108 is adapted to perform user interaction functions to notify a user for requesting, initiating and/or inviting user interaction, in addition to or instead of a notification component 102, for example. Although not illustrated, portable electronic device 100 may additionally include processors, memories, registers, and/or other information storage, transmission, reception and/or display components, although, again, claimed subject matter is not so limited.
In operation, portable electronic device 100 may periodically detect an event, and may invite interaction by a user responsive to the event, as explained previously. In one particular embodiment, portable electronic device 100 comprises a wireless telephone. The batteries of the wireless telephone may periodically need to be recharged. In this embodiment, depending, for example, on the extent of use, a charge may be required every day or every few days. It may be difficult to predict when such a charge may be required, or whether the wireless telephone will have a charge when it is needed. Accordingly, in one embodiment of claimed subject matter, the need for recharging batteries may be coordinated with one or more characteristics of a user. In one embodiment, in response to the detected event that a charge will be needed, a user profile of a user of the wireless phone may be obtained, and may be employed to indicate and/or identify characteristics of a user. The user profile may include one or more user characteristics. The wireless phone may interact with the user responsive to the detected event and in accordance with user characteristics obtained from the user profile. In this manner, management of a portable electronic device may comprise synchronizing an invitation for a user to interact with the device with characteristics of the user, in order to improve user convenience and/or reliability and/or availability of the device. However, additional embodiments will be explained in more detail with reference to
At block 204, user characteristics gathered at block 202 may be employed to form a user profile. As mentioned previously, user characteristics may comprise a user's schedule, times when a user may use a particular portable electronic device, when a user may have resources such as a power source available or unavailable, and the like. A user profile may be formed in order to coordinate an invitation to a user to perform device interaction with user characteristics, to make using a device more convenient for a user, for example. The user profile may include any type of data that may enable managing a portable electronic device in accordance with one or more embodiments, and may be embodied on hardware, software, firmware, and/or the like. At block 206, the user profile may be activated. Activation may occur in response to any one of several events such as when a user powers on or logs on to a portable electronic device and/or may be performed at designated times and/or upon the occurrence of events, such as an indication that user interaction may be required for a portable electronic device. Additionally, a portable electronic device may have a plurality of users, and, accordingly, may be enabled to activate a user profile correlating with a current user of the device. The activated user profile may be employed in one or more embodiments as set forth in
The following discussion details several possible embodiments for accomplishing embodiments of management of a portable electronic device. However, these are merely examples and are not intended to limit the scope of claimed subject matter. As another example, one embodiment may be in hardware, such as implemented to operate on a device or combination of devices, for example, whereas another embodiment may be in software. Likewise, an embodiment may be implemented in firmware, or as any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware, for example. Likewise, although claimed subject matter is not limited in scope in this respect, one embodiment may comprise one or more articles, such as a storage medium or storage media. This storage media, such as, one or more CD-ROMs and/or disks, for example, may have stored thereon instructions, that when executed by a an electronic device, such as a portable electronic device may result in an embodiment of a method in accordance with claimed subject matter being executed, such as one of the embodiments previously described, for example. As one potential example, an electronic device may include one or more processing units or processors, one or more input/output devices, such as a display, a keyboard and/or a mouse, and/or one or more memories, such as static random access memory, dynamic random access memory, flash memory, and/or a hard drive, although, again, claimed subject matter is not limited in scope to this example. It will, of course, be understood that, although particular embodiments have just been described, claimed subject matter is not limited in scope to a particular embodiment or implementation.
In the preceding description, various aspects of claimed subject matter have been described. For purposes of explanation, systems and configurations were set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subject matter. However, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that claimed subject matter may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features were omitted and/or simplified so as not to obscure claimed subject matter. While certain features have been illustrated and/or described herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes and/or equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and/or changes as fall within the true spirit of claimed subject matter.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/752,483 filed on May 23, 2007, the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 11752483 | May 2007 | US |
| Child | 16897148 | US |
