Orientation based control of mobile device
View Patent ↗A mobile device (e.g. a smartphone) controls a feature of a non-navigation related application (e.g. arrangement of menu items, function controlled by a quick launch key, etc.) based on the orientation of the device. These controls may be context-specific such that the orientation is only used to control the feature in particular contexts. Context may be implied from various factors such as time and date information, the location of the device, other devices in proximity to the device, etc. The particular commands to be controlled based on the orientation can be set using the device, or can be loaded from a data file provided from a third party.
1. A mobile device, comprising:
a memory on which is stored sets of pre-programmed machine readable instructions regarding interactions with a plurality of electronic apparatuses that are external to the mobile device, wherein each set of pre-programmed machine readable instructions is associated with one of the plurality of electronic apparatuses, wherein a determination as to which of the plurality of pre-programmed machine readable instructions is to be executed is dependent upon an orientation of the mobile device;
an orientation circuit to provide orientation data indicative of the orientation of the mobile device;
a processing circuit to receive orientation information based on the orientation data, to determine with which of the plurality of electronic apparatuses to interact based upon the orientation information, and to execute the pre-programmed machine readable instructions associated with the determined electronic apparatus, and wherein the processing circuit is to perform a first action in response to a user input at a first location when the device is in a first orientation and to perform a second action, different than the first action, in response to the user input at the first location when the device is in a second orientation, different than the first orientation.
2. The mobile device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a location circuit to provide location data indicative of a location of the mobile device, wherein the orientation circuit comprises a compass circuit and the location circuit comprises a global positioning system circuit.
3. The mobile device of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one of a hard key and a soft key user input device, wherein the user input comprises a user input on at least one of the hard key and the soft key user input device.
4. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is to communicate at least one command directed to the determined electronic apparatus from the mobile device.
5. A mobile device comprising:
a memory on which is stored sets of pre-programmed machine readable instructions regarding interactions with a plurality of electronic apparatuses that are external to the mobile device, wherein each set of pre-programmed machine readable instructions is associated with one of the plurality of electronic apparatuses, wherein a determination as to which of the plurality of pre-programmed machine readable instructions is to be executed is dependent upon an orientation of the mobile device; and
a processing circuit to receive information indicative of an orientation of the mobile device, to determine with which of the plurality of electronic apparatuses to interact based on the information indicative of the orientation, and to execute the pre-programmed machine readable instructions associated with the determined electronic apparatus, and wherein the processing circuit is to perform a first action in response to a user input at a first location when the device is in a first orientation and to perform a second action, different than the first action, in response to the user input at the first location when the device is in a second orientation, different than the first orientation.
6. The mobile device of claim 5 , further comprising an orientation circuit to provide orientation data, wherein the information indicative of an orientation of the mobile device is based on the orientation data.
7. The mobile device of claim 6 , wherein the orientation circuit comprises a compass circuit.
8. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is further to receive context information and is to execute the pre-programmed machine readable instructions associated with the determined electronic apparatus based on the information indicative of the orientation and the context information.
9. The mobile device of claim 8 , wherein the context information comprises location information indicative of a location of the mobile device.
10. The mobile device of claim 9 , further comprising a location circuit to provide location data, wherein the location information is based on the location data.
11. The mobile device of claim 10 , wherein the location circuit comprises a receiver to receive location signals, wherein the processing circuit is to calculate a location based on the location signals received.
12. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to communicate a command directed to the determined electronic apparatus from the mobile device through execution of the pre-programmed machine readable instructions in response to a user input.
13. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to communicate different sets of commands to different ones of the electronic apparatuses through execution of different sets of pre-programmed machine readable instructions.
14. The mobile device of claim 5 , further comprising:
a display; and
wherein the processing circuit is to control the display to display different sets of information relating to the plurality of electronic apparatuses, wherein the set of information displayed is dependent upon the direction in which the mobile device is directed.
15. The mobile device of claim 14 , wherein the different sets of information comprise different menus associated with different ones of the plurality of electronic apparatuses.
16. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the sets of pre-programmed machine readable instructions are customizable by a user.
17. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to communicate wirelessly with the plurality of electronic apparatuses to determine relative orientations between the mobile device and the plurality of electronic apparatuses.
18. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to control a set of machine readable instructions to launch different short-cuts based on different orientations of the mobile device.
19. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit has a programming mode in which the processing circuit is to receive programming orientation information indicative of an orientation of the mobile device, a user input indicative of a command to execute at the programming orientation of the device, to save command information based on the programming orientation and the user input indicative of the command to execute, wherein the processing circuit is to execute the saved command based on the information indicative of the orientation.
20. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to execute different sets of machine readable instructions based on different orientations of the mobile device.
21. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein
the processing circuit is further to receive data indicative of user programming inputs, the data indicative of user programming inputs representing user inputs of at least one feature to control in at least one context at at least one orientation, and to receive data indicative of a context of the mobile device, and
the processing circuit is to control a feature of a set of machine readable instructions based on the information indicative of the orientation by controlling the feature of the set of machine readable instructions based on the information indicative of the orientation and the data indicative of the context in relation to data based on the data indicative of user programming inputs.
22. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to control a feature of a set of machine readable instructions based on data indicative of the orientation and data indicative of context while being blind to the context.
23. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to control a feature of a set of machine readable instructions based on data indicative of the orientation and data indicative of context where the context is unrelated to map data.
24. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to control a feature of a set of machine readable instructions based on data indicative of the orientation and data indicative of context where the context does not include data that the processing circuit can use to define the coordinate location of the mobile device.
25. The mobile device of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is to control the feature of a set of machine readable instructions based on data indicative of the orientation and data indicative of context where the data indicative of context is provided from at least one source unrelated to a coordinate location of the mobile device.