WO2018002895A1

WO2018002895A1 - System and method for managing functions of a user device

Info

Publication number: WO2018002895A1
Application number: PCT/IB2017/053955
Authority: WO
Inventors: Basavaraj HOSKERI
Original assignee: Hoskeri Basavaraj
Priority date: 2016-06-30
Filing date: 2017-06-30
Publication date: 2018-01-04

Abstract

A system and method for managing one or more functions on a user device is disclosed. The user device comprises a user application and one or more sensors configured to detect a proximity to one or more of an NFC tag embedded in the dock station of a vehicle and a wireless charging coil integrated with the dock station mounted in the vehicle along with the in-vehicle Bluetooth profile. The configurations for one or more functions are pre-selected by the user of the user device and the user application selectively activates or deactivates one or more functions on the user device.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING FUNCTIONS OF A USER DEVICE FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY:

[0001] The present disclosure relates to user device dock station, and more particularly to a system and a method for managing one or more functions of the user device when the user device is mounted on the dock station.

BACKGROUND:

[0002] As vehicles become more sophisticated, it is known to provide a variety of electrical and electronic systems and subsystems in a vehicle to perform different functions. For example, most vehicles have an electronic engine management system, dedicated entertainment system, Bluetooth connectivity, a mobile dock station etc.

[0003] With the widespread use of mobile devices, vehicle-mounting charging apparatus typically integrated with mobile dock stations have been suggested which allows the mobile terminals to be charged also in the vehicle. Such dock stations are required to enable user to have a certain level of access to the mobile device while driving the vehicle and also to enable charging of the mobile devices during transit.

[0004] Near-field communication (NFC) embedded dock stations are known in the art to support NFC enabled smartphones to be quickly accessed by user for various functions such as navigation, multimedia access on mobile devices etc. However, with wireless charging of mobile devices, interference issues are noticed in enablement of NFC based access to mobile devices in the vehicle. Moreover, there is a need to provide a wider access to support plurality of features on the mobile device with or without NFC connectivity.

SUMMARY:

[0005] This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts, in a simplified manner, which are further described in the detailed description of the disclosure. This summary is neither intended to identify key or essential inventive concepts of the subject matter, nor to determine the scope of the disclosure.

[0006] In one embodiment, a method for managing one or more functions of a user device is disclosed. The method comprising, detecting by the user device, one or more of an in- vehicle Bluetooth profile and a proximity to a dock station mounted in the vehicle, wherein the dock station comprises at least one of a wireless charging coil and an NFC tag. Upon detection, the user device is configured to manipulate one or more functions of the user device by selectively activating and deactivating one or more functions of the user device, for a period of the proximity to the dock station being maintained.

[0007] In another embodiment, a system for managing one or more functions of a user device is disclosed. The system comprises a dock station mounted in a vehicle, comprising at least one of a wireless charging coil and an NFC tag; and a user device, wherein the user device is configured for detecting one or more of an in-vehicle Bluetooth profile and a proximity to the dock station in the vehicle; and manipulating the one or more functions of the user device based on the detecting, wherein the manipulating comprises at least one of activating, partially activating and deactivating the one or more functions, for the period of the proximity being maintained.

[0008] Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and may not have necessarily been drawn to scale. Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more components of the device may have been represented in the figures by conventional symbols, and the figures may show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the figures with details that will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the description herein. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:

[0009] The disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the accompanying figures in which:

[0010] Figure 1 illustrates a system for managing one or more functions on a user device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0011] Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of the hardware and software components of the user device, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0012] Figure 3 illustrates a method for managing one or more functions on a user device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0013] Figure 4 illustrates the screenshots of an user application installed on the user device for managing one or more functions on the user device, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0014] Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and may not have necessarily been drawn to scale. Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more components of the device may have been represented in the figures by conventional symbols, and the figures may show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the figures with details that will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE:

[0015] For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the disclosure, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the figures and specific language will be used to describe them. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended. Such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated system, and such further applications of the principles of the disclosure as would normally occur to those skilled in the art are to be construed as being within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0016] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory of the disclosure and are not intended to be restrictive thereof.

[0017] The terms "comprises", "comprising", or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process or method that comprises a list of steps does not include only those steps but may include other steps not expressly listed or inherent to such a process or method. Similarly, one or more devices or sub-systems or elements or structures or components preceded by "comprises... a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other devices, sub-systems, elements, structures, components, additional devices, additional sub-systems, additional elements, additional structures or additional components. Appearances of the phrase "in an embodiment", "in another embodiment" and similar language throughout this specification may, but not necessarily do, all refer to the same embodiment.

[0018] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The system, methods, and examples provided herein are only illustrative and not intended to be limiting.

[0019] Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying figures.

[0020] In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, Figure 1 illustrates a system 100 for managing one or more functions of a user device upon identifying a driving state of a vehicle. The system 100 comprises a user device 102 associated with a user of the vehicle, communicatively connected to the dock station 108 mounted on the vehicle (not shown). Preferably, the system 100 triggers manipulation of one or more functions of the user device 102 upon detecting a driving state of the vehicle. The user device 102 is configured to detect a placement of the user device 102 on the dock station 108 at least via a proximity to NFC tag or any other Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) protocols embedded on the dock station or by detecting the presence of an in-vehicle Bluetooth profile and a wireless charging coil integrated with the dock station 108. Upon detecting the network connection establishment, a user application 104 installed on the user device 102 manipulates the one or more functions on the user device 102 as per the pre-defined settings entered by the user of the user device 102. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the user application 104 triggers a rear side camera of the user device 102 to start capturing images or videos of the path being navigated by the vehicle continuously or intermittently and store the captured images/ videos for later use by the user of the user device 102.

[0021] The dock station 108 comprises a support structure (not shown) for supporting the user device 102. The dock station 108 itself is mounted on the vehicle within the user accessible area such as a dashboard using methods known in the art. The dock station 108 further comprises a slot for receiving wireless charging coil 120 such as wireless charging pads by Samsung, Qi™ wireless charging and the like. In one embodiment, the wireless charging coil 120 is integrated into the dock station 108 as a single unit. In some embodiments, the dock station 108 comprises a passive data store such as NFC tag 110. The system 100 further comprises the in-vehicle Bluetooth device 125 in communication with the user device 102. The use of in-vehicle Bluetooth device 125 is known in the art for accessing vehicle entertainment system, receiving calls on the user device 102 without distracting the user and the like.

[0022] Now referring to Fig. 2, the sub system implemented in the user device 102 for managing one or more functions of the user device 102 upon identifying a proximity of the user device 102 to the dock station 108 mounted in the vehicle is described. The user device 202 comprises the user application 204, a processor 206, a memory unit 208 and one or more sensors 210 configured to communicate with the user application 204. The one or more sensors include but are not limited to motion sensors, accelerometer, camera, gyroscope and the like. The user application 204 is a downloadable software available on application marketplaces such as Google Playstore, AppStore and the like. The user device 202 is preferably a communication device such as a smartphone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), vehicle navigation device and the like. In one embodiment, the user device 202 is at least configured to detect and pair with a Bluetooth device or capable of near field communications.

[0023] The user application 204 comprises an SDK component configured to receive data from one or more sensors including but are not limited to motion sensors, accelerometer, camera, gyroscope and the like. Further, the user application 204 is configured to detect one or more of a wireless charging of the user device 102, a Bluetooth pairing between the user device 102 and the in-vehicle Bluetooth profile and a radio frequency data store such as a NFC tag.

[0024] Specifically, the SDK component of the user application 204 receives hardware interrupts from the processor 206 to indicate one or more of - the presence of in-vehicle Bluetooth profile, NFC tag embedded on the dock station 108 and the wireless charging coil 110 of the dock station 108. The SDK component further creates a log for each instance of hardware interrupt receipt in the memory 208. In addition, the user application 204 receives data log from the one or more sensors of the user device 102 such as but not limited to motion sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope and the like at each instance. For example, at time tl, when the user of the user device 102 is outside the vehicle, no hardware interrupts from the dock station 108 are received by the user application 204. When the user enters the vehicle and places the user device 102 on the dock station 108, at time t2, the user application receives hardware interrupts from the motion sensors of the user device 102 and the wireless charging coil 110 and/ or the NFC tag 120 of the dock station 108. A log file is created by the user application 204 to store information pertaining to these actions in the memory 208. Similarly, when the users takes the user device 102 out of the dock station 108 before exiting the vehicle, at time t3, another set of hardware interrupts are recorded in the log file.

[0025] The user application 204 detects the events such as dock of the user device 102 on the dock station 108 and vice versa. Based on such detection, the user application 204 is configured to selectively activate or deactivate a plurality of functions such as turning on the rear side camera of the user device 102 to capture the images, videos of the path being navigated by the user device 102; turning on the 'do not disturb' settings on the user device 102 so as to allow only SOS and critical calls, messages; automatically communicating the pre-selected playlist of multimedia to the vehicle entertainment system and the like. Similarly, when the user takes the user device 102 off from the dock station 108, the user application 204 upon detection turns off the rear side camera of the user device 102; turns off the 'do not disturb' settings on the user device 102 and allows general access to calls and messages on the user device 102.

[0026] In one embodiment, the user application 204 is configured to override the default settings of the user device 102 upon detecting the user device 102 connected to the dock station 108. Further, the user application 204 is configured to continue performing one or more functions such as capturing images/ videos via one or more cameras of the user device 102 in the background without interfering with other features of the user device 102 and to continue selective activation and deactivation as long as the proximity is maintained - i.e. wireless charging, vehicle Bluetooth connectivity and/ or connection with NFC tag dock station 108 is maintained. Thus, the user application 204 is configured to overcome false positive conditions; for example, when the user device 102 is being charged using wireless charging devices outside the vehicle, i.e. at home, office etc., the pre-defined conditions are not met and therefore the user application 204 does not turn on the configurations pre- defined for usage within the vehicle.

[0027] Figure 3 illustrates a method for managing one or more functions of the user device 102, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. At step 302, the user device 102 comprising the user application 104 scans for the presence of at least a NFC tag or a wireless charging coil in proximity. At step 304, upon detecting a NFC tag associated with the dock station 108 mounted in the vehicle, the subsequent steps are performed. However, if the NFC tag is not detected, then, at step 306, the user device 102 scans to detect a presence of wireless charging coil in proximity to the user device 102. At step 308, after detecting the presence of wireless charging coil in proximity, the user device 102 identifies and pairs with the in-vehicle Bluetooth profile. After storing the instance of NFC or in- vehicle Bluetooth and wireless charging coil, the user application 104 is triggered at step 310 to selectively activate or deactivate one or more functions on the user device 102. The one or more functions include but are not limited to turning on a camera of the user device 102 to capture one or more images, videos of the path being navigated, communicating a multimedia playlist to the in-vehicle entertainment system, muting one or more incoming calls on the user device 102 from the contacts not present on the priority list, muting notifications from one or more applications, activating GPS and navigation feature on the user device 102 and the like. At step 312, the user application 104 continues to maintain the state of one or more functions on the user device 102 until the time the proximity to one of the NFC tag or the combination of in-vehicle Bluetooth profile and wireless charging coil is maintained. [0028] Figure 4 illustrates the process flow and the user interface by way of screenshots of the user application 104, in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. The user interface 402 of the user application 104 is displayed on the screen of the user device 102 upon detecting the presence of the NFC tag of the dock station 108 or the wireless charging coil 110 and the in-vehicle Bluetooth profile 120. The one or more interactive icons displayed include but are not limited to GPS activation for navigation, music icon for playing multimedia playlist pre-selected by the user, a camera icon to indicate capturing images or videos of the path being navigated and the like.

[0029] The user interface 404 and 406 of the user application 104 represents the priority contact lists for receiving calls, messages and notifications from one or more contacts on the user device 102. The user of the user device 102 may add or remove one or more contacts from the list and configure auto replies, muting calls and other such functions which are selectively activated by the user application 104 when triggered.

[0030] The user interface 408 of the user application 104 represents the navigation map displayed on the screen of the user device upon detecting one of a driving state of the vehicle, proximity to the NFC tag embedded on the dock station 108 mounted in the vehicle or the presence of an in-vehicle Bluetooth profile and wireless charging coil 110 of the dock station 108.

[0031] While specific language has been used to describe the disclosure, any limitations arising on account of the same are not intended. As would be apparent to a person skilled in the art, various working modifications may be made to the method in order to implement the inventive concept as taught herein.

[0032] The figures and the foregoing description give examples of embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the described elements may well be combined into a single functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added to another embodiment. For example, order of processes described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all of the acts need to be necessarily performed. Also, those acts that are not dependent on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these specific examples.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method for managing one or more functions of a user device, the method comprising:

detecting, by the user device, one or more of an in-vehicle Bluetooth profile and a proximity to a dock station in a vehicle, wherein the dock station comprises at least one of a wireless charging coil and an NFC tag; and

manipulating the one or more functions of the user device based on the detecting, wherein the manipulating comprises at least one of selectively activating and deactivating the one or more functions, for a period of the proximity being maintained.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dock station comprising the wireless charging coil is adapted to supply electrical power for charging the user device.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the NFC tag comprises a unique identifier that is communicated to the user device when the user device is in close proximity to the NFC tag.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein manipulating the one or more functions comprises selectively activating one or more sensors of the user device, wherein the one or more sensors include at least one of a camera, GPS sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein manipulating the one or more functions comprises activating a rear camera of the user device for capturing images or videos at pre-defined time intervals.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein manipulating the one or more functions comprises selectively muting calls from one or more contacts pre- selected by the user, deactivating notifications from one or more applications installed on the user device and the like.

7. A system comprising:

a dock station mounted in a vehicle, comprising at least one of a wireless charging coil and an NFC tag; and

a user device, wherein the user device is configured for:

detecting one or more of an in-vehicle Bluetooth profile and a proximity to the dock station in the vehicle; and

manipulating the one or more functions of the user device based on the detecting, wherein the manipulating comprises at least one of activating, partially activating and deactivating the one or more functions, for the period of the proximity being maintained.