Smartphone-based radar system for facilitating awareness of user presence and orientation

A smartphone, comprising:

• a display;
• a radar system, implemented at least partially in hardware, configured to:
• provide a radar field;
• sense reflections from at least a first user and a second user in the radar field;
• analyze the reflections from at least the first user and the second user in the radar field;
• and
• provide, based on the analysis of the reflections, radar data;
• one or more computer processors;
• and
• one or more computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more computer processors, perform operations comprising:
• determining, based on a first subset of the radar data, an orientation of the smartphone with reference to the first user;
• responsive to determining the orientation of the smartphone, presenting content on the display in a first-user-facing orientation;
• determining, based on a second subset of the radar data, a change in the orientation of the smartphone with reference to the first user, the change in the orientation of the smartphone with reference to the first user comprising a displacement of the smartphone, the displacement effective to cause the smartphone to become farther from the first user and closer to the second user;
• and
• responsive to the change in orientation, presenting content on the display in a second-user-facing orientation.

A method implemented in an electronic device that includes a radar system and a radar-based application, the method comprising:

• providing, by the radar system, a radar field;
• sensing, by the radar system, reflections from an object in the radar field;
• analyzing the reflections from the object in the radar field;
• providing, based on the analysis of the reflections, radar data;
• determining, based on a first subset of the radar data, an orientation of the smartphone with reference to the object;
• responsive to determining the orientation of the smartphone, entering a do-not-disturb (DND) mode when the smartphone is determined to be in a first orientation with reference to the object;
• determining, based on a second subset of the radar data, a change in the orientation of the smartphone with reference to the object, the change in the orientation comprising a rotation of the smartphone within a plane that is substantially parallel to a viewing surface of the display, the rotation effective to cause the smartphone to be in a second orientation with reference to the object;
• and
• responsive to the change in orientation, exiting the DND mode.