US 9,807,213 B2Granted

Apparatus and corresponding methods for form factor and orientation modality control

AssigneeMotorola Mobility LLC

InventorElliot M. Stewart

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Abstract

An electronic device (100) includes a housing (101), one or more processors (116), and a display (102). The display, housing, and other components are flexible, stretchable, squeezable, or otherwise deformable in one or more embodiments. One or more flex sensors (156) are operable with the one or more processors, as is a gravity sensor such as an accelerometer (152). The one or more processors can detect (303) a bending operation (301) with the one or more flex sensors that deforms one or more of the housing or the display into a deformed geometry (402). The one or more sensors can then determine a gravity direction (503) with the gravity sensor, after the bending operation and operate (602) the electronic device in a predefined mode of operation (705) as a function of both the deformed geometry and the gravity direction.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for controlling an electronic device, comprising:

detecting, with one or more sensors, at least:
a bending operation occurring to deform the electronic device;
one or more folds in the electronic device after the bending operation;
a geometry of the electronic device after the bending operation;
and
a gravity direction;
partitioning a display of the electronic device as a function of the one or more folds into at least a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion and the second portion are on different sides of a fold;
and
operating, by one or more processors configured to operate with the one or more sensors, the electronic device in a predefined mode of operation as another function of the geometry after the bending operation and the gravity direction, wherein the predefined mode comprises a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation, with a first output of the first mode of operation is presented on the first portion and a second output of the second mode of operation is presented on the second portion.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/814,592Filed 31 Jul 2015
Published: US 2017/0034320 A12 Feb 2017
Granted: 31 Oct 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification15 codes

G06F 1/1601
Constructional details or arrangements: constructional details related to the housing of computer displays, e.g. of CRT monitors, of flat displays
G06F 1/1626
For portable computers: with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
G06F 1/1652
Details related to the display arrangement, including those related to the mounting of the display in the housing: the display being flexible,…
G06F 1/1684
Constructional details or arrangements of portable computers not specific to the type of enclosures covered by groups G06F1/1615 - G06F1/1626:…