Mobile terminal and method for determining antenna

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10178212-B2
Application number	US-201715489226-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2017
Priority date	Apr 25, 2016
Publication date	Jan 8, 2019
Grant date	Jan 8, 2019

Abstract

A mobile terminal and an antenna determining method are provided. The mobile terminal includes a housing, a processor, at least two antennas and at least two pressure sensors. The pressure sensors are configured to acquire values of pressures applied to a surface of the housing and send the acquired pressure values to the processor; the processor is configured to receive pressure values sent by the pressure sensors, to determine at least one contact position between a user and the mobile terminal based on pressure values sent by at least one of one or more first side pressure sensors and at least one of one or more second side pressure sensors, to determine an antenna to receive or send signals from the at least two antennas based on the at least one contact position.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A mobile terminal comprising:
a housing comprising a first side frame and a second side frame;
a processor disposed at least partially in the housing; and
at least two antennas and at least two pressure sensors arranged at two sides of the mobile terminal, wherein the at least two antennas and the at least two pressure sensors are connected with the processor respectively;
wherein one or more first side pressure sensors among the at least two pressure sensors are arranged on a surface of a first side frame of the housing, and one or more second side pressure sensors among the at least two pressure sensors are arranged on a surface of a second side frame of the housing, the second side frame opposing the first side frame;
wherein the at least two pressure sensors are configured to acquire values of pressures applied to a surface of the housing and send the acquired pressure values to the processor;
wherein the processor is configured to receive pressure values sent by the pressure sensors and to determine at least one contact position between a user and the mobile terminal based on pressure values; and
wherein one of the at least two antennas is selected as a preferred antenna and the preferred antenna has a higher transmission power than the other antennas;
wherein the processor is configured to establish a coordinate system, and statistically process the at least one contact position to obtain a central contact position of the at least one contact position in the coordinate system, and to determine the furthest antenna from the central contact position among the at least two antennas as the antenna to receive or send signals.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 , where the processor is further configured to determine the at least one contact position based on pressure values sent by at least one of the first side pressure sensors and at least one of the second side pressure sensors, and to determine an antenna to receive or send signals from the at least two antennas based on the at least one contact position.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 , where the processor is further configured to receive or send signals using the preferred antenna.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to, when it is determined that pressure values sent by at least one of the first side pressure sensors and at least one of the second side pressure sensors at a current time point are different from those sent at a last time point, determine sensing positions of the at least one of the first side pressure sensors and the at least one of the second side pressure sensors as the contact positions between the user and the mobile terminal.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to, when it is determined that pressure values sent by at least one of the first side pressure sensors and at least one of the second side pressure sensors belong to a preset set of pressure values, determine sensing positions of the at least one of the first side pressure sensors and the at least one of the second side pressure sensors as the contact positions between the user and the mobile terminal, wherein the preset set of pressure values is set according to pressure values generated when a human presses the housing surface of the mobile terminal.

6. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to, when it is determined that pressure values sent by at least one of the first side pressure sensors and at least one of the second side pressure sensors at a current time point are different from those sent at a last time point and belong to a preset set of pressure values, determine sensing positions of the at least one of the first side pressure sensors and the at least one of the second side pressure sensors as the contact positions between the user and the mobile terminal, wherein the preset set of pressure values is set according to pressure values generated when a human presses the housing surface of the mobile terminal.

7. The mobile terminal according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to actuate the at least two pressure sensors when receiving a service request for receiving or sending a signal.

8. A method, comprising:
acquiring, by a mobile terminal comprising a housing including a first side frame and a second side frame opposing each other, values of pressures applied to the housing by at least two pressure sensors arranged at two sides of the mobile terminal, wherein one or more first side pressure sensors among the at least two pressure sensors are arranged on the first side frame of the mobile terminal, and one or more second side pressure sensors among the at least two pressure sensors are arranged on the second side frame of the mobile terminal;
determining at least one contact position between a user and the mobile terminal, based on pressure values acquired by at least one of the first side pressure sensors and at least one of the second side pressure sensors; and
selecting an antenna as a preferred antenna from the at least two antennas based on the at least one contact position wherein the preferred antenna has a higher transmission power than the other antennas,
wherein determining the antenna to receive or send signals from the at least two antennas based on the at least one contact position comprises:
establishing a coordinate system, and statistically processing the at least one contact position to obtain a central contact position of the at least one contact position in the coordinate system; and
determining the furthest antenna from the central contact position among the at least two antennas as the antenna to receive or send signals.

9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising: using the preferred antenna to receive or send signals.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein determining the at least one contact position between the user and the mobile terminal based on the pressure values acquired by the at least one of the first side pressure sensors and the at least one of the second side pressure sensors comprises:
if it is determined that pressure values acquired by at least one of the first side pressure sensors and at least one of the second side pressure sensors at a current time point are different from those acquired at a last time point, determining sensing positions of the at least one of the first side pressure sensors and the at least one of the second side pressure sensors as the contact positions between the user and the mobile terminal.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein determining the at least one contact position between the user and the mobile terminal based on the pressure values acquired by the at least one of the first side pressure sensors and the at least one of the second side pressure sensors comprises:
when it is determined that pressure values acquired by at least one of the first side pressure sensors and at least one of the second side pressure sensors belong to a preset set of pressure values, determining sensing positions of the at least one of the first side pressure sensors and the at least one of the second side pressure sensors as the contact positions between the user and the mobile terminal, wherein the preset set of pressure values is set according to pressure values generated when a human presses the housing surface of the mobile terminal.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein determining the at least one contact position between the user and the mobile terminal based on the pressure values acquired by the at least one of the first side pressure sen

Assignees

• Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co Ltd

Inventors

• Dai Lin
• Cui Hengbin
• Xiong Dawei

Classifications

• H04M2250/12

  including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion · CPC title

• H04B1/3833 Primary

  Hand-held transceivers · CPC title

• H01Q1/242

  specially adapted for hand-held use · CPC title

• H04M1/725 Primary

  Cordless telephones (user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724) · CPC title

• H01Q1/245

  with means for shaping the antenna pattern, e.g. in order to protect user against rf exposure · CPC title