Method and system for managing applications running on smart device using a wearable device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017017451-A1
Application number	US-201615211605-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 15, 2016
Priority date	Jul 17, 2015
Publication date	Jan 19, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method and a system for managing applications running on one or more smart devices are provided. The method includes displaying a plurality of application icons on a wearable device, wherein each icon from the plurality of application icons represents an active application on the smart device connected to the wearable device, receiving a touch gesture on one or more application icons from the plurality of icons, and triggering the smart device to perform an event comprising an interaction between the active applications represented by the one or more application icons in response to the touch gesture.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for managing applications running on a smart device, the method comprising:
displaying a plurality of application icons on a wearable device, wherein each icon from the plurality of application icons represents an active application on the smart device connected to the wearable device; receiving a touch gesture on one or more application icons of the plurality of application icons; and triggering the smart device to perform an event comprising an interaction between the active applications represented by the one or more application icons in response to the touch gesture.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein triggering the smart device to perform an event comprises switching control feature between an application mode and a priority mode on receiving the touch gesture.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the application mode is used to transmit one or more of the active applications to one of a foreground application and a background application of the smart device.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the priority mode is used to assign user priority to the one or more active applications based on predefined instruction.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein hardware and software resources of the smart device are shared among the active applications based on the priority assigned by the user, wherein a top priority application gets more resources compared to a relatively lower priority application.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the touch gesture, for triggering the smart device to perform an event, comprises at least one of:
pinching and bringing icons of a first incoming call and a second incoming call together to merge both the calls into a conference call; pressing an icon for a predefined period and dragging to a first priority quadrant of a display of the wearable device to split screen of the smart device; pinching and bringing icons of two browsers displaying on two priority quadrants together in one of a priority quadrant to open all the tabs in one browser on the smart device and close the other browser based on predefined instruction; pinching and bringing icons of a memo application and an email application together to transmit the memo as an attachment in an e-mail of the email application; pinching and zooming an application icon to terminate one or more remaining active applications in the smart device; pinching and bringing icons of a music icon and web browser together to search details of a currently playing song on the web browser; tapping twice on the music icon displaying on one of the priority quadrant for changing the music tracks running on the smart device; dragging a program icon to the first priority quadrant to change a running program on a smart television (TV); pressing a program icon for a predefined period and dragging to the first priority quadrant to split display screen of a smart TV; and tapping twice on an icon of a TV channel for opening channel settings thereby allowing user to change the channel settings, wherein a display of the smart device is divided into at least four priority quadrants representing the first priority quadrant, a second priority quadrant, a third priority quadrant, and a fourth priority quadrant.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more active applications on the smart device are merged based on receiving a predefined gesture on the wearable device to perform one or more functions on the smart device based on predefined configuration.

8 . An electronic device comprising:
a touch screen; a memory; and a processor electrically connected to the touch screen and the memory, wherein the memory is configured to store instructions that allow the processor, at the time of execution, to:
control at least one icon that:
corresponds to at least one application being executed by an external electronic device, or
corresponds to a notification to be displayed on the touch screen according to a priority order, and

transmit, to the external electronic device, a command configured to perform, by the external electronic device, an event associated with the application or the notification corresponding to an icon having received a touch gesture, in response to the touch gesture received by one or more icons of at least one icon.

9 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the touch gesture comprises at least one of swapping and tapping, pinching and bringing multiple icons together, pinching and zooming an icon, tapping an icon twice, and dragging an icon in a direction of another icon after pressing the icon during a certain time.

10 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the event comprises changing a priority order with respect to an application or notification corresponding to an icon having received the touch gesture, in response to the touch gesture.

11 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the event comprises converting an application corresponding to an icon having received the touch gesture into one of a foreground application and a background application.

12 . The electronic device of claim 8 ,
wherein the at least one icon comprises a first icon corresponding to a first call received by the external electronic device from outside and a second icon corresponding to a second call, and wherein the event comprises changing a priority order of the first call and the second call such that one of the first call and the second call is picked up and the other maintains an on-hold state, in response to a touch gesture received by the first icon or the second icon.

13 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the event comprises combining the first call and the second call into a single conference call, in response to a touch gesture received by the first icon and the second icon.

14 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the event comprises terminating an application corresponding to another icon except for an icon having received the touch gesture.

15 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the event comprises performing a function configured for each application, by an application corresponding to an icon having received the touch gesture.

16 . The electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the event comprises dividing, by the external electronic device, a screen so as to display screens of multiple applications together, which correspond to multiple icons having received the touch gesture.

17 . The electronic device of claim 8 ,
wherein, when the external electronic device comprises a smart television (TV), the at least one icon comprises an icon corresponding to a channel of the smart TV, and wherein the event comprises at least one of changing a channel displayed by the smart TV, dividing a screen of the smart TV to display multiple channels, and changing a channel configuration of the smart TV.

18 . The electronic device of claim 8 ,
wherein the at least one icon comprises a first icon and a second icon, and wherein the event comprises:
extracting information relating to a first application corresponding to the first icon, in response to a touch gesture received by the first icon and the second icon, and
applying the extracted information to a second application corresponding to the second icon so as to provide a function of the second application.

19 . A method for an electronic device, the method comprising:
displaying, on a touch screen of the electronic device, at least one icon that corresponds to at least one application being executed by

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sathyanarayana Raghu Nandan
• Agarwal Sanjay Kumar
• PAULRAJ Karthik
• Veerabhadraiah Asha
• ASOKAN Mukunth

Classifications

• G06F2203/04808

  Several contacts: gestures triggering a specific function, e.g. scrolling, zooming, right-click, when the user establishes several contacts with the surface simultaneously; e.g. using several fingers or a combination of fingers and pen · CPC title

• G06F2203/04803

  Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas · CPC title

• G06F3/04883

  for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text · CPC title

• H04L51/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B1/385 Primary

  Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets · CPC title