User-aware remote control for shared devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020037018-A1
Application number	US-201916243717-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 9, 2019
Priority date	Jul 25, 2018
Publication date	Jan 30, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

An apparatus and method for a user-aware remote control for a shared device, such as a computing device, is provided herein. The computing device includes a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver is configured to communicate with a remote control. The processor is configured to: receive, from the remote control, identification data for a user of the computing device, the identification data for the user being generated at the remote control based on biometric information associated with the user received at the remote control; identify, based on the identification data, at least one application associated with the user; retrieve, based on the identification data, personalized application information associated with the user and applicable to the at least one application; and apply the personalized application information to the at least one application.

First claim

1 . A method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device operable with a remote control, identification data for a user of the computing device, the identification data for the user being generated at the remote control based on biometric information associated with the user received at the remote control; receiving, from the remote control, second identification data for a second user of the computing device, the second identification data for the second user being generated at the remote control based on biometric information associated with the second user received at the remote control; identifying, by the computing device, based on both the received identification data and the received second identification data, at least one application associated with both the user and the second user and operable at the computing device; retrieving, by the computing device, based on the received identification data and the received second identification date, personalized application information associated with the user and second personalized application information associated with the second user and applicable to the at least one application; and applying, by the computing device, the personalized application information and the second personalized application information to the at least one application operable at the computing device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by the computing device, based on the biometric information associated with the user, the at least one application from a plurality of applications associated with different biometrics of the user; retrieving, by the computing device, based on the biometric information associated with the user, biometric personalized application information associated with the user and applicable to the at least one application; and applying, by the computing device, the biometric personalized application information to the at least one application operable at the computing device.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the personalized application information associated with the user and the second personalized application information associated with the second user are applied to the at least one application for at least a partially overlapping time duration.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, based on the identification data, at least one setting associated with the user and applicable to the computing device; retrieving, based on the identification data, preference data associated with the user and applicable to the at least one setting; and applying the preference data to the at least one setting.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein:
the personalized application information and the preference data associated with the user are stored remote from the remote control, and the biometric information associated with the user is utilized locally at the remote control.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein:
the personalized application information and the preference data associated with the user are stored at one or more cloud servers remote from the remote control, and the personalized application information and the preference data associated with the user are accessible from the one or more cloud servers, based on the identification data, by the computing device and by at least one other computing device.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the personalized application information associated with the user includes a previous state at which the user was utilizing the at least one application.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the at least one application includes a multimedia streaming application, and the previous state includes a view progress of the user within the multimedia streaming application.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one application is identified based on having an account associated with the user, and applying the personalized application information to the at least one application operable at the computing device includes executing the at least one application at the computing device and logging the user into the account at the at least one application.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the biometric information associated with the user includes at least one of a finger geometry, a hand geometry, a bone configuration, a tissue configuration, a fat configuration, a vocal representation, a facial representation, a retina representation, an iris representation, or a heart rate representation.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device includes at least one of a mobile device, a smart TV, a smart media player, or a smart home appliance.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the identification data is secured based on applying a hash function with a hash key.

13 . A computing device comprising:
a transceiver configured to communicate with a remote control; and a processor configured to:
receive, from the remote control, identification data for a user of the computing device, the identification data for the user being generated at the remote control based on biometric information associated with the user received at the remote control;
receive, from the remote control, second identification data for a second user of the computing device, the second identification data for the second user being generated at the remote control based on biometric information associated with the second user received at the remote control;
identify, based on both the received identification data and the received second identification data, at least one application associated with both the user and the second user;
retrieve, based on the received identification data and the received second identification date, personalized application information associated with the user and second personalized information associated with the second user and applicable to the at least one application; and
apply the personalized application information and the second personalized information to the at least one application.

14 . The computing device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
identify, based on the biometric information associated with the user, the at least one application from a plurality of applications associated with different biometrics of the user; retrieve, based on the biometric information associated with the user, biometric personalized application information associated with the user and applicable to the at least one application; and apply the biometric personalized application information to the at least one application operable at the computing device.

15 . The computing device of claim 13 , wherein the personalized application information associated with the user and the second personalized application information associated with the second user are applied to the at least one application for at least a partially overlapping time duration.

16 . The computing device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
identify, based on the identification data, at least one setting associated with the user; retrieve, based on the identification data, preference data associated with the user and applicable to the at least one setting; and apply the preference data to the at least one setting.

17 . The computing device of claim 16 , wherein:
the personalized application information and the preference data associated with the user are stored remote from the remote control, and the biometric information associated with the user is utilized locally at the remot

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Perdices-Gonzalez Sergio
• Estruch Tena Marc
• Cho Jun Yeon
• Ortega Avila Santiago
• Thrun Jack

Classifications

• H04L67/125

  involving control of end-device applications over a network · CPC title

• H04N21/42201

  biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user (input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015) · CPC title

• H04L67/04

  specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04N21/4751

  for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children · CPC title