_l I 1—% IIF
Contents
1. 0025 FIG 5 presents a second embodiment of the tech nigues presented herein illustrated as an exemplary scenario 500 featuring an exemplary system 510 configured to present a user interface 302 that is dynamically adjusted based on an inference of a current context 206 of a current environment 506 of a user 102 of the device 502 The exemplary system 510 may be implemented e g as a set of interoperating components each respectively comprising a set of instruc tions stored in a memory component e g a memory circuit a solid state storage device a platter of a hard disk drive ora magnetic or optical device of a device 502 having an envi ronmental sensor 106 such that when the instructions are executed on a processor 504 of the device 502 cause the device 502 to apply the technigues presented herein The exemplary system 510 comprises a current context inferring component 512 configured to infer a current context 206 of the user 102 by receiving from the environmental sensor 106 at least one environmental property 202 of a current environ ment 506 of the user 102 and to from the at least one environmental property 202 infer a current context 206 of the user 102 e g according to the technigues presented in the exemplary scenario 200 of FIG 2 The exemplary system Jun 26 2014 510 further comprises a user interface presenting component 514 that is configured to for respective user interface ele ments 304 of the user2. FIG 5 USER INTERFACE PRESENTING COMPONENT kr 206 l 306 CURRENT SELECTED CONTEXT ELEMENT PRESENTATION 112 APPLICATION Patent Application Publication Jun 26 2014 Sheet 6 of 7 606 604 COMPUTER INSTRUCTIONS 01011010001010 10101011010101 101101011100 US 2014 0181715 A1 Patent Application Publication Jun 26 2014 Sheet 7 of 7 US 2014 0181715 A1 700 N 702 COMPUTING DEVICE i PROCESSORSET i l t l H 706 i STORAGE storage 712 PROCESSING lt UNIT OUTPUT DEVICE S 1 714 l INPUT DEVICE S MEMORY COMMUNICATION CONNECTION S 1 718 COMPUTING 720 DEVICE FIG 7 US 2014 0181715 Al DYNAMIC USER INTERFACES ADAPTED TO INFERRED USER CONTEXTS BACKGROUND 0001 Within the field of computing many scenarios involve devices that are used during a variety of physical activities As a first example a music player may play music while a user is sitting at a desk walking on a treadmill or jogging outdoors The environment and physical activity of the user may not alter the functionality of the device but it may be desirable to design the device for adequate perfor mance for a variety of environments and activities e g head phones that are both comfortable for daily use and sufficiently snug to stay in place during exercise As a second exampl
3. 102 is readily available for interaction or whether the user 102 may be only periodically interrupted and the input modalities that may be accessible to the user 102 e g whether the user 102 is available to receive visual output audial output or tactile output such as vibration and whether the user 102 is available to provide input through text manual touch device orientation voice or eye gaze An application 112 comprising a set ofuser interface elements may therefore be presented by selecting for respective user interface ele ments an element presentation that Is suitable for the current context of the user 102 Moreover this dynamic composition of the user interface may be performed automatically e g not in response to user input directed by the user 102 to the device 104 and specifying the user s current context and in a more sophisticated manner than directly using the environ mental properties which may be of limited value in selecting element presentations for the user 102 0021 FIG 2 presents an illustration of an exemplary sce nario 200 featuring an inference of a current context 206 ofa user 102 of a device 104 based on environmental properties 202 reported by respective environmental sensors 106 including an accelerometer and a global positioning system GPS receiver As a first example the user 102 may engage in a jogging context 206 while attached to the device 104 Even when the user 102 is not directly
4. 104 may delegate the inference to an external service e g the device 104 may send the environmental properties 202 to an external service which may return the context 206 inferred for such environmental properties 202 0044 As a fifth variation of this third aspect the accuracy ofthe inference 204 ofthe current context 206 may be refined during use by feedback mechanisms As a first such example respective contexts 206 may be associated with respective environmental properties 202 according to an environmental property significance indicating the significance of the envi ronmental property to the inference 204 ofthe current context 206 For example a device 104 may comprise an accelerom eter and a GPS receiver A vehicle riding context 206 may place higher significance on the speed detected by the GPS receiver than the accelerometer e g if the user device 104 is moving faster than speeds achievable by an unassisted human the vehicle riding context 206 may be automatically selected As a second such example a specific set of highly distinctive impulses may be indicative of a jogging context 206 at a variety of speeds and thus may place high signifi cance on the environmental properties 202 generated by the accelerometer than those generated by the GPS receiver The inference 204 performed by the classifier logic may accord ingly weigh the environmental properties 202 according to the environmental property significances for respe
5. 14 the environmental sensor comprising an environmental property guerying interface and the current context inferring component configured to receive the at least one environmental property by gue rying the environmental property guerying interface 16 The system of claim 14 the environmental sensor comprising an environmental property notification service and the current context inferring component configured to receive the at least one environmental property by reguesting the environmental property notification ser vice to send a notification to the current context infer ring component upon receiving an environmental property and receiving a notification of the environmental property from the environmental property notification service 17 The system of claim 14 the system further comprising a user profile of theuser and the current context inferring component configured to infer the current context of the user from the at least one environmental property and the user profile of the user 18 The system of claim 14 the system further comprising a context inference map identifying for respective at least one environmental properties the current context of the user and the current context inferring component configured to infer the current context of the user from the at least one environmental property and the context inference map 19 The system of claim 14 further comprising an appli cation selecting component con
6. OUTPUT VISUAL OUTPUT CONTEXT SITTING AAA 106 ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR GPS RECEIVER ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR ACCELEROMETER MODALITY 110 TOUCH INPUT 110 VISUAL OUTPUT ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR MICROPHONE Patent Application Publication Jun 26 2014 Sheet 4 of 7 US 2014 0181715 A1 400 N 402 START EXECUTE ON PROCESSOR INSTRUCTIONS CONFIGURED TO RECEIVE FROM ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR AT LEAST ONE ENVIRONMENTAL PROPERTY OF CURRENT ENVIRONMENT OF USER FROM ENVIRONMENTAL PROPERTIES INFER CURRENT CONTEXT OF USER FOR USER INTERFACE ELEMENTS OF USER INTERFACE FROM AT LEAST TWO ELEMENT PRESENTATIONS RESPECTIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH CONTEXT OF USER SELECT A SELECTED ELEMENT PRESENTATION THAT IS ASSOCIATED WITH CURRENT CONTEXT OF USER PRESENT SELECTED ELEMENT PRESENTATIONS OF USER INTERFACE ELEMENTS OF USER INTERFACE FIG 4 Patent Application Publication Jun 26 2014 Sheet 5 of 7 US 2014 0181715 A1 500 p 502 DEVICE 302 A 508 USER INTERFACE ELEMENT PRESENTATION SET 304 USER INTERFACE ELEMENT 1 304 USER INTERFACE ELEMENT 2 306 PRESENTATION 1 PRESENTATION 2 ELEMENT 206 206 ELEMENT 510 CURRENT CONTEXT INFERRING COMPONENT ENVIRONMENTAL PROPERTY 106 ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR 202 ENVIRONMENTAL PROPERTIES
7. context 206 Moreover the device 104 may present a visual transition therebetween e g upon a switching from a stationary context 206 to a mobile context 206 a mapping application may fade out a text entry user interface e g a text keyboard and fade in a visual control for a voice interface e g a list of recognized speech keywords These and other types of element presentations 306 may be selected for the user interface elements 304 of the user interface 302 in accor dance with the techniques presented herein E COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT 0051 FIG 7 and the following discussion provide a brief general description of a suitable computing environment to implement embodiments of one or more of the provisions set forth herein The operating environment of FIG 7 is only one example of a suitable operating environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the operating environment Example comput ing devices include but are not limited to personal comput ers server computers hand held or laptop devices mobile devices such as mobile phones Personal Digital Assistants US 2014 0181715 Al PDAs media players and the like multiprocessor systems consumer electronics mini computers mainframe comput ers distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices and the like 0052 Although not required embodiments are described in the general
8. context of computer readable instructions being executed by one or more computing devices Computer readable instructions may be distributed via computer read able media discussed below Computer readable instruc tions may be implemented as program modules such as func tions objects Application Programming Interfaces APls data structures and the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types Typically the func tionality of the computer readable instructions may be com bined or distributed as desired in various environments 0053 FIG 7 illustrates an example of a system 700 com prising a computing device 702 configured to implement one or more embodiments provided herein In one configuration computing device 702 includes at least one processing unit 706 and memory 708 Depending on the exact configuration and type of computing device memory 708 may be volatile such as RAM for example non volatile such as ROM flash memory etc for example or some combination ofthe two such as the processor set 704 illustrated in FIG 7 0054 In other embodiments device 702 may include additional features and or functionality For example device 702 may also include additional storage e g removable and or non removable including but not limited to mag netic storage optical storage and the like Such additional storage is illustrated in FIG 7 by storage 710 In one embodi ment com
9. features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims 0062 As used in this application the terms component module system interface and the like are generally intended to refer to a computer related entity either hard ware a combination of hardware and software software or software in execution For example acomponent may be but is not limited to being a process running on a processor a processor an object an executable a thread of execution a program and or a computer By way of illustration both an application running on a controller and the controller can be a component One or more components may reside within a process and or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and or distributed between two or more computers 0063 Furthermore the claimed subject matter may be implemented as a method apparatus or article of manufac US 2014 0181715 Al ture using standard programming and or engineering tech niques to produce software firmware hardware or any com bination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosed subject matter The term article of manufacture as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer readable device carrier or media Of course those skilled in the art will recognize many modifications may be made to this configuration without departing from the s
10. indicating a stroke of an append age to which the device 104 is attached and a speed exceeding typical jogging speeds As a sixth example a vehicle riding context 206 may be inferred from a background vibration e g created by uneven road surfaces and a high speed Moreover in some such examples the device 104 may further infer along with a vehicle riding physical activity at least one vehicle type that when the vehicle riding physical activity is performed by the user 102 while attached to the device and while the user 102 is riding in a vehicle of the vehicle type results in the environmental property 202 For example the US 2014 0181715 Al velocity rate ofacceleration and magnitude ofvibration may distinguish when the user 102 is riding on a bus ina car or on a motorcycle 0037 As a third variation of this second aspect many types of additional information may be evaluated together with the environmental properties 202 to infer the current context 206 of the user 102 As a first example the device 104 may have access to a user profile of the user 102 and may use the user profile to facilitate the inference of the current con text 206 of the user 102 For example if the user 102 is detected to be riding in a vehicle the device 104 may refer to a user profile of the user 102 to determine whether the user is controlling the vehicle or is only riding in the vehicle As a second example if the device 104 is configured to d
11. least one element presentation comprising a visual ele ment presentation to be presented on a display of the device and selecting the element presentation comprising for at least one visual element presentation selecting a visual size ofthe visual element presentation to be presented on the display of the device 11 The method of claim 6 at least one element presentation comprising a visual ele ment presentation to be presented on a display of the device and selecting the element presentation comprising for at least one visual element presentation selecting an element count of the user interface elements comprising the visual element presentation to be presented on the dis play ofthe device 12 The method of claim 6 at least one element presentation comprising a content presentation of content and selecting the element presentation comprising for at least one element presentation adjusting the content presentation of the content presented by the element presentation 13 The method of claim 6 the instructions further config ured to upon inferring a second current context that is differ ent from a first current context of the user for respective user interface elements ofthe user interface from at least two element presentations respectively associated with a context of the user select a selected second element presentation that is associated with the current context of the user the selected second element
12. may vary among embodiments of these technigues involves the architectures that may be uti lized to achieve the inference of the current context 206 of the user 102 0040 As a first variation of this third aspect the user interface 302 that is dynamically composited through the technigues presented herein may be attached to many types of processes such as the operating system a natively executing application and an application executing within a virtual machine or serviced by a runtime such as a web application executing within a web browser The user interface 302 may also be configured to present an interactive application such as a utility or game or a non interactive application such as a comparatively static web page with content adjusted according to the current context 206 of the user 102 0041 Asasecond variation of this third aspect the device 104 may achieve the inference 204 of the current context 206 of the user 102 through many types of notification mecha nisms As a first example the device may provide an environ mental property guerying interface and an application may e g at application launch and or periodically thereafter guery the environmental property guerying interface to receive the latest environmental properties 202 detected by the device 104 As a second example the device 104 may utilize an environmental property notification system that may be invoked to reguest with an environmental property Ju
13. 10 of FIG 5 In another such embodiment the processor executable instructions 506 may be configured to implement a system for inferring physical activities of a user based on environmental properties such as the exemplary system of FIG 5 Some embodiments of this computer readable medium may comprise a nontransitory computer readable storage medium e g a hard disk drive an optical disc or a flash memory device that is configured to store processor executable instructions configured in this manner Many such computer readable media may be US 2014 0181715 Al devised by those ofordinary skillin the art that are configured to operate in accordance with the techniques presented herein D VARIATIONS 0028 The techniques discussed herein may be devised with variations in many aspects and some variations may present additional advantages and or reduce disadvantages with respect to other variations ofthese and other techniques Moreover some variations may be implemented in combina tion and some combinations may feature additional advan tages and or reduced disadvantages through synergistic coop eration The variations may be incorporated in various embodiments e g the exemplary method 400 of FIG 4 and the exemplary system 510 of FIG 5 to confer individual and or synergistic advantages upon such embodiments 0029 DI Scenarios 0030 first aspect that may vary among embodiments of these technigues relates to the scenari
14. TION READING APPLICATION 114 TIME 20 36 114 DISTANCE 4 85 km OUTPUT 106 ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR GPS RECEIVER 106 ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR ACCELEROMETER 106 ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR MICROPHONE VISUAL OUTPUT Patent Application Publication Jun 26 2014 Sheet 2 of 7 US 2014 0181715 A1 ACCELEROMETER GPS RECEIVER 202 N gt gt gt gt gt 202 104 206 CURRENT CONTEXT JOGGING 727 GPS RECEIVER 202 gt gt gt GPS RECEIVER 202 202 104 206 CURRENT CONTEXT VEHICLE RIDING 102 106 106 ACCELEROMETER GPS RECEIVER 202 202 O OO j 204 206 CURRENT CONTEXT SITTING FIG 2 Patent Application Publication Jun 26 2014 Sheet 3 of 7 US 2014 0181715 A1 300 302 USER INTERFACE 304 304 304 DIRECTIONS MAP CONTROLS 302 USER INTERFACE 306 DIRECTIONS RIGHT ON RT 1 LEFT ON HWY 3 306 USER INTERFACE USER INTERFACE 306 306 DIRECTIONS DIRECTIONS TURN RIGHT TURN RIGHT 306 306 MAP 306 CONTROLS CONTROLS CONTROLS SEARCH FIND FUEL PAUSE STOP SHOW DIRECTIONS VIBRATE OUTPUT SPEECH 110 OUTPUT SPEECH INPUT DETAIL TEXT
15. US 20140181715A1 as United States a2 Patent Application Publication Pub No US 2014 0181715 Al Axelrod et al 43 Pub Date Jun 26 2014 54 71 72 73 21 22 51 DYNAMIC USER INTERFACES ADAPTED TO INFERRED USER CONTEXTS Applicant MICROSOFT CORPORATION Redmond WA US Elinor Axelrod Kfar Sirkin IL Hen Fitoussi Tel Aviv IL Inventors Microsoft Corporation Redmond WA US Assignee Appl No 13 727 137 Filed Dec 26 2012 Publication Classification Int Cl G06F 3 0484 2006 01 302 300 N USER INTERFACE 52 U S Cl CPC G06F 3 0484 2013 01 715 771 57 ABSTRACT A device comprising a set of environment detectors may detect various environmental properties e g location veloc ity and vibration and may infer from these environmental properties a current context ofthe user e g the user s atten tion availability privacy and accessible input and output modalities Based on the current context the device may adjust the presentation of various user interface elements of an application For example the velocity and vibration level detected by the device may enable an inference ofthe mode of transport of the user e g stationary walking jogging driv ing car or riding on a bus and each mode of transport may suggest the user s available input modality e g text touch speech or gaze tracking and or output modal
16. ay include speech user input 110 received through the microphone and speech output produced through a speaker while a visual modality 108 may comprise touch user input 110 received through a touch sensitive display component and visual output presented on the display In these ways the information provided by the environmental sensors 106 may be used to receive user input 110 from the user 102 and to output information to the user 102 In some such devices 104 the environmental sensors 106 may be specialized for user input 110 e g the microphone may be configured for par ticular sensitivity to receive voice input and to distinguish such voice input from background noise 0019 Moreover respective applications 112 may be adapted to present user interfaces that interact with the user 102 according to the context in which the application 112 is to beused As a first example the mapping application 112 may be adapted for use while traveling such as driving a car or riding a bicycle wherein the user s attention may be limited and touch based user input 110 may be unavailable but speech based user input is suitable The user interface may therefore present a minimal visual interface with a small set of large user interface elements 114 such as a simplified depic tion of a road and a directional indicator More detailed infor mation may be presented as speech output 118 and the appli cation 112 may communicate with the user 102 through sp
17. ccidental touching ofa touch sensitive display such as the palm of a device who is holding the device a wireless communication signal sensor configure to detect a wireless communication signal e g a cellular signal strength which may be indicative of the distance of the device 104 from a wireless communication signal source at a known location a gyroscope or accelerometer configured to detect a device orientation e g a tilt impulse or vibration level an optical sensor such as a camera configured to detect a visibility level e g an ambient light level a microphone configured to detect a noise level of the environment a magnetometer con figured to detect a magnetic field and a climate sensor con figured to detect a climate condition of the location of the device 104 such as temperature or humidity A combination of such environmental sensors 106 may enable a set of over lapping and or discrete environmental properties 202 that provide a more robust indication of the current context 206 of the user 102 These and other types of contexts 206 may be inferred in accordance with the techniques presented herein 0033 D2 Context Inference Properties Jun 26 2014 0034 second aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques relates to the types of information utilized to reach an inference 204 of a current context 206 from one or more environmental properties 202 0035 As a first variation of this second asp
18. ch interface an audible output modal ity e g a set of audible cues and a tactile output modality e g a vibration or heat indicator 0048 As a second variation of this fourth aspect at least one user interface element 304 comprising a visual element presentation that is presented on a display of the device 104 Jun 26 2014 may be visually adapted based on the current context 206 of the user 102 As a first example of this second variation the visual size of elements may be adjusted for presentation on the display e g adjusting a text size or adjusting the sizes of visual controls such as using small controls that may be precisely selected in a stationary environment and large con trols that may be selected in mobile inaccurate input envi ronments As a second example of this second variation the device 104 may adjust a visual element count of the user interface 302 in view of the current context 206 of the user 102 e g by showing more user interface elements 304 in contexts where the user 102 has plentiful available attention and a reduced set of user interface elements 304 in contexts where the attention of the user 102 is to be conserved 0049 Asa third variation of this fourth aspect the content presented by the device 104 may be adapted to the current context 206 of the user 102 As a first such example upon inferring a current context 206 of the user 102 the device 104 may select for presentation an applica
19. cope or spirit of the claimed subject matter 0064 Various operations of embodiments are provided herein In one embodiment one or more of the operations described may constitute computer readable instructions stored on one or more computer readable media which if executed by a computing device will cause the computing device to perform the operations described The order in which some or all ofthe operations are described should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent Alternative ordering will be appreciated by one skilled in the art having the benefit of this description Further it will be understood that not all operations are nec essarily present in each embodiment provided herein 0065 Moreover the word exemplary is used herein to mean serving as an example instance or illustration Any aspect or design described herein as exemplary is not nec essarily to be construed as advantageous over other aspects or designs Rather use of the word exemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion As used in this appli cation the term or is intended to mean an inclusive or rather than an exclusive or That is unless specified other wise or clear from context X employs A or B is intended to mean any ofthe natural inclusive permutations That is ifX employs A X employs B or X emplovs both A and B then X employs A or B is satisfied u
20. ctive con texts 206 These and other variations in the inference archi tectures may be selected according to the techniques pre sented herein 0045 D4 Element Presentation 0046 A fourth aspect that may vary among embodiments of these techniques relates to the selection and use of the element presentations of respective user interface elements 304 of a user interface 302 0047 Asa first variation of this fourth aspect at least one user interface element 304 may utilize a range of element presentations 306 reflecting different element input modali ties and or output modalities As a first such example in order to suit a particular current context 206 ofthe user 104 a user interface element 304 may present a text input modality e g a software keyboard amanual pointing input modality e g a point and click a device orientation input modality e g a tilt or shake interface a manual gesture input modality e g atouch or air gesture interface a voice input modality e g akeyword based or natural language speech interpreter and a gaze tracking input modality e g an eye tracking inter preter As a second such example in order to suit a particular current context 206 of the user 104 a user interface element 304 may present a textual visual output modality e g a body of text a graphical visual output modality e g a set of icons pictures or graphical symbols a voice output modal ity e g a text to spee
21. dance with the techniques presented herein 0011 FIG 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of inferring physical activities of a user based on environmental properties 0012 FIG 5 is a component block diagram illustrating an exemplary system for inferring physical activities of a user based on environmental properties US 2014 0181715 Al 0013 FIG 6 is an illustration of an exemplary computer readable medium comprising processor executable instruc tions configured to embody one or more ofthe provisions set forth herein 0014 FIG 7 illustrates an exemplary computing environ ment wherein one or more of the provisions set forth herein may be implemented DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0015 The claimed subject matter is now described with reference to the drawings wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout In the following description for purposes of explanation numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understand ing of the claimed subject matter It may be evident however that the claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details In other instances structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate describing the claimed subject matter A INTRODUCTION 0016 Within the field of computing many scenarios involve a mobile device operated by a user in a variety of contexts and environments As a f
22. djusted by the user to suit the user s current context 0005 However it may be appreciated that the user inter face of an application may be dynamically adjusted to suit the current context inferred about the user It may be appreciated that such adjustments may be selected not only in response to user input from the user and or the detected environment properties of the environment e g adapting the brightness in view of the detected ambient light level but also in view of the context of the user 0006 Presented herein are technigues for configuring a device to infer a current context of the user based on the environmental properties provided by the environmental sen sors and to adjust the user interface of an application to satisfy the user s inferred current context For example in contrast with adjusting the volume level of a device in view of a detected noise level of the environment the device may infer from the detected noise level the privacy level of the user e g whether the user is in a location occupied by other individuals or is alone and may adjust the user interface according to the inferred privacy as the current context of the user e g obscuring private user information while the user is in the presence of other individuals Given the wide range of current contexts of the user e g the user s location type privacy level available attention and accessible input and output modalities various user in
23. e a mobile device such as a phone may be used by a user who is stationary walking or riding in a vehicle The mobile computer may store a variety of applications that a user may wish to utilize in different contexts e g ajogging application that may track the user s progress during jogging and a reading application that the user may use while seated To this end the mobile device may also feature a set of environ mental sensors that detect various properties of the environ ment that are usable by the applications For example the mobile device may include a global positioning system GPS receiver configured to detect a geographical position altitude and velocity of the user and a gyroscope or accelerometer configured to detect a physical orientation of the mobile device This environmental data may be made available to respective applications which may utilize it to facilitate the operation of the application 0002 Additionally the user may manipulate the device as a form of user input For example the device may detect various gestures such as touching a display of the device shaking the device or performing a gesture in front of a camera of the device The device may utilize various environ mental sensors to detect some environmental properties that reveal the actions communicated to the device by theuser and may extract user input from these environmental properties SUMMARY 0003 This Summary is provided to int
24. e elements of the user inter face from at least two element presentations respec tively associated with a context of the user select a US 2014 0181715 Al selected element presentation that is associated with the current context of the user and present the selected element presentations of the user interface elements of the user interface 7 The method of claim 6 at least one environmental property comprising a location ofthe user and inferring the current context ofthe user comprising infer ring the current context after detecting a presence of the device atthe location for aduration exceeding a duration threshold 8 The method of claim 6 the instructions further configured to receive a second cur rent context ofa second user and inferring the current context ofthe user comprising infer ring the current context of the user from the at least one environmental property and the second current context ofthe second user 9 The method of claim 6 at least one environmental property comprising a location ofthe user and inferring the current context of the user comprising querying a service for at least one location descriptor describing the location of the user and inferring the current context of the user comprising inferring the current context of the user from the at least one environmental property and the at least one location descriptor describing the location ofthe user 10 The method of claim 6 at
25. ect the infer ence 204 of the current context 206 of the user 102 may include many types of current contexts 206 For example the inferred current context 206 may include the location type of the location of the device 104 e g whether the location of the user 102 and or device 104 is identified as the home of the user 102 the workplace of the user 102 a street a park or a particular type of store As a second example the inferred current context 206 may include a mode of transport of a user 102 who is in motion e g whether the user 102 is walking jogging riding a bicycle driving or riding a car riding on a bus or train or riding in an airplane As a third example the inferred current context 206 may include an attention avail ability of the user 102 e g whether the user 102 is idle and may be readily notified by the device 104 whether the user 102 is active such that interruptions by the device 104 are to be reserved for significant events and whether the user 102 is engaged in an uninterruptible activity such that element pre sentations 306 that interrupt the user 102 are to be avoided As a fourth example the inferred current context 206 may include a privacy condition of the user 102 e g if the user 102 is alone the device 104 may present sensitive informa tion and may utilize voice input and output but ifthe user 102 isin a crowded location the device 104 may avoid presenting sensitive information and may uti
26. eech based user input 110 e g voice activated commands detected by the microphone rather than touch based user input 110 that may be dangerous while traveling The appli cation 112 may even refrain from accepting any touch based input in order to discourage distractions As a second example the jogging application 112 may be adapted for the context of a user 102 with limited visual availability limited touch input availability and no speech input availability Accordingly the user interface may present a small set of large user interface elements 114 through text output 118 that may be received through a brief glance and a small set of large user interface controls 116 such as large buttons that may be activated with low precision touch input As a third example the reading application 112 may be adapted for a reading environment based on a visual modality 108 involv ing high visual output 118 and precise touch based user input 110 but reducing audial interactions that may be distracting in reading environments such as a classroom or library Accordingly the user interface for the reading application 112 may interact only through touch based user input 110 and textual user interface elements 114 such as highly detailed renderings of text In this manner respective applications 112 may utilize the environmental sensors 106 for environment based context and for user input 110 received from the user 102 and may present user interfaces
27. ement leading to an inference 204 of a vehicle riding context 206 As a fifth example when the user 102 is seated and stationary the accelerometer and GPS receiver may both indicate very low magnitude environmental properties 202 and the device 104 may reachan inference 204 ofa stationary context 206 In this manner a device 104 may infer the current context 206 of the user 102 based on the environmental properties 202 detected by the environmental sensors 106 0022 FIG 3 presents an illustration of an exemplary sce nario 300 featuring the use of an inferred current context 206 of the user 102 to achieve a dynamic context aware compo sition of a user interface 302 of an application 112 In this exemplary scenario 300 a user 102 may operate a device 104 having a set of environmental sensors 106 configured to detect various environmental properties 202 from which a current context 206 of the user 102 may be inferred More over various contexts 206 may be associated with various types of modalities 108 e g each context 206 may involve a selection of one or more forms of input 110 selected from set of input modalities 108 and or a selection of one or more forms of output 118 selected from a set of output modalities 108 0023 In view of this information the device 104 may present an application 112 comprising a user interface 302 comprising a set of user interface elements 304 such as a mapping application 112 involving a di
28. etect a geolocation the device 104 may distinguish between a tran sient presence at a particular location e g within a range of coordinates from a presence of the device 104 at the location for a duration exceeding a duration threshold For instance different types of inferences may be derived based on whether the user 102 passes through a location such as a store or remains at the store for more than a few minutes As a third example the device 104 may be configured to receive a sec ond current context 206 indicating the activity of a second user 102 e g a companion of the first user 102 and may infer the current context 206 of the first user 102 in view of the current context 206 of the second user 102 as well as the environmental properties of the first user 102 As a fourth example the device 104 that utilizes a geolocation of the user 102 may further identify the type of location e g by guery ing a mapping service with a reguest to provide at least one location descriptor describing the location of the user 102 e g a residence an office a store a public street a sidewalk ora park and upon receiving such location descriptors may infer the current context 206 of the user 102 in view of the location descriptors describing the user s location These and other types of information may be utilized in implementa tions of the techniques presented herein 0038 D3 Context Inference Architectures 0039 A third aspect that
29. figured to upon detecting a current context of the user select for presentation an applica tion that is associated with the current context of the user 20 The system of claim 14 the user interface presenting component configured to select the selected element presen tation by US 2014 0181715 Al 11 sending the current context of the user to an element pre sentation selecting service and receiving from the element presentation selecting service the selected element presentation for the current context ofthe user Jun 26 2014
30. g device 702 may be con nected by various interconnects such as a bus Such intercon nects may include a Peripheral Component Interconnect PCI such as PCI Express a Universal Serial Bus USB firewire IEEE 1394 an optical bus structure and the like In another embodiment components of computing device 702 may be interconnected by a network For example memory 708 may be comprised of multiple physical memory units located in different physical locations interconnected by a network 0060 Those skilled in the art will realize that storage devices utilized to store computer readable instructions may be distributed across a network For example a computing device 720 accessible via network 718 may store computer readable instructions to implement one ormore embodiments provided herein Computing device 702 may access comput ing device 720 and download a part or all of the computer readable instructions for execution Alternatively computing device 702 may download pieces of the computer readable instructions as needed or some instructions may be executed at computing device 702 and some at computing device 720 F USAGE OF TERMS 0061 Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and or methodologi cal acts it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the spe cific features or acts described above Rather the specific
31. he device to implement the techniques presented herein Such computer readable media may also include as a class of technologies that are distinct from computer readable storage media various types of communications media such as a signal that may be propa gated through various physical phenomena e g an electro magnetic signal a sound wave signal or an optical signal and in various wired scenarios e g via an Ethernet or fiber optic cable and or wireless scenarios e g a wireless local area network WLAN such as WiFi a personal area network PAN such as Bluetooth or a cellular or radio network and which encodes a set of computer readable instructions that when executed by a processor of a device cause the device to implement the techniques presented herein 0027 An exemplary computer readable medium that may be devised in these ways is illustrated in FIG 6 wherein the implementation 600 comprises a computer readable medium 602 e g a CD R DVD R or a platter of a hard disk drive on which is encoded computer readable data 604 This com puter readable data 604 in turn comprises a set of computer instructions 606 configured to operate according to the prin ciples set forth herein In one such embodiment the proces sor executable instructions 606 may be configured to perform a method of adjusting a user interface 302 inferring user context ofa user 102 based on environmental properties such as the exemplary method 5
32. icular application Furthermore to the extent that the terms includes having has with or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description or the claims such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term comprising Jun 26 2014 What is claimed is 1 A computer readable storage device comprising instruc tions that when executed on a processor of a device having an environmental sensor cause the device to present a user inter face to a user of the device by receiving from the environmental sensor at least one envi ronmental property of a current environment of the user from the at least one environmental property inferring a current context of the user for respective user interface elements of the user interface from at least two element presentations respectively associated with a context of the user selecting a selected element presentation that is associated with the current context of the user and presenting the selected element presentations of the user interface elements of the user interface 2 The computer readable storage device of claim 1 at least one of the environmental properties selected from an envi ronmental property set comprising a geolocation of the device an orientation of the device a velocity of the device a vibration level of the device a noise level of a location of the device and a visibility level of a location
33. interacting with the device 104 in the form of user input the environmental sensors 106 may detect various properties ofthe environment that enable an inference 204 of the current context 206 of the user 102 For example the accelerometer may detect environmental properties 202 indicating a modest repeating impulse caused by the user s footsteps while jogging while the GPS receiver also detects a speed that is within the typical speed of jogging context 206 Based on these environmental properties 202 the device 104 may therefore perform an inference 204 of the jogging context 206 of the user 102 As a second example the user 102 may perform a jogging exercise on a treadmill While the accelerometer may detect and report the same pattern of modest repeating impulses the GPS receiver may indicate that the user 102 is stationary The device 104 may therefore perform an evaluation resulting in an inference 204 of a treadmill jogging context 206 As a third example a walking context 206 may be inferred from a first environmen tal property 202 of a regular set of impulses having a lower magnitude than for the jogging context 206 and a steady but Jun 26 2014 lower speed direction of travel indicated by the GPS receiver Asa fourth example when the user 102 is seated on a moving vehicle such as a bus the accelerometer may detect a latent vibration e g based on road unevenness and the GPS receiver may detect high velocity directional mov
34. interface 302 from an element presen tation set 508 comprising at least two element presentations 306 that are respectively associated with a context 206 of the user 102 select a selected element presentation 306 that is associated with the current context 206 of the user 102 as inferred by the current context inferring component 512 and to present the selected element presentations 306 of the user interface elements 304 of the user interface 302 to the user 102 In this manner the interoperating components of the exemplary system 510 enable the presentation of the user interface 302 in a manner that is dynamically adjusted based on the inference of the current context 206 of the user 102 in accordance with the technigues presented herein 0026 Still another embodiment involves a computer read able medium comprising processor executable instructions configured to apply the techniques presented herein Such computer readable media may include e g computer read able storage media involving a tangible device such as a memory semiconductor e g semiconductor utilizing static random access memory SRAM dynamic random access memory DRAM and or synchronous dynamic random access memory SDRAM technologies a platter of a hard disk drive a flash memory device or a magnetic or optical disc such as a CD R DVD R or floppy disc encoding a set of computer readable instructions that when executed by a processor of a device cause t
35. irst example a music player may be operated by a user during exercise and travel as well as while stationary The music player may be designed to support use in variable environments such as providing solid state storage that is less susceptible to damage through move ment a transflective display that is visible in both indoor and outdoor environments and headphones that are both comfort able for daily use and that stay in place during rigorous exercise While not altering the functionality of the device between environments these features may promote the use of the mobile device in a variety of contexts As a second example a mobile device may offer a variety of applications that the user may utilize in different contexts such as travel oriented applications exercise oriented applications and sta tionary use applications Respective applications may be cus tomized for a particular context e g by presenting user interfaces that are well adapted to the use context 0017 FIG 1 presents an illustration of an exemplary sce nario 100 featuring a device 104 operated by a user 102 and usable in different contexts In this exemplary scenario 100 the device 104 features a mapping application 112 that is customized to assist the user 102 while traveling on a road such as by automobile or bicycle a jogging application 112 which assists the user 102 in tracking the progress of a jog ging exercise such as the duration of the jog the di
36. ity e g high detail visual simplified visual or audible and the applica tion may select and present corresponding element presenta tions for input and output user interface elements and or the detail of presented content 304 304 A 304 DIRECTIONS MAP CONTROLS 302 302 USER INTERFACE USER INTERFACE USER INTERFACE 306 306 306 DIRECTIONS DIRECTIONS DIRECTIONS RIGHT ON RT 1 TURN RIGHT TURN RIGHT URN RIG TURN RIG LEFT ON HWY 3 306 306 lt 306 MAP MAP 1 L 306 306 306 CONTROLS CONTROLS CONTROLS SEARCH FIND FUEL PAUSE STOP E SHOW DIREGTIONS 7 i 118 118 1 VIBRATE SPEECH 110 i OUTPUT 110 OUTPUT 110 27118 SPEECH TA TEXT BETA INPUT 118 BASIC INPUT OUTPUT VISUAL TEXT UTPU OUTPUT OUTPUT 206 i 206 N 206 CONTEXT DRIVING CONTEXT JOGGING CONTEXT SITTING T 108 MODALITY 110 SPEECH 106 102 INPUT ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR 110 GPS RECEIVER SPEECH 44 OUTPUT MA ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR lt 108 ACCELEROMETER MODALITY 1064 os ENVIRONMENTAL SENSOR MICROPHONE INPUT Sen 110 VISUAL OUTPUT Patent Application Publication Jun 26 2014 Sheet 1 of 7 US 2014 0181715 A1 kl 112 MAPPING APPLICATION JOGGING APPLICA
37. lize input and output modalities other than voice As a fifth example the device 104 may infer a physical activity of the user 102 that does not comprise user input directed by the user 102 to the device 104 such as a distinctive pattern of vibrations indicating that the user 102 is jogging 0036 As a second variation of this second aspect the techniques presented herein may enable the inference 204 of many types of contexts 206 of the user 102 As a first example a walking context 206 may be inferred from a regular set of impulses of a medium magnitude and or a speed of approxi mately four kilometers per hour As a second example a jogging context 206 may be inferred from a faster and higher magnitude set of impulses and or a speed of approximately six kilometers per hour As a third example a standing context 206 may be inferred from a zero velocity neutral impulse readings from an accelerometer a vertical tilt orientation of the device 104 and optionally a dark reading from a light sensor indicating the presence of the device in hip pocket while a sitting context 206 may provide similar environmen tal properties 202 but may be distinguished by a horizontal tilt orientation of the device 104 As a fourth example a swim ming physical activity may be inferred from an impedance metric indicating the immersion of the device 104 in water As a fifth example a bicycling context 206 may be inferred from a regular circular tilt motion
38. n 26 2014 notification service to receive detected environmental prop erties 202 An application may therefore register with the environmental property notification service and when an environmental sensor 106 detects an environmental property 202 the environmental property notification service may send a notification thereof to the application As a third example the device 104 may utilize a delegation architecture wherein an application specifies different types of user inter faces that are available for different contexts 206 e g an application manifest indicating the set of element presenta tions 306 to be used in different contexts 206 and an oper ating system or runtime of the device 104 may dynamically select and adjust the element presentations 306 of the user interface 302 of the application as the inference of the current context 206 of the user 102 is achieved and changes 0042 As a third variation of this third aspect the device 104 may utilize an external services to facilitate the inference 204 As a first interact with the user 102 to determine the context 206 represented by a set of environmental properties 202 For example if the environmental properties 202 are difficult to correlate with any currently identified context 206 or if the user 102 performs a currently identified context 206 in a peculiar or user specific manner that leads to difficult to infer environmental properties 202 the device 104 may ask
39. n a memory component ofthe device 104 e g amemory circuit a solid state storage device a platter of a hard disk drive or mag netic or optical device that when executed on a processor of the device cause the device to operate according to the tech nigues presented herein The exemplary method 400 begins at 402 and involves executing 404 the instructions on the pro cessor Specifically the instructions may be configured to receive 406 from the environmental sensor 106 at least one environmental property 202 of a current environment of the user 102 The instructions are also configured to from the at least one environmental property 202 infer 408 a current context 206 of the user 102 The instructions are also config ured to for respective user interface elements 304 of the user interface 302 from at least two element presentations 306 respectively associated with a context 206 of the user 102 select 410 a selected element presentation 306 that is associ ated with the current context 206 of the user 102 The instruc tions are also configured to present 412 the selected element presentations 306 of the user interface elements 304 of the user interface 302 By compositing the user interface 302 based on the inference of the context 206 of the user 102 from the environmental properties 202 provided by the environ mental sensors 106 the exemplary method 400 operates according to the technigues presented herein and so ends at 414
40. nder any of the foregoing instances In addition the articles a and an as used in this application and the appended claims may generally be con strued to mean one or more unless specified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singular form 0066 Also although the disclosure has been shown and described with respect to one or more implementations equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings The disclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and is limited only by the scope ofthe following claims In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described components e g elements resources etc the terms used to describe such components are intended to correspond unless otherwise indicated to any component which performs the specified function of the described component e g that is functionally eguivalent even though not structurally eguiva lent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary implementations of the dis closure In addition while a particular feature of the disclo sure may have been disclosed with respect to only one of several implementations such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other implementations as may be desired and advantageous for any given or part
41. of the device 3 The computer readable storage device of claim 1 the current context of the user selected from a current context set comprising a location type of the device a mode of transport of the user an attention availability of the user a privacy condition of the user and a physical activity of the user not comprising user input directed by the user to the device 4 The computer readable storage device of claim 1 at least one of the element presentations selected from an element input modality set comprising a text input modality a manual pointing input modality a device orientation input modality a manual gesture input modality a voice input modality and a gaze tracking input modality 5 The computer readable storage device of claim 1 at least one of the element presentations selected from an element output modality set comprising a textual visual output modality a graphical visual output modality a voice output modality an audible output modality and a tactile output modality 6 A method of presenting a user interface to a user of a device having a processor and an environmental sensor the method comprising executing on the processor instructions configured to receive from the environmental sensor at least one envi ronmental property of a current environment of the user from the at least one environmental property infer a current context of the user for respective user interfac
42. os wherein such tech nigues may be applied 0031 first variation of this first aspect the techniques presented herein may be used with many types of devices 104 including mobile phones tablets personal information man ager PIM devices portable media players portable game consoles and palmtop or wrist top devices Additionally these technigues may be implemented by a first device that is in communication with a second device that is attached to the user 102 and comprises the environmental sensors 106 The first device may comprise e g a physical activity identifying server which may evaluate the environmental properties 202 provided by the first device arrive at an inference 204 of a current context 206 and inform the first device of the inferred current context 206 0032 As a second variation of this first aspect the tech nigues presented herein may be used with many types of environmental sensors 106 providing many types of environ mental properties 202 about the environment of the user 102 For example the environmental properties 202 may be gen erated by one or more environmental sensors 106 selected from an environmental sensor set comprising a global posi tioning system GPS receiver configured to detect a geolo cation a linear velocity and or an acceleration a gyroscope configured to detect an angular velocity a touch sensor con figured to detect touch input that does not comprise user input e g an a
43. presentation comprising a different element presenta tion than a selected first element presentation selected for the first current context and Jun 26 2014 forrespective visual elements present a transition from the selected first element presentation for the first current context to the selected second element presentation for the second current context 14 A system for presenting a user interface to a user of a device having a processor a memory and an environmental sensor the system comprising a current context inferring component comprising instruc tions stored in the memory that when executed on the processor cause the device to infer a current context of the user by receiving from the environmental sensor at least one environmental property of a current environment of the user and from the at least one environmental property infer a current context ofthe user and a user interface presenting component comprising instruc tions stored in the memory that when executed on the processor cause the device to present the user interface to the user by for respective user interface elements of the user inter face from at least two element presentations respec tively associated with a context of the user select a selected element presentation that is associated with the current context of the user and present the selected element presentations of the user interface elements of the user interface 15 The system of claim
44. profile matching the environmental properties 202 in order to infer the current context 206 of the user 102 As a second such example the device 104 may comprise a set of one or more physical activity profiles that respectively indi cate a value or range of an environmental property 202 that may enable an inference 204 of the current context 206 e g a specified range of accelerometer impulses and speed indi cating a jogging context 206 The physical activity profiles may be generated by a user 102 automatically generated by one or more statistical correlation techniques and or a com bination thereof such as user manual tuning of automatically generated physical activity profiles The device 104 may then infer the current context 206 by comparing a set of collected environmental properties 202 with those of the physical activ ity profiles in order to identify a selected physical activity profile As a third such example the device 104 may comprise US 2014 0181715 Al an ad hoc classification technique e g an artificial neural network or a Bayesian statistical classifier For instance the device 104 may comprise atraining data set that identifies sets of environmental properties 202 as well as the context 206 resulting in such environmental properties 202 The classifier logic may be trained using the training data set until it is capable ofrecognizing such contexts 206 with an acceptable accuracy As a fourth such example the device
45. puter readable instructions to implement one or more embodiments provided herein may be in storage 710 Storage 710 may also store other computer readable instruc tions to implement an operating system an application pro gram and the like Computer readable instructions may be loaded in memory 708 for execution by processing unit 706 for example 0055 Theterm computer readable media as used herein includes computer storage media Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile removable and non remov able media implemented in any method or technology for storage ofinformation such as computer readable instructions or other data Memory 708 and storage 710 are examples of computer storage media Computer storage media includes but is not limited to RAM ROM EEPROM flash memory or other memory technology CD ROM Digital Versatile Disks DVDs or other optical storage magnetic cassettes mag netic tape magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by device 702 Any such computer storage media may be part of device 702 0056 Device 702 may also include communication con nection s 716 that allows device 702 to communicate with other devices Communication connection s 716 may include but is not limited to a modem a Network Interface Card NIC an integrated network interface a radio fre quency transmi
46. re easy to view and activate while jogging As a third example the mapping application 112 may be operated in a stationary context 206 such as while sitting at a workstation and plan ning a trip in which the user input 110 of the user 102 is robustly available as text input and highly accurate pointing controls and the output 118 of the user interface 302 involves detailed text and high guality visual output The directions user interface element 304 may be presented as a detailed textual description of directions the mapping user interface US 2014 0181715 Al element 304 may present a highly detailed and interactive map and the controls user interface element 306 may involve a sophisticated set of user interface controls providing exten sive map interaction In this manner the user interface 302 of the application 112 may be dynamically composed based on the current context 206 ofthe user 102 which in turn may be automatically inferred from the environmental properties 202 detected by the environmental sensors 106 in accordance with the techniques presented herein C EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 0024 FIG 4 presents a first exemplary embodiment of the techniques presented herein illustrated as an exemplary method 400 of presenting a user interface 302 to auser 102 of a device 104 having a processor and an environmental sensor 106 The exemplary method 400 may be implemented e g as a set ofprocessor executable instructions stored i
47. rections user interface element 304 a map user interface element 304 and a controls user interface element 304 In view of the inferred current context 206 of the user 102 the device 104 may select for each user interface element 304 an element presentation 306 that is suitable for the context 206 As a first example the mapping application 112 may be operated in a driving context 206 in which the user input 110 of the user 102 is limited to speech and the output 118 of the user interface 302 involves speech and simplified driving oriented visual output The directions user interface element 304 may be presented as voice directions the mapping user interface element 304 may present a simplified map with driving directions and the controls user interface element 306 may involve a non visual speech analysis technigue As a second example the mapping application 112 may be operated in a jogging context 206 in which the user input 110 of the user 102 is limited to com paratively inaccurate touch and the output 118 of the user interface 302 involves vibration and simplified pedestrian oriented visual output The directions user interface element 304 may be presented as vibrational directions e g buzzing once for a left turn and twice for a right turn the mapping user interface element 304 may present a simplified map with pedestrian directions and the controls user interface element 306 may involve large buttons and large text that a
48. roduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description This Summary is not intended to identify key factors or essential features of the claimed subject matter nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter 0004 While respective applications of a mobile device may utilize environmental properties received from environ mental sensors in various ways it may be appreciated that this environmental information is typically used to indicate the status of the device e g the geolocation and orientation of the device may be utilized to render an augmented reality application and or the status of the environment e g an ambient light sensor may detect a local light level in order to adjust the brightness of the display However this informa tion is not typically utilized to determine the current context of the user For example when the user transitions from walking to riding in a vehicle the user may manually switch from a first application that is suitable for the context of walking e g a pedestrian mapping application to a second application that is suitable for the context of riding e g a driving directions mapping application While each applica tion may use environmental properties in the current context Jun 26 2014 of the user the user interface of an application is typically presented statically until and unless explicitly a
49. stance traveled and the user s and a reading application 112 which may present documents to a user 102 that are suitable for a stationary reading experience The device 104 may also feature a set of environmental sensors 106 such as a global positioning system GPS receiver configured to identify a position altitude and velocity of the device 104 an acceler ometer or gyroscope configured to detect a tilt orientation of the device 104 anda microphone configured to receive sound input Additionally respective applications 112 may be con figured to utilize the information provided by the environ mental sensors 106 For example the mapping application 112 may detect the current location of the device in order to display a localized map the jogging application 112 may detect the current speed of the device 104 through space in order to track distance traveled and the reading application Jun 26 2014 112 may use a light level sensor to detect the light level of the environment and to setthe brightness of a display component for comfortable viewing of the displayed text 0018 Additionally respective applications 112 may present different types of user interfaces that are customized based on the context in which the application 112 is to be used Such customization may include the use of the environ mental sensors 106 to communicate with the user 102 through a variety of modalities 108 For example a speech modality 108 m
50. terface elements of the user interface may be selected from at least two element presen tations e g a user input modality may be selected from a text touch voice and gaze modalities Many types of cur rent contexts of the user may be inferred based on many types of environmental properties may enable the selection among many types of dynamic user interface adjustments in accor dance with the techniques presented herein 0007 To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends the following description and annexed drawings set forth certain illustrative aspects and implementations These are indicative of but a few of the various ways in which one or more aspects may be employed Other aspects advantages and novel features of the disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the annexed drawings DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0008 FIG 1 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring a device comprising a set of environmental sensors and configured to execute a set of applications 0009 FIG 2 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring an inference of a physical activity of a user through environmental properties according to the techniques pre sented 0010 FIG 3 is an illustration of an exemplary scenario featuring a dynamic composition of a user interface using element presentations selected for the current context of the user in accor
51. that are well adapted to the context in which the application 112 is to be used B PRESENTED TECHNIOUES 0020 The exemplary scenario 100 of FIG 1 presents sev eral advantageous uses of the environmental sensors 106 to US 2014 0181715 Al facilitate the applications 112 and several adaptations of the user interface elements 114 and user interface controls 116 of respective applications 112 to suit the context in which the application 112 is likely to be used In particular as used in the exemplary scenario 100 of FIG 1 the environmental properties detected by the environmental sensors 106 may be interpreted as the status ofthe device 104 e g its position or orientation the status of the environment e g the local sound level or explicit communication with the user 102 e g touch based or speech based user input 110 However the environmental properties may also be used as a source of information about the context ofthe user 102 while using the device 104 For example while the device 104 is attached to the user 102 the movements ofthe user 102 and environmen tal changes caused thereby may enable an inference about various properties of the location of the user including the type of location the presence and number of other individuals in the proximity of the user 102 which may enable an infer ence of the privacy level of the user 102 the attention avail ability ofthe user 102 e g whether the attention ofthe user
52. the user 102 or a third user e g as part of a mechanical Turk solution to identify the current context 206 resulting in the reported environmental properties 202 Upon receiving a user identification of the current context 206 the device 104 may adjust the classifier logic in order to achieve a more accurate identification of the context 206 of the user 102 upon next encountering similar environmental properties 202 0043 As a fourth variation of this third aspect the infer ence of the current context 206 may be automatically achieved through many technigues As a first such example a system may comprise a context inference map that correlates respective set of environmental properties 202 with a context 206 of the user 102 The context inference map may be provided by an external service specified by a user or auto matically inferred and the device 104 may store the context inference and refer to it to infer the current context 206 of the user 104 from the current set of environmental properties 202 This variation may be advantageous e g for enabling a computationally efficient detection that reduces the ad hoc computation and expedites the inference for use in realtime environments As a first such example the device 104 may utilize one or more physical activity profiles that are config ured to correlate environmental properties 202 with a current context 206 and that may be invoked to select a physical activity
53. tion that is suitable for the current context 206 e g either by initiating an applica tion matching that context 206 by bringing an application associated with that context 206 to the foreground or simply by notifying an application 206 associated with the context 206 that the context 206 has been inferred As a second such example the content presented by the user interface 302 may be adapted to suit the inferred current context 206 of the user 102 For example the content presentation of one or more element presentations 306 may be adapted e g by present ing more extensive information when the attention of the user 102 is readily available and by presenting a reduced and or relevance filtered set of information when the attention of the user 102 is to be conserved e g by summarizing the infor mation or presenting only the information that is relevant to the current context 206 of the user 102 0050 As a fourth variation of this fourth aspect as the inference of the context 206 changes from a first current context 206 to a second current context 206 the device 102 may dynamically recompose the user interface 302 of an application to suit the different current contexts 206 of the user 104 For example for a particular user interface element 304 the user interface may switch from a first element pre sentation 306 suitable for the first current context 206 to a second element presentation 306 suitable for the second current
54. tter receiver an infrared port a USB connec tion or other interfaces for connecting computing device 702 to other computing devices Communication connection s 716 may include a wired connection or a wireless connection Communication connection s 716 may transmit and or receive communication media Jun 26 2014 0057 The term computer readable media may include communication media Communication media typically embodies computer readable instructions or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other trans port mechanism and includes any information delivery media The term modulated data signal may include a sig nal that has one or more ofits characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal 0058 Device 702 may include input device s 714 such as keyboard mouse pen voice input device touch input device infrared cameras video input devices and or any other input device Output device s 712 such as one or more displays speakers printers and or any other output device may also be included in device 702 Input device s 714 and output device s 712 may be connected to device 702 via a wired connec tion wireless connection or any combination thereof Inone embodiment an input device or an output device from another computing device may be used as input device s 714 or output device s 712 for computing device 702 0059 Components of computin
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