WO2003007584A1

WO2003007584A1 - Removable device cover

Info

Publication number: WO2003007584A1
Application number: PCT/GB2002/003149
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gavin Robert Ferris
Original assignee: CRESCENT ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd
Current assignee: CRESCENT ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd
Priority date: 2001-07-09
Filing date: 2002-07-09
Publication date: 2003-01-23
Anticipated expiration: 2004-01-09
Also published as: GB0116696D0

Abstract

A removable device cover for an electronic device comprises a masked common ground electrical contact system to identify the cover to the device. The device cover can be swapped with other device covers, each device cover providing different, pre-defined features or functions; the device itself determines the appropriate features or functions using identifying information provided by the masked common ground electrical contact system. A masked, common ground electrical contact system (found for example on 35mm film cassettes to label the speed of the film) is extremely cheap to mass produce and is very robust and reliable.

Description

REMOVABLE DEVICE COVER

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a removable device cover. In particular, it relates to a device cover for an electronic device, in which the device cover is removable and can be swapped with other device covers, each device cover providing different, pre-defined functions. It finds particular application in removable covers for mobile telephones.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

In recent years it has become increasingly common for users of mobile phones to personalise these devices through the use of removable clip-on covers. These generally do not affect the operation of the phone itself, but serve a purely aesthetic function. It is also known to provide a mobile telephone removable cover with an identity that can be detected by the phone to which it is attached, and in consequence of which the phone's behaviour can be modified in response to the presence (or absence) of the cover. For example, reference may be made to EP 1091540 (Nokia) which shows a removable cover which includes an intelligent microprocessor based ID unit: the unit engages in a handshake with the phone itself in order to verify the authenticity of the cover. EP 1091540 also shows using simple mechanical pins on the cover which set micro-switches on the phone itself.

Reference may also be made to WO 97/44912 (Ericsson Inc), which shows a removable mobile telephone cover; the cover includes a 'jumper' block, with holes to receive small pins. The specific arrangement of pins placed into the jumper block in the cover can be determined by the telephone itself and sets the functions offered by the telephone. This approach is also found in US 5023936 (General Electric Company). The disadvantage of these prior art schemes is that they are relatively expensive to manufacture and can be delicate. For mass market, removable telephone covers, these are major problems, particularly since such covers are designed to be used by teenagers.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

In a first aspect of the invention, a removable device cover for an electronic device comprises a masked common ground electrical contact system to identify the cover to the device. The device cover can be swapped with other device covers, each device cover providing different, pre-defined features or functions; the device itself determines the appropriate features or functions using identifying information provided by the masked common ground electrical contact system.

A masked, common ground electrical contact system (found for example on DX coded 35mm film cassettes to label the ASA speed of the film) is simply a thin conductive strip (the common ground) over which a low conductivity paint mask or sticker is applied. The pattern of low conductivity paint or the sticker is measured through detected common closure of a set of electrical contacts pressed onto the non-insulated parts of the conductive marker — a simple and robust approach. The related features or functions associated with the unique pattern is then determined by software on the device itself. Such masked, common ground electrical contact systems are extremely cheap to mass produce and are very robust and reliable; they therefore overcome the major problems of the prior art. The invention allows for the cheap, robust and reliable mass customisation (i.e. allowing mass produced devices to be customised to suit the specific preferences of individual users) of devices such as mobile telephones.

The masked, common ground electrical contact system hence embodies a symbol or a differentiating 'marker' to the phone cover, where the marker can take any one of a number of symbols s drawn from a total alphabet A (so s £ A). When a cover with such a marker is installed in on an appropriately equipped handset, the latter is able to detect the symbol and perform a subsequent configuration action. In the most straightforward case, this may simply involve selecting for execution (and/ or configuring with appropriate parameters) one of a number of available programs already stored within the memory of the phone. In the more general case, however, the ID contained on the cover will be used as a parameter (e.g. in a remote lookup using the phone's RF capability, and the default external communications capability provided by it) to download appropriate (and in the usual situation, clip-on cover- specific) software and/ or configuration data, to enable network services such as special- interest data services, to allow access to shared phone books, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described with reference to the following drawings, in which Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a conventional removable cover for a mobile telephone and Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a removable cover for a mobile telephone in accordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The preferred system involves the installation on the reverse side of a removable cover a conductive strip, preferably metal, which may then be overpainted with low-conductivity paint at the time of manufacture, a very cheap process but one which selectively provides a kind of barcoded common ground, which are then pressed against a set of electrical contacts on the face of the phone (together with a common grounding point, which will always be conductive). The combination of active contacts represents, in effect, a unique code identifying that type of cover. The costs of implementing such a device is very low both for the phone manufacturer and the cover manufacturer, and reliability is high "(more so than e.g. a mechanical keying system). Furthermore, it is possible to produce generic plastic production tools for a particular brand of phone, with customisation only taking place at the last moment (where the ID for the cover is selected through the process of painting).

Figure 1 illustrates the concept, comparing the operation of a phone with a 'standard' cover applied, which offers no additional functionality when the cover is fitted, to one (Figure 2) with the cover including (in this case a 9-bit) ID symbol 's' (in this case 010011010, assuming a masked contact is a '0' and a cross-connected contact is a '1'), which is used to cause the downloading of extra capabilities to the phone's SIM (subscriber identity module, within the GSM system); this includes the capability to request download of data — in this case the current cricket scores via SMS message, a capability which is automatically offered to the user upon fitting the cover.

Additional Details and System Description

Aeons Upon Cover Identificationti

When the cover has been applied to the phone, at least two contacts will remain grounded to communicate that the cover has an ID symbol. Having determined this ID, the internal software on the phone will then perform internal configuration actions. In the simplest case, this will involve simply selecting from one of a number of pre-loaded internal software modules to execute (for example, a special sports betting SIM application in the case of our cricket cover), and / or the parameterisation of existing modules (for example, setting the home sport of this betting application to 'Cricket').

In the more general case, however, the phone will be involved in communicating the information about the new cover's ID to the underlying core network, in consequence of which some of the following operations may be triggered (of course, more than one of these may occur): • The automatic downloading to the user's phone of new software, configuration data or application data, which in general will be thematically tied to the cover (e.g., the downloading of a WAP or SIM-based results query application to the phone; setting the default sport for such a results query application, the configuration of the phone's address book to include key information lines).

• The configuration of network 'push' messaging services to reflect the ID (generally, these will be thematically tied): so e.g., automatic, possibly free, SMS messaging of key sports info, reminders about important sporting events, etc. This could include themed advertising messaged to the phone. This feature may also be geographically triggered — e.g., sending adverts to a user's phone when they are using a particular cover, and are registered with a particular basestation.

• As an extension of the above, the use of retail covers to allow 'special offers' to be sent to the phone as SMS messages or otherwise (for example, allowing a barcode to be shown on the display of the phone which may subsequently be scanned as a 'logical coupon' at a point of sale terminal), only when the user's phone has a particular cover and the phone is in the vicinity of one of a particular set of basestations (e.g., registered with a microcell inside a shopping mall).

• The modification of the user's network information to include both the ID of the current cover itself, and possibly also certain profiling information tied to the thematic content of the cover (e.g., 'Likes Sports' when the example cover is fitted).

• The modification of the current network billing information for that user, for example allowing lower-cost international calls, free access to normally pay-for hotlines or message-based information services, etc.

• The modification of the phone's menu structure and I/O handling — inserting, for example, extra items in menus, creating new hotkeys or softkey configurations, etc.

• The download of seasonal, themed, or branded capabilities to the device (e.g., downloading a Christmas-carol ring tone to accompany a Santa-themed cover, downloading a company logo for display with a corporate branded cover, etc.) • With a more sophisticated embodiment of the concept (for example, a smartcard-like processor embedded within the cover itself), the use as a secure 'virtual SIM' or 'dongle' exists, where the cover itself serves to identify (possibly, with some degree of security) the identity of the user, enabling subsequent access to otherwise restricted applications and services, whether on the phone, the core network or elsewhere.

Collectively, we refer to all features and functions enabled by the cover (e.g. additional applications, data, configurations, features and tariffs and services offered in connection with the detected or specified ID of an attached clip-on cover) as 'cover specific functionality', or CSF.

Clearly, there are many opportunities to exploit the ID symbol, but the required technology within the phone itself is not large, leading to a potential low cost of implementation with minimal impact to existing designs.

Essentially, the host device (phone) must be equipped with appropriate circuitry to enable it to detect the presence of the cover; in the case of the preferred embodiment this is performed through detected common closure of a set of electrical contacts pressed onto the non-insulated parts of the conductive marker on the reverse of the cover. Next, the detection of a change in the status of this ID must be conveyed to an appropriate software component capable of acting upon the information. This component, which must as a minimum be installed upon the phone, is then capable of performing the necessary subsequent actions, such as notifying the core network, downloading / executing additional information / software from the core network (or from a local PAN using e.g. Bluetooth), configuring and /or selecting for operation existing software already installed within the phone, and so on.

It is expected, but not required, that the core network may maintain a list of users for a particular cover or set of covers, whether simply for the purposes of demographic 'data mining', or for more pro-active purposes. For example, the 'interest' database constructed in this way could become the basis for a portable 'profile' or 'digital passport' that the user could access via a number of mechanisms (e.g., SMS, WAP, conventional internet, etc.) It is expected but not required that where such a list of user ID <-> profile (including cover ID and usage) is maintained, that the user will be able to tailor that profile by a number of means (e.g., modifying the database within permissible limits via a web client).

Although extremely sophisticated scenarios may be envisioned for the use of this technology, one benefit is that the services and delivery mechanisms to enable the more straightforward applications described above already exist, and so the extension of the phone's functionality as correlated with the physical cover provides a very useful 'real world' branding tool for corporations, with a low deployment cost but a high potential value.

Additional Modes of Identification

As described above, the preferred embodiment of the invention utilises an electrical grounding interface, with over-paint non-conductive masking used at construction time to determine the coding.

In another envisaged embodiment, the same concept of electrical connectivity is utilised, but instead of painting, a conductive sticker is used. This has the advantage of requiring almost no modifications to production, and being capable of being retrospectively added to existing covers, possibly even in the shops.

Note that in all cases, it is envisioned that it should be possible to type in an ID corresponding to the cover directly into the phone, thereby allowing the appropriate services to be activated. In the limit, this would allow even phones with no hardware modifications to utilise covers that similarly had been unmodified, simply by typing in the appropriate activation code.

However, it should not be argued that the fact that one can simply type in a code corresponding to a cover makes the physical marking of the cover to allow automated determination of no value. The use of DX coding on film cassettes has been extremely successful, despite that fact that it should be a relatively straightforward task for users to read the ASA reading off the box and enter it into the camera themselves. Similarly, in the personal organiser arena, Palm has been highly successful largely as a result of the ease with which its system synchronises (with a 'one touch' cradle). For consumer products, equivalence of functionality and equivalence of value are distinct and separated by ease of use.

Similarly, it is envisaged that in certain implementations the phone could maintain a list of features (e.g., automatic update of sports results) as a 'named' package that accompanied a cover or covers that the user has previously utilised, which they will then be able to choose to utilise at a later time. Non-conflicting sets of functions (e.g., pushed text messaging) can be combined. The user could also be prompted when the cover is removed whether they wish to continue with the current set of functions selected by their previous cover (or at least the maximal non-conflicting subset).

Additional Target Platforms

Although the specific discussion here has related primarily to cellular. phones, the concept clearly has wider application to cover a number of devices with 2-way communication capability (and also, in the context of enabling existing functionality, non-broadcast devices).

In one envisaged application, covers for in-home cordless telephones could be extended with the electronic ID, with retrieval of the customisation information being downloaded from (e.g.) a free-phone number.

In another envisaged application, access to the CSF is in some circumstances enabled or provided not through ^"the core network but a smaller, more local net, such as a personal area network (e.g., Bluetooth) or a campus area network (such as 802.11-B). In another envisaged application, covers for one or two-way pagers could be extended with the electronic ID, with retrieval of the customisation information being either requested specifically through the network, in the device when it is shipped, or else regularly broadcast and filtered out by the pagers, with only those updates matching the ID of the currently installed cover being allowed through.

Expanding on this latter point, any broadcast receiver capable of receiving digital data (e.g., a Eurkea-147 digital radio) can be enabled to 'filter' a CSF broadcast in this manner, only downloading configuration and/or application data and/or applications when some tag in the (carousel-based) broadcast matches that of the current cover.

In another envisaged application, clip-on covers for remote controls are envisaged, in which the operation of the control is modified by the presence of the cover (selecting, e.g., a specific channel list as a carousel, such as all the sports channels). This concept has particular application when utilised in conjunction with the a remote control which has access to an external network. In such a situation, significant cover-specific modifications to the overall system's data processing for a given user, such as the filters it applies to the electronic programme guide for that user, may be provided keyed off the reported cover ID.

In another envisaged application, clip-on covers for PDA (personal digital assistants) could be enabled with the electronic ID. This ID could then be accessed either by built-in applications within the device or transmitted (for subsequent action, whether on the core network, the device, or both) to a central server using either conventional wireline communications or a built-in wireless modem (such as now available in products such as the Palm-7).

In another envisaged application, a customized Screensaver for laptops is provided, with content downloaded from a central server via a wired or wireless Internet connection, and where that content is selected by the user's ID, which then correlates with a set of profiling and cover usage information stored in the central database (as discussed earlier). We should further note that currently, phones are really the only consumer devices which have significant consumer interest in customisable facias coupled with relative ubiquity and wireless access to a backnet. However, in future, with the predicted increase in the number of convergent devices (e.g., a digital radio / cellular phone combination) and the predicted increase into the 'universal networkability' of many appliances (whether through Home-RF, Bluetooth, or some other LAN, WAN or PAN standard), will lead to a potential market for the concept described here within other markets, such as the personal organizer (PIM), digital camera, personal computer / palmtop, and personal stereo / MP3 player space, to name but a few.

Additional Points

For some phones there will be multiple panels involved (e.g., front and back) and not a simple single cover. We assume such 'multi-panel' covers to be subsumed within the concepts presented here. Similarly, it is assumed that those covers which do not 'clip' on are also addressed under the umbrella of the general concept.

Although the examples given show 9 maskable slots, there is clearly no limit on this, other than that implied by cost (in terms of the number of contacts required on the phone) and ease of manufacture of the cover (in terms of the precision required in placement of the masks). Clearly, sufficient slots must be provided to allow the differentiation of all the covers available for the specific phone in question.

Note also that interaction with location-based services is possible. Hence, if a user had a sports cover on their phone, and found themselves e.g. in a city where a sports event that may be of interest to them was about to take place locally, then the network could send them an appropriate message. Similarly, a metropolitan listings magazine might have a 'streetwise' cover, which would enable access to location-sensitive restaurant information (etc.) which could then either be sent to those phones with the appropriate ID keyed off location and time of day, or explicitly requested from the phones using an application enabled/ downloaded on attachment of the cover.

This strong connection between the data service and the physical brand-carrier (the cover itself) is very potent, and it is to be expected that users will strongly associate the offered data services, tariffs and applications with the brand owner — a much stronger proposition than a simple line of text in a WAP application merely naming that owner, for example.

Claims

1. A removable device cover for an electronic device, the cover comprising a masked common ground electrical contact system to identify the cover to the device.

2. The device cover of Claim 1 in which the masked common ground electrical contact system comprises a thin electrically conductive strip, over which a low conductivity painted mask or sticker is applied.

3. The device cover of Claim 1 in which an identification code derivable from the masked common ground electrical contact system is used by the device to make available a feature or function on the device or as a parameter to download software or data to the device.

4. The device cover of Claim 3 in which the downloadable software or data is specific to a given kind of device cover.

5. The device cover of Claim 4 in which design or graphics on the cover depict the content of the downloadable software or data specific to that cover.

6. The device cover of Claim 3 in which the software or data is downloaded to a SIM card on the device.

7. The device cover of Claim 3 in which the identification code is used by the device to configure data to be automatically downloaded to the device over a network.

8. The device cover of Claim 1 in which an identification code derivable from the masked common ground electrical contact system is sent by the device over a network to modify the definition of the user of that device.

9. The device cover of Claim 1 in which an identification code derivable from the masked common ground electrical contact system is sent by the device over a network to modify the billing rates applied to voice or data calls made by the user of that device.

10. The device cover of Claim 1 in which a user can enter a code into the device which the device then compares to the identification code derivable from the masked common ground electrical contact system in order to permit or deny access to features or functions associated with the cover.

11. The device cover of Claim 3 in which the feature or function on the device or downloadable software or data is specific to the location of the device.

12. An electronic device comprising a device cover as claimed in any preceding Claim 1 11.

13. The device of Claim 12 being a member of the following list of device types:

(a) mobile telephone;

(b) cordless telephone;

(c) pager;

(d) remote control;

(e) personal digital assistant.

4. A method of modifying the features or functions offered by a device, comprising the step of: supplying software or data to the device to modify the features or functions offered by a device, the kind of software or data supplied being determined by an identification code extracted from the device from a masked common ground electrical contact on a removable device cover.