GB2502649A

GB2502649A - A stand for adjusting the alignment of a docked mobile electronics device and related camera view based on received input data

Info

Publication number: GB2502649A
Application number: GB1218335.6A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jouni Suutarinen; Perkka Kettunen
Original assignee: BIISAFE Oy
Current assignee: BIISAFE Oy
Priority date: 2012-06-01
Filing date: 2012-10-12
Publication date: 2013-12-04
Also published as: GB201218335D0; WO2013178869A1

Abstract

A stand (103) for a mobile electronic consumer electronics device (102) capable of digital image acquisition, said stand comprising internal power supply or at least a connector for a replaceable internal power supply or an external power supply for providing electric power to the stand and optionally charging the mobile device (232), support portion (122) for contacting and supporting the mobile deÂvice while docked, electric motor (230) for dynamically adjusting the alignment of the mobile device through rotation, such as panning and/or tilting, of the support portion, wireless interface (212B) for receiving data input, and alignment logic (210B, 216B, 218B, 234) for controlling the electric motor based on the data input. A method for utilizing a similar stand is presented. Aspects of the invention include the wireless interface: comprising a microphone or an RF transceiver for receiving the data input; configured to receive the input from the docked mobile phone or from the surrounding environment. Further aspects include determining the direction of a data source. The stand changes the alignment of the camera of the docked mobile device and related camera view based on the input data and provides a visual and audiovisual environmental monitoring utilizing a mobile consumer electronics device such as a cell phone or a tablet.

Description

STAND FOR MOBILE DEVICES

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Generally the present invention pertains to accessories of mobile electronic de- vices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), and tablet comput-ers. In particular the present invention relates to stands of such devices.

BACKGROUND

Remote surveillance, or monitoring', of desired spaces may be nowadays real-ized by means of ordinary contemporary mobile gadgets such as cell phones or tablet computers, hereinafter tablets, which include sensors such as camera and microphone as well as wireless transceiver(s) operable in WLAN (wireless LAN, local area network) andlor cellular networks for obtaining and distributing sur-veillance data, respectively.

In addition to various security applications, e.g. videoconferencing or generally teleconferencing applications may utilize suitable terminal devices capable of re-cording both video, i.e. image, data and sound data for transmittal towards the remote end of conversation.

Nevertheless, the existing solutions for remote surveillance are mostly based on dedicated, often rather bulky and pricey, hardware or alternatively, computer-attached or -integrated web-cameras that, in turn, are over-simphstic options as one could say in terms of recording quality, adaptability and generally, usability.

SUMMARY OF THE [NVENTION

The objective is to alleviate one or more problems described hereinabove and not yet satisfactorily addressed by the known arrangements, and to provide a feasible solution for visual or audiovisual environmental monitoring utilizing a mobile consumer electronics device such as a cell phone or a tablet.

The objective is achieved by the embodiments of a remote-controllable stand, or a dock', in accordance with the present invention.

Accordingly, in one aspect of the present invention, a stand for a mobile, prefera-bly hand-held, electronic consumer &ectronics device capable of digitifi image acqwsition, comprises an internal power supply, such as a battery, or at least a connector for a battery or an external power supply for providing electric power to the stand and optionally charging the mobile device, a support portion for con-tacting and supporting the mobile device while docked and an electric motor for dynamically adjusting the aligmTlent of the mobile device through rotation, such as panning and/or tilting, of the support portion, the stand further conipri sing a wireless interface for receiving data input and alignment logic for controlling the electric motor based on the received input.

In one embodiment, the wireless interface comprises a wireless communications or wireless network interface such as LAN (Local Area Network), WLAN (Wire-less LAN), BluetoothTM or a cellular interface, such as GSM or UMTS interface, with appropriate communications elements such as compatible transceiver(s).

In another, either supplementary or alternative, embodiment, the wir&ess inter-face comprises one or more, preferably two or three, microphones for receiving the data input in audio, audible and/or inaudible, form. E.g. ultrasound or near ul-trasound bands may be utilized. The microphone(s) shall be selected accordingly as to their properties such as frequency range.

In some embodiments, the wireless interface may be configured to obtain the in-put data from the docked mobile device to adjust the alignment. E.g. at least one microphone may be thcated and aligned so as to facilitate capturing sounds emit-ted by the docked mobile device and optionally neglecting sounds from other sources. For example, the microphone may be placed near/aligned towards the expected location of the docked mobile's loudspeaker.

In some supplementary or alternative embodiments, the wireless interface may be contgured to obtain the input data from the monitored environment, optionally from remote entities such as persons or device(s) such as remote mobile ternii-nals present therein. E.g. the microphone(s) utilized for the purpose shall be aligned correspondingly.

hi son-ic embodiments, the device(s) providing the input data to the stand may generate the data based on predetermined logic, user instructions (input), and/or data received from a further entity such as a network service or other network en-tity re&ized by an arrangement comprising a number of network servers.

Generally, the stand may further comprise a base for placement on a table or floor surface, for instance. It may bear a number of friction elements such as a rubber mat for preventing the stand from accidentally slipping on the destination surface. The base may support a rotatable portion incorporating, adjoining or formed by the support portion, for example. In other terms, the support portion may be rotatable relative to tile base. Predetermined bearings between the base and the rotatable portion may be applied for providing e.g. low-friction opera-tion, optionally including a number of ball bearings arranged in a predetermined configuration.

As mentioned above, one or more electric motors such as electric servo motors may be provided in the stand to enable remote control of the alignment of the mobile device and related camera and e.g. microphone.

hi some embodiments the support portion may define an opening of predeter-mined size and shape for receiving the end of the mobile device. The support portion may include elastic and/or friction-enhancing/high-friction material such as rubber material for adjoining the end of the mobile device in order to guaran-tee stable docking thereof also upon rotation. The support portion may define a number of protrusions, or ribs', from such material for contacting the mobile device for securing the fit.

The support portion may comprise a preferably replaceable adapter, or liner', for providing secure and stable fit to the mobile device. Different liners may be of-fered for different device types or models regarding the device dimensions such as thickness, or material, for instance. The liner may contain the aforesaid mate-riai.

In some enibodinients, the stand may coniprise a number of light sources such as LEDs by which information may be visually indicated to the environment and/or the environment may be illuminated to enhance imaging thereof, for instance.

The illumination may take place in visible and/or non-visible wavelengths de-pending on the properties of the camera or desired images of tile docked mobile device. For example, when certain band imaging is to be executed, also extra ii-urnination in the same band may be beneficial.

In some embodiments, tile iogic controlhng the stand may be implemented by means of a processing entity such as at least one microprocessor, signal processor or microcontroller. The processing entity iriay be configured to control the mo-tor(s) in addition to other possible functions.

The stand may be manufactured utilizing plastic material and e.g. injection mold- ing as a manufacturing technique regarding the body portion(s) of the stand. Ai-ternatively or additionally, metals such as aluminium may be applied.

The stand may generally define a rounded shape such as a dome shape with the opening for the end of the mobile device. Alternatively, e.g. polyhedron shape such as a cuboidal shape may be formed.

The docked electronic mobile device, such as a sniartphone, a tabiet or other mo-bile consumer electronics device, may in some embodiments be configured to provide wireless control input to an embodiment of the stand for adapting the alignment of the device and related camera (view) and/or audio input entity like at least one microphone. E.g. audio signal or RF signal may be transmitted for such purpose by the mobile device. The mobile device may be provided with log- ic snch as software logic for providing control input to the stand. The control in-put may be based on stored predetermined programming (e.g. user-defined stand control sequence) or dynamic instructions received from a remote entity such as a network arrangement or another mobile device at least functionaUy connected to the docked mobile. For example, different VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), videotelephone, or teleconferencing software installed and run on the mobile de-vice may be utilized to forward remote instructions towards the stand using sound. Among other options, e.g. Skype TM or Facetime TM couM be utilized. Op-tionaUy, the sounds for instructing the stand may be configured as less audiHe, if not substantialiy inaudible to human in terms of frequency (e.g. ultrasound or near ultrasound) and/or intensity to minimize the potential annoyance arising from hearing such sounds near the stand.

The mobile device may iii some supplementary or alternative embodiments com- prise a data input entity configured to obtain data, preferably audio data, indica- tive of environmental sounds occurring in a monitored environment, an alarm re-pository configured to store a number of predetermined indications of &arm sounds and/or alarm-triggering sounds, an an&yzer configured to detect an alarm soLind or an alarm-triggering sound in the monitored environment based on the obtained data and indications in the alarm repository, a context finder configured to determine context information associated with the mobile device, such as loca- tion context, and to adapt the execution of the analyzer utilizing the context in-formation, and a notification entity configured to preferably wirelessy transmit an alarm signal based on the detection result, such as detection of the &arm sound or alarm-triggering sound, to enable remote notification of the alarm-triggering condition.

Preferably, the mobile device includes at least one camera (sensor) for obtaining still and/or video images. The mobile device may further include a light for illu- minating the camera field of view and related targets. The camera and the option- al shooting light may opeTate in visiNe and/or invisible wavelengths such as in-frared range. The camera may be triggered or the functional mode thereof adapted by the analyzer upon the detection of alarm or alarm-triggering sound, and/or a separate sensor such as infrared (thermal radiation) sensor may be uti-lized for the purpose. Camera data may be forwarded by the notification within or in connection with the alarm signal, for instance. Camera data may be utilized in determining the context information and/or be included therein.

In one embodiment, the data input entity incorporates or is at least function&ly connected to at least one microphone capable of converting sound into electrical form. The microphone may be configured to capture audible sound and/or inau-dible sound (out of norma' hearing range of humans) such as ultrasound. In some embodiments, the data input entity may be configured to receive, via the micro-phone and as acoustic, e.g. audible and/or ultrasonic, signaling, data indicative of environmental sounds occurring in the monitored environment.

In another, either supplementary or alternative, embodiment the data input entity includes a data receiver, such as a wireless receiver, for receiving, as electric (an-alogue or digital) signal(s), data indicative of environmental sounds occurring in the monitored environment. The receiver may be preferably implemented as a wireless LAN (V/LAN, wireless local area network) receiver/transceiver or e.g. as a Bluetooth receiver/transceiver. For instance, a wireless microphone or an alarm device may be configured to provide the data via a radio frequency signal (RE signal) to the receiver. Still, an optical receiver such as infrared or visible Ught receiver could be exploited.

Optionally, the data input entity may incorporate a variety of UI (user interface), particularly user input, elements such as a nuniber of keys, knobs, buttons, a touchscreen, a (contactless) gesture interface, a touchpad, and/or a speech recog-nizer to enable device and application control.

In a further embodiment the alarm repository is configured to store predeter-mined indication of an alarm sound or alarm-triggering sound as a number of digital sound samples. Alternatively or additionally, the indication may include a number of parameters characterizing the sound, the parameters optionally charac- terizing at least one sound feature selected from the group consisting of: frequen-cy, frequency range, duration, harmonics, intensity, timbre, melody, pause or break, tempo, and audio-to-text conversion result.

Yet in a further embodiment, the analyzer is configured to detect an alarm sound or an alarm-triggering sound through utilization of a procedure in which the ob-tained data is, either as such or in a processed form, compared to indications in the alarm repository (again as such or as processed) to find a match, if any, ac-cording to predetermined, optionally adaptive, criteria. The analyzer may apply a number of signifi processing activities such as FFT (Fast-Fourier Transform) al-gorithm in the procedure.

One shall note that the analyzer may be configured to deem a certain sound rep- resented by the obtained data as an alarm sound based on a number of recogniza- ble general characteristics that are often associated with alarm sounds. Thus, in- stead of or in addition to indications of certain very specific alarm sounds, i.e. de-fault sound of a certain &arm device model or e.g. a sound fully congruent with a predetermined detailed standard, the alarm repository may contain indications representing alarm sounds or a certain class of alarm sounds more generally, such indications being thus shared by several existing and/or expected future alarm sounds. The shared characteristics, which may be initially determined based on analyzing different alarm sounds and/or related specifications or standards, may imply e.g. certain sound frequency or frequency range in combination with a dis-tinctive pulsing pattern, by which many beep type alarms, for instance, may be characterized.

An alarm sound detected by the analyzer on the basis of at least one matching in-dication in the alarm repository may include an alarm sound selected from the group consisting of: smoke detector alarm, fire detector alarm, carbon monoxide detector alarm, gas detector alarm, refrigeration appliance alarm, temperature alarm, fridge alarm, freezer alarm, high temperature alarm, low temperature alarm, freezing alarm, burglar alarm, door alarm, door open alarm, window alarm, glass-breaking alami, moisture alarm, water alarm, liquid leakage alarm, motion alarm, vibration alarm, personal security (device) alarm, baby alarm (or baby monitor' alarm), clothes iron alarm, and doorbell chime (may be alterna-tively considered as an alarm-triggering sound).

An alarm-triggering sound detected by the analyzer may further include at least one sound selected from the group consisting of: yelling noise, a call for help, moaning noise, animal-produced sound, dog barking, speech, crying, child cry-ing, bang, falling down noise, glass-breaking noise, squeaking noise, crash noise, and snoring sound.

Regarding e.g. speech or a call for help, also more specific instances thereof may be detected such as predetermined key sentences or words like help' utilizing the applicable speech recognition technology. Utilization of such technology may fa-cilitate in making a distinction between e.g. a call for help, i.e. indication of an accident or other hazard, and loud yefis at other events, which might be rather in-nocent and take place at a sports contest, etc. Instead of or in addition to actual speech recognition technology, speech detection teclmology could be applied to generally detect the presence of speech in the obtained data.

An alarm sound -providing device (alarm device) may be configured to produce the same, preferably distinctive, sound, when the condition for alarming, or in the case of multip'e conditions any of them, is met, such as a detection of excessive amounts of smoke in the monitored environment. Alternatively, the alanii device may dynamically apply a sound message coding scheme in which the alarm sound, or audio code', is dynamically constructed or at least adapted utilizing the applied coding specification in order to output a more informative message.

A somewhat similar effect could be obtained through definition of a plurality of alarm sounds, each relating to a certain detection scenario, from which plurality a best-suiting alarm sound is run-time selected by the alarm device for reproduc-tion upon need.

In said coding, a distinguishable, such as a spatially (e.g. frequency-wise) and/or temporally distinguishable, feature of the alarm sound may be configured to characterize at least one property associated with the alarming scenario selected from the group consisting of: location, alarm source or reason, ID of the alarni device, seriousness of the situation in accordance with a predetermined scale, recorded duration of the alarming condition, sensor value or data (or value/data derived therefrom), and intermediate or final addressee of the alarm.

At least one feature may be selected from the group consisting of: frequency, fre- quency range, duration, intensity, melody, a pause or break, tempo, timbre, spo- ken message (speech synthesis being applied in the alarm device), and harmon-ic s.

In some embodiments, the alarm sound may be configured to include audible and inaudible, optionally ultrasonic, portions, i.e. frequency-wise distinguishable por-tions. Both of the portions may indicate at least one (different) property regarding the alarming scenario. In some embodiments, the audible portion may be utilized for warning near-by person(s) whereas the inaudible portion provides additional data to receiving device(s) such as the mobile device. In some other embodi- nients, the alarm sound may exdusively contain inaudiHe frequencies such as u-trasound.

The analyzer may be configured to interpret, or decode', the audio coding through the utilization of indications of alarm sounds and alarm-triggering sounds stored in the alarm repository. As a result, the mobile device may recog-nize the alarms and incorporated inforniation potentially indicative of a plurality of properties associated with the alarming scenario by following a predetermined sound message (de)coding scheme or standard implied by the stored indications.

In some embodiments, the alarm device may be configured to function as a re- peater, i.e. upon receipt of a radio or audio signal from another, potentially dif- ferent, alarm device, it may forward it as is, or as modified or at least utilizing al-ternative data transfer teclmology. As a result, even a single mobile device may be capable of monitoring relatively large areas as the alarm devices spread within the area may be configured to forward the alarms towards it.

Optionally, the mobile device may itself be configured to function as a repeater.

It may communicate alarm-related data such as the alarm sound, portion thereoL and/or data derived therefrom forward as audible and/or inaudible sound. Alter- natively or additionally, feasible RF technology such as short-range radio tech-nology, optionally complying with WLAN or Bluetooth specifications, may be utilized for carrying out the repeating function.

The alarm repository, which may be implemented as a database, for instance, may be initially established and subsequently updated e.g. by the mobile device manufacturer or software manufacturer, or by a selected third party, and supplied in connection with the mobile device and/or alarm provision software among other delivery options.

Preferably the repository may be expanded and/or changed, if not created from the scratch, by the users. This may apply both to personal alarm repositories stored either locally at the mobile devices or at a remote location, and a common repository accessible e.g. via a network service and available for more general download. New or updated indications may be added to the repository through programming or teaching/learning procedures to be described in further detail hereinafter, for instance.

New or updated indications may be received from a network service (described in further detail hereinafter) automatically, e.g. periodically, or in response to manual triggering. The users may be given a possibility to update new indica- tions to the network service to supplement the existing central repositoly and en- able distribution and exploitation of the indication by other users. A group of us-ers and/or associated mobile devices between which the new indications of alarm sounds are preferably automatically transferred may be formed or maintained at the service. E.g. in a family context one user may teach his/her mobile device to recognize smoke alanii sound at the summer cottage, whereupon the mobile de-vices or other family members are updated correspondingly to detect such sound.

As tile indications may cover a wide variety of different sounds some of which may not be equally relevant to all users, the alarm repository may be optionally provided as a modular entity that may be obtained and utilized, optionally updat-ed, also in parts. Different indications may be organized into a number of groups based on the type of the sound and/or emitting device (e.g. smoke alarms, burghr alarms, etc.), for instance.

hi a further embodiment, the context finder is configured to determine context in- formation through the utilization of the obtained data indicative of the environ-mental sounds occurring in the monitored environment. On the basis of amount and/or nature of the ambient sounds, or soundscape', the context finder entity may then establish the context information such as activity context information and/or location context information.

Additionally or alternatively, the data input entity may comprise a receiver, such as a satellite (GPS (Global Positioning System), GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System), etc.) receiver, a short-range RF receiver/transceiver (WLAN, Bluetooth, etc.) and/or a cellular receiver/transceiver (e.g. OSM (G'obal System for Mobile Communications), I/MIS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)) that facilitates location context determination based on the received da-ta. The mobile device may be configured to receive dedicated positioning signals or apply the received other signals for positioning through the analysis of e.g. signal strength and application of triangulation, for instance.

Optionifily, the mobile device includes an inertial sensor such as an accelerome-ter. Such sensor may be provide valuable data about the context of the mobile device r&ative to activities such as movements, acceleration, shocks, vibration, falling, etc. The obtained data may be utilized, optionally together with data in-dicative of environmental sounds, in determining the likelihood of an emergency situation such as a car crash or falling down, which may induce a need to locally trigger an ifiarm and send the alarm signal by the mobile device.

In some embodiments, passivity, immobility and/or silence, i.e. some extremes of activity and sound detection, may be detected utilizing e.g. inertial sensor, posi-tioning signal, and/or microphone signal, respectively. Such detection may be utilized in detecting a possible emergency situation regarding the user of the mo-bile device and triggering an alarm. ii

Adaptation of tile execution of the analyzer may include at least one action se- ected from the group consisting of activation of the analyzer execution, deacti-vation of tile an&yzer execution, siniphfication of tile analysis, cornphcation of the analysis, adding a new data input to the analysis such as a sensor input, delet-ing a data input, changing or adjusting an analysis rule to trigger an alarm, changing or adjusting the sub-task to be executed during the analysis, activating a sub-task, and deactivating a sub-task.

In sonic embodiments, the context information may also be utilized to activate, deactivate or otherwise adapt the function of the data input entity. Adapting may comprise changing the parameters regarding the audio input filter(s), sampling rate, andlor the audio compression method, for instance. Further, the notification entity may be adapted such as the method and/or timing of transmission selected is responsive to the context.

hi some embodiments, a ftirther feature such as the active mode, or usage pro- file', associated with the mobile device, such as with the monitoring and alarm-ing software, and/or the user thereof may be preferably automatically determined utilizing the context information. The mode may refer to a certain combination of device settings regarding e.g. data input, analysis, communication, alarms, etc. Each profile may be linked at the mobile device with a certain combination of monitored parameters, sensors, sensor settings and/or analysis rules. For exam-plc, a number of dedicated modes, or profiles', regarding home and out-of-home situations may be allocated. The context and/or mode information may in some embodiments be funn&ed by the notification entity to a network service for stor- ing context and/or mode data therein and optionally streamlining the user's ser-vice profile (mode) in accordance therewith. Alternatively, the active profile may be selected manually by the user of the mobile device via the UI thereof.

The active profile may, in turn, be utilized in determining the logic for input data analysis and/or alarm triggering.

In a further embodiment, the notification entity may be generally configured to transmit RF signals or acoustic, e.g. ultrasonic, signals. For example, a cellular or a short-range transmitter, such as WEAN or Bluetooth transmitter, may be ap-plied for the purpose.

Further, the alarm signal may be transferred utilizing a textual or multimedia message such as an SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Messag- big Service) message, respectively. As a fttrther example, e-mail is given. Alter- natively or additionally, circuit-switched, e.g. HSCSD (High Speed Circuit-Switched Data), or packet-switched, e.g. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), data transfer may be used. As one more example, a call such as a voice call may be established to provide the alarm signal. Optionally DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) signaling may be utilized therewith for alarm-related data transfer.

In some embodiments, the alarm signal may especi&ly incorporate location in- formation such as coordinate information. The location information may facili-tate arranging rapid assistance to solve the hazard or other emergency situation implied by the alarm.

In some embodiments, the destination or recipient (e.g. certain device ID, service ID, user ID) of the alarm signal may be pre-defined (but optionally user- changeable or remotely changeable at/by a network service, for instance) or dy- namically determined and, in the latter case, depend e.g. on at least one factor se-lected from the group consisting of: location of the alarm device, location of the mobile device, alarm type or reason, time of alarm, and destination/recipient in-formation indicated by the alarm device optionally via the alarm sound.

In some embodiments, the alarm may be indicated to the same user that is associ-ated with alarming mobile device. The user may be alarmed via e-mail, other mobile device, network service, phone caB, pager, etc. Information about the dif-ferent available contact means regarding the users may be stored in the alarming mobile device and/or at the network service. They may be mutually prioritized or alternatively, the alarm may be provided for delivery via many or all of those. In some embodiments, the user may select active method(s) and/or active device(s) through which he/she desired to receive alarms. Indication of such selection may be stored at the network service. In some embodiments, the optimum ifiarming technique regarding a certain user is selected dynamically.

In some embodiments, at least some of the final recipients of the alarm signal no- tifications are determined by the associations hosted by a network service con- figured to initially receive the alarm signal as to be explained in more detail here-inlater. The mobile device may be thus configured, by default, to transmit the alarm signal to the network service for final addressee determination and routing.

Nevertheless, the mobile device may be advantageously utilized to access the service and change the fixed recipients and/or adjust the logic for recipient s&ec-tion to be dynamically performed by the service upon receipt of the alarm signal.

The logic may exploit the aforementioned and/or other factors. For example, the location of the potential recipients (e.g. contacts of the user of the mobile device in the network service) may be configured to affect the final selection of the alarm recipients as explained hereinbelow. In some embodiments, the mobile de-vice may be configured to receive from a network service, optionally following a corresponding request first sent to the network service, an indication of proper recipient(s) regarding the alanii signal that is then configured respectively.

In a further embodiment, the mobile device includes a local alarm entity such as an audio output entity potentially including a loudspeaker. The audio output enti- ty may output e.g. audible speech signal indicative of the detected alarm- triggering condition, such as Warning: smoke detected!', through sample play-back and/or speech synthesis. Alternatively or additionally, the speech signal may indicate instructions such as Go to the nearest exit!' or request input from the user such as confirmation from the user regarding e.g. the condition or status of the user Please press button x to confirm that you are fine!', and/or the validi- ty of the alarm. Further, the local alarm entity may output a predetermined non-speech alarm sound, such as a beep or siren sound, optionally determined or adapted by the detected particular alarm sound or alarm-triggering sound.

In addition to the audio output entity, the local alarm entity may incorporate a visual alarm entity such as a display or a number of lights, e.g. LEDs (light-emitting diode), for visually indicating the alarm.

In a further embodiment, the mobile device is provided as a modular entity a part of which may be formed by an existing electronic device such as a smartphone or other consumer electronics apparatus. Different modules with characterizing fea- tures, such as various sensor modules and communication modules, may be con-nected together to establish a desired kind of an aggregate device. For example, a sniartphone may be connected to a charger device optionally incorporating also a smoke detector or other sensor device to form the aggregate best suiting the in-tended use scenario. The housing, power supply, dimensions, materia's, etc. of the modules may vary depending on the estimated use conditions, use frequency, available budget, etc. In a further embodiment, the mobile device substantially is or includes a weara- ble &ement such as a wearaHe computer, optionally a wristop computer. Alter- natively or additionally, the mobile device may be coniiected, preferably wire-lessly, to a wearable sensor, display and/or user input device such as a wristband.

The wristband may include an UI for data output (e.g. display and/or a loud- speaker) and/or data input (e.g. an emergency feature, such as a button, for trig-gering an alarm and/or an acknow'edgement feature for stopping the alanii/prevent triggering one). It may include a sensor such as an accelerometer for providing activity information regarding the user to the mobile device. The wearable device may include an attachment means such a clip or ring for attach- ing to a target element such as a wristwatch band or the user's finger, respective-ly.

In a further embodiment, a first system comprising an embodiment of the mobile device, of the stand, and optionally of an alarm device capable of emitting the alarm sound is provided.

In a further embodiment, a network arrangement, such as a number of at least flmctionally connected servers, for running a network service is configured to transmit a control signal towards the mobile device to re-align the camera view and/or microphone thereof through adjusting/rotating an embodiment of the stand suggested herein, wherein the stand is configured to wir&essly receive associated control input, such as audio input, from the mobile device based on the control signaL The transmission may take place in response to a predetermined event such as acquisition of user input for re-alignment from the first service user. The arrangement may offer e.g. a web interface or other UI for interacting therewith.

Alternatively, the arrangement could address a control signal for re-alignment di- rectly to the stand provided that the stand comprises necessary wireless trans-ceiver such as WLAN transceiver for receiving such data. Advantageously, the network arrangement is further configured to receive image/audio data from the mobile device and store and/or distribute it to the authorized user(s).

In one preferred supplementary or alternative embodiment, the arrangement comprises -a data input entity configured to receive an alarm signal sent by a mobile device placed on the stand and associated with a first service user in response to an alanii sound or other triggering event detected by the device, -a user data manager configured to maintain, respective to the service users in-cluding the first service user, user data including dynamically updateable location data indicative of the location of the users and/or relationship data indicative of the associations, such as friendship or professional type relationship, between the users, -an alarm router configured to determine a number of other service users for re-ceiving an indication of the alarm signal based on the user data of the first service user, and -an alerting entity configured to output an indication of the alarm signal to the determined other service users as recipients.

In one related embodiment, the alarm router is configured to determine the other service users through the utilization of the location information. For example, a number of other users closest to the mobile device (or the alarm device, these two locations typically being iu practical situations about the same) may be selected.

hi another, either supplementary or alternative, embodiment, the alarm router is configured to determine the other service users through the utilization of relation-ship data. For example, a number of other users associated with the first user may be selected. The associations may include e.g. group memberships in addition to or instead of one-to-one relationships.

hi a further, either supplementary or alternative, embodiment, the alarm router is configured to determine the other service users through the utilization of user profile data stored in the user data. The profiles may indicate the profession and/or the skills each user has (e.g. first aid), whereupon the alarm router may be configured to match the indicated characteristics of the alarming scenario with the profile data to find a number of suitable recipients with profession and/or skills potentially useful in facilitating solving the alarmed situation or providing related aid.

In a further, either supplementary or alternative, embodiment, the alarm router is configured to determine the other service users through the utilization of calendar data stored e.g. among the user data or group data. For example, the users as-signed with a temporal watch shift (guard shift) according to the calendar data upon receipt of the alarm signal may be selected as alarm recipients. Optionally, at the begimñng of a watch shift the service arrangement may be configured to transmit a notification message to a user(s) supposed to be alert in view of poten-tially forthcoming alarm indications. Further optionally, the arrangement may be configured, upon receipt of an acknowledgement regarding such notification, to switch the watch responsibility from the previous guard to the new guard (i.e. change at least the primary recipient of the alarm) and preferably notify the pre-vious guard accordingly.

In a further, either supplementary or alternative, embodiment the alerting entity may utilize a variety of different methods for alert provision to the service users.

For example, it may exploit at least one technique selected from the group con-sisting of: messaging via the service lii preferably accessible via the internet, messaging via the mobile device and software associated with the service, mes- saging via an external network service such as Facebook TM or Twitter TM option- ally through the external network service -integrated application such as Face-book TM application, e-mail, textual or multimedia messaging such as SMS or MMS messaging, respectively, a phone call, and a pager message.

In some embodiments, different users may be provided with different infor-mation regarding the alarm in connection with the alarm indication. The nature and/or amount of data may depend on the utilized alert provision method and its teclmical limitations or other characteristics. For example, less data may be pro-vided using SMS than e-mail. Additionally or alternatively, the data may depend on the receiving user himself/herself, e.g. on the user profile such as the relation-ship with the user associated with the alarming mobile device.

Each user may optionally deterniine the desired technique of alarni reception and store the default and/or priority order of available comniunication methods at the service. Alternatively or additionally, the alerting entity may dynamically select the technique based on a number of factors such as location and related availabil-ity of different methods of communication regarding each user.

In a fUrther, either supplementary or alternative, embodiment the arrangement comprises or is at least utilizing a cloud computing service for performing ac-lions and/or storing data. As alluded hereinabove, the arrangement may comprise a number of applications embedded in other network service.

In a fUrther embodiment, a second system comprising an embodiment of the mo-bile device, network arrangement, the stand and optionally the alarm device is provided. l0

In another aspect, a method for controlling the camera view of a docked mobile, preferably hand-held, electronic consumer electronics device capable of digital image acquisition, comprises -obtaining a stand for the mobile device, wherein the stand is arranged with an internal power supply such as a battery or at least a connector for a battery or an external power supply for providing electric power to the stand and optionally charging the mobile device, a support portion for contacting and supporting the mobile device while docked in the stand and an electric motor for dynamically adjusting the alignment of the mobile device through rotation of the support por- tion and the docked mobile device, the stand fUrther comprising a wireless inter-face for receiving input data, -wirelessly receiving input data at the stand, and -rotating the support portion by the electric motor to change the alignment of the camera of the mobile device and related camera view based on the input data.

In an embodiment, a method for alarm provision to be performed by a mobile device preferably placed on the stand comprises -storing a number of predetermined indications of alarm sounds and/or alarm-triggering sounds, -obtaining data, preferably audio data, indicative of environmental sounds occur-ring in a monitored environment, -detecting an alarm sound or an alarm-triggering soirnd in the monitored envi-ronment based on the obtained data and indications in the alarm repository, -determining context information associated with the mobile device, such as lo- cation context, and adapting the execution of the analyzer utilizing the context in-formation, and -transmitting, based on the detection result, such as detecting an alarm sound or alarm-triggering sound, an alarm signal to enable remote notification of the alanii-triggering condition.

Yet in a further embodiment, a method for alarm routing and notification to be performed by a network service arrangement comprises -managing, respective to the service users including a first service user. dynanii- cally updateable location data indicative of the location of the users andlor rela-tionship data indicative of the associations, such as friendship or professional type relationship, between the users, -receiving an alarm signal sent by a mobile device preferably placed on the stand and associated with the first service user based on an alarm sound or other trig-gering event detected by the device, -determining a number of other service users for receiving an indication of the alarm signal based on the user data of the first service user, and -providing the indication of the alarm signal towards the determined other service users as recipients.

The previously presented considerations concerning the various embodiments of the stand, mobile device, arrangement and system may be flexibly applied to the embodiments of the above methods niutatis mutandis, and vice versa, as being appreciated by a skilled person.

The utility of the present invention arises from a plurality of issues depending on each particular embodiment. In a plurality of preferred embodiments, adjustable (rotatable) stand whereto the mobile device may be releasably disposed, prefera-bly without tools (e.g. slide hi/out), is exploited. The stand may be powered by a battery or via mains. It may optionally even provide electricity to the mobile de-vice via a connector or wirelessly, e.g. inductively or capacitively. PreferaHy the stand is adjustable in such a way that at least part of it is rotatable (pan and/or tilt), for example, such that the alignment of the hosted mobile device and related elements sLich as the camera or microphone thereof may be adjusted relative to the environment. The support portion receiving the mobile device may be adjust-able, for instance.

Remote control may be provided over the adjustable features. For example, the docked mobile device may be configured to receive control instructions from a remote entity such as server arrangement or remote terminal, optionally other mobile device. Instructions may be transferred using VoIP or other applicable audio signal-forwarding application, for example. A remote device (undocked) in the vicinity of the stand may be utilized for providing wireless signals such as audio or RF signals for control purposes optionally directly to the stand.

The docked mobile device may in some embodiments be configured to provide instructions to the stand via a physical (wired) connector. Preferably however, audio commands are reproduced by the loudspeaker of the mobile device and captured by the microphone of the stand, for instance, to respond to the instruc-tions provided by the commands. Instead of or in addition to audio, RF or e.g. optical communication (e.g. visible light, infrared) could be exploited between docked or remote device and the stand.

One typical use case for the embodiments of the present invention relates to (vid-eo) surveillance at buildings. With the suggested s&ution, it is possible to build monitoring and alarm systems similar to systems with remote controlled surveil- lance cameras and detectors. Different real-time surveillance and recording ap-plications are feasible. The embodiments may be also used for entertainment purposes like taking time hpsed images/video or capturing video from a party.

Especially since the stand supports open communication chann& to any kind on system, usage cases are basically unlimited.

Sound or voice -controlled stand also enables conducting video calls or (video) conference calls by means of ordinary hand-held consumer electronics such as cell phone or tablet as the stand may be configured to dynamically detect a speaking person and turn the camera (view) to the direction of speaker. The ob-tained (video) data may be transmitted to remote entity such as a remote server for further distribution or directly towards the far-end(s) of the conference, for

example.

In the context of various embodiments of the present invention, the existing ter-minal devices, especially mobile devices such as cell phones, may be cleverly harnessed for one more useful purpose, i.e. detecting alarms and conveying alarm information, without a need to invest in new or at least expensive specialized monitoring hardware. Many people already have fully or near fufly working sur-plus terminals, such as previous models of their favorite mobile phone, on hand so acquiring new devices for enabling the surveillance of desired spaces may in such cases be omitted. With the optional stand, the mobile device may be aligned as desired optionally remotely and in real-time.

The monitored spaces may include buildings (homes, industrial buildings, offic-es, etc.), outdoor areas, floors, rooms and mobile environment such as vehicles and their cabin(s) and/or environment. Also living organisms such as the users of the mobile devices, optionally being kids, and animals such as pets potentially present in the environment may be monitored. Different features of the mobile devices such as audio capturing, image capturing, alarming and/or data transfer capabilities may be exploited. The mobile devices may be flexibly configured to monitor a myriad of different alarms utilizing the integrated data input interface, microphone, camera and additional sensors at least functionally connected there-to, optionally wirelessly.

Also the related software, exploited algorithms and alarm sound fingerprints' and/or e.g. (de)coding scheme (to interpret the coded indications of sounds) stored in the alarm repository may be dynamically personalized, altered or updat-ed optionally via a network service and e.g. push-type automated procedure. The users may be provided with a possibility to update and add new indications of alarm sounds or alarm-triggering sounds in a central database for pubhc exploita-ti on.

The mobile devices may even be exploited as personal security devices carried along and capable of detecting alarm-triggering conditions based on the analysis of the sensor data such as microphone and/or accelerometer data or in response to all explicit alarm-triggering input via the (ii such as keypad of the device.

As one further remark, the context sensitivity and adaptivity of the analyzer and optional other features of the mobile device bring iii sL1ppernentary benefits. For example, power consumption caused by the alarm monitoring and forwarding tasks may be minimized, detection performance enhanced and a number of other actions executed by the device optimized.

Yet, the present invention may funnel the alarm signals to a large number of re-cipients through the utilization of the existing social relationships between users.

Still, also completely new social relationships may be established via the sug-gested network service. The network service may be functionally connected to or integrated with an existing social networking service (arrangement) to facilitate creating a large user base and target audience for the alarms. Accordingly, the social relationships already registered by such existing service may be automati-cally adopted. By taking into account different users' registered special abilities, training, location, status, etc. preferably in real-time or near real-time, the recipi-ents of alarm signals may be dynamically selected in an optimized fashion.

Further, the users of the network service may monitor each other and mutually exchange messages. Different user groups, such as alarm rings', may be estab- lished by group forming, inviting and joining procedures, for example. In a typi-cal scenario, a bimch of friends may decide to register a common group the members of which more or less commit to receiving alarm messages from the other members of the group. Even the best method of communicating the alarms and/or data provided with the alarms may be dynamically determined on the ba-sis of a number of factors such as location, status, user preferences, capabilities of the registered user terminals, etc. The expression "a number of' refers herein to any positive integer starting froni one (I), e.g. to one, two, or three.

The expression "a plurality of' refers herein to any positive integer starting from two (2), e.g. to two, three, or four. py)

The terms "first" and "second" do not denote herein any particular priority or or-der. instead, they are used to distinguish one entity such as a physical or logical element from another entity.

The term "alarm-triggering sound" may herein refer to a sound the presence of which triggers the alarm at the mobile device such as the transmission of an alan signal, or at least elevates the need to the trigger the alarm and send the signal in case fUrther conditions are also to be fulfilled for triggering the alarm.

Yet, the "alarm-triggering" sound may refer to a sound the observed non- existence of which in tile obtained analyzed data triggers the alarm or at east el-evates the need for the alarm, correspondingly.

Different embodiments of the present invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED DRAWINGS

Next the invention is described in more detail with reference to the appended drawings in which Fig. 1 a illustrates a first potential use scenario and embodiment of the present in-vention.

Fig. lb illustrates an embodiment of a stand in accordance with the present in-vention.

Fig. 2a is a block diagram representing the internals of an embodiment of a 1110-bile device in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 2b is a block diagram representing the internals of an embodiment of a stand in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram representing the internals of an embodiment of a net-work arrangement in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a first method in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a second method in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a flow chart of an embodiment of a third method in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figure Ia is a sketch illustrating one use scenario and embodiment of the present invention. The monitored environment 100 may refer to a substantially fixed space such as a building, floor(s), room(s), yard, terrace, corridor, pier, com- pound, or a mobile environment such as a vehicle (e.g. car or truck) and poten-tially surroundings thereof The environment 100 is provided with a number of alarm devices 101 such as smoke sensors, carbon monoxide sensors, temperature sensors, etc. as mentioned hereinbefore. The sensors 101 may mutuafly differ and in some cases communicate with each other by relaying alarm information, for example. In the visualized scheme, the smoke or carbon monoxide sensor 101 detects the fire 1 OOa within the monitored space and triggers an audible or inau- dible alarm 101 b that is captured by a mobile device 102 through a data input en- tity such as a microphone. Alternatively, the microphone utilized could be exter- nal and e.g. wirelessly coupled to the mobile device 102 optionally through Blue- tooth, WLAN or other short-range RF connection. The data input entity may fur- ther comprise an AID (analog-to-digital) converter and optional digital audio en-coder(s). The data ultimately obtained may thus include digitalized audio data in a form of sound samples andlor parameterization(s) representing the sound signal captured by the microphone(s). Additionally, the mobile device 102 could be provided with an explicit request message to alert a remote party by sending an alarm signal.

The mobile device 102 has been preferably provided with software in accordance with the present invention for analyzing the obtained data indicative of environ-mental sounds lOla in the environment 100. Yet, the mobile device 102 may be provided with a plurality of different sensors such as an accelerometer, illumina-tion sensor, camera, and technology for positioning such as a satellite receiver (e.g. GPS or GLONASS). The sensors may be optionally integrated with the mo-bile device 102.

The mobfle device 102 may generally refer to a ceflular phone such as a smartphone, a taHet computer, a laptop computer or other portable consumer electronics device, optionally a music or multimedia player such as a device gen-erally considered as MP3 player', the most popular example of which at the time of writing this probably being Ipod' TM by Apple Inc. TM Alternatively, the mo-bile device 102 may be particularly designed for monitoring/alarm provision purposes and optionally consist of different attachable modules such as sensor, processing and data transfer modules. The mobile device 102 may be supple-niented with a preferably removably connectable stand, or cradle' or dock', 03 for providing power and/or to align the device 102 optionally dynamically through remote control as described in more detail elsewhere herein.

Upon receipt of (sound) data that is identified by the analyzer of the mobile de- vice 102 as an alarm sound, or indicative of alarm sound, based on the alarm re- pository's indications of alarm sounds, and provided that other optional condi-tions for providing remote notifications are met, the mobile device transmits an alanii signal 102a, preferably wirelessly, to a number of remote recipients such as a network service, or in hardware terms to a network server, arrangement 108. It is indicated in the figure by the curved arrow and caption ALARM' how the ar-rangement 108 may send the alarm-related notifications forward to users 106 that may include authorities, companies such as security companies or different or-ganizations 106a and private users 106b both alike. The alarm signal 102a and related notifications may be transferred via a number of potentially different transmission paths established by e.g. communication networks 104 such as a cellular network and/or the internet.

In some embodiments, the mobile device 102 may be configured to directly communicate with another near-by mobile device(s), preferably wirelessly, and transmit the alarm signal thereto with reference to a walkie-talkie' type use sce-nario, for example. Yet in some embodiments, the mobile device 102 may be configured to broadcast or multi-cast the alarm signal.

The alarm signal I 02a may indicate the alarm sending device (ID), the user asso-ciated with the device, location, time, reason (e.g. type of alarm sound detected such as smoke alarm'), seriousness (e.g. emergency or non-fatal), and/or thrther data such as sensor data. E.g. video or still image data and/or a sound clip may be provided. Additionally, a remote party such as network service providing the alarm forward may add to the data originally transmitted by the mobile device 102.

In order to consider an environmental sound as an alarm sound or an alarm-triggering sound, the analyzer of the mobile device 102 may apply a number of different procedures as being understood by a skilled person. For instance, FFT or other frequency-domain analysis algorithms may be performed and the signal be divided into frequency bands. Amplitudes and/or amplitude changes in the frequency bands may be then detected arid compared to indications of known alarm sounds or alarm-triggering sounds stored in the &arm repository. With good enough match relative to an indicated alarm sound or alarm-triggering soLind according to predetermined criterion, the environmental soLind may be deemed as an alarm(-triggering) sound.

In many contexts, various alarm sounds have ifiready been more or tess exhaust-ively standardized as to the used frequencies and other parameters, whereupon detecting those from the background noises is fully possible. Further, new alarm sounds could be designed in view of easy automated detection thereof in differ-ent conditions. Such predeteniined alarm sounds could exhibit a characterizing melody or rhythm to facilitate detection thereof Preferably, the users may program or instruct (teach) their mobile devices 102 to recognize new alarm sounds or other alarm-triggering sounds. Optionally a cen-tral alanii repository may be maintained by the service operator at the network arrangement 108. The central repository may thus be configured to receive or re- trieve indications of new alarm sounds from the users (user terminals) either au-tomatically or in response to manual update actions triggered by the users.

The network service arrangement 108 iriay comprise a number of at least func-tionally coirnected electronic computer elements such as servers 108a, lO8b, 108c, associated memory devices, processing devices, and/or communication de-vices. Optionally, a cloud computing system may be exploited in realizing at least part of the arrangement 108. Cloud computing environment provides flexi-ble allocation of resources, and thereby scalability, to the arrangement 108.

The entities to be notified about the detected alarm may indeed include a number of parties such as a security company, an authority (e.g. police or fire brigade), and/or a number of private users, such as personal contacts or fellow group members of the user primarily associated with the mobile device 102. Naturally the user associated with the mobile device 102 may himself/herself be notified as well e.g. via a web page of the service 108 or of at least functionally connected external service, e-mail or other message accessible/obtainable via other mobile device or terminal device. The arrangement 108 may host the addressing logic and have access to addressing information necessary for channeling the alarms to proper recipients. The notified parties may be associated with different type of terminals such as desktop computers, or similar equipment, I 07a and mobile de-vices 107b.

Alternatively or additionally, the mobile device 102 may be configured to direct-ly address the alarm signals to at least some of the proper final recipients such as a number of top priority recipients (e.g. professional parties like security compa-nies or authorities like police) depending e.g. on the nature of the alarm (fire-> fire brigade, burglary-> police/security company, etc.).

Optionally, the mobile device 102 may be configured to receive alarms from oth-er terminal/mobile devices of the same and/or different user(s), optionally via the network service arrangement. Optionally, the user may acknowledge the receipt of the alarm via the UI of the mobile device 102.

Figure lb illustrates, at 120, an embodiment of a stand 103 in accordance with the present invention. The housing of the stand 103 may generally be of e.g. dome or some other functionally applicable shape. The used material may in- dude different plastics and/or metals such as aluminium to obtain desired proper-ties in terms of aesthetics, weight, strength, etc. The stand 103 includes a support portion 122 for contacting and supporting the mobile device 102. The support portion 122 may define an opening 126 for receiving an end of the mobile device 102 for the purpose so that the mobile 102 may be conveniently and securely docked, i.e. placed, therein. In particular, the support portion 122 may include a replaceable (preferably without tools, e.g. of snap fit design) adapter 124, or lin-er', for adapting to the shapes of a target mobile device 102. In the shown case, the opening substantially forms an elongated slit shape on the support portion 122 (dome) top. There's also a small dent on the top, whereupon the center of the slit further defines a v' or u' shape in depth direction.

The support portion 122 and/or the adapter 124 therein may include elastic non- slip material such as rubber material and/or tight fit-enabling shapes such as elas- tic fins or other kind of protrusions relative to the (typically plastic or metal) cas-ing of the mobile device 102.

The support portion 122 may be located on a base 128 that is to contact e.g. ground or table surface in the target environment. The support portion 122 is preferably rotatably connected to the base 128 with appropriate bearing(s) to en- able aligning the mobile device 102 in predetermined direction(s), such as hori-zontal and optionally vertical directions. In the shown embodiment, the rotation enables horizontal (pan) adjustments whereas the support portion 122 and op- tional adapter 124 thereof allows securely locating the mobile device 102 in dif-ferent vertical angles to the associated opening 126. For example, one electric motor may be provided for effectuating horizontal rotation (pan) and one other for vertical rotation (tilt).

The stand 103 may include additional elements such as a number of lights or a display for illuminating the environment and/or indicating the status of the stand 103 (on/off, etc.) or of the docked, functionally connected mobile device 102.

Yet, the stand 103 may include a dedicated user input means such as a number of buttons or knobs for controlling the settings associated with the firnction of the stand 103 such as rotation fUnction (e.g. on/off, rotation speed, etc.). Alternative- ly or additionally, such control may be effectuated through a wireless data inter-face. Preferably, integrated wireless data interface including e.g. microphone of RF transceiver is exploited for obtaining data input for rotating the support por-tion 122 with the docked mobile 102. Further, the stand 103 includes an internal, preferably rechargeable, battery or at least connector(s) for internal/external power source for powering up the electric motor(s) and e.g. control electronics.

In general, the stand 103 may be thus implemented as a (reinote-)controllable ro-tatable dock for mobile devices such as cell phones, tablets, multimedia or music players, dictation machines, wristop computers, etc. Sound (audio) communica-tion or e.g. RF communication may be utilized between the control source such as the docked mobile devicelo2 and the stand 103. The docked mobile 102 may be the true initiator of the communication or act as a forwarding entity and initi-ate communication based on data such as rotation requests received from external entities such as other mobile devices and/or network service. Instead of the docked mobile device 102 acting as at least intermediate element, other devices or entities in general, e.g. near-by humans or animals making sound (speaking or causing various noises, for example) may directly act as control sources for the stand and related functionalities such as rotation.

The input data may activate or otherwise indicate at least one predetermined firnction at tile stand 103 selected from the group consisting of: rotate a full turn (substantially 360 deg), rotate 11111 turn continuously, rotate a predetermined an-gle or step, stop rotation, scheduled rotation, activate light, deactivate light, and a combination of features such as rotation and Ught.

Typical, nevertheless merely exemplary, use cases for the stand 103 include sce-narios in which -tile docked mobile 102 provides instructions to the stand W3 based on external input received from a network entity such as service [Case Aj -the docked mobile 102 automatically, e.g. periodically or based on sensor moni-toring, provides instructions to the stand 103 [Case B] -local device such as manually operated mobile device in the same space with the stand 103 provides instructions e.g. via a potentially tailored (control) soft-ware installed at the device [Case C] -the stand 103 tracks the direction of (whatever) sounds source such as person iii the surrounding environment (not docked) and acts according'y, typically rotates in a predetermined manner relative to tile source [Case D] -the stand 103 tracks the direction of predetermined (control instruction) sounds from devices in the surrounding environment (not docked) and acts accordingly, typically rotates [Case E], mid -the stand 103 tracks the presence of whatever predetermined andlor exceptional, according to the used criterion, sounds (e.g. bird singing, burglary sounds, alarm sounds, calls for helpo, etc.) and acts accordingly, typically rotates [Case F].

Thereby, in some operating mode(s), the stand 103 may be configured to deter-mine the direction of the sound source based on the detected sound and rotate relative to, typically towards from the standpoint of the (camera of) docked mo-bile device 102, the sound source. The control-eligible sound may be predefined relative to the allowed frequency, frequency and /or rhythmic pattern, intensity, etc. in case no afi detectable sounds are accepted as control input. Preferably, a plurality of microphones is provided in the stand 03. The direction of the sound source relative to the stand 103 may be determined on the basis of the phase dif-ference, sound pressure and/or spectrum of the microphone signals, for example.

2D (plane) detection may be sufficient for many use eases wherein e.g. pan con- trol is sufficient but also 3D calculation is possible if more accurate direction de-termination and possibly rotation control (pan, tilt) are desired.

Figure 2a illustrates a block diagram representing the internals of an embodiment of a mobile device 102 in accordance with the present invention. More from a point of hardware, the mobile 102 may comprise at least one processing device 210 such as a microprocessor, a DSP (digital signal processor), a microcontroller, a programmable logic chip, etc. The processing device 210 may be integrated with or at least fttnctionally connected to a memory element 216 such as a memory chip comprising RAM (random-access memory) and/or ROM (read-only memory) memory for storing instructions and/or other data. A data transfer entity 212 may cover e.g. transceiver(s) such as RF transceiver(s) capable of transferring data between the device 102 and an external entity such as a remote sensor, terminal or network. For instance, operation in a cellular network, WLAN or LAN networking in general, infrared and/or Bluetooth connectivity may be provided. When applicable, dedicated receivers or transmitters may be provided.

For positioning, e.g. satellite data receiver such as GPS or GLONASS receivers may be arranged. Further, the data transfer entity 212 typically includes at least one microphone for audio input. Yet, an accelerometer and a number of other sensors may be supplied. A loudspeaker may be included for audio output and thus e.g. control input provision to an embodiment of a stand in accordance with the present invention.

The UI 214 may physically include a number of buttons, knobs, a screen (dis-play), a touchscreen, a touch pad, a keypad, a keyboard, switches, and/or the aforementioned microphone/loudspeaker potentially shared with the data transfer entity 212. Also e.g. accelerometer(s) may be applied for acquiring explicit user input in addition to activity sensing. The UI 214 may further refer to the UI of the mobile software 318, which may imply a number of different application views and related sounds, for example, with particular reference to the embodiments shown in Figure 6. The software UI 214 may indicate and preferably enable con-trol over both the status of local monitoring and remote monitoring taking place at remote locations, if any. Yet, the software UI 214 may be utilized to indicate the alarms regarding the other users, such as friends or fellow members of a group in the network service.

The operation of the mobile device 102 to carry out the functionalities described in this text may be thus controlled by software such as monitoring and alarming application 218 comprising instructions stored in the memory 216 and executed by the processing entity 210. The software may be tailored according to the re-qwrements set by the underlying platform, few feasible examples of which being e.g. Synibian TM, Windows Phone TM, Android TM and iOS TM The software 218 may be provided as a computer program product in a computer readable storage (carrier) medium such as a memory stick, memory card, optical disc, floppy disc, hard disc, etc. The software 218 may be further delivered over a The mobile device 102 may be powered by a battery, preferably a rechargeable batteiy such as a rechargeable Li-ion battery. The mobile device 102 may be al-ternatively connected to the mains especially when it is used as a remote location monitoring device and not as a carry-along personal device. The battery may still flrnction as a reserve power source. Optionally, upon detecting a power outage or upcoming battery run-out the mobile device 02 may be configured to transmit a related alarm signal to notify a remote party and/or to trigger a local alarm. The alarm signal may be received by the network service and an indication of the alarm may be forwarded to a number of recipients such as the user(s) associated with the device 102.

From a more functional standpoint, the mobile device 102 may contain a data in-put entity 222, alarm repository 224, analyzer 228, notification entity 226 and context finder 230 in addition to a possible general control entity 220 taking care of data transfer and task synchronization between the other entities, for instance.

As already reviewed hereinbefore, the data input entity 222 is configured to ob- tam data indicative of environmental sounds including actual alarm sounds emit-ted by alarm devices and other alarm-triggering sounds. The alarm repository 224 contains data for recognizing the predetermined alarm sounds and alarm-triggering sounds. The related indications may be stored as samples, parameters, decoding rules or logic, decoding tables, etc. Preferably the user may dynamical-ly teach the device 102 to recognize sounds, the indications of which are then stored accordingly. For the purpose, the mobile device 102 may contain a teach-ing entity capable of extracting and/or storing a number of indications describing the (taught) sounds inputted via the data input entity 222. The teaching proce- dure iriay involve storing the taught sound in sample format, optionally in nor-malized, filtered and/or otherwise processed form, arid/or in parametric form.

The parameters utilized as indications may indicate the characteristics like fre-quency and intensity as mentioned hereinbefore.

The analyzer 228 is configured to search matches for the obtained data from the alarm repository 224 according to predetermined criteria that may be user-adjustaHe iii order to detect evidence of alarm sound or alarm-triggering sound in the monitored environment.

The analyzer 228 may further apply a plurality of different conditions such as sound detection -related condition and optional context-related condition(s) for triggering an alarm at the mobile device 102 and even utilize a multi-step alarm-ing procedure as reviewed in the description relative to Figure lb. The notification entity 226 utilizes the available transceiver(s) or transmitter(s) for preferably wirelessy transmitting the alarm signal(s) towards the remote enti- ties such as the network service arrangement. In some occasions such as with ha-sically static mobile device installations, however, also wired communication may be satisfactorily used. The notification 226 entity may also deal with the provision of control input to an embodiment of the stand in accordance with the present invention.

Context finder 230 determines on the basis of available data such as location in-formation, mobility information, sound data, c&endar information, expUcit user input (e.g. profile selection), etc. the context of the mobile device 102 in order to adapt the function of the analyzer 228. Adapting may be performed by refining the conditions monitored for triggering the alarm, for example, as already re-viewed hereinbefore.

Figure 2b is a Hock diagram representing the internals of an embodiment of a stand 103 in accordance with the present invention. Preferably the stand 103 in-cludes an internal power supply 232 such as rechargeable battery. Optionally, a solar cell may be provided to charge the battery when possible. In any case, at least a connector for external power supply is required for powering up the dcc-tricity-consuming internals of the stand 103. Processing 21 OB and memory 21 6B entities as well as the UI 214B may generally be akth to the ones described rela-tive to Fig. 2a. Application logic 21 8B may take care of control input conversion into rotation control data used for driving the electric motor(s) 230, for example.

Different, optionally user-controllable, settings may be associated with the func-tion of the stand 103 including e.g. settings for rotation speed and/or rotation program (predetermined sequence to be followed by the stand 103). Optional UI 2148 may include applicable user input and feedback means to control the stand 103 and indicate the status thereof, respectively.

The data interface 212B refers to wireless data acquisition and optionally trans-mission means such as a microphone and related circuitry for obtaining control input from the mobile device 102 and/or other devices for rotating the support portion of the stand 103 and for possible other uses such as changing the settings like rotation speed. In some preferred embodiments, e.g. three microphones with 120 degrees division relative to a predetermined center of symmetry (e.g. center axis of the stand) may be exploited to detect and optionally localize sounds relia- bly. Alternatively or additionally, a number of other types of wireless communi-cations-enabling entities such as RF or optical band receivers/transceivers, or sensors (e.g. accelerometer or light sensor) could be included in the interface 212B. Also a loudspeaker could be included to provide audio feedback or other data back to the mobile device 102 or other near-by entities. The stand 103 may include a Bluetooth, NFC (Near-field communication), WLAN or a cellular net-work compliant transceiver, for example.

From a more functional standpoint, the stand 103 may contain a data input entity 2228, rotation control entity 234 and output entity 2268 in addition to a possible general control entity 220B taking care of data transfer and task synchronization between the other entities, for instance.

The data input entity 222B obtains the input data from the docked mobile device 102 and/or other entities. The alignment, or rotation', control entity 234 contains predetermined logic to control the electric motor(s) in accordance with the input.

The rotation may refer to the rotation of the support portion accommodating the mobile device relative to another portion such as the base indicated in Fig. lb. While the support portion rotates, the base may thus remain stationary.

Alternatively, tile rotation could refer to the rotation, not oniy of support portion, but essentially of the whole housing when the electric motors are connected to the potential wheels at the bottom of the stand 103, for instance.

Supp'ementary control 236 may refer to the contr& of various optional further features of the stand 236 such as such illLtmination (light(s)) for enhancing imag-ing by the docked device 102 and e.g. status indicator light(s). The output entity 226B controls the possible data output via audio or other wireless, optionally RF, communication towards the docked mobile device 102 or other external entities Uke other near-by terminals. The output may include e.g. acknowledgements re-garding the received control input.

Figure 3 is a block diagram representing the internals of an embodiment of a net- work service arrangement 108 in accordance with the present invention. The ar-rangement may be realized as a nnmber of at least functionally connected servers 108a, for instance, optionally residing in a cloud computing environment. A data transfer entity 312, optionally a number of transceivers 312 such as Ethernet in-terfaces, may be provided for communication in the network. Again, processing entity 310 and memory entity 316 as described relative to Figure 2 may be re-quired for processing and storing of instructions and other data in accordance with the present invention. The operation of the arrangement may be arranged via software application 318 containing or defining such instructions. UI 314 such as a (touch) display, a keyboard, and a mouse may provide local control over the arrangement 108 to the administrators thereof Additionally, by UI 314 it may be referred to a service UI, such as a web UI' (indicated in the figure via the dotted outline of the UI entity 314), provided to the mobile devices 102 or other ternii-nal devices of remote users typicafly the internet through exploitation of various visual service views, for example. As mentioned hereinearlier, the UI of the ser-vice may also be integrated with other existing network services such as varions social networking services via compatible applications, for example.

Logically, the input entity 322 receives the alarm signals transmitted by the mo-bile devices 102. A user data manager 324 maintains the user data for properly addressing the alarm signals among other potential data. The stored data may in- dude at least one information element or entity selected from the group consist-ing of: nser name, user ID, password, given name, family name, age, sex, date of birth, place of birth, location data, calendar data, message data, indication of ac-tive user profile, a plurality of user profiles, e-mail address, home address, cell phone number, telephone number, user ID or user name in external service, busi-ness address, profession, skills, hobbies, alarm history, alarm data, associations with other users such as family associations, friends, contacts, and group mem- berships. In practice, the data may be split between multiple physical and/or logi-cal repositories such as databases.

A skilled person also realizes that user groups may be generally formed around common employer, club, hobby, other interest, neighborhood, family members, etc. The user may input user data when registering at the service or afterwards.

Data may also be collected automatically from a number of sources such as the mobile devices 102. In sonic embodiments, at least part of the user data may be imported from an external service such as a social networking service via availa- ble data import solutions, often APIs (application programming interface) de-signed for the purpose.

The alarm router 328 is configured to preferably dynamically determine the most appropriate targets of the notifications regarding the received alarm. The private users, authorities, external services and companies whereto the alarms can be conveyed may be all alike initially considered as the users of the service ar- rangement 108 and thus potential recipients of alarms. However, in practical cir-cumstances it is often neither sensible nor efficient to broadcast each alarm to all service users that may not know each other at all, may not belong to the same group, and may even be located in different regions, coimtries or continents.

As discussed hereinbefore, the available location information regarding the ser- vice users may be exploited when determining the notification targets of the re-ceived alarm signal. According to one embodiment, a predetermined number of (other) users closest to the alarming mobile device 102 may be selected, or all the users within a predetermined distance, or radius', from the mobile device 102 may be selected on the basis of the location condition (criterion).

Additionally or alternatively, relationship data may be utilized such that only the friends, friends of friends, family members, contacts, fellow group members, and/or authorities may be selected on the basis of relationship condition.

A number of different conditions, i.e. criteria, may be thus utilized in parallel and/or sequentially to filter out users from the initial user space.

As an example of one possible outcome of recipient determination, only the users that are somehow associated with the alarming user and also remain within cer-tain, e.g. 10 km, radius from the alarming mobile device according to the latest available location data, are notified about the alarm.

Alerting entity 326 shall construct the alarms and provide them forward and the general control entity 320 may again take care of data transfer and task synchro-nization between the other entities, for instance.

In case the alarm cancelling signal is subsequently received, the notified users may be contacted again and informed about the changed situation.

As one option, however lot particularly preferred as the sole alarmillg teclimque but more as a supplementary one, the alarm and optional subsequent alarm can-ceflation may be indicated via the network service through a group-related (the member of which the alarming user is) information channel such as group page or group view, e.g. as a group wall post. Alternatively or additionally, the alarm- ing user -related, e.g. publicly or more limitedly accessible, channel such as a us- er-specific page, profile, or wall, may be provided with a message, or post', ill-dicative of the alarm and potential cancellation thereof Regarding the expUcit notification of the determined other users about the alarm, user-specific information channels, e.g. a service page or wall, could be populat- ed with such notification messages. The channel may be operated by the ar-rangement 108, or at least tile arrangement 108 shall bear capability to provide such notifications to the channel, optionally hosted by an external entity. For ex- ample, an external social iietworking service may be provided with such notifica-tion message considering e.g. tweets in Twitter TM and waU posts in Facebook TM as examples. Suitable APIs and/or applications capable of providing such notifi-cations to external services may be utihzed for the purpose.

Alternatively or additionally, e-mail notifications may be transmitted. Yet, appli- cation-specific notification may be transmitted to the mobile device 102 and mo- bile software 218 in accordance with the present invention for serving to the re-spective user e.g. audibly and/or visually.

Also textual messages such as SMS or muhimedia messages like MMS may be utilized. Even an automated robot' call with a dynamically syntlietized or pre-recorded message may be utilized.

Upon noticing the alarm, the recipient may acknowledge reading it through his/her terminal (acknowledgement may be input via the UI of the terminal such as mobile device or desktop computer), whereupon the terminal may be config-ured to transniit the related acknow'edgement message to the sender of the alarm, e.g. the network service arrangement or the original alarming mobile device, and/or other targets of the alarm such as other group members.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart 402 of an embodiment of a method hi accordance with the present invention.

At 404, the utilized equipment such as an embodiment of the mobile device and optionally other gear such as a number of alarm device(s), external sensor(s), stand, etc. for executing the method is obtained and configured.

For instance, the necessary software may be installed at the mobile device and the device may be properly positioned relative to the monitored environment and alarm devices optionally using an alignable, preferably remote-controllable, stand. The user may optionally register at the remote network service and adjust the service settings, if necessary. Further optionally, the user niay tailor the uti-Uzed detection, alarming and potential other parameters preferably through the mobile software to optimize the personal use experience.

At 406, a number of predetermined indications of alarm sounds and/or alarm- triggering sounds are stored for use iii connection with alarm sound andlor alarm- triggering sound detection. The indications may be stored in an indication data-base or sonic other feasible data structure(s).

Item 418 implies the fact that the indications may be updated. Preferably the user may dynamically add new indications, or optionally update the existing ones, by a teaching procedure, for example. New indications or indication updates may be downloaded from external entity such as the network service arrangement. The arrangement may be able to push indications to the mobile device.

Item 408 refers to obtaining data, preferably audio data, indicative of environ-mental sounds occurring in a monitored environment. As explained herein, e.g. microphone(s) may be Litilized to input audio data that is then digitalized and op-tionally parameterized.

At 410, potential alarm sound or an alarm-triggering sound is detected by an&yz-ing the obtained data. The data and/or parameters derived therefrom may be compared to or be otherwise analyzed relative to the indications (or data derived therefrom) in the alarm repository to find a match. Tteni 420 implies that the analysis is adapted by the determined context information associated with the mobile device, such as location context. The context information may be deter- mined dynamically, optionally periodically, continuously or as triggered by pre-determined events, for example.

Item 412 implies that a number of conditions may be applied to detennine whether to trigger an alarm and send an alarm signal or not. One obviously appli-cable criterion is that an alarm sound or alarm-triggering sound has been detected in the obtained data, which is checked at 410. Other potential conditions may in-clude e.g. expiration of intermediate warning phase during which the user may cancel the forthcomhig alarm via the UI of the mobile device. Some further con-ditions may imply detecting various sensor values exceeding or remaining below alarm-triggering threshold values. For instance, accelerometer data and location data may be assessed.

In some embodiments, an alarm may be triggered due to a lack of sound input that should be normally present in the monitored scenario (note e.g. the tim-ber/chainsaw scenario mentioned hereinbefore). The obtained sound data may indicate silence or merely other type of sounds. The associated activity data op-tion&ly utilized as a further triggering criterion may in those occasions indicate passivity (e.g. no acceleration), for example.

Nevertheless, in many scenarios in response to detecting the alarm sound! alarm-triggering sound or the lack of expected sound, and provided that also the other potential conditions for setting the alarm off have been met, the alarm is trig-gered at the mobile device, whereupon the alarm signal is sent at 414.

The method execution is ended at 416. The dotted loop-back arrow indicates the potentially repetitive nature of the various method items. The data acquisition, analysis, alarm triggering, etc. may include substantially continuous procedures, periodical procedures, andlor intermittently executed (activate dldeactivated) pro- cedures, depending e.g. on the settings of the associated mobile software con-trofled by the user.

Fig. 5 shows a flow chart 502 of an embodiment of a second method in accord-ance with the present invention.

At 504, the network service arrangement such as a number of computer servers at least some of which optionally residing in a cloud is configured. For instance, the necessary software may be installed and proper execution parameters set. The necessary network connections are established. The service is ramped up to the evel required for servicing the users.

The service begins receiving user registrations and user data 514 either directly or via external services such as various existing social media services. The user data may contain various data elements as reviewed in the description of Figure 3. The user data, associated with user accounts', for example, preferably identi- fies different users of the service and their contact information including e.g. e-mail address and/or address data of terminal devices through which they may be contacted for alarming or other purposes (or through which they may access the service).

Location data regarding the users' locations is preferably obtained 514. Further, relationship data indicative of the associations, such as friendship, professional type rehtionship, common neighborhood or group membership, between the us-ers, is preferably obtained 516. Various user data may be stored in database(s), such as personal data -comprising and group data -comprising databases, or in other data structures.

Items 514, 516 represent preferably dynamically obtainable data and related dy-narnic actions that may be, in practical circumstances, executed at any stage and basically independently from the more sequential items, which is highlighted in the example of the figure by positioning the items 514,516 aside from the main flow.

At 506, an &arm signal originally sent by a mobile device associated with a cer-tain service user is received. The alarm signal may indicate an alarm sound and/or related emergency situation locally detected by the mobile device. The alami signal may be embodied as a number of messages following a predeter-mined messaging scheme.

At 508, the recipients are selected for an indication of the alarm from the user base. It shall be noted that in the context of at least sonic embodiments of the present invention, a user' may refer to organizations, authorities, companies, etc. that may have an account in the service and/or that may be contacted via it, in addition to private users. Instead or in addition to explicitly designating inde-pendent users as recipients, formed user group(s) having a number of users as members may be designated, such group(s) optionally having the certain user as a member. Group designation may imphcitly designate the individual members thereof as recipients. Alternatively or additionally, designating a group as a re-ceiving user, a common group information channel such as group wall or group page may be provided as alarm indication target. The data previously obtained at 514, 5 16 is preferably exploited in optimizing the selection of the intended recip-ients.

At 510, the alarm is indicated to the determined service users as recipients.

The method execution is ended at 512. The dotted loop-back arrow indicates the potentially repetitive nature of the method items until the end of execution.

hi many embodiments of the present invention, the monitored environments are preferaHy provided with a mobile device for at least locally obtaining data such as sound data indicative of the environmental sounds such as alarm sounds pro-vided by alarm devices and optionally further data, typically sensor data such as image data, location data and/or accelerometer data. Tn addition to the monitored remote environments, the local environment may be monitored and alarms trig-gered locally via the UI of the mobile device and/or remotely by transmitting alarm signal(s). Further, in addition to the alarms, the remote mobile or other devices may provide sensor data such as sensor readings or video/static images for output via the (ii either directly or via the preferred network service arrange-ment. Data provision may be periodical or based on event-type triggers such as monitored condition/sensor value (substantial) changes, for example. The user may activate an icon representing any of the monitored environments or us- ers/devices to obtain further information about the environment such as prefera-bly real-time sensor data. The user iriay even be provided with some control over the remote devices such as the operation parameters of the mobile device and re-ated microphone or camera (to trigger it, for example), and optionally the stand suggested herein.

The monitored environments are typically associated with the user of the mobile device. The environments and the monitoring devices located on the spot may be in the user's possession, for example. Further, the environments/monitoring de- vices may be additionally associated with other users e.g. in the case of a family-or other user group-related environment like a home, a cottage, or e.g. a club house or office. In addition to real estate type environments or vehicles, remote users (i.e. local environment of persons carrying the mobile devices) themselves may be monitored preferably just like the user/mobile device in question by other users.

Preferably the user may, e.g. via the mobile application and/or the web interface of the network service, allocate different user rights to other users for monitoring the environment of the mobile device(s) associated with himlher. Some basic eve of rights may indicate only alarm reception, whereas an elevated level of rights may provide access to the mobile device or to the data provided by the mobile device optionally to the network service arrangement, for monitoring the related conditions even if no alarm has been triggered. For example, close friends or family members may be provided with at least limited access to (the data of) one's personal mobile device carried along. Other contacts defined by the exist-ing r&ationships preferably maintained at the network service, such as feflow group members or mere acquaintances, may be defined as potential &arrn receiv-ers having no access to the data of terminals of the user in question at least in normal, non-alarm, conditions. The basic level of rights indicating at least a right to receive an indication of an alarm set off may be in some embodiments deter-mined as the default level for relationships unless the user specifically alters the rights via the mobile application or e.g. the aforesaid web interface of the net- If a registered user logs in using a new mobile device, the device may be auto-matically added to the device list of the user (account). Further, the same mobile device may be associated with a plurality of users/user accounts.

The location of a monitored local and/or a number of remote mobile devices (de-vice-carrying users) may be indicated on a map. The location information may be transferred by or otherwise obtained relative to the devices to enable remote posi- tioning thereof and e.g. the shown kind of positioning on a map display. Prefera-bly each user may enable or disable location tracking by other parties. In some embodiments, different types of tracking rights may be allocated by the users.

E.g. certain individually selected contacts, or a certain type or group of contacts, may be provided with location tracking capability. Preferably upon triggering an alarm, each recipient is provided with an indication of the location of the poten-tial emergency or hazard, though. Access to location data and/or sensor data by others may be optionally conveniently controlled by the user through the s&ec-tion of the active usage profile via the UI of his/her mobile device. Each profile may be associated with a number of characterizing settings regarding the remote access to the location and/or sensor data.

A new user account may be established at the network service via the terminal UI with various user data fields to fill in regarding the username, password, contact data, etc. Different UI views may be configured to indicate a number of profile-related, preferably user-adjustable (however merely exemplary) settings such as a num-ber of sensor settings 111cc UPS update interval and camera resolution. Optionally, the user may select the active profile through one simple UI action such as icon selection via a touchscreen or via a press of a physical button.

A teaching feature may be provided by which the type of the taught sound/emitting device may be detennined e.g. through UI selection from a num-ber of predetermined options and/or by defining a new type. The taught alarm may be preferably named by the user. During the teaching procedure, the mobile device may be configured to indicate audibly and/or visually the estimated quali-ty of the input training sound to the user. Visually, the quality may be cleverly indicated via intuitive and informative light codes and symbols. E.g. green fight/color may refer to fttlly successfttl or good quality indication obtained, whereas e.g. yellow Ught and red Ught may indicate step-wise worsening perfor-n-iance. In tile presence of mu1tipe sounds, too loud input causing e.g. distortion, or e.g. high background noise, the utilized recording, learning, andlor feature ex-traction algorithm(s) for determining the indication of the sound to be learned may not function in optimum sense, which may be detected and briefly indicated to the user so that the user may optionally try teaching again.

Fig. 6 shows a flow chart 602 of an embodiment of a second method in accord-ance with the present invention.

At 604, a mobile device to be used for surveillance (security, videoconferencing, etc.) purposes along the principles set forth herein is obtained and provided with flecessary applicatiolls. Collection to remote entities such as remote server ar-rangement, e.g. a video conferencing service or server arrangement for alarm provision as described hereinbefore in more detail, may be established and/or tested.

At 606, an embodiment of a stand is obtained and configured. It maybe disposed Oil a predetermined surface in predetermined location mid provided with the mo- bile device. Power supply may be arranged and the stand be turned on. Optional-ly, different settings may be altered via associated Ui means such as buttons or switches, and/or via the mobile device or some other remote device capable of communicating with the logic of the stand using e.g. audio signal or RE signal.

At 608, tile stand receives data input via the data interface thereof from the docked or other devices. The data interface may refer to acoustic transducer (mi-crophone) with related circuitry to receive audible andlor inaudible audio data, or e.g. RF transceiver such as Bluetooth or WLAN -compliant transceiver for re- ceiving data via radio frequencies. Optical band transmission is a further possi-bility. Also different sensor-based data such as indication of illumination level in the surrounding environment may be obtained.

At 610, the stand is rotated in accordance with the received related instructions indicated by the data. Other type of response is also possible. If e.g. illumination data (or related instructioiis) are received and indicate dark conditions, the stand may activate the integrated or at least functionally comiected light sources such as LED(s) for illuminating the environment and potentiffily enhancing e.g. the quahty of camera images taken using tile docked mobile device.

The method execution is ended at 612. The dotted loop-back arrow indicates the potentially repetitive nature of input reception 608 and response 610 items. Ob-viously, also (re)configuration 606 may take place whenever purposeful.

A skilled person may, on the basis of this disclosure and general knowledge, ap- ply the provided teachings in order to implement the scope of the present inven-tion as defined by the appended claims in each particular use case with necessary modifications, deletions, and additions, if any. Different features of tile embodi-meilts described hereinbefore may be flexibly utilized and combined to construct new embodiments as understood by the skilled person. For example, instead of or in addition to wireless interface(s), the data interface associated with an em-bodiment of the stand might comprise a wired electrical interface for connecting to the docked mobile device or a network. Yet, in sonic embodiments, the stand may be configured to wirelessly charge the battery of the docked mobile device via inductive or other wireless coupling.

Claims

Claims I. A stand (103) for a mobile electronic consumer &ectronics device (102) capable of digital image acquisition, said stand comprising internal power supply or at least a connector for a replaceable internal power supply or an external power supply for providing electric power to the stand and optionally charging the mobile device (232), support portion (122) for contacting and supporting the mobile device while docked, electric motor (230) for dynamically adjusting the alignment of the mobile device through rotation, such as panning and/or tilting, of the support portion, wireless interface (212B) for receiving data input, and alignment logic (21 OB, 21 6B, 21 8B, 234) for controlling tile &ectric motor based on the data input.
2. The stand of claim 1, wherein the wireless interface (212B) comprises at least one microphone for receiving the data input, optionally comprising substan-tially inaudible frequencies like ultrasound.
3. The stand of any preceding claim, wherein the wireless interface comprises a radio frequency receiver or transceiver, option&ly being NFC (Near Field Communication) compliant.
4. The stand of claim 3, comprising a cellular, wireless local area network (WLAN) or Bluetooth interface.
5. The stand of any preceding claim, configured to receive the input from the docked mobile device.
6. The stand of any preceding claim, configured to receive the input from the surrounding environment.
7. The stand of any preceding claim, configured to determine the direction of the data source, such as sound source, and control the rotation based on the de-termination.
8. The stand of any preceding claim, configured to detect a predetermined control instruction, such as sound, for rotation or some other predetermined pur-pose from the received data input.
9. The stand of claim 8, wherein the control instruction indicates at least one function selected from the group consisting oE rotate a full turn, rotate continu-ously, rotate a predetermined amount, stop rotation, scheduled rotation, activate light, and deactivate light.
10. The stand of any preceding claim, wherein the support portion (122) defines an opening (126) for receiving the end of the mobile device.
11. The stand of any preceding claim, wherein the support portion (122) com- prises elastic material for securing the fit between the stand and the docked mo-bile device, said material optionally comprising rubber.
12. The stand of any preceding claim, wherein the support portion (122) com- prises a replaceable adapter (124) for accommodating the end of the mobile de-vice of predetermined dimensions.
13. The stand of any preceding claim, comprising a base portion (128), the sup-port portion (122) being rotatably coupled to the base portion.
14. The stand of any preceding claim, comprising a light source, optionally LED (light-emitting diode), for illuminating the environment for enhanced imag-ing in darker conditions by the docked mobile device.
15. A system comprising a stand of any preceding claim and a mobile device (102) configured to provide the data input wirelessly to the stand, optionally while docked.
16. The system of claim 15, further incorporating a network arrangement (108) comprising a number of network servers for receiving and optionally storing caniera data from said mobile device configured to transmit such data, wherein the arrangement is optionally configured to transmit a control signal to the mo- bile device or directly towards tile stand for camera view alignment via the rota-tion.
17. A teleconference system comprising a stand of any of claims 1-14 and a mobile device for acquisition and transmittal of video or still image data while docked in the stand, said system optionally further comprising a network ar-rangement comprising a number of servers (108) for receiving and distributing said video or still image data.
18. A method (602) for controlling the camera view of a docked mobile, prefer-ably hand-held, electronic consumer electronics device capable of digital image acquisition, comprising -obtaining a stand for the mobile device, wherein the stand is arranged with an internal power supply such as a battery or at least a connector for a battery or an external power supply foT providing electric power to the stand and option&ly charging the mobile device, a support portion for contacting and supporting the mobile device while docked in the stand and an electric motor for dynamically adjusting the alignment of the mobile device through rotation of the support por- tion and the docked mobile device, the stand frirther comprising a wireless inter-face for receiving input data (606), -wirelessly receiving input data at the stand (608), and -rotating the support portion by the electric motor to change the alignment of the camera of the docked mobile device and related camera view (610) based on the input data.