Microsoft has filed for a patent on a new technique that allow users of mobile devices to silence them by delivering a firm whack. From The Register:
Patent application 20120231838, aka CONTROLLING AUDIO OF A DEVICE, aims to patent:
“A method comprising: in a mobile communications device: receiving information indicative of acceleration of the mobile communications device; determining correlation between the information indicative of acceleration of the mobile communications device and exemplar whack event data; and based at least on the correlation, controlling an audio signal of the mobile communications device.”
Now my HTC Desire HD already uses accelerometers to silence a ringing phone on my desk simply by turning it over.
To me this seems like entirely the same principle, only a different set of data from accelerometers will be used to trigger the silencing of the ringer.
tl;dr - would this count as prior art, or is it not specific enough?