DESC:The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:-

TECHNICAL FIELD
[001] The embodiments herein relate to electronic devices and, more particularly, to provide customized user access to application functions in the electronic devices.

BACKGROUND
[002] ‘Smart’ communication devices support different types of applications, and with the increasing popularity of smartphones, tablet computers and so on, there are multiple applications that can serve the same purpose. Further, each application can have multiple functionalities. One main factor/parameter that a user/customer would consider in addition to specification of the device is the ease with which the user can interact with the device to perform various functions.
[003] Most of the devices that are currently available allow customization to improve user interface. However, the existing devices provide one interface in the display screen require the user to launch the main application to navigate further through the different functionalities of the application. This demands more effort and time, and may not be convenient for the user.

OBJECT OF INVENTION
[004] An object of the embodiments herein is to allow customization of application interface to provide direct access to functionalities of an application through an application icon without launching a full-fledged application,
[005] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide option to merge UI elements corresponding to selected functionalities of an application to launch one or more desired functionalities of an application.
[006] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide options for adding/removing/merging different UI elements from single or multiple applications to create customized application.
[007] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide option(s) for closing one or more functionality of from an application icon to create customized application.
[008] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide option for creating an application icon using UI elements corresponding to functionalities of different applications.
[009] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide option for arranging order in which UI elements are displayed in the application icon.
[0010] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide option for creating nested application icon.
[0011] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide option for sharing an application icon across different devices.
[0012] Another object of the embodiments herein is to provide option for creating the customized application using finger-pinch and/or tapping inputs on one or more application.

SUMMARY
[0013] In view of the foregoing, an embodiment herein provides a method of launching an application in a device. Upon receiving a user input gesture on an application icon in the device, a plurality of User Interface (UI) elements in the application icon are displayed in response to the received user input gesture, wherein each of the plurality of UI elements corresponds to different functionalities of the application. Further, upon user selection on at least one UI element from the plurality of UI element, the device launches the functionality of the application corresponding to the selected UI element. A few examples of the input gestures are zoom, tap, pinch to zoom, and so on, and each of such input gestures can be configured to trigger certain actions as pre-configured.
[0014] Embodiments further disclose a device, the device including a hardware processor and a non-volatile memory comprising instructions. The instructions are configured to cause the hardware processor to receive a user input gesture on an application icon in the device, by an I/O interface of the device. Further, a customization module of the device displays a plurality of UI elements in the application icon, in response to the received user input gesture, wherein each of the plurality of UI elements corresponds to a functionality of the application. The I/O interface further receives a user selection on at least one UI element from the plurality of UI elements. In response to the user selection on the UI element, corresponding functionality of the application is launched by the customization module.
[0015] These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0016] The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following detailed description with reference to the drawings, in which:
[0017] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the User Equipment (UE) that provides customized access to application functionalities, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0018] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that depicts steps involved in the process of providing customized access to application functionalities using the UE, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0019] Figs. 3a and 3b depict example implementation of the customized access to application functionalities, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0020] Fig. 4 depicts example implementation of creating an application icon using functionalities of different applications, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0021] Figs. 5a and 5b depicts example implementation of creating a nested application icon, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0022] Fig. 6 depicts example implementation of moving an application icon across devices, as disclosed in the embodiments herein;
[0023] Figs. 7a-7d depict example implementation of grouping UI elements on an application icon and accessing the group, as disclosed in the embodiments herein; and
[0024] Figs. 8a-8f depict example implementation of accommodating UI elements on an application icon and accessing the same, as disclosed in the embodiments herein.


DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0025] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
[0026] The embodiments herein disclose a mechanism for providing customized access to functionalities of application(s) in user equipment. Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 through 8, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown embodiments.
[0027] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of the User Equipment (UE) that provides customized access to application functionalities, as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The UE 100 comprises of an Input/Output (I/O) interface 101, and a customization module 102. The UE 100 can be any electronic device such as but not limited to a smartphone, tablet computer, and laptop, that can host different applications, and which preferably has a touch interface or any such interface to allow user interaction in at least one specified format.
[0028] The I/O interface 101 can be configured to provide at least one interface for the user to interact with and provide inputs to the UE 100. For example, the interface can be a touch screen interface that allows the user to provide touch inputs to the UE 100. The I/O interface 101 can be further configured to provide the collected input(s) to the customization module 102.
[0029] The customization module 102 can be configured to process the input(s) received from the I/O interface 101 and identify the application icon which is being accessed by the user. Here, the term ‘application icon’ can refer to icon of any application installed in the UE 100 which further includes one or more User Interface(UI) element, wherein the UI elements correspond to different functionalities of the application. The terms UI and UI element are used interchangeably, throughout. The ‘application icon’ can also refer to a customized interface which includes at least one selected UI element of at least one application. The customization module 102 can be further configured to provide suitable interface(s) to allow the user to select at least one UI element among the UI elements present in the selected application icon. Being able to access UI elements corresponding to different functionalities of the application directly, the user can directly access any selected functionality without having to launch a full-fledged application. In an embodiment, the UI elements on an application can be displayed at various levels, which can be accessed by the user by providing suitable inputs. This is depicted in Fig. 8.
[0030] In 8a, when the user accesses Facebook application icon on the main screen of the device by providing a zoom input, At a first level zoom, only the UI element pertaining to ‘Friend list’ functionality (1016) of Facebook is displayed to the user. In 8b, the user zooms further (1017), and in the second level as depicted in 8c, displays UIs corresponding to ‘Friend requests (1018)’ and ‘Chat list (1019)’ along with that of ‘Friend list’. When the user zooms further, in a third level (1020), the application icon displays UI elements corresponding to ‘Feed (1022)’ and ‘Likes (1021)’ in addition to the UI elements displayed in second level. The user can then access (1023) any of the UI elements by providing a suitable input (in this example, ‘tap’). In 8e, the user accesses the chat functionality, which is then launched in an application tab (as in 1024 of 8f).
[0031] In an embodiment, the customization module 102 provides option(s) for allowing a user to define/customize the UIs that need to be displayed in an application icon pertaining to each application. The customization module 102 can allow the user to add and/or remove and/or merge UI pertaining to different functionalities of the application, from the application icon. The customization module 102 can be further configured to allow a user to select UIs that correspond to selected functionalities of different applications and merge them to form a customized application icon. For example, the user may drag and drop a selected UI of one application to a selected UI of another application, and the customization module 102 automatically creates an application icon with the selected UIs.
[0032] Upon receiving a user input pertaining to selection of a UI from the application icon, the customization module 102 displays the functionality corresponding to the selected UI using a suitable interface. For example, refer to Fig. 3a and 3b. In this example, an application icon (1001) is created for the Facebook application installed in the UE 100. When the user accesses (1002) the Facebook icon in a pre-defined manner (in this example pinch-to-zoom input), the UI icons corresponding to various functionalities of Facebook are displayed (1004) in the application icon to the user. Further, the user selects (1003) the messenger icon. Upon receiving this user selection, the messenger is directly launched (1005) as shown in 3a. Further, the user is provided with options to select (1006) at least one contact from the contact list and initiate a communication session as depicted in Fig. 3b.
[0033] An application icon created by merging selected functionalities of different applications is depicted in Fig. 4. In this example, the user selects Facebook messenger functionality and merges it with WhatsApp chat feature. Upon receiving a user input pertaining to selection and merging of the two functionalities, the customization module 102 automatically generates a customized application icon and adds the selected features to the application icon. Further when the user accesses the customized application icon, the functionalities represented by the UIs in the customized application icon are displayed in a single window or different windows, to the user. In this example, the Facebook messenger (1008) and WhatsApp chat (1007) features are displayed side by side as in Fig. 4. The user may also create a customized application icon by selecting two or more UI elements from at least two other application icons. For example, the user can select two UI elements from two application icons using a tap/pinch gesture, and create the customized application window using the selected UI elements. The user can also close/remove selected UI element(s) from an application icon, by performing corresponding gesture as pre-configured.
[0034] The customization module 102 can be further configured to provide nested application icon feature as depicted in Fig. 5. Using nested application icon option, a user can add one application icon as part of another application icon. As in 5a, the user can, using a suitable gesture, access (1009) the application icon which is included in the other application icon, and then access (1010) the UIs in the nested application icon (as in 5b).
[0035] The customization module 102 can be further configured to provide an option to share an application icon (1011) and associated contents across devices, as in fig. 6. In an embodiment, ‘associated contents’ refer to UIs and the corresponding order/structure present in the application icon being moved.
[0036] The customization module 102 can be further configured to allow grouping of selected UI elements within an application icon. When the UI elements of an application icon are visible (as in 1012 of 7a), the user can perform a pre-defined action (for example drag and drop/pinch as in 1013 of 7b) to trigger selection and grouping of the selected UI elements, and in response the customization module 102 groups the selected UI elements (as in 1014 of 7c). Here the selected UI elements are the UI elements corresponding to friend list and chat window of Facebook application, which are then grouped together. Further, when the user accesses (1015) the group by providing an input (as in 7d), the functionalities corresponding to the UI elements in the group are launched in one or more tabs of an application window by the customization module 102. The customization module 102 can be further configured to allow removal of one or more UI elements from the application icon and/or a group. To support removal of the UI element(s), the customization module 102 displays all UI elements on an application icon or group being accessed by the user, and provides option for the user to provide input to remove one or more of the displayed UI elements from the group/application icon. The customization module 102 can be further configured to learn from user actions, preferences of the user in terms of functionalities and application icons being accessed, and accordingly customize the way the UI elements are displayed to the user. For example, consider Facebook application icon which includes UI elements corresponding to chat, friend list, notifications, feed, and other functionalities of the application. Of all the UI elements, if the user regularly accesses chat and feed, UI elements corresponding to those two functionalities will be highlighted by the customization module 102 later when the user accesses the Facebook application icon.
[0037] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram that depicts steps involved in the process of providing customized access to application functionalities using the UE, as disclosed in the embodiments herein. The UE 100 receives (202) a user input pertaining to selection of an application icon which includes one or more UI. Upon receiving an appropriate (i.e. pre-configured) user gesture input, displays (204) the UI(s) present in the application to the user. The user can, using a suitable interface provided, make selection of at least one UI in the application icon. Upon receiving the user selection, functionality of at least one application corresponding to the selected UI is launched by the UE 100. The various actions in method 200 may be performed in the order presented, in a different order or simultaneously. Further, in some embodiments, some actions listed in FIG. 2 may be omitted.
[0038] The embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented through at least one software program running on at least one hardware device and performing network management functions to control the network elements. The network elements shown in Fig. 1 include blocks which can be at least one of a hardware device, or a combination of hardware device and software module.
[0039] The embodiments disclosed herein specify a mechanism for launching an application in a UE. The mechanism allows customization of interfaces to allow direct launching of interface to selected functionalities of the application, providing a system thereof. Therefore, it is understood that the scope of protection is extended to such a system and by extension, to a computer readable means having a message therein, said computer readable means containing a program code for implementation of one or more steps of the method, when the program runs on a server or mobile device or any suitable programmable device. The method is implemented in a preferred embodiment using the system together with a software program written in, for ex. Very high speed integrated circuit Hardware Description Language (VHDL), another programming language, or implemented by one or more VHDL or several software modules being executed on at least one hardware device. The hardware device can be any kind of device which can be programmed including, for ex. any kind of a computer like a server or a personal computer, or the like, or any combination thereof, for ex. one processor and two FPGAs. The device may also include means which could be for ex. hardware means like an ASIC or a combination of hardware and software means, an ASIC and an FPGA, or at least one microprocessor and at least one memory with software modules located therein. Thus, the means are at least one hardware means or at least one hardware-cum-software means. The method embodiments described herein could be implemented in pure hardware or partly in hardware and partly in software. Alternatively, the embodiment may be implemented on different hardware devices, for ex. using a plurality of CPUs.
[0040] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the claims as described herein.

,CLAIMS:CLAIMS
What is claimed is:
1. A method of launching an application in a device, the method comprising:
receiving a user input gesture on an application icon in the device;
causing to display a plurality of user interface (UI) elements on the application icon, in response to the received user input gesture, wherein each of the plurality of UI elements corresponds to at least one functionality of the application;
receiving a user selection of at least one UI element from the plurality of UI elements; and
launching the functionality of the application corresponding to the selected UI element.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of UI elements on the application icon is rendered with the application icon, wherein the application icon is expanded to accommodate said plurality of UI elements.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of UI elements in the application icon corresponds to different functionalities of an application in the device.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of UI elements in the application icon corresponds to functionalities of at least one application in the device.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user gesture is a pre-configured gesture.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least two of said plurality of UI elements can be grouped within the application icon, wherein grouping the at least two application icons further comprises of:
selecting the at least two UI elements to be grouped, in response to a pre-defined gesture input received from user; and
merging the selected UI elements to form the group within the application icon, in response to a pre-defined gesture input received from user.
7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein functionalities corresponding to the merged UI elements are launched in separate tabs when the group is accessed by a user.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one UI element on at least one of the application icon and the group can be removed, wherein removing the at least one UI element further comprises of:
displaying all functionalities in at least one of the application icon and the group, in an interface;
receiving a user input to remove at least one functionality of the functionalities displayed; and
removing the at least one functionality from at least one of the application icon and the group, in response to the user input.
9. A device, said device comprising:
a hardware processor;
a non-volatile memory comprising instructions, said instructions configured to cause said hardware processor to:
receive a user input gesture on an application icon in the device, by an I/O interface of the device;
cause to display, by a customization module of the device, a plurality of UI elements on the application icon, in response to the received user input gesture, wherein each of the plurality of UI elements corresponds to a functionality of the application;
receive a user selection of at least one UI element from the plurality of UI elements, by the I/O interface; and
launch the functionality of the application corresponding to the selected UI element, by the customization module.
10. The device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device is configured to render said plurality of UI elements on the application icon with the application icon, wherein the application icon is expanded to accommodate said plurality of UI elements.
11. The device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device is configured to host a plurality of UI elements corresponding to functionalities of an application, in the application icon.
12. The device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device is configured to host a plurality of UI elements corresponding to functionalities of at least one different applications in the application icon.
13. The device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device is configured to group at least two of said plurality of UI elements within the application icon by:
selecting the at least two UI elements to be grouped, in response to a pre-defined gesture input received from user, by the customization module; and
merging the selected UI elements to form the group within the application icon, in response to a pre-defined gesture input received from user, by the customization module.
14. The device as claimed in claim 13, wherein said device is configured to launch functionalities corresponding to the merged UI elements in separate tabs, when the group is accessed by a user.
15. The device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device is configured to remove at least one UI element on at least one of the application icon and the group, in response to a user input by:
displaying all functionalities in at least one of the application icon and the group, in an interface, by the I/O interface;
receiving a user input to remove at least one functionality of the functionalities displayed, by the I/O interface; and
removing the at least one functionality from at least one of the application icon and the group, in response to the user input, by the customization module.
16. The device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said device is configured to render said plurality of UI elements on the application icon with the application icon.

Dated this 18th of July 2016 Signature:

Name of the Signatory: Dr. Kalyan Chakrvarthy