Patent ID: 7036130

Claim:
A method for interconnecting a functional expansion module to a portable electronic host device, comprising: detecting interconnection of the functional expansion module to the portable electronic host device; checking if the portable electronic host device has previously stored data relating to necessary procedures for activating that functional expansion module and setting that functional expansion module to act as an expanded user interface for the portable electronic host device; if so, implementing the previously stored data for activating and setting; if not, interfacing for communication between the functional expansion module and the portable electronic host device to determine the necessary procedures, wherein interfacing comprises: identifying applications resident on the portable electronic host device; checking whether an expansion user interface functionality provided by the functional expansion module is applicable to one or more of the host device applications; searching, with respect to each applicable host device application, for modes and user interfaces needed for use in implementing the expansion functionality through that application; and defining a vocabulary of correspondence between a minimum of expanded user interface functions provided by the functional expansion module and a minimum of user interface functions demanded by the host device; and storing those necessary procedures by the portable electronic host device for subsequent use in connection with a later detected interconnection of that functional expansion module so as to obviate the need to interface at each detected interconnection in order to set that functional expansion module for use by the portable electronic host device.