Patent ID: 7506259

Claim:
A method for configuring a mobile device for use in interacting with a service, said method comprising: communicating a description of said device including one or more input control devices including one or more of: dial, knob, key, slider, bezel, switch and jog wheel devices, said device description including size, position and spacing of the input control devices; communicating user preferences for operating the device, said preferences including one or more of: input control device size, position and spacing and preference to map actions to a particular input control device or to a group of input control devices; and, communicating a description of a service including any aspects of the service functionality, receiving, by a mapping function, said user preferences, device description, and service functions and analyzing said user preferences, device description, and service functions to create a customized mapping strategy that optimizes the placement of the service's functions on to the device's input controls while taking the user preferences into account; and, automatically configuring said input controls of the mobile device based on said mapping strategy when said service is invoked, wherein said user's preference for input control size, position and spacing is taken into account with respect to a physical realization of input controls on the device, wherein a description of a service includes one or more of: a service operation, and a service name, a service description being optionally enhanced with information related to the expected use of the service, said expected use comprising one or more of: a grouping of the service operations, a frequency of service operations, an importance of service operations, a service operation hierarchy, a probability distribution of one or more operations and/or conditional probabilities of operations.