Initiating Schedule Management Via Radio Frequency Beacons

Abstract

A portable electronic device receives broadcasts from one or more RF beacons to determine a location of a user and communicates with a scheduling server to manage the schedule of a conference room. The portable electronic device receives an address and an application identifier from each RF beacon and opens a scheduling application in response. The portable electronic device then communicates with a scheduling server to receive the schedule of the location determined from the beacon broadcasts. The user may reserve the location and set a number of presets through the scheduling application. Updates to the schedule are communicated to the scheduling server from the portable electronic device.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Technical Field[0002]The present invention relates to control networks and more specifically to control networks leveraging RF communication standards such as near field communication standards and Bluetooth 4.0 standards.[0003]2. Background Art[0004]In large corporate buildings or similar facilities, there may be hundreds or even thousands of conference rooms of various types. It may become burdensome to find and book a room with appropriate availability and resources. Currently, buildings may have dedicated touchpanels which provide local access to a scheduling server. For example, outside of a conference room, a TPMC-4SM touchpanel available from Crestron Electronics, Inc. of Rockleigh, N.J. may provide local access to a server running scheduling software such as Fusion RV, also available from Crestron Electronics, Inc.[0005]However, these dedicated touchpanels may be too robust an option for certain conference rooms. Often touchpanels require ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a system and method for managing the schedule of an area using RF beacons and a portable electronic device. The system includes an RF beacon that broadcasts an application identifier and a beacon ID, a portable electronic device with a network interface for communication with the RF beacons and a scheduling server, a display, and a processor for executing instructions. The method involves receiving the beacon ID and application identifier from the RF beacons, estimating the distance between the portable electronic device and the RF beacons, determining the location of the portable electronic device based on the distance, communicating with the scheduling server to receive the schedule of the area, and displaying the schedule on the portable electronic device. The technical effects of the invention include improved efficiency in managing schedules and better user experience.

Problems solved by technology

It may become burdensome to find and book a room with appropriate availability and resources.

However, these dedicated touchpanels may be too robust an option for certain conference rooms.

Often touchpanels require expensive installation and sophisticated processors and users may not desire to install a dedicated access point at each conference or they may not desire to install a dedicated access point with such options at each conference room.

However, it may be impractical to install touchpanels at each of these workstations.

While the introduction of smart portable devices to home automation has had a noticeable positive impact, existing systems do not fully leverage the capabilities of current generation smart phones and tablets.

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