323 results about "Piconet" patented technology

When an ad hoc network is formed between short range wireless devices, at least one device assumes the role of an ad hoc network information provider for the new piconet. In this role, the device allocates a browsing hierarchy of service classes in its service registry. The service classes will provide a record to characterize the ad hoc network. When a new wireless device arrives within the communication range of any member of the ad hoc network, its inquiry signals are answered by the first member detecting the inquiry. If that first member is an ad hoc network information provider, it responds with information accessed from its service registry characterizing the ad hoc network. If, instead, an ordinary device in the ad hoc network is the first to respond to the inquiry signals of the arriving device, the device responds with the address of the ad hoc network information provider. The arriving device then pages the ad hoc network information provider to obtain information characterizing the ad hoc network.

A wireless piconet transceiver is mounted in a vehicle, and a complementary fixed wireless piconet transceiver is mounted in a garage, service station, police squad car, etc., for communication with the vehicle when parked adjacent thereto. The vehicle establishes a temporary piconet network with the user's home piconet. Vehicle operational statistics are tracked and maintained in a centralized vehicle computer database. This database can be manipulated to store the data desired by the vehicle owner. Via a wireless piconet connection, this database can transmitted to another piconet device such as the owner's computer. This computer system can be part of a wireless piconet, such as Bluetooth, This provides the computer with the ability to communicate with external wireless devices such as a cell phone, PDA, computer, or a cordless telephone. This invention allows for the configuration, or selection of desired vehicle data to be tracked. This configuration can take place on the owner's home computer (or laptop) and consequently transmitted to the vehicle computer using a wireless piconet protocol, e.g., the Bluetooth protocol. Additionally, this configuration can be manipulated by a direct interface to the vehicle provided by the manufacturer. Exemplary vehicle statistics which may be tracked include, but are not limited to, miles per gallon, average miles per hour, maximum MPH, miles driven per trip, driving statistics based on time of day and / or on identified driver, rotations of the engine per minute (RPM), temperature of engine, fuel gauge level, oil pressure, tires, brakes, engine coolant, wiper fluid, global positioning satellite (GPS) system, and / or even compressed voice from inside car cockpit during operation of vehicle.

A wireless PDA device with proximity detection includes a trigger for implementing a reminder alert to a user of a wireless PDA device based on the proximity of another wireless PDA device. The proximity detection may be accomplished by actual knowledge of proximity (e.g., using appropriate GPS detection and reporting to a centralized location), or more preferably inferred using the short range capability of wireless networks such as a piconet network by comparing the members of a current piconet network (presumed to be within the range of the relevant wireless PDA device). In a disclosed embodiment, an intelligent reminder table is implemented for use by an appropriate reminder application running on a wireless PDA device. The reminder table includes a proximity alert election on an entry-by-entry basis, and automatic reminder canceling based on proximity detection of another wireless PDA device relevant to the reminder. Example proximity alerts include reminding the user to wish a person happy birthday the next time they see them (i.e., the next time that the other person is proximate to the relevant PDA user). The intelligent reminder table also provides for the automatic cancellation of a reminder when the reminder relates to a meeting with the other PDA user detected as being proximate to the relevant PDA user within a given time frame of a reminder date / time.

Cordless telephone technology provides a long range and highly sophisticated wireless extension between a plurality of wireless piconet networks. In one embodiment, base units of separate cordless telephones include respective piconet front ends (e.g., Bluetooth protocol bearing RF front ends) in addition to the otherwise conventional RF front end. The piconet-capable base units are placed and made members of separate piconet networks, but within conventional cordless telephone range of one another, e.g., within one mile of one another. To allow communications between piconet devices on the separate wireless piconet networks, the cordless telephone base units pass piconet content information (i.e., the messages passed by a piconet device on a first piconet network including a first cordless telephone base unit intended for receipt by another piconet device on a second piconet network serviced by the other cordless telephone base unit. In another embodiment, a base unit of a cordless telephone is made a member of a first wireless piconet network while its remote handset is made a member of a second wireless base unit, and piconet content information is passed from a device on one wireless piconet network to another device on the other wireless piconet network over the wireless cordless telephone (e.g., 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz range) channel established between the cordless telephone base unit and its remote handset.

Spread spectrum packet-switching radio devices (22) are operated in two or more ad-hoc networks or pico-networks (19, 20, 21) that share frequency-hopping channel and time slots that may collide. The frequency hopping sequences (54) of two or more masters (25) are exchanged using identity codes, permitting the devices to anticipate collision time slots (52). Priorities are assigned to the simultaneously operating piconets (19, 20, 21) during collision slots (52), e.g., as a function of their message queue size or latency, or other factors. Lower priority devices may abstain from transmitting during predicted collision slots (52), and / or a higher priority device may employ enhanced transmission resources during those slots, such as higher error correction levels, or various combinations of abstinence and error correction may be applied. Collisions are avoided or the higher priority piconet (19, 20, 21) is made likely to prevail in a collision.

A meter enabled for wireless communication and a wireless communication network are disclosed. A meter enabled for wireless communication comprises a metering device, a wireless communication system and an interface between the two. Meter data can be read, and the meter can be controlled via communication with a wireless network using, e.g., the Bluetooth™ protocol. A self-configuring wireless network is also disclosed. The wireless network includes a number of vnodes, and one or more VGATES. The vnodes are devices that are enabled for wireless communication using, e.g., the Bluetooth™ protocol. Vnodes are operative to form ad hoc piconet connections. The one or more VGATES comprise computer network gateways that are enabled for wireless communication using, e.g., the Bluetooth™ protocol. Thus, the VGATES enable the wireless array of vnodes to communicate with a private or public computer network to transmit data or receive commands. The network may also communicate with a VNOC system. VNOC is a universal communications adapter that enables the wireless array of vnodes to communicate (either directly or through a VGATE) with a central control facility via various wireless or wired communication media.

There is provided a Bluetooth apparatus which can be easily associated with a Bluetooth device address (BD-ADDR) in a Piconet. When a Bluetooth master apparatus selects a Bluetooth slave apparatus to be connected, the selected apparatus is clearly indicated by a selection notifying operation performed by the slave apparatus using a display or sound. When each slave apparatus has an identification number which is unique and well known, the number is returned to the master. The master apparatus registers such a number in association with a BD-ADDR.

A wireless ad hoc pico network is formed by eyewear and other devices such as a computer, a bracelet and a telephone having similar transceivers mounted on them. Master slave relationships are configurable. Other devices, such as a radio, a CD player, a hand held global positioning satellite system and a heart rate monitor, having similar transceivers, can also be connected with the transceiver of the eyewear. The transceivers operate on globally available, unlicensed radio band, 2.45 gigahertz (GHz) and conforms to the Bluetooth standard. The power consumption of Bluetooth enabled devices is less than three percent of the power consumption of a mobile phone. The eyewear includes a frame and connected to the frame are two temples. Temples are connected to frame via hinges. Temples have a male portion of a connector incorporated in them. Female portion of the connector is made integral with the hinges. When the male portion is inserted in the female portion the temple is attached to the frame. The temples can be removed by pulling the connector apart, and a temple with different apparatus within it can be inserted in place of the removed temples. The temple may have co-molded within its body, an apparatus such as an audio device, a camera, a speaker, and a microphone, and a display device such as liquid crystal or an alarm. In another embodiment, eyewear constitutes a distance alarm to monitor the movement of, for example, a child. A device in form of, for example, a bracelet is worn by the child. The transceivers in the eyewear and the bracelet form a small-range wireless network, i.e., piconet, wherein the eyewear and the bracelet communicate using signals conforming to the Bluetooth technology. The transceiver in the eyewear is configured to generate an alarm when the bracelet exceeds a predetermined distance from eyewear.

A remotely provisioned proxy within a wireless / mobile phone that proxies a wireless communication path between a disconnected piconet (e.g., BLUETOOTH™) device and a network resource such as a universal resource locator (URL) via a mating mobile phone. Thus, an application proxy module embodied within the mobile phone provides managed access of a piconet device connected to the mating mobile phone to remote services. A disconnected piconet device uses the full data bandwidth available to a wireless phone, without the need for the disconnected piconet device to include its own separate wireless front end, or to require use of a modem within the mobile phone. Thus, using a mobile phone with application proxy, the user need not pay for the luxury of a tethered data plan.

A new display system and method is described, utilizing a cellular telephone having digital camera capability and a television linked directly over a UWB wireless signal forming a UWB wireless video pico-net. The system utilizes a digital camera unit to capture picture or video images for UWB transmission directly to the television acting as a pico-net host controller, either independently or together with the cellular telephone operating as a pico-net child. The display system comprises and one or more remote devices and a host display communicating on a UWB wireless network. The host display comprises a display for presentation of the picture or video images and a UWB transceiver for processing image data from the picture or video images, for selectively sending and receiving the image data based on a request from the child. The one or more remote devices comprise a digital camera for capturing the picture or video images and another UWB transceiver as used in the host display. The host display has a generally larger display for improved presentation of the captured picture or video images useful and amusing for group, party, wedding, and conference viewing, or simply for enhanced personal enjoyment. For picture or video image sharing, the system further facilitates downloading the current picture or video images from the host display television to a requesting cellular telephone or digital camera equipped with the UWB transceiver. The UWB display system provides sufficient bandwidth to support numerous such download requests simultaneously, while utilizing a transmission technology having minimal power consumption.

A wireless communications device detects a change in its residual energy status, and transmits the residual energy status across a wireless communications network to a remote device that coordinates communications in the wireless communications network. For example, the remote device may be a piconet coordinator (PNC) in an IEEE 802.15.3 network, or a master device in a Bluetooth network. A wireless communications device that coordinates communications in a wireless communications network (the coordinator) transmits one or more first handover commands to one or more remote devices upon the occurrence of a triggering event. Based on responses to these first commands, the coordinator selects a remote device for coordinating future communications in the wireless communications network.

A method of distributed control of a wireless mesh network without knowledge of global topology. The method includes: a station joining the network with any current member by propagating the join-request, or two meshes merging using the steps of: one mesh joining the other as a whole and then re-synchronizing its timing. The method further includes: first, each station periodically transmits a beacon; second, in response to a beacon being no longer detected, a station transmitting a bitmap of stations that it can still receive; third, each station responds by adding stations that it can receive with all of the bitmaps received from other members, and retransmitting the updated bitmap; fourth, after time for all stations to respond, all stations base current membership on the bitmap. The method further includes: determining sharable time slots that will not interfere with neighbors or other slot sharers, using and then releasing those slots.

When connecting a unit to one or more existing ad hoc wireless networks comprising several units, the units e.g. adapted to communicate according to the Bluetooth specification and the network then being formed according to the same specification to comprise one or more piconets, a unit can discover the units which are the masters in the networks, and then connect as a slave to those masters. Specifically it does not have to use the master-slave switch according to the Bluetooth specification. In the first stage of the unit trying to make a connection it establishes contact with at least one unit in an existing ad hoc network and then additional information on the status, in particular the role of master or slave, of the unit already connected in the network is transferred to the not yet connected unit. This information facilitates the decision of the unconnected unit as to which unit in the network that it should try to correct to. Then, in the actual connecting of the unit to the network, the roles of the unit and of the already connected unit can be chosen by the unit wanting to be connected. In particular, the initially inquiring and paging unit may become a slave unit in a newly formed piconet or in an already existing piconet.

Exemplary embodiments include a system having a first wireless audio output device configured to connect to a source device via a first piconet and a second wireless audio output device configured to connect to the first wireless audio output device via a second piconet. A schedule of the first piconet includes a plurality of slots associated with an audio packet, a first subset of the slots used by the source device to transmit the audio packet, the first and second wireless audio output devices tuning to the first piconet to listen for the transmissions of the audio packet, and when, after a last one of the first subset of slots, the first or second wireless audio output devices did not receive the audio packet, the first and second wireless audio output devices exchange information via the second piconet such that the both wireless audio output device receive the audio packet.

An apparatus to relay connection requests between wireless devices in a wireless network including at least one piconet having a master device and one or more slave devices, the apparatus including a connection request relay unit in the master device to relay to a first wireless device a request from a second wireless device to connect to the first wireless device, wherein the first wireless device is one of the oner or more slave devices, and the second wireless device is outside the at least one piconet having the master device, and a method of relaying the connection requests.

Synchronized UWB piconets for SOP (Simultaneously Operating Piconet) performance. A common backbone (either wired or wireless) is employed that provides a common CLK (clock signal) to all of the various PNCs (piconet coordinators) of various piconets that may operate within a sufficiently close region such that interference could undesirably occur. By providing a very reliable CLK signal from a common backbone to all of the PNCs of the various piconets operating within a substantially close proximity to one another, very precise synchronization may be ensured for all of the communications performed therein. The various piconets may then even operate using TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)—whose performance would be substantially compromised without effective synchronization. In addition, combined TFC (time frequency code) and TDMA may also be employed to support the communications therein thereby providing even another degree of orthogonality that provided by TDMA alone.

A Golay-code generator configured for generating Golay complementary code pairs comprises a sequence of delay elements configured for providing a predetermined set of fixed delays to at least a first input signal and a sequence of adaptable seed vector insertion elements configured for multiplying at least a second input signal by a variable seed vector, wherein each of a plurality of seed vectors corresponds to at least one predetermined piconet. The Golay-code generator may further comprise multiplexers configured for switching inputs and outputs of at least two delay elements in the sequence of delay elements to produce a plurality of compatible delay vectors. The Golay-code generator may further comprise a code-truncation module configured to shorten the Golay complementary code pairs for producing a plurality of daughter codes. This Abstract is provided for the sole purpose of complying with the Abstract requirement rules that allow a reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure contained herein. This Abstract is submitted with the explicit understanding that it will not be used to interpret or to limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.

Provided are apparatuses and methods in a mobile communication and content capturing device for controlling ownership and use of captured content. A mobile device capturing content of a user of a target device may automatically request authorization to use and own the captured content from the target device and user. The mobile device may detect the target device by comparing metadata associated with the captured content with device information of a target device. Alternatively, the capture device may communicate with a server to facilitate the authorization request process. The capture device may further establish a piconet with one or more intermediate wireless devices to detect and request authorization from a target device outside of the capture device's wireless range. Tokens may further be implemented to reduce transmission and processing times of various communication information including authorization requests and content files.

A BLE network includes a first piconet (A) including a first master scanner (3-1) and a first group of low-power slave / advertisers (5-1,2 . . . 5) for transmitting wireless advertisements and for establishing wireless connections with the first master / scanner. Circuitry (3,55) in the first master / scanner wirelessly scans to detect an advertisement (58,62) transmitted by a first slave / advertiser (5-1) of the first group and transmits a connection request (58,62) in response to the detecting, and transmits a schedule (60) for subsequent advertisements after an initial advertisement by the first slave / advertiser to complete synchronization of the first master / scanner with the first slave / advertiser. Circuitry (5,39) in the first slave / advertiser transmits the initial advertisement (42), receives an acceptance a resulting connection request, establishes association (44) with the first master scanner, and then causes the first slave / advertiser to go to sleep, to wake up and transmit subsequent advertisements according to the schedule (50) and accept resulting connection requests, and transmits available data to the first master / scanner, and goes back to sleep.

Information exchange among non-networked devices is disclosed. The information exchange occurs through instantaneous networks, like piconets, established between the non-networked devices and an intermediary device. For example, the intermediary device receives information from a first device during a piconet including it and the first device. This piconet dissipates, and another piconet is established between the intermediary device and a second device. During this piconet, the intermediary provides the information it received from the first device to the second device. The second device has received information from the first device, even though these devices have not networked themselves in an ad hoc network like a piconet or a scatternet.

Providing of a universal wireless headset begins for an incoming call by determining whether a piconet can be established between an initiating device and the wireless headset. If a piconet cannot be established, the processing continues by determining whether the headset can establish a piconet with a device coupled to a network. The network may be a local area network, which includes wireless devices and / or wired devices. When the wireless headset can establish the piconet with a device coupled to the network, the piconet is established. Once the piconet is established, the processing continues by establishing a logical connection between the initiating device and the device coupled to the network. As such, the incoming communication is supported via the logical connection and the piconet.

The present invention relates to a communication system and a communication method for simply and quickly starting communication. A cellular phone 52 is loaded with a non-contact IC card that communicates with a reader / writer of a personal computer 51 using an electromagnetic wave. When the non-contact IC card receives the electromagnetic wave emitted from the reader / writer with the cellular phone 52 placed close to the personal computer 51, the cellular phone 52 notifies the personal computer 51 of a card ID set in the non-contact IC card. When the personal computer 51 acquires Bluetooth device names of the cellular phone 52 and PDA 53 with intra-piconet synchronization established between the cellular phone 52 and the PDA 53, the personal computer 51 identifies the cellular phone 52 as a communication partner based on the Bluetooth device names already notified of as the card ID. The present invention is applicable to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer and a cellular phone.

Synchronized UWB piconets for SOP (Simultaneously Operating Piconet) performance. A common backbone (either wired or wireless) is employed that provides a common CLK (clock signal) to all of the various PNCs (piconet coordinators) of various piconets that may operate within a sufficiently close region such that interference could undesirably occur. By providing a very reliable CLK signal from a common backbone to all of the PNCs of the various piconets operating within a substantially close proximity to one another, very precise synchronization may be ensured for all of the communications performed therein. The various piconets may then even operate using TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)—whose performance would be substantially compromised without effective synchronization. In addition, combined TFC (time frequency code) and TDMA may also be employed to support the communications therein thereby providing even another degree of orthogonality that provided by TDMA alone.

A system and method are presented for actively evaluating and adjusting device energy consumption in a personal area network (PAN). The method comprises: polling devices in the PAN to determine respective energy metrics; and, establishing network communications between devices using the energy metrics. More specifically, a master device establishes network communications rules between the devices as a result of the polling activity. The master device identifies energy metrics including the battery charge status for devices powered by battery and device link energy metrics associated with network link communication operations, determines the priority of operation for the devices, and optimizes device battery life in response to the energy metrics and the priority of operation for the devices. In a specific example of the invention, a Bluetooth network, the method comprises: establishing a piconet with one device functioning as a master device and at least one other device functioning as a slave device; polling devices to determine respective energy metrics; the master device identifying energy metrics including the battery charge status and device link energy metrics; the master device determining the priority of operation for the devices; the master device optimizing device battery life in response to the energy metrics and the priority of operation for the devices by modifying link states between devices, the link state including device scan rate, device mode setting, and device network role.

The invention makes possible remote control of devices in a piconet by remote users communicating over the Internet and the like by providing a proxy-bridge device. The proxy-bridge device is a bridge for sending packets to and from between an external device and a device in the piconet. Moreover, the proxy-bridge device also serves as a proxy for the external device to devices in the piconet and as a proxy for devices in the piconet accessing an external device. The proxy-bridge wireless device's protocol stack allows communications with the piconet devices within the piconet. In addition, the protocol stack allows an application to communicate with a remote device e.g., via the Internet Protocol. Thus, the proxy-bridge device, using two protocols, enables remote users discover the presence of a service offered by a device in a piconet as a logical embedded device within the proxy-bridge device and vice-versa.

The present invention relates to a method of implementing a scatternet over a plurality of piconets using different frequencies in a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). In the scatternet implementation method of the present invention, a master of a first piconet transmits a scatternet request to a shared slave, and the shared slave switches a frequency thereof to a frequency of a second piconet and relays the scatternet request to a master of the second piconet. The master of the second piconet transmits scatternet approval to the shared slave. The shared slave switches the frequency to a frequency of the first piconet, relays the scatternet approval to the master of the first piconet, and is allocated resources, which do not overlap each other, by the masters of the first piconet and the second piconet. The shared slave switches frequencies and relays data between the first piconet and the second piconet while synchronizing with both the first piconet and the second piconet using allocated resources.

This invention provides a radio relay device with a small size and reduced cost which can prevent collision of communication data when the communication data are relayed in a plurality of radio networks. The radio relay device relays the communication data between a parent device and a child device of a cordless telephone. The radio relay device includes a synchronization timing detector 16 for detecting a synchronization timing with the transmission of the parent device when relaying a packet transmitted from the parent device to the child device of a different radio network (piconet) and a timing correcting value buffer 20 for storing a correcting value computed from a difference between the synchronization timing and a clock in a bit counter 19. When the radio relay device relays the packet from the parent device to the child device, it communicates with the child device at the timing corrected on the basis of the correcting value extracted from the timing correcting value buffer 20.

A method and system for Bluetooth (BT) delayed acknowledgment is presented. Aspects of the system may include an initiator device, such as a WLAN access point (AP), which enables transmission of a protocol data unit, such as a BlockAckReq frame, to a responder device, such as a Smartphone, via a first network, for example a WLAN. The Smartphone may be equipped with capabilities that enable communication via WLAN and Bluetooth networks. The AP may wait to receive a response protocol data unit, such as a BlockAck frame, via the first network (WLAN) for a response time duration. The response time duration may be based on the communication slot time duration for communication by the Smartphone on a second network, for example a BT piconet. The communication slot time duration may correspond to the time duration for a BT slot.

A wireless local area network (WLAN) includes mobile devices that are allowed to transfer wireless connections between WLAN subnets or channels having different access points. The access points connect to a central controller or roaming server that supports seamless hand-offs of mobile devices from one access point to another access point. The roaming server supports the reassignment of session data parameters from one access point to another (e.g., access point address spoofing) so that the mobile device can use the same parameters for communicating to a new access point. The roaming server also supports the seamless handoff of a mobile device from one access point to another by using a master-slave switch technique across two piconets. The roaming server also facilitates the control of access points by establishing a host controller interface and wireless protocol stack in the roaming server and another, complementary wireless protocol stack in the access point. The roaming server then encapsulates host controller commands in a packet based network protocol used for communication between the roaming server and the access points.