Patent Application
20210306846
Users frequently utilize at least one accessory device (e.g., a keyboard, a mouse, a stylus, a headset, etc.) in conjunction with their information handling devices (“devices”, “user computing devices”, etc.), for example, smart phones, tablets, laptops and/or personal computers, and the like. As technology has progressed, accessory devices have been developed that are capable of establishing a wireless connection with the user devices. Such a capability enables users to easily transport their accessory devices from place to place and to pair them with a variety of different user devices.
In summary, one aspect provides a method, comprising: receiving, at an accessory device, an indication to initiate a pairing process with an information handling device; adjusting, responsive to the receiving, a transmitting power of the accessory device; and pairing, based on the adjusting, the accessory device to the information handling device.
Another aspect provides an accessory device, comprising: a processor; a memory device that stores instructions executable by the processor to: receive an indication to initiate a pairing process with an information handling device; adjust, responsive to the receiving, a transmitting power of the accessory device; and pairing, based on the adjusting, the accessory device to the information handling device.
A further aspect provides a product, comprising: a storage device that stores code, the code being executable by a processor and comprising: code that receives an indication to pair an accessory device with an information handling device; code that adjusts, responsive to the receiving, a transmitting power of the accessory device; and code that pairs, based on the adjusting, the accessory device to the information handling device.
The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting.
For a better understanding of the embodiments, together with other and further features and advantages thereof, reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.
It will be readily understood that the components of the embodiments, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations in addition to the described example embodiments. Thus, the following more detailed description of the example embodiments, as represented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments, as claimed, but is merely representative of example embodiments.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” (or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” or the like in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the various embodiments can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, et cetera. In other instances, well known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obfuscation.
A variety of automatic pairing applications exist that enable easier pairing of accessory devices with various user computing devices. At a high level, many of these applications operate by receiving, at a computing device, a pairing request from an accessory device. The pairing request may be broadcast from the accessory device to all surrounding computing devices within a predetermined beaconing range of the accessory device (e.g., 15 meter range, 30 meter range, etc.). Upon detection of the pairing request, a computing device may query a user whether they want to pair the accessory device to the computing device or, alternatively, may automatically facilitate a pairing process with the accessory device.
Although the foregoing pairing applications are successful in reaching a large pool of viable computing devices, the large net cast by these existing processes may be problematic in certain contexts. For example, in an open office environment a pairing request from an accessory device may be detected by a plurality of computing devices. At best, receipt of such a pairing request may be annoying to the users of computing devices not intended to be paired to the accessory device (e.g., if each of the computing devices provides a pop-up notification indicating that a pairable device is requesting to be paired, etc.). At worst, a user of an unintended computing device may accidently or maliciously accept the pairing request and take control of the accessory device, thereby causing confusion and/or security issues.
Accordingly, an embodiment provides a method for dynamically pairing an accessory device with a particular computing device without pairing, or providing pairing notifications, to other unintended computing devices. In an embodiment, an indication to initiate a pairing process with a device may be received at an accessory device. An embodiment may then adjust a transmitting power of the accessory device (e.g., from a default transmitting power to a lower transmitting power, etc.) and thereafter pair the accessory device to the device while operating at the adjusted transmitting power. If pairing at this stage cannot be accomplished (e.g., because the transmitting power of the accessory device is too low for the distance separating the accessory device and the intended device, etc.) then an embodiment may dynamically increase the transmitting power in stepped adjustments until pairing is achieved. Such a method limits or prevents the instances of unintended pairing with other devices.
The illustrated example embodiments will be best understood by reference to the figures. The following description is intended only by way of example, and simply illustrates certain example embodiments.
While various other circuits, circuitry or components may be utilized in information handling devices, with regard to smart phone and/or tablet circuitry 100, an example illustrated in
There are power management chip(s) 130, e.g., a battery management unit, BMU, which manage power as supplied, for example, via a rechargeable battery 140, which may be recharged by a connection to a power source (not shown). In at least one design, a single chip, such as 110, is used to supply BIOS like functionality and DRAM memory.
System 100 typically includes one or more of a WWAN transceiver 150 and a WLAN transceiver 160 for connecting to various networks, such as telecommunications networks and wireless Internet devices, e.g., access points. Additionally, devices 120 are commonly included, e.g., an image sensor such as a camera, audio capture device such as a microphone, etc. System 100 often includes one or more touch screens 170 for data input and display/rendering. System 100 also typically includes various memory devices, for example flash memory 180 and SDRAM 190.
The example of
In
In
The system, upon power on, may be configured to execute boot code 290 for the BIOS 268, as stored within the SPI Flash 266, and thereafter processes data under the control of one or more operating systems and application software (for example, stored in system memory 240). An operating system may be stored in any of a variety of locations and accessed, for example, according to instructions of the BIOS 268. As described herein, a device may include fewer or more features than shown in the system of
Accessory devices described herein may connect and/or pair to computing devices having circuitry, as for example outlined in
Referring now to
In an embodiment, the indication to initiate pairing may derive from an express user pairing input. For example, a user may actuate a dedicated pairing button on the accessory device that correspondingly sends a pairing request signal to computing devices within a beaconing range of the accessory device. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the indication may be derived from an automatic pairing process. For example, an embodiment may automatically send a pairing request upon detection of a predetermined criterion (e.g., upon detection of an accessory device being turned on, an accessory device entering a certain location, etc.).
At 302, an embodiment may dynamically adjust a transmitting power of the accessory device responsive to receipt of the indication. In an embodiment, the adjustment of the transmitting power may be automatic and may not require any additional user input. In an embodiment, the transmitting power of the accessory device may dictate the physical range, or distance, that the pairing request signal may be transmitted. In an embodiment, the adjustment of the transmitting power may correspond to an adjustment of the transmitting power from a default transmitting power to a lower transmitting power. The lower transmitting power may correspond to a predetermined lower transmitting power. Such a predetermined transmitting power may be originally established by a manufacturer and/or may be later adjusted by a user (e.g., by toggling device settings, etc.). For example, the predetermined lower transmitting power may be the lowest transmitting power setting available to the device.
Alternatively, the predetermined transmitting power level may be dynamically learned over time. For example, an embodiment may identify that a user manually adjusts the transmitting power of the accessory device to a particular transmitting power each time they try to initiate a pairing process with a particular computing device. From this knowledge, an embodiment may dynamically adjust the default transmitting power to the predetermined transmitting power when a predetermined criterion is detected (e.g., when the particular computing device is detected to be within proximity to the accessory device, when the accessory device is detected to be in a same location as the computing device, etc.). In another embodiment, the accessory device may comprise one or more sensors that may aid in the dynamic adjustment of the transmitting power. For example, in an embodiment, an accessory device may contain an integrated camera sensor that may be able to identify a computing device and, using one or more conventional image analysis techniques, determine a distance to that computing device from the accessory device. An embodiment may thereafter utilize this distance knowledge to adjust a transmitting power of the accessory device to accommodate the determined distance.
At 303, an embodiment may attempt to pair the accessory device to a user computing device at the adjusted transmitting power. More particularly, an embodiment may transmit a pairing request to any user computing devices within a range dictated by the transmitting power at the adjusted setting. Responsive to determining, at 303, that pairing was achieved at the adjusted transmitting power, an embodiment may, at 304, take no additional action. Additionally or alternatively, an embodiment may provide a notification to a user that pairing was achieved (e.g., an audible and/or visual notification originating from either of the accessory device or the user computing device, etc.). Conversely, responsive to determining, at 303, that pairing could not be achieved at the adjusted transmitting power, an embodiment may, at 305, further adjust the transmitting power until pairing is achieved.
With respect to the foregoing, an embodiment may gradually increase the adjusted transmitting power to a greater transmitting power until pairing is achieved. For example, an embodiment may first attempt to pair with a computing device at the lowest transmitting power (i.e., assuming that the lowest transmitting power corresponds to the adjusted transmitting power). If pairing is unsuccessful (e.g., because a computing device is not within a broadcast range of the accessory device operating at the lowest transmitting power, etc.), an embodiment may thereafter raise the transmitting power by a predetermined amount. For example, an embodiment may raise the transmitting power by one power level, which correspondingly affects the range that a pairing request may be broadcast. This process may be repeated until a successful pairing is achieved. It is important to note that the foregoing techniques may also be applicable to situations where the transmitting power of the accessory device is lowered to a predetermined transmitting power that is lower than a default transmitting power but higher than the lowest transmitting power.
The various embodiments described herein thus represent a technical improvement to conventional methods for pairing an accessory device to a user computing device. In an embodiment, an indication may be received to initiate a pairing process with a computing device. An embodiment may then adjust a transmitting power of the accessory device (e.g., from a default transmitting power to a lower transmitting power, etc.) and attempt to pair with a computing device at this adjusted lower transmitting power. If pairing is unsuccessful, an embodiment may gradually increase the transmitting power of the accessory device until pairing between the accessory device and a user computing device can be achieved. Such a method may reduce the number of unintended computing devices that may be disturbed by broadcasted pairing requests.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, various aspects may be embodied as a system, method or device program product. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment or an embodiment including software that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects may take the form of a device program product embodied in one or more device readable medium(s) having device readable program code embodied therewith.
It should be noted that the various functions described herein may be implemented using instructions stored on a device readable storage medium such as a non-signal storage device that are executed by a processor. A storage device may be, for example, a system, apparatus, or device (e.g., an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device) or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of a storage device/medium include the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a storage device is not a signal and “non-transitory” includes all media except signal media.
Program code embodied on a storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, et cetera, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Program code for carrying out operations may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on a single device, partly on a single device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on single device and partly on another device, or entirely on the other device. In some cases, the devices may be connected through any type of connection or network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made through other devices (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider), through wireless connections, e.g., near-field communication, or through a hard wire connection, such as over a USB connection.
Example embodiments are described herein with reference to the figures, which illustrate example methods, devices and program products according to various example embodiments. It will be understood that the actions and functionality may be implemented at least in part by program instructions. These program instructions may be provided to a processor of a device, a special purpose information handling device, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via a processor of the device implement the functions/acts specified.
It is worth noting that while specific blocks are used in the figures, and a particular ordering of blocks has been illustrated, these are non-limiting examples. In certain contexts, two or more blocks may be combined, a block may be split into two or more blocks, or certain blocks may be re-ordered or re-organized as appropriate, as the explicit illustrated examples are used only for descriptive purposes and are not to be construed as limiting.
As used herein, the singular “a” and “an” may be construed as including the plural “one or more” unless clearly indicated otherwise.
This disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description but is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The example embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain principles and practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Thus, although illustrative example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying figures, it is to be understood that this description is not limiting and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.
