Patent Application
20080084860
Many aspects of the invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present invention. Likewise, elements and features depicted in one drawing may be combined with elements and features depicted in additional drawings. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
In the detailed description that follows, like components have been given the same reference numerals regardless of whether they are shown in different embodiments of the present invention. To illustrate the present invention in a clear and concise manner, the drawings may not necessarily be to scale and certain features may be shown in somewhat schematic form.
As used herein, the term “portable communication device” includes portable radio communication equipment. The term “portable radio communication equipment”, which herein after may be referred to as a mobile phone, a mobile device, a mobile radio terminal or a mobile terminal, includes all electronic equipment, including, but not limited to, mobile telephones, pagers, communicators, i.e., electronic organizers, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or the like. While aspects of the present invention are being discussed with respect to portable communication devices, it is to be appreciated that the invention is not intended to be limited to portable communication devices, and can be applied to any type of electronic equipment capable of being used for voice and/or data communication via a localized communicator, e.g., a near field communications (NFC)-enabled device.
In addition, as used herein, the term “resource” includes any item, room, venue, location, seat within a location, place, device, game or the like that may only be used by one person, a group of persons and/or a limited number of persons at one time, including, but not limited to, conference rooms, office equipment and office resources, pool tables, electronic dart boards, arcade games and the like. It is to be appreciated that the term “resource” also may include groups or networks of resources, e.g., a group of pool tables within a pool hall.
Referring initially to
Stated differently, the portable communication device 10 supports a reservation application, e.g., by including appropriate hardware and/or an application program for making a reservation for use of a resource. For purposes of the discussion herein, portable communication device 10 will be described in terms of wirelessly retrieving reservation availability information from a resource and wirelessly transmitting a reservation request to a resource via a localized communication link.
The portable communication device in the illustrated embodiments is a mobile telephone, and may be referred to as the mobile telephone 10. As indicated, the description and illustrations of a mobile telephone for the portable communication device is intended to serve as a non-limiting exemplary environment for the inventive concepts described herein. The mobile telephone 10 is shown as having a “brick” or “block” form factor housing 12, but it will be appreciated that other types of housings, such as a clamshell housing or a slide-housing, may be utilized.
The mobile telephone 10 includes a display 14 and keypad 16. As is conventional, the display 14 displays information to a user, such as operating state, time, telephone numbers, contact information, various navigational menus and the like, which enable the user to utilize the various features of the mobile telephone 10. The display 14 also may be used to visually display content, e.g., reservation availability information, received by the mobile telephone 10 and/or retrieved from a memory 32 (
Similarly, the keypad 16 may be conventional in that it provides for a variety of user input operations. For example, the keypad 16 typically includes alphanumeric keys 20 for facilitating entry of alphanumeric information, such as telephone numbers, phone lists, contact information, notes and the like. In addition, the keypad 16 typically includes special function keys, such as a “call send” key for initiating or answering a call, and a “call end” key for ending or “hanging up” a call. Special function keys also may include menu navigation keys, for example, for navigating through a menu displayed on the display to select different telephone functions, profiles, settings, etc., as is conventional. Other keys associated with the mobile telephone may include a volume key, an audio mute key, an on/off power key, a web browser launch key, a camera key and the like. Keys or key-like functionality also may be embodied as a touch screen associated with the display 14. While some embodiments of the search application may not involve keypad-based user interaction with the mobile telephone 10, other embodiments may include keypad interaction with the search application, such as entering a reservation request, setting up various other options, data selection and the like.
The mobile telephone 10 includes conventional call circuitry that enables the mobile telephone 10 to establish a call or otherwise exchange signals with a call/calling device, typically another mobile telephone, landline telephone or other electronic device. However, the call/calling device need not be another telephone, but may be some other device, such as an Internet web server, content providing server, media server or the like. The call circuitry also may be responsible for transmitting text messages that are prepared by the user.
In the illustrated embodiment, memory 32 stores drivers 34, e.g., I/O device drivers, application programs 36, including a reservation application program 38, and application program data 40. The I/O device drivers include software routines that are accessed through the controller 30 (or by an operating system (not shown) stored in memory 32) by the application programs, including the reservation application program 38, to communicate with devices such as the display 14 and other input/output ports.
The application programs 36, including the reservation application program 38, comprise programs that implement various features of the portable communication device 10, such as e-mail, Internet access, contact manager and the like. As is described more fully below, the reservation application program 38 comprises a program, logic routine or code that enables the user of the portable communication device to establish reservations and/or receive information related to reservation availability for a variety of resources via a localized communication link between the user's portable communication device and a resource communicator associated with the resource.
A person having ordinary skill in the art of computer programming, and specifically in applications programming for mobile phones, will consider it obvious in view of the description provided herein how to program a mobile phone to operate and carry out the functions described herein with respect to the reservation application 38 (and any interfacing between the reservation application program 38 and other application programs, e.g., messaging application programs, media application programs, electronic payment application programs and the like). Accordingly, details as to the specific programming code have been left out. Also, while the search functionality is carried out via the controller 30 and reservation application program 38 (alone or in conjunction with other application programs) in memory 32 in accordance with inventive aspects, such function also could be carried out via dedicated hardware, firmware, software or combinations thereof without departing from the scope of the present invention.
With continued reference to
An antenna 46 is coupled to the transmitter/receiver 42 such that the transmitter/receiver 42 transmits and receives signals via antenna 46, as is conventional. The portable communication device includes an audio processor 44 for processing the audio signals transmitted by and received from the transmitter/receiver. Coupled to the audio processor 44 are a speaker 48 and microphone 50, which enable a user to listen and speak via the portable communication device. Audio data may be passed to the audio processor 44 for playback to the user. The audio data may include, for example, audio data from an audio file stored in the memory 32 and retrieved by the controller 30. The audio processor 44 may include any appropriate buffers, decoders, amplifiers and the like.
In the illustrated embodiment, the portable communication device 10 also includes a localized communicator or localized communication module, which is illustrated, for example, as a near field communication (NFC) module 52 (also referred to as an NFC chipset, an NFC communicator, an NFC interface, an NFC adaptor or the like) or other comparable communication components to establish a localized communication link with a compatible component of another device, e.g., a resource communicator associated with a resource or network of resources, when the devices are brought in relative proximity to each other. The term NFC generally is used to refer to a magnetic field induction communication interface and protocol, such as that jointly developed by Sony and Phillips and adopted as standard by ECMA (ECMA-340) and ISO/IEC (ISO/IEC 18092). The NFC module 52 is coupled to or otherwise includes a NFC coupler 54, e.g., including an inductor or coil in the form of an antenna. In most cases, NFC has a working distance of about ten centimeters or less, but, in some cases, the function may extend to several tens of centimeters (or more). NFC may be used in a passive communication mode where an initiator device provides a carrier field and that is answered by modulating the existing field with a transponder, which may draw operating power from the initiator-provided electromagnetic field. NFC also may be used in an active communication mode where both the initiator and transponder communicates by generating their own fields in, in which case, both the initiator and transponder typically receive power from a power supply. NFC may be used to configure and initiate another wireless network connection or interface between devices, such as Bluetooth and WiFi connections.
As will be appreciated, the illustration and description of an NFC module 52 is meant to be an example of a localized or proximity communication device, and any appropriate device to establish a localized communication link may be used and may include devices that rely on a capacitive coupling technique, a propagating wave, e.g., electromagnetic, technique, a radio frequency transmission technique, e.g., such as the techniques used for RF identification (RFID) devices, a magnetic field induction technique or any other appropriate techniques.
The portable communication device also may include one or more local wireless interfaces (indicated generally as wireless interface 56), such as an infrared transceiver and/or an RF adapter, e.g., a Bluetooth adapter, WLAN adapter, Ultra-WideBand (UWB) adapter and the like, for establishing communication with an accessory, a hands free adapter, e.g., a headset that may audibly output sound corresponding to audio data transferred from the portable communication device 10 to the adapter, another mobile radio terminal, a computer, or any other electronic device. As will be appreciated, the local wireless interface 56 may be used to transmit data, e.g., a reservation request, from the portable communication device 10, and to receive data, e.g., resource availability information, from another device, e.g., a resource communicator associated with a resource.
With reference now to
While aspects of the method, device and system described herein are being described with respect to an NFC communication link between the portable communication device 10 and the resource 60, it will be appreciated that one or more other wireless interfaces or communication links may be used to transfer data, e.g., a reservation request, reservation availability information and the like, between the portable communication device 10 and the resource 60 via the resource communicator 62.
As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, NFC means and includes communication that can be accomplished when the portable communication device 10 and the resource 60 (or at least the resource communicator 62 associated with resource 60) are “in proximity” or “in relative proximity,” e.g., within a distance “d” of one another where distance “d” is between zero centimeters and several tens of centimeters (including when the housing of the portable communication device 10 and the housing in which the resource communicator 62 is housed are in direct contact with one another). This may be referred to as an “NFC touch.”
As is depicted in
While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the flow charts or diagrams in
The methodologies illustrated in
At functional block 105, the portable communication device displays the reservation availability information for viewing by a user of the portable communication device. In one embodiment, the reservation availability information may be displayed in the form of a calendar, including availability information as well as detailed information relating to appointments already scheduled for the given resource. Of course, other formats for display of the reservation availability information are contemplated within the scope of the invention, and include, but are not limited to, lists of available time slots or some other graphical representation relating to availability of the desired resource. At functional block 110, the portable communication device receives user input indicative of a reservation request. This user input may include selection of a period of time to reserve the resource for use by the user. Optionally, the received user input may include additional information to be associated with the reservation, e.g., information relating to the use, the number of people involved in the use, other internal notations such as meeting codes or the like.
At functional block 115, the reservation request is transmitted to the resource communicator by the portable communication device. For example, this transmission may include a wireless transfer via a localized communication link, such as an NFC communication link or other suitable communication link. Alternatively, the wirelessly transmitting step may be performed by another communication method, e.g., via a short message service (SMS) message, via a wireless local area connection (WLAN) or the like. The transfer of the reservation request may include personal information specific to the user of the requesting portable communication device, along with the desired reservation time. As is depicted in
Turning now to
At functional block 120, the portable communication device transmits a reservation request to the resource communicator associated with the resource to be reserved. As is discussed above, transmission of the reservation request may occur via a wireless transmission by way of a localized communication link, e.g., an NFC communication link, between the portable communication device and the resource communicator associated with the resource. In the case of the exemplary pool table embodiment discussed herein, the resource communicator may be coupled to a particular pool table or may be located apart from a given pool table (e.g., at a sign-in or reservation kiosk). In this embodiment, the user of the portable communication device typically is added to a queue associated with the resource upon transmitting the reservation request to the resource communicator associated with the resource to be reserved. For example, a user may approach a pool table that already is in use and place his/her phone in relative proximity to the resource communicator (e.g., NFC module associated with the pool table). In one embodiment, the user's personal information is transferred to the resource communicator, and the user will be assigned a position in resource queue based on the number of people ahead of him/her in line to use the resource. At functional block 125, the portable communication device receives a resource availability message, for example, a message related to how many people are ahead of the user in line to use the resource.
At functional block 130, the portable communication device optionally may receive a resource availability alert indicating that the resource is now available for use by the user of the portable communication device. The resource availability alert may be communicated to the portable communication device in one of a number of ways, including, but not limited to, via e-mail, via text message (short message service SMS), via a multimedia message, or via another wireless communication, such as a phone call with a specific ring tone, or other auditory, visual, or tactile alert. Alternatively, the resource may include an associated display where it is indicated that the resource is ready for the next user. Continuing with the exemplary environment where the resource being reserved is a pool table, the user of the portable communication device may transmit a resource use message to the resource communicator (functional block 135). A resource use message may include a message via a localized communication link, such as an NFC communication link, between the portable communication device and the resource communicator associated with the resource. For example, in the case of the user using a pool table, the user may place his/her portable communication device in proximity to the resource communicator upon approaching the pool table for use. This would indicate to the resource communicator that the resource currently is in use by the given user.
At functional block 140, the portable communication device optionally may transmit a resource release message to the resource communicator. Upon completing use of the resource, the current user of the resource may establish a localized communication link, e.g., a NFC communication link, with the resource communicator and effectively “log out” from using the resource, for example, when the user is finished using the pool table. At this point, the resource communicator will be able to indicate to the next person in the queue that it is his/her turn to use the desired resource.
At functional block 145, the portable communication device optionally may exchange payment information with the resource communicator related to payment for use of the given resource. For example, in the exemplary embodiment of using a pool table, the user may be able to pay for use of the pool table, e.g., by the game or by the hour, based on his/her actual use. In one embodiment, the payment information may be exchanged with the resource communicator via a localized communication link, e.g., a NFC communication link, when the user places his/her portable communication device in proximity to the resource communicator, for example, when logging out or otherwise releasing use of the resource. Of course, the exchange of payment information may include any suitable forms of electronic payment, such as automatic billing to a credit card, automatic billing to an account that the user has established with the provider of the desired resource or the like.
Optionally, upon logging out or otherwise transmitting a resource release message to the resource communicator associated with the desired resource, the user of the portable communication device may be provided with some sort of indicator of performance while using the resource. For example, in the case where the resource is a video game, the resource communicator may transmit certain scoring information to the user's portable communication device via the localized communication link. Such information may include score, such as a high score or a leader board of high scores associated with players or users of the given video game. Also, the resource communicator may transmit a resource use or resource log to the user of the portable communication device indicative of the user's use (duration and/or frequency) of that particular device or type of device (in the case of the resource being one of a network of resources, for example, a network of video games that are linked together or the like).
Referring now to
At functional block 160, the reservation is processed. This can include receipt and storage or scheduling of a desired time slot, as requested by a user. Alternatively, the processing of the reservation may include simply adding the user to the queue of individuals waiting to make use of the resource. Optionally, at functional block 165, the resource, via the resource communicator or another suitable wireless interface, may transmit a resource availability message to the requesting portable communication device. As is discussed above, the resource availability message may include an e-mail, a text message, a multimedia message or any other suitable form of wireless communication. At functional block 170, the resource receives a resource release message, for example, via a NFC communication link between the portable communication device and the resource communicator associated with the resource. As is discussed above, the resource release message has the effect of a user of the portable communication device logging out or otherwise indicating that he/she is finished using the given resource. As is discussed above, receipt of a resource release message from the portable communication device indicates to the resource that the next person in the queue may be alerted that it is their turn to use the resource.
At functional block 175, the resource optionally may electronically collect payment from the user of the portable communication device for use of the resource. For example, in the above-described environment where the resource being a pool table, the resource, via the resource communicator, may electronically collect payment based on a number of games or an amount of time that the pool table was used by the user. As is discussed above, electronic payment collection may be achieved via any suitable means.
It will be appreciated that a portable communication device having reservation functionality provides the user with the capability of quickly and efficiently making reservations for a variety of different resources via a localized communication link. Further, the user of a portable communication device may be able to access information about a group or network of resources, including which resource may be most immediately available.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, computer program elements and/or circuitry elements of the invention may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.). The invention may take the form of a computer program product, which can be embodied by a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program instructions, “code” or a “computer program” embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium such as the Internet. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner. The computer program product and any software and hardware described herein form the various means for carrying out the functions of the invention in the example embodiments.
Specific embodiments of an invention are disclosed herein. One of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that the invention may have other applications in other environments. In fact, many embodiments and implementations are possible. The following claims are in no way intended to limit the scope of the present invention to the specific embodiments described above. In addition, any recitation of “means for” is intended to evoke a means-plus-function reading of an element and a claim, whereas, any elements that do not specifically use the recitation “means for”, are not intended to be read as means-plus-function elements, even if the claim otherwise includes the word “means”.
Although the invention has been shown and described with respect to a certain preferred embodiment or embodiments, it is obvious that equivalent alterations and modifications will occur to others skilled in the art upon the reading and understanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. In particular regard to the various functions performed by the above described elements (components, assemblies, devices, compositions, etc.), the terms (including a reference to a “means”) used to describe such elements are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, to any element which performs the specified function of the described element (i.e., that is functionally equivalent), even though not structurally equivalent to the disclosed structure which performs the function in the herein illustrated exemplary embodiment or embodiments of the invention. In addition, while a particular feature of the invention may have been described above with respect to only one or more of several illustrated embodiments, such feature may be combined with one or more other features of the other embodiments, as may be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.
