Patent Application
20130130622
The present invention relates to wireless sensor devices, and more particularly, to a method and system for wireless sensor device pairing.
Wireless sensor devices are used in a variety of applications including the health monitoring of individuals. Tracking the usage of these wireless sensor devices is essential to enabling the proper recordation of pertinent health related data and information. These wireless sensor devices can be manually registered to users on an individual basis. However, to register these wireless sensor devices, the unique network address of each wireless sensor device must be readily known and manually registered to each individual. As a result, the registration process of the wireless sensor device can be inefficient, time consuming and costly.
These issues limit the tracking and registration of wireless sensor devices. Therefore, there is a strong need for a cost-effective solution that overcomes the above issues by creating a method and system for pairing a wireless sensor device to a user without having to know the unique network address of the wireless sensor device. The present invention addresses such a need.
A method, system and computer-readable medium for pairing a wireless sensor device to a user are disclosed. In a first aspect, the method comprises providing an identification code that includes a network address within the wireless sensor device. The method includes utilizing an application within a mobile device. The application selects the user, obtains the identification code, scans for network addresses, and compares the network address to the scanned network addresses. When the network address matches one of the scanned network addresses, the wireless sensor device is paired to the user by the application.
In a second aspect, the system comprises a processing system and an application that is executed by the processing system. The application selects a user, obtains an identification code including a network address from a wireless sensor device, scans for network addresses, and compares the network address to the scanned network addresses. When the network address matches ones of the scanned network addresses, the wireless sensor device is paired to the user by the application.
In a third aspect, the computer-readable medium comprises providing an identification code that includes a network address within the wireless sensor device. The computer-readable medium includes utilizing an application within a mobile device. The application selects the user, obtains the identification code, scans for network addresses, and compares the network address to the scanned network addresses. When the network address matches one of the scanned network addresses, the wireless sensor device is paired to the user by the application.
The accompanying figures illustrate several embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the particular embodiments illustrated in the figures are merely exemplary, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
The present invention relates to wireless sensor devices, and more particularly, to a method and system for wireless sensor device pairing. The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context of a patent application and its requirements. Various modifications to the preferred embodiment and the generic principles and features described herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein.
A method and system in accordance with the present invention allows for a wireless sensor device to be seamlessly paired with a user. By implementing an application within a mobile device, an efficient and cost-effective wireless sensor device pairing system is achieved that can support a significant number of users and devices. One of ordinary skill in the art readily recognizes that a variety of wireless sensor devices may be utilized and that would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
To describe the features of the present invention in more detail, refer now to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying Figures.
One of ordinary skill in the art readily recognizes that the identification code 120 can be represented as a variety of codes including but not limited to a QR code or a bar code and that would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. One of ordinary skill in the art readily recognizes that the wireless sensor device 102 and the mobile device 104 can include a variety of devices including but not limited to health monitoring sensors, cell phones, and cameras and that would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
In step 208, the operator uses the application to obtain an identification code including a network address located on the wireless sensor device. In one embodiment, the network address is a unique 48-bit network address. One of ordinary skill in the art readily recognizes that the identification code may be obtained in a variety of ways including but not limited to turning on a camera within the mobile device, taking a picture of the identification code, and storing the picture on the mobile device and that would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
In addition, one of ordinary skill in the art readily recognizes that after the picture of the identification code is taken, the identification code may be processed and recognized using a variety of mechanisms including but not limited to an image processing algorithm implemented within the mobile device and the use of such mechanisms would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
In step 210, the operator uses the application to scan for network addresses of devices. In one embodiment, unconnected Bluetooth wireless sensor devices in proximity to the mobile device are scanned and the network addresses of these unconnected Bluetooth wireless sensor devices are obtained by the application. One of ordinary skill in the art readily recognizes that a variety of methodologies may be utilized to determine the proximity of the unconnected devices to the mobile device including but not limited to location based GPS systems and that would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
After the application retrieves the network addresses of the devices, the application then automatically compares the network address to the scanned network addresses of the devices in step 212. In step 214, when the network address matches one of the scanned network addresses, the wireless sensor device is paired to the user by the application which completes the registration process.
As above described, the method and system allow for an automated pairing of a wireless sensor device to a user to improve the efficiency of wireless sensor device tracking and registration. By implementing an application within a mobile device, an efficient and cost-effective wireless sensor device pairing system is achieved that can support a significant number of users and devices.
A method and system for pairing a wireless sensor device to a user has been disclosed. Embodiments described herein can take the form of an entirely hardware implementation, an entirely software implementation, or an implementation containing both hardware and software elements. Embodiments may be implemented in software, which includes, but is not limited to, application software, firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.
The steps described herein may be implemented using any suitable controller or processor, and software application, which may be stored on any suitable storage location or computer-readable medium. The software application provides instructions that enable the processor to cause the receiver to perform the functions described herein.
Furthermore, embodiments may take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium can be any apparatus 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 medium may be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, semiconductor system (or apparatus or device), or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk, and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include DVD, compact disk-read-only memory (CD-ROM), and compact disk—read/write (CD-R/W).
Although the present invention has been described in accordance with the embodiments shown, one of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that there could be variations to the embodiments and those variations would be within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, many modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
