Patent Application
20080132168
Wireless communication devices such as cell phones have become very popular in recent years. At the time of this disclosure it is estimated that there are over 2.2 billion mobile subscriber connections worldwide. As the popularity of these devices has increased, a smaller form factor and increased media capabilities for mobile handsets has been the subject of unending pursuit.
Additionally, the development of short range wireless technologies such as BLUETOOTH™ or other protocols for wireless personal area networks (WPANs) have lead to the development of wireless headsets that can be used with fixed and portable communication devices.
Currently, short range wireless headsets and longer range communication devices, although useable together, are independent and unrelated devices. This requires a user of both types of devices to carry each device separately and charge each device on its own terms using dedicated charging devices. Accordingly, it would be desirable to integrate a short range wireless device with a long range communication device to facilitate increased portability and/or reduce charging requirements of two independent and unrelated systems.
Aspects, features and advantages of embodiments of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention in reference to the appended drawing in which like numerals denote like elements and in which:
While the following detailed description may describe example embodiments of the present invention in relation to wireless personal area networks (WPANs), the invention is not limited thereto and can be adapted using other types of wireless networks where similar advantages may be obtained. Such networks specifically include, if applicable, broadband wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs) and/or wireless wide area networks (WWANs) such a cellular networks and the like.
The following inventive embodiments may be used in a variety of applications including transceivers or receivers of a radio system. Radio systems specifically included within the scope of the present invention include, but are not limited to, cellular radiotelephone systems, satellite systems, personal communication systems (PCS), two-way radio systems and two-way pagers as well as computing devices including such radio systems such as personal computers (PCs) and related peripherals, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal computing accessories, hand-held communication devices and all existing and future arising systems which may be related in nature and to which the principles of the inventive embodiments could be suitably applied.
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For example, primary communication device 110 may be configured to use one or more protocols specified in by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, b, g or n standards for wireless local area networks (WLANS) such as IEEE 802.11a-1999; IEEE 802.11b-1999/Cor1-2001; IEEE 802.11g-2003; and/or IEEE 802.11n (not yet published) or for wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs) such as IEEE 802.16 standards for broadband wireless access such as IEEE 802.16-2004/Cor1-2005 or IEEE 802.16-2005 Amendment although the inventive embodiments are not limited in this respect.
Alternatively or in addition, primary communication device 110 may use protocols for wireless wide area networks (WWANs) or cellular networks such a those compatible with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), code division multiple access (CDMA) networks, or any other single carrier or multi-carrier network protocols.
Both primary communication device 110 and short range communication device 150 may be configured to communicate with each other using short range wireless communication protocols such as BLUETOOTH™, or protocols for WPANs compatible with IEEE 802.15 standards such as ultra wide band (UWB) and/or millimeter Wave (mmW) protocols.
In certain embodiments, short range device 150 may be a wireless headset for conveying voice and/or video information of a user to and from a network access station via communication device 110. As mentioned previously, communication devices and wireless headsets are separately well known in the art and thus more detailed description of their conventional operation is therefore omitted. However, according to inventive embodiments herein, primary communication device 110 may be adapted to reduce the independent nature of short range device 150 by incorporating a charging and/or storing port 112.
For example, in one embodiment, primary communication device 112 may include a port 112 which is adapted to store the short range wireless device 150 when it is not in use. In this manner, a user may carry or store both primary device 110 and short range device 150 as a single unit.
In other embodiments, instead of serving as a storage area, port 112 may serve as an electrical charging port to charge a battery in short range device 150 via the power resources of primary communication device 110. In yet further embodiments, port 112 may serve as both a storage area and a charging port for short range communication device 150. Thus by way of example, a user may carry a cellular device that will include an integrated BLUETOOTH™ headset. While carried in an integrated mode, the headset may be charged from the cellular device battery. Advantages obtained by the inventive embodiments over the separate systems of the conventional art include enhanced user mobility, minimized number of carry-on items for air travel, no need for separate charging of the wireless headset and manual synchronization between the headset and mobile device may no longer be required.
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Bus 202 may be implemented as substrate power lines and/or connectors or part of a component communication or power bus. Bus 202 may be coupled to a direct current D.C. power supply 240 such as a lithium Ion (Li-Ion) or other type of battery and/or an alternating current (AC) power supply 230 which may include an A.C. to D.C. transformer, to provide power to various components of system 200.
According to certain embodiments of the present invention, D.C. power supply 240 of system 200 may also be used to provide power to a short range communication device 250 such as a BLUETOOTH™ enabled wireless headset or other removable WPAN communication device as discussed previously. Thus when WPAN device 250 is connected to system 200, D.C. power supply 240 of system 200 thus provides the power for charging the battery of WPAN device 250.
Communication interface 215 may be a network adaptor for a computer or may include various components to provide the OTA interfaces for WPAN communication with WPAN device 250 and one or more of the WLAN, WMAN or WWAN protocols for longer range communications as discussed above. I/O 220 may include various on-board equipment such as a keyboard, cursor controller, microphone, speaker as well as any external ports such as a headset jack, universal serial bus (USB), infrared (IR) or other type of serial or parallel communication port. Memory 212 may be any type of volatile or non-volatile memory to store information to be used by processor 205. In certain embodiments, memory 212 may include a fixed or removable flash memory.
Unless contrary to physical possibility, the inventors envision the methods described herein: (i) may be performed in any sequence and/or in any combination; and (ii) the components of respective embodiments may be combined in any manner.
Although there have been described example embodiments of this novel invention, many variations and modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly the inventive embodiments are not limited by the specific disclosure above, but rather should be limited only by the scope of the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
