A Bluetooth®-equipped mobile telephone may be paired with another Bluetooth® device such as a hands-free car kit, or a headset for more convenient calling. These devices are examples of a user interface for the telephone which communicate audio signals between the user and the telephone. Device profiles defining the requirements for these classes of device are contained in the Bluetooth® specification, version 1.1. For each class of supported device, the profiles define options and parameter ranges corresponding to each protocol in the Bluetooth® protocol stack.
A hands-free car kit may be used to make and receive calls without physically interacting with the mobile telephone itself. The kit consists of an earpiece and a microphone, and typically uses the audio system of a car for incoming audio signal. It also includes capabilities for dialing and telephone book management using voice commands. A headset, on the other hand, typically consists only of an earpiece and microphone and associated hardware and/or software, and the mobile telephone itself must be used for dialing.
Although the Bluetooth® specification allows for a master device to maintain simultaneous connections with more than one slave device, a mobile telephone typically supports only a single hands-free device or headset at one time. This limits the number of calls that can be made simultaneously to one call per mobile telephone. Further, only one user can speak on the line per mobile telephone.
Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate corresponding, analogous or similar elements, and in which:
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity.
In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments. However it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the embodiments.
The ability to pair more than one Bluetooth® slave device to a single master device is possible according to the Bluetooth® specification. If the master device is a mobile telephone, and the slave devices are hands-free devices and/or headsets, then if the mobile telephone is enabled with appropriate hardware, firmware and/or software capabilities, multiple independent calls may be supported concurrently on the slave devices, using the single mobile telephone to make the calls. Alternatively, multiple parties could speak on the same call in a conferenced format without the requirement of sharing a single specialized conferencing telephone. Until recently, supporting multiple headsets on a single mobile telephone has not been technically feasible due to protocol and hardware limitations. However, these limitations are being overcome as higher throughput radio protocols and faster processor speeds become available.
An exemplary situation where a single mobile telephone may be used to support multiple concurrent telephone calls is as follows:
The two telephone calls are concurrently supported by a single mobile telephone, but are maintained separately from each other using a call multiplexing strategy.
An exemplary situation where a single mobile telephone may be used to support multiple participants in a single conference call is as follows:
Although the method for supporting multiple headsets in multiple separate conversations and the method for supporting multiple headsets in a single conference call have been presented separately, it is to be understood that both methods may be supported concurrently on the same mobile telephone. An example situation where this might be useful is as follows:
In general, various methods for using external audio devices with a single mobile telephone are proposed, where the external audio devices have audio input functionality and audio output functionality.
To support conferencing, audio data of a single telephone call involving the mobile telephone is communicated with two or more external audio devices. In this manner, two or more users are able to provide audio input for the telephone call and receive audio output of the telephone call via external audio devices that are coupled to the mobile telephone. If two users have external audio devices coupled to the mobile telephone for use in the same telephone call, the result is a 3-way call involving only two telephones. The telephone call involves an external communications server (for example, a mobile switching station or an Internet Protocol (IP) public branch exchange (PBX) using the session initiation protocol (SIP)). Incoming audio data from two or more of the external communications server and the external audio devices is mixed, and the mixed audio data is provided as audio output to the external communications server and to the external audio devices. The mobile telephone may reduce a noise component of the communicated audio data.
To support separate telephone calls that are concurrent for at least a period of time, audio data of a first telephone call involving the mobile telephone is communicated with one or more first external audio devices, and audio data of a second telephone call involving the mobile telephone is communicated with one or more second external audio devices. If there are two or more first external audio devices, then the first telephone call is a conference call. The mobile telephone may reduce a noise component of the communicated audio data.
Any of the external audio devices may be a wireless device. For example, the mobile telephone and the wireless device may be compatible with the same wireless personal area network (WPAN) standard, such as Bluetooth®, ZigBee™, ultra wide-band (UWB), and the like. If two or more of the external audio devices are wireless devices, the mobile telephone will establish and maintain a separate wireless communication session with each of the wireless devices. Establishing a wireless communication session between the wireless device and the mobile telephone may require that the wireless device and the mobile telephone be paired.
An external audio device such as an earbud, headset, hands-free set, microphone or speaker, may be coupled via a wired connection to the mobile telephone.
Mobile telephone 102 has the capacity to support multiple concurrent telephone calls 124, 126, and 128, each of which may correspond to a different headset. In the example shown in
In this example, and throughout the application, a hands-free set, or any external audio device having audio input functionality and audio output functionality, could take the place of any of the headsets. Moreover, although this example describes three concurrent telephone calls, two or more than three concurrent telephone calls may be handled in other examples.
At 202, headset 104 is paired to mobile telephone 102 in preparation for a telephone call by a first user. At 204, headset 106 is paired to mobile telephone 102 in preparation for a telephone call by a second user. At 206, headset 108 is plugged into mobile telephone in preparation for a telephone call by a third user.
At 208, the first user dials a first party using mobile telephone 102. This may be accomplished, for example, by using user interface elements of mobile telephone 102 such as a keyboard, trackball, thumbwheel and the like. At 210, headset 104 and mobile telephone 102 establish a wireless communication session. Alternatively, this session may be established before the first user dials the first party, thus enabling the dialing to be done via a voice command provided by the first user to audio input functionality of headset 104. At 212, mobile telephone 102 establishes a telephone call #1 with the telephone of the first party. This telephone call is established via an external communications server. Once the telephone call has been established, audio data of the telephone call is communicated by mobile telephone 102 with headset 104 at 214 via wireless link 114. Mobile telephone 102 receives audio data originating at headset 104 and transmits to headset 104 audio data of the telephone call arriving at mobile telephone 102 via the external communications server.
At 216, the second user dials a second party using mobile telephone 102. This may be accomplished, for example, by using user interface elements of mobile telephone 102 such as a keyboard, trackball, thumbwheel and the like. At 218, headset 106 and mobile telephone 102 establish a wireless communication session. Alternatively, this session may be established before the second user dials the second party, thus enabling the dialing to be done via a voice command provided by the second user to audio input functionality of headset 106. At 220, mobile telephone 102 establishes a telephone call #2 with the telephone of the second party. This telephone call is established via an external communications server. Once the telephone call has been established, audio data of the telephone call is communicated by mobile telephone 102 with headset 106 at 222 via wireless link 116. Mobile telephone 102 receives audio data originating at headset 106 and transmits to headset 106 audio data of the telephone call arriving at mobile telephone 102 via the external communications server.
At 224, the third user dials a third party using mobile telephone 102. This may be accomplished, for example, by using user interface elements of mobile telephone 102 such as a keyboard, trackball, thumbwheel and the like. Alternatively, this may be accomplished via a voice command provided by the third user to audio input functionality of headset 108. At 226, mobile telephone 102 establishes a telephone call #3 with the telephone of the third party. This telephone call is established via an external communications server. Once the telephone call has been established, audio data of the telephone call is communicated by mobile telephone 102 with headset 108 at 228 via wired link 118. Mobile telephone 102 receives audio data originating at headset 108 and transmits to headset 108 audio data of the telephone call arriving at mobile telephone 102 via the external communications server.
The three concurrent telephone calls are carried on independently on mobile telephone 102 using a call multiplexing algorithm.
The telephones of the first, second and third parties may be any suitable communication device including, for example, a landline telephone, a cordless telephone, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, an Internet Protocol (IP) phone, a computer equipped with a VoIP application, and the like.
There are limitless possibilities for the user interface (UI) presented to a user of the mobile telephone, depending on the order of the activities in the method.
Alternatively, selection of the headset to which a call is to be routed may involve a menu.
The UI may include a configuration screen indicating which headsets will be activated for all future calls.
The issue of receiving calls when different headsets are paired or otherwise coupled to the mobile telephone, and deciding which headset to route the call to is a UI problem, which can be addressed either on the mobile telephone's UI or by using a possibly dedicated button on the headset and/or using speech recognition. One possible UI solution is that when a call comes into a mobile telephone with N headsets coupled to it, all N headsets alert their respective users, and the first headset which answers the call receives the call.
Mobile telephone 702 allows headsets 104 and 106 (or 104 and 108) to participate simultaneously in a single telephone call 724 using a conferenced format. Additional headsets (not shown) may be supported in this conversation up to some pre-determined maximum number of supportable devices.
In the example shown in
At 806, the first user (or alternatively, the second user) dials another party using mobile telephone 702. This may be accomplished, for example, by using user interface elements of mobile telephone 702 such as a keyboard, trackball, thumbwheel and the like. At 808, headset 104 and mobile telephone 702 establish a wireless communication session, and at 810, headset 106 and mobile telephone 702 establish a wireless communication session. The establishment of a wireless communication session between mobile telephone 702 and headset 104/106 may occur before the other party is dialed, thus enabling the dialing to be done via a voice command provided by the first (second) user to audio input functionality of headset 104 (106).
In the case of
At 812, mobile telephone 702 establishes a telephone call with the telephone of the other party. This telephone call is established via an external communications server. Once the telephone call has been established, the second user (or alternatively, the first user) may join the telephone call at 814.
At 816, mobile telephone 702 communicates audio data of the telephone call with headset 104 and with headset 106 (108).
There are limitless possibilities for the UI presented to a user of the mobile telephone, depending on the order of the activities in the method. For example, a possible UI solution for getting a paired or otherwise coupled headset to join into an ongoing call is to have the headset recognizing a voice command, a particular button press or a unique sequence of button presses that would be interpreted as the “join call” command on the headset device. For instance, the user could say “join”. The voice command would be interpreted by the headset or by the mobile telephone, whichever is configured to do the speech recognition.
This UI solution is to be distinguished from a possible UI solution for getting a paired or otherwise coupled headset to start a new call while another call (conferenced or otherwise) is currently in progress. For instance, the user could say “new call”, and recite the telephone number to dial into the headset. The voice command and telephone number would be interpreted by the headset or the mobile telephone, whichever is configured to do the speech recognition. Alternatively, a particular button press or a unique sequence of button presses could be interpreted as the “new call” command on the headset device.
It is obvious to a person of ordinary skill how to extend the examples described with respect to
Headset application 953 interfaces with Bluetooth® API module 908 and audio API module 914. An optional speech recognition module 954 may interface with audio API module 914 and headset application 954.
The mobile telephone's configuration application typically does the pairing operation between the mobile telephone and wireless devices. However, in this case, it is possible that telephone application module 903 does the pairing operation out of convenience, or proxies the operation through the configuration application. Ultimately, whichever application does the pairing, Bluetooth® API module 908 is invoked to pair the mobile telephone to the wireless headset. From there, the Bluetooth® services module 910 runs the Bluetooth® radio 912, which invokes communication with the Bluetooth™ headset.
During telephone calls, telephone application module 903 may instruct phone logic block 906 to start full duplex audio communication between the headset and the mobile telephone. Telephone API module 904 may trigger phone logic block 906 to start the Bluetooth® services for an asynchronous audio connection with the Bluetooth® headset. If handshaking with the Bluetooth® headset is successful, the audio packets will flow between the devices, thereby creating the audio link required for the telephone call.
The telephone call gets established by the telephone application through the telephone network APIs 926. There may be separate telephone network APIs for different types of cellular user (e.g. one for GSM, one for CDMA, one for IDEN, etc.) and separate telephone network APIs for VoIP (of which there can be multiple flavours, e.g. SIP, skinny, H323). The user may pre-select from a list of available options which telephone network to use. The software or configuration may limit the possibilities to a manageable number. The current state of the art is about two possibilities, namely SIP, VoIP and 3G. The telephone application chooses the appropriate software API to invoke to properly route the call. In short, the telephone UI and the telephone application resolve which network to use.
In order to communicate audio data to the Bluetooth® headset, the incoming data to the mobile telephone is digital in nature. When using the wired headset in conjunction with the Bluetooth® headset, the data from the wired headset's microphone must be digitized through the use of a digital-to-analogue converter. After passing through a digital mixer, as in
The mixed digital audio output is also routed to the wired headset (if it is participating on the call) and also back out to the telephone line output (i.e. line out to the cellular network and/or SIP PBX).
Mobile telephone 1100 comprises a communication interface 1110 coupled to processor 1102 and to an antenna 1112. Communication interface 1110 comprises a baseband controller 1114 coupled to a radio 1116, which in turn is coupled to antenna 1112. Communication interface 1110 is compatible with a WPAN standard, such as Bluetooth®, ZigBee™, UWB, and the like.
Mobile telephone 1100 also comprises a WLAN communication interface 1120 coupled to processor 1102 and to an antenna 1122. WLAN communication interface 1120 comprises a baseband controller 1124 coupled to a radio 1126, which in turn is coupled to antenna 1122. Communication interface 1120 is compatible with a WLAN standard, such as IEEE 802.11, ETSI HiperLAN, and the like.
Mobile telephone 1100 also comprises a wireless wide area network (WWAN) communication interface 1130 coupled to processor 1102 and to an antenna 1132. WWAN communication interface 1130 is compatible with a cellular communications standard, such as GSM, CDMA, and the like.
Mobile telephone 1100 may include other components that, for clarity, are not shown. Other mobile telephones may comprise only one of WLAN communication interface 1120 and WWAN communication interface 1130.
Mobile telephone 1202 allows headsets 104 and 108 to participate simultaneously in a single telephone call 1224 using a conferenced format. Additional headsets (not shown) may be supported in this conversation up to some pre-determined maximum number of supportable devices. Telephone call 1224 corresponds to a wireless communication link 1234, which connects mobile telephone 1202 to an external communications server. For example, if mobile telephone 1202 is using cellular technology to handle the telephone calls, then the external communications server may be a cellular base station. In another example, if mobile telephone 1202 is using VoIP technology and WLAN technology to handle the telephone calls, the external communications server may be an access point. Any other suitable intermediary communications device may be used instead.
Mobile telephone 1202 allows headset 106 to participate in another telephone call 1226 which is concurrent with telephone call 1224 for at least a period of time. Telephone call 1226 corresponds to a wireless communication link 1236, which connects mobile telephone 1202 to an external communications server. Call multiplexing functionality in mobile telephone 1202 keeps the control and audio for the different telephone calls separate. Audio mixing functionality in mobile telephone 1202 is used to mix audio input for telephone call 1224 from headset 104, headset 108 and the external communications server, and to output the mixed audio to headset 104, headset 108 and the external communications server.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.