Patent Application
20150206424
The present invention relates generally to communication systems and more particularly to portable remote control devices providing an interface for a radio.
Radio communication systems are often utilized by public safety personnel during undercover operations sometimes referred to as covert operations. The ability to conceal, camouflage and discreetly operate communication devices, such as two-way radios, presents many challenges to designers. Elements such as a small form factor, data security, and tamper resistance must be balanced with ease of accessibility and use. Two-way radios typically utilized by public safety personnel are often generally readily identifiable as official government or public safety type devices. The user's safety is also of paramount importance, and while the radio itself may be concealed, the user still needs access to the radio controls. A user interface which would allow discreet access to the radio is thus highly desirable.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved user interface which permits remote access to the radio.
The accompanying figures where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views and which together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
Before describing in detail embodiments that are in accordance with the present invention, it should be observed that the embodiments reside primarily in apparatus components for a remote control device incorporating a plurality of wireless communication functions into a housing formed as a key fob, thereby enabling the remote control device to be used discreetly, such as in undercover communication applications. Accordingly, the apparatus components and method steps have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.
Briefly, in accordance with the various embodiments, there is provided herein a remote control device that integrates a plurality of radio interface functions and controls on both the outside and inside of a housing that camouflages the controls into a key fob form factor. The remote control device is highly advantageous to public safety personnel working in undercover operations.
In accordance with the various embodiments, the camouflaged buttons 108, 110, 112, 114 provide radio control functions. Button 108, camouflaged as a lock button, provides volume up/down control. Button 110, camouflaged as an unlock button, provides channel up/down control. Button 112, camouflaged as a trunk release button, provides push-to-talk (PTT) functionality. Button 114, camouflaged as an alarm button, provides programming capability. All of these functions are programmable and can thus be changed or modified per the user's radio applications.
First housing portion 202 houses the radio controls 200. The plurality of controls 200 comprises a micro universal serial bus (USB) jack 206 and an LED 208 providing a battery status indicator for a battery 216. Controls 200 further comprise a slideable switch 230 which slides between a lock position 210, an unlock position 215, and power on/off position 220. This switch 230 enables programming features when unlocked, and only permits push-to-talk (PTT) and volume control functionality during feature lock. Additional control features comprise a pairing indicator 214 and a blue dot 218 for Bluetooth pairing.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present invention.
The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one or more generic or specialized processors (or “processing devices”) such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored program instructions (including both software and firmware) that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the method and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used.
Moreover, an embodiment can be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for programming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform a method as described and claimed herein. Examples of such computer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flash memory. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/MY2012/000219 | 7/31/2012 | WO | 00 | 1/9/2015 |
