Wireless signal noise reduction
AssigneeSquare, Inc.
InventorsJeremy Wade, Afshin Rezayee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A payment terminal has a clock management unit for providing clock signals to components of the payment terminal. The payment terminal also has a wireless communication interface for communicating wireless signals. A processing unit of the payment terminal may monitor operation of a wireless communication interface of the payment terminal and, when the payment terminal is communicating wirelessly, modify an initial clock signal provided to one or more components of the payment terminal that emit RF noise to modify a frequency at which the RF noise occurs. When the payment terminal is no longer transmitting, the processing unit may provide the initial clock signal to the RF noise source.
Claims30
A method for coordinating operations between a radio frequency (RF) communications source and a RF noise source of a transaction processing device, the method comprising:
- executing instructions, by a processing unit of the transaction processing device, to determine, in a case that the RF communications component is communicating at a first RF communications frequency, that a wireless communication is in progress with a second device, wherein the RF communications component comprises a near field communication (NFC) transponder or a Bluetooth transponder;
- identifying, by the processing unit, an operating frequency of the RF noise source, wherein the RF noise source comprises one or more of the processing unit or a touch-screen display, wherein the operating frequency of the RF noise source is based on a clock signal, wherein the clock signal has an initial clock frequency, and wherein the RF noise source performs a set of standard operations at the operating frequency;
- identifying, by the processing unit, one or more noise frequencies of the RF noise source based on the operating frequency of the RF noise source;
- executing instructions, by the processing unit, to determine that the one or more of the noise frequencies interferes with the first RF communications frequency;
- modifying, by the processing unit, based on the determination that the one or more of the noise frequencies interferes with the first RF communications frequency, the clock signal from the initial clock frequency to a modified clock frequency, wherein a modified operating frequency is based on the modified clock frequency, wherein one or more modified noise frequencies are based on the modified operating frequency, and wherein none of the one or more modified noise frequencies interfere with the first RF communications frequency;
- performing, by the RF noise source, a modified set of operations at the modified operating frequency;
- executing instructions, by the processing unit, to determine that the wireless communication has been completed, in a case that the RF communications component is no longer communicating at the first RF communications frequency;
- restoring, by the processing unit, the clock signal from the modified clock frequency to the initial clock frequency based on the determination that the wireless communication has been completed;
- and
- performing, by the RF noise source, the standard operations at the operating frequency based on the modification of the clock signal to the initial clock frequency.
A method for reducing radio frequency (RF) noise of a wireless communication device, the method comprising:
- executing instructions, by a processing unit of the wireless communication device, to determine, in a case that a RF communications component is communicating at a first RF communications frequency, that a wireless communication is in progress with a second device, the wireless communication being a short-range communication;
- executing instructions, by the processing unit, to determine that one or more noise frequencies interfere with the first RF communications frequency;
- modifying, by the processing unit, the operation of a RF noise source from a standard frequency to a modified frequency, based on the determination of the interfering frequencies;
- executing instructions, by the processing unit, after the modification of the frequency of the RF noise source, to determine that the wireless communication has been completed, in a case that the RF communications component is no longer communicating at the first RF communications frequency;
- and
- restoring the operation of the RF noise source from the modified frequency to the standard frequency, based on the determination that the wireless communication has been completed.
A wireless communication device for reducing radio frequency (RF) noise, the wireless communication device comprising:
- a RF communications component;
- a RF noise source;
- a memory having instructions stored therein;
- and
- a processing unit coupled to the RF communications component, RF noise source, and memory and configured to execute instructions stored therein to perform operations comprising:
- (a) determining, in a case that the RF communications component is communicating at a first RF communications frequency, that a wireless communication is in progress with a second device, the wireless communication being a short-range communication;
- (b) determining that one or more noise frequencies interfere with the first RF communications frequency;
- (c) modifying the operation of the RF noise source from a standard frequency to a modified frequency, based on the determination of the interfering frequencies;
- (d) determining that the wireless communication has been completed, in a case that the RF communications component is no longer communicating at the first RF communications frequency;
- and
- (e) restoring the operation of the RF noise source from the modified frequency to the standard frequency, based on the determination that the wireless communication has been completed.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored therein, which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- determining, in a case that a RF communications component is communicating at a first RF communications frequency, that a wireless communication is in progress with another device, the wireless communication being a short-range communication;
- determining that one or more noise frequencies interfere with the first RF communications frequency;
- modifying the operation of the RF noise source from a standard frequency to a modified frequency, based on the determination of the interfering frequencies;
- determining that the wireless communication has been completed, in a case that the RF communications component is no longer communicating at the first RF communications frequency;
- and
- restoring the operation of the RF noise source from the modified frequency to the standard frequency, based on the determination that the wireless communication has been completed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.