Smartphone with integrated pager
AssigneeRockwell Collins, Inc.
InventorJeffrey L. Box
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A smartphone case includes an integrated pager processor and pager antenna. The pager processor interfaces with the smartphone via physical connection such as USB or a wireless connection such as Bluetooth. A battery embedded in the smartphone case powers the pager processor and may be shared with the smartphone via a physical connection. The pager processor may display messages via the smartphone or independently via a speaker embedded in the smartphone case. The smartphone may communicate with a paging source via a cellular network to confirm receipt of one or both of a pager signal or a cellular network signal so that the paging source may produce maps of where various communication methods are useable.
Claims14
A smartphone case comprising:
- a case body configured to surround a smartphone and retain the case body on a rear surface of the smartphone;
- a battery embedded in the case body;
- a pager antenna embedded in the case body;
- a pager processing element embedded in the case body, the pager processing element connected to the battery and the pager antenna, and configured to interface with a pager network via the pager antenna;
- and
- a smartphone interface element connected to the pager processing element and configured to provide data and electrical connectivity to the smartphone,
- wherein:
- the pager processing element is further configured to receive periodic test messages from a paging source via the pager antenna and report back location and signal strength via the smartphone interface element and a cellular connection in response to the periodic test messages.
A system comprising:
- a paging source comprising:
- a pager transmitter;
- and
- a cellular network interface element;
- and
- a pager enabled smartphone comprising:
- a smartphone;
- and
- a smartphone case comprising:
- a case body surrounding the smartphone and retaining the case body on a rear surface of the smartphone;
- a battery embedded in the case body;
- a pager antenna embedded in the case body;
- a pager processing element embedded in the case body, the pager processing element connected to the battery and the pager antenna, and configured to interface with a pager network via the pager antenna;
- and
- a smartphone interface element connected to the pager processing element and configured to provide data and electrical connectivity to the smartphone,
- wherein:
- the pager source is configured to:
- transmit a pager signal via the pager transmitter;
- and
- transmit a cellular network signal via the cellular network interface element;
- and
- the pager enabled smartphone is configured to:
- determine if the pager enabled smartphone received the pager signal;
- determine if the pager enabled smartphone received the cellular network signal;
- and
- transmit a cellular return signal to the paging source indicating which of the pager signal and cellular network signal were received.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.