Method and system for ascertaining whether multiple radios are associated with a single wireless device

A computer-based method for ascertaining whether multiple radios available for connection to a mobile computing device are associated with a single wireless device, comprising the steps of:

• using the mobile computing device to receive data from a radio of a wireless device;
• scanning the received data from the radio of the wireless device to look for and capture identifying information;
• processing any captured identifying information to remove extraneous data, resulting in a simplified name of the radio of the wireless device;
• querying a database of radio information to ascertain whether the mobile computing device has previously identified another radio with a similar simplified name, which indicates that the respective radios are associated with a single wireless device;
• communicating information that the respective radios are associated with a single wireless device to one or more software applications running on the mobile computing device;
• and
• storing the simplified name in the database and associating it with the wireless device.

A computer-based system for ascertaining whether multiple radios available for connection to a mobile computing device are associated with a single wireless device, comprising:

• a radio management module resident on a computer-readable medium of the mobile computing device for receiving data from the radios of one or more wireless devices available for connection in a location;
• an analysis module resident on the computer-readable medium of the mobile computing device for querying a database of radio information to retrieve information about each radio and then to ascertain whether the mobile computing device has previously identified that radio and associated it with a particular wireless device;
• a data scanning module resident on the computer-readable medium of the mobile computing device for looking for identifying information in incoming data from each radio;
• a name processing module resident on the computer-readable medium of the mobile computing device for converting identifying information into a simplified name for each radio;
• a second analysis module resident on the computer-readable medium of the mobile computing device for querying the database of radio information to ascertain whether the mobile computing device has previously identified another radio with a similar simplified name, which indicates that the respective radios are associated with a single wireless device;
• and
• an application interface for communicating information that multiple radios are associated with the wireless device to one or more software applications running on the mobile computing device.