US 2020/0029371 A1 · BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY CONNECTION MANAGEMENT

Abstract

A Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-enabled digital device, such as a smartphone, can communicate with a BLE-enabled peripheral device via a BLE connection. The peripheral device may be a vaporizer, and the smartphone can include feature(s) related to control of the vaporizer. A method for maintaining a BLE connection between the smartphone, which may execute an Android operating system, and the peripheral device is also provided. The method may include utilizing a library of suspension functions in the form of an Application Programming Interface (API) for an Android BLE framework. The suspension functions can be implemented using coroutines that allow suspending BLE operations without locking a thread. The library may include a module communicating with a core of the library and configured to suspend requested BLE operations while attempting to reestablish a lost connection until a timeout event occurs. The module can be configured to handle BLE state machine complexities.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method of communication with a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-enabled peripheral device, the method comprising:

establishing a BLE connection with the BLE-enabled peripheral device;
sending, by at least one processor of a central device, a request to the BLE-enabled peripheral device for access to BLE data pertaining to BLE services at the BLE-enabled peripheral device;
determining, by the at least one processor, whether a locking module of the central device is locked so as to indicate inaccessibility of the BLE data via the BLE connection, the determining comprising accessing the locking module;
suspending, by the at least one processor in response to the determining that the locking module is locked, performance of an operation comprising the request;
determining, by the at least one processor, whether the locking module has become unlocked;
and
allowing, by the at least one processor in response to the determining that the locking module is unlocked, resumption of the performance of the operation comprising the request, the operation enabling access to the BLE data pertaining to the BLE services at the BLE-enabled peripheral device.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Bluetooth low energy connection management

Life of this patent

Bluetooth low energy connection management

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24