US 7,970,350 B2 · Devices and methods for content sharing

Abstract

Described are methods and devices for automatically coupling two or more mobile communication devices (502, 541) to share content such as calls, music, documents, video and games where two or more devices automatically determine the feasibility of sharing the content and negotiate to find an efficient manner in which to do so. In this way, the pairing between devices may be transparent to the users. Moreover, a better choice in a transport may be selected without user input. Each device may include a near field communication (NFC) device that when in range of the other device may automatically initiate pairing between the devices so that the devices may share content. The users of NFC enabled devices may have little or minimal interactions except that one or more users may bring the devices within range so that the NFCs may initiate the pairing between the devices.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A mobile communication device comprising:

a short-range wireless transceiver configured to transmit data using a wireless transport having a wireless transport configuration indicated by configuration information and also having an available bandwidth;
a processor configured to run at least one application software program for accessing content indicated by application type information;
a controller coupled to the short-range wireless transceiver and the processor;
and
a near field communication device coupled to the controller and configured to transmit the configuration information, the available bandwidth, and the application type information and to receive another configuration information, another application type information, and another available bandwidth from another communication device.

2 more elements

A method of content sharing between a first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device, the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device configured for near field communication via a near field communication device, and the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device configured for short-range communication via a plurality of short-range wireless communication transceivers, the first wireless communication device executing an application to output content, the method comprising:

initiating near field communication between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device;
transmitting, via near field communication of the first wireless communication device, configuration information of at least one of the plurality of short-range wireless communication transceivers, available bandwidth, and application type information of the first wireless communication device to the second wireless communication device;
receiving, via near field communication of the second wireless communication device, configuration information of at least one of the plurality of short-range wireless communication transceivers, available bandwidth, and application type information of the second wireless communication device to the first wireless communication device;
negotiating a short-range wireless link selected from the plurality of short-range wireless communication transceivers of the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device, negotiation of the short-range wireless link between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device based on available bandwidth of the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device and the application type information of the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device to determine a negotiated short-range wireless link;
initiating the negotiated short-range wireless link for transmitting the output content from the first wireless communication device to the second wireless communication device;
and
ending the near field communication between the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Devices and methods for content sharing

Life of this patent

Devices and methods for content sharing

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20