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US 9,426,610 B2Granted
Applying mesh network to luggage
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsJames R. Milne, Gregory Peter Carlsson, Frederick J. Zustak
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Mesh node modules are associated with pieces of luggage, or packages, etc. and companion luggage or packages can dynamically form a mesh network which uploads location information of the nodes and in some cases additional information, e.g., shock signals, to a network. The information may be downloaded to an owner's CE device.
Claims13
Apparatus comprising:
- at least one computer memory that is not a transitory signal and that comprises instructions executable by at least one processor to:
- associate the apparatus with a user's consumer electronics (CE) device in an initial mesh network at least in part by:
- exchanging information with the CE device including sending to the CE device an identifier representing respective luggage defining an enclosure openable to load and unload items into the enclosure and closable to maintain item securely within the enclosure;
- the CE device, executing a luggage tracking application, uploading the identifier along with a network address of the CE device to an Internet server such that when the Internet server subsequently receives information pertaining to the identifier representing the respective luggage can, in response to the information pertaining to the identifier representing the respective luggage, download location information pertaining to the respective luggage to the CE device;
- and
- upload to a network, via a wireless transmitter, location signals according to signals received from a location sensor of the luggage.
3 more elements
Mesh network, comprising:
- plural computerized node modules associated with respective pieces of luggage and dynamically forming a mesh network which uploads location information of the node modules to a receiving network for downloading of the location information to a consumer electronics (CE) device, wherein at least first and second node modules in the plural computerized node modules include at least respective first and second computer memories that are not transitory signals, at least the first computer memory comprising instructions executable by at least one processor to:
- receive from at least the second node module second location information associated with a location of the respective piece of luggage associated with the second node module;
- and
- responsive to a determination that communication with a wide area network (WAN) through an access point (AP) is available, automatically send at least the second location information through the AP to the WAN.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.