US 9,635,495 B2Granted

Supporting virtually simultaneous operation of dual wireless protocols in a single device

AssigneeSilverPlus, Inc.

InventorsDennis Kwan, Jefferson Hu, Jeffrey Hsieh

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Abstract

Appearance of simultaneous connections is provided to devices that support two wireless protocols which are not permitted to operation simultaneously. As an example the method and systems disclosed are applied to the communication between a phone and a smartwatch wherein Bluetooth (BT) classic protocol is used for e.g. voice commands and phone calls and Bluetooth low Energy (BLE) protocol is used for data notifications. In a first embodiment of the disclosure automatic mode switching between BT and BLE is provided. In a second embodiment a dual-ID device utilizes separate IDs for both protocols in time multiplexed connections. It operates as logically independent devices with individual ID's although physically it is a single device.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A method to provide appearance of simultaneous connections between two devices each supporting two different wireless communication protocols which are not permitted to operate simultaneously, the method comprising the steps of:

(1) connecting both devices using a first wireless communication protocol;
(2) receiving by a first of both devices an external wireless event or a user action-triggered mode switch;
(3) sending, in case of an external wireless event, a notification of said external wireless event to a user of the first device and go to step (4), else, in case of a user action-triggered mode switch go to step (4);
(4) disconnecting the first device from using the first wireless protocol;
(5) connecting the first device to the second device using the second wireless protocol;
(6) checking, in case of the external wireless event, for a correspondent user action and, if it so, executing correspondent user action and go to step (9), else, after waiting for a defined time span without correspondent user action, go to step (9);
(7) sending, in case of a user action-triggered mode switch, messages from the first device to the second device using the second wireless protocol according to the user action;
(8) sending messages from the second device to the first device using the second wireless protocol according to the user action;
(9) checking, if a new user action or a new external wireless event have occurred, and, if it so, go to step (3) else go to step (10);
(10) disconnecting both devices from using the second wireless protocol;
and
(11) connecting both devices using the first wireless communication protocol.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/559,302Filed 3 Dec 2014
Published: US 2016/0165380 A19 Jun 2016
Granted: 25 Apr 2017
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

H04W 4/80
Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor: services using short range communication, e.g. near-field…
G04G 21/04
Input or output devices integrated in time-pieces: using radio waves
G04R 20/04
The radio signal being sent by a satellite, e.g. GPS: tuning or receiving; Circuits therefor
G04R 20/06
The radio signal being sent by a satellite, e.g. GPS: decoding time data; Circuits therefor