Systems and methods for providing expansion to wireless communicators

• US 20060094466A1
• Filed: 10/20/2004
• Published: 05/04/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: MUSE Green Investments LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: MUSE Green Investments LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Tran, Bao
• Application Number:
  US10/970,548
• Publication Number:
  US 20060094466A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/558
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3877 Arrangements for enabling portable transceivers to be used in a fixed position, e.g. cradles or boosters
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0254 comprising one or a plurality of mechanically detachable modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/14 including a card reading device

Abstract

An add-on circuit for expanding the functionality of a wireless telephone includes an expansion board adapted to be plugged into an expansion port of the wireless telephone; an expansion circuit mounted on the expansion board; and computer code executed by the wireless telephone to retrieve information from the expansion circuit and communicate the information to a user.

Claims

1. An add-on circuit for expanding the functionality of a wireless telephone, the add-on circuit comprising:

an expansion board adapted to be plugged into an expansion connector of the wireless telephone;

an expansion circuit mounted on the expansion board; and

computer code executed by the wireless telephone to retrieve information from the expansion circuit and communicate the information to a user.

2. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the wireless telephone comprises a GSM cellular telephone and wherein the expansion circuit comprises one or more of:

an 802.11 transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, and a Zigbee transceiver.

3. The circuit of claim 2, wherein the code comprises voice over Internet telephony (VoIP) code.

4. The circuit of claim 1, wherein said expansion board comprises a secure digital (SD) card.

5. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises at least one of a global positioning system receiver and a compass.

6. The circuit of claim 5, comprising a data storage device to store map data, wherein the code displays the output of the expansion circuit with the map data.

7. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises at least one of an altimeter, a barometer, a chronograph, and a thermometer.

8. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit receives one of television signal and radio signal.

9. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises a graphics accelerator.

10. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises:

a connector coupled to the expansion board and adapted to receive a game cartridge; and

game operating system emulator code to enable the wireless communicator to play game code stored in the game cartridge.

11. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises one of:

a biometric detector and a medical diagnostic device.

12. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises a bar code reader.

13. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises one of:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) unit and a garage door opener.

14. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises a wireless credit card.

15. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises a credit card number upon query.

16. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises one of:

a reserve energy supply, a super-capacitor, a solar cell, a fuel cell, and a battery.

17. The circuit of claim 1, comprising a data storage device mounted on the expansion board.

18. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the expansion circuit comprises a PC compatible processor with Windows OS, Linux OS, or Macintosh OS X.

19. A cellular telephone comprising:

a processor;

a display;

an expansion connector;

an expansion circuit plugged into the expansion connector of the telephone, wherein the circuit comprises at least one of;

an 802.11 transceiver, a Zigbee transceiver, a global positioning system receiver, a compass, a data storage device to store map data and to display the output of the expansion circuit with the map data, an altimeter, a barometer, a chronograph, a thermometer, a medical diagnostic unit, a television receiver, a radio receiver, a graphics accelerator, a connector to receive a game cartridge, a biometric detector, a bar code reader, a radio frequency identification (RFID) unit, a wireless credit card, a reserve energy supply, a super-capacitor, a solar cell, a fuel cell, a battery, and a PC compatible processor running Windows OS, Linux OS, or Macintosh OSX.

20. The cellular telephone of claim 19, wherein the display conforms to a 16 by 9 aspect ratio.

21. The cellular telephone of claim 19, wherein the expansion circuit comprises one of a Secure Digital (SD) card, a SmartMedia (SM) card, a Multimedia card (MMC), a CompactFlash (CF) card, a PC card, a Memory Stick and an xD Picture card.

22. The cellular telephone of claim 19, comprising a telescoping radio frequency antenna extendable from the expansion circuit.

23. A method to expand cellular telephone functionality, comprising:

inserting a secure digital card with an expansion circuit into the cellular telephone, wherein the expansion circuit comprises at least one of;

an 802.11 transceiver, a Zigbee transceiver, a global positioning system receiver, a compass, a data storage device to store map data and to display the output of the expansion circuit with the map data, an altimeter, a barometer, a chronograph, a thermometer, a medical diagnostic unit, a television receiver, a radio receiver, a graphics accelerator, a connector to receive a game cartridge, a biometric detector, a bar code reader, a radio frequency identification (RFID) unit, a wireless credit card, a reserve energy supply, a super-capacitor, a solar cell, a fuel cell, a battery, and a PC compatible processor running Windows OS, Linux OS, or Macintosh OS X; and

executing computer code executed by the cellular telephone to retrieve information from the expansion circuit and communicating the information to a user.