METHOD OF IDENTIFYING DEVICES IN MOBILE AND DESKTOP ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20080195769A1
• Filed: 01/28/2008
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Key Criteria Technology Limited
• Original Assignee: Key Criteria Technology Limited
• Inventors: Anwer, Juraid
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,467 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/24 Transfer of terminal data

Abstract

A method of providing connectivity between a mobile device and a desktop computing device, comprising:

• • providing the mobile device with software that can be installed in the desktop computing device to provide configuration data to application software operating on the desktop computing device, including device identification data for addressing the mobile device;
  • using the mobile device to detect all desktop computing devices with which the mobile device can communicate;
  • using the mobile device to select one of the desktop computing devices on which the application software is to be installed;
  • transmitting the software from the mobile device to the desktop computing device;
  • using the desktop computing device to run the software to configure the application software using configuration data such that communications from the desktop computing device to the mobile device using application software are addressed directly to the mobile device from which the software originated.

Claims

1. A method of providing connectivity between a mobile device and a desktop computing device:

providing the mobile device with software that can be installed in the desktop computing device to provide configuration data to application software operating on the desktop computing device, including device identification data for addressing the mobile device;

using the mobile device to detect all desktop computing devices with which the mobile device can communicate;

using the mobile device to select one of the desktop computing devices on which the application software is to be installed;

transmitting the software from the mobile device to the desktop computing device;

using the desktop computing device to run the software to configure the application software using configuration data such that communications from the desktop computing device to the mobile device using application software are addressed directly to the mobile device from which the software originated.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mobile device comprises a mobile phone handset.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the desktop computing device comprises a laptop.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the desktop computing device comprises a personal computer.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network resources include Internet resources.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the software is included in a software loader file, the method comprising transmitting the software loader file from the mobile device to the desktop computing device, using the desktop computing device to run the loader software and direct it to a network resource to download application software and install it using the configuration data such that the installed application software can be run to provide functionality and connectivity between the mobile device, the desktop computing device and network resources.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, comprising preparing the loader software to include a pre-defined address parameter for the mobile device.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising writing the address parameter to a register on the desktop computing device.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising using the address stored in the register in further communications between the desktop computing device and the mobile device.

10. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein software loader file is a small executable file handled by the operating system used by the phone.

11. A method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the loader software also includes data identifying the mobile device so that the application software can be automatically configured to connect only to the originating mobile device.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising providing the connection between the mobile device and the desktop computing device by means of a connection selected from the group consisting of wireless, infrared and direct cable connections.

13. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of detecting desktop computing devices includes displaying all such devices on the mobile device so as to allow selection of the desired desktop computing device by a user.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the step of detecting the desktop computing devices comprises using pre-defined name, address and class parameters for the devices.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, comprising using the Bluetooth search function to detect devices.