METHOD, SYSTEM AND MOBILE DEVICE FOR PRIORITIZING A DISCOVERED DEVICE LIST

• US 20130137375A1
• Filed: 01/25/2013
• Published: 05/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Wilson, Sean Elliott, Pattenden, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,130 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• 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

Abstract

The described embodiments relate generally to methods, systems and computing devices, including at least a mobile device, for ordering a discovered device list according to a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of each device in the discovered device list. Thus, the discovered device list has at the top of the list the device that has the highest RSSI, with the remaining devices in the discovered device list presented in descending order of RSSI.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of ordering a list of discovered devices in a wireless personal area network (WPAN), the processor configured to:

receive a plurality of received signal strength indications corresponding to wireless device signals received from devices in the WPAN; and

display, on a user interface, a list of devices corresponding to the devices from which the wireless device signals were received, the devices in the list being ordered according to the received signal strength indications of the devices.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

upon receiving each received signal strength indication, sort the list according to the received signal strength indications.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 2, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit a page signal, wherein the plurality of received signal strength indications corresponding to wireless device signals is received in response to the page signal.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 3, wherein the page signal is transmitted in response to a selection to add a device to a connected device list.

5. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to request a name of each device in the list in sequence from the top of the list to the bottom of the list.

6. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to wait a predetermined time prior to requesting the name of each device in the list.

7. The computer readable medium of claim 6, wherein requesting the name of each device comprises determining whether any devices in the list do not have a device name, and requesting the name of devices in the list that do not have a device name.

8. The computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein a device class is substituted for the device name in the list, for each device for which a device name could not be retrieved.

9. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a selection of a device in the list of devices.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to initiate a device connection with the selected device in response to the selection.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a device identifier and a device class for each of the devices in the WPAN based on the wireless device signals.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein devices in the list having a same received signal strength indication are ordered in the list according to the device class of each such device.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to display an icon for each device in the list, the icon corresponding to the device class of the corresponding device.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein a communication technology of the WPAN is selected from the group consisting of:

Bluetooth®

, ZigBee®

, wireless universal serial bus (WUSB), ultra-wideband (UWB), and IEEE 802.15.4 compliant technologies.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of ordering a list of discovered devices in a wireless personal area network (WPAN), the processor configured to:

for each of a plurality of wireless device signals received from respective devices in the WPAN, determine a received signal strength of the wireless device signal; and

display on a display a list of devices corresponding to the devices from which the wireless device signals were received, the devices in the list being ordered according to the received signal strength of the wireless device signal of the respective device.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of wireless device signals is received in response to a page signal.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the page signal is transmitted in response to a selection to add one of the plurality of devices to a connected device list.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to request a name of each device in the list in sequence from the top of the list to the bottom of the list until all device names have been received for the plurality of the devices or until a selection is made that cancels requesting the device names, wherein once the name of a respective device is received, the name of the device is displayed in the list on the display.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the selection comprises selecting a named device in the list of devices.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to initiate a device connection with the named device in response to the selection.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a device identifier and a device class of each of the plurality of devices based on the respective wireless device signals.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein for devices in the list having a same received signal strength, such devices are ordered in the list according to the device class of each such device.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to display an icon for each device in the list, the icon corresponding to the device class of the respective device.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein a communication technology of the WPAN is selected from the group consisting of:

Bluetooth®

, ZigBee®

, wireless universal serial bus (WUSB), ultra-wideband (UWB) and IEEE 802.15.4 compliant technologies.