SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING ONE OR MORE FUNCTIONALITIES TO A WEARABLE COMPUTING DEVICE WITH DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA

• US 20150031294A1
• Filed: 09/04/2013
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Holman, Pablos, Hyde, Roderick A., Levien, Royce A., Lord, Richard T., Lord, Robert W., Malamud, Mark A., Tegreene, Clarence T.
• Granted Patent: US 9,037,087 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/385 Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• 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

Abstract

Computationally implemented methods and systems include receiving one or more signals through a directional antenna of a wearable computing device, the one or more signals having been transmitted by one or more electronic devices; determining that the one or more electronic devices are within a spatial pod surrounding the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals received by the wearable computing device; and obtaining at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were determined to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text.

Claims

1-141. -141. (canceled)

142. A wearable computing device designed to be worn by a user, comprising:

a directional antenna;

a signal capturing module configured to capture one or more signals through the directional antenna, the one or more signals having been transmitted by one or more electronic devices;

a nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices that transmitted the one or more signals are within a spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals transmitted via the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary; and

a functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device.

143. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said directional antenna, comprises:

a metamaterial antenna.

147. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said signal capturing module configured to capture one or more signals through the directional antenna, the one or more signals having been transmitted by one or more electronic devices comprises:

a signal capturing module configured to capture through the directional antenna one or more signals having one or more frequencies from the 60 GHz frequency band.

153. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said signal capturing module configured to capture one or more signals through the directional antenna, the one or more signals having been transmitted by one or more electronic devices comprises:

a low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, one or more low-power prompting signals that are designed to prompt the one or more electronic devices to, upon the one or more electronic devices receiving the one or more low-power prompting signals, transmit the one or more signals, the one or more low-power prompting signals broadcasted by the wearable computing device being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary; and

a subsequent signal capturing module configured to capture the one or more signals via the directional antenna following broadcast of the one or more low-power prompting signals by the low-power prompting signal broadcasting module.

155. The wearable computing device of claim 153, wherein said low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, one or more low-power prompting signals that are designed to prompt the one or more electronic devices to, upon the one or more electronic devices receiving the one or more low-power prompting signals, transmit the one or more signals, the one or more low-power prompting signals broadcasted by the wearable computing device being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, one or more low-power prompting signals that are transmitted with less than 0.6 milliwatt of transmit power.

157. The wearable computing device of claim 153, wherein said low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, one or more low-power prompting signals that are designed to prompt the one or more electronic devices to, upon the one or more electronic devices receiving the one or more low-power prompting signals, transmit the one or more signals, the one or more low-power prompting signals broadcasted by the wearable computing device being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, the one or more low-power prompting signals at different levels of transmit powers.

158. The wearable computing device of claim 157, wherein said varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, the one or more low-power prompting signals at different levels of transmit powers comprises:

a varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast the one or more low-power prompting signals at different levels of transmit powers less than 0.8 milliwatt.

159. The wearable computing device of claim 157, wherein said varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, the one or more low-power prompting signals at different levels of transmit powers comprises:

a varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast the one or more low-power prompting signals at three or more different levels of transmit powers.

161. The wearable computing device of claim 157, wherein said varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, the one or more low-power prompting signals at different levels of transmit powers comprises:

a varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast the one or more low-power prompting signals at incrementally higher levels of transmit powers from a predefined lowest level of transmit power to a predefined highest level of transmit power.

162. The wearable computing device of claim 157, wherein said varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, the one or more low-power prompting signals at different levels of transmit powers comprises:

a varying low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast the one or more low-power prompting signals at the different levels of transmit powers and pausing after each transmission of the one or more low-power prompting signals at each of the different levels of transmit powers to monitor reception through the directional antenna of the one or more signals transmitted by the one or more electronic devices.

163. The wearable computing device of claim 153, wherein said low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, one or more low-power prompting signals that are designed to prompt the one or more electronic devices to, upon the one or more electronic devices receiving the one or more low-power prompting signals, transmit the one or more signals, the one or more low-power prompting signals broadcasted by the wearable computing device being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary, comprises:

a low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, the one or more low-power prompting signals away from an arm of a user wearing the wearable computing device in order to minimize exposing the arm of the user to the low-power prompting signals.

164. The wearable computing device of claim 153, wherein said low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, one or more low-power prompting signals that are designed to prompt the one or more electronic devices to, upon the one or more electronic devices receiving the one or more low-power prompting signals, transmit the one or more signals, the one or more low-power prompting signals broadcasted by the wearable computing device being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a low-power prompting signal broadcasting module configured to broadcast, via the directional antenna, the one or more low-power prompting signals away from head of a user wearing the wearable computing device in order to minimize exposing the head of the user to the low-power prompting signals.

165. The wearable computing device of claim 153, wherein said subsequent signal capturing module configured to capture the one or more signals via the directional antenna following broadcast of the one or more low-power prompting signals by the low-power prompting signal broadcasting module comprises:

a subsequent signal capturing module configured to capture, via the directional antenna, one or more responsive signals that were transmitted by the one or more electronic devices in response to the one or more electronic devices receiving the one or more low-power prompting signals.

166. The wearable computing device of claim 153, wherein said subsequent signal capturing module configured to capture the one or more signals via the directional antenna following broadcast of the one or more low-power prompting signals by the low-power prompting signal broadcasting module comprises:

a signal strength detecting module configured to detect for signal strengths of the one or more signals captured by the direction antenna.

171. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices that transmitted the one or more signals are within a spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals transmitted via the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a nearby ascertaining module including a responsive signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the responsive signal ascertaining module ascertaining that the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna are one or more responsive signals that were transmitted by the one or more electronic devices in response to the one or more electronic devices receiving one or more low-power prompting signals broadcasted from the wearable computing device, the one or more low-power prompting signals that were broadcasted from the wearable computing device being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary.

174. The wearable computing device of claim 171, wherein said nearby ascertaining module including a responsive signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the responsive signal ascertaining module ascertaining that the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna are one or more responsive signals that were transmitted by the one or more electronic devices in response to the one or more electronic devices receiving one or more low-power prompting signals broadcasted from the wearable computing device, the one or more low-power prompting signals that were broadcasted from the wearable computing device being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a nearby ascertaining module including a responsive signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the responsive signal ascertaining module ascertaining that the one or more signals captured by the wearable computing device are one or more responsive signals that were transmitted by the one or more electronic devices in response to the one or more electronic devices receiving one or more low-power prompting signals from the wearable computing device that were broadcasted by the wearable computing device with 0.5 milliwatt or less of transmit power via the directional antenna.

175. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices that transmitted the one or more signals are within a spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals transmitted via the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a nearby ascertaining module including a beacon signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on beacon signal ascertaining module ascertaining that the one or more signals received by the wearable computing device are one or more received beacon signals that were captured through the directional antenna and that were determined to have one or more signal strengths greater than a predefined amount of signal strength, the one or more received beacon signals having been transmitted by the one or more electronic devices with one or more predefined amounts of transmit powers.

176. The wearable computing device of claim 175, wherein said nearby ascertaining module including a beacon signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on beacon signal ascertaining module ascertaining that the one or more signals received by the wearable computing device are one or more received beacon signals that were captured through the directional antenna and that were determined to have one or more signal strengths greater than a predefined amount of signal strength, the one or more received beacon signals having been transmitted by the one or more electronic devices with one or more predefined amounts of transmit powers comprises:

a nearby ascertaining module including a beacon signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device by determining that a plurality of electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the beacon signal ascertaining module ascertaining that a plurality of signals that were captured through the directional antenna are a plurality of captured beacon signals that were determined to have one or more signal strengths greater than the predefined amount of signal strength, the plurality of captured beacon signals having been transmitted by the plurality of electronic devices with one or more predefined amounts of transmit powers.

177. The wearable computing device of claim 176, wherein said nearby ascertaining module including a beacon signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device by determining that a plurality of electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the beacon signal ascertaining module ascertaining that a plurality of signals that were captured through the directional antenna are a plurality of captured beacon signals that were determined to have one or more signal strengths greater than the predefined amount of signal strength, the plurality of captured beacon signals having been transmitted by the plurality of electronic devices with one or more predefined amounts of transmit powers comprises:

a nearby ascertaining module including a beacon signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the plurality of electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the beacon signal ascertaining module ascertaining that the plurality of signals that were captured through the directional antenna are a plurality of captured beacon signals that were determined to have varying signal strengths greater than the predefined amount of signal strength, the plurality of captured beacon signals having been transmitted by the plurality of electronic devices with one or more predefined amounts of transmit powers.

178. The wearable computing device of claim 177, wherein said nearby ascertaining module including a beacon signal ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the plurality of electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the beacon signal ascertaining module ascertaining that the plurality of signals that were captured through the directional antenna are a plurality of captured beacon signals that were determined to have varying signal strengths greater than the predefined amount of signal strength, the plurality of captured beacon signals having been transmitted by the plurality of electronic devices with one or more predefined amounts of transmit powers comprises:

a nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain which of the plurality of electronic devices are nearest to the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the determined signal strengths of the plurality of captured beacon signals that were captured through the directional antenna and that were transmitted by the plurality of electronic devices.

180. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices that transmitted the one or more signals are within a spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals transmitted via the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices are within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals that are broadcasted via the directional antenna with 0.5 milliwatt or less of transmit power being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary.

181. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices that transmitted the one or more signals are within a spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals transmitted via the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

an endowed functionality ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities.

182. The wearable computing device of claim 181, wherein said endowed functionality ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities comprises:

a functionality querying module configured to query each of the one or more electronic devices to determine whether the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities.

183. The wearable computing device of claim 182, wherein said functionality querying module configured to query each of the one or more electronic devices to determine whether the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities comprises:

a query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities, the one or more queries being communicated via one or more low-power query signals, the one or more low-power query signals that are communicated through the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary of the spatial pod and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary; and

a confirmation obtaining module configured to obtain, through the directional antenna, one or more confirmations via one or more confirmation signals that are obtained from the one or more electronic devices confirming that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities.

184. The wearable computing device of claim 183, wherein said query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities, the one or more queries being communicated via one or more low-power query signals, the one or more low-power query signals that are communicated through the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary of the spatial pod and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide one or more communication links to beyond the spatial pod.

185. The wearable computing device of claim 183, wherein said query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities, the one or more queries being communicated via one or more low-power query signals, the one or more low-power query signals that are communicated through the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary of the spatial pod and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide one or more sensor functionalities.

189. The wearable computing device of claim 183, wherein said query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities, the one or more queries being communicated via one or more low-power query signals, the one or more low-power query signals that are communicated through the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary of the spatial pod and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide one or more supporting applications that support one or more applications being executed by the wearable computing device.

190. The wearable computing device of claim 183, wherein said query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more confirmations that the one or more electronic devices provide the one or more functionalities, the one or more queries being communicated via one or more low-power query signals, the one or more low-power query signals that are communicated through the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary of the spatial pod and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary comprises:

a query communicating module configured to communicate through the directional antenna and to the one or more electronic devices one or more queries to obtain one or more indications as to when will the one or more functionalities be available for use by the wearable computing device.

191. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

a channel acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, one or more channels to control the one or more functionalities.

194. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

an external communication link acquiring module configured to acquire, from the one or more electronic devices, at least access to one or more external communication links to beyond the spatial pod.

197. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

a sensor functionality acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more sensor functionalities from the one or more electronic devices.

199. The wearable computing device of claim 197, wherein said sensor functionality acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more sensor functionalities from the one or more electronic devices comprises:

a sensor functionality acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more visual and/or audio sensor functionalities from the one or more electronic devices including acquiring visual and/or audio data from the one or more visual and/or audio sensor functionalities.

200. The wearable computing device of claim 197, wherein said sensor functionality acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more sensor functionalities from the one or more electronic devices comprises:

a sensor functionality acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more movement sensor functionalities from the one or more electronic devices including acquiring movement data from the one or more movement sensor functionalities.

201. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

an application access acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more applications provided by the one or more electronic devices.

202. The wearable computing device of claim 201, wherein said application access acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more applications provided by the one or more electronic devices comprises:

an application access acquiring module configured to acquire at least access to one or more communication applications provided by the one or more electronic devices.

205. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

a functionality acquiring module including a communication optimal device ascertaining module configured to acquire at least the access to the one or more functionalities from an electronic device that was determined to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device and that was determined, by the communication optimal device ascertaining module, to require least amount of power to communicate with by the wearable computing device compared to the amount of power or powers needed by the wearable computing device to communicate with one or more other electronic devices located within the spatial pod.

206. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

a functionality acquiring module including an approaching device ascertaining module configured to acquire at least the access to the one or more functionalities from an electronic device that was determined to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device and that was determined, by the approaching device ascertaining module, to be coming nearer to the wearable computing device.

207. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

a functionality acquiring module including a strongest signal strength device ascertaining module configured to acquire at least the access to the one or more functionalities from an electronic device that was determined to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device and that was determined, by the strongest signal strength device ascertaining module to provide signals with the strongest strengths compared to the signal strengths of signals transmitted by one or more other electronic devices located with the spatial pod.

208. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

a functionality acquiring module including an earliest functionality access providing device ascertaining module configured to acquire at least the access to the one or more functionalities from an electronic device that was determined to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device and that was determined, by earliest functionality access providing device ascertaining module, to provide earliest access to the one or more functionalities compared to the access to the one or more functionalities that are provided by one or more other electronic devices located within the spatial pod.

209. The wearable computing device of claim 142, wherein said functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device comprises:

a functionality acquiring module including a common user associated device ascertaining module configured to acquire at least the access to the one or more functionalities from an electronic device that was determined to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device and that was determined, by the common user associated device ascertaining module, to be associated with a user associated with the wearable computing device.

144-146. -146. (canceled)

148-152. -152. (canceled)

154. (canceled)

156. (canceled)

160. (canceled)

167-170. -170. (canceled)

172-173. -173. (canceled)

179. (canceled)

186-188. -188. (canceled)

192-193. -193. (canceled)

195-196. -196. (canceled)

198. (canceled)

203-204. -204. (canceled)

210. (canceled)

211. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium bearing;

one or more instructions for capturing one or more signals through a directional antenna of a wearable computing device, the one or more signals having been transmitted by one or more electronic devices;

one or more instructions for ascertaining that the one or more electronic devices that transmitted the one or more signals are within a spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals transmitted via the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary; and

one or more instructions for acquiring, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device.

212. A wearable computing device, comprising:

a directional antenna;

a signal capturing module configured to capture one or more signals through the directional antenna, the one or more signals having been transmitted by one or more electronic devices;

a nearby ascertaining module configured to ascertain that the one or more electronic devices that transmitted the one or more signals are within a spatial pod of the wearable computing device based, at least in part, on the one or more signals captured through the directional antenna, the spatial pod of the wearable computing device being a spatial volume that includes the wearable computing device and being defined by an enveloping boundary, where low-power signals transmitted via the directional antenna being discernible over background noise within the enveloping boundary and not discernible over background noise outside the enveloping boundary;

a functionality acquiring module configured to acquire, via the directional antenna, at least access to one or more functionalities from the one or more electronic devices that were ascertained to be within the spatial pod of the wearable computing device; and

one or more components to facilitate coupling the wearable computing device to a portion of a user'"'"'s body.