Push-To-Talk Functions Associated with a Rotary Knob

• US 20160135018A1
• Filed: 11/10/2015
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kodiak Networks Inc (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Kodiak Networks Inc (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Congdon, Ardsley Pihl Jr., Morton, Gregory James, Vempati, Brahmananda R., Patel, Krishnakant M., Ayyasamy, Ravi, Chandana, Pratap
• Granted Patent: US 9,549,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3888 Arrangements for carrying or protecting transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/233 including a pointing device, e.g. roller key, track ball, rocker switch or joystick constructional details of pointing devices per se G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/236 including keys on side or rear faces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72409 by interfacing with external accessories hands-free H04M1/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services

Abstract

An embodiment method includes determining, by a server, a current position of a rotary knob equipped on a client device connected to the server. The method also includes determining, by the server, a push-to-talk (PTT) over cellular (PoC) configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob and performing, by the server, PoC operations for the client device in accordance with the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining, by a server, a current position of a rotary knob equipped on a client device connected to the server;

determining, by the server, a push-to-talk (PTT) over cellular (PoC) configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob; and

performing, by the server, PoC operations for the client device in accordance with the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob triggers no action, call origination to a most recent history event, call origination to a user assigned contact, call origination to a user assigned pre-arranged group, or a combination thereof when a PTT button of the client device is pressed and the client device is idle.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob triggers talk back or call origination with pre-emption when a PTT button of the client device is pressed and the client device is not idle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob allows the client device to receive PTT calls from one or more pre-assigned groups and blocks the client device from receiving PTT calls from groups other than then one or more pre-assigned groups.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein PTT calls from the groups other than the one or more pre-assigned groups are blocked at an application server.

6. The method of claim 4, the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob further determines whether incoming one-to-one PTT calls, ad-hoc PTT calls, or a combination thereof are allowed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob allows the client device to receive PTT from a plurality of pre-assigned groups, and wherein the PoC configuration further assigns priorities to each of the plurality of pre-assigned groups.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob inhibits PTT call transmissions, by the client device, from reaching an intended target by blocking the PTT call transmission at the server.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the current position of the rotary knob comprises receiving, by the server, the current position of the rotary knob from the client device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the rotary knob comprises a plurality of possible positions, wherein determining the PoC configuration comprises receiving, by the server, PoC configurations assigned to each of the plurality of possible positions of the rotary knob.

11. An application server comprising:

a processor; and

a computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions to;

receive a current position of a rotary knob equipped on a client device;

determine a push-to-talk (PTT) over cellular (PoC) configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob; and

perform PoC operations for the client device in accordance with a PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob.

12. The application server of claim 11, wherein the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob comprises instructions to:

trigger no action, originate a call to a most recent history event, originate a call to a user assigned contact, originate a call to a user assigned pre-arranged group, or a combination thereof when a PTT button is pressed and there is not a current PTT call on the client device; and

talk back or originate a call with pre-emption when a PTT button is pressed and a PTT call is ongoing on the client device.

13. The application server of claim 12, wherein incoming call filtering is independent from the current position of the rotary knob.

14. The application server of claim 11, wherein the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob comprises instructions to:

allow PTT calls from one or more pre-assigned groups;

blocks PTT calls from groups other than then one or more pre-assigned groups; and

designate whether one-to-one PTT calls, ad-hoc PTT calls, or a combination thereof are allowed.

15. The application server of claim 11, wherein the instructions to determine the PoC configuration assigned to the current position of the rotary knob comprises receiving PoC configurations assigned to each of a plurality of possible positions of the rotary knob from the client device or from another server.

16. A rotary knob comprising:

a dial configured to be turned to one of a plurality of possible positions;

a position sensor configured to detect a position of the dial; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the position of the dial to a client device, wherein a server connected to the client device is configured to;

determine a push-to-talk (PTT) over cellular (PoC) configuration assigned to the position of the dial; and

perform PoC operations for the client device in accordance with the PoC configuration assigned to the position of the dial.

17. The rotary knob of claim 16 further comprising a wired connection interface configured to be plugged into the client device, wherein the transmitter is configured transmit the position of the dial to the client device over the wired connection interface.

18. The rotary knob of claim 17, wherein the wired connection interface comprises an audio jack, a lightning connector, or a universal serial bus (USB) connector.

19. The rotary knob of claim 16, wherein the transmitter are configured to transmit the position of the dial to the client device over a wireless connection.

20. The rotary knob of claim 19, wherein the wireless connection comprises a Bluetooth connection or a low energy Bluetooth connection.

21. The rotary knob of claim 16, wherein the client device is configured to detect when the rotary knob is connected using a rotary knob detection protocol, and wherein the rotary knob detection protocol comprises lightweight peer discovery, authentication, command, and response data overlaid over an access interface between the rotary knob and the client device.