Technique of providing information to mobile devices

• US 6,968,181 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2002
• Issued: 11/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Buffalo Incorporated (Melco Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Buffalo Incorporated (Melco Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ishidoshiro, Takashi
• Primary Examiner(s): Trinh, Sonny
• Application Number:
  US10/323,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20040077361A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,070 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.6, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/456.5, 455/574, 455/422.1, 455/414.2, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 455/414.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

The access point of the present invention saves power consumption and attains size reduction of a mobile device that receives information. A radio base station 10a provides a connecting point for connecting a plurality of clients with the Internet 60, and stores announcement information, which is recognizable by a user terminal 20a. The user terminal 20a transmits information to and from an outlet terminal 25 by radio wave. The radio base station 10a detects the position of the user terminal 20a and the position of the outlet terminal 25, based on the receiving status of the radio wave from the user terminal 20a and the outlet terminal 25. The radio base station 10a provides the user terminal 20a with the stored announcement information when the user terminal 20a comes close to the outlet terminal 25 to be within a preset distance from the outlet terminal 25.

Claims

1. An access point that provides a connecting point used for connecting a plurality of clients with a wide area network, said access point comprising:

a wireless communication module that transmits information to and from at least one client among said plurality of clients by radio wave;

an announcement information storage module that stores announcement information, which is recognizable by said one client;

a status detection module that detects at least a position of said one client, based on a receiving status of the radio wave from said one client, said status detection module further including sub-module that detects an attitude of said one client, in addition to the position of said one client;

a position specification module that specifies a positional relationship between the position of said one client detected by said status detection module and a position of another client connecting with said access point, said position specification module determining that said one client and said another client hold a predetermined positional relationship, when it is specified that said one client and said another client face each other based on the position and the attitude of said one client and the position of said another client; and

an information transmission module that transmits the announcement information stored in said announcement information storage module to said one client, when said position specification module determines that said one client and said another client hold the predetermined positional relationship.

2. An access point in accordance with claim 1, wherein the predetennined positional relationship is that said one client comes close to said another client to be within a preset distance from said another client.

3. An access point in accordance with claim 1, wherein said wireless communication module comprises at least three sector antennas and a wave detection circuit that receives radio wave from each of the at least three sector antennas and outputs a signal level of the received radio wave from each sector antenna,

said status detection module comprising:

a direction detection sub-module that detects a direction of said one client, based on the signal levels of the radio waves of the respective sector antennas output from the wave detection circuit with regard to said one client; and

a distance detection sub-module that detects a distance to said one client, based on a response delay time between transmission of a signal to said one client and reception of a reply signal from said one client,

said position specification module specifying the position of said one client, based on the detected direction of and the detected distance to said one client.

4. An access point in accordance with claim 1, said access point further comprising:

a management module that updates the announcement information stored in said announcement information storage module.

5. An access point in accordance with claim 1, said access point further comprising:

a local area network operational module that operates a local area network, to which clients are connected; and

a router module that interconnects the local area network with the wide area network.

6. An access point in accordance with claim 5, wherein the local area network is a wireless local area network that transmits information by radio wave.

7. A method of connecting a plurality of clients with a wide area network via an access point, said method comprising the steps of

storing announcement information, which is recognizable by said plurality of clients;

transmitting information to and from at least one client among said plurality of clients by radio wave;

detecting at least a position and an attitude of said one client, based on a receiving status of the radio wave from said one client;

specifying a positional relationship between the detected position of said one client and a position of another client connecting with said access point, including determining that said one client and said another client hold a predetermined positional relationship, when it is specified that said one client and said another client face each other based on the position and the attitude of said one client and the position of said another client; and

transmitting the stored announcement information to said one client, when it is determined that said one client and said another client hold a predetermined positional relationship.