Method and apparatus for infrared data communication
First Claim
1. A transmitter for use in a network carrying a plurality of data bits, said transmitter comprising:
- a physical layer;
a first link layer;
means for providing at least a subset of said plurality of data bits;
means for making said first link layer match a second link layer in at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of said transmitter;
means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first link layer;
means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first physical layer;
means for generating at said first physical layer a signal comprising said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; and
means for transmitting said signal to said at least one handheld device within said broadcast coverage area in a format compliant with and receivable by said second link layer,wherein said means for transmitting said signal includes;
an on-interval;
an off-interval;
said on-interval corresponding to the presence of at least a portion of at least one of said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits;
said off-interval corresponding to the absence of any of said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; and
said on and said off intervals further arranged such that a communication interface associated with said handheld device may communicate with another handheld device when said off-interval is present at said communication interface;
wherein said matching first and second link layers are infrared data association (IrDA) compliant.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for conveying contextually relevant information to a wireless client (112) is disclosed. More particularly, an emitter (108) transmits a diffuse infrared signal to a client (112) having an IrDA infrared communication interface (130). Emitter (108) communicates with client (112) by making a link layer in emitter (108) compliant with an IrDA link layer running on client (112). To perform communication, data is received at emitter (108) from a service provider (102). The data is formatted into an IrDA compliant diffuse infrared signal and transmitted to client (112). Client (112) receives the data and parses it to extract contextually relevant information contained therein.
183 Citations
40 Claims
-
1. A transmitter for use in a network carrying a plurality of data bits, said transmitter comprising:
-
a physical layer; a first link layer; means for providing at least a subset of said plurality of data bits; means for making said first link layer match a second link layer in at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of said transmitter; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first link layer; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first physical layer; means for generating at said first physical layer a signal comprising said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; and means for transmitting said signal to said at least one handheld device within said broadcast coverage area in a format compliant with and receivable by said second link layer, wherein said means for transmitting said signal includes; an on-interval; an off-interval; said on-interval corresponding to the presence of at least a portion of at least one of said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; said off-interval corresponding to the absence of any of said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; and said on and said off intervals further arranged such that a communication interface associated with said handheld device may communicate with another handheld device when said off-interval is present at said communication interface; wherein said matching first and second link layers are infrared data association (IrDA) compliant. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method for conveying at least a subset of a plurality of data bits from a transmitter to at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of the transmitter, said method cormprising the steps of:
-
making a first link layer in the transmitter match a second link layer in the at least one handheld device; providing the at least the subset of the plurality of data bits; making the at least the subset of the plurality of data bits available to the first link layer; receiving the at least the subset of the plurality of data bits at a first physical layer in the transmitter; generating an infrared signal comprising the at least the subset of the plurality of data bits; and conveying the infrared signal to each communication interface associated with the at least one handheld device within the broadcast coverage area of the transmitter in a format compliant with and receivable by the second link layer; wherein at least the subset of the plurality of data bits is conveyed to the at least one handheld device, and wherein the conveying of the infrared signal includes; an on-interval; an off-interval; the on-interval corresponding to the presence of at least a portion of one of the at least the subset of the plurality of data bits; the off-interval corresponding to the absence of the at least the subset of the plurality of data bits; and the on-interval and the off-interval further arranged such that the communication interface can transmit an IrDA-compliant-signal when the off-interval is present at the communication interface. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A transmitter for use in a network carrying a plurality of data bits, said transmitter comprising:
-
a physical layer; a first link layer; means for providing at least a subset of said plurality of data bits; means for making said first link layer match a second link layer in at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of said transmitter; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first link layer; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first physical layer; means for generating at said first physical layer a signal comprising said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; and means for transmitting said signal to said at least one handheld device within said broadcast coverage area in a format compliant with and receivable by said second link layer, wherein said at least one handheld device is capable of receiving said signal containing a message over a communication medium, said at least one handheld device including; means for receiving said signal into said at least one handheld device to form a received signal; means for passing the received signal to a handheld device physical layer; means for passing the received signal from said handheld device physical layer to said second link layer; and means for utilizing information contained in received signal to accomplish a task; wherein said signal is a unidirectional infrared transmitted signal. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
-
28. A transmitter for use in a network carrying a plurality of data bits, said transmitter comprising:
-
a physical layer; a first link layer; means for providing at least a subset of said plurality of data bits; means for making said first link layer match a second link layer in at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of said transmitter; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first link layer; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first physical layer; means for generating at said first physical layer a signal comprising said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; and means for transmitting said signal to said at least one handheld device within said broadcast coverage area in a format compliant with and receivable by said second link layer; wherein transmitting said signal includes a first on-interval, a first off-interval occurring immediately after said first on-interval, a second on-interval occurring immediately after said first off-interval and a second off interval occurring immediately after said second on-interval; wherein said signal is a unidirectional infrared transmitted signal. - View Dependent Claims (29)
-
-
30. A method of utilizing executable code in a source device to convey a plurality of bits to at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of a transmitter and each having a communication interface and a first link layer, said method comprising the steps of:
-
formatting said at least a subset of said plurality of bits into a data signal; making said data signal available to a second link layer compatible with said first link layer; receiving said data signal at a second physical layer; making said data signal available to the transmitter for conveying to each said communication interface; receiving said data signal at each first physical layer communicatively associated with each said communication interface to form a received signal; passing said received signal from said first physical layer to said first link layer; extracting information contained in said received signal; making said information available to a user of said handheld device; and performing said extracting step and said making step by using a plug-in; wherein said at least a subset of said plurality of bits is conveyed to said at least one handheld device within the broadcast coverage area of the transmitter. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
-
-
38. A transmitter for use in a network carrying a plurality of data bits, said transmitter comprising:
-
a physical layer; a first link layer; means for providing at least a subset of said plurality of data bits; means for making said first link layer match a second link layer in at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of said transmitter; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first link layer; means for making said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits available to said first physical layer; means for generating at said first physical layer a signal comprising said at least said subset of said plurality of data bits; and means for transmitting said signal to said at least one handheld device within said broadcast coverage area in a format compliant with and receivable by said second link layer; wherein said signal is a unidirectional computer-readable data signal for modifying the operation of said at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of the transmitter, and said handheld device processes said unidirectional computer-readable data signal comprising; computer-readable information encoded in an infrared-data-association (IrDA) compliant format within a broadcast coverage area of the transmitter; and wherein processing said computer-readable information modifies the operation of said at least one handheld device within a broadcast coverage area of the transmitter. - View Dependent Claims (39)
-
-
40. A method for enabling communication between a transmitter and a handheld device comprising the steps of:
-
providing a diffuse infrared protocol physical layer in the transmitter; providing a transmitter infrared-data-association (IrDA)-compliant link layer in the transmitter; providing a handheld device IrDA-compliant link layer and a handheld device IrDA-compliant physical layer in the handheld device; replacing IrDA-compliant layers above the handheld device IrDA-compliant link layer in the handheld device with at least one software module capable of processing unidirectional signals; providing a data signal to the transmitter IrDA-compliant link layer; communicating the data signal from the transmitter IrDA-compliant link layer to the diffuse infrared protocol physical layer; transmitting the data signal from the diffuse infrared protocol physical layer to the handheld device IrDA-compliant physical layer; communicating the data signal from the handheld device IrDA-compliant physical layer to the handheld device IrDA-compliant link layer; and communicating the data signal to the at least one software module to be processed as a unidirectional signal.
-
Specification