Capacitive bonding of devices

• US 7,684,754 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2003
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Holan, Doron J., Aull, Randall E., Dreher, Christopher M., Ranta, Craig S., Sung, Ellick H., Glass, Andrew C.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, TUAN
• Application Number:
  US10/453,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20040248513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,485 Days
• Field of Search: 455/100, 455/95, 455/41, 455/40, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/41.3, 455/575.6, 380/9, 380/23, 380/52, 340/5.52, 340/5.53, 340/5.8, 340/5.81, 340/5.82, 340/5.83, 382/115, 382/123, 382/124
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods that facilitate wireless device communications and configuration. A detection component identifies N devices that are coupled together via a biological medium, N being an integer, wherein the medium includes direct or indirect touching to a device or devices. After biological contact, a configuration component initiates a configuration between a subset of the devices. Although configurations and/or other communications can be conducted through a medium such as the human body, the present invention can employ an initial touch to identify respective devices whereby other electronic configuration sequences commence without further device contact. Other aspects include chain touching between users and/or devices to facilitate contact between the devices. Location detection components can also be provided to identify when users are present near a device, the detected presence to commence further automated procedures, and/or the location detection components can enable devices to identify other devices in a crowded wireless environment.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates device configuration, comprising:

a detection component that senses an impedance characteristic of a biological medium of at least one user;

a biological identification component that generates a user profile containing at least one key generated from the impedance characteristic of the biological medium;

a receiving portion to receive profile data corresponding to at least one of the keys in the user profile; and

a configuration component that, in response to receiving the corresponding profile data, controls a configuration process in accordance with the user profile.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system comprises first and second wireless devices and the configuration process is a process for configuring a wireless connection between the first and second devices.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the configuration process occurs across at least one of the biological medium and a wireless medium.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first and second devices are adapted to communicate across a the wireless medium employing at least one of Bluetooth, Wireless Application Protocol, IR/DA, 802.11, and Ultra Wideband technology.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration component automatically configures at least one of a computer, a laptop, a phone, a pager, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a keyboard, a mouse, and a headphone.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the detection component is activated from conductive gloves or clothing that facilitate coupling between the at least one user and the detection component.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration component utilizes the biological medium to transmit least one of power, analog signals, digital signals, currents, pulses, waveforms, and files between a first device and a second device as part of the configuration process.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the detection component further comprises at least one of a touch pad and case material to supply contact points for the biological medium.

9. The system of claim 8, the touch pad or the case material include conductive or semi-conductive media capable of facilitating current flow through the biological medium, the conductive or semi-conductive media including at least one of copper, gold, silver, conductive plastics, metal, conductive coatings, and laminates.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a signal generator to send a configuration or other communication sequence as part of the configuration process.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein a current is momentarily sensed by the detection component and followed by a wireless exchange of configuration data, the wireless exchange including an identifying sequence having at least one encoded parameter.

12. The system of claim 11, the encoded parameter includes at least one of timestamp information for identifying a time at which the current was sensed and counter information for identifying a length of time for which the current was sensed.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a location detection component to facilitate device identification.

14. The system of claim 13, the location detection component enables communications between devices within a predetermined proximity of a fixed location.

15. The system of claim 13, the location detection component identifies a location of a first device to establish further communications with devices within a proximity of the first device.

16. The system of claim 13, the location detection component includes at least one of a Global Positioning System (GPS), an accelerometer, a piezoelectric device, an 802.11 signal strength sensor, an infrared proximity sensor, a microphone, a camera, a touch sensor and an inference model.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the location detection component includes at least the inference model and wherein the inference model includes at least one of Bayesian dependency models, Bayesian networks, nave Bayesian classifiers, Support Vector Machines (SVMs), neural networks and Hidden Markov Models.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration component controls the configuration process to perform a login procedure to permit user access to one or more resources of the system.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration component controls the configuration process to associate a wireless device with a network address identified by the user profile.

27. The system of claim 1, wherein the impedance characteristic sensed by the detection component is at least one of an impedance, a resistance, a capacitance, and an inductance.

29. The system of claim 1, wherein the detection component senses the impedance characteristic at an excitation frequency.

18. A method to facilitate configuration of a device, comprising:

first sensing an impedance characteristic of a biological medium of a user;

generating a user profile for the user, the profile containing a key generated from the first sensing of the impedance characteristic;

second sensing the impedance characteristic of the biological medium of the user;

identifying the user profile based on the second sensing of the impedance characteristic; and

configuring the device based on the identified user profile.

19. A computer readable storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon for implementing the method of claim 18.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the device is a first wireless device and configuring the first wireless device based on the identified user profile comprises establishing communication with a second wireless device via the human contact or a wireless signal.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising automatically determining a location of the first wireless device in order to automatically establish the communications.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising automatically reinitializing communications by touching respective devices for a predetermined interval or sequence.

28. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying the user profile comprises generating at least one measurement key with the second sensed impedance characteristic and using the at least one measurement key to identify the user profile.

30. The method of claim 20, wherein configuring the first wireless device comprises:

broadcasting a code derived from the identified user profile; and

receiving a response to the broadcasted code from the second wireless device, the second wireless device being a device also having been touched by the user.

23. A method of operating a first wireless device to facilitate wireless device communications, comprising:

determining at least one impedance property of a biological medium of a user;

generating a user profile for the user, the profile containing at least one key generated from the at least one impedance property;

receiving profile data from a second wireless device corresponding to at least one of the keys in the user profile; and

in response to receiving the corresponding profile data, configuring the wireless devices for wireless communication.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one impedance property of the biological medium comprises at least one of an impedance, a resistance, a capacitance, and an inductance.