GPSS-based system and method for enabling or disabling cellphones in predefined zones

• US 8,014,795 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Courteouscellphones, LLC
• Original Assignee: Courteouscellphones, LLC
• Inventors: Lipovski, Gerald John (Jack)
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, CONGVAN
• Application Number:
  US12/943,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20110053612A1
• Time in Patent Office: 300 Days
• Field of Search: 455/403, 455/404.2, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/456.4, 455/457, 455/3.02, 340/426.9, 340/539.13, 342/357.22, 342/357.24, 342/357.39, 342/357.73
• US Class Current: 455/456.4
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/67 by electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/044 according to the level of ambient noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed

Abstract

A system and method are described for initiating, enabling, disabling or restoring cellphone operations when the cellphone is in a zone, which is where cellphone operation has to be so altered. A courtesy signal transmitter transmits a courtesy signal containing zone data, which is received by the cellphone'"'"'s courtesy signal receiver. A GPSS receiver, embedded in the cellphone, outputs the current cellphone location. A cellphone'"'"'s processor compares this location to the zone'"'"'s coordinates; if it determines that the cellphone is in the zone, the cellphone'"'"'s processor initiates, enables, or disables operations in it as directed by bits in the zone'"'"'s data. Spread-spectrum technology securely passes zone data from courtesy signal transmitters to courtesy signal receivers in cellphones, using GPSS data to make this coding scheme more secure. Finally, the courtesy signal transmitter GPSS location is checked to determine if the courtesy signal transmitter has been moved after it is initialized.

Claims

1. A system that initiates, enables, disables, or restores cellphone operations when said cellphone is in a zone, comprising:

(a) a zone, which is a contiguous geographical area where courteous cellphones may be operable, such as an auditorium,

(b) data describing said zone, comprising bits to initiate, enable, disable or restore cellphone operations in said zone,

(c) said zone being coextensive with a three-dimensional concave polygon, said polygon having a plurality of corners, said corner having GPSS coordinates,

(d) a courtesy signal transmitter transmitting courtesy signals to courtesy signal receivers in said courteous cellphones that are within said transmitter'"'"'s cover, a transmitter'"'"'s cover being a largest surface of a contiguous volume in which anywhere in the volume said courtesy signal transmitted from said courtesy signal transmitter is of sufficient power to be received and decoded, with acceptable probability, in a courtesy signal receiver disposed in said courteous cellphone,

(e) placing courtesy signal transmitters such that all of said polygon'"'"'s interior be under the cover of at least one courtesy signal transmitter, but such that no two said courtesy signal transmitter signals interfering with each other,

(f) a cellphone comprising components;

(i) a transceiver that communicates with a cellphone tower to communicate voice and data signals to or from other cellphones, said transceiver not communicating any said data describing said zones, corners or bits,

(ii) a microphone that inputs audio signals,

(iii) a speaker that outputs audio signals,

(iv) a keyboard wherein telephone numbers can be dialed and data can be entered,

(v) a display where at least said telephone number being dialed can be displayed,

(vi) a ringer that outputs a ring tone, and

(vii) (optionally) a camera where a picture or a video can be taken,

(g) a GPSS system disposed within and coupled to said cellphone that outputs coordinates of said cellphone'"'"'s current location,

(h) a cellphone memory, disposed within said cellphone and storing, at least in part, said polygon'"'"'s corner'"'"'s coordinates and said of polygon'"'"'s bits, said stored data not including said cellphone users'"'"'personal data, nor data being provided in response to said cellphone user having an accident, and said stored data not being any part of a message'"'"'s zone address,

(j) a processor that initializes said memory with data describing said zones, polygons, polygon'"'"'s corners and bits in the zone, and then repeatedly executes forever a single loop program,

(k) a single pass of said single loop program that repeatedly reads each said zone'"'"'s data, read one zone at a time from said memory, to compare it to the cellphone location obtained from said GPS system,

wherein, if said cellphone is in said zone, said processor, responsive to said zones'"'"' data bits, initiates, enables, disables or restores operations in said cellphone'"'"'s components.

2. A system as described in claim 1, in which said cellphone'"'"'s GPSS coordinates, said zone'"'"'s coordinates, or zone'"'"'s bits are replaced by incorrect data to defeat said system, potentially rendering it useless.

3. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said cellphone'"'"'s memory storing said zone'"'"'s data is stored in a cache'"'"'s or cache-like'"'"'s random access memory, disposed within said cellphone and coupled to said processor.

4. A system as described in claim 1, wherein said data describing said zone is encoded, transmitted, received and decoded as a simplex (unidirectional) courtesy signal channel, said system additionally comprising:

(a) a courtesy signal transmitter disposed to store, encode and transmit said courtesy signal, said courtesy signal being comprised of said data describing said zone,

(b) a courtesy signal receiver disposed within said courteous cellphone and coupled to said memory, to receive, decode and store said courtesy signals,

wherein said courtesy signal is transmitted from said courtesy signal transmitter to courtesy signal receivers disposed in courteous cellphones under said cover, said signal being decoded in said processor to determine if said cellphone is in said zone, and if so, said processor, responsive to said zone'"'"' data bits, initiates, enables, disables or restores operations in said cellphone'"'"'s said components.

5. A system as defined in claim 4 in which said courtesy signal data is replaced by incorrect data to defeat said system, potentially rendering it useless.

6. A system as defined in claim 4 wherein said courtesy signal is an ultrasonic serial binary signal.

7. A system as defined in claim 4 wherein said courtesy signal is a low-power rf serial binary signal.

8. A system as defined by claim 4 in which said courtesy signal is encoded in said courtesy signal transmitter by exclusive-ORing the input courtesy signal serial data with a serial reference binary signal, bit-by-bit, to encode the data, in which said ultrasonic courtesy signal is later decoded in said courtesy compliant cellphone by exclusive-ORing said transmitted data with said serial reference binary signal, bit-by-bit, to obtain decoded courtesy signal data.

9. A system as defined in claim 8 in which said serial reference binary signal is initialized, at least in part, from GPSS position data.

10. A system as defined in claim 8 in which said serial reference binary signal is initialized, at least in part, from a free-running timer.

11. A system as defined in claim 4 in which said courtesy signal transmitter also has a GPSS system disposed in it, and in which said initial courtesy signal transmitter coordinates and zone'"'"'s coordinates, obtained when said system was first set up, are stored in said courtesy signal transmitter'"'"'s nonvolatile memory.

12. A system as defined in claim 11 wherein a correction vector is added to stored zone corner coordinates just before said coordinates are transmitted from said courtesy signal transmitter, wherein said correction vector is the current coordinates of the courtesy signal transmitter minus the aforementioned stored coordinates of the courtesy signal transmitter, which was obtained when the system was set up.

13. A system as described by claim 11 in which said courtesy signal transmitter'"'"'s current GPSS coordinates are compared to said stored courtesy signal transmitter'"'"'s GPSS location to determine if the transmitter is at the location where it was when it was first set up, as it should have been, or else is operating at some unauthorized location.

14. A system as described by claim 13 in which said stored GPSS coordinates or current GPSS coordinates are replaced by incorrect data to defeat said system, potentially rendering it useless.

15. A method for initiating, enabling, disabling or restoring operations within a cellphone system when said cellphone is in a zone;

comprising the steps of;

(a) specifying zones, each of which is a geographic area, such as an auditorium, wherein cellphone operations need to be initiated, enabled, disabled or restored together,

(b) deriving bits needed to execute said initiating, enabling, disabling or restoring in cellphones within said zone,

(c) for each said zone, selecting one or more geometric three-dimensional concave polygons that are collectively coextensive with said zone, each said polygon having a plurality of corners,

(d) deriving GPSS coordinates of all said corners,

(e) placing courtesy signal transmitters such that each of said polygon'"'"'s corner'"'"'s coordinates be under the cover of at least one courtesy signal transmitter, but such that no two said courtesy signal transmitter signals interfering with each other, said transmitter'"'"'s cover being a largest surface of a contiguous volume in which anywhere in the volume a courtesy signal transmitted from said courtesy signal transmitter is of sufficient power to probably be correctly received and decoded in a courtesy signal receiver disposed in said cellphone,

(f) storing, in said courtesy signal transmitter'"'"'s memory, data describing each said zone under its cover, each data comprising GPSS coordinates describing the position of said zone'"'"'s polygon'"'"'s corners, and bits to initiate, enable, disable or restore cellphone operations in said zone,

(g) a cellphone user using a cellphone, comprising steps of (in any order);

(i) communicating with a cellphone tower using a transceiver,

(ii) receiving audio signals through a microphone,

(iii) outputting audio signals through a speaker,

(iv) dialing telephone numbers and entering data using a keyboard,

(v) displaying data such as said telephone number,

(vi) producing a ring tone with a ringer, or

(vi) (optionally) taking a picture or video with a camera,

(h) receiving said cellphone'"'"'s current location coordinates from a GPSS receiver incorporated in said cellphone,

(j) receiving courtesy signal data from said courtesy signal transmitter'"'"'s memory through courtesy signal receiver disposed in said cellphone,

(k) writing said received courtesy signal data in a cellphone'"'"'s memory, said memory not storing said cellphone users'"'"' personal data nor data responsive to an emergency wherein said cellphone user has an accident,

(m) determining if said current cellphone location obtained from said GPSS receiver output is in said zone whose data is stored in said cellphone'"'"'s memory and,

(n) if said cellphone is in said zone, initiating, enabling, disabling or restoring said user'"'"'s said cellphone operations, responsive to said zone'"'"'s bits to initiate, enable, disable, or restore cellphone operations of said cellphone user using a cellphone.

16. A method as described in claim 15, in which said zone data is received from a random access memory disposed within the cellphone, coupled to said processor and managed like a cache.

17. A method as described in claim 15, in which said zone data is received from said courtesy signal receiver and stored in cellphone'"'"'s memory.

18. A method, as described in claim 15, which, after obtaining said GPSS coordinates of said GPSS receiver, said method replaces said GPSS data with incorrect data to defeat said method, potentially rendering it useless.

19. A method as defined in claim 17 wherein said courtesy signal is an ultrasonic serial binary signal.

20. A method as defined in claim 17 wherein said courtesy signal is a low-power rf serial binary signal.