Automatic gain control in a personal navigation device

• US 8,073,440 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2010
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Karma Automotive LLC (Wanxiang Group Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Airbiquity Incorporated
• Inventors: Quimby, David, Johnson, Ken, Hong, Leon L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhang, Edward
• Application Number:
  US12/752,999
• Publication Number:
  US 20100273470A1
• Time in Patent Office: 614 Days
• Field of Search: 455/69, 455/73, 455/76, 455/77, 455/41.2, 455/569.1, 455/564.2, 455/563
• US Class Current: 455/422.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/52 using AGC [Automatic Gain Control] circuits or amplifiers

Abstract

In one example, a Bluetooth enabled navigation device pairs with a mobile phone and then sends a plurality of tuning transmissions, each at a different transmission power gain amount, to a remote server using the mobile phone. These tuning transmissions are encoded using frequency tones that synthesize speech for transmission through the mobile phone and a voice channel of its wireless telecommunications network. The navigation device then tunes transmit power settings according to a received response to the tuning transmissions and uses the tuned transmit power settings for subsequent transmission to the remote server using this particular mobile phone.

Claims

1. A memory device having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

communicating with a remote server, the communications passing through a Bluetooth connection between a navigation device and a mobile phone and a wireless voice channel of a wireless telecommunications network associated with the mobile phone;

modulating a received digital bit sequence into an audio signal that has different frequency tones for different bit values, wherein the frequency tones are selected to pass through the wireless voice channel unobstructed by vocoders operating within the wireless telecommunications network;

transmitting the audio signal a first time using a first transmit power gain amount and a second time using a second different transmit power gain amount;

receiving back a response indicating receive power gain amounts at the remote server for the first and second transmissions; and

determining a third transmit power gain amount by analyzing the response and using the third transmit power gain amount to transmit data to the remote server using the mobile phone.

2. The memory device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions causes the processing device to perform operations further comprising:

discovering a Bluetooth client identifier for the mobile phone; and

generating an entry in a navigation device table to associate the discovered Bluetooth client identifier with the third transmit power gain amount.

3. The memory device of claim 2, wherein the navigation device table includes a plurality of entries each associating a custom transmit power gain amount with a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone.

4. The memory device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions causes the processing device to perform operations further comprising:

discovering a Bluetooth client identifier for the mobile phone;

identifying the wireless telecommunications network; and

generating an entry in a navigation device table to associate a combination of the discovered Bluetooth client identifier and the wireless telecommunications network identification with the third transmit power gain amount.

5. The memory device of claim 4, wherein the navigation device table includes a plurality of entries each associating a custom transmit power gain amount with a combination of a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone and a mobile network.

6. The memory device of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions causes the processing device to perform operations further comprising:

receiving a communication indicating that a receive power gain at the remote server is outside a predetermined range; and

in response to receiving the communication, sending a plurality of modulated transmissions at different power gain amounts to identify a new transmit power gain amount for use with the mobile phone.

7. A method, comprising:

communicating with a remote server, the communications passing through a Bluetooth connection between a navigation device and a mobile phone and a wireless voice channel of a wireless telecommunications network associated with the mobile phone;

sending a plurality of tuning transmissions to the remote server, wherein the tuning transmissions are modulated using frequency tones that are selected to pass through the wireless voice channel unobstructed by vocoders operating within the wireless telecommunications network, and wherein the tuning transmissions are transmitted using different transmit power gain amounts;

receiving back a response indicating receive power gain amounts at the remote server and correlating each receive power gain amount to a respective one of the tuning transmissions; and

determining a tuned transmit power gain amount by analyzing the receive power gain amounts and using the tuned transmit power gain amount when uploading data to the remote server using the mobile phone.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

identifying a currently available mobile phone in response to a request for transmitting to the remote server;

comparing a unique identifier for the currently available mobile phone to a table associating mobile phones with the tuned transmit power gain amounts;

setting a Bluetooth transceiver on the navigation device according to the comparison; and

uploading the data to the remote server through the currently available mobile phone after setting the Bluetooth transceiver.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the request is received over a user interface of the navigation device.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving a session initiation request from the remote server;

setting a bit in an acknowledgement message to cause a delay in initiating the session; and

sending the acknowledgement with the set bit.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the tuning transmissions are sent after or in conjunction with sending the acknowledgement and before a delayed session initiation.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising sending another plurality of tuning transmissions whenever requested by the remote server and changing transmission settings according to a most recent tuning.

13. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining a mode of operation of a vocoder of the mobile phone or a vocoder of the wireless telecommunications network;

generating an entry in a navigation device table to associate the tuned transmit power gain amount with the mobile phone; and

in the generated entry, recording the determined mode of operation such that the tuned transmit power gain amount is associated with the determined mode of operation.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating another entry in the navigation device table to associate the mobile phone with a different tuned transmit power gain amount; and

in the generated another entry, recording a different mode of operation.

15. A server having a processor readable medium encoded with instructions that, if executed, result in:

communicating with a remote navigation device, the communications passing through a wireless voice channel extending to a mobile phone and a Bluetooth connection extending between the mobile phone and a navigation device;

determining power gain amounts of a plurality of received audio signals originating from the navigation device;

transmitting a communication that identifies the receive power gain amounts and correlating each receive power gain amount with a transmission from the navigation device; and

receiving an upload from the navigation device, wherein a receive power gain amount of the received upload is tuned for In-Band Signaling (IBS) demodulation on the server.

16. The server of claim 15, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

identifying a newly received transmission having a receive power gain amount that is outside a threshold range of receive power gain; and

in response to the identification, causing the navigation device to transmit the plurality of audio signals at the different power gain amounts.

17. The server of claim 15, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

requesting a session with the navigation device;

analyzing an acknowledgement from the navigation device for a bit setting requesting a delayed initiation of the session; and

delaying session initiation for a predetermined time period associated with the power gain amount determination.

18. A system, comprising:

a navigation device configured to establish a Bluetooth connection with an available mobile phone;

the navigation device configured to compare a unique identifier for the available mobile phone to a table that maps unique identifiers to transmit power gain amounts;

if the comparison identifies an entry, the navigation device configured to upload data to a remote server through the available mobile phone at a transmit power gain amount indicated in the identified entry;

if the comparison does not identify an entry, the navigation device configured to transmit an audio signal at a plurality of different transmit power gain amounts and receive back a response from the remote server indicating receive power gain amounts for the transmissions; and

the navigation device to determine a transmit power gain amount according to the response and to generate an entry in the table to associate the determined transmit power gain amount with the unique identifier for the available mobile phone.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

the server configured to determine the receive power gain amounts according to an analysis of the audio signal transmissions; and

the server configured to generate and send a communication to be used by the navigation device to optimize subsequent transmissions with the available mobile phone.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

the navigation device configured to tune transmit power settings according to the determined transmit power gain amount; and

the server configured to trigger the navigation device to send a new plurality of audio signal transmissions used for re-tuning transmit power settings on the navigation device.