Location-based broadcast messaging for radioterminal users

• US 8,594,704 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATC Technology Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: ATC Technology Corporation (FedEx Corporation)
• Inventors: Karabinis, Peter D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Edouard, Patrick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huynh, Chuck
• Application Number:
  US11/291,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20060135058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,917 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/457, 455/412.2, 455/414.2
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18513 Transmission in a satellite or space-based system
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18523 Satellite systems for providing broadcast service to terrestrial stations, i.e. broadcast satellite service arrangements specially adapted for satellite broadcast receiving H04H40/90; picture transmission via satellite H04N1/00103; television transmission via satellite H04N7/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18563 Arrangements for interconnecting multiple systems data switching networks H04L12/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/72 of terrestrial networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/70 characterised in that receivers can be addressed
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/27 specially adapted for broadcast systems covered by groups H04H20/53 - H04H20/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Methods, radioterminals, and broadcast message generation consoles provide location-based broadcast messaging for users. A method of operating a radioterminal can include receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that includes region information that defines a geographic region of applicability. A determination is made at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability. A functional mode of the radioterminal is activated in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability. The functional mode may include activating a user interface of the radioterminal.

Claims

1. A method of operating a radioterminal, the method comprising:

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability;

determining by the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability;

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability; and

generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability,

wherein generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability comprises displaying first payload information defined by the broadcast message on a display device of the radioterminal; and

wherein generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability comprises displaying second payload information defined by the broadcast message, which is different than the first payload information, on the display device of the radioterminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability further comprises generating a vibration having first characteristics to alert a user of the radioterminal; and

generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability further comprises generating a vibration having second characteristics, which are different from the first characteristics, to alert a user of the radioterminal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability comprises:

determining a geographic location of the radioterminal responsive to received global positioning system signals; and

comparing the determined geographic location of the radioterminal to the region of applicability defined by the broadcast message.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein comparing the determined geographic location of the radioterminal to the region of applicability defined by the broadcast message comprises determining whether the geographic location of the radioterminal is within a geographic boundary defined by the region of applicability.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein comparing the determined geographic location of the radioterminal to the region of applicability defined by the broadcast message comprises determining whether the geographic location of the radioterminal is within a defined radius of a geographic location defined by the region of applicability.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability comprises:

determining a geographic location of the radioterminal based on range estimates derived from cellular communication signals received from and/or transmitted to a plurality of cellular base stations having known geographic locations; and

determining at the radioterminal whether the determined geographic location of the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability comprises:

determining a geographic location of the radioterminal based on range estimates derived from digital television signals received at the radioterminal from a plurality of digital television base station transceivers having known geographic locations; and

determining at the radioterminal whether the determined geographic location of the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the broadcast message received at the radioterminal further comprises a group address that defines a group of radioterminals for which the broadcast message is applicable;

determining at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability further comprises determining at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is a member of the group of radioterminals defined by the group address for which the broadcast message is applicable; and

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user comprises generating the first message from the radioterminal in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability and is a member of the group of radioterminals for which the broadcast message is applicable.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message comprises:

partially decoding the broadcast message to obtain the region of applicability; and

further decoding the broadcast message to obtain payload information defined by the broadcast message responsive to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the received broadcast message comprises a header portion that defines the region of applicability and a payload portion that comprises the payload information;

partially decoding the broadcast message comprises decoding the header portion of the broadcast message to obtain the region of applicability; and

further decoding the broadcast message comprises decoding the payload portion to obtain the payload information in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message comprises:

receiving a continuous broadcast message data stream that comprises region information that defines the region of applicability and which is encoded at multiple locations within the broadcast message data stream, and the broadcast message further comprises payload information between the region information;

decoding the region information received in the broadcast message data stream to obtain the region of applicability; and

conditionally decoding payload information received after the received region information in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability obtained from the decoded region information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the region information repeated within the received broadcast message data stream defines different geographic regions of applicability over time; and

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message further comprises ceasing decoding of the payload information in response to the radioterminal not being within a last obtained region of applicability.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the region information repeated within the received broadcast message data stream defines different geographic regions of applicability over time, and further comprising:

ceasing generation of the first message and initiating generation of the second message in response to the radioterminal not being within a last obtained region of applicability.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising selectively storing at least a portion of the received broadcast message in a non-volatile memory within the radioterminal responsive to the determination of whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability.

15. A method of operating a radioterminal, the method comprising:

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability;

determining by the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability;

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability; and

generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability,

wherein generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability comprises generating a first audible announcement by the radioterminal; and

wherein generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability comprises generating a second audible announcement by the radioterminal which is different from the first audible announcement.

16. A method of operating a radioterminal, the method comprising:

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability;

determining by the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability;

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability; and

generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability,

wherein;

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message comprises obtaining region information from the broadcast message that defines a plurality of different geographic regions of applicability,

determining at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability comprises determining whether the radioterminal is within one of the plurality of different geographic regions of applicability, and

further comprising generating different ones of a plurality of different messages from the radioterminal to a user in response to the radioterminal being determined to be in different corresponding ones of the plurality of different geographic regions of applicability, by

displaying on a display device of the radioterminal different message content that is contained in the received broadcast message in response to the radioterminal being determined to be in different ones of the plurality of different geographic regions of applicability.

17. A method of operating a radioterminal, the method comprising:

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability;

determining by the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability;

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability; and

generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability,

wherein;

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message comprises obtaining region information from the broadcast message that defines a plurality of different geographic regions of applicability,

determining at the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability comprises determining whether the radioterminal is within one of the plurality of different geographic regions of applicability, and

further comprising generating different ones of a plurality of different messages from the radioterminal to a user in response to the radioterminal being determined to be in different corresponding ones of the plurality of different geographic regions of applicability, by

generating different audible announcements by the radioterminal that is contained in the received broadcast message in response to the radioterminal being determined to be in different ones of the plurality of different geographic regions of applicability.

18. A method of operating a radioterminal, the method comprising:

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability and further comprises payload information;

determining by the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability;

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability;

generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability;

displaying the payload information on a display device of the radioterminal in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability;

storing at least a portion of the payload information and associated region of applicability in a non-volatile memory within the radioterminal and not displaying the payload information in response to the radioterminal being outside the region of applicability;

retrieving the stored payload information from the non-volatile memory in response to the radioterminal becoming within the region of applicability; and

displaying the retrieved payload information on the display device.

19. A method of operating a radioterminal, the method comprising:

receiving at the radioterminal over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability and further comprises payload information;

determining by the radioterminal whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability;

generating a first message from the radioterminal to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability;

generating a second message, which is different from the first message, from the radioterminal to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability;

generating an audible announcement from the radioterminal based on the payload information and in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability;

storing at least a portion of the payload information and associated region of applicability in a non-volatile memory within the radioterminal and not generating an audible announcement based on the payload information in response to the radioterminal being outside the region of applicability;

retrieving the stored payload information from the non-volatile memory in response to the radioterminal becoming within the region of applicability; and

generating an audible announcement from the radioterminal based on the retrieved payload information.

20. A radioterminal comprising:

a user interface that is configured to communicate information to a user of the radioterminal;

a wireless transceiver that is configured to receive over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability;

a location determination unit that is configured to determine a geographic location of the radioterminal; and

a controller that is configured to determine whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability based on the region information from the broadcast message and the determined location of the radioterminal, and to generate a first message to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability, and to generate a second message, which is different from the first message, to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability,

wherein the user interface comprises a display device, and the controller is further configured to display first payload information defined by the broadcast message on the display device in response to determining that the radioterminal is in the region of applicability, and to display second payload information defined by the broadcast message, which is different than the first payload information, on the display device in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability.

21. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein the user interface comprises a speaker, and the controller is further configured to generate a first audible announcement through the speaker based on the broadcast message and in response to determining that the radioterminal is in the region of applicability, and to generate a second audible announcement, which is different from the first audible announcement, through the speaker based on the broadcast message and in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability.

22. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein the user interface comprises a vibration device, and the controller is further configured to generate a vibration having first characteristics through the vibration device to alert a user of the radioterminal in response to determining that the radioterminal is in the region of applicability, and to generate a vibration having second characteristics, which are different than the first characteristics, through the vibration device in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability.

23. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein:

the broadcast message received by the wireless transceiver comprises region information that defines a plurality of different geographic regions of applicability; and

the controller is further configured to generate different ones of a plurality of different messages from the radioterminal to a user in response to the radioterminal being determined to be in different corresponding ones of the plurality of different geographic regions of applicability.

24. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein:

the controller is further configured to determine whether the determined geographic location of the radioterminal is within a geographic boundary defined by the region of applicability.

25. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein:

the controller is further configured to determine whether the determined geographic location of the radioterminal is within a defined radius of a geographic location defined by the region of applicability.

26. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein:

the location determination unit comprises a global positioning system (GPS) receiver that is configured to determine the geographic location of the radioterminal responsive to GPS signals received by the GPS receiver; and

the controller is further configured to compare the determined geographic location of the radioterminal to the region of applicability defined by the broadcast message.

27. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein:

the wireless transceiver comprises a cellular transceiver that is configured to communicate with cellular base station transceivers;

the location determination unit is configured to determine the geographic location of the radioterminal based on range estimates derived from cellular communication signals received from and/or transmitted to a plurality of cellular base stations having known geographic locations; and

the controller is further configured to determine whether the determined geographic location of the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability.

28. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein:

the wireless transceiver comprises a digital television transceiver that is configured to receive digital television signals from digital television base station transceivers;

the location determination unit is configured to determine the geographic location of the radioterminal based on range estimates derived from digital television signals received from a plurality of the digital television base station transceivers having known geographic locations; and

the controller is further configured to determine whether the determined geographic location of the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability.

29. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein the received broadcast message further comprises a group address that defines a group of radioterminals for which the broadcast message is applicable, and the controller is further configured to determine whether the radioterminal is a member of the group of radioterminals defined by the group address for which the broadcast message is applicable and to generate the first message in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability and is a member of the group of radioterminals for which the broadcast message is applicable.

30. The radioterminal of claim 20, wherein the wireless transceiver is further configured to partially decode the broadcast message to obtain the region of applicability, and to conditionally further decode the broadcast message to obtain payload information defined by the broadcast message responsive to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability.

31. The radioterminal of claim 30, wherein the received broadcast message comprises a header portion that defines the region of applicability and a payload portion that comprises the payload information, and the wireless transceiver is further configured to partially decode the header portion of the broadcast message to obtain the region of applicability and to conditionally further decode the payload portion to obtain the payload information in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability.

32. A radioterminal comprising:

a user interface that is configured to communicate information to a user of the radioterminal;

a wireless transceiver that is configured to receive over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability;

a location determination unit that is configured to determine a geographic location of the radioterminal;

a controller that is configured to determine whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability based on the region information from the broadcast message and the determined location of the radioterminal, and to generate a first message to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability, and to generate a second message, which is different from the first message, to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability; and

a non-volatile memory, the controller is further configured to conditionally store at least a portion of the received broadcast message in the non-volatile memory responsive to the determination of whether the radioterminal is located within the region of applicability;

a display device,

wherein;

the received broadcast message further comprises payload information;

the controller is further configured to display the payload information on the display device in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability, and to store at least a portion of the payload information and associated region of applicability in the non-volatile memory without displaying the payload information in response to the radioterminal being outside the region of applicability; and

the controller is further configured to retrieve the stored payload information from the non-volatile memory in response to the radioterminal becoming within the region of applicability, and to display the retrieved payload information on the display device.

33. A radioterminal comprising:

a user interface that is configured to communicate information to a user of the radioterminal;

a wireless transceiver that is configured to receive over a wireless air interface a broadcast message that comprises region information that defines a geographic region of applicability;

a location determination unit that is configured to determine a geographic location of the radioterminal;

a controller that is configured to determine whether the radioterminal is located in the region of applicability based on the region information from the broadcast message and the determined location of the radioterminal, and to generate a first message to a user in response to determining that the radioterminal is within the region of applicability, and to generate a second message, which is different from the first message, to the user in response to determining that the radioterminal is outside the region of applicability;

a speaker,

wherein;

the received broadcast message further comprises payload information;

the controller is further configured to generate an audible announcement through the speaker based on the payload information and in response to the radioterminal being in the region of applicability, and to store at least a portion of the payload information and associated region of applicability in the non-volatile memory without generating the audible announcement in response to the radioterminal being outside the region of applicability; and

the controller is further configured to retrieve the stored payload information from the non-volatile memory in response to the radioterminal becoming within the region of applicability and to generate the audible announcement through the speaker based on the retrieved payload information.