Apparatus and method for selecting geographical area information at a weather band, or other, radio device

• US 9,054,817 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2005
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Global Franchising Corp., Radioshack Online IPCO LLC
• Original Assignee: RadioShack Legacy Corporation
• Inventors: Carey, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Prez-Gutirrez, Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): SCHWARTZ, JOSHUA L
• Application Number:
  US11/302,725
• Publication Number:
  US 20070135108A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,464 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.3, 455/414.2, 455/456.2, 455/414.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/71 using meteorological information

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method, for a weather band radio that annunciates anomaly conditions. The radio has a set-up mode permitting a user to enter a home geographical area and also associated areas within a selected proximity to the home geographical area. When a National Weather Service SAME message is received at the radio that identifies the home geographical area or any of the associated geographical areas, the radio generates an alert.

Claims

1. Apparatus for a radio device operable to receive a signal selectably having a component that identifies weather anomalies and geographical areas associated with the weather anomalies, said apparatus comprising:

a home area selection acceptor configured to accept selection of a home geographical area to be associated with the radio device;

an associated area identifier configured to receive an indication of the home geographical area whose selection is accepted by said home area selection acceptor and to thereafter automatically identify possible associated areas in proximity to the selected home geographical area according to a selected proximity criterion;

an associated-area selection acceptor adapted to receive an indication of the home geographical area whose selection is accepted by said home-area selection acceptor, and adapted to receive an indication of possible associated areas identified by said associated area identifier, said associated area selection acceptor configured to accept selection of at least a first possible associated area, each selected possible associated area and the home geographical area forming a region of interest, the signal received by the radio device monitored for a weather anomaly within the region of interest.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the selected proximity criteria used by said associated area identifier comprises an adjacency indicia, possible associated areas identified by said associated area identifier adjacent to the home geographical area.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the selected proximity criteria is selectable by a user of the radio device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an annunciator configured to annunciate when the receiver receives the signal having the component that identifies the weather anomaly within the region of interest.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the signal that the radio device is operable to receive is broadcast by a weather alerting authority and comprises a Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) message, wherein the component thereof comprises a Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) formatted sequence and wherein the home geographical area and the at least the first associated area geographical area are selectably identified in the FIPS formatted sequence.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a user actuator actuatable by a user of the radio device, selected actuation of said user actuator by the user of the radio device identifying the selection of the home geographical area that is accepted by said home area selection acceptor.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein additional selected actuation of said user actuator by the user identifies the selection of the selected possible associated area.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a user display configured to display indicia identifying geographical areas available for selection as the home geographical area.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said user display is further configured to display indicia identifying the at least the first possible associated area available for selection as associated area.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the selected proximity criteria used by said associated area identifier comprises a range indicia, geographical areas identified by said associated area identifier within a selected range of the home geographical area.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said associated area identifier comprises a calculator configured to calculate a range value of each geographical area relative to the home geographical area, a geographical area having a range value within the selected range forming an associated area geographical area.

12. A method for facilitating operation of a radio device that operates to receive a signal selectably having a component that identifies weather anomalies and geographical areas associated with the weather anomalies, said method comprising the operations of:

accepting selection of a home geographical area to be associated with the radio device;

automatically identifying possible associated areas in proximity to the home geographical area selected during said accepting selection of a home geographical area, the possible associated areas being identified according to a proximity criterion;

accepting selection of at least a first possible associated area, each selected possible associated area and the home geographical area forming a region of interest; and

annunciating reception at the radio device of the signal when the signal identifies a weather anomaly within the region of interest.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising, prior to said accepting selection of the home geographical area, of selecting the home geographical area.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising, prior to said selecting the home geographical area, of displaying on a user display geographical areas available to comprise the home geographical area, and wherein the home geographical area selected during said selecting is selected from the geographical areas displayed on the user display.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said selecting comprises actuating a user actuator to select the home geographical area selected from the geographical areas displayed on the user display displayed during said displaying.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising, prior to said accepting selection of the at least the first possible associated area, of selecting the at least the first associated area.

17. A method for facilitating operation of a radio device that operates to receive a signal selectably having a component that identifies an anomaly and having a geographic identifier of a first geographic area, said method comprising the operations of:

accepting selection of a home geographical area to be associated with the radio device;

automatically identifying possible associated areas in proximity to the home geographical area selected in the operation of accepting selection of a home geographical area, the possible associated areas being identified according to a proximity criterion;

selecting the at least the first associated area geographical area by at least selecting a first-stage set of geographical areas eligible to form the first associated area geographical area, and selecting a subset of the first-stage set, the subset forming the at least the first associated area geographical area;

accepting selection of at least a first associated area geographical area associated with the home area; and

annunciating reception at the radio device of the signal when the signal contains the geographical identifier of the first geographical area in which the first geographical area identifies at least one of the home geographical area and the at least first associated area geographical area.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said selecting the first-stage set is performed automatically and wherein said selecting the subset is user performed.

19. User interface apparatus for a weatherband radio operable to receive an alert signal selectably having a component that identifies weather anomalies and geographical areas as associated with the weather anomalies, said user interface apparatus comprising:

a user-actuated home geographical area selector configured to select, responsive to user actuation, a home geographical area;

an associated area selector adapted to receive an indication of the home geographical area, said associated area selector configured to automatically select at least one possible associated area associated with the home geographical area according to a selected proximity criterion, each selected possible associated area and the home geographical area forming a region of interest; and

an annuciator for detecting reception at the radio device of the signal when the signal identifies a weather anomaly within the region of interest.

20. Apparatus for a radio device operable to receive a signal selectably having a component that identifies weather anomalies and geographical areas associated with the weather anomalies, said apparatus comprising:

a display configured to display indicia identifying geographical areas available for selection;

a home area selection acceptor actuatable by a user of the radio device, actuation of said user actuator by the user of the radio device identifying the selection of a home geographical area from geographical areas displayed on said display, said actuation accepted by said home area selection acceptor as the home geographical area to be associated with the radio device;

an associated area identifier configured to receive an indication of the home geographical area whose selection is accepted by said home area selection acceptor and to thereafter automatically identify on said display possible associated areas in proximity to the selected home geographical area according to a selected proximity criterion;

an associated-area selection acceptor actuatable by a user of the radio device, actuation of said associated-area selection acceptor by the user identifying a selection of a selected possible associated area displayed on said display as said associated area identifier, said selected possible associated area and the home geographical area forming a region of interest, the signal received by the radio device monitored for a weather anomaly within the region of interest.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the selected proximity criterion used by said associated area identifier comprises an adjacency indicia, possible associated areas identified by said associated area identifier adjacent to the home geographical area.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the selected proximity criterion used by said associated area identifier comprises a range indicia, geographical areas identified by said associated area identifier within a selected range of the home geographical area.

23. Apparatus for a radio device operable to receive a signal selectably having a component that identifies weather anomalies and geographical areas associated with the weather anomalies, said apparatus comprising:

a display configured to display indicia identifying geographical areas;

a home area selection acceptor configured to accept selection of a home geographical area to be associated with the radio device;

an associated area identifier configured to receive an indication of the home geographical area whose selection is accepted by said home area selection acceptor and to thereafter automatically identify and display on said display possible associated areas in proximity to the selected home geographical area according to one of possible associated areas identified by said associated area identifier adjacent to the home geographical area and geographical areas identified by said associated area identifier within a selected range of the home geographical area;

an associated-area selection acceptor adapted to receive an indication of the home geographical area whose selection is accepted by said home-area selection acceptor, and adapted to receive an indication of possible associated areas identified by said associated area identifier, said associated area selection acceptor configured to accept selection of at least a first possible associated area, each selected possible associated area and the home geographical area forming a region of interest, the signal received by the radio device monitored for a weather anomaly within the region of interest.

24. The apparatus of claim 23 further comprising a user actuator actuatable by a user of the radio device, selected actuation of said user actuator by the user of the radio device identifying the selection of the home geographical area that is accepted by said home area selection acceptor.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein additional selected actuation of said user actuator by the user identifies the selection of the selected possible associated area.