Service discovery with beacons using bluetooth low energy signal

• US 9,900,745 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2016
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Bjorkengren, Ulf
• Primary Examiner(s): Aminzay, Shaima Q
• Application Number:
  US15/227,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20170094466A1
• Time in Patent Office: 566 Days
• Field of Search: 455500, 4554042, 4554561, 340 101
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

Embodiments of techniques, apparatuses, systems and computer-readable media for consuming services for a user equipment (UE) apparatus are disclosed. In some embodiments, a first signal at a second signal are received respectively from a first and a second beacon apparatus, the signals indicating a service associated with the respective beacon apparatuses, and a list of neighboring services proximately disposed to the respective beacon apparatuses, a list is generated and displayed at the UE apparatus in accordance with ranking criterion of the lists and the first and second signal strengths of the first and second signals received at the UE. Other embodiments may be disclosed and/or claimed.

Claims

1. A smartphone, comprising:

receive circuitry to respectively receive a first Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon signal and a second BLE beacon signal from a first beacon apparatus and a second beacon apparatus, wherein the first BLE beacon signal includes a first service being advertised by the first beacon apparatus for a first service provider, including information about the first service provider and a description of the first service and wherein the second BLE beacon signal includes a second service being advertised by the second beacon apparatus for a second service provider, including information about the second service provider and a description of the second service; and

a controller to generate and display a selectable list of services for a user of the smartphone, wherein the selectable list of services include the first and second services.

2. The smartphone of claim 1, wherein the first or the second service includes a selected one of clothing, electronics or appliances.

3. The smartphone of claim 1, wherein a receive logic is to further receive a third BLE beacon signal from a third beacon apparatus, wherein the third BLE beacon signal includes a third service being advertised by the third beacon apparatus for a third service provider, including information about the third service provider and a description of the third service.

4. The smartphone of claim 3, wherein a control logic is to further include with the selectable list of services the third service.

5. The smartphone of claim 1, wherein a control logic is further to cause information about a selected one of the selectable list of services to be provided to the smartphone.

6. The smartphone of claim 1, wherein either the first or the second BLE beacon signal is associated with a uniform resource locator, URL.

7. The smartphone of claim 1, wherein the first BLE beacon signal further includes a first plurality of neighboring services provided by a first plurality of neighboring service providers proximately located from the first service provider, ordered in accordance with a first ranking criterion, and wherein the second BLE beacon signal further includes a second plurality of neighboring services provided by a second plurality of service providers proximately located from the second service provider, ordered in accordance with a second ranking criterion;

and

wherein the selectable list of services is to further include the first and second plurality of neighboring services ordered in accordance with the first and second ranking criteria, and respective first and second signal strengths of the first and second BLE beacon signals.

8. The smartphone of claim 7, wherein the first ranking criterion is based on distances between respective locations of the first plurality of neighboring service providers and a location of the first service provider associated with the first beacon apparatus.

9. The smartphone of claim 7, wherein the first and the second ranking criteria are the same.

10. A method for discovering services by a smartphone, the method comprising:

respectively receiving, by the smartphone, a first Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon signal and a second BLE beacon signal from a first beacon apparatus and a second beacon apparatus when the smartphone is proximately located to the first and second beacon apparatuses for the first and second BLE beacon signals to reach the smartphone, the first BLE beacon signal including a first service being advertised by the first beacon apparatus for a first service provider, and the second BLE beacon signal including a second service being advertised by the second beacon apparatus for a second service provider;

generating and displaying, by the smartphone, a selectable list of services for discovering by a user of the smartphone, the selectable list of services including the first and second services.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first or the second service includes a selected one of clothing, electronics or appliances.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving, by the smartphone, a third BLE beacon signal from a third beacon apparatus when the smartphone is proximately located to the third beacon apparatus for the third BLE beacon signal to reach the smartphone, wherein the third BLE beacon signal includes a third service being advertised by the third beacon apparatus for a third service provider.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising including, by the smartphone, with the selectable list of services the third service.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the first and second services include a uniform resource locator, URL.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one of the first and second services include unique search strings appended to the URL.

16. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions that cause a smartphone, in response to execution of the instructions by the smartphone, to:

respectively receive, by the smartphone, a first Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon signal and a second BLE beacon signal from a first beacon apparatus and a second beacon apparatus when the smartphone is proximately located to the first and second beacon apparatus for the first and second BLE beacon signals to reach the smartphone, the first BLE beacon signal to include a first service advertised by the first beacon apparatus for a first service provider, and the second BLE beacon signal to include a second service advertised by the second beacon apparatus for a second service provider;

generate and display, by the smartphone, a selectable list of services for discovering by a user of the smartphone, the selectable list of services including the first and second services.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein the first or the second service includes a selected one of clothing, electronics or appliances.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16, further comprising receiving, by the smartphone, a third BLE beacon signal from a third beacon apparatus, wherein the third BLE beacon signal includes a third service advertised by the third beacon apparatus for a third service provider.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 16, wherein at least one of the first and second BLE beacon signals comprises a URL.