Apparatus for managing a plurality of devices in a portable communication system

• US 10,825,328 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2017
• Issued: 11/03/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Wingfield, William J., Faraone, Antonio
• Primary Examiner(s): Yang, Jianxun
• Application Number:
  US15/640,919
• Publication Number:
  US 20190005803A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,219 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A41D 1/005 with embedded cable or connector
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/385 Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/3855 carried in a belt or harness
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/28 using the near field of leaky cables, e.g. of leaky coaxial cables
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer
• 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

Abstract

A communication system (100) provides a body wearable garment (102) having a single transmission line (104) for interfacing a main control device (110) to a variety of supplemental devices (108). The single transmission line (104) provides a series of couplers (106) integrated along the line to wirelessly couple the plurality of supplemental devices (108) with the main control device (110). The plurality of supplemental devices (108) are insertable and removable to pouches (114) within the garment, the pouches providing alignment of each supplemental device with a corresponding coupler of the single transmission line (104). Near field wireless power transfer coupling and/or RF signaling are provided. A wide variety of devices can be optimally located along the single transmission line (104) within the garment allowing for considerable improvement of in hands-free portability.

Claims

1. A portable communication system, comprising:

a body wearable garment;

a main control device having a controller and transceiver powered by a battery;

a single transmission line integrated within the body wearable garment;

a plurality of supplemental devices wirelessly coupled to the single transmission line when worn on the body wearable garment;

a plurality of couplers providing wireless coupling to the plurality of supplemental devices;

an impedance loading and phase shift network integrated within the single transmission line; and

wherein the single transmission line has first and second ends, the first end operatively coupling to the main control device, and the second end providing a termination to the impedance loading and phase shift network integrated within the single transmission line, wherein the impedance loading and phase shift network further operatively couples back to the main control device so as to form a loop.

2. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein the main control device comprises a battery powered radio communication device;

and the plurality of supplemental devices coupled to the single transmission line comprises a plurality of personal area network (PAN) devices wirelessly coupled to the single transmission line.

3. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of supplemental devices is chargeable by the battery of the main control device.

4. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein the single transmission line provides both a communication path and a charging path to at least one of the plurality of supplemental devices.

5. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein the single transmission line comprises a coaxial cable.

6. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein the single transmission line comprises a twisted pair.

7. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein the single transmission line comprises an Ethernet cable.

8. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein the single transmission line comprises a plurality of couplers providing wireless coupling to the plurality of supplemental devices.

9. The portable communication system of claim 8, wherein the plurality of couplers provide one or more of:

capacitive coupling, inductive coupling, and galvanic coupling to one or more of the plurality of supplemental devices.

10. The portable communication system of claim 9, wherein the single transmission line provides a radio frequency (RF) transmission line to functionally interconnect the couplers to the plurality of supplemental devices thereby increasing RF communication link margins between the plurality of supplemental devices, thereby extending battery life of each of the plurality of supplemental devices.

11. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein reactive RF energy is built up along predetermined sections of the single transmission line for affecting predetermined behaviors of the plurality of supplemental devices.

12. The portable communication system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of near field antennas coupled to the single transmission line;

a plurality of wireless power transfer (WPT) antennas coupled to one or more of the plurality of supplemental devices; and

the plurality of near field antennas of the single transmission line providing respective near field coupling to the plurality of WPT antennas of the one or more of the plurality of supplemental devices.

13. The portable communication system of claim 1, wherein the main control device comprises a portable land mobile radio (LMR) radio with long term evolution (LTE) modem;

and

the plurality of supplemental devices comprise two or more of;

a remote speaker microphone, an external display, a global positioning system (GPSO device, a camera, a biometric sensor.

14. The portable communication system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of shielded pouches integrated within the body wearable garment for receiving each of the plurality of supplemental devices, wherein near field coupling wireless power transfer (WPT) and near field radio frequency (RF) signal coupling occur inside the plurality of shielded pouches between each of the plurality of supplemental devices and the single transmission line; and

an opening in one or more of the shielded pouches for accommodating a RF antenna of at least one of the plurality of supplemental devices to accommodate the RF signal coupling.

15. The portable communication system of claim 14, wherein the near field RF signal coupling occurs via one or more of Bluetooth coupling and Wi-Fi coupling.

16. The portable communication device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of supplemental devices are wireless-chargeable battery-operated portable devices.

17. The portable communication device of claim 1, wherein selective increasing and depressing of the wireless coupling between the plurality of couplers and the supplemental devices enables charging of those supplemental devices having the most need at any given time.

18. The portable communication device of claim 1, wherein a voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR) along the single transmission line is further manipulatable by predetermined supplemental devices of the plurality of supplemental devices that introduce impedance discontinuities at predetermined locations along single transmission line.

19. The portable communication device of claim 1, wherein the impedance loading and phase shift network provide a manipulatable standing wave pattern for selectively controlling the wireless coupling between the plurality of couplers and the supplemental devices.

20. The portable communication device of claim 1, wherein the impedance loading and phase shift network adjust impedance load (magnitude and phase) presented to the single transmission line;

and

the impedance loading and phase shift network providing a manipulatable standing wave pattern for selective electromagnetic coupling and predetermined voltage and current distributions along the single transmission line for selectively shifting, increasing and depressing the wireless coupling between the plurality of couplers and the supplemental devices.