MOBILE PHONE AS A HANDHELD RADIO TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER OVER NON-CELLULAR RADIO FREQUENCY CHANNELS

• US 20160142895A1
• Filed: 11/19/2015
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Callyo 2009 Corp. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: World Emergency Network-Nevada Limited
• Inventors: Bennett, Christopher Ryan
• Granted Patent: US 9,813,884 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections
• 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

A system enables a device such as a mobile phone to operate as a transmitter and receiver over non-cellular radio frequencies such as very-high frequency (VHF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) not natively compatible with the mobile phone. The system includes a radio appliance coupled to a radio that receives and transmits information over non-cellular radio frequencies. The radio appliance provides an interface between the radio and a web appliance accessible on a network such as the internet. The radio appliance receives information in broadcast from the radio and transmits the information to the web appliance over the network. The web appliance provides mobile devices access to the information received from the radio appliance, such as audio that was broadcast, over the network. Additionally, the web appliance may receive information from the mobile phone for transmission to the radio appliance and subsequent broadcast by the radio.

Claims

1. A system for enabling a mobile phone to transmit and receive on non-cellular radio frequency channels, the system comprising:

a radio appliance, the radio appliance comprising;

a first connection to a radio, the first connection configured to receive information from the radio included in a broadcast over a non-cellular radio frequency; and

a second connection to a server, the second connection configured to transmit the information received from the radio to the server over a network; and

a server comprising one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program code, the computer program code when executed performing operations to;

receive the information from the radio appliance over the second connection;

catalog the information received from the radio appliance;

receive a request for the information from a mobile device over the network; and

transmit the information to the mobile device over the network.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information received from the radio included in the broadcast over the non-cellular radio frequency includes audio.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second connection to the server is a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) connection.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the server catalogs the information received from the radio appliance according to a channel of the non-cellular frequency which the information was broadcast.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the server catalogs a network address of the radio appliance on the network received in the information, the computer program code when executed performing further operations to:

receive second information for broadcast over the non-cellular radio frequency from the mobile device; and

transmit the second information over the network to the radio appliance.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein in response to receiving the second information, the server identifies a network address of the radio appliance based on its associated with the radio for broadcasting over the non-cellular radio frequency.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the second information includes audio and a channel associated with the non-cellular radio frequency.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the second information includes a location of the mobile device, the computer program code when executed performing further operations to:

authorize transmission of the second information over the network to the radio appliance in response to determining the location of the mobile device is within an authorized transmitting area.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the second connection of the radio appliance to the server is further configured to receive the second information, the radio appliance further comprising:

a signal generator, the signal generator configured to generate a signal in response to receiving the second information.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first connection to the radio is further configured to provide the signal and the received second information to the radio for broadcast over the non-cellular radio frequency.

11. A system for enabling a mobile phone to transmit and receive on non-cellular radio frequency channels, the system comprising:

a server comprising one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer program code, the computer program code when executed performing operations to;

receive information for broadcast over a non-cellular radio frequency channel from a mobile device;

identify a radio appliance associated with a radio for broadcasting over the non-cellular radio frequency channel; and

transmit the information over a network to the radio appliance; and

a radio appliance, the radio appliance comprising;

a first connection to the server, the first connection configured to receive, over the network, the information for broadcast over the non-cellular radio frequency channel;

a signal generator, the signal generator configured to generate a signal in response to receiving the information; and

a second connection to the radio, the second connection configured to provide the signal and the received information to the radio for broadcast over the non-cellular radio frequency channel.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the received information for broadcast includes audio.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the first connection to the server is a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) connection.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the received information for broadcast includes location information, the received information indicating a radio function for broadcasting the location.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the received information for broadcast is included in a message transmitted over a short message service by the mobile device.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein identifying the radio appliance comprises identifying a network address of the radio appliance associated with the radio for broadcasting over the non-cellular radio frequency channel.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the information includes a location of the mobile device, the computer program code when executed performing further operations to:

authorize transmission of the information over the network to the radio appliance in response to determining the location of the mobile device is within an authorized transmitting area for the non-cellular radio frequency channel.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the second connection of the radio appliance to the radio is configured to receive second information from the radio included in a broadcast over the non-cellular radio frequency channel, and the first connection of the radio appliance to the server is configured to transmit the second information received from the radio to the server over the network.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the server further comprises computer program code that when executed performs operations to:

receive the second information from the radio appliance;

catalog the second information received from the radio appliance;

receive a request for the second information from the mobile device over the network; and

transmit the second information to the mobile device over the network.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the server catalogs a network address of the radio appliance on the network received in the second information.