System and method for locating and accessing wireless resources

• US 8,019,282 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2009
• Issued: 09/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Lusher, Elaine, Blight, David
• Primary Examiner(s): PHU, SANH D
• Application Number:
  US12/581,038
• Publication Number:
  US 20100144272A1
• Time in Patent Office: 697 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2, 455/41.1, 455/456.1, 455/67.11, 455/432.1, 455/432.3, 701/211, 701/213, 701/208, 342/457, 342/450, 342/463, 342/464
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/27 for locating or positioning the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• 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 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A system and method are disclosed for locating resources available to portable electronic devices which are enabled for short range wireless communications. The system and method include creating and accessing a resource and access location history database accessible via the portable electronic device.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a wireless transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly with a database of geographic data for a plurality of entities stored on a remote site;

a display configured to display a map;

a user input device configured to receive a query from a user;

a processing circuit configured to query the database based on the query and a locality criteria, to receive geographic data for one or more of the plurality of entities meeting the query and the locality criteria, and to display the received geographic data on the map;

wherein a plurality of wireless local area network access points are detected using the wireless transceiver, address data from each of the plurality of detected access points via the wireless transceiver is received, and the current location of the mobile computing device is calculated using address data from each of the plurality of detected access points;

wherein the locality criteria comprises the current location of the mobile computing device as determined by the mobile computing device based on the address data obtained from each of the plurality of detected access points; and

wherein the query comprises a type characteristic of a point of interest.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the geographic data comprises data for stores, restaurants and hospitals.

3. The mobile computing device of Claim 2, wherein the query comprises a plurality of criteria.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 3, wherein at least one criteria is a type of food.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 4, wherein the geographic data for at least one of the entities meeting the criteria comprises store hours.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 5, further comprising a mobile telephony circuit.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 6, further comprising a housing configured to be carried in a hand during use.

8. A computing device, comprising:

a display;

a wireless transceiver configured to communicate with nearby wirelessly enabled computing devices;

a processing circuit configured to receive from each of the computing devices an address and information about the computing devices, to receive identifiers of data stored on the computing devices and to store the address and the information about the computing devices and the identifiers in a history database, and wherein information obtained from the history database is used to control the display to display an identifier of one of the computing devices and the identifiers of the data stored on the computing device; and

a user input device configured to receive a user selection of data stored by the computing device.

9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the user-selected data comprises a video file.

10. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the user-selected data comprises an audio file.

11. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to communicate with the networked computing devices using an IEEE 802.11 protocol.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein the computing device is a portable, handheld computing device.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the user input device comprises a touch screen, wherein the processing circuit is configured to operate a calendar application, a phone application, and an e-mail application, wherein the display is configured to provide a plurality of input icons for performing preprogrammed functions.

14. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the wireless transceiver is configured to communicate with a printer.

15. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the information about the computing devices comprises a description of the computing devices.

16. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the computing device is configured to use a service discovery protocol to discover the networked computing devices.

17. The computing device of claim 8, further comprising a mobile telephony circuit.

18. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising a housing configured to be carried in a hand during use.

19. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the address is an IP address.