Patent ID: 9736622
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: H04W

Claim:
1. A near-field wireless communication system operable to connect a master terminal to each of at least two slave terminals to allow mutual communications through near-field wireless communication, wherein the master terminal comprises a communication controller for identifying a slave terminal from among the at least two slave terminals to reconnect with after an inter-terminal connection is disrupted; wherein the communication controller comprises a first table and a second table; wherein the first table is configured to place a first connection priority on each of the at least two slave terminals according to a connection order in a direction backward in time, while placing a highest first connection priority on a most recently connected slave terminal, among said at least two slave terminals, that was connected to said master terminal most recently before the inter-terminal connection was disrupted; wherein the second table is configured to place a second connection priority of a first priority rank on a device function to be reconnected with the highest priority, among device functions of the at least two slave terminals, and to place a second connection priority being of a lower priority rank than the first priority rank and being numbered in priority order on each of the other device functions; and wherein the communication controller is configured to perform steps (i)-(viii) to select a communication destination, after the inter-terminal connection was disrupted: (i) a first step of identifying one slave terminal with the first connection priority ranked highest, among the at least two slave terminals, by referring to the first table; (ii) a second step of identifying the device function of the identified one slave terminal in the first step by referring to the second table after the first step; (iii) a third step of automatically reconnecting to the identified one slave terminal as the communication destination when the second connection priority of the first priority rank is placed on the identified device function in the second step by referring to the second table; (iv) a fourth step of forwarding the connection order when the second connection priority of the first priority rank is not placed on the identified device function in the second step by referring to the second table; (v) a fifth step of identifying another slave terminal, among the at least two slave terminals, corresponding to the forwarded connection order by referring to the first table after the fourth step; (vi) a sixth step of identifying the device function of the identified another slave terminal in the fifth step by referring to the second table after the fifth step; (vii) a seventh step of automatically reconnecting to the another slave terminal as the communication destination when the device function of the identified another slave terminal in the sixth step is the second connection priority of the first priority rank in the second table by referring to the second table; and (viii) an eighth step of repeatedly performing the fourth through seventh steps while forwarding the connection order until a slave terminal to be reconnected is identified when the device function of the identified another slave terminal in the sixth step is not the second connection priority of the first priority rank in the second table by referring to the second table.