Abstract:
An apparatus for wirelessly connecting a smartphone to a remote FM radio system, for controlling playback of audio content delivered wirelessly to the smartphone via a wide area network, on the remote FM radio system. An apparatus housing receives a DC power signal from a remote DC power source. A control panel has a display and controls for controlling playback of the audio content on the remote FM radio system, at least one of the controls performing a function in common with a playback control appearing on a display of the smartphone. An electronic subsystem communicates with the control panel and wirelessly receives audio content from the smartphone, and communicates the audio content as an FM signal via a user playback command input at the controls of the control panel, to the remote FM radio system.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/476,101, filed on Apr. 15, 2011. The entire disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to Internet radio systems, and more particularly to a system and method for enabling command and control of Internet radio applications, including reacting to ads and/or promotions being played as part of, or added to the Internet radio broadcast, being accessed through a smartphone device from a portable control component, where the portable control component can be used to wirelessly interface the smartphone to a vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio to provide a convenient means for the vehicle operator to control the Internet radio application without the need to manually access the smartphone. 
     BACKGROUND 
     In one aspect the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for wirelessly connecting a smartphone to a remote FM radio system. The apparatus enables control of playback of audio content delivered wirelessly to the smartphone, via a wide area network, on the remote FM radio system. The apparatus may comprise a housing adapted to receive a DC power signal from a remote DC power source. A control panel may be included which has a display and a plurality of controls for controlling the playback of the audio content on the remote FM radio system. At least one of the controls may perform a function in common with a playback control appearing on a display of the smartphone. An electronic subsystem may be in communication with the control panel and adapted to wirelessly receive audio content from the smartphone, and to communicate the audio content as an FM signal, in accordance with one or more user playback commands input at the controls of the control panel, to the remote FM radio system. 
     In another aspect the present disclosure relates to an apparatus for wirelessly connecting a smartphone to a remote FM radio system. The apparatus enables playback of audio content delivered wirelessly to the smartphone via a wide area network, on the remote FM radio system. The apparatus may comprise a housing adapted to receive a DC power signal from a remote DC power source. A control panel may be included which has a plurality of controls for controlling the playback of the audio content on the remote FM radio system. At least one of the controls may perform a function in common with a playback control appearing on a display of the smartphone. An FM modulator may be included which is tunable to a desired FM frequency to match a frequency that the FM radio is tuned to. A wireless communications transceiver may be included which is adapted to automatically establish a wireless communications link with the smartphone when the smartphone is placed within a predetermined proximity of the apparatus. A controller may be used which is in communication with the FM modulator, the wireless communications transceiver and the control panel. The controller may be configured to receive the audio content from the wireless communications transceiver and to convert the audio content to an equivalent modulated FM signal for transmission by the FM modulator to the remote FM radio system. 
     In still another aspect the present disclosure relates to a method for wirelessly connecting a smartphone to a remote FM radio system. The method may be used for controlling a playback of audio content delivered wirelessly to the smartphone via a wide area network, on the remote FM radio system. The method may comprise using a housing having a power cord to receive a DC power signal from a remote DC power source. A device having a control panel with a plurality of controls, and a display, may be used to control the playback of the audio content on the remote FM radio system. At least one of the controls may operate to perform a function in common with a playback control appearing on a display of the smartphone. The method may further include establishing a first wireless communications link between the smartphone and the device to receive audio content from the smartphone, which the smartphone has received over a wide area network. A second wireless communications link may be established between the device and the remote FM radio system, and used to enable the device to transmit the audio content as an FM signal to the remote FM radio system. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. 
         FIG. 1  is a front elevation view of a control device in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  is a high level block diagram showing various electronic components housed within the device shown in  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 3  is a high level flowchart illustrating major operations performed by the device of  FIG. 1  in connection with use of a smartphone. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses. It should be understood that throughout the drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate like or corresponding parts and features. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , there is shown a command and control device  10  (hereinafter simply “device  10 ”) for wirelessly interfacing a smartphone to an AM/FM radio of a motor vehicle, and allowing convenient control of the various functions of the smartphone from the device  10 . The device  10  includes a plurality of controls that are physically larger and more easily accessed by a user as compared to their counterpart controls on a typical smartphone. The device  10  includes a housing  12  having a flexible power cord  14  with a cigarette lighter adapter plug  16  that may be plugged into a +12 volt receptacle, for example the receptacle used for forming a cigarette lighter jack, or alternatively an auxiliary power jack, of the vehicle. The power cord  14  has an outer plastic or metal sheath that is flexible but which has a well known memory style construction. The memory style construction enables the plastic or metal sheath to retain its shape once it is bent or otherwise articulated into a desired bend or contour. Thus, the power cord  14  is able to bend such that the device  10  can be angled toward the user when the user is seated in the vehicle and the power cord  16  is plugged into the +12 volt receptacle. The power cord  14  essentially supports the housing  12  in the orientation desired by the user so that the various controls on the device  10  are easily and conveniently accessible by the user. This provides a significant degree of convenience to the user as compared to the user having to pick up his/her smartphone and enter commands from the smartphone. 
     The housing  12  of the device  10  may include a display  18 , which may be a LED display or any other suitable form of alphanumeric display. A combination control dial/button  20  may be used to tune an internal RF modulator of the device  10  to a desired, unused FM frequency. Tuning the vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio to the same unused frequency enables the device  10  to communicate wirelessly via an RF signal with the vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio so that Internet radio content can be transmitted to and played back on the vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio. 
     The housing  12  also includes a standard “Play” button  22 , a “Pause” button  24  and a “Stop” button  26  for controlling the playback of Internet radio content supplied by the smartphone to the vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio. Additional controls may include a “Call Pickup” button  28 , a call “Hang up” or disconnect button  30 , a “Similar” button  32 , a “Tag” button  34 , a “Seek Forward” button  36  and a “Seek Backwards” button  38 . An “Auto Launch” button  40  may be included that configures the device  10  to automatically launch the user&#39;s Internet radio application on his/her smartphone when a wireless signal, such as a BLUETOOTH® communications protocol wireless signal, is detected from a smartphone. Thus, when the device  10  is plugged into the vehicle&#39;s+12 volt receptacle, and a user enters the vehicle with his/her smartphone powered on, the device  10  will automatically detect the BLUETOOTH® communications protocol wireless signal being transmitted from the user&#39;s smartphone and will establish a wireless communications link with the user&#39;s smartphone, as well as automatically turn on the Internet radio application on the user&#39;s smartphone. In this manner, the device  10  may assist in providing Internet radio content automatically in the vehicle such that the interface is transparent to the vehicle occupant and radio operation is otherwise largely conventional. 
     It is a principal advantage of the device  10  that it requires no external hard wiring to the user&#39;s smartphone, and no action by the user to start the Internet radio application on his/her smartphone when the user enters the vehicle. If the device  10  is plugged in to the vehicle&#39;s+12 volt receptacle, when the user turns on the vehicle&#39;s ignition while his/her smartphone is on his/her person and operating, the device  10  will automatically establish a wireless BLUETOOTH® communications protocol link with the smartphone. It is also a significant feature that the device  10  will also automatically start the Internet radio application on the smartphone, or will automatically cause operation of an Internet radio application that has been stopped or paused, when a user re-enters the vehicle. If the device  10  and vehicle radio are both tuned to the same unused frequency, Internet radio content may immediately begin playing over the vehicle&#39;s audio system. The user may then place his/her smartphone on an adjacent seat, in the vehicle&#39;s console or glovebox, or in a coat pocket, purse, handbag or in any other nearby, convenient location. From this point on, the device  10  enables the user to conveniently control the selection and playback of Internet radio content without the need to physically handle and make control selections from his/her smartphone. This is a significant advantage, especially when operating a motor vehicle. 
     The Tag button  34  also forms a significant feature of the device  10 . The Tag button  34  may be used in the conventional way to tag a song and/or an ad/promotion that is currently playing on the user&#39;s smartphone through the vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio. The Tag command essentially generates a designation for the specific song or ad/promotion that the user is listening to on the AM/FM radio of the vehicle, and this designation essentially operates as a command that is sent back to the user&#39;s smartphone. The command causes the smartphone to save meta data associated with the song and/or an ad/promotion that the user is listening to on the AM/FM radio, in a non-volatile memory of the user&#39;s smartphone. At some later time the user may select the song and/or an ad/promotion to act on it (such as to purchase the tagged song). This is a significant feature because if the user is operating the vehicle and a song or advertisement that the user wants to tag begins playing on the vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio system, the user can easily and conveniently access the device  10  to input the tag command. This may save the user from the need to pull off the road, come to a stop, and then access his/her smartphone, just to input the tag command. 
     The Similar button  32  is also used in the conventional way to command the smartphone to search for similar songs (e.g., of a certain genre, certain artist, certain group, etc.). 
     The control dial/button  20  enables multiple functions to be controlled from it. In a first configuration the dial/button  20  forms a frequency tuning dial that can be rotated to allow the user to select a certain frequency for use with the vehicle&#39;s radio. The display  18  displays the frequency as the user rotates the dial/button  20  to the desired, unused frequency. When the dial/button  20  is pushed, it then operates as a rotary volume control to control the volume (i.e., gain) of the signal being output from the smartphone. Thus, the user may control the volume of Internet radio content being played over the vehicle&#39;s audio system either by the dial/button  20  as well as the vehicle&#39;s own volume control. Pushing the dial/button  20  again toggles the function back to a rotary frequency tuning function. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , the device  10  may include a micro controller unit (MCU)  50  that has a control application  52  stored in an internal memory of the MCU. The memory may be either a random access memory or a read only memory, or any other suitable form of memory. The control application  52  may comprise an application program interface (API) that controls the transfer of packets of information, as well as the handshaking, between the device  10  and the user&#39;s smartphone. The application  52  is described in detail in the Appendix of the present application. The MCU  50  may be any suitable form of micro controller unit, for example an STC-10L12XE micro controller. 
     The device  10  also includes a BLUETOOTH® wireless communications protocol transceiver  54  having its own antenna  54   a , which is controlled by the MCU  50  to enable wireless communications over a BLUETOOTH® wireless communications protocol link with the user&#39;s smartphone. An FM modulator  56  is included which is controlled by the MCU  50  to modulate an FM signal, at the user set frequency, via an antenna  58  to the vehicle&#39;s car radio  60 . The MCU  50  is also in bidirectional communication with a general purpose input/output subsystem  62  that provides the electronic interface with the buttons and controls described above in connection with  FIG. 1 . The MCU  50  also has a power input port  64  for receiving a +12 volt signal from the vehicle&#39;s+12 volt receptacle via its power cord  14 . An output port  66  provides a +5 volt USB charging signal to a user accessible USB port  66   a  that may be used to charge the smartphone or any other portable electronic device having a USB port. An “Line In” port  68  may be included which receives as an input, at jack  68   a , the audio output from an external electronic device (not shown) via a suitable cable. This causes the audio sent from the BLUETOOTH® communications protocol transceiver  54  to be bypassed. A “Line out” port  70  may be in communication with a jack  70   a , which may be coupled to some external electronic device (not shown). When using the Line out port  70 , the device  10  may automatically send audio from the MCU  50  to the Line out port  70  and turn off the FM Modulator  56 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a flowchart  100  is shown that sets forth one exemplary sequence of operations in using the device  10 . At operation  102  the user configures the device  10 . This involves plugging the power plug  16  into the vehicle&#39;s+12 v receptacle, then tuning the device  10  to an unused frequency, and then tuning the vehicle&#39;s radio  60  to the same unused frequency. At operation  104  the user may select the “Auto Launch” feature from button  40  ( FIG. 1 ). The device  10  will thereafter automatically establish a BLUETOOTH® wireless communications protocol link with the user&#39;s smartphone when the smartphone comes into proximity with the device  10 . At operation  106 , when the user enters his/her vehicle at some later time and turns on the ignition (assuming the device  10  is installed in the vehicle and the user&#39;s smartphone is powered on), the device  10  will automatically establish a wireless communications link with the user&#39;s smartphone. At operation  108  the wireless communications link that was just established by the device  10  with the user&#39;s smartphone will cause the smartphone to make a check if an Internet application is currently running on the user&#39;s smartphone. If no such application is currently running, then the device  10  will cause the smartphone to automatically launch the default Internet radio application that is preset on the user&#39;s smartphone (assuming the Auto Launch feature has been selected on the device  10  via button  40 ), as indicated at operation  110 . If the user&#39;s smartphone already has an Internet radio application already turned on (but in a paused or “stop” state), then the device  10  will cause the smartphone to automatically resume playing the Internet radio content that the user is listening to on his/her smartphone over the vehicle&#39;s audio system, as indicated at operation  112 . This is assuming, of course, that the vehicle&#39;s AM/FM radio is turned on and set to the unused FM frequency. If the vehicle is idling and the user then enters the vehicle with his/her smartphone turned on, then the user may simply press the Auto Launch button  40 , which signals the device  10  to establish a BLUETOOTH® protocol wireless communications link with his/her smartphone and commands the device  10  to automatically start the Internet radio application on the user&#39;s smartphone. At operation  114  the user may control the volume and selection of Internet radio content being supplied by the smartphone using any of the controls on the device  10 . If a call is received by the user on the smartphone, the application  52  may operate to automatically mute the Internet radio content while the call is in place. The received audio of the caller may then be played over the vehicle&#39;s audio system. When the call is ended the playing of Internet radio content is resumed. 
     The device  10  thus forms a highly convenient and easy to use control device for controlling the various functions of a smartphone that are associated with the playback or selection of Internet radio content. This allows the driver to access the controls of the device  10  in a much more convenient manner than would otherwise be possible if the user had to manually pick up his/her smartphone and access the corresponding controls from the smartphone. A principal advantage is that the establishment of a wireless communications link between the device  10  and the user&#39;s smartphone, and the starting of the Internet radio application on the user&#39;s smartphone, may both be done automatically without any manual commands being invoked by the user. 
     The device  10  also has the ability to work across virtually any communication link between a smartphone and external hardware device. The device  10  is also highly efficient in design and operation, as well as easily handled and transported. The device  10  is electrically connected to a vehicle with only a single connection, that being the vehicle&#39;s+12 volt receptacle, and thus can be quickly and easily removed, and even stored in the vehicle&#39;s console or glove box, if necessary. 
     While various embodiments have been described, those skilled in the art will recognize modifications or variations which might be made without departing from the present disclosure. The examples illustrate the various embodiments and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Therefore, the description and claims should be interpreted liberally with only such limitation as is necessary in view of the pertinent prior art.