Patent Publication Number: US-2005124357-A1

Title: Method for transmitting address information to a global positioning system from a personal digital assistant or other similar device via a connector

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
      The present invention relates to information sent from one device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular phone address book, laptop computer address book, or other similar device, to a global positioning system (GPS) via a connector without manual entering in of such information.  
     BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART  
      Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) display terminals, such as the 3Com PalmPilot™ and International Business Machines Corporation&#39;s (IBM) WorkPad™ have been building a user base over the past few years. Current estimates are that there are a few million of these devices in present usage. While these personal devices have found limited selective markets among users with specific needs and habits, they have not, as yet, found the widespread appeal which was expected when they first began to appear almost a decade ago. Consequently, the technology is seeking applications of greater mass appeal. One area of great potential is in the area of wireless communication. In this connection, uses involving communication with the Internet through wireless and conventional modems has substantially increased the market for personal display devices. However, even such communication requires a fair degree of computer sophistication on the part of the user. In order for the PDA to reach its full potential market, applications accessible to even the computer indifferent user are needed. Wireless communication systems, particularly such systems which keep track of the user&#39;s position and path of movement and then provide information relative to the user and his position, should provide such an application. The combination of PDA technology with wireless communication and positioning systems such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) provide the existing technology to support such a technology.  
      By way of background, the most common personal digital assistant is the PalmPilot™ line produced by 3Com Corp.; also available is the IBM WorkPad™. These devices are comprehensively described in the text,  Palm III  &amp;  PalmPilot , Jeff Carlson, Peachpit Press, 1998. They contain a data processor, operating systems: Palm OS 2.0 or 3.0, and about 1 to 2 MB of random access memory (RAM). They also have a networking protocol: TCP/IP, which permits connection to the Internet through PDA modems, which are described in greater detail at pp. 148-149 of the above-described text. In addition, there is available for PDAs such as the PalmPilot GPS, which is described in the above text on page 231. In general, global positioning is a well known and developed system which uses groups of three satellites which receive signals from the moving unit being positioned and use this signal data to triangulate and, thus, position the moving unit. The hardware required for such global positioning has been miniaturized to the point that it may be attached to and associated with PDA displays, e.g. a palm held device, without any significant change in the size and weight of the personal display device.  
      In the current art relating to GPS systems, addresses are received from either a list of addresses on a DVD, or from direct user input. The manual entering of addresses involved in direct user input is cumbersome, time consuming, and not without errors, particularly errors related to unnecessary repetitious entries when an address may have already been entered in a cellular phone or PDA.  
     SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
      The present invention provides a user the ability to transfer address information stored on a PDA, cellular phone address book, laptop computer address book, or other such application or list to a GPS system without the manual entering of the address information by using Bluetooth, infrared, cable, or through some other connector. Bluetooth is a technology protocol developed to wirelessly connect electronic devices such as wireless phones, PDAs, and computers, and can exchange information therewith within about a 30 foot range via radio waves in the 2.45 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum.  
      Accordingly, the present invention involves a wireless communication system for distributing address information to a GPS navigation system from stored information on a PDA, or some other similar device. The key to the invention is the use of a connector to transmit the address information to populate the GPS address field that traditionally had to be manually entered. This invention allows a user to more quickly enter address information from a stored location into a GPS without the risk of error associated with the previous method of manually entering in such information. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a generalized view of the elements of the present invention as implemented by a user;  
       FIG. 2  is a generalized view of an apparatus which may be used to provide the user with access to address information;  
       FIG. 3  is a generalized block view of a conventional personal digital display assistant set up to carry out the present invention;  
       FIG. 4  is a view of a personal digital assistant display showing to the user a menu of address information available for transmission to a GPS;  
       FIG. 5  is an illustrative flowchart describing the setting up of the functions to transmit addresses from a device with addresses stored thereon to a global positioning system via a connector; and  
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart of an illustrative run of the program set up according to  FIG. 5 , wherein an address is transmitted via a connector from a device with addresses stored thereon to a global positioning system. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
      Before going into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand from a more general perspective the various elements and methods which may be related to the present invention. An important element in the present invention is a position tracking system. At the present time, GPS have achieved a considerable amount of acceptance for general positional sensing. As will be subsequently described, the display terminal would have wireless receiving means for accepting the transmission of address information from a PDA or other such device which has address information stored thereon.  
       FIG. 1  provides a view of a GPS navigation system including a GPS receiver  10  attached to a PDA  16  which is made up of antenna  18 , communication channel  20  up to the triangulating satellites which are represented by satellite  19  which then communicates the position of a PDA  16  via transmission channel  23  to the antenna of GPS receiver  10  associated with server  11  of the low power local wireless transmission system which accesses local database  12  to transmit via a local area network (LAN)  13  via channel  21  to the wireless receiver terminal  17  of the PDA  16 . In the present invention, the PDA  16  also transmits address information to the GPS receiver  10 . In operation, the request for data is transmitted from the PDA  16  to the server  11  via a connector  21 , and the server  11  accesses appropriate information from the PDA  16  and transmits pertinent address information to the GPS receiver  10 , and into address fields of the database  12 .  
      In this connection between the PDA  16  or other similar device having stored address information and the GPS,  FIG. 2  provides a generalized system through which an individual mobile PDA may be connected to a database  59 . Server  56 , which functions like server  11  of the low power local wireless transmission system of  FIG. 1 , receives/transmits via LAN  41 ,  FIG. 2 , to/from wireless receiver terminal  17  of the PDA  16 . Server  56  may function as a network server or be connected to a server which does. The server may access the Web or Internet via a host-dial connection through network access servers  53  which are linked  51  to the Internet  50 . The host&#39;s server  53  is accessed by the server  56  through a normal dial-up telephone linkage  58  via modem  54 , telephone line  55  and modem  52 . The accessed outside database provides the user with requested information downloaded from the user&#39;s PDA  16  through controlling Internet server  53  via telephone line linkages from server  53  which may have accessed them from the Internet  50  via linkage  51 . The connector that transfers the selected address information from the PDA  16  can be Bluetooth, infrared, cable, or some other connector. In addition to PDAs  16 , a user could also transmit information from a cellular phone address book, laptop computer address book, or some other similar device that stores address information.  
      The PDA used may be any currently available model such as 3Com&#39;s PalmPilot™ series or IBM&#39;s WorkPad™. The basic elements of a PDA are shown in  FIG. 3 . The display  36  is supported by any standard data processing unit  33 . There is storage  34  in the form of RAM. Personal user interactive input  35  is provided. As previously mentioned, low power wireless input/output is applied from the facility low power transmission terminal and received at antenna  32  of PDA  30  and then connected to the PDA via communication adapter  31 . Positional data is sensed and if GPS is used, transmitted via antenna  37 . Address information is also transmitted via antenna  37  from the PDA  30  to a GPS. Once the address information is transmitted into the GPS, the GPS address field is populated with the transmitted address information.  
       FIG. 4  shows an illustrative PDA  59  which shows the display  60  where address information can be seen when requested from the PDA  59 . The PDA  59  is shown with conventional scrolling controls  64 ,  65 ,  66 , and  67  for scrolling around the display and an interactive menu  70 . Through this menu  70 , the user may obtain access to address information  71  before transmitting the address information to a GPS. Once the address information is transmitted to a GPS, the GPS address fields are populated with the information.  
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart showing the development of a process according to the present invention for enabling users of a global positioning system to transmit addresses stored on a different device, such as a cellular phone or laptop computer, to the global positioning system via a connector, such as Bluetooth, infrared, or cable, step  70 . An implementation is provided for selecting an address from a device with addresses stored thereon that can be transmitted in this manner, step  71 . A connector for transmitting addresses to the global positioning system is provided, such as Bluetooth, infrared, cable, or some other similar connector, step  72 . An implementation for populating the address fields of the global positioning system with the transmitted addresses is provided, step  74 .  
      A simplified run of the process set up in  FIG. 5  and described in connection with  FIGS. 1 through 4  will now be described. A user enters addresses into the user&#39;s global positioning system, step  80 , by manually entering the addresses, step  81 , transferring the addresses from a DVD, step  82 , or by way of the present invention, which is to transmit addresses from a device that stores such addresses to the global positioning system via a connector, step  83 . When transmitting the addresses to the global positioning system via a connector, the address information on a device that stores such address information is selected, step  84 , and the addresses are transmitted to the global positioning system, step  85 . Once the addresses have reached the global positioning system, the address field of the global positioning system is populated with the transmitted addresses, step  86 .  
      Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.