Patent Publication Number: US-2013242810-A1

Title: Using a full duplex voice profile of a short range communication protocol to provide digital data

Description:
PRIORITY 
     This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/610,245 filed on Mar. 13, 2012, entitled: USING A BLUETOOTH HEADSET CONNECTION TO SEND FULL DUPLEX MODULATED DATA, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     COPYRIGHT NOTICE 
     © 2012-2013 Airbiquity, Inc. A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 CFR §1.71(d). 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     It is known that a first electronic device that has a short range communication capability, e.g. Bluetooth capability, USB capability, or the like, but which may not have a long range communication capability, e.g. may not have cellular transceiver, may couple to a second electronic device that does have long range communication capability, e.g. a cellular phone, using a short range connection to use the long range transceiver to communicate with a third electronic device that is remote from the first and second electronic devices. Also, more generally the first electronic device may couple to a second electronic device via the short range connection to access a resource of the second electronic device, whether that resource is a long range communication capability or another resource of the second electronic device. The disclosure that follows improves upon the aforementioned arrangements. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The following is a summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not intended to identify key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. 
     In one example, in preparation to transmitting digital data (other than encoded voice), a processing device of a first electronic device causes the first electronic device to couple to a second electronic device using a short range protocol. The short range protocol is associated with a plurality of profiles including a first full duplex voice profile for communicating encoded voice and a second data profile for communicating digital data (other than voice). Although the short range protocol is associated with the second profile for communicating digital data (other than voice), the processing device does not attempt to establish the connection using the second data profile. Instead, the processing device uses the first full duplex voice profile (which may be a Bluetooth Headset Profile (HSP) in one example) to establish the connection. The Bluetooth Headset Profile is designed for two-way communication of encoded voice. The processing device coverts the digital data into audio information and transmits the same over the established connection for data communication. We use the term “data communication” to mean communicating digital data other than encoded voice. 
     The first electronic device described above can provide digital data to a resource of an electronic device that does not have the hardware accruements necessary for establishing a Bluetooth connection using the second data profile. For example, some electronic devices do not have the additional layer of hardware required for transmitting digital data (other than encoded voice) over Bluetooth. Such additional layer may include a security chip that is manufactured with an encrypted key and other components to interact with the security chip such as a particularly configured microprocessor to communicate with that security chip and/or manage data communications to and from its host electronic device. 
     Furthermore, the first electronic device does not need to have such additional layer of hardware (regardless of whether or not an electronic device with which the first electronic device establishes the connection does or does not have such additional layer of hardware). This can be an advantage when considering manufacturing costs including the costs of components of the additional layer of hardware and other costs such as hardware validation and/or certification expenses associated with using the components in a design of the first electronic device. 
     Additional aspects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a flowchart illustrating a method for transmitting digital data over a short range connection between devices. 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating a method for receiving over a short range connection between devices. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates one example of data transmission path of application data of a first electronic device. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates one example of a system for using a Bluetooth Headset Profile (HSP) connection to send full duplex modulated data. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates one example of a system for using a full duplex voice profile of Bluetooth to provide data from a first electronic device to a second electronic device for in-band transmission over a wireless telecommunication network to a third remote electronic device. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  is a flowchart illustrating a method for transmitting digital data over a short range connection between devices. 
     In block  101 , the processing device determines whether to provide digital data (other than encoded voice) of the first electronic device to a second electronic device using a short range protocol that is associated with a plurality of profiles including a first full duplex voice profile for communicating encoded voice and a second data profile for communicating digital data (other than voice). In an example, the short range protocol is Bluetooth. In an example, the first full duplex voice profile comprises the Bluetooth Headset Profile (HSP). 
     In block  102 , in response to determining to provide the digital data of the first electronic device to the resource, the processing device establishes a connection between the first electronic device and the second electronic device using the first full duplex voice profile. The resource may comprise a long range transceiver, a GPS transceiver, an accelerometer, a processor, persistent storage, or the like. 
     In block  103 , the processing device converts the digital data into audio information. The modulation may be by done in hardware or in software. In an example, the modulator may implement known “in-band signaling” techniques. In block  104 , the processing device transmits the audio information over the established connection. 
     In an example, by using the Bluetooth headset connection with the second electronic device as a data communication channel, the first electronic device can communicate with an application residing on the second electronic device without the need for additional hardware and software communication interfaces. Thus, the existing headset communication, which was originally meant for voice communication, can be used for data communication. 
     The data communication may use the audio channel of the Bluetooth headset connection between the first electronic device and the second electronic device to send modulated data to the second electronic device and receive modulated data from the second electronic device. This modulation can be in any form where digital data is transitioned into audio information. Once the second electronic device receives the audio it is converted back into its digital format which can then be understood and consumed by the application layer software. 
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating a method for receiving over a short range connection between devices. 
     In block  201 , the processing device receives audio information over a short range connection that that is established with the second electronic device using the first full duplex voice profile. 
     In block  202 , the processing device determines whether to recover digital data from the received audio information. If the processing device determines to not recover digital data from the received audio information in diamond  203 , then in block  204  the processing device recovers voice data from the received audio information. If the processing device determines to recover digital data from the received audio information in diamond  203 , then in block  205  the processing device demodulates the audio information into a digital format that is suitable for consumption by application layer software. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates one example of data transmission path of application data of a first electronic device. 
     The application A is of a first electronic device, e.g. an embedded device, and the application B is of a second electronic device, e.g. a cellular phone. The first electronic device provides the application data from application A to a modulator  301 . The modulator  301  outputs audio information based on the input application data. The output audio information is transmitted to the second electronic device over the audio transport using a Bluetooth Headset connection. 
     The second electronic device provides the received output audio information to demodulator  303  to recover the application data. The application B may consume the recovered application data. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates one example of a system for using a Bluetooth Headset Profile (HSP) connection to send full duplex modulated data from an embedded device to a cellular phone. 
     Each of the embedded device and the cellular phone may comprise application layer software running any use case that requires application messages to be exchanged with a peer. The Bluetooth module  401  may contain Bluetooth radio hardware, Bluetooth stack firmware, and the Bluetooth headset profile. The Bluetooth module  411  may contain Bluetooth radio hardware, Bluetooth stack firmware, and the Bluetooth audio gateway profile. 
     The audio devices  402  and  412  may each be responsible for interfacing with the Bluetooth module&#39;s audio interface and providing a digital encoded PCM stream to and from their associated application. 
     The software modulators  404  and  414  and the software demodulators  403  and  413  may be configured to process the digital audio information to and from application layer data. 
     Each of the communication tasks  405  and  415  that reside in the application layer on the embedded device and the cellular phone are responsible for the communication of application layer messages to its peer communication task. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates one example of a system for using a full duplex voice profile of Bluetooth to provide data from a first electronic device to a second electronic device for in-band transmission over a wireless telecommunication network to a third remote electronic device. 
     In the example system  500 , the electronic device  504  may comprise an In-Band Signaling (IBS) modem  502 . A processing device  501  may determine whether to use the IBS modem  502  of the electronic device  504  for a transmission to a peer device such as phone  505 . The determination may be based on whether the phone  505  is configured to use in-band signaling for data transmissions over the wireless telecommunications network. In response to determining that the phone  505  is configured to use the in-band signaling, the processing device  501  may select the IBS modem  502  and generate the audio information  503 . 
     The processing device  506  may determine whether the received audio information  503  comprises in-band signaling. In response to determining that the received audio information does not comprise in-band signaling, the processing device  506  may demodulate the received audio information using a demodulator prior to transmitting a representation of the received audio information using, for example, a packet data connection transceiver. In response to determining the received audio information  503  does comprise in-band signaling, the processing device  506  may bypass demodulation and pass through the received audio information  503  for transmission of the received audio information  503  over the wireless telecommunications network. In the later case, the remote device  509  receives the audio information  503  and demodulates the same using the IBS modem  512  that corresponds to the IBS modem  502  of the electronic device  501 . 
     Similarly, the processing device  506  may determine whether information received from the remote device  509  via in-band signaling is to be demodulated or passed through. In an example, the processing device  506  may determine whether the information received from the remote device  509  via in-band signaling corresponds to the audio information  503 . If the information received from the remote device  509  via in-band signaling does correspond to the audio information  503 , then the processing device  506  may bypass demodulation and pass through the information received from the remote device  509  via in-band signaling over the Bluetooth wireless connection. 
     Most of the equipment discussed above comprises hardware and associated software. For example, the typical navigation device is likely to include one or more processors and software executable on those processors to carry out the operations described. We use the term software herein in its commonly understood sense to refer to programs or routines (subroutines, objects, plug-ins, etc.), as well as data, usable by a machine or processor. As is well known, computer programs generally comprise instructions that are stored in machine-readable or computer-readable storage media. Some embodiments of the present invention may include executable programs or instructions that are stored in machine-readable or computer-readable storage media, such as a digital memory. We do not imply that a “computer” in the conventional sense is required in any particular embodiment. For example, various processors, embedded or otherwise, may be used in equipment such as the components described herein. 
     Memory for storing software again is well known. In some embodiments, memory associated with a given processor may be stored in the same physical device as the processor (“on-board” memory); for example, RAM or FLASH memory disposed within an integrated circuit microprocessor or the like. In other examples, the memory comprises an independent device, such as an external disk drive, storage array, or portable FLASH key fob. In such cases, the memory becomes “associated” with the digital processor when the two are operatively coupled together, or in communication with each other, for example by an I/O port, network connection, etc. such that the processor can read a file stored on the memory. Associated memory may be “read only” by design (ROM) or by virtue of permission settings, or not. Other examples include but are not limited to WORM, EPROM, EEPROM, FLASH, etc. Those technologies often are implemented in solid state semiconductor devices. Other memories may comprise moving parts, such as a conventional rotating disk drive. All such memories are “machine readable” or “computer-readable” and may be used to store executable instructions for implementing the functions described herein. 
     A “software product” refers to a memory device in which a series of executable instructions are stored in a machine-readable form so that a suitable machine or processor, with appropriate access to the software product, can execute the instructions to carry out a process implemented by the instructions. Software products are sometimes used to distribute software. Any type of machine-readable memory, including without limitation those summarized above, may be used to make a software product. That said, it is also known that software can be distributed via electronic transmission (“download”), in which case there typically will be a corresponding software product at the transmitting end of the transmission, or the receiving end, or both. 
     Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention in a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be apparent that the invention may be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. We claim all modifications and variations coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims.