Patent Abstract:
A portable radio module for use with a plurality of different host apparatus, the radio module including a receiver for receiving a radio signal and able to be controlled by a user interface irrespective of the nature of the host apparatus. Also disclosed is a radio module for use with a plurality of host apparatus, the portable radio module including a receiver for receiving a radio signal able to be controlled by a user interface, and having a non-volatile memory for storage at least one radio station memory preset. The radio station memory preset is entered once only by a user and can be used with the host irrespective of the host.

Full Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention refers to a portable radio module with host adapter and refers particularly, though not exclusively, to such a radio module for use with a number of different hosts.  
         BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Radio receivers have many different forms and sizes—portable radios, “boombox” radios, desktop radios, tuners for use with stereo sets, and so forth. They have different performance characteristics, and user requirements. They also have many technical variations such as, for example, quality of antenna, battery life, acoustic quality, portability, and mobility. Users need to own many radio receivers to enjoy radio reception at work, when travelling, commuting, on vacation, and inside their home. This is not cost effective, and exposes the user to many different user interfaces.  
           [0003]    It is the principle object of the invention to provide a portable radio module for use with at least one host apparatus.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0004]    According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a portable radio module for use with at least one host apparatus, the radio module including a receiver for receiving at least one radio signal able to be controlled by a user interface irrespective of the nature of the at least one host apparatus.  
           [0005]    The at least one radio signal may be supplied to the radio module from the at least one host; the at least one radio signal being of at least one commercially available broadcast radio system using conventional radio frequency (“RF”) modulation techniques such as, for example, frequency modulation (“FM”) and/or amplitude modulation (“AM”). Furthermore, the radio signal may be a local transmission such as, for example, from a user&#39;s personal audio device or personal computer that has radio transmission facilities.  
           [0006]    The radio may include a non-volatile memory for storage at least one channel memory preset, the at least one channel memory preset preferably needing to be entered by the user once only, and then being usable with the at least one host irrespective of the nature of the host. There may be a predetermined maximum number of preset radio station frequencies.  
           [0007]    Each of the preset radio station frequencies may be amended or deleted by the user. Additional preset radio station frequencies up to the predetermined number may be added by the user.  
           [0008]    The radio module may include an antenna/headphone socket for receiving therein one of an external antenna and a headphone set. The headphones may have a cable that is also an RF antenna such as an FM antenna.  
           [0009]    A power supply to the radio module may be from the at least one host, and the at least one radio signal may be received by a power adapter line of a power adapter of the at least one host.  
           [0010]    The radio module may be able to releasably and operatively connect with the at least one host by means of a detachable interface including a connector plug or receptacle forming part of the radio module, and a corresponding connector receptacle or plug forming part of the at least one host. The detachable interface may be a data or networking interface such as a USB or IEEE1394 connector.  
           [0011]    The at least one host may be one or more of: an audio device, a portable radio, a portable headphone radio, a conventional headphone, a portable speaker with radio, an audio player, a volume control unit, and a satellite speaker with volume control unit. Preferably, the radio module may be separately used with a number of the hosts without alteration of any preset stations.  
           [0012]    The present invention also provides a radio module including a receiver for receiving at least one radio signal and able to be controlled by a user interface, and having a non-volatile memory for storage at least one channel memory preset. In this case, the at least one channel memory preset may be entered once only and may be used with the at least one host irrespective of the host. The at least one host may be one or more of a portable radio, a portable headphone radio, a conventional headphone, a portable speaker with radio, an audio player, a volume control unit, and a satellite speaker with volume control unit. The radio module may be separately used with each of the hosts without alteration of any preset stations.  
           [0013]    The radio module thereby forms the core of a radio function.  
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    In order that the invention maybe readily understood and put into practical effect, there shall now be described by way of non-imitative example only preferred embodiment of the present invention, the description being with reference to the accompanying illustrative drawings, in which:  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portable radio with a radio module of the present invention;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a portable headphone radio with a radio module of the present invention;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a portable speaker with a radio module of the present invention;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a desktop audio player with a radio module of the present invention;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 5 is a block diagram of amplified speaker&#39;s wired volume control with radio module of the present invention; and  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 6 is a block diagram of amplified satellite speaker&#39;s volume control with radio module of the present invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0021]    Throughout the drawings there is shown a radio module generally designated as  10  for use with a host generally designated as  50  with, in each instance, a prefix number designating the embodiment and thus drawing figure. For example, in FIG. 1 the radio module is designated  110  and the host as  150 .  
         [0022]    To first refer to FIG. 1, there is shown a radio module  110  that has a connector plug  112  adapted to releasably engage and cooperate with a connector receptacle  152  in host  150 . Connector plug  112  and connector receptacle  152  enable either or both of power from a power source  154  such as a battery, transformer or the like in host  150 , and signals from an antenna  156  in host  150 , to be passed to radio module  110  via power line  166  and signal line  168  respectively. As the module  10  is a radio module, the antenna  156  is an RF antenna. It may be an AM antenna such as, for example, a ferrite antenna.  
         [0023]    The output from connector plug  112  includes a power line  114  to pass the received power to the components of radio module  110 . A signal line  116  is used to pass signals received from the antenna  156  to an AM/FM radio receiver  118 . The receiver  118  is controlled using a user interface  120 .  
         [0024]    As users prefer to listen to particular radio stations on a regular basis, several radio stations may be selected and their frequencies held in preset station frequency memory  122 . The memory  122  may be a non-volatile memory such as, for example, flash memory, so the preset radio station frequencies need to be input once only and will not require re-entry after radio module  110  is disconnected from receptacle  152  and thus from the power source  154 . The preset radio station frequencies may be input by the user using user interface  120 . Each preset can be amended or deleted when and as required by the user; or additional preset radio station frequencies can be added by the user when and as required, up to a predetermined maximum number of presets. This may be for example, 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000, or any other suitable number. The predetermined maximum number may be governed by the extend of memory allocated to the preset radio station frequencies. The tuning for the preset frequencies may be digital, or by use of an analog device such as a knob. The radio module  110  retains the preset radio station frequencies in the non-volatile memory  122  and thus the radio module  110  has true portability and mobility. In this way the radio module  110  can be used with a number of different hosts, and still retain the pre-set radio station frequencies.  
         [0025]    The radio module may be used with a headphone or other earpiece set  158 . The cable  160  of the headphones  158  may also act as an RF antenna such as an FM antenna for radio module  110 . The headphones  158  have a jack  162  that connects through a plug  124  to enable the audio signal to be heard by a user, and for the radio signal to be passed to receiver  118  via a radio signal line  126 . Line  126  connects plug  124  to receiver  118  and connector plug  112 . Line  126  may also be used to pass the audio signal from receiver  118  to headphones  158 .  
         [0026]    In this way, when radio module  110  is operatively connected to host  150  by plug  112  engaging in receptacle  152 , and headphone jack  162  is engaged in plug  124 , AM and FM signals, and power, pass to the radio module  110  to enable a user to listen to the radio using headphones  158 . In this way the combination of radio module and host  150  are a portable radio.  
         [0027]    In FIG. 2, the same radio module  210  is used with the same components and functions as are described with reference to FIG. 1. Here, the host  250  is a portable headphone radio having a first, built-in speaker  270  and a satellite speaker  272  connected to first speaker by a speaker cable  274 . A speaker line  276  connects first speaker  270  (and thus second speaker  272 ) to receptacle  252  and thus receiver  218 . As there are no headphones an RF antenna such as an FM antenna  228  is connected to plug  224  and thus to receiver  218  by RF such as an FM line  226 . Alternatively, the speaker cable  274  can also act as the antenna, the radio signals passing along speaker line  276 , receptacle  252 , connector plug  212 , and signal line  216  to receiver  218 . If desired, the speaker cable  274  may be located inside a headband (not shown) of the portable headphone radio. If a mono version, there will be only one speaker  270 . This embodiment may be used with conventional headphones having added thereto the receptacle  252 , battery  254  and its associated physical connectors and compartment, and antenna built into speaker cable  274 .  
         [0028]    In FIG. 3, there is shown the same radio module  310  as is shown and described in relation to FIG. 2. Again, an external RF such as an FM antenna  328  may be used. Here, the host  350  is a portable speaker that has a battery  354  to power its operation as well as that of the radio module  310  (when fitted). It may also use a power adapter  378  with a power adapter cable  380 . If desired, the power adapter cable  380  may include an RF such as an FM antenna. In that case there is provided an input line  382  connected to receptacle  352  and thus to connector plug  312 , signal line  316  and receiver  318 . An RF coupling  384  is provided between input line  382  and speaker line  376  acting through an audio switch  388 . An external line input  386  connected to audio switch  388  is also provided. Each of the speakers  370 ,  372  may be built-in and each may have its own amplifier  390 . If there are any external or satellite speakers, any cable connection can act as the RF antenna.  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 4 shows where the host  450  is an audio player. The radio module  410  is the same as described in relation to FIG. 3. The host  450  has a power supply  490  rather than a battery, and has an RF such as an FM coaxial input  496  operatively connected to input line  482 . Again, the RF coupling is provided between input line  482  and audio switch  488 . In this case audio switch  488  is in-line of an audio line output  494  for having the audio output sent to speakers, amplifier, headphones, or the like. An audio player  492  is also operatively connected to audio switch  488 .  
         [0030]    The penultimate embodiment is shown in FIG. 5 where the host  550  is a volume control unit for an amplified speaker system (not shown). The radio module  510  is as described above in relation to FIG. 1. The wired volume cable  504  may have a sleeve that is the RF such as an FM antenna. Power input from the amplified speaker system is via a power input line  502 , and audio output from the main volume control  598  is over an audio line  500 . The RF coupling is between cable  504 , and signal line  576 . Signal line  576  carries the radio signal from wired volume cable  504  to receptacle  552 .  
         [0031]    The final embodiment shown in FIG. 6 is the same as for FIG. 5 except that the host  650  is a satellite speaker with a volume control unit built-in. A speaker  670  is provided, and the cable  604  is an audio out cable to other speaker(s). The cable  604  may have a sleeve that is the RF such as an FM antenna. Signal line  676  carries the radio signal from cable  604  to receptacle  652 .  
         [0032]    Although AM, FM and RF antennas and receivers are shown and described, the present invention can operate with any commercially available radio systems, in any frequency band, and of any appropriate modulation system.  
         [0033]    The connector plug  12  and receptacle  52  may be of any suitable mating category able to conduct both power and radio signals including, but not being limited to, data or networking interfaces such as USB or IEEE1394 connectors.  
         [0034]    The present invention therefore provides a radio module that is easily transportable (i.e. is quite portable) by a user, and that can be used with different hosts to allow the user to use the radio module with its retained station presets, no matter where they may be house, work, commuting, car, exercising, travelling, and so forth.  
         [0035]    Whilst there has been described in the foregoing description preferred embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the technology concerned that may variations or modifications in details of design or construction may be made without departing from the present invention.  
         [0036]    The present invention extends to all features disclosed both individually, and in all possible permutations and combinations.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7