Patent Abstract:
A receiver may receive alerts from a radio-broadcast following a tone or other indication preceding each alert, for example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration&#39;s (NOAA) broadcasted weather alerts. Received alerts may be recorded and stored for future playback to an end user, and the receiver may indicate to the user that an alert has been stored, varying the type of indication according to the type of alert stored. The receiver may record alerts specific to one or more zip codes, geographic regions, Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, Federal Information Processes Standards (FIPS) codes, Specific Area Messaging Encoding (SAME) profiles, or other user location data. The user may then select locations and type of alerts to be replayed. Additionally, the receiver may be used in conjunction with other co-located devices to provide information to an end user through a variety of methods and devices.

Full Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    The present application is a non-provisional of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/220,041, entitled “Method of Transmitting, Receiving, Recording, Playing and Displaying Weather Radio,” filed Jun. 24, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes. This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/466,521, filed May 15, 2009, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/057,761, entitled “Display Station,” filed on Mar. 28, 2008, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/982,137, entitled “Method of Transmitting, Receiving and Forwarding Data in a Low Power Network System,” to Allan McCormick and Rolf Haupt, filed on Oct. 23, 2007, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/982,096, entitled “Method of Transmitting, Receiving and Displaying/Playing Data such as Internet Radio Time, and Music on a Network System,” to Allan McCormick and Rolf Haupt, filed on Oct. 23, 2007, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/981,862, entitled “Method and Apparatus of Transmitting, Receiving, Displaying and Playing Weather Data,” to Allan McCormick and Rolf Haupt, filed on Oct. 23, 2007, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/019,299, entitled “Method and Apparatus of Transmitting, Receiving, Displaying and Playing Weather Data,” to Rolf Haupt and Allan McCormick, filed on Jan. 7, 2008, all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present disclosure is generally related to electronic systems such as wide area network based weather communication systems including weather radio. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Weather radios are used by consumers to scan radio frequencies, such as 162.400-162.550 MHz, which are dedicated for broadcasting weather and other alerts. These dedicated frequencies are not in a range that most conventional radios can receive, and thus a consumer must have a weather radio or other similar device to monitor these broadcasts. Organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) broadcast such alerts to be received by these devices. Current weather radio devices, however, are required to be always on and always listened to in order to be useful. This has reduced the applicability of these devices for the average consumer. Further, the interface for weather radios have made them less than ideal platforms for communicating information. For example, the voice messages are often not particularly useful for those users who are not intimately familiar with the geographic region. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY 
       [0004]    The current disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for receiving radio-broadcasted alerts and presenting them in a useful format for an end user. 
         [0005]    In accordance with one or more aspects of the disclosure, a device may receive data through any number of receivers, including a receiver and a wide area network receiver, and record the message for later playback. For example, in certain aspects of the disclosure, a tone may be played for 10, 20, or 30 or more seconds preceding a weather alert. This tone may be utilized in order to enable weather radios with useful battery life to be built. Currently, the weather radios must be constantly on and constantly listened to in order to avoid missing an alert. The use of the tone allows battery operated weather radios to turn on once every 10 to 30 seconds and “listen” for the tone. If the tone is not present, the weather radio shuts off to conserve battery power. If the tone is present, the weather radio turns on and receives the weather alert. 
         [0006]    In further embodiments of the disclosure, the weather alert is recorded and stored in the weather radio. In this manner, the user does not have to be continually listening to the weather radio. Once the message is recorded, a visual and/or audible indication is provided to the user that there is a weather alert message waiting. The visual and/or audible indication may be different for different weather alerts. For example, there may be a tornado icon (flashing or stable), a severe thunderstorm warning icon (flashing or stable), flood warning icon (flashing or stable), etc. Additionally, there may be a user input device coupled to the icons enabling the user to play the alert associated with the icon. In embodiments of the disclosure where such icons are utilized, they may be liquid crystal display (LCD) icons and/or icons printed on the device&#39;s casing with illuminations next to the icon. 
         [0007]    In still further embodiments of the disclosure, the weather radio displays a map or satellite image of the user&#39;s current location along with various points of interest such as nearby cities. Overlaid on this map and/or satellite image are various storm path Polygons provided by the weather alerts. This allows the user to determine visually whether or not the user is in the storm path. For example, the user may input a zip code or longitude and latitude coordinates (or have it determined through a built-in GPS module) and then have the device indicate whether or not the user is in the storm path as well as a time to arrival of the storm. Furthermore, the device may be configured to allow a user to see visually whether or not the weather radio&#39;s location (or another selectable location) is in the storm path. The weather radio may also be configured to provide the user with directions (detour directions) to exit the storm path. The user may zoom in on the current location to see specifics as to time to arrival or zoom out of the current location zoom level to see a global picture of the storm path. 
         [0008]    Additional embodiments of the disclosure include a user interface which displays the various weather alerts that are potentially available and allows the user to select and deselect individual alerts. Further, the user can enter one or multiple zip codes for which alerts may be available. Additionally, the weather alerts may be recorded for each of the zip codes and scrolled through so the user may see which alerts are associated with which zip codes. In addition, the user may be able to individually select the alerts that are associated with each zip code. For example, a user may not be interested in flooding where his main home is located in the mountains, but may be keenly interested in flooding for his beach house. 
         [0009]    In still further aspects of the disclosure, a stable or moving icon may be used as illustrative of various details of interest. For example, where the user&#39;s location map is shown on the screen, one or more tornado icons may appear on the screen and may move across the screen depending on the storm&#39;s track. In these embodiments, the user&#39;s location is fixed and the storm&#39;s location is shown as moving relative to the user&#39;s location. Alternately, both the user&#39;s location and the storm&#39;s track or other icon may be shown as moving. 
         [0010]    In additional embodiments of the disclosure, the device may include other co-located devices for, for example, measuring local weather conditions and sending and receiving weather data to locally connected devices. For example, the weather radio may reside in the user&#39;s main home and be “always on” and plugged in to wall power. Display devices may be located throughout the home that receive data from the main weather radio and are battery powered. These devices display weather alerts every few 10s of seconds or minutes. They wake up, determine if a weather alert has been recorded in the main weather radio, and if so, then provide the alert in a remote location. In this manner, the main weather radio may be located in a den in the house and the satellite display devices may be located throughout the home, garage, barn, boat, and office. 
         [0011]    In additional embodiments of the disclosure, the device may also be configured to plug into a cradle. The cradle will keep the device always charged. In this manner, the user may simply take the device, for example, to a soccer game, swimming match, or boating outing. Thus, the alerts will be available at the external location when needed. The device may also be configured to include other desirable features and data such as a radio, alarm clock, indoor and outdoor temperature and min/max temperatures. In one embodiment, the device could be configured with a similar form factor to a PDA or so called “blackberry” like device. 
         [0012]    In still further embodiments of the disclosure, once the device is removed from the cradle, it may be configured to turn on or off certain function such as the receipt of outdoor temperature and/or the feeding of data to remote weather display devices. 
         [0013]    In still further embodiments of the disclosure, the user may choose the particular weather radio tower that is closer and the display can be configured to display the name/location of the tower selected. 
         [0014]    In additional aspects of the disclosure, a weather radio tower is selected using a combination of a signal strength indicator (e.g., RSSI Radio Signal Strength Indicator) taken in combination with a measurement of the signal to noise ratio of the signal. In this way, a weaker but low noise signal may be selected over a very strong, but very high noise signal. Hence the user can be provided the optimal signal. In still further embodiments, two or more signal icons will be displayed with the user able to select between the icons. As an example, the device may receive seven different signals from different weather radio towers, and may be configured to display one or more different icons for each of the different signals. For instance, two icons might be displayed for each signal: a first signal strength indicator icon, and a second signal-to-noise ratio icon. In other examples, one icon may be displayed without the other, or a combination icon may be displayed that combines measurements of signal strength and signal-to-noise ratio in a single indicator. 
         [0015]    In further embodiments of the disclosure, the user is provided with various predetermined profiles. In this way, the user programming of the Specific Area Messaging Encoding (SAME) profiles are simplified to allow a user to select which counties and watches the user is interested in viewing/hearing. The user can simply scroll through the default profiles such as a travel profile, a home profile, a boating profile, a freeze profile, a tornado profile, a vacation home profile, and a hurricane profile. The user can simply select the profile and everything will be set. 
         [0016]    According to additional embodiments of the disclosure, the user interface of the weather radio may provide one or more systems to allow the user to search for and enter current locations for receiving alerts. As discussed above, the user may enter a zip code for a current location to subscribe to weather alerts applicable to that location. Additionally, the device may use location codes, such as Federal Information Process Standards (FIPS) codes for the US, or another set of location codes corresponding to another country. For example, the user interface of the weather radio may display a selectable list of states for the user. After the user selects a state from the list, the user interface may be updated to allow the user to select a county from the selected state, and thereafter to select a portion of the county. Based on this information, the weather radio accesses an internal storage mapping to identify the proper FIPS code (or other location code) corresponding to the location, so that the location code can be associated with the weather radio and/or one of the user profiles on the radio (e.g., home, work, current, travel, vacation, grandmother&#39;s house, friend&#39;s house, etc.). In other embodiments, the user interface may first present a list of countries, followed a list of states/provinces, followed by a list of cities, and so on. In other embodiments, rather than hierarchical menus, the weather radio may present a flat list of the location names (e.g., city/state combinations, county/state combinations, etc.) and allow the user to scroll through and select the desired location from the list. In certain other examples, after the user has selected the location name, the weather radio will present the FIPS code (or other location code), and await for a user entry and/or confirmation of that code. In other examples, the location code (e.g., FIPS code) may be hidden from the user and the user will only see the associated location name (e.g., country, state, province, city, county, and/or county part, etc.). The weather radio may also alert the user when a location code associated with the device (e.g., the current location code for a profile) has changed in a national FIPS database. Alternatively, the weather radio might not alert the user, but may automatically update the location code in the internal storage of the weather radio. In other embodiments, the weather radio may periodically access an external FIPS database (e.g., via the Internet) to confirm that the internal list of location codes is up to date, and if not, the weather radio may automatically download the updated FIPS location code list, and replace any outdated codes associated with user profiles on the weather radio. In still other embodiments, the location codes might not be stored internally at the weather radio device. For example, the weather radio may transmit a location name to an external location code provider (e.g., FIPS database) which may determine the FIPS code corresponding to the location name and transmit the FIPS code back to the weather radio. In other examples, the weather radio might only use location names and not location codes. It may receive weather alerts from a third party capable of translating location codes into location names for the weather radio. 
         [0017]    These and other embodiments will become more apparent from the below drawings and detailed description of the disclosure provided below. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0018]    A more complete understanding of the features described herein and the advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description by way of example in view of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate like features, and wherein: 
           [0019]      FIG. 1  shows an illustrative computer system in accordance with one or more aspects of the present invention; and 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  shows an illustrative embodiment of a mobile receiver device in accordance with one or more aspects of the present invention. 
           [0021]      FIG. 3  shows an illustrative embodiment of a receiver device in accordance with one or more aspects of the present invention. 
           [0022]      FIG. 4  shows an illustrative embodiment of a watch device in accordance with one or more aspects of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0023]    In the following description of the various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. 
         [0024]    Aspects of the disclosure provide a method and apparatus for receiving radio-broadcasted alerts and presenting them in a useful format for the end user. 
         [0025]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , a block diagram of illustrative electronics is depicted for a receiver  400 . The illustrative electronics include one or more computer units  401  (e.g., microprocessor/microcontroller), a power supply  417  (e.g., a battery and power regulator unit), a timer  415  (e.g., a watchdog timer), a network connection  414  (e.g., Ethernet and/or 802.11 a-g, n), a screen interface  402  (e.g., touch screen display), a motion detector, light controller, door/window sensor, infrared detector, and/or appliance control/sensor  403 , a user interface control  404  (e.g. a handset or keypad), various indicators, displays, and keypads  405 , voice recognition circuits  406 , still and/or video camera(s)  407 , data interface circuitry  408  (e.g., wired and/or wireless circuitry), signal processing circuits  412  (e.g., image processor), appliance control interface  416  (e.g., heat, window controls, bathroom heater, cooling, water heater, lighting, alarm clocks), speech processor  410  and associated audio device  409  (e.g., speakers and/or headset), various antenna transmitters and/or receivers  413  and associated receiver/transmitter (e.g., transceiver) and/or GPS circuitry  411 . 
         [0026]    The receiver  400  may be implemented in a standalone configuration and/or coupled to one or more other receivers  400 . The receiver  400  may alternatively be configured as low cost display station with the minimum components for receiving and displaying information to a user. Example embodiments of the receiver include, but are not limited to, mobile or stationary weather station appliances, wall clocks or wrist watches, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and other mobile devices, radios, CD players, MP3 players, bedside alarms, and/or temperature display devices. Each of these example embodiments may be implemented with or without localized information, such as, for example, weather and/or traffic information. 
         [0027]    In illustrative embodiments, the receiver  400  is configured as illustrative form factors  200 ,  201 , and  202  as shown in  FIGS. 2-4 . In these examples, receiver  400  includes an outer casing  331 , various user inputs (e.g. a keypad  1403 , volume buttons  325 , etc.), and a display screen  332  which may be a touch screen. The receiver may be continuously powered or may be turned on by depression of a power button  322 . The receiver may include a LED power indicator  324  and/or simply use the screen backlighting as the power indicator. The receiver  400  may be variously configured to include weather button  301 , Fahrenheit and Celsius selection buttons  319  and  320 , respectively, one or more emergency light(s)  333  and/or icons  323  to provide customized alerts, speaker button  313 , microphone button  314 , video button  315 , reset button (not shown), volume button  325 , keypad  1403 , GPS locating buttons  310 , alert selection buttons  308 , and/or other suitable user interface buttons. In addition, the device may have recording functions to record alerts either manually and/or automatically and include various associated user interface buttons including play  801 , pause  801   a,  fast forward  802 , and rewind  803 . The receiver  400  may also include a map button  307  for displaying a satellite image on the device and a weather button  301  for overlaying storm alerts on the display. The receiver may have additional buttons and devices to accommodate additional features desirable in such a receiver including, but not limited to, an antenna  328 , traffic button  302 , call button  1401 , menu button  306 , end button  1402 , wi-fi button  326 , mp3 button  804 , radio button  1001 , FM/AM frequency selector buttons  303  and  304  respectively, and time and date buttons  1501  and  1502 , respectively. Additionally, the various embodiments may include a band  1503  to accommodate a wrist-worn embodiment of the receiver. 
         [0028]    In further embodiments of the disclosure, various ports may be included to include additional modules and/or other communication and/or sensor devices. For example, a GPS module  411  may be included in the receiver  400 . The GPS receiver may be permanently and/or detachably mounted to the receiver  400 . Where the receiver  400  including the GPS module is a weather station, the device may automatically extract weather data based on the coordinates of the GPS system. These coordinates may come from the GPS module or may be inputed by the user manually. When the coordinates are derived from the GPS module, the weather station receiver  400  may translate the GPS coordinates to zip codes and/or zip plus four codes. In either event, the receiver  400  extracts the relevant weather related data based on the location. 
         [0029]    In an additional aspect of the disclosure, the receiver  400  may be configured to enable the user to select various options such as selecting and/or choosing an alert in which to record and/or a particular weather radio tower that is closer in which to receive radio broadcasts from. 
         [0030]    Additionally, if there were particular NOAA weather alerts detected in the vicinity of the location of a user&#39;s home, present location, or a one or more programmable locations, these alerts may trigger an alert on the screen  332 . This device may record the actual weather radio alert or used synthesized voice to generate an alert to the user. 
         [0031]    In additional aspects of the disclosure, a user is provided with a simplified user-interface such that the user may select a particular alert. In this embodiment, based on the particular tower of the user&#39;s geographic location, certain alerts are pre-selected. That is, users who are located proximate to a tower in certain geographical areas will receive alerts that are most relevant to that area&#39;s weather conditions. For example, if the user is located proximate a tower in the midwest, certain alerts such as tornado alerts or dust storm warnings are automatically enabled, while users located proximate to a tower in coastal areas will have coastal warning alerts automatically enabled. This automatic alert filtering function may provide potential advantages to users that do not want to receive many alerts not of interest to the user, and to user that may have limited abilities to reconfigure their devices, yet still wish to receive critical alerts. 
         [0032]    Additionally, in certain embodiments, some users may be provided a whole range of alerts. For example, civil danger warnings in the United States have become of much more interest to the general public. In one example, if the water were to become contaminated, NOAA provides a water contamination alert. Similarly, there are alerts for chemical hazards, dam break warning, contagious disease warnings and other similar alerts which may require a user to take emergency action. These alerts may take priority over other settings (e.g., sound volume) and be immediately presented to the user. 
         [0033]    In an additional embodiment of the disclosure filters, for the alert functions may be vicariously configured. For example, the alert could be selected on a geographic basis. In alternate embodiments, the device may contain different alerts for different counties, different states, and different regions. 
         [0034]    In still another embodiment of the disclosure, the receiver  400  may be configured to monitor the radio broadcasts for a tone or other indication preceding a weather alert such as three beeps. The device may be configured through a screen  332 / 402  to record and store the alert in the internal memory of a microprocessor(s)  401  and/or in an external memory (not shown). For example, certain radio broadcasts may play a tone 10, 20, or 30 or more seconds preceding a weather alert. This tone may be utilized by receivers  413  to determine when a weather alert is about to be sent. The receiver/transmitter  411  will then generate an interrupt to microprocessor  401  to “wake up” the device in order to enable weather radios with useful battery life to be built. Currently, the weather radios must be constantly on and constantly listened to in order to avoid missing an alert, and hence the microprocessor  401  and associated support circuitry must be constantly powered. The use of the tone allows battery operated weather radios to turn on once every 10 to 30 seconds and “listen” for the tone. If the tone is not present, the weather radio shuts off to conserve battery power and the microprocessor  401  goes into a sleep mode. If the tone is present, the weather radio turns on and receives the weather alert. 
         [0035]    In further embodiments of the disclosure, the weather alert is recorded by, for example, microprocessor  401  using an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter (not shown) and stored in a memory in the microprocessor  401  and/or an external memory (not shown). In this manner, the user does not have to be continually listening to the weather radio but rather the receiver  400  performs this function automatically. Once the message is recorded, a visual and/or audible indication is provided to the user via a screen  332 , speaker  313 , and/or any other suitable indicator that there is a weather alert message waiting. The audible/visual indication may be different for different weather alerts and may include an icon on the screen  332  and/or an icon printed on the face of receiver  400  along with a visual indicator such as an LED. Similarly, the visual indication may be different for different weather alerts and include different icons on the screen  332  or printed on the face of receiver  400 . For example, there may be a tornado icon (flashing or stable), a severe thunderstorm warning icon (flashing or stable), flood warning icon (flashing or stable), etc. on screen  332 . Additionally, there may be a user input device coupled to the icons enabling the user to play the alert associated with the icon. See, for example, the play button  801  in  FIG. 3 . 
         [0036]    In still further embodiments of the disclosure, the weather radio displays a map or satellite image of the user&#39;s current location along with various points of interest such as nearby cities on display  332 . Overlaid on this map and/or satellite image may be various storm path polygons provided by the weather alerts and which may be enabled by a selection option on the touch screen  332  and/or using a weather overlay button such as button  301 . This allows the user to determine visually whether or not the user is in the storm path. For example, the user may input a zip code or longitude and latitude coordinates (or have it determined through a built-in GPS module) and then may have the device indicate whether or not the user is in the storm path as well as a time to arrival of the storm. The device may input the zip code using a keypad  1403  and/or use the current location using button (not shown). The device may be configured to allow a user to see visually whether or not the satellite radio&#39;s location (or another selectable location) is in the storm path by, for example, using a satellite image and/or map on display  332  overlaid with a one or more storm path polygons. The weather radio may also be configured to provide the user with audio and/or graphic directions (detour directions) to exit the storm path. The user may manipulate the screen  332 , for example using buttons  321 , to zoom in on the current location in order to see specifics as to time of arrival of the storm, or zoom out of the current location zoom level in order to see a global picture of the storm path. 
         [0037]    Presenting another aspect of the disclosure, the weather radio may also include a user interface on screen  332  which displays the various weather alerts that are potentially available and allows the user to select and deselect individual alerts either using the touch screen or selection buttons such as buttons  321 . Further, the user can enter one or multiple zip codes for which alerts may be available using, for example, keypad  1403 . Additionally, the weather alerts may be recorded for each of the zip codes and scrolled through, using, for example buttons  321  or the touch screen, so the user may see which alerts are associated with which zip codes. In addition, the user may be able to individually select the alerts that are associated with each zip code. For example, a user might not be interested in flooding where his main home is located in the mountains, but may be keenly interested in flooding for his beach house. 
         [0038]    In still further aspects of the disclosure, an icon may be stable or moving on screen  332 . For example, where the user&#39;s location map is shown on the screen, one or more tornado icons may appear on the screen and/or move across the screen depending on the storm&#39;s track. In these embodiments, the user&#39;s location may be fixed on screen  332  and the storm&#39;s location may be shown as moving relative to the user&#39;s location. Alternately, both the user&#39;s location and the storm&#39;s track may be fixed on the screen  332 , or both may be shown as moving on the screen  332 . 
         [0039]    In an additional embodiment of the disclosure, the receiver  400  may include other co-located receiver devices for measuring local weather conditions, sending and receiving weather data to locally connected devices via transmitter/receiver  411 , or any other task. The co-located devices may be any device that those with ordinary skill in the art will appreciate as appropriate, including, but not limited to, weather stations, clocks, alarm clocks, watches, temperature displays, telephones, personal computer computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other suitable co-located devices. For example, the weather radio may reside in the user&#39;s main home and be “always on” and plugged in to wall power. In other examples, battery powered display devices may be located throughout a user&#39;s home, office, or other location, and/or on the user&#39;s person (e.g., watch device  202  in  FIG. 4 ), and may receive data from the main weather radio. These devices may display weather alerts periodically, for example, every few seconds or minutes. In these examples, the plugged in or battery powered display devices, located remotely from a main weather radio, may periodically wake up, determine if a weather alert has been recorded in the main weather radio, and if so, then provide the alert in a remote location. In this manner, the main weather radio may be located, for example, in a den in the house and the remote display devices may be located throughout the home, for example, in a nearby garage, office, barn, boat, and/or on the user (e.g., the watch  202  in  FIG. 4 ). 
         [0040]    In an additional embodiment of the disclosure, the receiver  400  may also be configured to plug into a cradle. The cradle will keep the receiver  400  always charged such as is common for home phones. In this manner, the user may simply take the device to a soccer game, swimming match, or boating outing. Thus, the alerts may be available at different locations when needed. The receiver  400  may also be configured to provide a radio, alarm clock, indoor and outdoor temperature and min/max temperatures. In one embodiment, the receiver  400  may be configured with a similar form factor to a PDA or so called “blackberry” like device, see, e.g.,  FIG. 2 . 
         [0041]    In still further embodiments of the disclosure, once the receiver  300  is removed from the cradle, it may be configured to turn on or off certain function such as the receipt of outdoor temperature and/or the feeding of data to remote weather display devices. 
         [0042]    In still further embodiments of the disclosure, a user may choose a particular weather radio tower that is closest to a user&#39;s location or one that has the strongest signal and the display can be configured to display the name and location of the tower selected. 
         [0043]    In additional aspects of the disclosure, the weather radio tower may be selected using a combination of the signal strength indicator (e.g., Radio Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI)) from the transmitter/receiver  411  and/or a measurement of the signal to noise ratio of the signal as calculated by, for example, microprocessor  401 . In this way, for example, a weaker but low noise signal may be selected over a very strong, but very high noise signal. Hence the user may be potentially provided with a preferred or optimal signal. In still further embodiments, two or more signal icons will be displayed on the display  332 / 402  with the user able to select between the icons. 
         [0044]    In further embodiments, the user is provided with various predetermined profiles on screen  332 . In this way, the user programming of the NOAA-broadcasted Specific Area Messaging Encoding (SAME) profiles are simplified to allow a user to select which counties and alerts the user is interested in viewing/hearing by scrolling through the screen. The user can simply scroll through the default profiles such as a travel profile, a home profile, a boating profile, a freeze profile, a tornado profile, a vacation home profile, and a hurricane profile. In some examples, a user can simply select the profile and all criteria associated with the selected profile will be set automatically. 
         [0045]    As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading the following disclosure, various aspects described herein may be embodied as methods, systems, apparatus, and/or computer program product. Accordingly, those aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, such aspects may take the form of a computer program product stored by one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable program code, or instructions, embodied in or on the storage media. Computer executable instructions and data used by the processor(s) and other components of the computer system may be stored in a storage facility such as a memory. The memory may comprise any type or combination of read only memory (ROM) modules or random access memory (RAM) modules, including both volatile and nonvolatile memory such as disks. The software may be stored within the memory to provide instructions to the processor(s) such that when the instructions are executed, the processor(s), the receiver and/or other components are caused to perform various functions or methods such as those described herein. Computer executable instructions and data may further be stored on computer readable media including electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic storage and the like, and/or any combination thereof 
         [0046]    The present disclosure has been described in terms of preferred and illustrative embodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications and variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occur to persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of this disclosure. For example, while a single microprocessor is shown in the accompanying drawings, one or more microprocessors may be utilized. Further, any type of microprocessor may be utilized and are interchangeable including computers, microcontrollers, Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and other computing devices.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7