Automatic connection of bluetooth human interface devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016014545-A1
Application number	US-201214397371-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 4, 2012
Priority date	Jun 4, 2012
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A Bluetooth controller associated with a host device can be configured to automatically configure and setup a Bluetooth LE HID without the use of hidden menus or other setup options involving multiple steps (or other input devices). The Bluetooth controller executes background scan operations to detect at least one Bluetooth LE HID to connect to the host device. Each Bluetooth packet received at the Bluetooth controller is analyzed to determine whether the received Bluetooth packet is a predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type transmitted by the Bluetooth LE HID. In response to determining that the received Bluetooth packet is a predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type transmitted by the Bluetooth LE HID, the received Bluetooth packet is provided to a Bluetooth LE HID module of the Bluetooth controller. Otherwise, the received Bluetooth packet is provided to a Bluetooth HCI module of the Bluetooth controller.

First claim

1 . A method comprising:
executing, at a Bluetooth controller associated with a host device, background scan operations to detect a Bluetooth device for establishing a communication link between the Bluetooth device and the host device; receiving a Bluetooth packet at the Bluetooth controller in response to said executing the background scan operations; determining whether the received Bluetooth packet is a predefined Bluetooth low energy (LE) human interface device (HID) packet type transmitted by the Bluetooth device; and providing the received Bluetooth packet to a Bluetooth LE HID module of the Bluetooth controller in response to determining that the received Bluetooth packet is the predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type, or providing the received Bluetooth packet to a Bluetooth host controller interface (HCI) module of the Bluetooth controller in response to determining that the received Bluetooth packet is not the predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining that the received Bluetooth packet is the predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type, determining whether the Bluetooth device is within a predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller; and in response to determining that the Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller, executing one or more connection operations to establish the communication link between the Bluetooth device and the host device.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein said executing one or more connection operations to establish the communication link between the Bluetooth device and the host device further comprises:
mapping communications associated with the Bluetooth device to a corresponding USB HID of the host device through a USB interface of the Bluetooth controller.

4 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
storing configuration information associated with the Bluetooth device for subsequent reconnection between the Bluetooth device and the host device.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein said determining whether the Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller is based on at least one member selected from the group consisting of a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) associated with the received Bluetooth packet, a radio signal path loss, and near field communication (NFC) signal detection.

6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein said determining whether the Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller comprises:
determining a radio signal path loss value associated with the Bluetooth device based, at least in part, on a transmit power associated with the Bluetooth device, a radio signal loss value associated with an antenna of the Bluetooth controller, and a radio signal loss value associated with an antenna of the Bluetooth device; comparing the radio signal path loss value associated with the Bluetooth device against a threshold path loss; and determining that the Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller in response to determining that the radio signal path loss value associated with the Bluetooth device is less than the threshold path loss, or determining that the Bluetooth device is not within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller, in response to determining that the radio signal path loss value associated with the Bluetooth device exceeds the threshold path loss.

7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining the transmit power associated with the Bluetooth device and the radio signal loss value associated with the antenna of the Bluetooth device from the received Bluetooth packet.

8 . The method of claim 2 , wherein in response to determining that the Bluetooth device is not within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller, the method further comprises:
discarding the received Bluetooth packet at the Bluetooth controller; and monitoring subsequent transmissions from the Bluetooth device to determine whether the Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller.

9 . The method of claim 2 , wherein said providing the received Bluetooth packet to the Bluetooth LE HID module of the Bluetooth controller is in response to determining that the Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said determining whether the received Bluetooth packet is the predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type comprises:
determining whether the Bluetooth device that transmitted the received Bluetooth packet is a Bluetooth LE HID, based at least in part, on one or more fields of the received Bluetooth packet.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more fields of the received Bluetooth packet comprise at least a service universally unique identifier (QUID) of the received Bluetooth packet.

12 . A first Bluetooth device comprising:
a host device; and a Bluetooth controller associated with the host device, the Bluetooth controller configured to:
execute background scan operations to detect a second Bluetooth device for establishing a communication link between the second Bluetooth device and the host device;
determine whether a Bluetooth packet received at the Bluetooth controller is a predefined Bluetooth low energy (LE) human interface device (HID) packet type transmitted by the second Bluetooth device; in response to determining that the received Bluetooth packet is the predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type, determine whether the second Bluetooth device is within a predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller; in response to determining that the second Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller,
provide the received Bluetooth packet to a Bluetooth LE HID module of the Bluetooth controller, and
execute one or more connection operations to establish the communication link between the second Bluetooth device and the host device.

13 . The first Bluetooth device of claim 12 , wherein the Bluetooth controller configured to execute one or more connection operations to establish the communication link between the second Bluetooth device and the host device further comprises the Bluetooth controller configured to:
map communications associated with the second Bluetooth device to a corresponding USB HID of the host device through a USB interface of the Bluetooth controller.

14 . The first Bluetooth device of claim 12 , wherein, in response to determining that the second Bluetooth device is not within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller, the Bluetooth controller is configured to:
discard the received Bluetooth packet; and monitor subsequent transmissions from the second Bluetooth device to determine whether the second Bluetooth device is within the predetermined threshold distance of the Bluetooth controller.

15 . The first Bluetooth device of claim 12 , wherein, in response to determining that the received Bluetooth packet is not the predefined Bluetooth LE HID packet type, the Bluetooth controller is configured to:
provide the received Bluetooth packet to a Bluetooth host controller interface (HCI) module of the Bluetooth controller.

16 . A method comprising:
receiving, at a Bluetooth controller associated with a host device, a Bluetooth packet from a Bluetooth device; det

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Tian Dan
• Geng Junfeng

Classifications

• H04W8/005

  Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals · CPC title

• H04W4/008 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W76/02

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W76/10

  Connection setup · CPC title

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title