Communication apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9801213-B2
Application number	US-201514740647-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 16, 2015
Priority date	Jun 16, 2014
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

A communication apparatus may receive a connection request signal from a particular external apparatus; determine, based on the connection request signal, whether a wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is to be established; send a response signal to the particular external apparatus in a case of determining that the wireless connection is to be established; and establish the wireless connection in a case where the response signal is sent to the particular external apparatus. The determining may include: determining that the wireless connection is to be established in a case where both a first condition and a second condition are satisfied; and determining that the wireless connection is not to be established in a case where at least one of the first condition and the second condition is not satisfied.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A communication apparatus comprising:
a processor;
a communication interface configured to send and receive data; and
a memory operatively coupled to the processor and storing computer-readable instructions therein, the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the communication apparatus to perform:
receiving, via the communication interface, a connection request signal from a particular external apparatus after a wireless connection operation for establishing a wireless connection with an external apparatus has been performed on the communication apparatus;
determining, based on the connection request signal in a case where the connection request signal is received from the particular external apparatus, whether a wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is to be established;
sending, via the communication interface, a response signal for establishing the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus to the particular external apparatus in a case of determining that the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is to be established, wherein the response signal is not sent to the particular external apparatus in a case of determining that the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is not to be established; and
establishing the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus according to a predetermined wireless connection scheme in a case where the response signal is sent to the particular external apparatus, the predetermined wireless connection scheme being for establishing the wireless connection between the communication apparatus and the particular external apparatus without an input of an identifier for authentication by a user to any of the communication apparatus and the particular external apparatus,
wherein the determining includes:
determining that the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is to be established in a case where both a first condition and a second condition are satisfied, the first condition being a condition that the connection request signal is a request according to the predetermined wireless connection scheme, the second condition being a condition that a state of a particular area in the connection request signal is a predetermined state, the particular area being an area in which a relation character string is to be described, and the relation character string being related to an identifier used in the wireless connection which is to be established between the communication apparatus and the particular external apparatus; and
determining that the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is not to be established in a case where at least one of the first condition and the second condition is not satisfied.

2. The communication apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein
the wireless connection to be established between the communication apparatus and the particular external apparatus is a wireless connection in which one of the communication apparatus and the particular external apparatus operates as a parent station and the other operates as a child station, and
the predetermined state includes a state in which the relation character string including a partial character string is described in the particular area, the partial character string being a part of a parent identifier for identifying the parent station.

3. The communication apparatus as in claim 2 , wherein
the determining further includes determining that the second condition is satisfied in a case where the relation character string including only the partial character string is described in the particular area.

4. The communication apparatus as in claim 2 , wherein
the receiving includes receiving, via the communication interface, the connection request signal from the particular external apparatus in a state in which the communication apparatus is not operating as either the parent station or the child station, and
the computer-readable instructions cause the communication apparatus to further perform:
deciding whether the communication apparatus is to operate as the parent station or the child station by executing a predetermined wireless communication with the particular external apparatus for deciding whether the communication apparatus is to operate as the parent station or the child station, after the response signal has been sent to the particular external apparatus.

5. The communication apparatus as in claim 2 , wherein
the receiving includes receiving, via the communication interface, the connection request signal from the particular external apparatus in a state in which the communication apparatus operates as the parent station, and
the determining further includes determining that the second condition is satisfied in a case where the relation character string including an entirety of the parent identifier for identifying the communication apparatus operating as the parent station is described in the particular area.

6. The communication apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein
the predetermined state includes a state in which the relation character string is not described in the particular area.

7. The communication apparatus as in claim 6 , wherein:
the wireless connection to be established between the communication apparatus and the particular external apparatus is a wireless connection in which one of the communication apparatus and the particular external apparatus operates as a parent station and the other operates as a child station,
the receiving includes receiving, via the communication interface, the connection request signal from the particular external apparatus in a state in which the communication apparatus is not operating as either the parent station or the child station, and
the computer-readable instructions cause the communication apparatus to further perform:
shifting a state of the communication apparatus from a state in which the communication apparatus is not operating as either the parent station or the child station to a state in which the communication apparatus operates as the parent station, and
the sending includes sending, via the communication interface, the response signal to the particular external apparatus after the state of the communication apparatus has been shifted to the state in which the communication apparatus operates as the parent station.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions for a communication apparatus,
wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by a processor operatively connected to a memory of the communication apparatus, cause the communication apparatus to perform:
receiving, via a communication interface of the communication apparatus, a connection request signal from a particular external apparatus after a wireless connection operation for establishing a wireless connection with an external apparatus has been performed on the communication apparatus;
determining based on the connection request signal in a case where the connection request signal is received from the particular external apparatus, whether a wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is to be established;
sending, via the communication interface, a response signal for establishing the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus to the particular external apparatus in a case of determining that the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is to be established,
wherein the response signal is not sent to the particular external apparatus in a case of determining that the wireless connection with the particular external apparatus is not to be

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Terashita Kunihito

Classifications

• H04W76/18

  Management of setup rejection or failure · CPC title

• H04W76/10 Primary

  Connection setup · CPC title

• H04W12/06

  Authentication · CPC title

• H04W76/02 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W76/027

  Electricity · mapped topic