Wireless device pairing management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9992614-B2
Application number	US-201615238519-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2016
Priority date	May 20, 2015
Publication date	Jun 5, 2018
Grant date	Jun 5, 2018

Abstract

A method may include detecting a first wireless device configured to perform short-range wireless communications and detecting a second wireless device configured to perform short-range wireless communications. The method may also include determining one or more short-range wireless connection priorities with respect to a first pairing and a second pairing. The first pairing may be with respect to short-range wireless communications between the first wireless device and a third wireless device configured to perform short-range wireless communications. The second pairing may be with respect to short-range wireless communications between the second wireless device and the third wireless device. The method may further include managing the first pairing and the second pairing based on the one or more short-range wireless connection priorities.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a control system, the method comprising:
detecting one or more source wireless devices configured to perform short-range wireless communications;
detecting one or more destination wireless devices that are devices configured to perform short-range wireless communications and that are within range of the one or more source wireless devices for short-range wireless communications with the one or more source wireless devices;
determining one or more short-range wireless connection priorities for each possible short-range wireless communication pairing between each of the one or more source wireless devices and each of the one or more destination wireless devices based on one or more of the following:
relationships between device types of the one or more source wireless devices and device types of the one or more destination devices with respect to how the device types of the one or more source wireless devices and the one or more destination wireless devices affect functionality of the one or more source wireless devices and the one or more destination wireless devices, wherein short-range wireless communication pairings are prioritized based on how the relationships between the device types of the one or more source wireless devices and the one or more destination wireless devices relate to possible interactions of the one or more source wireless devices with the one or more destination wireless devices according to functionality specific to different device types;
relationships between operation modes of the one or more source wireless devices and operation modes of the one or more destination devices, wherein short-range wireless communication pairings are prioritized based on how the relationships between the operation modes of the one or more source wireless devices and the one or more destination wireless devices relate to possible interactions of the one or more source wireless devices with the one or more destination wireless devices according to functionality specific to different operation modes; and
relationships between user ownership of the one or more source wireless devices and ownership of the one or more destination wireless devices, wherein short-range wireless communication pairings between wireless devices owned by a same user are prioritized over short-range wireless communication pairings between wireless devices owned by different users; and

managing short-range wireless communication pairings between the one or more source wireless devices and the one or more destination wireless devices based on the short-range wireless communication connection priorities.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device types include one or more of the following: a smartphone type, a tablet computer type, a keyboard type, a mouse type, a music player type, a video player type, a desktop computer type, an automobile control module type, a speaker type, and a headphones type.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the operation modes include one or more of the following: a standby mode, an audio transmitting mode, an audio receiving mode, and a phone call mode.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more source devices include a first smartphone and a second smartphone and the one or more destination devices includes an automobile control module and wherein determining the one or more short-range wireless connection priorities includes prioritizing pairing the first smartphone with the automobile control module over pairing the second smartphone with the automobile control module based on the first smartphone and the automobile control module being in a phone call mode and based on the second smartphone not being in a phone call mode.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more source devices include a first smartphone and a second smartphone and the one or more destination devices includes an automobile control module and wherein determining the one or more short-range wireless connection priorities includes prioritizing pairing the first smartphone with the automobile control module over pairing the second smartphone with the automobile control module based on the first smartphone being in an audio transmitting mode, the automobile control module being in an audio receiving mode, and the second smartphone being in a standby mode.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more source devices include a first smartphone and a second smartphone and the one or more destination devices includes an automobile control module and wherein determining the one or more short-range wireless connection priorities includes prioritizing pairing the first smartphone with the automobile control module over pairing the second smartphone with the automobile control module based on the first smartphone and the automobile control module being owned by a first entity and based on the second smartphone being owned by a second entity.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more short-range wireless communication connection priorities includes determining one or more of the following: one or more applications being run on one or more of the one or more source wireless devices and one or more applications being run on one or more of the one or more destination wireless devices.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the one or more short-range wireless communication connection priorities is further based on distances between one or more source wireless devices and one or more destination wireless devices.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining the distances based on received signal strengths.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the short-range wireless communications include Bluetooth communications.

11. A system comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media including instructions stored thereon; and
one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media and configured to, in response to executing the instructions, cause the system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
detecting one or more source wireless devices configured to perform short-range wireless communications;
detecting one or more destination wireless devices that are devices configured to perform short-range wireless communications and that are within range of the one or more source wireless devices for short-range wireless communications with the one or more source wireless devices;
determining one or more short-range wireless connection priorities for each possible short-range wireless communication pairing between each of the one or more source wireless devices and each of the one or more destination wireless devices based on relationships between operation modes of the one or more source wireless devices and operation modes of the one or more destination devices, wherein short-range wireless communication pairings are prioritized based on how the relationships between the operation modes of the one or more source wireless devices and the one or more destination wireless devices relate to possible interactions of the one or more source wireless devices with the one or more destination wireless devices according to functionality specific to different operation modes; and
managing short-range wireless communication pairings between the one or more source wireless devices and the one or more destination wireless devices based on the short-range wireless communication connection priorities.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the operation modes include one or more of the following: a standby mode, an audio transmitting mode, an audio receiving

Assignees

• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Brenner Jennifer T
• O'Toole Christopher Diebold
• Luk Bryant Genepang
• Ziaja Jason
• Das Ananya
• He Robert

Classifications

• H04W76/021

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W40/246

  Connectivity information discovery · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W4/008 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W8/005

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