Future iPhone’s May Warn Users Ahead of Dropped Calls; Find Lost Devices Easily via Bluetooth

by Jody Mitoma on June 3, 2008 at 6:26 pm

AppleInsider has discovered a few Apple patents this passed week showing the company is exploring ways to leverage the iPhone’s wireless technologies to alert users when they are about to lose a WiFi connection, or cellular signal.

The first patent describes ways of providing iPhone and iPod Touch users with an “out of range” warning that includes an estimate of the amount of time remaining until the devices are out of range of a Wifi network. This will then allow users to back-track, and keep in the range of the WiFi network they are connected to.

Apple informs that these “warnings” may be in a way of vibrating the device, through a given sound, or possibly even a visual warning. Who knows, you may even be able to chose one of three, or all three warning methods. More interesting, however, is that in the context of iPhone on a cellular network, the concept would aim to warn users when it appears as if a call is likely to be dropped and allow them reposition themselves to prevent a disconnection.

” If the estimated amount of time until the wireless device projected to be out of range is less than [a] threshold, a tangible warning is issued to that effect,” Apple said. “In this way, warnings are only issued for those situations where the loss of signal would affect the user in the here and now and thereby prevent unnecessary (and potentially annoying) warnings being issued.”

What’s even more impressive is that the Cupertino-based electronics maker said its concept would also allow a warning to be wirelessly transmitted to the person you are speaking to with the user of the wireless device indicating that the call may be dropped. Now that’s cool. No more, Why the hell did you hang up on me?’s.

“The invention is also well suited to be incorporated with mobile devices that are equipped with guidance systems (GPS, accelerometers, etc.) thereby providing an accurate value of the location, velocity, acceleration, elevation, etc. of the wireless mobile device that can be used to give a more precise value of the time remaining until the out of boundary condition is reached,” Apple added.

A second patent filing by Apple describes a method in which locating objects using Bluetooth may be implamented. This would be helpful if you have a wireless Bluetooth headset, and lost mistakenly lost it. This could then allow the device to let off a high pitched sound or light, making it much easier to find the lost device.

Even more impressive is how Apple takes the patent even further with a concept of being able to purchase a tiny Bluetooth device that could be attached to almost anything. I can’t be alone in saying I lose my keys very often. Having one of these tiny Bluetooth devices hooked onto my keychain at all times would allow me to quickly find my set of keys by grabbing my iPhone/iPod Touch and simply pinging the Bluetooth device, setting off a high pitched sound and/or light.

“The distance between the devices can be calculated by comparing the amount of time delay between the transmission of the signal sent from the master device to the slave device and the reception of the return signal from the slave device,” Apple said. “With a precise timing system, the master device can be capable of performing such measurements. Since the speed of the radio waves is known, the distance can be calculated using the time information”.

Once the distance is calculated, it can be displayed to the users via the iPhone’s screen. This information can also affect an auditory or visual signal emitted by the slave device, Apple added. For example, a beeping alarm might change in pitch, rate of beeping, or volume as a user approaches a second device. In that instance, the beeping could get faster as the user gets closer to the missing device, or the sound could get louder as the user gets closer.

“Calculating the slave device’s location can [also] involve using multiple transmitters or receivers to triangulate the position of the missing device,” Apple added. “In order to triangulate position, a system can determine the distances from a device to at least three other known locations. A Global Positioning System, for example, could be used to triangulate a device’s location in accordance with the principles of the present invention.”

These are some nifty patents, if I do say so myself. I wouldn’t mind at all having the ability to ping down my lost car keys, as this does occur to me on a quite-regular basis. If Apple ever gets this to the masses, I will definitely consider purchasing myself one of them tiny Bluetooth devices to hook onto my key chain, and possibly other devices while I’m at it. Lets just hope I don’t lose my iPhone… Then I’ll be screwed.

(Source: Apple Insider)

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