Wireless Access

Vergence Entertainment LLC

Glenayre Electronics, Inc.

Gregory J Pinter

Paul J Lima

Avinash L Ghirnikar

Robert J Feeney

Brent Wayne Barkley

Jeff E Haas

Carl Edward Lippitt

Provided, inter alia, is a type of contest in which, at various intervals, geographically dispersed players attempt to answer the identical problem at substantially the same time. In representative embodiments, problems (typically, questions) are made available at seemingly random times throughout the day (or throughout some specified time interval), and players have the opportunity either to respond to the problem or (e.g., in the event that a given player is occupied when a particular problem arises) to pass on the current problem and wait for another one. In such embodiments, more questions are made available than the players are permitted to answer in accordance with the rules of the game, so that players have flexibility as to when they participate.

Substantially simultaneous intermittent contest

Provided, inter alia, is a system for generating substantially simultaneous alerts, in which a plurality of user devices is accessible via at least one publicly available network. Each such user device has installed on it an alert-based client. A server is configured to download identical alert information, including a message that has been encrypted, to the plurality of user devices. The alert-based clients are configured to receive the alert information and, in response: (i) to store the message in encrypted form until just prior to a specified delivery time; and (ii) to decrypt and deliver the message substantially at the specified delivery time. By virtue of the foregoing arrangement, substantially simultaneous delivery of the message to the user devices is achieved.

System for substantially simultaneous alerts

A method and apparatus for service level recognition and registration processing in a wireless communication device are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for transitioning between service modes and indicating a current service mode to a user of a wireless communication device. The status of a signal associated with a forward channel from a messaging system to the wireless communication device is determined. A quality metric is determined based upon the status over a predetermined period of time. Three service modes, including a full service mode, a basic service mode, and a storing service mode are provided. In the storing service mode, after determining the quality metric is better than a first predetermined threshold a transition is made to the basic service mode. In the basic service mode, after verification of a reverse channel from the wireless communication device to the messaging system a transition is made to the full service mode. In the full service mode if the reverse channel becomes degraded, then a transition is made to the basic service mode. The current service mode is indicated to the user. According to another aspect of the present invention, a wireless communication device performs registration processing based upon the current service mode of the wireless communication device. Three service modes are recognized, including: a storing service mode in which new messages destined for the wireless communication device are not received by the wireless communication device; a basic service mode in which new messages destined for the wireless communication device are received by the wireless communication device, and a full service mode in which both new messages and stored messages are received by the wireless communication device. A registration process determines what action to take based upon the current service mode.

Service level indication and registration processing in a wireless communication device

A method and apparatus for detecting duplicate messages and correcting garbled messages in a wireless communication device are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, erred messages received by a wireless communication device are corrected. A first message fragment is received by the wireless communication device. The first message fragment is corrected based upon a second message fragment after it has been determined that the first message fragment contains one or more errors. According to another aspect of the present invention, a wireless communication device includes a receiver configured to receive messages transmitted over a forward channel from a messaging system; a transmitter configured to transmit responses over a reverse channel to the messaging system; and a processor. The processor is coupled to the receiver to receive messages from the messaging system. The processor is further coupled to the transmitter to transmit acknowledgments to the messaging system. Additionally, the processor is configured to correct garbled messages by determining whether or not a second message is a duplicate of the garbled message. If the second message is a duplicate of the garbled message, then the garbled message is corrected based upon the second message.

Growing community of inventors

Danville, CA, United States of America

Gregory J Pinter