Greatcall, Inc.

Joel Stair

Kotaro Matsuo

John Arrizza

Gavin Sermona

Matthew Luscher

Jasen Cotton

Luis Sanchez

Communications devices such as cellular telephones share resources, for example to conserve battery capacity or to enable a device to perform a function not available to another one of the devices. Such devices may find particular utility in a mobile personal emergency response (MPERS) environment, and may enable clients of an MPERS service to take better advantage of the service. The devices communicate over a local wireless communications system to determine which device may perform a particular function. Other resources that may be shared include cellular connectivity and global positioning capability.

Shared resource capacity among devices

A method of operating a communications device to maintain a position fix of the communications device includes obtaining a position fix using a position determination capability of the device, such as a global positioning system capability. The method further includes emitting a first acoustic signal, and recording a baseline acoustic signature in response to the emission of the first acoustic signal. The method further includes emitting an additional acoustic signal and recording an additional acoustic signature resulting from the emission of the additional acoustic signal, comparing the baseline acoustic signature with the additional acoustic signature, and estimating, based at least in part on the comparison of the baseline and additional acoustic signatures, whether the communications device has moved between the recordings of the baseline and additional acoustic signatures.

Electronic device movement detection

Among other features, a communications device includes a wide area communications transceiver and a local wireless communications transceiver. The device is configured to recognize, via the local wireless communications transceiver, the presence of one or more peripheral wireless devices available for transferring data to the communications device. The device transmits to a remote site a list of the one or more recognized peripheral devices, and receives from the remote site an instruction to establish communications with a particular one of the one or more recognized peripheral devices. The device establishes communications with the particular recognized peripheral device in response to the received instruction, for example by pairing.

Wireless network connection management

Systems and methods of conserving power in a mobile emergency communication device. After placing a telephone call, the calling device communicates information to the call recipient, for example a response center, usable to estimate the remaining talk time of the calling device. The call recipient sends instructions to the calling device to turn off, disable, or suspend certain device capabilities to conserve battery power in the calling device. For example, if it is determined that the device is not moving, a geographical location capability of the device may be turned off to conserve power. Other capabilities may also be turned off, for example a secondary radio transceiver, a display screen or other visual indicator, certain software applications executing on the device, or other capabilities.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Joel Stair