Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.v.

Paul M Fulton

Robert J Davies

Robert L Blake

Heribert Baldus

Martin S Wilcox

Marten Jeroen Pijl

Adam Leitch

Laura Klaming

David P Walker

Dawid Ochal

Adam S Leitch

There is provided a method of controlling the operation of a first electronic device having a first display screen, the method comprising obtaining () measurements of a position of the first electronic device relative to a second electronic device, an orientation of the first display screen, and/or an orientation of a second display screen of a second electronic device; determining (), using the obtained measurements, one or both of (i) whether a first user using the first electronic device can view the second display screen, and (ii) whether a second user using the second electronic device can view the first display screen; and controlling () the display of information on the first display screen based on the result of the step of determining.

Method and apparatus for controlling the operation of an electronic device

A method of controlling a device that includes a receiver and a movement sensor includes (a) deactivating the receiver; (b) while the receiver is deactivated, analyzing measurements from the movement sensor to determine a measure of the distance the device has moved from a first location; and (c) in the event that it is determined from the measurements from the movement sensor that the device has moved from the first location by more than a threshold distance, activating the receiver and using the receiver to obtain a second measurement of the location of the device.

Conservation of battery life in GPS accessing portable devices

Method for obtaining range and/or positional information of electronic devices typically rely on a device (A) re-questing that another device (B) supplies a reply message (), which contains some timing information (T, T) on the signals received and sent. Problems that arise in such networks comprise: firstly, some devices (C) may be out of range of the device (A) that initiates the ranging measurements, and secondly, some devices (B, C) may not be allowed to communicate with each other and thus, the distance between these devices cannot be found. This invention discloses that in these cases, eavesdropping on messages () passing between other devices (A, B, C) in the system can result in that distances between additional devices are found. Furthermore, by using eavesdropping the number of transmissions, and therefore the potential for collisions, is reduced. Thus, the power consumption of the nodes in the network can be lowered.

Making time-of-flight measurements in master/slave and ad hoc networks by eaves-dropping on messages

A communications system includes first and second beacon devices capable of wireless message transmission and at least one portable device capable of receiving such message transmissions. The first beacon is arrange to broadcast a series of inquiry messages according to a first communications protocol, such as Bluetooth. The portable device detects such inquiry messages and replies with an identifier for the portable device. The first beacon then transmits the received identifier to the second beacon, with the second beacon and portable device configured to perform a service interaction when triggered by the second beacon receiving the portable device identifier.

Local data delivery through beacons

A queue monitoring system is disclosed. A detection system () provides at least one coverage zone () covering at least a part of a queuing area (). A handset () is issued to a user, the detection system () being arranged to detect the handset () when it is within the coverage zone () and to record the user of the handset as being in the queue. Queue load is subsequently used to provide recommended itineraries to visitors via the handsets ().

Method and system for electronic route planning and virtual queue handling

A data transmission system comprises a first ( ) and two or more second ( ) beacon devices interconnected ( ) as a cluster capable of wireless message transmission, and at least one mobile device ( ) capable of receiving such message transmissions. The first beacon ( ) is arranged to broadcast a series of inquiry messages (INQ) according to a first communications protocol, such as Bluetooth. The mobile device ( ) detects such inquiry messages and replies with an identifier for itself. The link (A) from the first beacon device is then re-established between a selected one ( ) of the second beacon devices. When a handover trigger event occurs, paging and page response messages are used to select a further second beacon device ( ) and transfer the communications link (C) thereto.

Message handover for networked beacons

A data transmission system comprises a large number of networked data beacons interconnected and grouped together in respective clusters. In the system, a first ( ) and two or more second ( ) beacon devices are interconnected ( ) as a cluster capable of wireless message transmission, and at least one mobile device ( ) capable of receiving such message transmissions. The first beacon ( ) is arranged to broadcast a series of inquiry messages (INQ) according to a first communications protocol, such as Bluetooth, but with the addition of an identifier for the cluster (CL). The mobile device ( ) detects such inquiry messages and replies with an identifier for itself, together with message reason data. The link (A) from the first beacon device is then re-established between a selected one ( ) of the second beacon devices, with interaction between the mobile device ( ) and selected second beacon device ( ) being controlled at least partly by the message reason data.

Growing community of inventors

Redhill, United Kingdom

Paul M Fulton