Ping feature for electronic devices
View Patent ↗A pinging electronic device, a pingable electronic device and a network for the devices are disclosed. The ping electronic devices comprising a ping function and a transmitter wherein the ping function is adapted to generate and the transmitter is adapted to transmit over an ad hoc wireless network at least one associated ping control message to at least one pingable electronic device paired to the pinging electronic device for actuation of at least one indicator element of the at least one pingable electronic device.
1. A pinging electronic device comprising a ping function and a transmitter wherein the ping function is adapted to generate and the transmitter is adapted to transmit over a BLUETOOTH capable or BLUETOOTH like network at least one associated ping control message to at least one pingable electronic device paired to the pinging electronic device for actuation of at least one indicator element of the at least one pingable electronic device; wherein the pingable electronic device comprises at least two indicator elements and the ping control message contains instructions which select which of the at least two indicator elements is actuated and which of the at least two indicator elements is not actuated; and wherein for each of the at least two indicator elements, the pingable electronic device is adapted to perform an electronic function in addition to actuation of a respective indicator element in response to the ping control message and the respective indicator element is inherent to the additional electronic function.
2. The pinging electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the at least one pingable electronic device comprises a plurality of pingable electronic devices and the ping function is adapted to ping all of the plurality of pingable electronic devices.
3. The pinging electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the at least one pingable electronic device comprises a plurality of pingable electronic devices and the ping function is adapted to ping a subset of the plurality of pingable electronic devices based on a user selection.
4. The pinging electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the ping control message sent to each of the at least one pingable electronic devices is identical.
5. The pinging electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the ping control message sent to each of the at least one multiple pingable electronic devices is unique.
6. The pinging electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the pinging electronic device is a master device.
7. The pinging electronic device according to claim 1 wherein the pinging electronic device is a peripheral device.
8. A pingable electronic device comprising a receiver, a ping message processor, and at least two indicator elements wherein the receiver is adapted to receive a ping control message over a BLUETOOTH capable or BLUETOOTH like network and the ping message processor is adapted to actuate at least one of the at least two indicator elements in response to the ping control message; wherein the ping control message contains instructions which select which of the at least two indicator elements is actuated and which of the at least two indicator elements is not actuated; and wherein for each of the at least two indicator elements, the pingable electronic device is adapted to perform an electronic function in addition to actuation of a respective indicator element in response to the ping control message and the respective indicator element is inherent to the additional electronic function.
9. The pingable electronic device according to claim 8 wherein the ping message processor is adapted to decode whether the ping control message contains instructions to ping the pingable electronic device.
10. A BLUETOOTH capable or BLUETOOTH like network including a plurality of pingable electronic devices according to claim 8 and a pinging electronic device comprising a ping function and a transmitter wherein the pinging electronic device is paired to the plurality of pingable electronic devices and wherein the ping function is adapted to generate and the transmitter is adapted to transmit over the network the ping control message to the plurality of pingable electronic devices.
11. The network according to claim 10 wherein the ping function is adapted to ping all of the plurality of pingable electronic devices.
12. The network according to claim 10 wherein the ping function is adapted to ping a subset of the plurality of pingable electronic devices based on a user selection.
13. The network according to claim 10 wherein the ping control message sent to each of the plurality of pingable electronic devices is identical.
14. The network according to claim 10 wherein the ping control message sent to each of the plurality of pingable electronic devices is unique.
15. The network according to claim 14 wherein the ping message processor of each of the plurality of pingable electronic devices is adapted to decode whether the ping control message contains instructions to ping the pingable electronic device.
16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable program code stored therein, the computer readable program code being encoded with computer executable instructions for causing a ping message to be sent over a BLUETOOTH capable or BLUETOOTH like network, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising:
computer executable instructions for processing a received ping input command;
computer executable instructions for generating a ping message that contains instructions to select which of at least two indicator elements is actuated and which of the at least two indicator elements is not actuated, wherein each of the at least two indicator elements is adapted to perform an electronic function in addition to being a respective indicator element in response to the ping control message and wherein the respective indicator element is inherent to the additional electronic function;
computer executable instructions for instructing a transmitter to transmit the ping message.
17. The computer readable medium according to claim 16 wherein the computer executable instructions for generating a ping message further comprising:
computer executable instructions for generating the ping message for pinging multiple pingable electronic devices.
18. The computer readable medium according to claim 16 wherein the computer executable instructions for generating a ping message further comprising:
computer executable instructions for generating the ping message for pinging a subset of pingable electronic devices based on a user selection.