Apparatus for discovering devices in a wireless network
View Patent ↗A Bluetooth-enabled computing device includes a user interface for displaying a prompt to specify a descriptive identifier for a network device prior to performance of a Bluetooth Device Discovery Routine, the descriptive identifier being different from Bluetooth Device Discovery Routine Identifiers. A system memory has entries including descriptive identifiers, each descriptive identifier corresponding to a network device pre-configured with a connection profile. A connection manager determines if a specified descriptive identifier is a match to any entry in the system memory and to implements a connection to a network device corresponding to a matching entry. Otherwise the connection manager performs a discovery routine to locate and establish a connection to at least one available network device corresponding to the specified descriptive identifier. A Bluetooth compatible wireless transceiver is operable to transmit and receive signals associated with the connection to the network device and the discovery routine.
1. A method of wirelessly connecting a computer device to a peripheral device comprising the following steps:
prompting a user, through said computer device, to identify a descriptive identifier for a peripheral device;
performing a wireless discovery routine to locate available peripheral devices, wherein performing the wireless discovery routine is performed after prompting the user to identify the descriptive identifier;
determining if the identified descriptive identifier corresponds to identifiers of any of the available peripheral devices; and
if the identified descriptive identifier corresponds to an identifier of an available peripheral device, establishing a wireless connection between the computer device and the peripheral device.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining step includes the step of comparing the descriptive identifier to identifiers of the available peripheral devices.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the wireless connection is implemented in accordance with any Bluetooth wireless communications standard.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the wireless discovery routine is performed in accordance with a predefined discovery process implemented on the computer device.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the wireless discovery routine is a Bluetooth Device Discovery Routine.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the descriptive identifier is different from Bluetooth Device Discovery Routine identifiers.
7. A device comprising:
a user interface for displaying a prompt to identify a descriptive identifier for a peripheral device prior to performance of a wireless discovery routine to locate available peripheral devices;
a system memory having entries including descriptive identifiers, each descriptive identifier corresponding to available peripheral devices;
a connection manager to determine if an identified descriptive identifier is a match to any of the available peripheral devices and to establish a wireless connection between the computer device and the peripheral device if the identified descriptive identifier is a match to any of the available peripheral devices.
8. The device according to claim 7 , wherein the connection manager is to compare the identified descriptive identifier to identifiers of the available peripheral devices.
9. The device according to claim 7 , wherein the wireless connection is implemented in accordance with a predefined discovery process implemented on the computer device.
10. The device according to claim 9 , wherein the predefined discovery process is a Bluetooth Device Discovery Routine.
11. The device according to claim 7 , wherein the descriptive identifier is different from Bluetooth Device Discovery Routine identifiers.