Granted Patent B2

US 9,380,613 · App. 13/831,485 · Granted Jun 28, 2016

Abstract

Claims (37)

1. A device, comprising:

a controller in electrical communication with:

a data storage system including non-volatile memory;

an input/output (I/O) system;

a radio frequency (RF) system including at least one RF antenna electrically coupled with:

a first transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate using a first protocol;

a second transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate using a second protocol that is different than the first protocol; and

an ad hoc (AH) transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate only with other devices having the AH transceiver using a third protocol that is different than the first and second protocols;

an audio/video (A/V) system including a loudspeaker electrically coupled with a power amplifier and a microphone electrically coupled with a preamplifier;

a power system configured to supply electrical power to the controller, the data storage system, the I/O system, the RF system, and the A/V system;

an instruction set stored on the data storage system, the instruction set being configured to activate a wireless protocol discovery mode on a user device configured for wireless communication, to power up a first media device associated with the first transceiver, to activate a wireless protocol pairing mode on the first media device, to wireless pair the first media device with a user device, to couple the user device with a wireless data network, to install an application on the user device using the wireless data network, the application comprising another instruction set stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the another instruction set being configured to use the application to configured the first media device, and to couple the first media device to the wireless data network, the another instruction set also being downloaded to one or more other media devices associated with the second transceiver and the ad hoc (AH) transceiver, each of the one or more other media devices having an address to which the another instruction set is configured to be downloaded, the address being used by the application to determine an operating system associated with the one or more media devices.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein at an initial power up, the controller commands the first transceiver to listen for a pairing signal from a user device, and upon successfully pairing with the user device, to wirelessly receive data that is used by the controller to control operation of the data storage, I/O, RF, audio, and power systems.

3. The device of claim 2 , wherein the data comprise a user specific configuration that is stored in the non-volatile memory.

4. The device of claim 2 , wherein the data comprises instructions used by the controller to command the second transceiver to join a designated WiFi network, the data including a uniform resource identifier (URI) for an Internet address where a user specific configuration is located, and the controller uses the designated WiFi network to download the user specific configuration into the non-volatile memory.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the URI comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises at least one integrated circuit (IC) selected from the group consisting of a microprocessor (μP), a microcontroller (μC), a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory includes a user specified configuration.

8. A method for configuring media devices in an ecosystem, comprising:

activating a Bluetooth (BT) discovery mode on a user device configured for BT communication;

powering up a first media device;

activating BT pairing mode on the first media device;

BT pairing the user device with the first media device;

connecting the user device with a wireless network;

installing an application (APP) on the user device using the wireless network, the APP comprised of a non-transitory computer readable medium;

using the APP to create a configuration (CFG) to be installed on the first media device, the CFG comprised of a non-transitory computer readable medium;

installing the CFG on the first media device; and

connecting the first media device to the wireless network, the CFG also being configured to be downloadable to one or more other media devices to configure the one or more other media devices, each of the one or more other media devices having an address to which the CFG is configured to be downloaded, the address being used by the APP to determine an operating system associated with the one or more other media devices on which the CFG is to be downloaded.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the wireless network comprises a WiFi network.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the APP is installed from a location on the Internet.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the APP is installed from an application store.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the wireless network comprises a cellular network.

13. The method of claim 8 and further comprising:

using the APP to install the CFG on a second media device without establishing a BT pairing between the user device and the second media device.

14. The method of claim 13 and further comprising:

maintaining the BT pairing between the first media device and the user device.

15. The method of claim 13 and further comprising:

wirelessly communicating data between the first media device and the second media device using an Ad Hoc (AH) wireless network established only between the first and second media devices.

Assignments (17)