Initiating Schedule Management Via Radio Frequency Beacons

Abstract

A portable electronic device receives broadcasts from one or more RF beacons to determine a location of a user and communicates with a scheduling server to manage the schedule of a conference room. The portable electronic device receives an address and an application identifier from each RF beacon and opens a scheduling application in response. The portable electronic device then communicates with a scheduling server to receive the schedule of the location determined from the beacon broadcasts. The user may reserve the location and set a number of presets through the scheduling application. Updates to the schedule are communicated to the scheduling server from the portable electronic device.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Technical Field[0002]The present invention relates to control networks and more specifically to control networks leveraging RF communication standards such as near field communication standards and Bluetooth 4.0 standards.[0003]2. Background Art[0004]In large corporate buildings or similar facilities, there may be hundreds or even thousands of conference rooms of various types. It may become burdensome to find and book a room with appropriate availability and resources. Currently, buildings may have dedicated touchpanels which provide local access to a scheduling server. For example, outside of a conference room, a TPMC-4SM touchpanel available from Crestron Electronics, Inc. of Rockleigh, N.J. may provide local access to a server running scheduling software such as Fusion RV, also available from Crestron Electronics, Inc.[0005]However, these dedicated touchpanels may be too robust an option for certain conference rooms. Often touchpanels require ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]Principles of the invention include devices, systems and methods for managing the schedule of one or more locations. According to a first aspect, the present invention provides a system for accessing a schedule of an area comprising one or more RF beacons periodically broadcasting an application identifier and a beacon ID and a portable electronic device. The portable electronic device is identified by a user ID and comprises a first network interface configured for enabling communication between the portable electronic device and the one or more RF beacons, a second network interface configured for enabling communication between the portable electronic device and a scheduling server, a display, a memory encoding one or more processor-executable instructions and a processor configured to load the one or more processor-executable instructions when encoded from the memory. The one or more processor-executable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause acts to be performed comprising receiving from at least one of the one or more RF beacons a beacon ID and the application identifier via the first network interface of the portable electronic device, opening a scheduling application associated with the application identifier, estimating a distance to the at least one of the one or more RF beacons according to a detected signal strength of the RF beacon, determining a location of the portable electronic device based on the distance to the at least one of the one or more RF beacons, receiving from a scheduling server, a schedule of the location of the portable electronic device and displaying the schedule of the location on the display.

[0017]According to a second aspect, the present invention provides a system for accessing a schedule of an area comprising one or more RF beacons periodically broadcasting an application identifier and a beacon ID and a portable electronic device. The portable electronic device is identified by a user ID and comprises a first network interface configured for enabling communication between the portable electronic device and the one or more RF beacons, a second network interface configured for enabling communication between the portable electronic device and a scheduling server, a display, a memory encoding one or more processor-executable instructions and a processor configured to load the one or more processor-executable instructions when encoded from the memory. The one or more processor-executable instruction

Problems solved by technology

It may become burdensome to find and book a room with appropriate availability and resources.

However, these dedicated touchpanels may be too robust an option for certain conference rooms.

Often touchpanels require expensive installation and sophisticated processors and users may not desire to install a dedicated access point at each conference or they may not desire t

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