Smart Personal Gateway Device Augments Service Capabilities
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for networking smart personal devices (SPDs) are limited, as they often lack consistency in capabilities and fail to provide comprehensive services such as voice, location, authentication, and expanded features, with most solutions being restricted to data-only communications or requiring specific hardware and software support.
Innovation Solution
A smart personal gateway device (SPGD) is introduced to provide a personal area network (PAN) that augments SPDs by offering a catalog of services, allowing SPDs to access and utilize services like voice, location, and authentication, even if they lack the necessary hardware or software, by acting as a central communications hub and service provider.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a smart personal gateway device (SPGD) is introduced to provide comprehensive services (voice, location, authentication) to smart personal devices (SPDs), then the service capability and functionality of SPDs are improved, but the device complexity and system overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an SPGD as an intermediary device that mediates between SPDs and external networks/services. The SPGD provides comprehensive services (voice, location, authentication) to resource-constrained SPDs without requiring these services to be built into each individual SPD, thus improving service capability while avoiding the complexity overhead of implementing all services in every device.
Solution Approach 2:
The SPGD is designed as a universal platform that can serve multiple different types of SPDs with diverse capabilities. It provides a catalog of services that can be accessed by any connected SPD, allowing one device to perform multiple functions for various clients, thereby improving overall system versatility without requiring each SPD to be complex.
2Adaptability or versatility
If existing systems use data-only communications or require specific hardware support for networking, then the device complexity is reduced, but the adaptability and service scope are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The SPGD acts as a capability provider that compensates for the limitations of simple SPDs. Rather than requiring each SPD to have complex hardware for voice, location, and authentication services, the SPGD provides these capabilities remotely, allowing SPDs with minimal hardware to access comprehensive services.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows SPDs to access and utilize services that are not natively present in the device by copying or replicating service functionality through the SPGD. The SPGD maintains a catalog of services that can be invoked by any connected device, effectively copying service capabilities from the gateway to the client devices.
3Reliability
If services are built into each smart personal device, then the service availability is improved, but the manufacturing cost and device size increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of building services into each individual SPD, the patent implements a universal service platform in the form of an SPGD that can serve multiple devices. This approach maintains service availability for all connected SPDs while avoiding the need to manufacture each device with expensive, redundant service capabilities, thereby reducing manufacturing costs and device size.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges service functionality from multiple sources into a single SPGD platform that serves the entire network of SPDs. By combining service provision at the gateway level rather than distributing it across all devices, the system maintains reliable service availability while reducing the complexity and cost of individual device manufacturing.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments include a smart personal gateway device (SPGD) that augments the capabilities of smart personal devices (SPDs) connected in a personal area network (PAN). The SPGD implements services for the SPDs using computing resources of the SPGD. In some embodiments, the SPGD provides carrier-grade voice services to SPDs lacking hardware to support such services (e.g., SPDs supporting Wi-Fi only).