Wireless Accessory Beacon Tracking Without Wide Area Networks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless accessories such as wireless earbuds, headphones, and smartwatches that lack a connection to a wide area network cannot be tracked when lost or stolen, as they cannot determine their location or communicate with remote tracking services.
Innovation Solution
A data processing system that enables the determination of a wireless accessory's location by generating public keys within a signal broadcast, sending these keys to a server, decrypting location data using a private key, and processing the data to determine the accessory's probable location, utilizing a user interface on an electronic device and beacon scanning techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If wireless accessories use peer-to-peer communication without wide area network connection, then power consumption is reduced and device complexity is minimized, but the ability to track location when lost or stolen is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system consisting of finder devices and a server that mediates between the wireless accessory and the owner device. Finder devices periodically scan for beacon signals from accessories, collect location data, and relay it through a server to the owner device, enabling location tracking without requiring the accessory to have direct wide area network connectivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by having finder devices continuously scan for and collect beacon signals from wireless accessories before loss occurs. Location data is pre-collected and stored in the server, so when an accessory is reported lost, the location information is already available for immediate retrieval and display to the user.
2Measurement precision
If wireless accessories broadcast beacon signals continuously, then location can be determined accurately, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous broadcasting, the patent implements periodic beacon transmission where the wireless accessory broadcasts its beacon signal at regular intervals. Finder devices are configured to scan for these periodic beacons, collecting location data at each interval. This periodic approach maintains location tracking capability while significantly reducing power consumption compared to continuous transmission.
3Productivity
If location data is transmitted unencrypted, then processing speed is improved, but security is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the encryption and decryption operations from the main data processing flow and performs them separately at specific stages. Location data is encrypted using public keys during transmission and stored in encrypted form in the server. When needed, the owner device retrieves and decrypts the data using private keys. This separation allows the majority of data processing to occur without encryption overhead while maintaining security through targeted cryptographic operations at critical points.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments described herein provide for system and methods to crowdsource the location of wireless devices and accessories that lack a connection to a wide area network. One embodiment provides for a data processing system configured to perform operations comprising loading a user interface on an electronic device, the user interface to enable the determination of a location of a wireless accessory that is associated with the electronic device, generating a set of public keys included within a signal broadcast by the wireless accessory, the signal broadcast during a first period, sending the set of public keys to a server with a request to return data that corresponds with a public key in the set of public keys, decrypting the location data using a private key associated with the public key, and processing the location data to determine a probable location for the wireless accessory.