CLIAMS:
1. A method for personalizing peripheral devices of one or more docking stations in a wireless docking network, the method comprises of:
establishing, by a dockee device, a secure wireless communication connection with one or more wireless docking centers (WDC);
fetching, by the dockee device, information on one or more peripheral devices from the one or more WDC’s;
selecting, by the dockee device, one or more peripheral devices from the one or more docking stations based on the fetched information; and
creating one or more personalized group of peripheral devices for providing a docking service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the personalized group is created based on at least one of:
a device context;
a user input;
device capability;
user profile;
application in use;
device settings;
device location;
context of the peripheral devices; and
availability of the peripheral devices.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprises of:
selecting, one or more personalized groups of peripheral devices; and
merging the one or more personalized groups to create a new personalized group of peripheral devices.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprises of:
providing device type information to identify one or more peripheral devices based on functionality; and
enabling user to select peripheral devices of same type connected to the WDC before and after docking.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the dockee device shares information on the personalized group with the peripheral devices using any one of near field communication (NFC), Bluetooth, Cloud, and Infra-red (IR).

6. The method of claim 1 further comprises of prioritizing personalized groups based on at least one of :
a device context;
a user input;
user profile;
application in use;
device settings;
device location;
device capability
context of the peripheral devices; and
availability of the peripheral devices.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprises of:
selecting of at least one personalized group dynamically based on the historic information.

8. A wireless communication device for use with one or more docking stations, the wireless communication device comprising at least one means adapted for:
establishing a secure wireless communication connection with one or more wireless docking centers (WDC);
fetching information on one or more peripheral devices from the one or more WDC’s;
selecting one or more peripheral devices from the one or more docking stations based on the fetched information;
creating one or more personalized group of peripheral devices for providing a docking service;
selecting the one or more personalized groups of peripheral devices; and
merging the one or more personalized groups to create a new personalized group of peripheral devices. ,TagSPECI:FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the field of wireless communication, and more particularly relates to a method for personalizing peripheral devices of one or more docking stations in a wireless docking environment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modern society has adopted, and is becoming reliant upon, wireless communication devices for various purposes, such as connecting users of the wireless communication devices with other users. Wireless communication devices can vary from battery powered handheld devices to stationary household and/or commercial devices utilizing an electrical network as a power source. Due to rapid development of the wireless communication devices, a number of areas capable of enabling entirely new types of communication applications have emerged.

Among new types of communication applications, docking of electronic devices as peripherals to a docking station is gaining importance nowadays. A docking station, also called as port replicator or dock provides a simplified way of "plugging-in" an electronic device to other common electronic devices or units, called as dockable devices or peripherals, wherein the peripherals can range from mobile devices to wireless mice. As different peripherals have different connectors, power signaling, and uses, the docking station are not standardized and are therefore often designed with a specific make and model of a device in mind. A device that connects to the docking station to access one or more peripherals from the docking station is called as a dockee.

Traditionally, docking station hardware has been used to plug in a laptop computer for use as a desktop computer, and to directly connect it with peripherals such as a monitor, keyboard, and other common peripherals. Currently, the dockee can group plurality of peripherals from wireless docking station or wireless docking center (WDC). Groups are bound to the wireless docking centers (WDC) and so limit the usage of group by dockee’s to the particular docking center. When user moves to next docking center, the user needs to create new/same group to work with the new docking center. In current systems, when dockee docks to multiple WDCs or single WDC, which inherits all other peripherals from other WDC, the user will be confused by the number of peripherals listed for selection. For an instance, if the dockee identifies the list of all HID mouse devices available to use from all WDCs, the user will find it difficult to select which peripherals to select and use. At the dockee side, the peripherals cannot be categorized in to different device type, like mouse, Keyboard, memory etc.

In current Wi-Fi Docking system, grouping of peripherals from different WDC is not possible from the dockee side. Current docking system grouping of peripherals are remembered at the docking station or at the dockee side, but limiting to one docking station, and thus making the dockee dependent on the docking station for grouping, also not allowing personalizing of the peripherals.

Further, in the current docking systems, grouping of peripherals that can be accessed and communicated by the dockee are not personalized. No intelligence in grouping of peripherals. Also, when a peripheral is not in use, the docked device which is using is not dynamically releasing the resource. So it’s kind of blocking other docked device from using the peripherals. Further, creating group of peripherals for use of the dockee at the WDC is limiting the user and making the user create multiple groups in different docking systems.

Thus, there exists a need for a system and method that can allow dockee to create personalize group of peripherals. Further, there exists a need for a system and method that can create personalized group of peripherals that belong to one or more docking stations or WDC to overcome the problems discussed herein above.

The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The various embodiments herein disclose a method and system for personalizing peripheral devices of one or more docking stations in a wireless docking environment

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for personalizing peripheral devices of one or more docking stations, the method comprises of establishing, by a dockee device, a secure wireless communication connection with one or more wireless docking centers (WDC), fetching, by the dockee device, information on one or more peripheral devices from one or more WDC, selecting, by the dockee device, one or more peripheral devices from the one or more docking stations based on the fetched information, and creating a personalized group of peripheral devices for providing a docking service.

According to an embodiment herein, a device that connects to the docking station to access one or more peripherals from the docking station is called as a dockee.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the personalized group is created based on at least one of a device context, a user input, device capability, user profile, application in use, device settings, device location, context of the peripheral devices and availability of the peripheral devices.

Further, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises of selecting one or more personalized groups of peripheral devices, and merging the one or more personalized groups to create a new personalized group of peripheral devices.

Further, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the method further comprises of providing device type information to identify one or more peripheral devices based on functionality, and enabling user to select peripheral devices of same type connected to the WDC before and after docking.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the dockee device shares information on the personalized group with the peripheral devices using any one of near field communication (NFC), Bluetooth, Cloud, and Infra-red (IR).

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the personalized group can be prioritized based on at least one of, but not limited to, a device context, a user input, device capability, user profile, application in use, device settings, device location, context of the peripheral devices, availability of the peripheral devices, and the like.

The foregoing has outlined, in general, the various aspects of the invention and is to serve as an aid to better understanding the more complete detailed description which is to follow. In reference to such, there is to be a clear understanding that the present invention is not limited to the method or application of use described and illustrated herein. It is intended that any other advantages and objects of the present invention that become apparent or obvious from the detailed description or illustrations contained herein are within the scope of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating a method for personalizing peripheral devices of one or more docking stations, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating creation of personalized groups for communication between dockee devices and plurality of peripherals over the docking centers (stations), according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating selection of peripherals for the personalized group of peripherals from one or more docking stations, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is schematic flow diagram illustrating the dockee fetching of information of peripherals from the one or more docking stations to create a personalized group, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Although specific features of the present invention are shown in some drawings and not in others. This is done for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and system to for personalizing peripheral devices of one or more docking stations. In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

The specification may refer to “an”, “one” or “some” embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.

As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes”, “comprises”, “including” and/or “comprising” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

The present invention provides a method and system that allows a dockee device to establish a communication with one or more wireless docking centers (WDC) that comprises of one or more peripherals connected to it to create a personalized group of peripheral devices, such that the personalized group of peripherals can be used for providing a docking service to the dockee device. The present invention can be understood in better way with the embodiments described in detail herein below without restricting or departing away from the scope of the invention.

Figure 1 is a schematic flow diagram 100 illustrating a method for personalizing peripheral devices of one or more docking stations, according to an embodiment of the present invention. At step 102, the method comprises of establishing, by a dockee device, a secure wireless communication connection with one or more wireless docking centers (WDC). The dockee device wishes to access services from one or more wireless docking centers (WDC). To avail the services in a secure way, the dockee device can establish a secure communication connection with the one or more WDC. The main intention behind establishing the secure communication connection is to maintain privacy and to keep the communication safe from other dockets or devices. In an embodiment of the present invention, the dockee device establishes one or more secure communication connection with one or more wireless docking centers (WDC). In another embodiment of the present invention, the dockee device can establish a single secure communication connection with one or more wireless docking centers (WDC). The person having ordinarily skilled in the art can understand that any number of secure communication connection can be established between the dockee device and the WDC, without departing from the scope of the invention.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a user profile of the dockee device can establish a secured communication connection with the WDC. The secured communication connection information can be stored in the user profile and thus providing higher level of security while communicating. In an embodiment of the present invention, the secure communication includes using one or more type of the authentication, such as, but not limited to, using user name and password as login credentials, one time passwords (OTP), bio-metric authentication including voice recognition, finger print scanner, iris scanner, and the like, and bar code scanning and the like. The person having ordinarily skilled in the art can use of any of the known authentication methodologies to establish the secure communication connection between the one or more wireless docking centers (WDC) and the dockee devices, without departing from the scope of the invention.

At step 104, the method further comprises fetching, by the dockee device, information of on one or more peripheral devices from one or more WDC. Upon establishing the secure communication connection with the WDC, the dockee device needs to identify the peripheral devices or peripherals connected with the wireless docking centers (WDC). Identifying the peripherals connected with the WDC is necessary as the dockee devices uses the peripherals connected to the WDC for accessing docking services. Therefore, the dockee device communicates with the one or more wireless docking centers (WDC) and requests for the information of the one or more peripheral devices that are connected with the one or more WDC.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the dockee device can fetch the information of the one or more peripheral devices of the one or more WDC from a storage unit which can be at least one of, but not limited to, local database, cloud, internal storage of the WDC, external storage device and the like.

Upon receiving the request from the dockee device, the individual WDC identifies the request and provides the dockee device with the information of the one or more peripherals that are connected to them. The dockee device fetches the information provided by the one or more WDC and proceeds to step 106.

At step 106, the method further comprises of selecting, by the dockee device, one or more peripheral devices from the one or more docking stations based on the fetched information. Upon fetching the information related to the peripheral devices, the dockee device selects the one or more peripheral devices from one or more WDC that can be used for accessing the docking services.

At step 108, the method further comprises the step of creating a personalized group of peripheral devices for providing a docking service. Upon selecting the one or more peripherals from the one or more WDC, the dockee device can create a personalized group of peripheral devices that can be used for accessing the docking services. In an embodiment of the present invention, the personalized group can be created by the dockee device based on, one or more of, but not limited to, a device class/ device type, device context, a user input, device capability, user profile, application in use, device settings, device location, functionality, context of the peripheral devices, availability of the peripheral devices and the like. The personalized group of peripheral devices can be used by the dockee device to access the docking services from one or more WDC.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the dockee device can further select one or more personalized groups of peripheral devices and can merge the one or more personalized groups to create a new personalized group of peripheral devices.

According to the present invention, the dockee device can receive the device type information of the one or more peripheral devices from the one or more WDC based on the functionality. Further, according to the present invention, the dockee device can create one or more personalized group of peripheral devices and can use one or more peripheral devices from the personalized group to access docking services. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the dockee device can be provided with the device type information to identify one or more peripheral devices based on functionality, and based on the received device information, the dockee device can enable the user to select peripheral devices of same type connected to the WDC before and after docking.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the one or more peripheral devices of the personalized group of the dockee device can use the secured communication connection established by the dockee device for providing docking services. In another embodiment of the present invention, the dockee device can share information on the personalized group with the peripheral devices using any one of, but not limited to, near field communication (NFC), Bluetooth, Cloud, Infra-red (IR) and the like, without departing from the scope of the invention.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the personalized group can be prioritized by the dockee device such that whenever the dockee device wishes to use any of the personalized group to access the one or more services, then the personalized group of highest priority can be selected as the default personalized group for accessing the particular service. In an embodiment of the present invention, the personalized group can be prioritized based on at least one of, but not limited to, a device context, a user input, device capability, user profile, application in use, device settings, device location, context of the peripheral devices, availability of the peripheral devices, and the like.

Consider an example, wherein dockee device can be a mobile device, the docking center can be a TV that is being connected with peripheral devices that include radio, mouse, keyboard, DVD player, alarm, fridge, washing machine and security camera’s installed at various locations in the house. According to the present invention, when the user wishes to check whether the house is safe or not, the user can open the application home security installed on his mobile device. Upon opening the application, the mobile device can communicate with the TV, selects the security cameras present in the home and can add them to personalized group. The user can select all the security cameras or selected security cameras. Upon selecting, the user can access the security cameras and access the service of verifying the security of his home.

In an embodiment of the present invention, if one of the peripheral device used by a personalized group created by a dockee device becomes unavailable after docking due any reason that includes, but not limited to, device power failure, configuration not matching, being used by any other dockee device, and the like, then the dockee device can dynamically unselect the peripheral device and can select a different peripheral of the same type from same docking center or a different docking center.

Consider an example, wherein a mobile device acting as dockee device selects a TV 1 from a house entertainment system acting as dock1 and adds the TV 1 to a personalized group. The mobile device uses that group to Dock. After docking TV 1, the mobile device understands that the TV 1 becomes unavailable as the TV 1 was being used by another mobile device, then the mobile device dynamically unselects the TV 1 and select a Monitor connect to a work system acting as Dock2.

According an embodiment of the present invention, only the peripheral devices that are needed for the particular application are selected and added to the personalized group. When the application changes, then the previously selected peripheral devices are unselected, if they are not in use, and the new peripheral devices are selected and added to the personalized group. For example: when a user opens the application text editor, then only the mouse and the keyboard can be selected as the peripheral devices for the personalized group and docked for text editing. But when the user switches to gallery application, then the mouse and the keyboard are unselected and the TV or Monitor are selected as the peripheral device for the personalized group and docked for gallery.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram 200 illustrating creation of personalized groups for communication between dockee devices and plurality of peripherals over the docking centers (stations), according to an embodiment of the present invention. The schematic diagram 200 describes plurality of wireless docking centers (WDC) with one or more peripheral devices connected with plurality of dockee devices and personalized groups of peripheral devices created by them. According to present embodiment, the diagram is described by considering mobile devices as dockee devices. The person having ordinarily skilled in the art can use any other embedded device as dockee device to communicate with WDC and create personalized group of peripheral devices without departing from the scope of the invention.

According to the Figure 2, the diagram 200 comprises of wireless docking centers (WDC) Dock A, Dock B, and Dock C, wherein Dock A comprises of peripheral devices PF1, PF2, and PF3, Dock B comprises of peripheral devices PF4 and PF5, and Dock C comprises of peripheral devices PF6 and PF7. The diagram 200 further comprises of the mobile devices Mobile 1 and Mobile 2 as dockee devices. The Mobile 1 has established a secured communication connection with Dock A and Dock B, and therefore can access perioral devices PF1, PF2, PF3, PF4, and PF5. Further, the Mobile 2 has established a secured communication connection with Dock A, Dock B and Dock C, and therefore can access perioral devices PF1, PF2, PF3, PF4, PF5, PF6, and PF7.

The Mobile 1 can be installed with applications A1 and A2 and the Mobile 2 can be installed with the applications A1, A2 and A4. The mobile devices wish to use the peripheral devices from the docking centers to access the one or more applications. Both the Mobile 1 and the Mobile 2 can access a database DB that can comprise of plurality of information including, but not limited to, user profile, WDC group information, mobile device information, and the like. The database DB can also store the personalized group information for both the Mobile 1 and the Mobile 2. Further the mobile devices can also store the WDC group information along with personalized group information in the internal storage of the device.

Initially, the mobile device can get the detailed information about the available groups of peripheral devices and the peripheral device information from the one or more docking center available near-by. Once the mobile device gets the information about all the peripherals connected to different docking centers or systems, the mobile device creates a personalized group of the peripherals based on different parameters such as, but not limited to, a device context, a user input, device capability, user profile, application in use, device settings, device location and the like. All the information related to the mobile device, the applications running on the mobile device and the personalized groups are stored on the local database DB. It can be observed that each user can get create personalized groups.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the mobile device can display the multiple groups of peripherals personalized related to him, such that the other mobile devices can view the personalized groups of peripheral devices associated to the mobile device. In another embodiment of the present invention, the mobile device can hide the personalized group information from being visible to the other mobile devices. Further, the mobile device can use the one or more personalized groups or peripheral devices of the personalized groups to create a new personalized group. Once the user of the mobile device selects the personalized group, the mobile device can dock to multiple or single WDC based on group information’s to use the peripherals belonging to the personalized group to access required docking services.

Figure 3 is a schematic flow diagram 300 illustrating selection of peripherals for the personalized group of peripherals from one or more docking stations, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The flow diagram 300 illustrates auto docking and selection of peripheral devices based on application that the wireless dockee (WD) device 304 wishes to access with the help of wireless docking center (WDC) 302. According to the diagram 300, user of the WD 304 has opted for auto dock, and therefore the WD 304 can dock to WDC 302 only if any of the peripherals from the WDC 302 are required for an application running on the WD 304. As the WD 304 can use the peripherals only when required by the application, power consumption can be reduced.

When the application is opened on the WD 304, the WD 304 docks on the WDC 302 to use the peripherals for accessing the application. Upon docking on the WDC 302, the WD 304 can be provided with the peripheral device information that can be stored on any of the storage units. The storage of the peripheral device information on the storage unit is described herein above in the description and therefore not described again to avoid repetition. Upon receiving the peripheral device information, the WD 304 can open the application and select peripherals P1, P2, and P3 for accessing the application.

The WD 304 can be docking on the WDC 302 even while accessing the application. Whenever the WD 304 finishes accessing the application and wishes to access another application, then WD 304 can unselect the peripheral P1 and P2, and can select peripherals P3 and P4 for accessing the another application. The selection of required peripherals and un-selection of non-required peripherals can save the power of peripherals and WD as well. Further, the power save in the WD and the peripherals can be achieved by making peripherals like Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to enter into sleep mode when not used.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the WD 304 can access one or more applications at a time and thus can select one or more peripherals from the WD 302 for accessing the applications. According to the current embodiment, the user can use one or more peripheral devices for one or more applications simultaneously.

Personalized group created by the dockee device can be irrespective of the docking centers. The personalized group can be created with peripheral devices belonging to one or more docking centers. Therefore, the grouping of peripherals across different docking centers does not depend on docking centers since the grouping information are stored in the dockee device or in the storage unit. Figure 4 describes creation of personalized group of peripheral devices.

Figure 4 is schematic flow diagram 400 illustrating the dockee fetching of information of peripherals from the one or more docking stations to create a personalized group, according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to the diagram 400, a wireless dockee (WD) 404 can establish a secure communication connection with a wireless docking center (WDC) 402 and requests for information about peripheral devices that are camped on the connected WDC 402. The WD 404 can receive device class or device type information as part of the peripheral device information. The WD 404 fetches the peripheral devices that can be connected as Mouse, Keyboard, Joy stick, and Memory card. The WD 402 can repeat the requesting and fetching of the information about peripheral devices repeatedly. Further, the WD 404 can provide an option to user of the WD 404 to select same type of devices docked to a system and therefore the peripheral devices with same device type can be docked automatically even if peripherals are added after docking to the WDC 402.

The present embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments; it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the various embodiments. Furthermore, the various devices, modules, and the like described herein may be enabled and operated using hardware circuitry, for example, complementary metal oxide semiconductor based logic circuitry, firmware, software and/or any combination of hardware, firmware, and/or software embodied in a machine readable medium. For example, the various electrical structure and methods may be embodied using transistors, logic gates, and electrical circuits, such as application specific integrated circuit.

Although the embodiments herein are described with various specific embodiments, it will be obvious for a person skilled in the art to practice the invention with modifications. However, all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the claims. It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the embodiments described herein and all the statements of the scope of the embodiments which as a matter of language might be said to fall there between