Claims:We Claim:
1. A method, comprising:
a. determining a first location associated with a weather data receiving device;
b. retrieving a first-time code;
c. receiving, at the weather data receiving device;
d. retrieving a second time code from the header information of the time synchronized weather data transmission;
e. calculating, by the weather data receiving device, an activation time;
f. determining a transmission time for the time synchronized weather data transmission;
g. determining an activation time for a receiver of the weather data receiving device based on the determined transmission time and the activation time offset;
h. activating the receiver of the weather data receiving device; and
i. displaying weather data corresponding to the determined first location associated with the weather data receiving device.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the averaging or summarizing is carried at the weather data receiving device.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving a user selection of a first weather sensor location and displaying weather sensor data corresponding to that first sensor location.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein periodically monitoring the transmission of time; detecting a weather emergency alert time code at a first predetermined interval for weather emergency alert data.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the weather data receiving device has moved to a second location.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-time code corresponding to the determined first location comprises accessing a time code table stored at the weather data receiving device.
, Description:Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to electronic systems such as wide area network-based weather communication systems with integration of localized data.
Background of the Invention
Current prior art weather station devices suffer from poor specificity as to geographic regions, poor reception in remote areas or in buildings, high cost and high-power drain making battery operation impractical for many applications. Additionally, local weather stations only provide data pertaining to the immediate area surrounding the home and have no provision for data sharing with wide area networks and sensors at other remote locations such as other homes. A device and apparatus are needed for collecting information from a variety of sources and presenting this to the user in a meaningful manner. Often, the data from only one source is not nearly as reliable as the data from several sources. This invention utilizes data from a variety of sources to provide the user with a more robust user environment.
Object of the Invention
The primary object of present invention is to provides methods of transmitting and receiving weather, time, music, and alert information via localized networks such as wireless LANs.
Another object of present invention is to System and method for automatic weather information display and receive in a communication system
Summary of the Invention
a device may receive data through any number of receivers, including a receiver and a wide area network receiver, and Internet broadcasting resources. For example, data may be data sent from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) transmitter. The data may be utilized in a suitable display format such as a wall clock and/or alarm clock display. The electronic device may be configured to receive time synchronized data from a transmitter through a transmitter and/or receiver network and displayed on a suitable display. The data received at the receiver system may be based on the geographic location of the receiver system. Making weather data useful often requires sending large amounts of weather information to the receivers. However, this large amount of data can reduce battery life dramatically. Accordingly, systems and methods are included for providing adequate battery life while providing a fine granularity of coverage of weather data. In exemplary embodiments, a coding is provided to code the weather data to a transmission scheme where data for a specific region is sent in a time synchronized manner. A microprocessor monitors the data stream to determine a time stamp from the data stream. By utilizing a zip code or other geographic specification, the system then can set an internal “watch dog” timer or similar low power interrupt device and “wake up” at an appropriate time to then download the data for that geographic region. Current weather technology uses roughly sixty pager cells covering an area the size of the United States. Cell areas of this size are far too large in order to effectively provide useful weather data to the users within the cell. For example, in the United States there are roughly 3,200 counties. Sixty cells equate to roughly 50 counties per cell. Such a vast area results in little or no useful information for an individual user. Increasing the number of cells vastly increases the amount of data that must be transmitted and negatively impacts battery life. Accordingly, at least fifty different weather data points must be transmitted for each cell within the pager network in order to provide adequate coverage for users. In further embodiments of the invention, a method is provided whereby as vehicle or other weather-receiving device passes a Wi-Fi/WiMax hot spot, receives updated weather information through broadband, and stores this information for later use. For example, a cellular phone passing through a Wi-Fi/WiMax hot spot would download updated ZIP code information and any recent changes to the ZIP codes. This data would then be available to save battery power when the device was not located in a Wi-Fi/WiMax hotspot. Not only is the weather data for the current location received, but also for all locations proximate to the current location. In this manner, the user can simply scroll from his current location on a visually displayed map and hit the weather button at any time to see a pop-up display with the current weather conditions at the selected location.
Brief Description of the Drawings
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary flowchart for selecting geographic location of interest to a user on a user-interface.
Detailed Description of Invention:
In a further exemplary embodiment, a flowchart of FIG. 1 shows the process of prompting a user for selection of location of interest for data reception. In step 1 the user is prompted to select a letter corresponding to the first letter of the state of interest. Upon selecting a letter, all the states beginning with the selected letter are presented on the user-interface and the user is prompted in step 2 to select a state of interest to the user. After a state is selected the interface displays for example, three options, including zip code, cardinal region, and town/city/county for user-selection. Alternatively, instead of displaying the three options of zip code, cardinal region, or town/city/county for user-selection after the user selects a state, the user is prompted for one of, zip code in step 3, cardinal region in step 4, and town/city/county in step 5, depending on the receiver-setup, either by the user or the manufacturer. If for example, the receiver may be setup such that after selecting the state of interest in step 2, the user is prompted in step 4 to select a cardinal region for example, East, West, South, and North, within the selected state. In response to selecting a cardinal region, the town/cities/counties corresponding to the selected cardinal region are displayed, prompting user in step 7 to select. Upon selecting, the receiver determines in step 8 whether there are multiple zip codes for the selection made; if the answer is no, the receiver displays the data for the town/city/county. On the other hand, if the answer is yes, the receiver displays a list of zip codes in step 9 for the selected town/city/county, and in response to selecting by the user, the receiver displays the data corresponding to the selected zip code. A similar procedure is followed for zip plus four codes. Note that the receiver could optionally display data at any of the steps, for example, after selecting the state in step 2 the receiver could choose to display data for the state, which may be for example, an average data for the state. Similarly, upon selecting in step 4 the receiver may display for example, the average data for the cardinal region selected. The displayed data may be an alert data, a weather data, or other data information.