People often struggle with finding information related to their past. For instance, people often encounter difficulties when trying to recall particular details of previous experiences. Listed below are five questions exemplifying details that people often have trouble remembering.                1. Where and when did I last meet Susan?        2. What was the name of that Nepalese restaurant in Helsinki I visited last August?        3. Where was I last Friday between 6 and 8 PM?        4. What was the web address of that camera shop in Hong Kong?        5. How often have I been fishing this summer?        
Numerous techniques and devices are often employed to assist in remembering such details. For example, calendars, diaries, logbooks, pictures, and maps are resources that can be used to locate such information from the past. In addition, other people's memories can be used to help refresh one's recognition of a past event. Unfortunately, these techniques are often ineffective because they tend to rely on the unreliable memories of other people, and on an individual's diligence in manually recording various details of his experiences.
Automated techniques also exist to help recall details from past experiences. For example, in the context of office automation, tools and personal information management applications such as calendar databases, notes, contact cards, and other files, can be searched to extract information about past events. However, these techniques make little or no use of information that can be transmitted between devices over wireless links and stored for future access.
Various wireless communications technologies allow two or more devices to automatically exchange information when they arrive in each other's proximity. Such automatic exchange of information is sometimes referred to as “ad hoc networking.” Bluetooth is a wireless communications standard that provides for such ad hoc networking.
Bluetooth defines a short-range radio network, originally intended as a cable replacement. It can be used to create ad hoc networks of up to eight devices, where one device is referred to as a master device. The other devices are referred to as slave devices. The slave devices can communicate with the master device and with each other via the master device. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Specification Of The Bluetooth System, Volumes 1 and 2, Core and Profiles: Version 1.1, Feb. 22, 2001, describes the principles of Bluetooth device operation and communication protocols. This document is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The devices operate in the 2.4 GHz radio band reserved for general use by Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) applications. Bluetooth devices are designed to find other Bluetooth devices within their communications range and to discover what services they offer.
Encounters between wireless communications devices are often associated with events that a person may wish to recall at a later time. Accordingly, there is a need for effective ways to record and retrieve information related to encounters between wireless communications devices.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds