An interesting patent application from Apple is for a method of informing a user that their phone/device may lose signal before it happens (i.e. if you’re driving along a road it will say “you will lose signal in 15 seconds, allowing youthe driver to pull off the road so you can finish your conversation or upload that twitter update (”I’m now losing signal”). I would have thought with multiple cells and changes in signal strength based on the number of users of a cell that these sort of calculations would be very difficult — Is this patent more for your home network devices or just to tell you how far you can get from StarBucks before your iPhone loses their Wifi?

Patent: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION OUT OF RANGE INDICATION
Inventors: Lee, McKillop and Schell
Pat ID: 20080125106
Abstract:
With respect to a wireless network, an out of range warning provides an estimate of an amount of time remaining until a wireless device is out of range of the wireless network. In this way, the user is presented with an opportunity to take corrective measures, if desired

In order to provide notice of poor signal quality, some wireless devices have a one-way signal strength indicator that is a rough estimator of quality of the radio frequency signal between the covering base station and the receiving wireless device. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,414 to Coverdale et al. selectively provides to a user a signal strength indication using one or more pre-selected criteria. Unfortunately, however, this signal strength indicator provides the user with an indication of the signal quality only at that particular moment in time which is usually too late to take corrective measures in order to avoid the lost wireless signal or at least mitigate the effects of the lost signal when, or if, it occurs.

The invention pertains to methods and systems for providing an out of range warning to a user of a wireless device in a wireless network. In one embodiment, the out of range warning can provide an estimate of an amount of time remaining until the wireless device is out of range of the wireless network. In this way, the user is presented with an opportunity to take corrective measures, if desired.

The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a method, system, device, apparatus, consumer product, or computer readable medium. Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below.

As a method for providing an out of range warning by a wireless device with respect to a wireless network, one embodiment of the invention includes at least the acts of: receiving a wireless transmission; determining a current quality metric for the received wireless transmission; estimating a period of time until the wireless device is out of range of the wireless network; and issuing the out of range warning that includes the estimated period of time.

As computer program product, one embodiment of the invention includes at least: computer code for receiving a wireless transmission; computer code for determining a current quality metric for the received wireless transmission; computer code for estimating a period of time until the wireless device is out of range of the wireless network; computer code for issuing the out of range warning that includes the estimated period of time; and computer readable medium for storing the computer code.

As an apparatus, one embodiment of the invention includes a receiving unit arranged to receive a wireless transmission. The apparatus also includes a processing unit coupled to the receiving unit arranged to determine a current quality metric for the received wireless transmission, estimate a period of time until the wireless apparatus is out of range of the wireless network, and issue the out of range warning that includes the estimated period of time.