GB2483090A

GB2483090A - Communication devices in a location-specific peer-to-peer network

Info

Publication number: GB2483090A
Application number: GB1014245.3A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Sivapathalingham Sivavakeesar; Sivapathalingham Ravishankar
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2010-08-26
Filing date: 2010-08-26
Publication date: 2012-02-29
Also published as: GB201014245D0

Abstract

The communications devices have interfaces whereby they may form a location-specific peer-to-peer network within a home, office or similar premises. One of the communication devices is configured as a master and the remainder as slave devices. The slave devices are registered with the master device for a specific location (e.g. a room in a house).

Description

A Multimedia Communication System, Apparatus and Method thereof

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a system, method and apparatus for providing unified in-house or in-building multifunctional multimedia communication facility enabled preferably by employing one or plurality of short-range wireless communication interfaces.

Background

As one of the good examples of social animals, humans seek to collaborate with each other in order to achieve their goals. Both at professional and private settings, people use communication as a tool for collaboration, and this is vital to accomplish a given task on time. Because of the complex nature of modem day society and tasks, it is often observed that most interactions both at workplaces and domestic dwellings are short in nature and tend to be spontaneous. Hence, the availability of convenient and economic communication devices having multiple capabilities is paramount for anybody to live up to the current standards as required in the modern society.

To cater for the modem society's demands, with the technological advances in nanotechnology, hardware becomes increasingly cheaper -which in turn results in faster, smaller, more accessible, more affordable, and easier to use portable computing and communication devices. The availability of full, capacitive touch screen, LED display (i.e., organic electro luminescent device (OELD)), a flip out QWERTY keyboard and/or an on-screen/soft keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard, a track ball for easy navigation, high resolution cameras/camcorders, and the like are becoming increasingly common in small handsets and portable devices, It is therefore possible to add various functionalities to a small electronic device or for fusion of various electronic elements to produce one unified multi-functional device that turns out to be cheaper and convenient for the end-user.

The same level of innovation can be witnessed in networking technologies.

As a result, new short-range radio communication standards such as ZigBee, WiMedia Ultra Wide Band (IJWB) and WiFi-Direct are emerging while promising, hundreds of megabits per second data rate with' low power consumption -hence are more suitable for portable communication devices.

This can lead to a widespread availability of portable communication devices that are equipped with one or plurality of wireless transceivers employing such short-range radio standards as WiFi (IEEE 802.11 and its variants), Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1), ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), Infrared, WiMedia UWB and the like. This rapid proliferation can stimulate a general trend Pr towards extending Peer-to-Peer (P2P) characteristics to wireless environments. With this, dynamic composition of network is possible on-the-fly and this will improve human interactions and collaborations. All these tecimological breakthroughs and the new and improved ways of communication provide new opportunities for new way of collaborations.

People tend to spend most of their time either at home or in their work-place.

However, there does not exist a convenient device for people to communicate with each other in a very cost-effective way in these places in spite of technological breakthroughs in multiple fronts. On the other hand, although ideally mobile phones can be used to communicate with anybody in an "any-time and any-where" manner, people do not tend to carry their mobile phones with them all the time especially when they are at home or work-place. Under such circumstances, there has to be an alternative system in place that can enable anybody to communicate with a preferred person P1 on time if a rough idea of the current location of person P1 within a given building, dwelling, office and the like is known in priory to the former. In other words, mobile phones are person specific. In contrast, the communication system, device and the associated methods proposed by the present invention enables location-specific communication facilities enabling urgent communication within home environment, work-places or any other place of interest (i.e., Small office and home office (SOHO) customers).

At home or work-places, people do not tend to carry mobile phones with them. Hence, the present invention envisions an easily configurable communication system that allows each communication device to be first registered per each location of a building/house/workplace and subsequently enables locationspeciuie communication between two or more users in addition to providing other location-specific functionalities (e.g., burglar alarm facility). For instance, suppose each room of a property has an envisaged wall-/desk-mounted communication device registered, so that one person Fl that is currently located in given physical location (e.g., kitchen) can communicate with another (say, person P2) in another physical location (e.g., shower room) using the location-specific communication system, device and associated methodologies as proposed by the present invention.

Wired solutions are expensive for the envisaged system and may take considerable amount of time for laying the cables before making the communication devices ready for prospective users. Hence, wireless solutions are preferred although wired solutions can still be applied to the proposed system, devices and methodologies of the present invention. With the advances in the design of portable communication devices, their memory, display and processing capabilities and ability of present day short-range wireless networking technologies/standards to support improved Quality of Service (QoS) economically, wireless solutions are very straight-forward and thus the proposal of the present invention prefers wireless solutions. . 5

The objective of the present invention is therefore to provide system, devices and methodologies that enable the fusion of multifunctional location-specific communication facility using short-range wireless communication standards, although the proposed solutions can still work with wired or cellular systems or any power-line communication technique. Given that each room has power socket, according to one embodiment of the present invention, it is preferred to use power-line for carrying the user data as required by the envisaged location-specific in-house or in-building communication facility. In this respect, it is also preferred that the system, devices and methodologies that the present invention proposes support home networking specifications being developed by ITU-T group working under the G.hn banner and/or the DECT specification developed as part of ETSI's CAT-iq 2.0 standardization. G.hn is a next generation wired home networking standard developed by ITU-T, and it supports high-speed communication over power-lines, phone lines and coaxial cable.

Another objective is to equip a multi-modal capable smart-phone through a preset methodologies implemented possibly with a help of appropriate software solutions so that such smart-phones can be used for the envisaged location-specific in-house or in-building communication.

In order to address the inefficiencies of current in-house/in-building communication technologies, the first objective of this patent is to devise a multifunctional communication system by transforming capable communication devices through appropriate hardware and/or software solutions (and such transformed communication device to serve the intended purpose is referred to here as iTalker for easy identification) enabling peer-to-peer multimedia interaction among connected devices. These intended communication devices are physical location-specific and under normal circumstances, they are wall-/desk-mounted. The circumstances, methodologies and the context in which these iTalker devices will be used in reality are different from the ways in which the conventional portable communication devices are used.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, at the time of forming the purposeful communication, each communication device shall be configured as a master or slave but each configured networking system shall have only one master, but one or more slave devices being registered with the master device in a location-specific way. Once registered, each iTalker device can get to know the network identifiers pertaining to other iTalker devices connected to the same master to initiate any unicast/multicast/broadeast multimedia interaction in a peer-to-peer manner. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, each iTalker has explicit features by way of having appropriate physical/on-screen keys/buttons that allow the user to register an iTalker per geographic specific location, and subsequently to initiate/terminate any multimedia unicast/broadcast. The devised iTalker

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devices can change their location-specific registration in the long-run -but not quite often.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, easy-to-follow manual configuration of master iTalker device and subsequent registration of slave iTalker devices to the master are preferred for enhanced security, and this governs the number of devices that can directly communicate with each other in a peer-to-peer way. Other than the manual steps involved for added security, other important networking configurations are performed autonomously. Further, each registered device can be identified per each geographical location (e.g., room type, kitchen, toilet and the like) or person's name and hence initiating a communication/interaction using iTalker is easy when compared to the conventional systems. Accordingly, each iTalker has to list down the other devices (identified by their location or assigned users' names) with which the former can have a direct interaction for the user to select and initiate the interaction. In addition, in case an iTalker is equipped with a video camera and/or a microphone, it is possible to do surveillance of one location LI from another location L2 without expecting any user input from the location LI that is going to be monitored.

These location-specific iTalker devices are found to be particularly beneficial in a setting where the user must be performing tasks in addition to interacting with one or more other users using iTalker.

According to the another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the master device takes an additional functionality to function as the base station that is either connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Public Land Mobile Network (PLMIN) line directly or via a local Private Branch eXchange (PBX) system, so that the envisaged communication devices can also be used as an ordinary telephone apparatus at the discretion of the user. Accordingly, any user has the flexibility in terms of whether to use iTalker as a conventional telephone apparatus or use it for the purpose of initiating a location-specific multimedia interaction in a peer-to-peer manner in an in-house environment. The multimedia communication that can take place in a peer-to-peer manner can be unicast or broadcast.

Conventionally, communication devices in the form of cordless telephones or intercoms along with private branch exchange (PBX) have been in use for short-haul (e.g., in-building, in-campus, and in-office) communications. In contrast, these devices cannot be registered per specific location in a houseloffice!buildinglcampus environment. Even if they are, their Jocation specific granularity is very low or they have limited functionalities, when compared to the proposed devices of the present invention. Further, iTalker device of the present invention enables user-friendly one-touch registration, very easy call initiation and surveillance capabilities that are not possible with conventional systems.

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Another major difference from other wireless communication devices or intercom devices is that a user does not normally reposition the iTalker while using it, as these are location-specific devices. Although iTalker devices are normally tied to a particular location, this feature does not prevent the user from dc-registering the device from a particular location and re-registering to a different location at the user's discretion. Further, according to another embodiment of the present invention, each iTalker device enables secure multimedia interaction (unlike those of prior art that support voice only) among each other from one physical location of a house/building/office and the like to another.

Although the use case scenario of iTalker is quite different from those of other communication systems, the following paragraphs explain the main differences by way of making comparisons with different representative systems found in the prior art. US Patent US 7103392 B2 proposes a wireless intercom system consisting of intercom, a base station and another communication device where the base station relays the communication between an intercom and another communication device via radio signals or via wiring. In contrast, the present invention does not employ a base station that needs to relay communication between two iTalker devices. Other distinguished features as mentioned in the previous paragraphs make iTalker stand out from that proposed in US Patent US 7103392 B2. A similar communication system is proposed in US patent US 7328043 B2 where the telephone apparatus comprising a base station and a handset that are connected with each other using Bluetooth radio interface allows the base station to connect with a wireless PBX using IEEE 802.11.

A mobile communication device that can simultaneously communicate with more than one device via two different radio air interfaces is proposed in US patent US 6405027 BI. According to the proposal, one air interface which is based on Bluetooth Intercom Profile, allows direct device-to-device communication. Although in terms of the ability to support direct device-to-device communication, the proposed solution of US 6405027 Bi is similar to one embodiment of the present invention, the proposed solutions of the present invention are different at least from the following perspectives; i) each iTalker device has extra features for it to be registered in a per location- specific manner within a houselbuilding/office and the like in a very user-friendly manner, ii) from the way interactions are initiated in each iTalker device, and iii) ability to initiate surveillance from one end using each iTalker device.

A method and apparatus for providing a multi-channel, multi-user wireless intercom comprising a plurality of multi-channel wireless transceiver radios configured to form a radio unit are disclosed in US patent US 6952590 B2.

For the reason mentioned in the previous paragraph, the device, system and the associated methods proposed in the present invention are different as it will be deduced when reading different embodiments.

A voice communication device for providing Voice over Wireless Local Area Network (VoWLAN) communication using a single microprocessor is disclosed in US patent US 200810008142 Al. Given that this particular patent concentrates much on how to realise a single processor VoWLAN communication device, the objectives and the scope of the present invention are different from those of US 2008/0008142 Al.

The present invention is believed to be applicable to a variety of arrangements expecting unified communication and other multimedia interactions between two or more users, surveillance and additional enriched features in a domestic, public, commercial or retail settings.

Disclosure of the Invention

According to the first aspect of the present invention there is provided a communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type in order to form a location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network within the premises of a private dwelling, office, apartment and the like consisting of one or more multi-functional communication device of first type, and the said communication device of first type provides hardware/software facilities to; i) configure one of said communication devices of first type to operate as a master and the rest as slaves; ii) register all the slave devices on-the-fly with the said master in a location-specific manner such that each of said communication devices of first type operates from a specific location of a private dwelling, office, apartment and the like, wherein two or more of the said communication devices of first type interact there between via a communication interface of first type in a geographic location manner within a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like where it is configured to operate from.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network comprises a unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to a communication interface of first type, a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons and the said specific set of keyslbuttons include Master/Slave, Register and typical names of different physical locations of a houselbuildingJoffice and the like for setting a given communication device of first type as a master/slave, registering/associating a said communication device of first type with the said master, and registering a given communication device of first type per a given physical location respectively in order to compose a said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network with the help of the user, wherein composing a said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network Out of two or more of said communication devices of first type is triggered when turning on the said communication devices of first V 13 type for the first time or manually and formation of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network employing a configuration procedure comprising the steps of: 1) prompting the user to set one of said communication devices of first type to be the master device by pressing one of the said specific set of keys/buttons, if the master does not exist already; ii) getting the configured master to display the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master device pertaining to a communication interface of first type; iii) prompting the user to turn on each of the other said communication devices of first type, to register each of them as a slave device with the said master in a physical location-specific manner by entering the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master pertaining to a communication interface of first type and, subsequently to press a preferred physical location-specific key and the registration key of the said specific set of keys/buttons simultaneously on the slave device; iv) on receiving the registration request when the registration key on each of said slave devices being pressed, prompting each slave device to transmit the location-specific-identifier and the said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the slave device pertaining to the communication interface of first type to the master device; v) on reception of the location-specific and the said unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to the communication interface of first type of each registered slave device, getting the said master device to pass this device-specific information to locally prepare a routing table; vi) continuing operations (iii) to (v) for every other slave device; vii) getting the said master device to periodically disseminate the device-specific details maintained in a routing table to all the registered devices of the network for all devices to know the important details of the peer devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network formed on-demand; wherein dc-/registering an okt'new slave device to the existing master can take place asynchronously at the user's discretion and each registered communication device of first type periodically disseminates an ALIVE packet to all the other registered devices of the said master informing its current status in order to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network, wherein the communication interface of first type can be implemented based on different flavours of WiFi (i.e., IEEE 802.11) technology including WiFi-direct.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network has a unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to a communication interface of first type, wherein if communication interface of first type has an IP network

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connectivity, the said unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to a communication interface of first type is an IP address.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network, wherein the communication interface of first type can be provided on the existing telephone wiring supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA), power-line supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified as part of HomePlug consortium, IEEE 802.lln or coax cabling supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (M0CA) wherein in order to use power-line each communication device of first type shall be equipped with a power-line Ethernet or similar adaptors.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network, wherein the said master device is operable to assign asymmetric (i.e., both public and private) keys to every slave device at the time of registration and to the master when the said master was configured and the private key being assigned is notified by the master to the owner whereas all public keys are notified to every registered device.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network, wherein the said master device is operable to create a routing table and the said routing table creation process comprising the steps of: i) creating an entry corresponding to the master; ii) On reception of registration request from each slave device, creating an entry corresponding to the slave device; wherein each entry consists of a location-specific-identifier identifying the location of a private dwelling where a said communication device of first type is set/configured to operate from, one or plurality of network identifiers pertaining to one or plurality of communication interfaces it supports, role (i.e., whether master or slave), security credentials assigned by the said master, current activity and the like.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network, wherein the said master device is operable to broadcast the contents of the routing table excluding the private key details of each of said communication devices of first type after each new additionlremoval of slave devices to/from the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network for all the registered slave devices to maintain their local routing tables that does not have the information of private keys pertaining to other peer devices. -Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network, wherein each communication device that has become one of the members of the said

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location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network formed on-demand is operable to broadcast an ALIVE packet periodically to inform its current communication status to all the other peer devices of the said network.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network has a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons representing (or being embossed with) typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like for registering a given communication device of first type per a given physical location in order to compose the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network with the help of the user, wherein once being part of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network the user interface of first type belonging to any first communication device of first type indicating: i) the location-specific key/button of the user interface of first communication device of first type corresponding to itself is lit up with colour of one type to indicate that the first device is part of any said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network and is ready to initiate any peer-to-peer interaction with other devices of the said network; ii) the location-specific keys/buttons of the user interface of first type belonging to the first communication device of first type corresponding to other peer devices are lit up with a colour of second type to indicate that first device is ready to interact in a peer-to-peer manner with other registered devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network; wherein by pressing the location-specific keylbutton key on the first device corresponding to a second device, peer-to-peer interaction can be initiated automatically via a communication interface of first type.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network has a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons representing (or being embossed with) typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like and application-specific keys being used to initiate one or plurality of peer-to-peer interaction, wherein the peer-to-peer interaction between two or more communication devices of first type belonging to the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network can be initiated automatically via a communication interface of first type, and this process comprising the steps of: i) when the user choosing a given second communication device of first type by pressing the corresponding location-specific key, the first communication device of first type looking up and finding the corresponding said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second communication device of first type pertaining to the communication interface of first type with which interaction is preferred from the local routing table;

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ii) when the user pressing one application-specific key (e.g., voice-call, video-call, instantaneous messaging (IM), short messaging service (SMS)), a communication connection is established between the first and the second directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the communication connection is established, the user of second communication device is drawn an attention to the initiation of interaction by the first device; and, iv) on user accepting the interaction in the second device, one or plurality of multimedia interactions are possible there between and the received multimedia content are rendered in the required format on either device; wherein the user has the flexibility to interact with more than one peer communication devices of first type by simultaneously choosing them from the location-specific keys of the said user interface first type.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network has a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons representing (or being embossed with) typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like and application-specific keys being used to initiate one or plurality of peer-to-peer interaction, wherein the said set of application-specific keys correspond to the type of different interactions that can be initiated between peer devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network and includes individual keys/buttons and the associated hardware/software functionalities in order to initiate voice-call, video-call.

TM, SMS or the like depending on the capabilities of each of the said communication devices of first type.

Preferably that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network, wherein once a said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed, the first said communication device of first type is operable to interact with a second said communication device of first type in order to initiate/terminate a variety of multimedia interactions in a peer-to-peer. manner via a communication interface of first type, and as part of this process one or plurality of secure communication channels between the first and the second devices of first type are to be established and on being contacted, each of the said communication devices of first type: i) will perform the mutual authentication using the asymmetric keys assigned by the master at the time of device registration; ii) on successful device authentication, each device is made responsible for the encryption/decryption of the multimedia traffic being exchanged.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network possesses a number of peripheral deyices being interfaced appropriately, and the said peripheral devices comprise a microphone configured to capture an audio signal input by

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employing an appropriate audio codec, a video camera to capture video input by employing an appropriate video codec, a speaker configured to playback the received audio signal, an electronic visual display configured to playback the received video signal in an appropriate format, and a on-screen or physical keypad configured for the said communication device of first type to get user inputs in connection with turning the said device on/off, device registration and configuration, interactive session initiation/termination, volume control, picture quality control and the like.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network has a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons and the said specific set of keys/buttons include a Surveillance key, wherein once the said purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed, the first said communication device of first type is operable to interact with a second said communication device of first type in order to initiate/terminate a video surveillance or monitoring of one geographical location from another location via a communication interface of first type, and this process comprising the steps ot i) when the user choosing a given second communication device of first type from the first device by pressing the location-specific key corresponding to the said second device, the first said communication device of first type looking up and finding the corresponding said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second device pertaining to the communication interface of first type from the local routing table for the surveillance of the physical location where the second device is physically located or configured to operate from; ii) when the user pressing said Surveillance key, the first device contacting the second device in order to establish a secure connection with the selected second device directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the secure connection is established with sufficient encryption after the successful mutual authentication by the first and the second communication devices of first type, streaming and recording locally live video footage in the first communication device that is used to monitor the remote location pertaining to the second device; and, iv) performing volume control, brightness, colour, contrast, zoom-in and zoom-out settings as many times as preferred and the like using the first communication device; Wherein the first communication device can initiate the surveillance operation by streaming and playing back of live events being captured by the second communication device remotely.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network incorporates an additional wireless PIR burglar alarm functionality so that each physical

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location (eg., room) of a property will be protected if each said communication device is registered and physically located per room, wherein each of the said communication devices of first type continuously monitors a given space with the PIR motion sensor when the burglar alarm functionality is activated by the user and on detecting an intrusion it will notify the said master device via the communication interface of first type along with the said unique device-specific-identifier and the location/owner's name of the said communication device that triggers the alarm and the said master takes some additional functionalities to notify a central burglar alarm control on being informed of a possible burglar intrusion by any peer slave device in any of the room where the said peer slave communication device is located.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is equipped with the PIR motion sensor and has an electronic visual display panel, wherein under normal circumstances the communication device of first type operates in sleep mode when idling and whenever any human motion is detected while the burglar alarm functionality is disabled, the communication device of first type will function as a digital photo frame displaying a sequence of user-uploaded photos on the said electronic visual display panel or displaying a set of user-set task-list or an online diary with an objective to remind the users of important house-hold/personal jobs that needs to be done on time.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network supports traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein each communication device of first type being provided with a communication interface of first type to support multimedia interaction there between in a peer-to-peer manner, where the configured master takes an extra functionality to operate as a master base station that is being configured to communicate with a telephony system via a communication interface of second type, and forming an externally connected location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network comprising an additional step of: a) connecting the said master base station to the conventional standard telephony system maintaining a link with PSTN, ISDN or PLMN directly or via PBX via the said communication interface of second type; wherein each communication device of first type supports traditional telephony services via the said master base station to/from the said conventional standard telephony system via the said interface of the second type.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network and supporting traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein the interface of the second type is a Bluetooth interface.

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It is preferred that the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network and supporting traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, where each said communication device of first type possesses the necessary user interfaces realised through hardware and/or software means and comprises an additional usage logic, wherein the usage pattern of the said communication device of first type will vary at the user's discretion depending on what the user inputs in order to initiate any communication, and the usage logic act upon based on the following: i) on being input any traditional telephone number by the user, the said usage logic will quickly establish the connection with the master base station via the said communication interface of the first type and the said master base station will subsequently establish a link with the traditional telephone system via the said communication interface of the second type to provide traditional telephony service; or, ii) when a given peer device is selected using the corresponding location-specific key by the user, a peer-to-peer interaction will be initiated by establishing a direct device-to-device communication channel with the chosen communication device via the said communication interface of the first type.

Preferably the said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network has a user interface of first type consisting of a number of extra control keys/buttons and associated hardware/software functionalities in order to be used as a radio, TV, digital photo frame, voice recorder, video recorder to display current time (as a clock), ambient temperature, task-list and the like.

According to the Second aspect of the present invention there is provided a physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip to form a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network where each said multimedia-capable communication device is registered per a given geographic location in a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction there between without relying on any intermediate base station, and the system on a chip comprising: i) abus, ii) a peripheral controller being coupled to said bus for connecting a multitude of I/O peripheral devices; iii) one or plurality of microprocessors being coupled to said bus and said microprocessors configured to perform the required signal processing associated with the multimedia traffic and to provide control functions of said communication device; iv) a communication controller being coupled to said bus for connecting to one or plurality of preferred communication interfaces; and, v) a memory that is coupled to said bus into which a plurality of instructions are loaded, V. wherein the said system on a chip composes a purposeful system on-the-fly by getting each said communication device to join while handling operations such as: a) configuring a unique network identifier for each of the said communication devices; b) setting exactly one of said communication devices to be the master device and the rest as slave devices just for the purpose of securely registering/associating a said communication device with one another; c) associating/registering each slave device with the said master device in a physical location-specific manner using the set unique network identifier and this process passes information such as each slave device's specific locationlowner's name along with its unique network identifier on to the said master device via one of the said preferred communication interfaces; d) letting the said master device maintain a routing table in its memory that maps location-specific name of each registered communication device along with the corresponding said unique network identifier; e) letting the said master device exchange the said routing table with all the other associated/registered slave devices periodically via one of the said preferred communication interfaces; wherein each of said communication devices has the necessary hardware and/or software functionalities for the system on chip to register each said communication device per a given geographic location of a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like where once two or more of said communication devices have formed into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network on-the-fly, the said system on chip lets each said communication device initiate/terminate interactive multimedia unicast/broadcast with one another in a peer-to-peer manner via one of the said communication interface of first type without relying on any intervening base station.

It is preferred that the said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip can initiate one or plurality of interactive multimedia sessions in a peer-to-peer manner between two or more said communication devices, wherein such an attempt by a first said communication device to communicate with a second said communication device comprises the steps of: i) Looking up and finding the corresponding said unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device with which interaction is preferred from the exchanged said routing table; ii) establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier; iii) Drawing the attention of the user of second communication device to the initiation of multimedia interaction by the first device; iv) on accepting the multimedia interaction in the second device, rendering the content of the received multimedia content in the required format.

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Preferably the said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip incorporates an additional wireless PIR burglar alarm functionality so that each physical location (e.g., room) of a property will be protected if each said communication device is registered and physically located per room, wherein the said system on a chip subjects the said communication device to continuously monitor a given space with the PIR motion sensor and on detecting an intrusion it will notify the said master device via one of the said communication interface of first type along with the said unique device-specific-identifier and the locationlowner's name of the said communication device that triggers the alarm and the said master takes some additional functionalities to notify a central burglar alarm control on being informed of a possible burglar intrusion by any peer slave device in any of the room where the said peer slave communication device is located.

It is preferred that the said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip supports traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein communication devices being provided with a communication interface of first type to support multimedia interaction there between in a peer-to-peer manner, where one of said communication device takes an extra functionality to operate as a master base station that is being configured to communicate with a telephony system via a communication interface of second type, and forming a purposeful communication network comprising the steps of: a) configuring a unique network identifier for each of the said communication devices pertaining to communication interfaces of first type; b) setting exactly one of said communication devices to be the master base station and the rest as slave devices just for the purpose of secure registering/associating of said communication devices with one another; c) connecting the said master base station to the conventional standard telephony system maintaining a link with PSTN, ISDN or PLMN directly or via PBX via the said communication interface of second type; d) associating/registering each slave device with the said master base station in a physical location-specific manner using the set unique network identifiers and this process passes information such as device-specific location/owner's name along with its said unique network identifier pertaining to each registered slave device on to the said master base station via the said communication interface of the first type; e) letting the said master base station maintain a routing table in its memory that maps location-specific name of each registered communication device along with the corresponding said unique network identifier; f) letting the said master base station exchange the said routing table with all the other associated/registered slave devices periodically via the said interface of the first type to facilitate peer-to-peer multimedia interactions; wherein each said communication device has the necessary hardware and/or software functionalities for it to be registered per geographic location in a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like where once one or more of said communication devices have formed into a purposeful communication network on-the-fly, and the said system on a chip lets each said communication device initiate/terminate interactive multimedia unicast/broadcast with one another in a peer-to-peer manner without any reliance on any intervening base station via the said interface of the first type and supports traditional telephony services via the said master base station to/from the said conventional standard telephony system via the said interface of the second type depending on user input.

It is preferred that the said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip supporting traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein the interface of the first type is implemented based on IEEE 802.11 standard including the WiFi-direct.

Preferably the said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip supporting traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein the interface of the second type is a Bluetooth interface.

Preferably the said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip supporting traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein the interface of the first type can be provided via power lines, phone lines or coaxial cable as specified by the ITU-T group working on home networking specifications under the G.hn banner and this requires equipping each communication device with a power-line Ethernet adaptors and the hke.

It is preferred that the said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip supporting traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, where each said communication device possesses the necessary user interfaces realised through hardware and/or software means where the said system on a chip comprising an additional usage logic, wherein the usage pattern of the said communication device will vary at the user's discretion depending on what the user inputs in order to initiate any communication, and the usage logic act upon based on the following: i) on being input any traditional telephone number by the user, the said usage logic will quickly establish the connection with the master base station via the said communication interface of the first type and the said master base station establish a link with the traditional telephone system via the said communication interface of the second type to provide traditional telephony service; or, ii) when a peer device is selected on the said list view by the user, a peer-to-peer interaction will be initiated by establishing a direct device-to-device * communication channel with the chosen communication device via the said communication interface of the first type.

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According to the third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner, wherein different peer communication devices are connected via one or variety of interfaces with each other, wherein forming a purposeful communication system has a pre-set start-up procedure/method that can be triggered either automatically on the very first switch on or manually and to support this each communication device has the necessary user interface realised through appropriate hardware, software or combination of both, and the said start-up procedure/method comprising the steps of: i) getting each peer communication device assigned a globally unique network identifier (e.g., IP Address) by connecting to an existing network server (e.g., having DHCP functionality and the like) or manually assigning a unique network identifier if no connection to any external network is preferred; ii) choosing one device as the master device and subsequently registering/associating one or more of other peer communication devices as slaves with a said master by manually entering the said unique network identifier (e.g., IP address) of the said master device in the required place as requested by the registration process window in each of slave devices, and the registration process comprises the following steps: a) Getting the user to choose each slave device's preferred geographical location where it is going to be located or operate from the menu/keys provided by the user interface of each communication device; b) if no user-preferred location name exists in the standard menu provided by the default user interface, getting the user to make new addition or to edit the existing names such that the preferred location name will appear; c) prompting the user to press the preferred location name and register button to get the new device registeredlassociated with the said master device; d) registration process of each slave device (c) above automatically passing information such as each slave device's specific location/owner's name along with its unique network identifier on to the said master device in a peer-to-peer manner via any preferred communication interface; e) the said master device maintaining the routing table by mapping the location name of each registered slave communication device with the latter's unique network identifier (i.e., IP address) on reception of registration request of each slave device; f) the said master device making sure that each registered slave device has correct information about other peer devices in terms of their location or owner's name and the configured network addresses; g) on detecting name and/or identifier dispute, the said master device notifying the nature of dispute to the devices that are in conflict in order to change their network identifier or name of the location or location where the slave device is to be registered; and, iii) periodically exchanging the said routing table maintained by the master device with every registered slave device; wherein once a given slave communication device is associated with the said master device, its current status on the home-screen will appear as registered, and this way once a purposeful communication system is initially built by following the said stipulated steps, further addition of slave devices to the existing said master device is possible by subjecting every new device to go through the same steps, and de-registration of a slave device is possible by pressing the de-register key on the device that is going to be de-registered.

It is preferred that the said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer maimer, wherein the preferred interface that connects peer devices is wireless and is implemented as per IEEE 802.11 standard.

Preferably the said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner, wherein the interface that connects peer devices is wireless and is implemented as per Bluetooth standard, and the said start-up procedure is made possible through pairing of each communication device with one another.

Preferably the said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner, wherein the interface that connects peer devices can be provided via power lines, phone lines or coaxial cable as specified by the JTU-T group working on home networking specifications under the G.hn banner and this requires equipping each communication device with a power-line Ethernet adaptors and the like (e.g., HomePlug Ay).

It is preferred that the said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communicatiOn facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions! interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner, wherein once a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed after following the said start-up procedure, initiating/terminating multimedia interactions by any registered/configured first device with the second device will follow a procedure/method comprising the steps of and this procedure/method applies equally to both the master and slave devices: 1) first the user getting the first communication device to populate the details of the other peer neighbouring communication devices with which peer-to-peer interaction is possible; 2) from the list view of the neighbouring devices to which communication is possible, the user detecting whether the first communication device is registered with a master and whether the neighbour list has any entry; 3) in case the neighbour-list of first communication device has no entry and its current status says that it is not associated with any master, the user following the said pre-start procedure for configuring the network first, and if on the other hand, the neighbour list has more than one entry, the user choosing the appropriate name (i.e., location name or owner's name) of the second device to which multimedia interaction is preferred and subsequently pressing/choosing voice-call, video-call or instantaneous messaging (IM) or short messaging service; 4) on user initiating any multimedia application, automatically the said first communication device looking up and finding the corresponding said unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device with which interaction is preferred from the said routing table periodically downloaded from the master device; and, 5) the said first communication device establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier; Wherein once the required multimedia peer-to-peer communication is initiated in the first device, the second device will be prompted about this and on accepting the first device's request. the multimedia interaction will be established and it can be terminated by either device.

Preferably the said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-topeer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner, wherein once a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed after following the said start-up procedure and if each communication device has a built-in video camera and associated hardware and software functionalities to exert a total control over the operations of the said video camera, video surveillance or monitoring of one geographical location from another location is possible provided those locations have capable communication devices in operation, initiating/terminating such video surveillance of or monitoring operation by any registeredlconfigured first device will follow a procedure/method comprising the steps of and this procedure/method applies equally to both the master and slave devices:

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1) first from the list view of the neighbouring devices to which communication is possible, the user detecting whether the first communication device is registered with a master and whether the neighbour-list has any entry; 2) in case the neighbour-list of first communication device has no entry and its current status says that it is not associated with any master, the user following the said pre-start procedure for configuring the network first, and if on the other hand, the neighbour list has more than one entry, the user choosing the appropriate name (i.e., location name or owner's name) of the second communication device and subsequently pressing/choosing surveillance; 3) on initiating the surveillance application, automatically the said first communication device looking up and finding the corresponding said unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device from the said routing table that is periodically downloaded from the master device; and, 4) the said first communication device establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier; 5) the said first communication device streaming and recording locally live video footage to monitor the remote location pertaining to the second device; and, 6) the user performing volume control, brightness, colour, contrast, zoom-in and zoom-out settings and manipulating the trajectory of the security camera as many times as preferred and the like using the first communication device; Wherein communication devices have the necessary hardware and software functionalities wherein the first communication device can initiate the surveillance operation by streaming and playing back of live events being captured by the second communication device remotely.

It is preferred that the said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a video surveillance or remote monitoring, wherein such operation is possible via the Internet from a remote location using a device that is not part of the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network if said network maintains a connectivity with the Internet.

Preferably the said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a video surveillance or remote monitoring, wherein each communication device forming the said network has a special extra key for the purpose of enabling surveillance via the Internet and this operation comprising the steps of:

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i) a centralised streaming server on the Internet is configured to be constantly suppliedlprovided with the live video/audio streams captured by every communication device of the purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network formed on-demand; ii) when a user pressing the said special key enabling the surveillance via the Internet on the master device, the master will contact each of the plurality of registered slave devices that has a built-in video camera for each of them to capture the live video footage of the local coverage area and transmit continuously to the master device; iii) on receiving live video footage from every registered slave device, the master will in turn transmit the received streams constantly to the said server with correct identification; iv) any user having connectivity to the Internet signing onto the server remotely using login credentials and view live video footage of various parts of a building, house, apartment or the like where the said purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is set to operate; wherein the master maintains the login details of the authorised users that are able to view the live footage via the Internet from remote locations and passes such details onto the server such that the server will allow only the authorised personal to view the live footage via the Internet.

Description of the Drawings

Non-limited and non-exhaustive embodiments are described with reference to the following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified.

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference will be made to the following detailed description of the invention, which is to be read in association with the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 shows the exemplary front view of the basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type to be used for location-specific in-house peer-to-peer multimedia unicast/broadcast communication as proposed according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 1A is an exemplary illustration of the various components of the middleware that is necessary to compose a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network out of two or more capable communication devices of secondlthird type as proposed according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is an exemplary schematic block diagram illustrating the Internal components of a multi-functional communication device of second type to be used for location-specific in-house peer-to-peer multimedia unicastThroadcast communication operating on a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessor according to one embodiment of the present invention.

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Figure 3 is an exemplary schematic block diagram illustrating the internal components of a multi-functional communication device of second type to be used for location-specific in-house peer-to-peer multimedia unicast/broadcast communication in addition to maintaining a connection with a standard telephone system operating on a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessor according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is an exemplary illustration of the various components of the software stack of a RISC microprocessor according to one another embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5A shows the exemplary front view of an enhanced version of the communication device of second/third type to be used for location-specific in-house peer-to-peer multimedia unicast/broadcast communication operating on a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessor and consisting of electronic visual display unit for rendering a video signal received, a speaker, transceiver antenna, a number of settings button for setting the date/time/day and calendar, and manipulating video/audio received locally according to this invention and special buttons for initiating/terminating a variety of location-specific in-house multimedia interactions according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5B is an exemplary illustration of the special keys/buttons needed for the multi-functional communication device second/third type to configure a communication device either as the master or a slave, to set and to register/de-register each communication device in a location-specific manner, to initiate/terminate a variety of unicastlrnulticastlbroadcast multimedia session in a peer-to-peer manner, and to originate/terminate novel surveillance application according to one embodiment of the present invention; Figure 6 is an illustration of location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network formed ondemand where various embodiments of the present invention is said to work.

Figure 7 is an exemplary illustration depicting a packet type (e.g., ALiVE) mainly used to disseminate important information of each communication device of second/third type periodically or at the time of registration or network configuration according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 8A is an exemplary illustration for physical hardware user interface having a small electronic visual display unit or an on-screen graphical user interface having touch-screen facility for a user to register/associate a slave communication. device of second/third type with the master communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 8B is an exemplary illustration for physical hardware user interface having a small electronic visual display unit or an on-screen graphical user inteiface having touch-screen facility for a user to de-register/disassociate a slave communication device from the master communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 9 is an exemplary illustration of a routing table maintained by the master communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 10 is a flow chart illustrating the operational procedure involved when composing one or more communication devices into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer communication system.

Figure 11 is a flow chart illustrating the operational procedure involved when the user wants to set the communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 12 is a flow chart illustrating the process of initiating various multimedia sessions among peer communication devices once a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer communication system is formed.

Figure 13 shows the exemplary task-list that can be displayed on the electronic visual display panel of an enhanced version of the communication device of first type or the communication device of second/third type according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The figures are provided for ease of explanation of the basic proposals of the present invention only; the extensions of the figures with reference to number, position, relationship and dimensions of the parts to form the preferred embodiment will be explained or will be within the skill of the art after the following proposals/findings of the present invention have been read and understood.

Description of Specific Embodiments

The present invention will now be described in a more elaborative manner hereinafter with reference to the accompanying figures, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments by which the invention may be practised. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

Various embodiments of the present invention provide system, apparatus and methodologies for capable communication devices of first/second/third type to be registered/configured per a given geographical location of a private dwelling, small office and an apartment in order to support a variety of in-house multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users being located across two different locations of a private property/building/office in a peer-to-peer manner. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a new communication paradigm is envisaged by way of empowering a communication device through appropriate hardware and/or software means to enable location-specific in-house peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, and such an empowered communication device of first/second/third type is hereinafter referred to as iTalker throughout this document for easy identification. Each such empowered new iTalker device enables the user to register it per a given geographical location of a dwelling, office, building, apartment, flats and the like to initiate/terminate location-specific multimedia interaction among users in a peer-to-peer manner.

According to the second embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip (SoC) to form a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 where each said communication device of second/third type is registered per a given geographic location in a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction there between without relying on any intermediate base station. Through subsequent embodiments of the present invention new functionalities are added to extend the capabilities of the said SoC to have conventional telephony and other services as well.

According to the third embodiment, methods and procedures are introduced to make any existing communication device such as a smart-phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook and the like, so long as it has the necessary hardware and software functionalities, to be part of the envisaged communication paradigm.

Fig. 1 shows the exemplary front view of the basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type 100 to be used for location-specific in-house peer-to-peer multimedia unicast/broadcast communication as proposed according to one embodiment of the present invention. Every basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type 100 has a user interface of first type consisting of specific set of keys/buttons and the said specific set of keys/buttons includes Master/Slave and Register/Dc-Register 109 for the purpose of configuring a given communication device of first type 100 as a master/slave, registering/associating or dc-registering a said communication device of first type 100 with/from the said master. The specific set of keys/buttons of the user interface of first type further includes keys 102 being embossed with the typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like for the purpose of registering a given communication device of first type 100 per a given physical location.

Once registered in physical location specific way, each basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type 100 will be configured to operate from the respective location of a house, dwelling, building and the like. In other words, they will be physically located in their respective locations. The elementary version of the communication device of first type further includes a LCD panel 104 to display an alphanumeric as it will be explained later, a speaker 106 and application specific keys 108. The application specific keys 108 allow the user to initiate different varieties of multimedia interactions in a peer-to-peer manner with other registered devices of a location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 formed on demand.

Although the set of application specific keys 108 shown include voice-call, video-call, instantaneous messaging, short message service (SMS) and the

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like, different keys of 108 will be activated depending on the hardware/software capabilities of 100. For instance, the video-call key of 108 necessitates every communication device of first type 100 to possess a reasonably sized electronic visual display and a video camera.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, every basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type 100 comprising a communication interface of first type provides hardware/software facilities to: i) configure one of said communication devices of first type to operate as a master and the rest as slaves; and, ii) register all the slave devices on-the-fly with the said master in a location-specific manner such that each of 100 operates from a specific location of a private dwelling, office, apartment and the like.

This way two or more of the said basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type 100 interact there between via a communication interface of first type in a geographic location manner within a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like where it is configured to operate from. With the availability of user interface of first type consisting of set of keys/buttons 102, 108 and 109 (electronic keys), composing a said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 on-the-fly out of two or more of basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type 100 is possible. Such a network formation is typically triggered when turning on the said communication devices of first type 100 for the first time or manually and the formation of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 employs a configuration procedure comprising the steps of: i) prompting the user to set one of said communication devices of first type to be the master device by pressing one of the said specific set of keys/buttons 109, if the master does not exist already; ii) getting the configured master to display the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master device pertaining to a communication interface of firsttypeinl04; iii) prompting the user to turn on each of the other said communication devices of first type 100, to register each of them as a slave device with the said master in a physical location-specific manner by entering the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master pertaining to a communication interface of first type and, subsequently to press a preferred physical location-specific key of 102 and the registration key of 109 simultaneously on the slave device 100; iv) on receiving the registration request when the registration key on each of said slave devices 100 being pressed, prompting each slave device 100 to transmit the location-specific-identifier and the said unique device/network-.

specific-identifier of the slave device 100 pertaining to the communication interface of first type to the master device;

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v) on reception of the location-specific and the said unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to the communication interface of first type of each registered slave device, getting the said master device to pass this device-specific information to locally prepare a routing table; vi) continuing operations (iii) to (v) for every other slave device; vii) getting the said master device to periodically disseminate the device-specific details maintained in a routing table to all the registered devices of the network for all devices to know the important details of the peer devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 fonned on-demand.

In this arrangement, dc-/registering an old/new slave device to the existing master can take place asynchronously at the user's discretion and each registered communication device of first type 100 periodically disseminates an ALIVE packet to all the other registered devices of the said master informing its current status in order to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction. The communication interface of first type can be implemented based on different flavours of WiFi (i.e., IEEE 802.11) technology including WiFi-direct.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the communication interface of first type can be provided on the existing telephone wiring supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA), power-line supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified as part of HomePlug consortium, IEEE 802.lln or coax cabling supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) wherein in order to use power-line each communication device of first type 100 shall be equipped with a power-line. Ethernet or similar adaptors.

According to another embodiment of the present invention at the time of slave device registration during the network composition, the said master device is operable to assign asymmetric (i.e., both public and private) keys to every slave device at the time of registration and to the master when the said master was configured and the private key being assigned is notified by the master to the owner whereas all public keys are notified to every registered device.

Also, the said master device is operable to create a routing table and the said routing table creation process comprising the steps of: i) creating an entry corresponding to the master; ii) On reception of registration request from each slave device, creating an entry corresponding to the slave device.

Each entry corresponds to each communication device of first type 100 that is a member of 660. In this respect each entry consists of a location-specific- -identifier identifying the location of a private dwelling where a given communication device of first type 100 is set/configured to operate from, one or plurality of network identifiers pertaining to one or plurality of communication interfaces it supports, role (i.e., whether master or slave),

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security credentials assigned by the said master, current activity and the like.

According to this arrangement, the said master device is operable to broadcast the contents of the routing table excluding the private key details of each of said communication devices of first type 100 after each new additionlremoval of slave devices to/from the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 for all the registered slave devices to maintain their local routing tables that does not have the information of private keys pertaining to other peer devices.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, once being part of any location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 the user interface of first type belonging to any first communication device of first type 100 reflects its network connectivity status in the following way: i) the location-specific key/button of 102 of the user interface of first communication device of first type 100 corresponding to itself is lit up with colour of one type to indicate that the first device is part of any said location- specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 and is ready to initiate any peer-to-peer interaction with other devices of the said network 660. for instance, in case a given device 100 is registered to operate from a bedroom-i, the corresponding key of 102 will be lit up in a different colour (for example, green as shown in Fig. 1).

ii) the location-specific keys/buttons 102 of the user interface of first type belonging to the first communication device of first type 100 corresponding to other peer devices are lit up with a colour of second type (for example blue as shown in Fig. 1) to indicate that first device is ready to interact in a peer-to-peer manner with other registered devices of the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 100.

Accordingly, by pressing the location-specific key/button key of 102 on the first device corresponding to a second device, any type of peer-to-peer interaction can be initiated automatically via a communication interface of first type, and this process comprising the steps of: i) when the user chooses a given second communication device of first type 100 by pressing the corresponding location-specific key of 102, the first communication device of first type 100 looks up and finds out the corresponding said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second communication device first type 100 pertaining to the communication interface of first type with which interaction is preferred from the local routing table; ii) when the user presses one application-specific key (e.g., voice-call, video-call, instantaneous messaging (IM), short messaging service (SMS)) of 108, a communication connection is established between the first and the second directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the communication connection is established, the user of second communication device is drawn an attention to the initiation of interaction by the first device; and, iv) on user accepting the interaction in the second device, one or plurality of multimedia interactions are possible there between and the received multimedia content are rendered in the required format on either device; In this arrangement, the user has the flexibility to interact with more than one peer communication devices of first type 100 by simultaneously choosing them from the location-specific keys 102 of the said user interface of first type. According to one embodiment of the present invention, each interaction among different communication devices of first type 100 requires the participating devices 100 to perform the mutual authentication using the asymmetric keys assigned by the master at the time of device registration. On successful device authentication, each device 100 is made responsible for the encryptionldecryption of the multimedia traffic being exchanged.

The said set of application-specific keys 108 corresponds to the type of different interactions that can be initiated between peer devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 and includes individual keys/buttons and the associated hardware/software functionalities in order to initiate voice-call, video-call, TM, SMS or the like depending on the capabilities of each of the said communication devices of first type 100.

The basic/elementary version of the said communication devices of first type as shown in Fig. I is capable to support only voice-call between the peer devices of 660. It can even possess a number of peripheral devices being interfaced appropriately, and the said peripheral devices comprise a microphone configured to capture an audio signal input by employing an appropriate audio codec, a video camera to capture video input by employing an appropriate video codec, a speaker configured to playback the received audio signal, an electronic visual display panel configured to playback the received video signal in an appropriate format. It can even include a numerical keypad to get user inputs.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the said specific set of application-specific keys/buttons 108 includes a Surveillance key. According to this arrangement, once the said purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 is formed, the first said communication device of first type 100 is operable to interact with a second said communication device of first type 100 in order to initiate/terminate a video surveillance operation or monitoring of one geographical location from another location via a communication interface of first type, and this process comprises the following steps: i) when the user chooses a given second communication device of first type from the first device by pressing the location-specific key of 102 corresponding to the said second device, the first said communication device of first type 100 will look up and find out the corresponding said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second device pertaining to the communication interface of first type from the local routing table for the

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surveillance of the physical location where the second device is physically located or configured to operate from; ii) when the user presses the said Surveillance key of 108, the first device contacting the second device in order to establish a secure connection with the selected second device directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the secure connection is established with sufficient encryption after the successful mutual authentication by the first and the second communication devices of first type, streaming and recording locally live video footage in the first communication device that is used to monitor the remote location pertaining to the second device will start.

In this particular application, the first communication device of first type 100 can initiate the surveillance operation by streaming and playing back of live events being captured by the second communication device of first type remotely.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, each of the said communication devices of first type 100 forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 incorporates an additional wireless PIR burglar alarm functionality so that each physical location (e.g., room) of a property will be protected if each said communication device 100 is registered and physically located per room. According to this arrangement each of the said communication devices of first type 100 continuously monitors a given space with the passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor when the burglar alarm functionality is activated by the user and on detecting an intrusion it will notify the said master device via the communication interface of first type along with the said unique device-specific-identifier and the location/owner's name of the said communication device that triggers the alarm and the said master takes some additional functionalities to notify a central burglar alarm control on being informed of a possible burglar intrusion by any peer slave device in any of the room where the said peer slave communication device is located.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, equipping each communication device of first type 100 with a PIR motion sensor has another added benefit in case 100 has a reasonably-sized electronic visual display panel. According to this arrangement, under normal circumstances the communication device of first type 100 operates in sleep mode when idling and whenever any human motion is detected while the burglar alarm functionality is disabled, the communication device of first type 100 will function as a digital photo frame displaying a sequence of user-uploaded photos on the said electronic visual display panel or displaying a set of user-set task-list (as shown in Fig. 13) with an objective to remind the users of important house-hold/personal jobs that needs to be done on time. The task-list can be created/maintained/deleted manually in case each communication device of first type 100 possesses a keypad. According to another

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embodiment, the task-list can be automatically transferred from a mobile-phone, smart-phone, PDA, laptop or similar device by synchronising such an external device with the said master. The master will subsequently disseminate the task-list to other slave devices for them to display it whenever any user motion is detected within their configured serving region.

According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, each of the said communication devices of first type 100 forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 supports traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions. According to this arrangement, each communication device of first type 100 is provided with a communication interface of first type to support multimedia interaction there between in a peer-to-peer manner, where the configured master takes an extra functionality to operate as a master base station that is configured to communicate with a telephony system via a communication interface of second type. Forming such an externally connected location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network comprises an additional step of: a) connecting the said master base station to the conventional standard telephony system maintaining a link with PSTN, ISDN or PLMN directly or via PBX via the said communication interface of second type.

With this measure, each communication device of first type 100 supports traditional telephony services via the said master base station to/from the said conventional standard telephony system via the said interface of the second type. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the interface of the second type can preferably be a Bluetooth interface. In this arrangement, each of the said communication devices of first type 100 possesses the necessary user interfaces realised through hardware and/or software means and comprises additional usage logic. Under normal circumstances, the usage pattern of the each communication device of first type 100 will vary at the user's discretion depending on what the user inputs in order to initiate any communication and the usage logic will act upon based on the following: i) on being input any traditional telephone number by the user, the said usage logic will quickly establish the connection with the master base station via the said communication interface of the first type and the said master base station will subsequently establish a link with the traditional telephone system via the said communication interface of the second type to provide traditional telephony service; or, ii) when a given peer device is selected using the corresponding location-specific key 102 by the user, a peer-to-peer interaction will be initiated by establishing a direct device-to-device communication channel with the chosen communication device via the said communication interface of the first type.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, an enhanced version of the communication device of first type 100 forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network has a user interface of first type consisting of a number of extra control keys/buttons and associated

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hardware/software functionalities in order to be used as a radio, TV, digital photo frame, voice recorder, video recorder to display current time (as a clock), ambient temperature, task-list and the like.

The functionalities of a communication device of first type 100 can be realised using hardware, software or combination of both. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a purpose-built middleware is used to realise the intended functionalities of a communication device of first type 100.

Fig. 1A depicts various functional blocks of the middleware 140 which is necessary to provide a framework and to control on-the-fly secure spontaneous composition of one or more of communication devices of first type 100 having the necessary hardware and/or software functionalities for each of them to be registered per given geographic location in a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like to form a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 that can enable each said communication device of first/secondlthird type 100/200/300 to initiate/terminate interactive multimedia unicast/broadeast with one another in a peer-to-peer manner without relying on any intervening base station via a preferred communication interface of first type according to one embodiment of the present invention. The middleware consists of the following functional elements, which are: i) a Registrar 150 to mainly maintain a repository containing relevant entries of each communication device of first/secondlthird type 1001200/300 that form part of the peer-to-peer communication system; ii) a Configuration Manager 170 to take care of on-the-fly network configuration functionality; iii) a Connection Manager 190 having the connection establishment functionality for establishing peer-to-peer secure physical communication between two or more communication devices of first type 100; iv) a Session Manager 160 having the session establishment functionality for establishing and maintaining logical connection in an end-to-end maimer as requested by a specific application; and, v) Mutual Authentication and Encryption Manager 180 having the mutual authentication and encryption functionality to liaise with the Registrar to make sure that each communication device of first/secondlthird type has been assigned security credentials (i.e., asymmetric keys) for mutual authentication and encryption purposes.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the said middleware is operable on TCP(IP protocol suite. The said middleware 140 supports a wide variety of multimedia applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) 114, Voice & Video over IP (V2IP) 118, online gaming 122, streaming 130, instantaneous messaging (IM) 136, a novel multimedia surveillance application 130 via the application layer 136 as it will be described later.

Each of said communication device of first/second/third type is different from similar conventional devices because each communication device of first/second/third type has necessary hardware/software or combination of both functionalities for each of said communication devices of first/second/third type to be registered per specific location and hence to be configured to operate from a specific location of a private-dwelling, home, building, small office premises, apartment and the like as it will be described later. The elementary version of the communication device being used is of first type 100 and the enhanced versions are of second/third 200/3 00 types.

From the basic functionality perspectives that are expected from any communication device of first 100, second 200 or third 300 type to form the basic location-specific controlled-network 660, they are all the same.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the communication devices of second/third 200/300 type are predominantly made up of the SoC 210/310 although in various other embodiments they can be made by different means. The only difference between the communication devices of second and third 300 types is that in the case of third type 300, which is very much identical to the communication device of second type 200, the SoC 310 has an extra functionality to be connected to a conventional standard telephony system maintaining a link with PSTN, ISDN or PLMN directly or via PBX.

Each of the said communication devices of firstlsecondlthird type running the said middleware 140 comprises a device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to a communication interface of first type and a specific set of keys/buttons 102, 108 and 109, and the said specific set of keys/buttons include Master/Slave, Register and names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like for setting a given said communication device of first/second/third type as a master/slave, registering/associating a said communication device of firstlsecondlthird type with the said master, and registering a said communication device of first/second/third type per a given physical location respectively. With the help of the user, the Configuration Manager 170 of the said middleware 140 is operable to compose a purposeM communication network 660 out of two or more said communication devices of first/second/third type when triggered on first turning on the said communication device for the first time or manually, and this network configuration has a preset procedure comprising the steps of: 1) prompting the user to set one said communication device of first/second/third type to be the master device by pressing one of the said specific set of keys/buttons; ii) the Configuration Manager 170 displaying the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master device pertaining to a communication interface of first type in 104; iii) prompting the user to turn on each of the other communication devices of first/second/third type, to register as a slave device with the said master in a physical location-specific manner by entering the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master pertaining to a communication interface of first type and, subsequently to press a physical location-specific key and the registration key of the of said specific set of keys/buttons simultaneously on the slave device; iv) pressing the registration key of 109 on the slave device prompting the corresponding Configuration Manager 170 to transmit the location-specific identifier and the said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the slave device pertaining to a communication interface of first type to the master device; v) on reception of the location-specific and device/network-specific-identifiers pertaining to a communication interface of first type, the said Configuration Manager 170 of the said middleware 140 running on the said master device passing this device-specific information on to the Registrar 150; vi) continuing operations (iii) to (v) for every other slave device; vii) periodically disseminating the device-specific details to all the registered devices of the network by the Configuration Manager 170 of the said master device for all devices to know the importance details of the peer devices of the formed network 660.

Once the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 is formed, the Configuration Manager 170 of the said middleware 140 running in each communication device of first/second/third type periodically disseminates an ALIVE packet to all the other devices in the network 660 informing its current communication status.

The Connection Manager 190 can establish the necessary physical connection between devices based on device-specific-identifier of each communication device of first/second/third type pertaining to the communication interface of first type. In case the said communication device of first/second/third type is already associated with a fixed network such as the Internet via the communication interface of first type, the assigned IP address (i.e., unique network identifier) by the fixed network can also be used for establishing the peer-to-peer connection among the said communication devices of first/second/third type. Hence, this document uses device-specific-identifier and unique network identifier (IP address) interchangeably although in reality they have different meanings.

The unique device-specific-identifier of a communication device of first/second/third type pertaining to the communication interface of first type can be a MAC address. On the other hand, if the said communication device of first'secondlthird type has a Bluetooth interface or IP connectivity, the unique network specific identifier can be Bluetooth device address or IP address respectively. In case each of the said communication device of first/second/third type has a WiFi transceiver and is configured to be part of a basic service set (BSS), the unique network identifier can be obtained by getting the WLAN router to assign the network identifier provided the latter supports Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) functionality. In this case, the network identifier is going to be more likely an IP address, the network composition as described before will be preceded by registering with a local WLAN and getting each communication device of first/second/third type assigned an IP address.

In case Bluetooth is the main radio interface being used for peer-to-peer interaction, at the time of network composition, each slave communication device of first/secondlthird type and the master communication device of first!secondlthird type needs to be paired prior to getting a slave device registered/associated with the master device. Once the purposeful peer-to-peer communication network 660 is formed, similar type of pairing is needed among the devices that take part in a given multimedia session at the time of initiating the multimedia interaction.

The said communication interface of first type can be provided via power lines, phone lines or coaxial cable as specified by the ITU-T group working on home networking specifications under the G.hn banner. The communication interface of first type can be provided on the existing telephone wiring supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA), power-line supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified as part of HomePlug consortium, IEEE 802.lln or coax cabling supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MaCA). in order to use power-line each communication device of first/second/third type shall be equipped with a power-line Ethernet or similar adaptors. This is because this invention proposes a physical location-specific in-house communication facility, and each physical location in a houseloffice/building most probably has a ready access to the power-line. In addition, if wireless solutions are used, there can be increased interference.

Hence, power-line communication is ideal. Although there exist different power-line communication tecimiques, an Ethernet adaptor being implemented based on HomePlug AV can be used for instance. Also, the communication interface of first type can be provided by DECT being developed as part of ETSI's CAT-iq 2.0 standardization.

The Configuration Manager 170 of the middleware 140 running in the master device is operable to liaise with the Registrar 150 to create a routing table initially in the said master device and the said routing table creation process comprising the steps of: i) creating an entry corresponding to the master; ii) On reception of registration request from each slave device, the Registrar 150 creating an entry corresponding to the slave device.

Each entry of the routing table as shown in Fig. 9 consists of a location-specific-identifier identifying the location of a private dwelling where a said communication device of first/second/third type is configured to operate, one or plurality of network identifiers pertaining to one or plurality of communication interfaces it supports, role (i.e., whether master or slave), security credentials (i.e., asymmetric keys) assigned by the Mutual Authentication and Encryption Manager 180 of the master, current activity (i.e., whether busy/engaged or free) and the like, pertaining to each and every registered communication device of first/second/third type of the purposeful communication network 660 being composed into. As it will be explained, the Configuration Manager 170 of the middleware 140 running in the said master device is operable to broadcast the contents of the routing table excluding the private key details of each communication device of first/second/third type after each new addition/removal of slave devices to/from the said purposeful communication network 660 for all the registered slave devices to maintain their local routing tables and to know their neighbouring peer communication devices with which peer-to-peer multimedia interaction is possible.

The Configuration Manager 170 of the middleware 140 running in the said master device is operable to liaise with the Mutual Authentication and Encryption Manager 180 to assign asymmetric keys to every slave communication device of first/second/third type at the time of registration and to the master when the said master was configured and the private key being assigned is notified by the master to the owner.

The Session Manager 160 of the said middleware 140 running locally in each said communication device of second/third type provides the list view of peer devices along with the names of the locations where they are located or owner's name of each device with which peer-to-peer multimedia communicationl interaction is possible via a communication interface of first type and such information is obtained from the local routing table.

The said communication device of first/second/third type running the said middleware comprises an additional set of specific keys/buttons consisting of namely voice-call, video-call, IM, and SMS buttons for initiating a voice call, video call, instantaneous messaging and short messaging applications respectively. In such an arrangement, when a user wants to interact with another peer device by pressing the appropriate keys mentioned above, the Session Manager 160 of the said middleware 140 running in first said communication device of first/secondlthird type is operable to interact with its peer of a second said communication device of first/second/third type in order to initiate/terminate a variety of multimedia interactions in a peer-to-peer manner via a communication interface of first type, and this process comprising the steps of: 1) the Session Manager 160 of the first communication device of first/second/third type looking up and finding the corresponding said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second communication device of first/second/third type pertaining to the communication interface of first type with which interaction is preferred from the local routing table; ii) when the user pressing the video/voice/IM/SMS key, the Session Manager contacting the Connection Manager 190 for the purpose of establishing a secure connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the Connection Manger 190 has established the secure connection with sufficient encryption after the successful mutual authentication by the first and the second communication devices of first/second/third type, the Session Manager 160 drawing the attention of the user of second communication device to the initiation of multimedia interaction by the first device; and, iv) on user accepting the multimedia interaction in the second device, the Session Manager 160 rendering the content of the received multimedia content in the required format.

The user has the flexibility to interact with more than one peer communication devices of first/secondlthird type by simultaneously choosing them from the said list view on the first communication device of first/second/third type and can initiate video call, voice call, instantaneous messaging or SMS by correctly pressing the Video Call, Voice Call, TM or SMS buttons respectively.

As mentioned before, the Session Manger 160 interacts with the Connection Manager 190 in order to establish a secure communication channels among the participating peer communication devices of first/second/third type and this secure connection establishment process involves getting the Connection Manager 190 of every communication device of first/second/third type to perform mutual authentication using the assigned asymmetric keys and once mutually authenticated getting the Session Manager 160 to encrypt/decrypt user traffic.

The Session Manager 160 of the said middleware 140 can support a video surveillance application provided that the second said communication device of first/second/third type possesses appropriate hardware and software functionalities to capture and transmit video signal using the appropriate codec so that on reception, it can be rendered on the electronic visual display unit of the first said communication device of first/second/third type. With this facility, the first communication device of first/second/third type can initiate the surveillance operation by streaming and playing back of live events being captured by the second communication device of first/second/third type remotely. If each of the said communication devices of first/second/third type has an appropriate key to initiate the surveillance application, the Session Manager 160 of the said middleware 140 running in first said communication device of first/second/third type is operable to interact with its peer of a second said communication device of first/second/third type in order to initiate/terminate a video surveillance or monitoring of one geographical location from another location via a Pr communication interface of first type when the user choosing a given second communication device of first/second/third type from the list-view, and this process comprising the steps of: i) the Session Manager 160 of the first communication device of first/second/third type looking up and finding the corresponding unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second communication device of first/second/third type from the local routing table for the surveillance of the physical location where the second communication device is located; ii) when the user pressing the said Surveillance key, the Session Manager 160 contacting the Connection Manager 190 to establish a secure connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the Connection Manger 190 has established the secure connection with sufficient encryption after the successful mutual authentication by the first and the second communication devices of first/second/third type, streaming and recording locally live video footage in the first communication device of first/second/third type that is used to monitor the remote location.

This video surveillance application is quite useful when a mother in a shower room wants to monitor her baby located in its room using the said communication devices of first/second/third type. Hence, she can use the first said communication device of first/second/third type located in the shower room to initiate a video surveillance so that the second said communication device of first/secondlthird type being located in the baby's room can capture and transmit the video signal so that mother can watch the live video while taking shower, for instance, using the first said communication device of first)secondlthird type.

Fig. 2 depicts the basic components of physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip (SoC) 210 using one or plurality of microprocessors according to one embodiment of the present invention that can be configured in any form as those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate. Any peer-to-peer communication device 200 of second type includes the peer-to-peer communication SoC 210 for performing multimedia processing and control functionality that are needed for supporting location-specific in-house multimedia interactions. Various described embodiments provide location-specific peer-to-peer communication facility that is performed as software executed on a general purpose microprocessor, such as a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) microprocessor. Peer-to-peer communication SoC 210 includes one or plurality of microprocessors 212, system peripheral controller 220, system memory controller 224, audio(video codec 222 and a communication controller 230 all of which are communicatively coupled over bus 218. It should be appreciated that peer-to-peer SoC 210 may include additional components, as understood by those of r skill in the art. These additional components are not described herein in order not to obscure the embodiments described herein.

In one embodiment peer-to-peer SoC 210/310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 is operable to perform all the necessary registration and configuration functions related to forming a location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660 on the fly and subsequent initiationltermination of variety of multimedia applications. The digital signal processing and control functions associated with a variety of multimedia traffic can be handled by a dedicated DSP or by the same microprocessor 212.

The enhanced version of the communication device of first type being essentially made up by a SoC is shown by 200 and 300 -the enhanced versions are called the communication device of secondlthird type. With the software stack as shown in Fig. 4, the physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip (SoC) 210 of Fig. 2 comprising a bus 218, peripheral controller 220 being connected to the said bus, one or plurality of microprocessors 212 being coupled to the said bus, a communication controller 230 having connectivity to a variety of communication interfaces being connected to the said bus, and a memory 214/216 composes a purposeful system 660/600 on-the-fly by getting each said communication device 200/300 of second/third type while handling operations such as: a) configuring a unique network identifier for each of the said communication devices 200/3 00 of second/third type pertaining to the communication interface of first type; b) setting exactly one of said communication devices 200/300 of second/third type to be the master device and the rest as slave devices just for the purpose of secure registering/associating of said communication devices with one another; c) associating/registering each slave device with the said master device in a physical location-specific manner using the set unique network identifier and this process passes information such as each slave device's specific location/owner's name along with its unique network identifier on to the said master device via the communication interface of first type; d) letting the said master device maintain a routing table in its memory that maps location-specific name of each registered communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type along with the corresponding said unique network identifier pertaining to the communication interface of first type; e) letting the said master device exchange the said routing table with all the other associated/registered slave devices periodically via the communication interface of first type.

With the software stack as shown in Fig. 4, the physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip (SoC) 210 of Fig. 2 can initiate one or plurality of interactive multimedia sessions in a peer-to-peer manner between two or more said communication devices 200/300 of second/third type. Such an attempt by a first said communication device 200/300 to communicate with a second said communication device 200/300 comprises the steps of: i) Looking up and finding the corresponding unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device 200/300 of second/third type pertaining to the communication interface of first type with which interaction is preferred from the exchanged said routing table; ii) establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier via the communication interface of first type; iii) Drawing the attention of the user of second communication device 200/300 to the initiation of multimedia interaction by the first device; iv) on accepting the multimedia interaction in the second device, rendering the content of the received multimedia content in the required format.

Depending on the exact configuration of the said communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type, system memory may be volatile (such as RAM 216), non-volatile (such as ROM 214, flash memory and like) or some combination of the two. The system memory typically includes an operating system, a middleware 140 facilitating a variety of functionalities as it will be described later, one or more program modules and may include program data.

The said communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type may have additional features or functionalities. For example, the said communication device 200/300 may also include additional data storage device (removable 240 and/or non-removable 260), which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed via the memory controller 224. This is quite suitable when the said communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type has an additional functionality to be used as a digital photo-frame when in the idle mode.

The said communication device 200/300 of secondlthird type shall also have input devices such as physical or on-screen soft keyboard 236, mouse, pen, electronic visual display unit having a touch screen 248, and/or Settings input 256 connected via the peripheral controller 220. The peripheral controller 220 may have additional peripherals such a speaker 268, microphone 276, video camera 272 and a PIR sensor 280. The audio and video codecs 222 are necessary to encode and decode audio and video data respectively and for rendering the received multimedia content in the required format using the electronic visual display unit panel 248 and the speaker 268. The said communication device 200/300 can have panic button functionality that is connected via the peripheral controller 220, so that when pressed it will alert the other users(occupants of the house, police, security, friends and the like via the communication controller 230 if it maintains any external network connection.

The said communication device 200/3 00 of secondlthird type also contains communication controller 230 which is an aggregate of conventional

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controllers for facilitating an interaction between microprocessor 212 and one or plurality of interfaces implemented according to one or plurality of wireless technologies namely Bluetooth transceiver 244, WiFi transceiver 252 (supporting both WiFi hotspot and WiFi-direct), or any other communication interface 264 implemented based on existing or evolving technologies.

Each wireless transceiver of the said communication device 200/300 in each case should possess the necessary baseband unit, and such a baseband unit may include the corresponding physical layer (PHY) entity and a medium access control (MAC) entity (not shown). The medium access control (MAC) entity is coupled to the said bus 218 to interact with the said PHY entity to serve real-time multimedia traffic wherein one or more of the said microprocessors 212 may exert the necessary control over the MAC entity and the said MAC entity provides the necessary fragmentation/re-assembly of said multimedia traffic depending on the maximum frame-size as stipulated by the said PI-JY entity and regulates the channel access.

In addition, the said MAC entity employs a packet filtering mechanism, wherein on receiving a MAC frame from the said PHY entity the said MAC entity will inspect the address to which the MAC frame is destined to and on recognising that the received MAC frame is not destined to the local MAC entity the MAC frame will be dropped.

In one embodiment the said communication device 200/300 of second/third type has the said middleware 140 that runs as a daemon. This middleware liaises with other hardware and software modules to get one or more said communication devices 200/300 to form a location-specific purposeful communication system 600/660. This involves enabling a user to configure and register each communication device 200/300 of second/third type per a geographic location in a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like and to coordinate with other multimedia applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) 114, V2IP 118, Online Gaming 122, Multimedia Surveillance 126, Streaming 130 and Instantaneous Messaging (IM) 136 and the like of 110 as shown in Fig. IA to initiate/terminate interactive multimedia unicast! broadcast with one another in a peer-to-peer manner without relying on any intervening base station.

In addition, the said communication device 200/300 of second/third type can be used for the purpose of digital photo-frame, multimedia player, FM radio, Internet TV, intrusion detection and so on. This requires the device to be equipped with the necessary electronic eircuitries and a variety of driver software to operate the device for various purposes as listed above. For instance, for the purpose of detecting human intrusion, each communication device 200/300 is equipped with a pyroelectric sensor 280 which can detect the heat rays being emitted from a human body such that it can sense the presence of even a stationary human body. When a human body is detected the pyroelectric sensor will trigger an alarm to the said middleware 140 to react.

The middleware 140 may be developed according to a number of known technologies and/or operating systems that may be installed on the said communication device 200/300 of second/third type, such as Java platform, openwave WAP push library for wireless application protocol, binary runtime environment for wireless, Microsoft.Net compact framework, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Android, Chrome, Symbian and the like.

In one embodiment of the present invention, one multimedia traffic type that the said communication device 200/300 of second/third type can support is Voice over IP or Video over IP or combination of both -the latter being V2IP. In another embodiment of the present invention, WiFI transceiver 252 has a WiFi baseband which is operable to communicate with an IP network over a wireless connection. Similarly, the Bluetooth transceiver 244 has its own baseband unit.

Those having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate alternative embodiments of the said communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type for implementing the principles of the present invention.

Fig. 3 depicts physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip (SoC) 310 that is augmented to support traditional telephony service in addition to providing peer-to-peer interactive multimedia sessions. For this purpose, the communication device 300 of third type which is very much identical to the communication device 200 of second type has an extra functionality to be connected to a conventional standard telephony system 364 S or 384 maintaining a link with PSTN, ISDN or PLMN directly or via PBX.

For this purpose, the said communication device 300 of third type may include at least two communication interfaces -one for facilitating peer-to-peer interaction among the said communication devices 300 of second type and tl1e other for maintaining the necessary connection between the said communication device 300 of third type and any conventional standard telephony system.

In one embodiment of the present invention multimedia is transmitted over IP and hence Internet/IP connection is operable to communicate with an IP/lnternet network in order to provide multimedia over IP network. It should be appreciated that the communication at the IP-level may use wired or wireless connection at the physical layer level.

With the software stack as shown in Fig. 4, the physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip (SoC)310 of Fig. 3 composes a purposeful system on-the-fly by getting each said communication device 300 of third type while handling operations such as: a) configuring a unique network identifier for each of the said communication devices pertaining to the communication interface of first type; b) setting exactly one of said communication devices 300 of second type to be the master base station and the rest as slave devices just for the purpose of secure registering/associating of said communication devices 300 with one another; c) connecting the said master base station to the conventional standard telephony system maintaining a link with PSTN, ISDN or PLMN directly or via PBX via the communication interface of second type; d) associating/registering each slave device with the said master base station in a physical location-specific manner using the set unique network identifiers via the communication interface of first type and this process passes information such as device specific location/owner's name along with its said unique network identifier pertaining to each registered slave device on to the said master base station via the said interface of the first type; e) letting the said master base station maintain a routing table in its memory that maps location-specific name of each registered communication device along with the corresponding said unique network identifier; and, f) letting the said master base station exchange the said routing table with all the other associated/registered slave devices periodically via the communication interface of the first type to facilitate peer-to-peer multimedia interactions.

The said system on a chip 310 lets each said communication device 300 of third type initiate/terminate interactive multimedia unicast/broadcast with one another in a peer-to-peer manner without any reliance on any intervening base station via the said communication interface of the first type and support traditional telephony services via the said master base station to/from the said conventional standard telephony system via the said communication interface of second type depending on user input. The said system on a chip 310 comprises an additional usage logic that governs the usage pattern of the said communication device 300 of third type depending on what the user inputs in order to initiate any communication, and the usage logic acting upon based on the following: i) on being input any traditional telephone number by the user, the said usage logic will quickly establish the connection with the master base station via the said interface of the first type and the said base station establish a link with the traditional telephone system via said interface of the second type to provide traditional telephony service; or, ii) when a peer device is selected on the said list view by the user, a peer-to-peer interaction will be initiated by establishing a direct device-to-device communication channel with the chosen communication device via the said communication interface of the first type.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the interface of the first type is IEEE 802.11 including WiFi-direct, whereas the interface of the second type is a Bluetooth interface.

Fig. 4 depicts the software stack 400 of an embedded microprocessor in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The microprocessor can be multipurpose such as a CPU or in contrary it can be a RISC microprocessor. The software stack 400 demonstrates the operations and applications executed by one RISC microprocessor, e.g., 212/312 of Fig. 2/3 respectively. According to one embodiment, the software stack 400 comprises user applications and user interface 412, application layer 436, a registrar 444, a session manager 450, configuration manager 460, mutual authentication and encryption manager 470, connection manager 476, 05 abstraction layer 484, MAC control layer 488, physical layer configurations 490.

The multimedia applications of 412 consists of VoIP 414, V2IP 418, online gaming 422, multimedia surveillance 426, multimedia streaming 430 and instantaneous messaging or IP messaging 436. Although multimedia application specific functionalities are not shown explicitly, it needs to be appreciated that they are typically included in their standard versions and are well understood by those of skill in the art. In one embodiment, the RISC processor may have TCP/IP and transport protocols such as UDP/SCTP/TCP in addition to MAC and PHY layers.

The software stack 400 may also include voice/video processing applications and procedures can have another DSP processor that can be used in conjunction with a general purpose RISC microprocessor. These are not included in order not to obscure the described embodiments but the details of which are well understood by those of skill in the art.

The Registrar 444 of the software stack 400 maintains the details of each communication device 200/300 of second/third type being connected to one purposeful communication network formed on-demand along with their location-specific identifiers, one or plurality of network identifiers pertaining to various communication interfaces, roles, security credentials and the like.

The Configuration Manager 460 forms the network by first configuring one communication device 200/300 as the master and the rest as slaves and subsequently registeringlassociating each slave device with the master. The Connection Manager 476 of the software stack 400 is for establishing a secure physical communication between two or more communication devices prior to any multimedia communication. The Session Manager 450 establishes and maintains logical connection in an end-to-end manner as requested by a specific application while the Mutual Authentication and Encryption Manager 470 liaises with the Registrar 444 to make sure that each communication device 2001300 of 660 has been assigned security credentials for mutual authentication and encryption purposes. As it will be noted, only the Mutual Authentication and Encryption Manager 470 of the master device assigns security credentials (e.g., asymmetric keys) to each slave communication device at the time of their registrationlassociation with the master, and once assigned the resident Mutual Authentication and Encryption manager 470 of each communication device 200/3 00 enforces mutual authentication and encryption using the asymmetric keys as understood by those of skill in tile art.

The Mutual Authentication and Encryption manager 180 or 470 of Fig. IA and Fig. 4 respectively is mainly needed for the purpose of ensuring the authenticity of each peer communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type registered/associated to form a purposeful peer-to-peer communication network 660 and subsequently to encrypt the user traffic. This aspect is essential from a consumer point of view.

Although this patent does not introduce anything new from public key cryptographic perspectives nor is it within its scope, this section is provided for completeness. The asymmetric key algorithms are used to create a mathematically related key pair: a secret private key and a published public key -these are assigned to each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type at the time of registration. Use of these keys allows protection of the authenticity of a message originating from any registered communication device 200/300 of second/third type by creating a digital signature of a message using the private key, which can be verified using the public key. It also allows protection of the confidentiality and integrity of a message by encrypting the message using the public key, which can only be decrypted using the private key.

The unique network identifier pertaining to communication interface of first type and location-identifier of each communication device 200/3 00 of secondlthird type binds the device's identity. In one embodiment, the location-identifier takes 1 6-character alphanumeric and the combination of these two identifiers can be used as an index to find the corresponding public keys of another device from the routing table as shown in Fig. 9.

In one embodiment the Mutual Authentication and Encryption Manager 180 or 470 of Fig. IA and Fig. 4 respectively running in the master communication device uses Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) concept whereby the routingtable can be used as PKI/AAA database. A PKI is an arrangement that binds public keys with respective unique network andlor location identifiers of each communication device 200/300 of second/third type through a certificate authority (CA). Each communication device 100/200/300 of first/second/third type is identified by its unique network and/or location identifiers in each CA -i.e, the unique network andior location identifiers of any device is used as an index to access the PKI/AAA database.

The PKI role that assures this binding is called the Registration Authority (RA). For each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type, the device identity (i.e., unique network and/or location identifiers), the public key, their binding, validity conditions and other attributes are made unforgeable in public key certificates issued by the CA. With this arrangement, the public key of each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type will take the form of a public key certificate (or identity certificate) which is an electronic document. Each identity certificate incorporates a digital signature to bind together a public key with a unique network and/or location identifiers. The certificate can be used to verify that a public key belongs to an individual communication device 200/300 of second/third type. The private key is kept secret, while the public key may be widely distributed by the Mutual Authentication and Encryption Manager 180 or 470 of Fig. 1A and Fig. 4 respectively running in the master communication device.

Fig. 5A depicts an exemplary external view of the said communication device 200/300 of second/third type. The communication device 200/300 of second/third type may have one or more input structures such as push buttons, toggle switches or dials on the outside of its electronic housing. Each input structure may be configured to activate a different function. The said communication device 200/300 of second/third type consists of a electronic visual display unit 548 (i.e., video panel/screen) either to view real-time video being captured and transmitted by a video camera fitted to the communication device 200/300 of the other party to a video call from a remote end or to view the live footage of a remote location when used for surveillance purpose, a pair of speakers 556, one or plurality of wireless transceiver antenna 546, a main settings button 520 and associated arrow keys 508, 512, 516, and 528, for setting the time/day/date/calendar, manipulating video/audio received locally and tuning the TV or FM radio -please note that some of the settings are needed only if the said communication device 200/300 of second/third type has extra functionalities such as TV/radio tuning, calendar built-in. The electronic visual display unit 548 can also be used to display the current status of various settings, configuration of the device like whether it is a master device or slave device, whether it has been registered with any master device, ambient temperature, time/date/day/calendar and to display digital photos when used as a digital photo-frame. The electronic visual display unit 548 can be also used for the purpose of streaming and playing back entertainment movies, video-clips and audio albums, if it can maintain a separate connection (e.g., radio link) with the set-top box or the Internet.

The said communication device 200/300 of second/third type has a microphone 504 configured to capture an audio input and transform it into digitised signal using an appropriate audio codec, a video camera 550 configured to capture video input and transform it into digitised frame using an appropriate video codec, a speaker 556 configured to playback the received audio signal. In one embodiment the electronic visual display unit 548 can be based on Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) preferably employing Quarter Video Graphics Array configured to playback the received video signal in an appropriate format.

The said communication device 200/300 of second/third type has a power-on switch 538 to turn itself on and off, one set of on-off toggle switch 542 to turn Pr 91 on/off the video camera 550, and another set of on-off toggle switch 536 to turn the microphone 504 on/off. The communication device 200/3 00 has its own power supply.

Electronic buttons 532 are used to zoom in and zoom out the instantaneous video footage being viewed on the electronic visual display unit 548. When buttons 532 are pressed, appropriate command is given to the security camera to enable optical zooming. Electronic toggle switch 530 is used to activate/deactivate muting of the speaker 556. The said communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type contains two sets of soft/physical keypads. In 500, only the physical keypads 558 and 560 are shown although they can be soft or on-screen in case the electronic visual display unit 348/548 is equipped with touch sensor or used to work with a stylus.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the said communication device 300 of third type takes extra functionality to work as a traditional telephone, and hence has the handset 554. In this respect, as it will be explained the chosen master base station will maintain a connection to the standard PSTN/PLMN/ISDN directly or via a PBX system. Connection to the standard PSTN/PLMN/ISDN is possible with an RJ-1 1 connector, a Ti line interface connector, an ISDN line connector, a wireless cellular subscriber air interface connector or the like, With the increasing risk of house or office premises being broken into and burgled, the need for sophisticated burglar alarm and communication facility are on the rise. As a result, it is required in this modern society to protect the premises, offices and public places from burglary using a burglar alarm system, and such a system should be affordable. Given the present invention expects each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type to be registered to operate per a given geographical location within a dwelling, office, building and the like, it is more suitable to add burglar alarm functionality to each communication device 200/300 of second/third type.

This is because these functionalities expect the availability of a device in every possible location of a house, dwelling, office, building and the like.

Hence, by unifying these two functionalities into a single device, it will be more economical and convenient to the end user. Thus, the present invention introduces a new communication paradigm that provides a unified location-specific in-house communication and burglar alarm facility. For this purpose, unit 552 houses one or plurality of pyroelectric sensors which can detect the heat rays being emitted from a human body such that it can sense the presence of even a stationary human body. As mentioned before, its purpose is to detect a human body intrusion and to trigger an appropriate alarm to the peer-to-peer SoC 210/310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or cach communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 to react, and for this purpose the functionalities of the peer-to-peer SoC 210/310 with its microprocessor containing the software

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stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 will be augmented to take care of this extra intrusion detection mechanism.

Accordingly, when the burglar alarm is activated, on detecting a human intrusion, any communication device 200/300 of second/third type will notify the event to the master device, which in turn will communicate with the central alarm control for further action. Further, on detecting an intrusion, any communication device being equipped with a video camera can activate online recording of the live footage or transmit it to another user preferred communication device for the user to view the live footage.

The said communication device 200/300 of secondlthird type has a plurality of setting keys/buttons 506, 508, 512, 516, 520 and 528 that allow the user to locally change the brightness, contrast and colour depth of the video footage being viewed in the electronic visual display unit 548, to manipulate the volume control locally, and to set the time/day/date. The middle button 520 of the button-set 506 is the main settings button and the long-press of that allows the user to set the final value. Once set, the final values will be stored automatically in an internal non-volatile memory.

Also, the continuous short pressing of the right/left-hand side-arrow key 512/516 cycles through all these setting operations, and this can be viewed on the electronic visual display unit 548. Once a particular setting is selected, the user preferred values for each chosen setting are set with the help of up-and-down arrow keys 508 and 528 -again this can be viewed on the electronic visual display unit 548. For instance, in order to set the brightness, the user has to continuously short-press the right/left arrow keys of 506 until the brightness setting* mode is selected and subsequently to correct the value for the chosen mode, the user has to set using the down-up arrow keys of 506.

In order to support the unique peer-to-peer in-house multimedia interactions/sessions among two or more users, each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type is equipped with a unique set of keys/buttons as shown in 560 of Fig. SB. Suppose each communication device has Bluetooth and WiFi wireless transceivers, the user is given the option to choose between using either Bluetooth or WiFi for the peer-to-peer interaction. Buttons 590 and 592 are provided for this purpose. At the time of forming the purposeful communication system, the user is given the chance to specify whether the user wants to operate a given communication device 200(3 00 of second/third type as a master or slave using keys 574 and 576.

In case a given communication device 200/300 of second/third type is used as slave, in order to register/associate it with the master communication device, a user has to first enter the unique network identifier of the master device pertaining to the communication interface of first type when prompted in the electronic display 548 followed by pressing the register key 572. An associated user interface used in this process is exemplarily shown in Fig. 8A.

Also the user has to simultaneously press the preferred location-specific key

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in order to indicate to the master as to where the given slave device is going to be used within a building/house/office and the like. Location-specific keys/buttons are exemplarily shown by 562, 564, 566 and 568. In case of these keys are on-screen ones, the user has the flexibility to change the name of the location where a given device is to be registered and used instead of using the default location names. For instance, in case a user would like to use a given communication device 200/300 in the garage, and if this location name is not found in the default location menu, the user can add a new location name or modify the existing ones. On the other hand, with the physical keys, the user has to attach a sticker displaying the user-preferred location name onto any of the location keys. De-registration of a slave communication device from a given master communication device is possible with the De-Register key 578 -this de-registration process of a communication device 200/300 of second/third type can take place asynchronously at the user's discretion and the associated user interface used in this process is exemplarily shown in Fig. 8B.

Once the purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer communication network 660 is formed, initiating/terminating a voice call, video call, instantaneous messaging/IP-messaging, remote video surveillance, or short-messaging service is possible with keys 580, 582, 584, 586 and 588 respectively. In order to initiate a voice call, the user has to first choose one or plurality of other parties to the communication from 560 of Fig. 5B, and subsequently to press 580. For instance, if a user wants to initiate a voice call from the device that is registered and used in Room-I with communication devices 200/300 of second/third type that are registered and located in rooms 2 and 3, the user has to press buttons 564 and 566 while simultaneously pressing 580. In case on-screen keys are used, the call originator's location key in 560 (in the example provided it is 568) can be highlighted differently and disabled, as no users wants to initiate any multimedia interaction with themselves.

Fig. 6 illustrates the purposeful peer-to-peer communication system 600/660 formed on-demand. In this location-specific network, one or plurality of slave devices 610 are associated with the master device 620. The network 660 is sufficient to provide the peer-to-peer communication facility among the registered devices. In case external connectivity to the internet or standard telephony is preferred the master device 620 takes an extra functionality to maintain connectivity to the Internet/PSTN/PLMN/ISDN 650 via a mobile/wireless base station 630. The mobile/wireless base station 630 can be WLAN, Femtocell (i.e., Home Node B, Home eNode B) and the like.

Fig. 7 depicts the exemplary protocol packet being exchanged by the said peer-to-peer SoC 210/310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/300 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 in order to form and maintain the purposeful peer-to-peer communication network 660.

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Fig. 9 illustrates the type of information the routing table 900 of the master communication device 620 (which is of first/second/third type) holds per each registered slave communication device 610 (which is again of first/second/third type) in addition to its own details. For instance, in this example the communication device 200/300 identified by 169.254.0.4 functions as the master device 620 and holds information such as location-identifier/name, unique network identifier pertaining to the communication interface of first type, operating role (whether master or slave), current communication availability status (i.e., whether engaged or available), recently heard time-stamp, public and private keys (i.e., asymmetric keys) pertaining to each registered/associated slave device. The routing table 900 as maintained by a slave device 610 holds similar information belonging to neighbouring peer devices apart from their private keys.

The flow-chart 1000 of Fig. 10 illustrates the steps involved in the formation of purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer communication system 660/600.

This operational network configuration procedure/method can be triggered either by manually or when a new device is turned on for the first time. It is assumed here that peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 comprises a unique network identifier pertaining to the communication interface of first type, a specific set of keys connected via the peripheral controller 220/320 to the device bus 218/318 and the said specific set of keys include namely Master, Slave, Register and names of different physical locations (such as sitting-room, kitchen, main bedroom, conservatory and the like) of a house/building/office and the like for setting a given communication device 200/300 of second/third type as a master/slave, registering/associating a communication device 200/300 of second/third type with the said master 620, and registering a given communication device per a given physical location respectively for the peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 to compose a purposeful secure communication network 660/600 with the help of the user.

As shown in Fig. 10, this network configuration procedure/method starts with 1010. At the decision making stage 1014, it will be decided by the peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/300 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 whether network configuration has been triggered. If it has already been, at the decision making stage of 1018, peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 2001300 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 will prompt the user to specify whether a master device already exists. In the absence of already configured master communication device 620, one of the first powered on communication device 200/300

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second/third type will be set as the master device 620 in the processing step 1022. Once the preferred physical location is chosen for the given communication device 200/300 in 1026, the unique network identifier of the master pertaining to the communication interface of first type will be displayed in step 1032 for the user to make note of it.

If, on the other hand, a master device 620 already exists, the decision stage 1018 will prompt the user to register every other communication device 200/300 of second/third type as a slave 610 once the physical location of each device is decided in step 1036. At the time of slave device registration, information such as the location-specific identifier and the unique network identifier of each communication device being registered/associated with a master device will be passed on to the master device 620. Once such information is received, the master will check whether there is any naming/location-identifier/device-identifier conflict in 1042. If there is any type of naming/identifier conflict, the parties to the conflict will be notified by the said master 620 to take remedial action in 1080. If, on the other hand, there is no such conflict, the master 620 will assign asymmetric keys to each successfully registered slave device 610 and create a corresponding entry in its routing table 900 as the processing stage 1044 shows. After each and every successful slave 610 registrationlde-registration, the master 620 will disseminate the routing table 900 to every other members of the formed network in step 1048. However, the private keys belonging to each communication device 2001300 will not be distributed to any peer device other than to their respective owners.

Each slave device 610 periodically disseminates ALIVE packets to indicate that it is still alive along with its communication status (i.e., whether it is already engaged or available for any peer-to-peer interaction) as indicated in step 1052. On reception of such ALIVE packets, a neighbouring communication device 200/3 00 will update the time stamp at which the ALIVE packet is received in step 1060, and such time stamp infonnation is used to trigger an alarm in case the master communication device 620 has not received an ALIVE packet after a time out. The purpose of this alarm is to draw the attention of the user to the faulty condition of a given communication device 200/300 that has failed to disseminate ALIVE packets.

The peer-to-peer SoC 210/310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/300 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 comprises a unique device(network-specific-identjfier pertaining to the communication interface of first type and a specific set of keys cormected via the peripheral controller 220/320 to the bus 218/318 and the said specific set of keys include Settings keys. Each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/300 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 liaises with other driver/firmware and enables the user to adjust the picture quality, manipulate

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the volume control, network setup and activate/deactivate various features of the communication device 200/300 depending on how the settings button and down/up/side arrow keys are pressed by the user and this is governed by the preset setting process as illustrated using the flow-chart 1100 of Fig. 11.

Accordingly, each peer-to-peer SoC 210/310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 listens to user settings input via the peripheral controller 220/320 as shown by the processing stage 1114 of Fig. 11. The continuous short pressing of the right/left-hand side-arrow key 512/516 will cycle through different setting modes. This sequence cycle enables any user to skip any of these setting options and get/revisit to the preferred setting sequence with a continuous short pressing of the right/left-hand side-arrow key 512/516. The first short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 is related to time/alarm settings, whereas the Second short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 is related to day/date (i.e., calendar) settings; the third short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 is meant for adjusting the contrast of the electronic visual display unit 548; the fourth short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 will let user adjust the brightness of the electronic visual display unit 548; the fifth short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 is related to volume control; if supported, the sixth short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 will let user turn on FM radio and tune using; if supported, the seventh short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 will let user turn on TV/radio and tune; the eighth short-pressing f the right-hand side-arrow key 512 will let user perform network setting up procedure to configure a communication device 200/300 of second/third type as a master 620 or slave 610 and subsequent registration/dc-registration; if supported, the ninth short-pressing of the right-hand side-arrow key 512 will let user set the communication device 200/300 of second/third type as a digital photo-frame and subsequent uploading of the digital pictures using down)up arrow keys and the middle enter button. It is important to be noted that the new additions can be added to the original sequence or its order of execution can be altered depending on the availability of new additional features that the communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type can incorporate.

As it can be seen on Fig. 11, on receiving any user settings input, the decision making stage 1122 will check whether the received settings are related to time/alarm settings. If any communication device 200/300 of second/third type can be used as a clock, each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/300 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 can liaise with the relevant hardware/software/firmware functionalities to set the user-preferred time/alarm as shown by the processing stage 1128. If, on the other hand, the received user inputs are related to calendar settings, the relevant settings will be made as shown by the

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processing stage 1140. In contrary, in case the user inputs are meant for such display settings as contrast, brightness, colour depth and the like, when the user presses arrow keys, associated settings will be made while the user can see the set value on the electronic visual display unit 548.

In case the user settings input are related to volume control, relevant volume adjustments will be made as shown by the processing stage 1148. In case the user settings are in connection with FM/radio or TV tuning, appropriate tuning to get the desired radio/TV station will be performed in the processing stages 1160 and 1170 respectively. At the decision making stage 1174, each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/300 of secondlthird type running the said middleware 140 will check whether the user settings input are related to network configuration. If they are, network configuration sequence as illustrated with Fig. 10 will start. Final user settings will be related to digital photo-frame, and this involves uploading of digital photos and other relevant settings as shown by the processing stage 1182 of Fig. 11.

Fig. 12 illustrates the underlying operations that take place when a wide variety of multimedia session is initiated. Before being used for any peer-to-peer communication, each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 will perform a preliminary examination before initiating any multimedia session to see whether the purposeful communication network 6601600 has already been formed and is in place. This examination takes place as part of the decision making stage 1214 as depicted in Fig. 12. This basic examination often involves checking whether there exists any master device 620 and if the current communication device 200/300 of second/third type is not the master device 620, whether it is registered/associated with identified master 620.

Once this check is performed satisfactorily, the communication device 200/300 of second/third type will populate the location name of each neighbouring communication devices 200/3 00 of second/third type with which peer-to-peer interaction is possible -this take place in the processing stage 1222 of Fig. 12. In case, the user enters a standard telephone number, the communication device 300 of third type will function as a standard telephone device, provided it additionally support this functionality. This requires it maintain the necessary connection with the local PBX or any base station that maintains PSTh/PLMN/ISDN connectivity via communication interface of second type (i.e., one of the preferred communication interfaces 230). In one embodiment, this communication interface of second type uses* Bluetooth to maintain such connectivity with the standard telephony system.

If, on the other hand, the user chooses one or more neighbouring communication device 200/300 of second/third type from the list view, each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/300 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 will check to see whether it is for a voice

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call, video call, instantaneous messaging (IM), short messaging service (SMS),video surveillance or any other application X in decision processing stages 1240, 1242, 1244, 1246, 1258 and 1260 respectively.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, in case each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or the said middleware 140 running in each communication device 200/300 of second/third type forming the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660/600 supports any voice-recognition capability, user can give voice-commandsto launch the respective application in order to initiate a voice call, video call, instantaneous messaging (IM), short messaging service (SMS),video surveillance or any other application X. In addition, the user can also use the same voice-recognition capability to choose the desired communication party as well -for instance, the user from a kitchen can give one or plurality of voice commands to initiate a voice call to the communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type located in the main bedroom of 660.

Once the corresponding application is activated, each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type running the said middleware 140 will identify the network specific identifier of each chosen communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type pertaining to the communication interface of first type by the user from the list view. While establishing the necessary connection with the each selected device using the found network specific identifier, each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or the said middleware 140 running in the call originating communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type will check as part of the decision making stage of 1272 whether the authentication for each selected device will succeed. If the authentication fails, the established connection with the selected peer device will be terminated, whereas if the authentication process succeeds, the connection is maintained while the originating device tries the same with other selected devices. Once all the necessary communication channels are established, the attention of all the users will be drawn in the processing stage 1282. Once the session has started, it will continue until the parties to the communication terminate the session or the communication interface fails.

In case video surveillance operation is triggered as shown by the processing step 1258 of Fig. 12, initiating/terminating such video surveillance of or monitoring operation by any registered/configured first device will follow a procedure/method comprising the steps of and this procedure/method applies equally to both the master and slave devices: 1) first from the list view of the neighbouring devices to which communication is possible, the user detecting whether the first communication device 200/300 of second/third type is registered with a master 620 and whether the neighbour-list has any entry;

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2) in case the neighbour-list of first communication device 200/300 has no entry and its current status says that it is not associated with any master 620, the user following the said pre-start procedure 1000 for configuring the network 660 first, and if on the other hand, the neighbour list has more than one entry, the user choosing the appropriate name (i.e., location name or owner's name) of the second communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type and subsequently pressing/choosing surveillance; 3) on initiating the surveillance application, automatically the said first communication device 200/300 looking up and finding the corresponding said unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device 200/300 from the said routing table 900 that is periodically downloaded from the master device 620; and, 4) the said first communication device 200/3 00 establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier pertaining to the communication interface of first type; 5) the said first communication device streaming and recording locally live video footage to monitor the remote location pertaining to the second device; and, 6) the user performing volume control, brightness, colour, contrast, zoom-in and zoom-out settings and manipulating the trajectory of the security camera as many times as preferred and the like using the first communication device; In order to enable the above set of operations, each communication device 200/3 00 of second/third type has the necessary hardware and software functionalities such that the first communication device can initiate the surveillance operation by streaming and playing back of live events being captured by the second communication device remotely.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, video surveillance is possible via the Internet in case each peer-to-peer SoC 310 with its microprocessor containing the software stack as shown in Fig. 4 or the said middleware 140 running in each communication device 200/300 of second/third type forming the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660/600 maintains Internet connectivity. If this is the case, such video surveillance operation is possible via the Internet from a remote location using a device that is not part of the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network if said network maintains a connectivity with the Internet.

Accordingly, each communication device 200/300 of second/third type fonning the said network has a special extra key for the purpose of enabling surveillance via the Internet, this surveillance operation via the Internet has a set of operational procedure comprising the following steps: i) a centralised streaming server on the Internet is configured to be constantly supplied/provided with the live video/audio streams captured by every

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communication device 200/300 of second/third type of the purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660/600 formed on-demand; ii) when a user pressing the said special key enabling the surveillance via the Internet on the master device 620, the master 620 will contact each of the plurality of registered slave devices 610 that has a built-in video camera for each of them to capture the live video footage of the local coverage area and transmit continuously to the master device 620; iii) on receiving live video footage from every registered slave device 610, the master 620 will in turn transmit the received streams constantly to the said server with the correct identification; iv) any user having connectivity to the Internet signing onto the server remotely using login credentials and view live video footage of various parts of a building, house, apartment or the like where the said purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660/600 is set to operate.

For this purpose, the master 620 maintains the login details of the authorised users that are able to view the live footage via the Internet from remote locations and passes such details onto the server such that the server will allow only the authorised personal to view the live footage via the Internet.

Although it is preferred for every communication device 200/3 00 of secondlthird type to use communication interface of first type in order to form the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network 660/600 and subsequently to transport the generated multimedia traffic, it is also possible to use more than one communication interface as long as they are supported by every communication device 200/300. In this case the routing protocol 900 as maintained by every device 200/300 should include the network specific identifiers of various communication interfaces being supported by each communication device 200/300.

Claims

VClaims 1. There is provided a communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type in order to form a location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network within the premises of a private dwelling, office, apartment and the like consisting of one or more multi-functional communication device of first type, and the said communication device of first type provides hardware/software facilities to; 1) configure one of said communication devices of first type to operate as a master and the rest as slaves; ii) register all the slave devices on-the-fly with the said master in a location-specific manner such that each of said communication devices of first type operates from a specific location of a private dwelling, office, apartment and the like, wherein two or more of the said communication devices of first type interact there between via a communication interface of first type in a geographic location manner within a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like where it is configured to operate from.
2. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1, comprises a unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to a communication interface of first type, a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons and the said specific set of keys/buttons include Master/Slave, Register and typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like for setting a given communication device of first type as a master/slave, registering/associating a said communication device of first type with the said master, and registering a given communication device of first type per a given physical location respectively in order to compose a said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network with the help of the user, wherein composing a said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network out of two or more of said communication devices of first type is triggered when turning on the said communication devices of first type for the first time or manually and formation of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network employing a configuration procedure comprising the steps of: i) prompting the user to set one of said communication devices of first type to be the master device by pressing one of the said specific set of keys/buttons, if the master does not exist already; ii) getting the configured master to display the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master device pertaining to a communication interface of first type; * 20 iii) prompting the user to turn on each of the other said communication devices of first type, to register each of them as a slave device with the said master in a physical location-specific manner by entering the said device/network-specific-identifier of the said master pertaining to aVcommunication interface of first type and, subsequently to press a preferred physical location-specific key and the registration key of the said specific set of keys/buttons simultaneously on the slave device; iv) on receiving the registration request when the registration key on each of said slave devices being pressed, prompting each slave device to transmit the location-specific-identifier and the said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the slave device pertaining to the communication interface of first type to the master device; v) on reception of the location-specific and the said unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to the communication interface of first type of each registered slave device, getting the said master device to pass this device-specific information to locally prepare a routing table; vi) continuing operations (iii) to (v) for every other slave device; vii) getting the said master device to periodically disseminate the device-specific details maintained in a routing table to all the registered devices of the network for all devices to know the important details of the peer devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network formed on-demand; wherein de-/registering an oldlnew slave device to the existing master can take place asynchronously at the user's discretion and each registered communication device of first type periodically disseminates an ALIVE packet to all the other registered devices of the said master informing its current status in order to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction.
3. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or 2, wherein the communication interface of first type can be implemented based on different flavours of WiFi (i.e.. IEEE 802.11) technology including WiFi-direct.
4. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or. 3, has a unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to a communication interface of first type, wherein if communication interface of first type has an IP network connectivity, the said unique device/network-specific-identifier pertaining to a communication interface of first type is an IP address.
5. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or 2, wherein the communication interface of first type can be provided on the existing telephone wiring supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA), power-line supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified as part of HomePlug consortium, IEEE 802.lln or coax cabling supporting the necessary communication protocols as specified by the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) wherein in order to use power-line each communicationVdevice of first type shall be equipped with a power-line Ethernet or similar adaptors.
6. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the said master device is operable to assign asymmetric (i.e., both public and private) keys to every slave device at the time of registration and to the master when the said master was configured and the private key being assigned is notified by the master to the owner whereas all public keys are notified to every registered device.
7. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 or any preceding claim, wherein the said master device is operable to create a routing table and the said routing table creation process comprising the steps of: i) creating an entry corresponding to the master; ii) On reception of registration request from each slave device, creating an entry corresponding to the slave device; wherein each entry consists of a location-specific-identifier identifying the location of a private dwelling where a said communication device of first type is set/configured to operate from, one or plurality of network identifiers pertaining to one or plurality of communication interfaces it supports, role (i.e., whether master or slave), security credentials assigned by the said master, current activity and the like.
8. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or 7, wherein the said master device is operable to broadcast the contents of the routing table excluding the private key details of each of said communication devices of first type after each new addition/removal of slave devices to/from the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network for all the registered slave devices to maintain their local routing tables that does not have the information of private keys pertaining to other peer devices.
9. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 or 8, wherein each communication device that has become one of the members of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network formed on-demand is operable to broadcast an ALIVE packet periodically to inform its current communication status to all the other peer devices of the said network.
10. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 or 9, has a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons representing (or being embossed with) typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like for registering a given communication device of first type per a given physical location in order to compose the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network with the help of the user,Vwherein once being part of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network the user interface of first type belonging to any first communication device of first type indicating: i) the location-specific key/button of the user interface of first communication device of first type corresponding to itself is lit up with colour of one type to indicate that the first device is part of any said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network and is ready to initiate any peer-to-peer interaction with other devices of the said network; ii) the location-specific keys/buttons of the user interface of first type belonging to the first communication device of first type corresponding to other peer devices are lit up with a colour of second type to indicate that first device is ready to interact in a peer-to-peer manner with other registered devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network; wherein by pressing the location-specific key/button key on the first device corresponding to a second device, peer-to-peer interaction can be initiated automatically via a communication interface of first type.
11. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 or 10 has a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons representing (or being embossed with) typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like and application-specific keys being used to initiate one or plurality of peer-to-peer interaction, wherein the peer-to-peer interaction between two or more communication devices of first type belonging to the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network can be initiated automatically via a communication interface of first type, and this process comprising the steps of: i) when the user choosing a given second communication device of first type by pressing the corresponding location-specific key, the first communication device of first type looking up and finding the corresponding said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second communication device of first type pertaining to the communication interface of first type with which interaction is preferred from the local routing table; ii) when the user pressing one application-specific key (e.g., voice-call, video-call, instantaneous messaging (1M), short messaging service (SMS)), a communication connection is established between the first and the second directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the communication connection is established, the user of second communication device is drawn an attention to the initiation of interaction by the first device; and, iv) on user accepting the interaction in the second device, one or plurality of multimedia interactions are possible there between and the received multimedia content arerendered in the required format on either device;Vwherein the user has the flexibility to interact with more than one peer communication devices of first type by simultaneously choosing them from the location-specific keys of the said user interface first type.
12. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or 11 has a user interface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons representing (or being embossed with) typical names of different physical locations of a house/building/office and the like and application-specific keys being used to initiate one or plurality of peer-to-peer interaction, wherein the said set of application-specific keys correspond to the type of different interactions that can be initiated between peer devices of the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network and includes individual keys/buttons and the associated hardware/soflware functionalities in order to initiate voice-call, video-call, IM, SMS or the like depending on the capabilities of each of the said communication devices of first type.
13. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or 12, wherein once a said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed, the first said communication device of first type is operable to interact with a second said communication device of first type in order to initiate/terminate a variety of multimedia interactions in a peer-to-peer manner via a communication interface of first type, and as part of this process one or plurality of secure communication channels between the first and the second devices of first type are to be established and on being contacted, each of the said communication devices of first type: i) will perform the mutual authentication using the asymmetric keys assigned by the master at the time of device registration; ii) on successful device authentication, each device is made responsible for the encryption/decryption of the multimedia traffic being exchanged.
14. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or any preceding claim possesses a number of peripheral devices being interfaced appropriately, and the said peripheral devices comprise a microphone configured to capture an audio signal input by employing an appropriate audio codec, a video camera to capture video input by employing an appropriate video codec, a speaker configured to playback the received audio signal, an electronic visual display configured to playback the received video signal in an appropriate format, and a on-screen or physical keypad configured for the said communication device of first type to get user inputs in connection with turning the said device on/off, device registration and configuration, interactive session initiation/termination, volume control, picture quality control and the like.
15. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or 14 has a userVinterface of first type comprising a specific set of keys/buttons and the said specific set of keys/buttons include a Surveillance key, wherein once the said purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed, the first said communication device of first type is operable to interact with a second said communication device of first type in order to initiate/terminate a video surveillance or monitoring of one geographical location from another location via a communication interface of first type, and this process comprising the steps of: i) when the user choosing a given second communication device of first type from the first device by pressing the location-specific key corresponding to the said second device, the first said communication device of first type looking up and finding the corresponding said unique device/network-specific-identifier of the chosen second device pertaining to the communication interface of first type from the local routing table for the surveillance of the physical location where the second device is physically located or configured to operate from; ii) when the user pressing said Surveillance key, the first device contacting the second device in order to establish a secure connection with the selected second device directly using the identified said unique device/network-specific-identifier via a communication interface of first type; iii) once the secure connection is established with sufficient encryption after the successful mutual authentication by the first arid the second communication devices of first type, streaming and recording locally live video footage in the first communication device that is used to monitor the remote location pertaining to the second device; and, iv) performing volume control, brightness, colour, contrast, zoom-in and zoom-out settings as many times as preferred and the like using the first communication device; Wherein the first communication device can initiate the surveillance operation by streaming and playing back of live events being captured by the second communication device remotely.
16. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 incorporates an additional wireless PIR burglar alarm functionality so that each physical location (e.g., room) of a property will be protected if each said communication device is registered and physically located per room, wherein each of the said communication devices of first type continuously monitors a given space with the PIR motion sensor when the burglar alarm functionality is activated by the user and on detecting an intrusion it will notify the said master device via the communication interface of first type along with the said unique device-specific-identifier and the locationlowner's name of the said communication device that triggers the alarm and the said master takes some additional functionalities to notify a central burglar alarm control on being informed of a possible burglar intrusion by any peer slave device in any of the room where the said peer slave communication device is located.V
17. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 or 16 is equipped with the PIR motion sensor and has an electronic visual display panel, wherein under normal circumstances the communication device of first type operates in sleep mode when idling and whenever any human motion is detected while the burglar alarm functionality is disabled, the communication device of first type will function as a digital photo frame displaying a sequence of user-uploaded photos on the said electronic visual display panel or displaying a set of user-set task-list with an objective to remind the users of important house-hold/personal jobs that needs to be done on time.
18. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 or any preceding claim supports traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein each communication device of first type being provided with a communication interface of first type to support multimedia interaction there between in a peer-to-peer manner, where the configured master takes an extra functionality to operate as a master base station that is being configured to communicate with a telephony system via a communication interface of second type, and forming an externally connected location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network comprising an additional step of: a) connecting the said master base station to the conventional standard telephony system maintaining a link with PSTN, LSDN or PLMN directly or via PBX via the said communication interface of second type; wherein each communication device of first type supports traditional telephony services via the said master base station to/from the said conventional standard telephony system via the said interface of the second type.
19. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim I or 18, wherein the interface of the second type is a Bluetooth interface.
20. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network and supporting traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions according to claim 1 or 18, wherein each said communication device of first type possesses the necessary user interfaces realised through hardware and/or software means and comprises an additional usage logic, wherein the usage pattern of the said communication device of first type will vary at the user's discretion depending on what the user inputs in order to initiate any communication, and the usage logic act upon based on the following: i) on being input any traditional telephone number by the user, the said usage logic will quickly establish the connection with the master base station via the said communication interface of the first type and the said master base stationVwill subsequently establish a link with the traditional telephone system via the said communication interface of the second type to provide traditional telephony service; or, ii) when a given peer device is selected using the corresponding location-specific key by the user, a peer-to-peer interaction will be initiated by establishing a direct device-to-device communication channel with the chosen communication device via the said communication interface of the first type.
21. The said communication device of first type forming the said location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network according to claim 1 has a user interface of first type consisting of a number of extra control keys/buttons and associated hardware/software functionalities in order to be used as a radio, TV, digital photo frame, voice recorder, video recorder to display current time (as a clock), ambient temperature, task-list and the like.
22. There is provided a physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip to form a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network where each said multimedia-capable communication device is registered per a given geographic location in a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction there between without relying on any intermediate base station, and the system on a chip comprising: i) a bus, ii) a peripheral controller being coupled to said bus for connecting a multitude of I/O peripheral devices; iii) one or plurality of microprocessors being coupled to said bus and said microprocessors configured to perform the required signal processing associated with the multimedia traffic and to provide control functions of said communication device; iv) a communication controller being coupled to said bus for connecting to one or plurality of preferred communication interfaces; and, v) a memory that is coupled to said bus into which a plurality of instructions are loaded.wherein the said system on a chip composes a purposeful system on-the-fly by getting each said communication device to join while handling operations such as: a) configuring a unique network identifier for each of the said communication devices; b) setting exactly one of said communication devices to be the master device and the rest as slave devices just for the purpose of securely registering/associating a said communication device with one another; c) associating/registering each slave device with the said master device in a physical location-specific manner using the set unique network identifier and this process passes information such as each slave device's specific locationlowner's name along with its unique network identifier on to the said master device via one of the said preferred communication interfaces; d) letting the said master device maintain a routing table in its memory that maps location-specific name of each registered communication device along with the corresponding said unique network identifier; e) letting the said master device exchange the said routing table with all the other associated/registered slave devices periodically via one of the said preferred communication interfaces; wherein each of said communication devices has the necessary hardware andlor software functionalities for the system on chip to register each said communication device per a given geographic location of a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like where once two or more of said communication devices have formed into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network on-the-fly, the said system on chip lets each said communication device initiate/terminate interactive multimedia unicast/broadcast with one another in a peer-to-peer manner via one of the said communication interface of first type without relying on any intervening base station.
23. The said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip according to claim 22 can initiate one or plurality of interactive multimedia sessions in a peer-to-peer manner between two or more said communication devices, wherein such an attempt by a first said communication device to communicate with a second said communication device comprises the steps of: i) Looking up and finding the corresponding said unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device with which interaction is preferred from the exchanged said routing table; ii) establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier; iii) Drawing the attention of the user of second communication device to the initiation of multimedia interaction by the first device; iv) on accepting the multimedia interaction in the second device, rendering the content of the received multimedia content in the required format.
24. The said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip according to claim 22 or 23 incorporates an additional wireless PIR burglar alarm fitnctionality so that each physical location (e.g., room) of a property will be protected if each said communication device is registered and physically located per room, wherein the said system on a chip subjects the said communication device to continuously monitor a given space with the HR motion sensor, and on detecting an intrusion it will notify the said master device via one of the said communication interface of first type along with the said unique device-specific-identifier and the location/owner's name of the said communication device that triggers the alarm and the said master takes some additional functionalities to notify a central burglar alarm control on being informed of a possible burglar intrusion by any peer slave device in any of the room where the said peer slave communication device is located.V
25. The said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip according to claim 22 or 23, supports traditional telephony service in addition to peer-to-peer multimedia interactions, wherein communication devices being provided with a communication interface of first type to support multimedia interaction there between in a peer-to-peer manner, where one of said communication device takes an extra functionality to operate as a master base station that is being configured to communicate with a telephony system via a communication interface of second type, and forming a purposeful communication network comprising the steps of: a) configuring a unique network identifier for each of the said communication devices pertaining to communication interfaces of first type; b) setting exactly one of said communication devices to be the master base station and the rest as slave devices just for the purpose of secure registering/associating of said communication devices with one another; c) connecting the said master base station to the conventional standard telephony system maintaining a link with PSTN, ISDN or PLMN directly or via PBX via the said communication interface of second type; d) associating/registering each slave device with the said master base station in a physical location-specific manner using the set unique network identifiers and this process passes information such as device-specific locationlowner's name along with its said unique network identifier pertaining to each registered slave device on to the said master base station via the said communication interface of the first type; e) letting the said master base station maintain a routing table in its memory that maps location-specific name of each registered communication device along with the corresponding said unique network identifier; letting the said master base station exchange the said routing table with all the other associated/registered slave devices periodically via the said interface of the first type to facilitate peer-to-peer multimedia interactions; wherein each said communication device has the necessary hardware and/or software functionalities for it to be registered per geographic location in a private dwelling, office, building premises and the like where once one or more of said communication devices have formed into a purposeful conmiunication network on-the-fly, and the said system on a chip lets each said communication device initiate/terminate interactive multimedia unicast/broadcast with one another in a peer-to-peer manner without any reliance on any intervening base station via the said interface of the first type and supports traditional telephony services via the said master base station to/from the said conventional standard telephony system via the said interface of the second type depending on user input.
26. The said physical location-specific peer-to-peer communication system on a chip according to claim 22 or 25, where each said communication device possesses the necessary user interfaces realised through hardware and/or software means where the said system on a chip comprising an additional usage logic, wherein the usage pattern of the said communication device will vary at the user's discretion depending on what the user inputs in order to initiate any communication, and the usage logic act upon based on the following: i) on being input any traditional telephone number by the user, the said usage logic will quickly establish the connection with the master base station via the said communication interface of the first type and the said master base station establish a link with the traditional telephone system via the said communication interface of the second type to provide traditional telephony service; or, ii) when a peer device is selected on the said list view by the user, a peer-to-peer interaction will be initiated by establishing a direct device-to-device communication channel with the chosen communication device via the said communication interface of the first type.
27. There is provided a method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner, wherein different peer communication devices are connected via one or variety of interfaces with each other, wherein forming a purposeful communication system has a pre-set start-up procedure/method that can be triggered either automatically on the very first switch on or manually and to support this each communication device has the necessary user interface realised through appropriate hardware, software or combination of both, and the said start-up procedurelmethod comprising the steps of: i) getting each peer communication device assigned a globally unique network identifier (e.g., IP Address) by connecting to an existing network server (e.g., having DHCP functionality and the like) or manually assigning a unique network identifier if no connection to any external network is preferred; ii) choosing one device as the master device and subsequently registering)associating one or more of other peer communication devices as slaves with a said master by manually entering the said unique network identifier (e.g., IP address) of the said master device in the required place as requested by the registration process window In each of slave devices, and the registration process comprises the following steps: a) Getting the user to choose each slave device's preferred geographical location where it is going to be located or operate from the menulkeys provided by the user interface of each communication device; b) if no user-preferred location name exists in the standard menu provided by the default user interface, getting the user to make new addition or to edit the existing names such that the preferred location name will appear; c) prompting the user to press the preferred location name and register button to get the new device registeredlassociated with the said master device; d) registration process of each slave device (c) above automatically passing information such as each slave device's specific locationlowner's name along with its unique network identifier on to the said master device in a peer-to-peer manner via any preferred communication interface; e) the said master device maintaining the routing table by mapping the location name of each registered slave communication device with the latter's unique network identifier (Le., IP address) on reception of registration request of each slave device; f) the said master device making sure that each registered slave device has correct information about other peer devices in terms of their location or owner's name and the configured network addresses; g) on detecting name and/or identifier dispute, the said master device notifying the nature of dispute to the devices that are in conflict in order to change their network identifier or name of the location or location where the slave device is to be registered; and, iii) periodically exchanging the said routing table maintained by the master device with every registered slave device; wherein once a given slave communication device is associated with the said master device, its current status on the home-screen will appear as registered, and this way once a purposeful communication system is initially built by following the said stipulated steps, further addition of slave devices to the existing said master device is possible by subjecting every new device to go through the same steps, and de-registration of a slave device is possible by pressing the de-register key on the device that is going to be de-registered.
28. The said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful communication system enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessionslinteractions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner according to claim 27, wherein the preferred interface that connects peer devices is wireless and is implemented as per IEEE 802.11 standard.
29, The said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardwarelsofiware features into a purposeful communication system enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner according to claim 27, wherein the interface that connects peer devices is wireless and is implemented as per Bluetooth standard, and the said start-up procedure is made possible through pairing of each communication device with one another.
30. The said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful communication system enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions! interactions among twoVor more users in a peer-to-peer manner according to claim 27, wherein the interface that connects peer devices can be provided via power lines, phone lines or coaxial cable as specified by the ITU-T group working on home networking specifications under the G.hn banner and this requires equipping each communication device with a power-line Ethernet adaptors and the like (e.g., HomePlug AV).
31. The said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful communication system enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner according to claim 27, wherein once a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed after following the said start-up procedure, initiating/terminating multimedia interactions by any registered/configured first device with the second device will follow a procedure/method comprising the steps of and this procedure/method applies equally to both the master and slave devices: 1) first the user getting the first communication device to populate the details of the other peer neighbouring communication devices with which peer-to-peer interaction is possible; 2) from the list view of the neighbouring devices to which communication is possible, the user detecting whether the first communication device is registered with a master and whether the neighbour list has any entry; 3) in case the neighbour-list of first communication device has no entry and its current status says that it is not associated with any master, the user following the said pre-start procedure for configuring the network first, and if on the other hand, the neighbour list has more than one entry, the user choosing the appropriate name (i.e., location name or owner's name) of the second device to which multimedia interaction is preferred and subsequently pressing/choosing voice-call, video-call, or instantaneous messaging (IM) or short messaging service; 4) on user initiating any multimedia application, automatically the said first communication device looking up and finding the corresponding said unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device with which interaction is preferred from the said routing table periodically downloaded from the master device; and, 5) the said first communication device establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier; Wherein once the required multimedia peer-to-peer communication is initiated in the first device, the second device will be prompted about this and on accepting the first device's request, the multimedia interaction will be established and it can be terminated by either device.
32. The said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposefulVcommunication system enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a variety of multimedia sessions/interactions among two or more users in a peer-to-peer manner according to claim 27 or 30, wherein once a purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is formed after following the said start-up procedure and if each communication device has a built-in video camera and associated hardware and software functionalities to exert a total control over the operations of the said video camera, video surveillance or monitoring of one geographical location from another location is possible provided those locations have capable communication devices in operation, initiating/terminating such video surveillance of or monitoring operation by any registered/configured first device will follow a procedure/method comprising the steps of and this procedure/method applies equally to both the master and slave devices: 1) first from the list view of the neighbouring devices to which communication is possible, the user detecting whether the first communication device is registered with a master and whether the neighbour-list has any entry; 2) in case the neighbour-list of first communication device has no entry and its current status says that it is not associated with any master, the user following the said pre-start procedure for configuring the network first, and if on the other hand, the neighbour list has more than one entry, the user choosing the appropriate name (i.e., location name or owner's name) of the second communication device and subsequently pressing/choosing surveillance; 3) on initiating the surveillance application, automatically the said first communication device looking up and finding the corresponding said unique network identifier of the chosen second communication device from the said routing table that is periodically downloaded from the master device; and, 4) the said first communication device establishing the connection with selected second device directly using the identified said unique network identifier; 5) the said first communication device streaming and recording locally live video footage to monitor the remote location pertaining to the second device; and, 6) the user performing volume control, brightness, colour, contrast, zoom-in and zoomout settings and manipulating the trajectory of the security camera as many times as preferred and the like using the first communication device; Wherein communication devices have the necessary hardware and software functionalities wherein the first communication device can initiate the surveillance operation by streaming and playing back of live events being captured by the second communication device remotely.
33. The said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful communication system enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a video surveillance or remote monitoring according to claim 27 or 32, wherein such operation is possible via the Internet from a remote location using a device that is not part of the location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network if said network maintains a connectivity with the Internet.
34. The said method for transforming two or plurality of communication devices having the required hardware/software features into a purposeful communication system enabling direct device-to-device communication facility supporting a video surveillance or remote monitoring according to claim 27 or 33, wherein each communication device forming the said network has a special extra key for the purpose of enabling surveillance via the Internet and this operation comprising the steps of: i) a centralised streaming server on the Internet is configured to be constantly suppliedlprovided with the live video/audio streams captured by every communication device of the purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network formed on-demand; ii) when a user pressing the said special key enabling the surveillance via the Internet on the master device, the master will contact each of the plurality of registered slave devices that has a built-in video camera for each of them to capture the live video footage of the local coverage area and transmit continuously to the master device; iii) on receiving live video footage from every registered slave device, the master will in turn transmit the received streams constantly to the said server with correct identification; iv) any user having connectivity to the Internet signing onto the server remotely using login credentials and view live video footage of various parts of a building, house, apartment or the like where the said purposeful location-specific peer-to-peer controlled-network is set to operate; wherein the master maintains the login details of the authorised users that are able to view the live footage via the Internet from remote locations and passes such details onto the server such that the server will allow only the authorised personal to view the live footage via the Internet.