GB2491875A - Sharing data using audio signalling - Google Patents

Abstract

A method is disclosed for sharing data between a first mobile phone 101 and a second mobile phone 201. Each said phone includes a microphone 102,202 and a loudspeaker 103,203. Sounds are emitted by the loudspeaker of one device and picked up by the microphone on the other. When the respective microphones and loudspeakers are in close proximity, this gesture forms a configuration which can be used for the sharing of data 112, 212 by sound. Comparison of the quality of the sound received at the microphone 102 of the first phone from its loudspeaker 103 and the sound transmitted from the other phone may be used to determine the spacing of the phones from each other. If large amounts of data are to be shared, the audio signaling can be used to transmit connection data, thereby facilitating direct connection of the phones over BluetoothRTM, WiFiRTM or another high bandwidth link.

Description

Apparatus and Method for Sharing Data

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to apparatus and a method for sharing data, and in particular relates to sharing data between portable electronic devices.

Background of the Invention

Mobile phones increasingly carry large amounts of useful information, especially telephone numbers, but also photos, videos and other data. It's a natural part of mobile phone usage to exchange data, such as a phone number, fairly frequently. Given the high level of technology in a mobile phone, and the frequency of this particular exchange, its surprising that the most common way of exchanging phone numbers is by manually typing them in to each phone. The process can be speeded up if one person dials the number given to them, so that the number then appears on other person's phone, making it only necessary to add a name. This slow process is so familiar that it hardly bears describing. Nevertheless, it is both slow and prone to error.

Sharing other kinds of data is more complex and time consuming, except, perhaps, for those willing to navigate through multiple menus and establish a Bluetooth or other data link. The problem is that the correct identification of the phones to each other is not possible without human intervention.

One solution is provided by Bump Technologies Inc. of Mountain View, California. The Bump Technologies smartphone application processes location and accelerometer signals from multiple mobile phones, matching location and time and identifying when two phones have been deliberately bumped together. When such an event is identified, data is shared between the two phones. An increasingly sophisticated bump API enables third parties to add bump awareness to their applications, thus extending the usefulness of the technology beyond simple file and telephone number exchange. These additional applications help the widespread adoption of the technology, so that even trivial data sharing becomes more likely to be possible between smartphones.

This approach to mutual impact-based information sharing is described in several patent applications: US 2007/0188323 Al, US 2008/0195735 Al, W02009/074887 Al and WO/201 0/023459. These show that there has been considerable effort applied to the problem of easily sharing data between two mobile phones. A slightly different solution is provided by a smartphone application called flUng, available from http://www.fliing.org. Flung shares data in response to a waving gesture of one phone in the direction of another.

Gesture-to-location matching is achieved via a direct radio link between the two phones.

Each of these different techniques has its strengths and weaknesses.

Clearly, a smartphone equipped with an accelerometer, camera, compass, GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth, is capable of making all kinds of gesture-based interaction possible, including the simple sharing of phone numbers. But these fully equipped smartphones are expensive, and unlikely to provide a data sharing solution for the majority of phone users in the near future.

Summary of the Invention

According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of exchanging phone numbers by transmitting the respective telephone numbers of a pair of mobile phones by sound from a loudspeaker of each respective mobile phone to the adjacent microphone on the other.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 shows a first mobile phone ready to share data; Figure 2 shows a second mobile phone ready to share data with the mobile phone shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 details main components of the mobile phone shown in Figure 1, including a non-volatile flash memory and a random access memory; Figure 4 details contents of the non-volatile flash memory shown in Figure 3, including data sharing instructions; Figure 5 details contents of the random access memory shown in Figure 3, including data sharing instructions; Figure 6 details main components of the mobile phone shown in Figure 2, including a non-volatile flash memory and a random access memory; Figure 7 details contents of the non-volatile flash memory shown in Figure 6; Figure 8 details contents of the random access memory shown in Figure 6, including data sharing instructions; Figure 9 details the data sharing instructions shown in Figure 5 and Figure 8, including steps of initialisation, coupling and data sharing; Figure 10 details the initialisation step shown in Figure 9; Figure 11 details the coupling step shown in in Figure 9, including measuring a characteristic of a sound transmission path; Figure 12 details the data sharing step shown in Figure 9; Figures 13, 14 and 15 illustrate measurements performed in Figure 11; Figure 16 illustrates the invention; and Figures 17 and 18 show the effect of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments

A first example of a portable electronic device is shown in Figure 1.

Mobile phone 101 includes a microphone 102, a loudspeaker 103, a touchscreen 104, a menu button 105 and additional buttons 106, 107, 108 and 109. The touch screen 104 shows a graphical user interface for an application for sharing data with another mobile phone. The graphical user interface includes data to send 110, comprising the user's name 111 and the telephone number 112 of the mobile phone 101. The user may edit the name 111 and number 112 prior to sending them to another mobile phone. The graphical user interface further includes received data 113, which is currently empty. The interface also includes a share button 114.

A second example of a portable electronic device is shown in Figure 2.

Mobile phone 201 includes a microphone 202, a loudspeaker 203, a is touchscreen 204, several menu buttons 205, 206, 207, 208 and additional button 209. The touch screen 204 shows a graphical user interface for sharing data with another mobile phone. The interface includes data to send 210, comprising the user's name 211 and telephone number 212. The user may edit the name 211 and number 212 prior to sharing them. Received data 213 shows that data has yet to be received. A share button 114 is also provided by the graphical user interface displayed on the touchscreen 204.

A functional block diagram of the main components of the mobile phone 101 shown in Figure 1 is detailed in Figure 3. The phone 101 includes a thirty-two bit dual core central processing unit (CPU) 301. The CPU 301 is connected to a 16GB non-volatile memory (flash) 302, 51 2MB volatile memory (RAM) 303, a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card 304, a GSM/3/4G radio telephony transceiver 305, a Bluetooth transceiver 306, a Wifi transceiver 307, an analogue input output (I/O) circuit 308 and a camera 309. The CPU 301 is also connected to buttons 105 to 109, and the touch screen 104. A battery 310 provides a rechargeable power source for the mobile phone 101. The SIM card 304 provides the service-subscriber key used to identify a subscriber to a GSM/3/4G telephony service provider. The analogue I/O circuit 308 provides analogue to digital conversion for electrical signals received from the microphone 102. The analogue I/O circuit 308 also provides digital to analogue conversion for signals supplied to the loudspeaker 103, and an activation S signal for a vibrating alert device 311.

The GSM/3/4G transceiver 305 provides mobile telephony connections for voice and data over cellular telephony networks, including the possibility of an Internet data connection. The Bluetooth transceiver 306 facilitates voice and data connections with devices over a short range of a few metres, such as a hands-free headset, a laptop computer, or another Bluetooth-equipped portable electronic device. Technical documentation for the Bluetooth standard may be obtained at http://www.bluetooth.com. The Will transceiver 307 receives and transmits data at high bandwidth over short distances, typically providing an Internet connection, but can also be used to provide IS communication directly with another portable electronic device. Wifi is generally preferred over Bluetooth, but Bluetooth is available on a wider range of portable electronic devices.

The contents of the non-volatile flash memory 302 shown in Figure 3 are detailed in Figure 4. An iOSTM operating system 401 provides processing instructions for hardware device abstraction and common functions. These instructions are executed by the CPU 301 shown in Figure 3. GSM/3/4G telephony instructions 402 are used by the processor 301 to access telephony functions provided by the GSM/3/4G circuit 305. Bluetooth instructions 403 facilitate data and voice transmissions using the Bluetooth transceiver circuit 306. Wifi instructions 404 facilitate wireless data connections over a range of up to twenty metres indoors using the Wifi transceiver circuit 307. Share application instructions 405 are provided to instruct the CPU 301 to share data with another mobile phone in response to the user pressing the share button 114 displayed on the touchscreen 104.

The flash memory 302 also includes instructions 406 for other applications, which are available for download and installation on the mobile phone 101. The flash memory further includes configuration data 407, describing user preferences and other information such as private and public encryption keys which can be used to ensure secure transfer of data over a public data connection. The contents of the flash memory 302 also include a contacts database 408, comprising names and phone numbers and other information for a number of people. Each entry in the contacts database 408 requires a relatively small amount of non-volatile memory storage, in the order of a hundred bytes or less. The contacts database 408 includes personal contact information 409 comprising the user's name 111 and phone number 112. The mobile phone 101 is capable of taking pictures and video using the camera 309 shown in Figure 3, resulting in large data files of many megabytes, which are stored in flash memory 302 as video, photos and other files 410, including a video file 411.

When the mobile phone 101 is switched on, the CPU 301 copies instructions from the non-volatile flash memory 302 into the random access memory (RAM) 303 as required, and data structures are initialised. The contents of RAM 303 when sharing data are detailed in Figure 5. These contents include the iOS operating system 401, the GSMI3I4G instructions 402, Bluetooth instructions 403, Wifi instructions 404, share application instructions 405, and application data 501. The application data 501 includes a reference 502 to the data 409 or 411 that will be shared with another mobile electronic device.

The main components of the mobile phone 201 shown in Figure 2 are similar to those of the mobile phone 102 shown in Figure 1. They differ primarily in their specification and design. A block diagram of the mobile phone 201 is shown in Figure 6. A thirty-two bit dual core CPU 601 processes instructions and data from an 8GB non-volatile flash memory 602, 768MB RAM 603, and a SIM card 604. A GSM/3/4G radio telephony transceiver 605 provides wireless telephony. Other components include a Bluetooth transceiver 606, a Wifi transceiver 607, an analogue I/O circuit 608 and a camera 609. The CPU 601 is also connected to buttons 205 to 209, and the touch screen 204. A battery 610 provides power for the phone 201. The analogue I/O circuit 608 provides analogue to digital conversion for signals from the microphone 202 and also provides digital to analogue conversion for signals supplied to the loudspeaker 203, and activation signals for a vibrating alert device 611.

The contents of the flash memory 602 shown in Figure 6 are detailed in Figure 7. These include an Android1M operating system 701, GSM/3/4G telephony instructions 702, Bluetooth instructions 703, Wifi instructions 704, and share application instructions 705 are provided to instruct the CPU 601 to share data with another mobile phone in response to the user pressing the share button 214 displayed on the touchscreen 204.

The flash memory 602 also includes instructions 706 for other applications, configuration data 707, which includes information such as a private and public key used for encryption. The contents of the flash memory 602 further include a contacts database 708, in which are stored personal contact information 709 comprising the user's name 211 and phone number 212. The flash memory includes video, photos and other files 710.

When the mobile phone 201 is switched on, the CPU 601 copies instructions from the non-volatile flash memory 602 into the random access memory (RAM) 303 as they are required. The contents of RAM 603 when running the data sharing instructions 705 are shown in Figure 8. These include the Android operating system instructions 701, GSMI3I4G instructions 702, Bluetooth instructions 703, Wifi instructions 704, share application instructions 705, and application data 801. The application data 801 includes a reference 802 to the data 709 that will be shared.

It is preferred that data can be shared easily, whether it be a small amount of data such as a person's contact information, or a large amount of data such as a video file 411. The contents of a mobile phone's flash memory 302 or 602 represent a valuable resource, whose value is greatly increased if its contents can be selectively and easily shared. The value of the phone itself can be enhanced, when the information created by it, for example by cameras, can be shared more easily with other people, especially if the information can be shared in a way that is as simple and secure as ordinary phone use.

The share application instructions 405 running on the mobile phone 101 implement a method of sharing data with another mobile phone, such as the mobile phone 201 shown in Figure 2. In order to perform data sharing, the share application instructions 705 running on the second mobile phone 201 operate similarly to those which will be explained below with reference to the S first phone 101. The share application instructions need not be supplied with the mobile phone when first purchased; they can be downloaded and installed as is common for applications on mobile phones such as those shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 9 summarises the operations performed by the share application instructions 405, and these will be described first with reference to operations carried out by the hardware of the first mobile phone 101. The flowchart of Figure 9 is, however, also descriptive of operations carried out by the second mobile phone 201 in response to execution of its share application instructions 705; only the context of the operations is different.

IS At step 901, the user starts the share application instructions by touching an icon on the touchscreen 104. At step 902, signals from the microphone 102 are sampled via the analogue I/O circuit 308 and translated into digital form at a rate of eight thousand samples per second (8kHz), with each sample having a precision of sixteen bits, of which around thirteen bits can be assumed to be significant. These microphone signals are supplied to an audio background modelling process, which characterises the level and statistical characteristics of background sounds picked up by the microphone 102. Once the background model has been updated, at step 903 the application checks to see whether the user is ready to share data. Typically there is a delay of a few tenths of a second, and during this time, it is possible to continue to update the background model until the user is ready to share data.

The user then identifies the data to share at step 904. If the default data is to be used, the user need do nothing except confirm that she is ready to share the data by touching the share button 114 shown in Figure 1.

Alternatively, the user is presented with several options, including selecting a file, such as the video file 411 shown in Figure 4 or an entry in the contacts database 408. By default, the data to be shared is the user's own name 111 and mobile phone number 112, as shown on the touchscreen 104 in Figure 1.

The application data 501 includes a reference 502 to the data to be shared, and this is updated in response to the user's selection if this is different from S the default setting. The user confirms the data to be shared by touching the share button 114 on the touchscreen 104.

The share application 405 then performs three steps: Initialisation 905, coupling 906, and data sharing 907. Having completed these three steps, the user may continue to use the application, resulting in a decision being made at step 908 to continue updating the background model at step 902. Alternatively the user may decide to close the application 405, in which case, at step 909, the operating system 401 instructs the application 405 to close.

The initialisation step 905, shown in Figure 9, is detailed in Figure 10. At step 1001 the volume of signals supplied to the loudspeaker 103 is set to an IS estimated minimum necessary to share data with a known level of background noise. The level of background noise is characterised by several of measurements, made at step 902, which make it possible to estimate the signal to noise ratio of a transmission that will be made from the loudspeaker 103 to a nearby microphone on another portable electronic device. At step 1002 an initiation sound is transmitted from the loudspeaker 103, by supplying audio samples from the CPU 301 to the analogue I/O circuit 308. The initiation sound includes two tones having a unique, non-harmonic interval, so that this sound may be readily identified as an initiation sound for data sharing by the other phone 201. The duration of the initiation sound is randomly chosen between 0.1 and 0.2 seconds. At step 1003, audio samples from the microphone 102 are received and analysed for a random period of time. The random listening time is also in the range 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. The microphone samples are analysed to identify the presence of an initiation sound like the one transmitted at step 1002. At step 1004, if no initiation sound was detected, the CPU 301 goes back to step 1001. Alternatively, if an initiation sound was detected at step 1003, this completes the initialisation process.

The effect of the initialisation steps 1001 to 1004 is to identify the presence of another portable electronic device running the same or similar data sharing instructions, and which is ready to share data. Trivial details of implementation have been left out, as these will be understood by those experienced in the art. In particular, a timeout is provided, so that the initialisation process is only attempted for a few seconds, after which the user will have to press the share button 114 again. Such details are omitted for the sake of clarity.

Once the presence of another portable electronic device ready to share data has been established, the coupling process 906 shown in Figure 9 is performed, which is detailed in Figure 11. At step 1101, alternation of sound transmission and reception is synchronised. In the initialisation steps 1002 and 1003, transmission and reception were performed for random durations, because it is not initially known when another communicating device is listening or transmitting. However, once an initialisation tone has been detected, the transmitted sound is changed to a synchronisation sound, which has a fixed duration, as well as a different non-harmonic interval. The listening device, upon hearing this, will wait until the end of a known duration, and then transmit its own synchronisation sound, of the same duration. Transmission and reception alternate until both devices have synchronised. Synchronisation 1101 does not require the mobile phone 101 to be extremely close to the other mobile phone. It merely requires the initialisation and synchronisation sounds to be mutually audible above the background noise. This is a fairly relaxed requirement, as the tones used comprise two distinct frequencies which can be easily detected. However, the step of data sharing 907, requires a much higher signal to noise ratio in order to be successful. Furthermore, it is intended that the step of data sharing 907 will only be performed when the mobile phone 101 is physically close to the communicating device with which data will be shared, as this proximity, and a specific gesture, indicate the user's intention to share data with a specific mobile phone 201, rather than one of several that may be nearby.

At step 1102, a measurement is made of the quality Q(AA) of synchronisation tones received at the local microphone 102 from the local loudspeaker 103. This quality is expressed as a signal to noise ratio.

At step 1103, a measurement is made of the quality Q(BA) of synchronisation tones received at the microphone 102 from the loudspeaker 203 of the other phone 201. This quality is also expressed as a signal to noise ratio.

At step 1104, a comparison is made between the quality Q(AA) of the local signal path and the quality Q(BA) of the path from the other phone's loudspeaker 203. If Q(BA) is much better than Q(AA), this signifies that the other phone's loudspeaker 203 is much closer to the microphone 102 than loudspeaker 103. This condition is considered as validating the communication channel from the other phone 201. If this condition is not met, the steps 1102 of measuring Q(AA) and 1103 of measuring Q(BA) are repeated until the comparison at step 1104 is successful, or until a timeout has been exceeded.

The step of data sharing 907 shown in Figure 9, is detailed in Figure 12.

At step 1201 protocol negotiation by sound is performed. This involves transmitting a modulated sound, which can only be successfully demodulated by the other phone 201 if it's microphone 202 is sufficiently close the loudspeaker 103 on the first phone 101. The first phone 101 continues transmitting short bursts of this initial modulated sound until it receives an acknowledgement sound. In between these short bursts, it listens, and when it receives an initial modulated sound from the other phone 201, it transmits an acknowledgement in the next transmission burst. Furthermore, the modulated bursts include a protocol identification value, and the two devices negotiate to agree on a mutually acceptable protocol value, using protocol request and protocol acknowledge sounds. In order to successfully complete the step of protocol negotiation 1201, the loudspeaker 103, 203 of each respective mobile phone 101, 201 must be sufficiently close to the adjacent microphone 202, 102 of the other phone.

Protocol negotiation also establishes a common set of modulation techniques that will be used for subsequent communication between the two phones 101 and 201 during data sharing. Preferably, a modulation scheme using Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) in combination with Trellis coding is used, in order to make best use of the available communication bandwidth. The two mobile electronic devices 101 and 201 are only able to communicate in this way by virtue of their proximity and orientation with respect to each other.

s At step 1202 a decision is made as to the method of data sharing that will be used. If a small amount of data of one hundred bytes or less is to be shared, the data is transmitted and or received by sound at step 1203.

Alternatively, if a large amount of data is to be shared, such as the video file 411 shown in Figure 4, a negotiated handover is performed at step 1204. This involves both devices specifying their capabilities, and transmitting these capabilities by sound to the other device. An identification is then made of the best available high bandwidth communication medium available to both devices, and request and acknowledgement signals are exchanged between the two phones 101 and 201 in order to confirm the selected medium.

Preferably a direct phone-to-phone Wifi connection is used for large data transfers. Bluetooth is a good second option if one or other device does not support Wifi, or is unable to connect to it. At step 1205 connection data is transmitted and/or received, also using sound. Connection data may include a uniform resource locator (URL) providing an address on the Internet.

Alternatively the connection data may specify information required to make a direct wireless radio connection between the two mobile phones 101 and 201.

Bluetooth and other wireless data systems are generally far quicker to connect when certain information is known in advance. For example, in the case of Bluetooth, the Bluetooth Device Address (BDADDR) is used to specify frequency hopping sequences, which, if known in advance, enables a connection to be made far more quickly. If the handover selected at step 1204 is a handover to Bluetooth 306, the connection data transmitted by sound at step 1205 includes the Bluetooth Device Address. Alternatively, other information can be used to quickly establish a Wifi link, or another kind of high bandwidth link. Furthermore, if both mobile phones 101 and 201 have an active Internet connection, either by Wifi or via a 3G or 4G radio telephony link, the connection data need only consist of a URL in order to transfer data, either as a file or to establish a continuous stream of data, and at step 1206 the video file 411 is transmitted by the newly established data link from the first phone 101 to the second phone 201.

A phone number 112 or 212 is considered a specific instance of a type S of connection data. Entirely sound-based data sharing is preferred for sharing phone numbers. This is performed at step 1203. The amount of data required to specify and name and phone number is relatively small and usually less than one hundred bytes. This quantity of data can be transmitted over the acoustic link that has been described. The data to be shared 111, 112 is accessed via the reference 502 shown in Figure 5, and transmitted by data modulation of sound from the loudspeaker 103 to the other phone's microphone 202. The data's length, and a checksum are also transmitted, so that the receiver can verify correct reception of the transmitted data. Once this has been verified, an acknowledgement sound is transmitted. Once this IS acknowledgement has been received, this completes the data transmission.

Depending on the synchronisation sequence, reception of data by sound may be performed before or after transmission. Data modulated sound is received at the microphone 102 from the other phone's loudspeaker 203. The sound is demodulated, and a checksum is created from the received data to compare with the received checksum. If these match, this completes data reception by sound. tf not, a request for a retransmission will be sent at the next available transmission interval.

In an alternative embodiment, echo cancellation is used to reduce cross-channel interference and sounds are transmitted and received at the same time. However, the preferred embodiment avoids the use of echo cancellation, as it would require calculations which take a certain amount of time to complete. Furthermore, the variable proximity of the two phones 101 and 201 results in constantly shifting sound paths which can interfere with echo cancellation. Given that the amount of data is quite small, it is considered more advantageous to establish an immediately usable, if imperfect link, as the data transfer itself will hardly take any time.

This type of sound link between mobile phones has a number of advantages. Establishing a new wireless data connection by Wifi, Bluetooth, or other radio network system, can take several seconds. A more appropriate radio frequency technology for short-distance transfers of this kind is Near Field Communication (NFC), which is specifically designed to make such transfers and handovers very efficient. However, NFC requires additional circuitry, and an NFC antenna, to be present in both communicating devices.

By contrast, a loudspeaker and microphone are available in all mobile phones.

The security inherent in using sound can be considered by comparison with the ordinary method of exchanging phone numbers, when they are spoken or written down. The phone numbers are exchanged using a reasonably low volume of modulated sound. Specifically, at step 1001, the volume of sound used to share data is adjusted to an estimated minimum required for successful transfer. This makes eavesdropping much more difficult, and also reduces the volume of sound to an unobtrusive level. In other embodiments a public key exchange precedes the step of data sharing, and subsequent data transmissions encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.

The distances travelled by sounds from the loudspeakers 103 and 203 to the microphones 102 and 202 are shown in Figure 13. The first phone's microphone 102 is able to pick up initialisation and synchronisation sounds emitted from its own loudspeaker 103, via a local path 1301 AA. It is also able to pick up these sounds from the other phone's loudspeaker 203, via path BA 1302. When path BA is longer than path AA, the quality of the other phone's signal picked up at microphone 102 is not very high, and a comparison between the path qualities Q(AA) and Q(BA), as performed at step 1104 in Figure 11, indicates that the two phones 101 and 201 are not very close together. A similar comparison can be made by the other phone 201: The path BB 1303 is shorter than the path AB 1304, and this is revealed by Q(AB) being less than Q(BB). The situation in Figure 14 gives approximate equal path lengths for AA 1401 and BA 1402, and similarly near equal paths BB 1403 and AB 1404. For the path lengths shown in Figure 14, the quality measurements performed at steps 1102 and 1103 indicate that path AA 1501 is similar in length to path BA 1502, and from the perspective of the other phone 201, path BB 1503 is similar in length to path AB 1504. This condition begins to approach that required for data sharing, but it is not optimal. Nor would the respective users consider that a specific gesture appropriate to data sharing has been made.

s The effect of the invention is illustrated in Figure 16. The two mobile phones 101 and 201 have been brought to the point of nearly touching, with one of the phones inverted with respect to the other, so the microphone 102 of the first phone 101 is much closer to the loudspeaker 203 of the second phone 201 than it is to its own loudspeaker 103, and the microphone 202 of the second phone 201 is much closer to the loudspeaker 103 of the first phone 101 than it is to its own loudspeaker 203. This combination of alignments provides the best conditions for sharing data by sound and also forms a clear gesture that signifies which two mobile electronic devices are intended to share data. Compared with non-contacting gestural techniques, there is no ambiguity. Furthermore, the gesture is not arbitrarily chosen. Microphones are known to receive information, and loudspeakers are known to transmit it, so it makes perfect sense for mobile phones to communicate with each other in this way.

The result of sharing data is shown in Figures 17 and 18. In Figure 18, the first mobile phone 101 displays the received name 211 and phone number 212 on the touchscreen 104. The share button 114 has been replaced by a save button 1701, which, when touched, saves the received name and number in the contacts database 408. In Figure 18, the second mobile phone 201 displays the received name 111 and phone number 112 on its touchscreen 204. A save button 1801, can be used to save the received name and number to its contacts database 708.

Claims (25)

1. Claims 1. A mobile phone having a microphone, a loudspeaker, and a processor; said processor being configured to share data with another mobile phone by transmitting sound to and receiving sound from a respective microphone and loudspeaker on said other mobile phone.
2. 2. A mobile phone having a microphone, a loudspeaker, and a processor; said processor being configured to share data with another mobile phone by the steps of: establishing an acoustic data link between a loudspeaker of each said respective mobile phone to an adjacent microphone on the other; Is transferring connection data from one said mobile phone to another by sound; and sharing data via said the connection specified in said connection data.
3. 3. A mobile phone having a microphone, a loudspeaker, and a processor; said processor being configured to perform the steps of: analysing sound received at said microphone from said loudspeaker and comparing the quality of this first received sound with the quality of a second received sound transmitted from another mobile phone; and sharing data with said other mobile phone, in response to said analysis indicating that said other mobile phone is closer to said microphone than said loudspeaker.
4. 4. A mobile phone according to claim 3, wherein said processor is further configured to perform the additional step of adjusting the level of said sound to an estimated minimum level required to perform data sharing by sound.
5. 5. A mobile phone according to claim 4, wherein said processor is configured to perform said level adjustment in response to a measuredcharacteristic of background noise.
6. 6. A mobile phone according to claim 3, wherein said processor is further configured such that said step of sharing data includes sharing a telephone number by sound.
7. 7. A mobile phone according to claim 6, wherein said processor is further configured such that said step of sharing data additionally includes sending an acknowledgement by sound.
8. 8. A mobile phone according to claim 3, wherein said processor is further configured such that said step of sharing data includes performing a handover by sound.
9. 9. A mobile phone according to claim 3, wherein said processor is further configured such that said step of sharing data includes sharing connection data for a high bandwidth data transmission medium by sound from one phone to the other, and additionally includes receiving shared data via said high bandwidth medium.
10. 10. A mobile phone according to claim 9, wherein said processor is further configured to perform said high bandwidth transmission and reception via a direct phone-to-phone radio data link.
11. 11. A method of exchanging phone numbers by transmitting the respective telephone numbers of a pair of mobile phones by sound from a loudspeaker of each respective mobile phone to the adjacent microphone on the other.
12. 12. A method of sharing data between mobile phones by establishing an acoustic data link between a loudspeaker of each respective mobile phone to an adjacent microphone on the other, and transmitting connection data from one said mobile phone to another by sound.
13. 13. A method of of sharing data between a pair of mobile phones by performing the steps of: analysing sounds received at a microphone of a said mobile phone from a plurality of sources; comparing characteristics of said received sounds; and sharing data between said mobile phones, in response to said analysis indicating that said microphone is closer to a loudspeaker on the other mobile phone than to a loudspeaker in the same phone.
14. 14. A method according to claim 13, including adjusting the level of said sound to an estimated minimum level required for sharing data by sound.
15. 15. A method according to claim 14, wherein said level adjustment is performed in response to the level of background noise.
16. 16. A method according to claim 13, wherein said step of sharing data includes receiving a telephone number by sound.
17. 17. A method according to claim 16, wherein said step of sharing data includes transmitting a telephone number by sound.
18. 18. A method according to claim 13, wherein said step of sharing data includes a handover performed by sound.
19. 19. A method according to claim 13, wherein said step of sharing data includes sharing connection data for a high bandwidth data transmission medium by sound from one phone to the other, and receiving shared data via said high bandwidth medium.
20. 20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said high bandwidth medium is a direct phone-to-phone radio link.
21. 21. A method comprising: transmitting a sound to a portable communicating device; receiving a sound from said portable communicating device; analysing signals generated in response to said transmitted and received sounds to identify a a gesture made with said portable communicating device; and sharing data with said portable communicating device in response to said gesture.
22. 22. A method according to claim 21, wherein said gesture is characterised by relative inversion and close proximity of said portable communicating device.
23. 23. A method according to claim 21 or claim 22, wherein said sharing data is performed by sound.
24. 24. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by one or more processors in a first portable electronic device, cause the one or more processors to perform the operations of: transmitting sound to a second portable communicating device; receiving sound from said second portable communicating device; analysing signals generated in response to said received sounds to identify a a gesture made by said first portable communicating device with said second portable communicating device; and sharing data between said portable communicating devices in response to said gesture.
25. 25. A computer-readable medium according to claim 24, having additional instructions stored thereon such that said sharing of data is performed in response to a gesture characterized by the relatively close proximity of a loudspeaker and a microphone on respective said portable electronic devices compared with the loudspeaker and microphone on the same device.