Patents Represented by Attorney Streets & Steels
  • Patent number: 7080405
    Abstract: A system, method and computer program product that send wireless control messages to electronic devices, such as audio and video recorders, cameras, radios, televisions, mobile phones, portable or handheld computers and personal digital assistants, that have come within an environment or that are in an environment that changes. In such an environment, a wireless receiver in the mobile electronic device receives the control messages. In a hardware implementation, electronic gates are set to disable the one or more features of the device. In a software implementation, current power status flags are set in a memory device within the mobile electronic device to a reduced power setting. Outside the environment, the electronic gates or power status flags revert to full power. The device driver for each feature of the mobile electronic device will reject I/O operations inconsistent with the current power status flags for that feature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Maria Azua Himmel, Herman Rodriguez, Newton James Smith, Jr., Clifford Jay Spinac