US Patent Issued to AT&T Intellectual Property I on Dec. 16 for "Method and apparatus for extending wireless coverage with one or more autonomous devices" (Georgia, Washington, Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,500,657, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (Atlanta).

"Method and apparatus for extending wireless coverage with one or more autonomous devices" was invented by Zhi Cui (Sugar Hill, Ga.), Paul Edward Smith Jr. (Heath, Texas) and Venson Shaw (Kirkland, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining characteristics of autonomous devices, detecting an area in which wireless services provided are deficient, and causing an autonomous device to move to the area and extend wireless coverage in the area. Other embodiments are disclosed."

The patent wa...