Patent Application
20090117949
The present invention relates to wireless devices and more particularly to a low battery warning service for users of wireless devices.
Wireless devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), palmtop computers, laptop computers and converged combinations of such devices are now widely used and heavily depended upon for voice and data communications.
Most of the time, such devices operate using rechargeable batteries. Such batteries, of course, have to be recharged from time to time, a fact that wireless device users at least occasionally fail to remember until their wireless device fails, sometimes at an inopportune or even critical time.
Attempts have been made to deal with this problem by including low battery voltage detector circuits in wireless devices and providing audible or visual low battery warnings at the device itself. However, for various reasons, those warnings may not be seen, heard, or heeded by the device users.
It is also known for wireless devices to send low battery warning messages to pre-programmed telephone numbers selected and maintained by device users on the wireless devices themselves. The drawback of such an arrangement is that it places the entire burden of maintaining the pre-programmed telephone numbers on the wireless device user. If a wireless device user is busy, as many are, that user may fail to change pre-programmed telephone numbers if the user's working environment changes; e.g., the user goes on vacation or takes a business trip.
The present invention may be embodied as a method of providing a low battery warning service to users of wireless devices. A low battery warning message is received through a network connecting the wireless device and the service provider. The message includes a wireless device identifier for a wireless device in which a low battery condition has been detected. A notification list associated with the wireless device identifier is retrieved. The notification list includes one or more addresses that can be notified when the low battery warning message is received. A low battery warning message is sent to one or more addresses selected from the retrieved list.
The invention may also be implemented as a computer program product for providing a low battery warning service. The computer program product includes a computer usable medium embodying computer usable program code. The computer usable program code includes code configured to receive a low battery warning message that includes a wireless device identifier for a device in which a low battery condition has been detected. The computer usable program code further includes code for retrieving a notification list associated with the wireless device identifier, code for selecting at least one notification address from the list, and code for sending a low battery notification message to each selected address.
The invention may also be implemented as an apparatus for providing a low battery warning service. The apparatus includes a subscriber profile data store that stores subscriber profiles associated with wireless devices. Each stored profile includes a notification list including at least one notification address. The apparatus also includes a receiving component for receiving a low battery warning message that identifies a wireless device in which a low battery condition has been detected. Profile identification logic identifies the stored profile associated with the identified wireless device. Access control logic reads a notification list stored in the stored profile. Notification control logic selects a least one entry from a list and send a low battery warning message to each selected entry.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.
Any suitable computer usable or computer readable medium may be utilized. The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage device. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The computer usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to the Internet, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc.
Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like. However, the computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
The present invention is described below with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
Details of the low battery warning service 22 are provided below. Generally speaking, the low battery warning service receives each low battery condition message and associates that message with a subscriber profile set up at the warning service server by a service subscriber. The subscriber profile includes a notification list having at least one notification address for each wireless device that subscribes to the warning service. When a low battery condition message is received from the subscribed wireless device, a notification address is selected from the notification list and an appropriate low battery warning message is transmitted to the selected notification address.
The term notification address is intended to be construed broadly enough to represent a network address or telephone number that can be associated with any device that can receive some form of a low battery warning message. For example, any telephone, such as a desktop telephone 26 or a cellular telephone 28, inherently possesses a unique notification address in the form of a conventional telephone number and thus can receive low battery warning messages (either as voice or text) through conventional telephone systems 24. Moreover, network-connected computers, such as desktop computers 32 and 34, also have notification addresses in the form of unique network addresses and can receive low battery warning messages through a network 30 in the form of e-mails, instant messages, or other warning messages that may pop up on the computer's display screen.
At least some of the devices to which warning messages may be sent by the warning service can be expected to be owned or controlled by the user of the wireless device to which the warning message applies. For example, a cell phone user who wishes to receive warning messages for a low battery condition at the cell phone may elect to have a low battery warning message sent to a desktop office phone, to an office computer, to a home phone and/or even to the cell phone itself on the theory the user will be more likely to notice a regular ring signal generated by the cell phone than a low battery audible warning generated by the same phone. Of course, the user may elect to have low battery warning messages directed to other people, such as an administrative assistant, spouse or parent, who is likely to know of the user's whereabouts and thus be able to pass on the low battery warning.
As noted above, each stored subscriber profile associated with a wireless device identifier includes a notification list containing one or more addresses of devices to which low battery warning messages may be sent. One or more of these addresses, selected by a notification entry selection component 46, are forwarded to a notification generator component 48. The component 48 generates a warning message in a format appropriate to the type of device to which the message is to be sent. For example, if the warning message is being sent to a telephone, the message may include a prerecorded voice warning message into which synthesized voice may be inserted to identify the particular subscriber or wireless device that is the subject of the message. If the intended recipient of the message is someone other than the user of the wireless device, prerecorded or synthesized voice instructions for contacting the user might be included in the message. If the message is being sent to a computer system, a text equivalent of the above could be included in the message. The generated low battery warning message is passed through a notification interface component 50 on its way to communications networks such as telephone systems 24 or data network 30.
In a preferred embodiment, the notification interface 50 is a two-way system that both sends low battery warning messages and receives responses from the target devices to which the warning messages are sent. The responses can take different forms, depending perhaps on subscriber preferences set forth in the stored profiles. A profile may only require a passive response; e.g., the detection of an offhook signal at a telephone to which a warning message is sent or the acceptance of the warning message by a server supporting a computer user to whom a warning message is sent. Alternatively, a profile may require a more active response; e.g., a specific keypress signal returned from a telephone to which the warning message was sent or a specified acknowledgement action by a user of a computer to which the warning message was sent. Each response from a target system, returned through notification interface 50, is evaluated in a message response evaluator component 52 to determine whether the response satisfies predetermined response criteria originally stored in the retrieved subscriber profile. If the response fails to satisfy the predetermined criteria, the notification entry selection component 46 can choose one or more additional entries on the notification list associated with the subscriber profile and send out one or more additional warning messages to newly selected target systems.
While subscriber profiles are stored and utilized by the low battery warning service 22, the contents of those profiles must at least initially be established by or at least on the behalf of the subscriber to the low battery warning service. To this end, the service 22 preferably includes a subscriber interface component 54 that can be used to receive subscriber inputs from devices such as telephone 58 and computer 60 through an intervening network 56. In a preferred embodiment, the subscriber interface 54 may take the form of a web application that the subscriber can access from a suitable computer anywhere in the world through a public network such as the Internet.
In one embodiment, the subscriber profile includes one or more “override” fields that are used to define conditions under which certain of the notification entries will be used or ignored.
A possible data structure for each of the notification entries stored in the subscriber profile is shown in
Each notification entry may also contain a field 90 containing a value that indicates whether the entry represents an address that is a member of a group and a field 82 containing a group ID value that can be used to identify other members of the same group. If a group member entry is selected, the group ID is used to retrieve all other members of the group so the low battery warning message may be sent concurrently to all members of the group.
Each notification entry includes, of course, a field 94 containing the address of the target device to which the warning message is to be sent and may include a field 96 for personalized content to be included in the warning message directed to that device. Personalized content includes, at a minimum, information identifying the wireless device to which the message pertains and may include personalized instructions for the person expected to receive the warning message at the identified target device. Finally, each entry preferably contains a field 98 that defines what will be considered to be an acceptable response to the low battery warning message from the specified target device.
In a preferred embodiment, the entries in a subscriber profile are considered in order of priority but low battery warning messages are sent only to active entries; that is, entries that are always used without regard to existing conditions or entries that are called only after it is determined that a specified set of override, day of week and time of day conditions are satisfied. If a selected entry identifies an address that is not a member of a group, the low battery warning message is sent to the single address. If the selected entry identifies an address that is a member of the group, the warning message is sent concurrently to all addresses in the group.
Each response to a warning message is evaluated to determine whether it satisfies the response criteria set forth in the relevant entry in the subscriber profile. If at least one satisfactory response is received, no further warning messages are sent. If no satisfactory response is received, the entry having the next highest priority value is retrieved and the described process is repeated. The process is reiterated until a satisfactory response is received from a target system to which a low battery warning message has been sent or the notification list stored in the subscriber profile is exhausted.
Once a notification list entry is retrieved and found to satisfy any applicable conditions of use, an operation 120 determines whether that entry is part of a group. If the entry is part of a group, other entries in the same group are selected in operation 122. In one embodiment of the invention, any test for conditions of use is suspended for grouped entries as it is assumed the tests conducted for the initial entry will apply to all other members of the same group.
If a selected entry is not part of a group, operation 122 is bypassed. The address and response criteria for each selected entry, which may be a single entry, is retrieved in operation 124 and an appropriated formatted low battery warning message is sent to each selected address in operation 126. A response timer is set in operation 128 to limit how long the system will wait for responses from the target systems. The notification system then goes into a wait mode during which periodic checks are made (in operation 130) as to whether the allowed response period has timed out. If the allowed response period has not timed out, which it obviously will not have on the first iteration of the process, a check 132 is made to determine whether or not a response to the warning message has been received. If no response has been received, the program enters a loop consisting of operations 130 and 132 and remains in that loop until one of two things happens. If the allowed response period times out without a response having been received, program control returns to operation 112 where the next unprocessed entry on the notification list the selected and previously described operations for repeated for newly selected entry.
If, however, operation 132 indicates that a response was received from a target system, a determination 134 is made as to whether that response satisfies criteria defined in the subscriber profile. If the determination 134 shows that the response fails to satisfy the defined criteria, a check 136 is made to determine whether the target system is part of a defined group to which concurrent low battery warning messages were sent. If the responding system is part of a group, a subsequent check 138 is made to determine whether all members of the group have responded. At least one member of the group has yet to respond, program control is returned to the input of operation 130, to return the system to a wait mode during which one or more currently missing group members may respond before the allowed response period times out. If operation 136 had shown that the target system was not part of a group (meaning the low battery warning message went to a single target) or if operation 138 had shown that the target system was part of a group but that all members of the group had already responded (without any of the responses being deemed satisfactory), an operation 140 is triggered to determine whether the last entry in the notification list has already been processed. If the last entry on the notification list has been processed, the warning service process ends. If the last entry has yet to be processed, program control returns to operation 112, which will cause the next unprocessed entry on the notification list to be selected.
If a response tested in operation 134 is found to satisfy defined criteria, a flag is set in an operation 142 to cause any further responses to the current notification or notifications to be ignored and the warning service process is ended since a single satisfactory response is considered an acceptable process outcome.
As noted earlier, a subscriber can establish and update the subscriber profile or profiles maintained by the warning service provider.
An assumption has been made to this point with the low battery warning service is provided by the same service provider that directly supports wireless operations of wireless device being monitored.
Such drives provide non-volatile storage for applications and processes that execute in the computer system and for data used in and/or generated by those applications and processes. Depending on the technology employed, the drives may include removable media. The special purpose programming needed by a computer system to implement the described invention would typically be stored in one of these drives and transferred as needed into RAM 184. Local drives, such as those discussed above, may be supplemented by network-accessible drives.
In a typical computer system, a considerable number of input/output devices are connected to the system bus 180 through input/output adapters 190. Commonly used input/output devices include monitors, keyboards, pointing devices and printers. Increasingly, high capacity memory devices are being connected to the system through what might be described as general-purpose input/output adapters, such as USB or FireWire adapters. Finally, the system includes one or more network adapters 192 that are used to connect the system to other computer systems through intervening computer networks.
It should not be inferred that only the devices shown in the drawing or discussed above can be part of the computer system. There are simply too many different types of devices to include in a drawing. Moreover, it should not be implied that the input/output adapters or general use adapters are limited to the technologies mentioned. There are too many different types of device adapters to include all in the drawing. Current examples of port technologies that are successfully used include not only USB, but also serial ports, parallel ports, SCSI, FireWire ports and infrared ports. Other port technologies undoubtedly already exist or will be developed.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Having thus described the invention of the present application in detail and by reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims.
