Patent Application
20110125723
The present invention relates to the fields of multimedia, telecommunications and information technologies.
Network entities such as social networks are gaining in popularity very rapidly. They provide users with the ability to update status/activity information e.g. “drinking coffee at Starbucks®”, to upload and share photos/video/audio content, to connect with friends, to see friends photos/video/audio content, to see friends activities or to organize parties or reunions, etc.
Currently, most social networking sites allow for content to be uploaded via a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) interface. Some clients, which are specific to a particular social network, also exist for user devices such as computers or cell phones. Furthermore, some social networks, such as Twitter®, allow users to update their status or share a comment by sending a Short Message Service (SMS) to a specified short code.
However, these solutions are not convenient when a user wants to update his status on many social networks. Indeed, the user currently has to connect to each of these social networks separately, using more or less user friendly interfaces. Thus there is a need for a more convenient way to upload media content, such as a status, a picture, a comment, etc., from a user device to at least one network entity, such as a social network.
It is therefore a general object of this invention to provide a method and network node for overcoming at least some of the prior art drawbacks.
According to an aspect of the invention, a method for uploading media content from a user device to at least one network entity is provided. The method comprises the step of associating a code with the at least one network entity, in a network node. The method further comprises the step of sending an address book object from the network node to the user device, said address book object comprising the code and said address book object being usable for sending a multimedia message to the network node from the user device. The method further comprises the step of receiving, in the network node, the multimedia message from the user device, said multimedia message containing the code and the media content. The method further comprise the step of updating, from the network node, the at least one network entity associated with the code with the media content.
According to another aspect of the invention, a network node for uploading media content from a user device to at least one network entity is provided. The network node comprises a processor for associating a code with the at least one network entity. The network node further comprises a sending interface, in communication with the user device, for sending an address book object to the user device, said address book object comprising the code. The network node further comprises a receiving interface, in communication with the user device, for receiving a multimedia message from the user device, wherein the multimedia message is sent using the address book object and wherein the multimedia message contains the code and the media content. The processor of the network node further updates, through the receiving and sending interfaces, the at least one network entity associated with the code with the media content.
The objects and advantages of the invention will be understood by reading the detailed description in conjunction with the figures, wherein:
The various features of the invention will now be described with reference to the figures. These various aspects are described hereafter in greater detail in connection with exemplary embodiments and examples to facilitate an understanding of the invention, but should not be construed as limited to these embodiments. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that the disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
The embodiments according to the present invention are described with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, network nodes, and computer program products. It is to be understood that each block of the block diagrams and/or operational illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or operational illustrations, can be implemented by radio frequency, analog and/or digital hardware, and/or computer program instructions. Thus, the various aspects of the invention may be embodied in many different forms, and all such forms are contemplated to be within the scope of the invention. The computer program instructions may be provided to a processor circuit of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, ASIC, and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or operational block or blocks. In some alternate implementations, the functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order noted in the operational illustrations. 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/acts involved. Furthermore, in some illustrations, some blocks may be optional and may or may not be executed; these are generally illustrated with dashed lines.
Referring now to
Referring more specifically to
Referring to
For example, after taking a photo or video on a mobile phone, a user may click “Send” and select a vCard for sending the photo or video. The vCard may be one of the address book objects 20 described above. The photo may then be routed through a telecom operator network, via a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), to the network node 10. The network node 10 then processes the MMS, for instance, and determines which social networking sites the user vCard points to, and performs the broadcast. The photo is then available in each social networking site for which there was an identifier associated to the address book object.
In another example, after writing a text message on a mobile phone, a user clicks “Send”, and selects a vCard. The text message may then be routed through a telecom operator network, via SMS, to the network node 10. The network node 10 then processes the SMS, determines which social networking sites the user vCard points to, and performs the broadcast. The text message is then uploaded as a status update in each social networking site.
By sending a content item using a vCard, the Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Number (MSISDN) of the sender, the code 22, which may be a short code, and content are automatically populated into the message. The user simply has to click “Send”. Upon identification of the user device with its MSISDN, for example, it is the short code which identifies the actions which the network node 10 may take when it receives the content of the message.
Referring now to
Upon successful channel creation, such as explained in the example above, the channel targets i.e. the network entities 36, are preferably stored into the database 30 with the user identifier 32, such as the MSISDN, and the code 22, such as a short code, as keys.
Referring now to
In an exemplary method, the vCard is used to automatically provide the user identifier 32 such as MSISDN and a code 22 such as a short code in the SMS/MMS message. The automatically populated short code, routes the content to network node 10 with no user interaction. When the network node 10 receives an SMS or MMS from the mobile handset, it parses the message. The network node 10 reads the user identifier 32 here the mobile MSISDN, the code 22, here a short code and the body of the message. A lookup is performed in the database 30 to find the channel associated with the MSISDN and the short code. The identifier of the network entities 36 and user credentials 40 are extracted from the database using the channel ID 34, a login is performed to the associated network entities, in this example, the social networking sites and the broadcast to the set of sites is performed.
Referring more specifically to
A user-channel table is kept to map user identifiers 32 and channel ID 34 to the user-specific settings, i.e. the channel name 24, and the identifiers of the at least one network entities 36. After the previous lookup is performed to get the channel ID 34, a lookup is performed in the user table to find the user identifier 32 for the MSISDN. The channel ID 34 and user identifier 32 are then used to get the list of network entities 36 to send the content to.
A supplementary table may contain, for each user identifier 32, the list of all the identifiers of network entities 38 with corresponding credentials 40. Of course, the database model of
In an alternate exemplary embodiment of the method according to the invention, a subset of the network entities to be updated may be specified in a subject or body of the multimedia message. In such a case, the databases 30 and 31 would not necessarily contain the identifiers of the at least one network entity 36 and the associated user credentials may be submitted by the user in another manner such as in the message, using the address book object 20 of
In yet another alternate embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in
Referring now to
The invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments. However, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that it is possible to embody the invention in specific forms other than those of the embodiments described above. The described embodiments are merely illustrative and should not be considered restrictive in any way. The scope of the invention is given by the appended claims, rather than the preceding description, and all variations and equivalents that fall within the range of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.
