Patent Application
20110086623
The present invention relates to wireless communications. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and system for providing contact information for mobile communication device users.
Mobile communication device use continues to increase worldwide. Many people now use mobile communications exclusively and have discontinued landline service altogether. Some developing countries do not even install landline communication infrastructure in certain areas because mobile communication device infrastructure is less expensive and more scaleable.
One impediment to mobile communication device usage is the difficulty in obtaining contact information for mobile communication devices. Mobile communication services are typically provided by numerous different wireless carriers, each of which maintains contact information for its own customers but not other carriers' customers. Thus, a user wishing to find the phone number for a mobile communication device user must first know the user's carrier.
Even when a user's carrier is known, it may refuse to provide phone numbers for its subscribers to prevent sales calls and other unwanted calls and texts. Because many mobile communication device subscribers have pre-set limits on voice calls and text messages and pay per-minute or per-message charges when these limits are exceeded, unwanted phone calls and texts are a bigger issue for mobile communications than landline communications.
Many mobile directory services and systems have been developed and/or proposed to provide contact information for mobile communication device users, but none have been widely adopted due to various limitations. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method and system for providing contact information for mobile communication device users that overcomes the limitations of the prior art.
The present invention solves the above-described problems and provides a distinct advance in the art of wireless communications. More particularly, the present invention provides a method and system for providing cross-carrier contact information for mobile communication device users while allowing the users to control how and by whom they are contacted.
An embodiment of the invention achieves the foregoing by providing a central registry of user profiles established and maintained by mobile communication device users. Each user profile may include, among other information, a mobile communication device user's name and mobile communication device number and permission information that enables the user to select how and by whom they are contacted. Importantly, the user profile owners themselves control the content and appearance of their user profiles and decide how they wish to be contacted, if at all.
An embodiment of the invention also includes a client software application that may be loaded on the mobile communication device of each user who wishes to access the registry of user profiles. The client software application includes a look-up function that permits a user to enter a name and/or other identifying information for a person the user wishes to call and to transmit a corresponding look-up request to the registry. Importantly, the look-up request is transmitted from the requesting mobile communication device to the registry over a data channel independent of a subsequent voice channel established between the requesting mobile communication device and the called mobile communication device. Alternatively, mobile communication devices or other electronic devices without the client software application may launch a browser and access the registry via a WAP site to search for user profiles.
Once the registry receives a look-up request, it searches the user profiles, locates a user profile that matches the look-up request, and provides the user profile to the requesting mobile communication device. The client software application on the requesting mobile communication device then displays the user profile owner's name and other information but does not display the user profile owner's phone number. The requesting party may then click on links in the user profile to contact the user profile owner via any of the user profile owner's allowed communication methods (e.g. mobile communication device call, text, e-mail). The user profile may also require the requestor to seek permission before contacting the user profile owner directly.
As the requesting mobile communication device (also referred to as the “calling mobile communication device”) calls the mobile communication device associated with the user profile (also referred to as the “called mobile communication device”), the called mobile communication device queries the registry for the user profile of the calling mobile communication device and displays the user profile. This enables the called party to view the user profile of the calling party as the phone call is being established between the parties. As with the look-up request transmitted to the registry from the calling mobile communication device, the query from the called mobile communication device to the registry is sent over a data channel.
Users may also store links to one or more user profiles in a personal directory on their mobile communication devices. A personal directory includes the name or other identifier for a user profile that links to a full user profile stored on the registry. This permits users to more quickly locate user profiles for frequently contact persons.
The present invention provides numerous advantages over existing prior art mobile directory services and systems. For example, by providing a central registry of user profiles, users can quickly and easily obtain contact information for anyone, regardless of their wireless carrier. Moreover, because the user profiles in the registry can be searched by name, callers can contact others without knowing their mobile communication device numbers and users can be called without disclosing their phone numbers.
Moreover, the features of the present invention may be implemented with the assistance of one or more mobile carriers or may be implemented without direct carrier involvement.
The invention also eliminates the need for users to create, maintain, and update their own contact lists because updated user profiles can be obtained from the registry. For example, if a user changes a phone number or other information in his or her user profile, everyone who uses the registry to contact that person will automatically have access to the updated user profile without updating their own personal contact lists. The invention also allows users to manage the contents and appearance of their user profiles and control how and by whom they are contacted.
The invention also provides mobile communication device users other valuable information such as in-network call indicators and “calling reason” indicators as described in more detail below.
Importantly, the registry of user profiles and all other features of the present invention are fully compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar pending proposals for minors (children are under 13 years of age, minors are between 13-18). All child and minor profile information is protected starting with the initial requests for information from the child/minor, through the gathering of the information, and to the storing and access of the information. For example, a child is only allowed to have a private view as defined below, whereas a minor may have a public view and a private view. For a child profile, one or more responsible adults must be designated, and the responsible adult(s) must approve the child's profile before it is posted, all views of the profile, which directories the child opts into, and any changes to the profile. Similar protections are provided for minor profiles, except with a minor profile, the responsible adult(s) may approve the initial profile and then may elect to either approve all profile changes and directory access or just be notified of the same.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described in the detailed description below. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments and the accompanying drawing figures.
Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:
a is a flow chart depicting certain steps in one or more methods of the present invention and/or the functionality of certain code segments of one or more computer programs of the present invention.
b is a continuation of the flow chart of
a is another flow chart depicting certain steps in one or more methods of the present invention and/or the functionality of certain code segments of one or more computer programs of the present invention.
b is a continuation of the flow chart of
a is another flow chart depicting certain steps in one or more methods of the present invention and/or the functionality of certain code segments of one or more computer programs of the present invention.
b is a continuation of the flow chart of
a is another exemplary screen shot that may be displayed by a mobile communication device or other electronic device while implementing one of the methods of the present invention and/or the computer programs of the present invention.
a is another exemplary screen shot that may be displayed by a mobile communication device or other electronic device while implementing one of the methods of the present invention and/or the computer programs of the present invention.
The drawing figures do not limit the present invention to the specific embodiments disclosed and described herein. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the invention.
The following detailed description of embodiments of the invention references the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are intended to describe aspects of the invention in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments can be utilized and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the claims. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
In this description, references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” mean that the feature or features being referred to are included in at least one embodiment of the technology. Separate references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and are also not mutually exclusive unless so stated and/or except as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the description. For example, a feature, structure, act, etc. described in one embodiment may also be included in other embodiments, but is not necessarily included. Thus, the present technology can include a variety of combinations and/or integrations of the embodiments described herein.
Embodiments of the present invention can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof In one embodiment, the invention is implemented with computer and communications equipment broadly referred to by the numeral 10 in
In more detail, the central registry 12 serves as a repository for user profiles and programs used to implement certain aspects of the present invention as described in more detail below. The central registry 12 may include one or more servers running Windows; LAMP (Linux, Apache HTTP server, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python); Java; AJAX; NT; Novel Netware; Unix; or any other software system and includes or has access to computer memory and other hardware and software for receiving, storing, accessing, and transmitting user profiles and related requests as described below. The central registry also includes conventional web hosting operating software, searching algorithms, an Internet connection, and is assigned a URL and corresponding domain name such as “mobilesymmetry.com” so that a website hosted thereon can be accessed via the Internet in a conventional manner.
The application servers 14 are provided to distribute the data stored on the central registry 12, if necessary, so that the central registry is not over-burdened with user profile requests and other functions. Thus, the number of application servers 14 required depends on the number of user profiles stored in the central registry 12 and the number of look-up requests and other requests received by the central registry 12. In some embodiments, many application servers 14 may be needed, and in other embodiments, only one or even no application servers 14 may be needed. As with the central registry 12, each application server 14 may include one or more servers running Windows NT, Novel Netware, Unix, or any other network operating system and includes or has access to computer memory and other hardware and software for receiving, storing, accessing, and transmitting user profiles and related requests as described below. Each application server 14 may also include conventional web hosting operating software, searching algorithms, an Internet connection, and a URL and corresponding domain name so that a website hosted thereon can be accessed via the Internet in a conventional manner. The application servers may also host and support software and services of proprietary mobile application providers such as Google, Apple, and Blackberry.
The mobile communication devices 16 may be any type of devices that can make and receive wireless communications such as phone calls, SMS texts, MMS messages, SMTP messages, etc. via the wireless telecommunication network 20. The mobile communication device 16 may include, for example, wireless phones, phone-enabled personal digital assistants, phone-enabled MP3 devices, phone-enabled handheld game players, or any other wireless communication device. In current embodiments of the invention, the mobile communication devices are “smart” phones such as those manufactured by Apple®, Blackberry® , or Motorola®. Each mobile communication device 16 preferably includes or can access an Internet browser and a conventional Internet connection such as a wireless broadband connection, a modem, DSL converter, or ISDN converter so that it can access the central registry 12 via the communications network 22.
Any number of mobile communication devices 16 may use the directory services of the present invention. For simplicity only three mobile communication devices are shown in
The computing devices 18 may be any devices that can access the central registry 12 via the communications network 22. For example, the computing devices may be laptop, desktop or other personal computers such as those manufactured by Macintosh®, Dell®, or Toshiba®. As with the mobile communication devices 16, each computing device 18 includes or can access an Internet browser and a conventional Internet connection such as a wireless broadband connection, a modem, DSL converter, or ISDN converter so that it can access the central registry via the communications network.
The wireless telecommunication network 20 may be any communication network capable of supporting wireless communications between the mobile communication devices 16 such as the wireless networks operated by AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint. The wireless telecommunication network 20 includes conventional switching and routing equipment, but for simplicity, only a mobile switching center (MSC) 24 and signal transfer point (STP) 26 serving a terminating or called mobile communication device are illustrated in
The wireless telecommunication network 20 establishes voice channels 28, 30 between the mobile communications devices 16a, 16b and the MSC 24 and data channels 32, 34 between the mobile communication devices 16a, 16b and the registry 12.
The communications network 22 is preferably the Internet but may be any other communications network such as a local area network, a wide area network, a wireless network, or an intranet. The communications network 22 may also be a combination of several networks.
The computer programs of the present invention are stored in or on computer-readable medium residing on or accessible by the registry 12, and the mobile communication devices 16. One embodiment of the invention includes one or more computer programs that implement functions and features of the invention on the registry 12 and a client software application that may be loaded on some or all of the mobile communication devices 16 for implementing functions and features of the invention on the mobile communication devices.
The computer programs preferably comprise ordered user profiles of executable instructions for implementing logical functions in their respective devices. The computer programs can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, and execute the instructions. In the context of this application, a “computer-readable medium” can be any means 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-readable medium can be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electro-magnetic, infrared, or semi-conductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific, although not inclusive, examples of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable, programmable, read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and a portable compact disk read-only memory (CDROM).
The above-described computer and communications equipment 10 and computer programs may be used to provide cross-carrier directory service features for mobile communication device users as described in detail below. In general, the registry 12 stores a plurality of user profiles, wherein each user profile is established and maintained by one of the users of the mobile communication devices 16 or computing devices 18. Each user profile includes, among other information, a user's name and phone number and permission information that enables the user to select how and by whom they are contacted.
A user wishing to obtain contact information for another user may enter a name and/or other identifying information into the client software application on his or her mobile communication device 16a and transmit a look-up request to the registry 12 or the application server 14. Importantly, the look-up request is transmitted from the mobile communication device 16 to the registry 12 over the data channel 32, not the voice channels 28, 30 between the mobile communication device 16a and the mobile communication device 16b.
Once the registry 12 receives the look-up request, it locates a user profile that matches the look-up request and provides the user profile to the requestor. The client software application on the requestor's mobile communication device displays the user profile owner's name and other identifying information but does not display the mobile communication device number. The requestor may initiate a call to the user profile owner by clicking on one of the allowed contact methods in the user profile or may be required to seek permission first as described in more detail below. Once the requestor (calling party) calls the user profile owner, the user profile owner's mobile communication device may query the registry for the calling party's user profile over the data channel 34. The registry then retrieves the user profile and provides it to the called mobile communication device for display thereon. When a client software application is not provided, the above steps may instead be performed via a personal computer and/or a WAP application.
Although embodiments of the invention described and illustrated herein primarily refer to directory services for mobile communication device calls, any wireless communications may be supported by the present invention including SMS text messages, multi-media message service (MMS) messages, SMTP messages, Skype, and e-mail.
The flow charts of
Use of the invention generally begins in one of several ways: (1) when a user of a mobile communication device registers for the directory service features of the present invention while subscribing to, renewing, or upgrading a wireless calling plan with a wireless carrier as generally depicted in
Referring initially to
A representative of the wireless carrier may then describe the directory service features of the present invention and ask the user if he or she wants to register for these services as depicted in step 204. Information about the directory services may also be conveyed to the user in any other conventional way such as with a website, informational pamphlet, etc. If the user does not want to register to use the directory services, the method ends at step 206.
If, however, the user elects to register for the directory services, the carrier sends information about the user to the registry 12 as depicted in step 208. The information may be the same information that was gathered for the mobile calling plan or some subset thereof. In one embodiment, the carrier only sends the user's name and e-mail address to the registry 12.
The registry 12 receives the information and determines whether the user has already signed up for the directory services in step 210. This may happen, for example, when a user has already registered for the directory services on a previous mobile communication device but then purchases a new mobile communication device and/or subscribes to a new wireless calling plan.
If the user has already registered for the directory services, the registry 12 only stores updated information for the user in step 212. The registry then sends the user an e-mail, text, or other communication in step 214 that welcomes the user and provides instructions for provisioning the user's mobile communication device.
If the user is a new user, the registry 12 stores the user's information in step 216, assigns the user a temporary password in step 218, and then sends the user an e-mail, text, or other communication in step 220 that welcomes the user and provides instructions for provisioning the user's mobile communication device.
Referring now to
The screen shot of
The user may then begin creating his or her user profile as depicted in step 228. In some embodiments, the user's user profile is pre-populated with basic customer information gathered by the wireless carrier or a third party group so the user only has to supplement and/or edit the information. In one embodiment, each user's user profile may include three customizable profile views: public, private, and business. The public view contains information that anyone with a profile in the registry may access. The private view contains information that can only be accessed by users who have obtained the user profile owner's permission. The business view may be private as well and requires the same permission approval as the private view. User profile owners must allow other users to “opt in” to the private and business views as described in more detail below; only the public view is available to all profile users.
Importantly, the registry of user profiles and all other features of the present invention are fully compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar pending proposals for minors (children are under 13 years of age, minors are between 13-18). All child and minor profile information is protected starting with the initial requests for information from the child/minor, through the gathering of the information, and to the storing and access of the information. For example, a child is only allowed to have a private view, whereas a minor may have a public view and a private view. For a child profile, one or more responsible adults must be designated, and the responsible adult(s) must approve the child's profile before it is posted, all views of the profile, which directories the child opts into, and any changes to the profile. Similar protections are provided for minor profiles, except with a minor profile, the responsible adult(s) may approve the initial profile and then may elect to either approve all profile changes and directory access or just be notified of the same.
The screen shots of
After the user has completed inputting their profile information shown in
The more information a user adds to his or her user profile, the more likely other are to locate the user's user profile in the registry. For example, if the user has a common name and only lists his or her name and basic contact information in the user profile, others searching for the user may receive numerous “hits” when searching for the user, whereas if the user lists his or her occupation, place of work, schools attended, etc., searchers will likely find the user quickly. The present invention therefore incorporates a user profile-grading feature that assesses the strength, or findability, of a user profile, and then encourages a user to add more information to his or her user profile to strengthen it. For example,
a shows a weak user profile, a moderate user profile and has approved it, and a strong user profile for the same user to illustrate the advantages of a stronger user profile. The user profile-grading feature may assess the strength of a user profile by merely gauging how complete the user profile is. For example, user profiles with less than 50% of the available fields populated may be ranked as “weak,” user profiles with 50%-70% of the available fields populated may be ranked as “moderate,” and user profiles with 70+% of available fields populated may be ranked as “strong.” Alternatively, the user profile grading feature may use more sophisticated algorithms for assessing the strength of user profiles.
Once the user has finished creating or updating his or her user profile, the registry publishes the user profile in step 230 so that it may be accessed by others wishing to contact the user as explained in more detail below. The registry also sends a message to the wireless carrier serving the user's mobile communication device so that a trigger may be set in the MSC serving the mobile communication device so it knows the mobile communication device has registered with the registry. No message is sent if the invention is implemented without carrier involvement.
In addition to receiving information for the user profiles directly from the users as described above, the registry 12 may be pre-populated with basic contact information received from wireless carriers 38, the Number Portability Administration Center (NPAC) 36, Telecordia's LERG Routing Guide, and/or other sources as shown in
Turning now to
The user then opens the client software application and is prompted to enter a user ID and password in step 306. The user may then create or update his or her user profile in step 308. The profile is created via the website and may be edited via the website or the mobile client application. As mentioned above, the user profile may be pre-populated with basic information gathered in step 304 so that the user only has to supplement and/or edit the default information. The creation and/or editing of the user profile then follows the same steps explained in detail above with respect to
Once the user has finished creating or updating his or her user profile and has approved it, the registry 12 publishes the user profile in step 310 so that it may be accessed by others wishing to contact the user as explained in more detail below. The registry also sends a message to the wireless carrier serving the user's mobile communication device so that the MSC serving the mobile communication device knows the mobile communication device is registered with the registry. No message is sent if the invention is implemented without carrier involvement.
The user may also be invited to join the registry via an indirect channel such as by a group of which the user is a member. In this case, an administrator of the group may send contact information for the user to the registry. The user then receives an e-mail message that invites him or her to join the registry. The user then completes the steps 302-310 described above.
Once the registry 12 has been populated with numerous user profiles as described above, users may begin to search the user profiles to contact other users.
The screen shot of
The registry 12 searches the user profiles in response to the look-up request in step 406 and attempts to find a user profile that matches the look-up request. The registry may use conventional searching algorithms and methods for this step.
Step 408 then determines if at least one matching user profile was found in the registry. If not, the method proceeds to step 410 where the user is notified that no user profiles match the information in his or her look-up request and the method ends at step 412. However, if at least one matching user profile was found in step 408, the method proceeds to step 414 to determine if more than one match was found. If only one matching user profile was found, the method proceeds to step 416, but if multiple user profiles were found, the method proceeds to step 418.
The registry may also determine that the requestor and the user profile owner have the same wireless carrier. If so, the registry indicates on the user profile that any wireless calls to the user profile owner are “in-network.” When called, the user profile owner receives a similar “in-network” notification.
Referring now to
If the user does not want to contact the owner of the user profile yet, the user may instead elect to add the user profile to a personal directory in steps 424 and 426. The client software application on each user's mobile communication device allows the user to create and maintain a personal directory for frequent contacts. Unlike conventional contact lists, however, the personal directory only stores the names of the contacts on the mobile communication device and not phone numbers, addresses, etc. Instead, the names in the personal directory are linked to the user profiles stored in the registry so that the contact information is maintained by the owners of the user profiles. This ensures that the information accessible by a personal directory is always up-to-date and presented in a way desired by the user profile owner. For example, if an owner of a user profile changes his or her phone number or other contact information, this information will automatically be accessible by every other user who has the user profile owner's name in their personal directory even though the other users may be unaware of the user profile owner's new phone number. A separate contact list (both individual and group) is maintained within the registry. The personal directory is stored exclusively in the registry when no client software application is used.
Once a user has added a user profile to his or her personal directory, he or she may directly access the user profile by clicking on the name. This triggers the client software application to establish a communication with the registry 12 over the data channel 32 and triggers the registry to provide the user profile to the user without requiring any of the search functions mentioned above. However, a user is not required to add profiles to a personal directory in order to “click-to-connect.”
Before or after the invitation is sent, the client software application on the requestor's mobile communication device 16a may add the name from the user profile to the requestor's personal directory and mark it as “pending” in step 504, the purpose of which is described below. The same process is followed for the web and WAP application.
The registry 12 then sends an invitation to the message center of the user profile owner via one of the communication methods specified by the user profile owner as depicted in step 506. The user profile owner retrieves the invitation request from the message center in step 508 and either accepts it or rejects it in step 510. If the user profile owner accepts the invitation, the registry 12 modifies the user profile to indicate that the requesting party may contact the user profile owner in the future without requesting permission again. A message is also sent to the requesting party's mobile communication device 16a to update the requestor's personal directory and change the user profile from “pending” to “approved.” As described above, this allows the requestor to access the user profile directly by clicking on the associated name in the personal directory without performing the search functions depicted in
a and 6b depict exemplary steps when a user has found a user profile (and been given permission if required) and is ready to contact the owner of the user profile. As mentioned above, contact may be via a mobile communication device call, a text message, an e-mail message, or any other communication delivered over a wireless communication network. For the following example, the contact is assumed to be a mobile communication device call between a calling party (the user who searched for the user profile) and a called party (the owner of the user profile).
The calling party initiates the call in step 602 by clicking on the buttons or links to any of the called party's permitted contact methods in the user profile. The client software application on the calling party's mobile communication device 16a then initiates a mobile communication device call in a conventional manner. The phone call is delivered to the mobile switching center (MSC) that serves the called mobile communication device 16b as depicted in step 604. The MSC then determines in step 606 if a calling name trigger has been set for the called mobile communication device 16b. If the answer is “no,” the method proceeds to steps 608 and 610 where the call is connected to the called party using normal call processing.
However, if a calling name trigger is set in the MSC for the called mobile communication device 16b, the MSC queries the registry to determine if the telephone number or ANI of the calling party is in the registry in steps 612 and 614. If it is not, the method returns to steps 608 and 610 to deliver the call without any calling name information. If the ANI of the calling mobile communication device 16a is in the registry, the registry returns calling name information to the MSC 24 in step 616 and the MSC 24 connects the call to the called mobile communication device 16b using conventional calling name processing in step 618.
The method then determines if a client software application is stored on the called mobile communication device 16b in step 620. If not, the MSC completes the call to the called mobile communication device 16b using normal call processing as depicted in step 622. If, however, a client software application is installed on the called mobile communication device, the client software application is automatically activated upon receipt of the phone call and determines whether the telephone number of the calling mobile communication device 16a is in the called party's resident contact list as depicted in step 624. If it is not, the client software application opens a data channel 34 between the called mobile communication device and the registry 12 in step 626 and queries the registry for the user profile that matches the calling phone number. Even if the telephone number is in the called mobile communication device's 16b resident contact list, the client software application may be configured to query the registry 12 to obtain the full user profile for the calling mobile communication device 16a as depicted in steps 628 and 626.
If the registry 12 does not have a user profile for the user of the calling mobile communication device 16a as determined in step 630, the call is completed without displaying the user profile as depicted in step 632. The registry may then automatically send a message to the owner of the calling mobile communication device 16a to prompt the owner to add a user profile to the registry as depicted in step 634.
If a user profile for the calling mobile communication device 16a is found in the registry 12, the registry 12 returns at least a portion of the user profile to the called mobile communication device 16b as depicted in step 636 and the called mobile communication device displays it in step 638. Importantly, this allows the user of the calling mobile communication device 16a to determine what information gets displayed on the called mobile communication device 16b and how it is presented. For example, if the user of the calling mobile communication device 16a adds a photo to his or her user profile, this photo will be displayed on the called mobile communication device 16b when it receives a call from the calling mobile communication device 16b. With prior art resident contact lists, the owner of each mobile communication device must create contact information and store it in a resident contact list, and only this information is displayed during a phone call.
The registry 12 may also provide an In-Network indicator and Calling Reason indicator to the called mobile communication device if the user profiles for the calling and called mobile communication devices indicate that both are served by the same wireless carrier. This tells the owners of the mobile communication devices that the mobile call is an in-network call.
While the above steps are being performed, the MSC also opens a voice channel between the calling and called mobile communication devices in a conventional manner as depicted in step 640.
The screen shots of
When a user clicks on the Text/SMS contact method, a message box is displayed for the text as shown in
Although the invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment illustrated in the attached drawing figures, it is noted that equivalents may be employed and substitutions made herein without departing from the scope of the invention as recited in the claims. For example, although a client software application as described above is preferably loaded on every mobile communication device that uses the registry, this is not required as mobile communication devices and other computing devices without the software application may still access the registry with a web browser to search for a user profile. Similarly, the software application is not required to create and post a user profile on the registry. However, the software application is currently necessary to obtain and display a user profile for an incoming call.
Having thus described the preferred embodiment of the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent includes the following:
The present application claims the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/250,351 entitled “CALLING NAME DIRECTORY SERVICE AND METHOD FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES,” filed Oct. 9, 2009; U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/312,992 entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CREATING AND SHARING PERSONAL INFORMATION VIA USER-CREATED PROFILES FOR CELL PHONE DIRECTORIES,” filed Mar. 11, 2010; U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/312,996 entitled “MOBILE AND ONLINE MICRO DIRECTORY FOR CELL PHONES AND OTHER MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES,” filed Mar. 11, 2010; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/312,998 entitled “CALLING NAME DIRECTORY SERVICE AND METHOD FOR MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES WITH PREDICTIVE PATTERN ANALYSIS,” filed Mar. 11, 2010, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61250351 | Oct 2009 | US | |
| 61312992 | Mar 2010 | US | |
| 61312996 | Mar 2010 | US | |
| 61312998 | Mar 2010 | US |
