1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication device and, more particularly, to an application control system adapted to control, at least partially, an application of the mobile communication device based upon location.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,873 discloses interactive exchanging location information in a form of a short text message between mobile units. U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,783 discloses a geographic relationship method which includes two mobile units for determining their respective locations. CDMA mobile telephones have global positioning system (GPS) receivers. Some CDMA phones exist that utilize the GPS receiver to enable location based services (LBS). In addition to location based services (LBS), mobile phones can have the usual mobile phone functions such as telephone and contacts applications and, in some cases, music, camera or video player, and/or FM radio. People also use their mobile phones actively to store their friends phone numbers, contact details, and their personal content, such as photos, music files and digital content they have purchased.
Existing dedicated GPS receivers do not usually offer the similar telephony and digital content consumption capabilities as mobile phones do. As enabling platform for digital content-focused location based services, mobile phones with GPS receivers are much better than dedicated GPS receivers. Dedicated GPS receivers only exist to show the location of the receiver itself.
It is desired that a network of location determinable enabled mobile phones could, in addition to showing the location of a user's individual mobile phone, communicate over the telecommunications network to share the location of the user's individual mobile phone to others (peer location sharing); and perhaps visa versa. This sharing could enable applications to display the location of other people (peers). There is a desire that the sharing information can be used to direct or control the digital content consumption in the terminal. For example, there is a desire to use non-location based applications, such as a music player, to be controlled based upon peer location sharing, to perform predetermined tasks. For example, the task could comprise signaling the user (or a peer of the user) by music played by a music player of the mobile phone, or such as recording or sending images (pictures or video) to a peer. There is a desire to automatically trigger this type of control based upon peer location sharing.
Location aware music players do not exist. However, some concepts exist that do convey a “state” of a device to a user. For example, a Volvo concept car has a pulsing key that pulses when all is well and alerts user by vibrating when the car has a problem.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a hand-held mobile communications device is provided comprising a location determination system for determining a location of the hand-held mobile communications device; a system for sending location information of the hand-held mobile communications device to a second hand-held mobile communications device and for receiving location information of the second hand-held mobile communications device; and a location application interface system. The location application interface system comprises a memory adapted to store at least one location rule. The location application interface system is adapted to automatically perform at least one predetermined task based, at least partially, upon a location of the hand-held mobile communications device and at least one location rule stored in the memory.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a hand-held mobile communications device is provided comprising a location determination and sharing system for determining location of the hand-held mobile communications device and sharing location information with at least one second communications device; and a location application interface. The location application interface is adapted to perform at least one predetermined task based upon the location information shared with the second hand-held mobile communications device. The predetermined task comprises at least partially controlling a non-location based application of the hand-held mobile communications device.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a mobile telephone location signaling system is provided comprising a first mobile telephone and a second mobile telephone. The first mobile telephone comprises a location determination and sharing system for determining a location of the first mobile telephone and transmitting information regarding the determined location. The second mobile telephone comprises a system for receiving the determined location information from the first mobile telephone. The second mobile telephone comprises a location application interface system adapted to perform at least one predetermined task of a non-location based application based upon the location information shared by the first mobile telephone. The non-location based application comprises a music player of the second mobile telephone.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a hand-held mobile telephone is provided comprising a location determination system for determining a location of the hand-held mobile communications device; a location rules system for comparing location information of the hand-held mobile communications device, determined by the location determination system, to at least one user programmed location rule; and a system for sending a sensory signal to a user of the hand-held mobile telephone when the location information violates the at least one user programmed location rule.
In accordance with one method of the present invention, a method of communicating between hand-held mobile telephones is provided comprising determining a location of a first one of the hand-held mobile telephones; transmitting location information of the determined location from the first hand-held mobile telephone to a second one of the hand-held mobile telephones; and comparing the location information to a location rule in the second hand-held mobile telephone.
The foregoing aspects and other features of the present invention are explained in the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
The communications system 10 comprises a mobile telephone communications system. However, in alternate embodiments, any suitable type of wireless communications system incorporating features of the present invention could be prodded. The communications system 10 generally comprises a base station 12, a hand-held mobile telephone or communication device 14, and a plurality of other hand-held mobile telephones or communication devices 16. The communication devices 14, 16 could comprise any suitable type of wireless communications device including, for example, a laptop computer having a wireless modem, or an Internet enabled wireless game. The mobile telephone 14 can communicate with the other telephones 16 via wireless links 18 through the base station 12. The mobile telephone 14 could also communicate with other telephones by means of a satellite (not shown) connection or by means of a land line communication between the base station 12 and another base station (not shown). The mobile telephone 14 could also communicate directly with one or more of the mobile telephones 16 by a direct wireless link 20.
The mobile telephone 14 generally comprises a display 22, an input keypad 23, an antenna 24, a transceiver 26, and other electronic circuitry 28 including a processor. In alternate embodiments, the mobile telephone 14 could comprise additional or alternative components. In a preferred embodiment, the electronic circuitry 28 includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver 30. The mobile telephone 14 can include one or more applications 32 (see
Referring also to
The location determination system 36 is adapted to identify a location of the telephone 14. The location information determined by the location determination system 36 could be based upon a global system, such as is customary with a GPS system, or could be based upon a relative system, such as a distance between the telephone 14 and at least one of the other telephones 16 (which could be determined based upon a global system), or a relative system based upon boundary points or other boundary information entered into the telephone 14. The location determination function could be based on, for example, Observed Time Difference (OTB) data, Timing Advance (TA) data, Time Of Arrival (TOA) data, or GPS or differential GPS (DGPS) data.
The location determination system 36 is coupled to the location application interface system 34. In one type of alternate embodiment, the transceiver 26 could also be coupled to the location determination system 36 as indicated by connection 40. Referring also to
The location application interface system 34 can have a user interface of its own that the end user uses to create and manage the Location rules in the location rules system 44. It is also possible that the non-location based application 32 has a method to create, activate, deactivate or otherwise manage and configure the location application interface system 34. It is also possible that there exists a separate, third-party application that exists to manage a set of location rules. It is possible that the location rules be grouped into separate groups, where each group would be associated to a specific management application.
Referring now also to
There could be several different applications 46, 46′ that use the same location application interface system 34 and one or more of the same reacting application(s) 32. For example, one or more of the different applications 46 could be Java games that utilize a common Java framework in the terminal 14. The end user can purchase tens of different Java games and, when he gets bored, he deletes them. However, all of the games can utilize the Java framework in the terminal. Some applications 46 could bring their own content files 48. These could be played in the terminal resident reacting application(s) 32.
The reacting application(s) 32 can register with the location application interface system 34 so that the interface system 34 knows what kind of capabilities it has available when a rule is met. When a rule is created, the creating party can be offered a catalog of actions from all registered reacting applications 32. The creating party could be the end user via the user's own location application interface system management User Interface 50, or a third-party application. The rule contains the criteria and the reacting event.
In a preferred embodiment, the location application interface system 34 is always running. Management applications need not be running to check on the rules that they created. If an event occurs, one or more actions can be performed by the location application interface system 34 including, for example, opening a new application, opening the third-party management application that originated the role that was met, or playing a music or video file. This separation of the interface system 34, the managing applications, and the reacting applications 32, enables creation of purpose specific third-party applications for purpose build User Interface and automated event action creation and management.
A location rule stored in the memory 44 can comprise any one or more of a number of different parameters. The parameters can include for example:
If a GPS enabled mobile phone, which also has a music player or other digital content viewing/consumption mechanism, is able to track the location of certain defined other GPS enabled mobile phones, it is an easy step to imagine applications to be developed which show the location of a group of people.
As a further step, since people store digital content in their phones, it is conceivable that the same location information could be used to guide the consumption or use of that content. For example, Phones A and B have shared their location information, so phone A knows the location of phone B and vice versa. Phone A is playing a music file according to a program which the user has specified (for example random play). The User of phone A has defined a location rule to be a trigger based upon User B's location. For example, the trigger can be set to react when User B comes within 3 kilometers of User A's registered home location. The music player in User A's phone can be programmed or set to react to this trigger/event by changing the music file to a predefined music file X. This way, when predefined music file X plays on phone A, User A knows that User B is about to arrive home without actively following the location of User B.
Also, the trigger could be defined to play “all is safe” type music when, for example, Users C and D (family kids) are with User B (mother) trigger location (such as 200 feet for example) when User group (B, C, D) are not at home. If, for example, User C becomes separated from User B and D by more than the trigger distance (such as 200 feet for example), the music could change to “something is wrong” type of music. This would signal the User A; enabling User A to contact user B immediately to see what is wrong and/or activate a map display and look on the screen of phone A to see where phone C of User C is located.
It is also conceivable that this functionality could be combined to the vibration alert feature in the phone (a non-location based application). Gentle pulsing of the phone would mean that all is safe, and alert vibration would mean that something is not within the set “safety parameters”.
Without a peer-location sensitive player, this kind of functionality could be built, but it would require constant monitoring on the monitoring user's part. The present invention allows making a location application interface (location API) into the mobile phone software and enabling applications to create groups of terminals whose location (GPS and cell location in covered areas) is shared within the group.
The users could be able to define rules for digital content consumption applications (such as music player) or other phone features (such as vibration alert) to react in a predetermined way to the information provided by the location API. Location could be GPS enabled in outdoors and/or, GPS and cell location assisted indoors. Shared locations could be communicated via short message system SMS or data connection to participating terminals. The system for sending location information comprises a short message service (SMS) or an enhanced message service (EMS) or a smart messaging system or a date connection system. There could be a “listener application” to listen to incoming SMSs to track location sharing specific SMSs from normal SMSs. When trigger rules require several terminals to be at or near a same location, and when terminals are capable to communicate over short range radio (i.e., Bluetooth) only one terminal needs to connect via SMS to the terminals that are not in perimeter. The telephone 14 could have a system for displaying a location of the second hand-held mobile communications device 16. The system for displaying can be adapted to display the location of the second hand-held mobile communications device 16 relative to the hand-held mobile communications device 14.
Location information could be offered via a “location sharing API”. “Sharing location application” could use existing user created groups to share the location info and define trigger events that would cause a predetermined action to take place. Sharing location application would be able to change music piece/start/end playing, and/or use vibration alert feature to communicate location status in silent mode. The present invention could enable a new breed of services and applications to mobile phones, and could best utilize the communication feature of a GPS enabled mobile phone. For example, school children at a shopping mall could have a location rule set to trigger a music player to automatically play a first song M when a first friend comes within a selected distance, such as 200 feet, and set to trigger the music player to automatically play a second song N when a second friend comes within a selected distance, such as 300 feet for example.
The present invention could also be used with a location based application. For example, when the telephone of user E comes within 1 mile of the telephone of user F, the telephone of user E could send a signal (such as an auditory signal or vibration signal) to User E, and automatically activate the location based application (such as a GPS mapping display for example). As another example, the telephone of User E could automatically send a signal to the telephone of User F.
As another example, the non-location based application could be a camera or video feature of one of the telephones 16 where the user is a child of a parent who is the user of telephone 14. If the telephone 16 is more than 100 feet from telephone 14 after 9:00 pm at night, the telephone 16 could automatically send pictures or video to telephone 14 or, send a message to telephone 14 and pictures or video to a storage location at base station 12 where the user of telephone 14 could subsequently view the pictures or video. This could help the parent know where the child is located.
As another example, a person waiting at a crowded restaurant could have their telephone automatically vibrate when his or her spouse enters or approaches the restaurant so the person can immediately start looking for the spouse without having to continuously look at a screen of the telephone 14 to see the spouse approaching.
As another example, school systems could send signals to registered telephones of school children that, while at the school, the telephones will not work or during certain times (such as during class times) they will not work, but could perhaps be used between class times. This invention could also be adapted such that picture or video taking capabilities are automatically disabled for registered locations such as bathrooms or changing rooms (such registered locations perhaps being automatically uploaded onto the telephone by a service provider, and added to a registered location list by owners of the locations). Thus, features of the present invention can be used to both enable applications as well as disable applications.
The sharing of one's location can be made into an API so that applications may react to the breaching of certain rules. Otherwise the user would need to follow where the other user is all the time. Thus, the present invention provides a passive location monitoring system which can be unseen or unnoticed by the user until a location rule is violated or its parameter (s) are met. This type of system is much better than a mere GPS type of display because the user is able to define rules and define an alert event that can take place if the rule is broken.
It should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the invention. Various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variances which fall within the scope of the appended claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/US04/35957 | 10/29/2004 | WO | 00 | 3/19/2007 |