Patent Application
20090031300
The invention is in the technological field of imaging. The invention relates to a process to supply a multimedia application on a terminal, using a programming agent. The invention also relates to an imaging system in which the programming agent manages the communication of digital data between terminals and service platforms that can inter-communicate. The invention is preferably implemented in networks that require the use of mobile terminals.
Many programmed applications (software) and online services existing in the prior art, and implemented especially in wireless communication networks, like for example mobile telephony networks, are adopted slowly, even reluctantly, by potential users, because of the differences and disparities of platforms and environments that these networks have. For example, various proprietary systems available and used in mobile telephony, like Brew, Linux, Microsoft, Java, Symbian, etc. can be mentioned. For example, Java MIDP is a software platform, known and commonly used in mobile telephony, but it has certain disadvantages as to access capability, for example to images or other digital data saved in a mobile (portable) terminal.
SMS (Short Message Service) type messages or MMS multimedia type messages (Multimedia Message Service) comprising digital data of images, text and sound are communication media generally used with mobile terminals. Applications to compose MMSs are increasingly widespread. These applications can be used to compose, for example, postcards in an MMS structure, but they are not suitable for creating postcards in satisfactory conditions for the terminal user. One disadvantage is that the interfaces, in particular on mobile terminals, are more or less complex and lack ease-of-use, i.e. they are not easy to use by a non-specialist user. The actions to be carried out to create for example an electronic postcard with a specific application, in an MMS structure, require special characters to be placed, like for example “hash #”, to separate the text from the other elements of the postcard (address, etc.). Such methods, used to define the various elements (text, address, etc.) added in the postcard frame, lead to a high rate of postcard formatting errors. Consequently, the terminal user is dissatisfied, because the method does not reproduce what he/she is entitled to expect, and if the user sends the composed message (e.g. postcard completed with added text) to the other persons having for example mobile terminals, these addressees will also be dissatisfied. Therefore it seems necessary to provide applications to compose for example electronic postcards, which are easier to use, and produce better composition results.
By definition, mobile terminals are limited in memory capacity and display capacity. They are thus less capable of being easily maintained and updated with the latest versions of proposed applications (new software versions). Furthermore, it is not desirable, because of the limited memory capacity, to load a large number of potentially useful applications onto the mobile terminal. In a conventional network environment of communication among mobile terminals or among mobile terminals and service providers' platforms, the communication modes generally used are of SMS, MMS, or WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) type. To transmit SMSs or MMSs, terminals generally communicate with one or more central servers of SMS-Centers or MMS-Centers type. In particular these servers enable the temporary saving of data, transmitted by a first terminal, before sending them to a second addressee terminal. The terminals can be fixed, such a PC (Personal Computer) or mobile, such a cellphone or camera phone. This communication mode, used for SMS (text) and MMS (text, image, and sound) transmissions among terminals, has the disadvantage of latency. According to the traffic, that is the network's congestion, it often takes several seconds, even several dozen seconds, to transmit an SMS between two terminals, and several dozen seconds, even some minutes, to transmit an MMS between two terminals. In the case of WAP data transmission, downloading for example an Internet site onto a terminal or downloading any application (software) has the disadvantage that the connection can be cut during the download and, therefore, all the downloading procedure has to be repeated. The loading times incurred and the service quality are incompatible with the terminal user's expectations, and all the more so with a mobile terminal user's expectations, because the mobile terminal user generally requires communications immediacy.
The mobile terminals environment is thus subject not only to latency problems, but also to the constraints of response immediacy. That is the possibility of sending data by communicating them instantly, that is in real time, is an important need. But the retransmission or the response from the terminal receiving these data must also be capable of being carried out immediately. The immediacy need, involving minimum latency in communications operated among terminals, is all the more necessary as the obtaining of immediate communications of SMS or MMS messages, for example between remote mobile terminals, i.e. far away from one another, can become crucial, if personal safety issues are involved. In this context, the information exchanged among terminals must be done practically immediately. Safety issues relate to the remote monitoring, for example using a portable terminal, of a person's health, or the safety of a very young child, with the latter themselves being provided with or near to a portable terminal. If the person is near to the portable terminal, he/she is for example capable of speaking, but may not be capable of getting hold of the terminal, because of a physical impossibility for example. In this case, a fast and effective information communication method is necessary.
Another disadvantage concerns the communication between one or more mobile terminals, for example a camera phone, and a platform for executing imaging work, like for example a photographic kiosk capable of producing prints. The difficulty is to be able to manage data communications with the kiosk, for the non-expert user of the mobile terminal, who wishes for example to customize a digital image presentation, by enhancing it with other data supplied by the kiosk. The image, captured for example with a camera phone, can be put into a particular format, representing for example a diary, or a postcard of the place where the image was captured. The user's objective is to produce, in a fast and friendly way, an end product comprising the image data and the diary or postcard data. Existing interfaces are often more or less complex according to the capabilities of the terminal or kiosk. Therefore the production of a composed product (images and text, in a chosen frame format) is fairly lengthy and requires several interventions by the terminal user, for example using the terminal's keyboard. Therefore there is a need to improve the existing interfaces, to make them friendlier, by reducing the user's manual interactions to the minimum.
The interfaces problem is emphasized if several terminal users, for example mobile terminal users, wish to produce a common composed product, formed by specific digital data coming from each terminal, in order to edit the common composed product on a platform for executing imagery work, like a photographic kiosk.
An additional drawback is the complexity, for the platform executing the imaging work, of interacting simultaneously with many terminals, except by using priority rules that generate waiting times incompatible with the immediacy expected by the user, positioned for example in front of a photographic kiosk, with his/her mobile terminal, to load his/her data. The wait is accentuated by the use of the kiosk by other users lining up in front of the kiosk.
Thus it is desirable to resolve all the drawbacks described above, and met with by the terminal users, especially mobile ones, used in various network environments, so as to reduce the errors of layout or formatting of composed multimedia messages, and to obtain immediacy as to the communications operated between terminals and between terminals and platforms of the photographic kiosk type.
The purpose of the present invention is to remedy the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. The object of the present invention is to supply a terminal user, for example of a mobile terminal (portable), with a friendly interface enabling the user to easily create multimedia messages free of formatting errors, independently of the network environment in which the terminal is placed during the message layout.
One object of the invention, as regards the prior art, is to share central intelligence, by distributing this intelligence to the terminal, by means of a programming agent that is sent to the terminal. The programming agent is an encoded program linked to a multimedia message. Data making up the multimedia message come from several sources: for example the terminal and a photographic kiosk or an online service that can communicate with the terminal.
The present invention relates more specifically to a process to supply a multimedia application on a terminal, using a programming agent, comprising the following steps:
The digital data medium according to the invention is a multimedia message of MMS type capable of containing image, text, sound, and programming code data. The programming agent can be displayed on the terminal's screen. The programming agent is an encoded program placed in the data medium. When activated, the programming agent executes an application program to automatically format, for example, an electronic postcard. The code data of the programming agent are automatically destroyed when the programming agent is deactivated.
The invention process also enables a request for the execution of imaging work to be sent from the terminal to an execution platform capable of communicating with the terminal.
The invention process also enables a digital data medium containing a programming agent to be sent from a terminal towards at least one other terminal.
It is an object of the invention to provide an imaging system for supplying a multimedia application on a terminal. The imaging system comprises at least one terminal, at least one applications server and at least one platform for executing imaging work capable of inter-communicating, characterized in that each at least one terminal is capable of activating at least one programming agent to operate an application programmed according to the method described above.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a process for automatically communicating digital data between many terminals capable of inter-communicating and with an applications server, characterized in that programming agents specific to an application are sent from the applications server to each terminal so that the programming agents interact when they are activated on each terminal, to produce a composed multimedia message with a combination of digital data coming from each terminal. The method enables request priorities to be determined for imaging work transmitted from each of the terminals to the execution platform.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a communication process between at least two terminals, and based on the sending from a first terminal to at least one second terminal of a multimedia message comprising a programming agent, consisting in automatically starting, using the programming agent, the establishment of a phone link between the first terminal and the at least one second terminal. The programming agent also starts automatically, on the second terminal, the forming of a multimedia message intended to be sent automatically to the first terminal.
Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear on reading the following description, with reference to the various figures.
The following description is a detailed description of the main embodiments of the invention, with reference to the drawings, in which the same numerical references identify the same elements in each of the different figures.
A service for executing imaging work online, for example on the Internet, can use the MMS-agent 31 containing a programming agent 36 comprised of encoded digital data corresponding to a specific application. This specific application relates, for example, to a promotional offer. The MMS-agent 31 is sent by the service provider, for example, to a list of users who have subscribed or belong to this service. The MMS-agent 31 is sent, by the service provider to the users (service to user communication), or by a user subscribed to the service to other users (user to user communication). The users receive the MMS-agent 31 on their respective terminals 10, 18, 19. In the particular case of a promotional offer, the programming agent 36 can automatically display on the screen of the terminal 10, 18, 19 an information message linked to the promotional offer. The message is, for example, a video-clip offering one or advantageously several image prints at a reduced price or free, for a certain period that corresponds with the duration of the promotional offer. The MMS-agent 31 also carries data equivalent to those of a purchasing voucher, with its related discount coupon. The programming agent 36 can display these data (purchasing voucher) on the terminal's screen. The payment method is performed, from the user's terminal 10, 18, 19, through, for example, his/her online account, or according to a known payment procedure, like SMS-Premium, or preferably MMS-Premium. Prints preferably relate to digital images that the user of the terminal 10, 18, 19 has saved, for example, in a photographic album saved in the terminal. The programming agent 36, corresponding to the specific promotional application, has the special feature of being active for a preset time, or of being activated, and thus deactivated, a preset number of times. This preset period is at least equal to the duration of the promotional offer. The duration of the promotional offer is advantageously between one day and two months. And the programming agent 36 is active during the preset period, independently of the number of activations and deactivations of said programming agent during this preset period. In other words, whatever the number of activations-deactivations of the programming agent, the code data of the programming agent are kept for the whole preset period. The code data of the programming agent are advantageously saved in the terminal's memory. Then, the code data of the programming agent (36) are automatically destroyed at the end of the preset period. Whereas, in another embodiment, the code data of the programming agent (36) are automatically destroyed after a preset number of activations of the programming agent.
Indeed, the programming agent 36 enables the user of the terminal 10, 18, 19 to respond several times to a promotional offer, during its whole period. The code data of the programming agent 36 are not destroyed automatically when the application is closed the first time. The code data of the programming agent 36 are destroyed automatically only at the end of the preset period, which is preferably the period of the promotional offer. Or, the code data of the programming agent 36 are destroyed only after a preset number of activations.
The activation of the programming agent from the terminal, produces an interface to select images and to send a request to execute printing work of said images at a reduced price or free. The printing work execution request corresponding to the promotional offer is advantageously made with a photographic kiosk, from the terminal 10, 18, 19, and using a wireless Bluetooth type link.
The user of the terminal 10, 18, 19 can also advantageously send the MMS-agent 31 containing the programming agent 36 to another addressee provided with a portable terminal, to convey a gift to this other addressee. If a first user of a terminal 10, 18, 19 sends the MMS-agent 31 to a second user of another terminal 10, 18, 19, it is the first user (the sender of the MMS-agent) who is debited, by benefiting nevertheless from the advantages linked to any promotional offer.
In the most usual embodiment of the invention, with the application finished, a deactivation destroys the code data of the programming agent. The programming agent is deactivated, either automatically when the data packet is sent to the server 20 by the link 6, or by the user, from the terminal 10. This is another advantage of the invention that avoids blocking the memory space of the terminal 10 with the encoded data of the programming agent's program.
However, in this second embodiment, the programming agent automatically establishes, according to a link 8, a connection to communicate digital data, from the terminal 10 to the kiosk 40, when the terminal 10 is located near the kiosk 40. The link 8 is preferably Bluetooth, IrDA, or WiFi type. The programming agent automatically establishes the communication between the terminal 10 and the kiosk 40, without any manual interaction by the terminal user. The programming agent also performs an automatic display of the user interface on the terminal 10. The interface is compatible with the kiosk 40, so that the user of the terminal 10, independently of the use of the kiosk by another user, can prepare an imaging work order from the terminal 10. An order that he/she could normally only prepare at the kiosk, after having loaded his/her data, for example of an image, from the terminal to the kiosk, and having waited, if necessary, for another user interacting with the kiosk to free the place at the kiosk's order panel. The programming agent, imported onto the terminal 10, has the advantage of sending an order command to the kiosk without waiting for the kiosk to be freed by the other user. Another advantage is that the user of the terminal 10 can for example get into a customer line in front of the kiosk, without going to the end of the line. The order, capable of being placed from the portable terminal, is executed by the kiosk just after the work order of the other user using the kiosk.
A third embodiment of the invention, not represented by a figure, relates to a multi-user context, in a photographic kiosk environment similar to that represented on
In this third embodiment, the programming agents specific to each of the terminals interact and interact with the platform for executing the imaging work 40 in order to determine the priorities of the work execution requests, on the basis of the multimedia message data prepared in common among the terminals. The requests are transmitted, from each of the terminals, to the platform for executing prints 40. The programming agent 36 produces an interface to automatically display, on each terminal, information associated with the execution of requests specific to each terminal; these requests are for example prints of the multimedia message prepared in common. Time information (e.g. hour, minute of the print) can be displayed automatically on each terminal having sent, for example a printing request of the multimedia message, to the kiosk 40. Like in the previous embodiments, the code data of the programming agent are automatically destroyed when the programming agent is deactivated. This deactivation takes place automatically at the end of the application's use, or the deactivation is performed manually, for example using the keyboard 12 of the terminal 10.
An additional advantage of the MMS architecture is that existing payment methods adapted to mobile terminals, for example SMS/MMS Premium type, enable the invoicing of single-use applications, that is the MMS-agents, to be produced easily. According to
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0401550 | Feb 2004 | FR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP04/03601 | 4/5/2004 | WO | 00 | 7/11/2006 |
