Patent Application
20090163244
Embodiments relate generally to synchronization of mobile terminals. More specifically, embodiments relate to synchronization of mobile terminals that share a common telephone number.
In a multi-SIM (subscriber identity module) scenario, a mobile-device user may have multiple devices that share a single phone number and/or subscriber identity. A SIM may be part of a removable smart card ICC (Integrated Circuit Card), also referred to as a SIM card, for mobile telephony devices, such as mobile computers and mobile phones. SIM cards may be used for securely storing the service-subscriber key used to identify a subscriber. A SIM card allows users to change mobile devices (e.g., phones) by simply removing the SIM card from one mobile device and inserting it into a different mobile device.
In a multi-SIM service, there may be two (or more) SIM cards with the same phone number such that it is possible to have incoming phone calls and other services, like messages, directed to two devices at the same time. For example, a user, using two phones, but having only one phone number, may be reached via either of the two phones.
Such a scenario may cause problems, though, due to the two mobile devices not communicating with each other. Automatic communication between such mobile devices is typically not possible, as the SIM cards' phone numbers are not mediated to the phones in which the SIM cards are placed. This means that the phone in which the SIM card is placed is not aware of the number of the SIM card. Thus, it is not possible for the device to automatically check whether two SIM cards have the same number. Instead, the input for this information may come from some other source, e.g., the user of the phone.
For example, in the case of an incoming call to a mobile phone, the call is typically alerted in both phones. Once the call is answered in one of the phones, it remains as a missed call in the other phone. This makes it difficult to track which of the calls were really missed, and which ones were answered.
For example, suppose that a first mobile phone is in active use, and the other mobile phone is in silent mode in a user's hand bag. When taking the phone out of the hand bag after three days, the user notices that there are 23 missed calls. In reality, only 2 calls were actually missed (i.e., 21 calls were answered via the first phone). Finding out which calls were really missed requires a lot of manual work by the user. Further, because the phone clocks may be set to different times and one or both of the time settings of the phones may have changed since some or all of the calls have been received and/or missed, it may even be impossible to determine manually which calls were actually missed.
As such, improved techniques for automatically synchronizing data between mobile devices would advance the art.
The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. The summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the invention nor to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description below.
Embodiments are directed to activation and performance of multiple-subscriber-identity-module (“multi-SIM”) automatic synchronization of mobile devices. A user may specify one or more data types for which multi-SIM automatic synchronization should be performed, which may include incoming calls, sent text messages, and the like. Information about an answered incoming call may be sent from a first mobile device to at least one additional mobile device so that the at least one mobile device may update at least one call log and may remove at least one notification for the call accordingly. When multi-SIM automatic synchronization is performed for sent text messages, the first mobile device may send a copy of the sent text message to the at least one additional mobile device so that the received copy may be stored in the sent messages folder of the at least one additional mobile device.
A more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the following description in consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbers indicate like features, and wherein:
In the following description of the various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Certain embodiments are directed to synchronizing call-logs, sent messages, and the like in a multi-SIM (subscriber identity module) scenario where a user has multiple devices that can be accessed by a single phone number. For example, when a call is answered, a missed call notification is not shown in the other phone. Instead, logs are updated in both phones, to indicate that the call was answered.
Computer executable instructions and data used by processor 128 and other components within mobile device 112 may be stored in a computer readable memory 134. The memory may be implemented with any combination of read only memory modules or random access memory modules, optionally including both volatile and nonvolatile memory. Software 140 may be stored within memory 134 and/or storage to provide instructions to processor 128 for enabling mobile device 112 to perform various functions. Alternatively, some or all of mobile device 112 computer executable instructions may be embodied in hardware or firmware (not shown).
Mobile device 112 may be configured to wirelessly exchange messages with other devices via, for example, telecom transceiver 144. The mobile device may also be provided with other types of transceivers, transmitters, and/or receivers, such as Bluetooth, infrared, and the like.
When a user activates multi-SIM automatic synchronization, a Multi-SIM activation query may be displayed, as shown at 304, with text such as: “By activating this service you can keep two phones with the same phone number up-to date. The other phone should support the functionality. WAP unconfirmed push authorization should be set on in both phones. Information will be copied to the other phone as well,” as shown in
In accordance with certain embodiments, when automatic synchronization is activated, one or more items that are displayed in a phone's standby state notifications may be synchronized, including, but not limited to: missed calls, missed POC (Push-to-talk Over Cellular) calls, POC callback requests, new messages, invitations, instant messages, E-mail messages, voice messages, and audio messages.
If the phone is in flight mode or offline mode, an information note with text “Service can not be activated in offline mode” may be displayed.
If a user activates multi-SIM automatic synchronization in response to the multi-SIM activation query shown in
Activating multi-SIM automatic synchronization on a first mobile device may affect one or more other mobile devices. For example, a user may have a first mobile phone, referred to herein as phone A, for use during the work week and a second mobile phone, referred to herein as phone B, for use on weekends. Examples involving two phones are discussed herein, but in certain embodiments, three or more mobile devices may perform multi-SIM automatic synchronization with one another.
A request may be sent from mobile device A to mobile device B to activate multi-SIM automatic synchronization, as shown at 308, which may cause settings of mobile device A to be created in mobile device B. While the settings are being created in mobile device B, mobile device A may display a screen such as the one shown in
Clocks in both mobile devices A and B may be checked. Each mobile device may send to the other mobile device information about each mobile device's time setting, and any differences in the time settings between the devices for particular operations may be calculated based on any time differences between the mobile devices. Thus, if a device clock time difference has been noticed, e.g., 1 min 25 seconds between the two devices, this is taken into consideration when events are compared. If an incoming call from a same number is noticed to have taken place at 11.00.00 in one device, and at 11.01.25 in the other one, and it has been answered on one device, but missed on the other device, the two instances of the call may be considered to be for the same call. Thus, in the device on which the call was missed, the call is marked as an answered call. A small time difference may be accepted because there may be external factors, such as connection creation, that may cause a small delay. Time difference calculation may be performed without alerting the user to any calculated time difference.
When a mobile device's clock time has been changed (by the user or by the system), the time change may be taken into account, and the one or more other mobile devices with which the mobile device has activated multi-SIM automatic synchronization (e.g., phone B) may be notified.
In mobile device B, the user may be asked for confirmation. For example, a message such as “An attempt to activate Multi-SIM usage has been made by another mobile device. To have two mobile devices with the same number up-to-date, WAP unconfirmed push authorization should be set on. Activate the multi-SIM automatic synchronization service?” If the user does not respond affirmatively to activate the multi-SIM automatic synchronization service, then the service may not be activated, as shown by following the “no” branch from 310 to 322, mobile device A may be notified accordingly, as shown in
If mobile device A does not receive a confirmation of multi-SIM automatic synchronization being activated after a time-out, an error message, such as “The other mobile device was not found. Check that WAP unconfirmed push is on” may be displayed. If there continues to be no response from mobile device B, a query may be displayed: “No response from the other mobile device. Try again?” If the user declines the query, a multi-SIM usage settings value may be returned to “Multi-SIM usage off.”
If mobile device B accepts the multi-SIM usage request and settings from mobile device A, then the “yes” branch from 310 is followed to 312, an updating data message, similar to the one shown in
Once both mobile devices have accepted activation of multi-SIM automatic synchronization, Multi-SIM automatic synchronization settings (e.g., data types, WAP unconfirmed push authorization, time difference calculation, and the like) may be made in both mobile devices, as shown at 316. An updating data notification, such as the one shown in
Once multi-SIM automatic synchronization is activated on one or more mobile devices, performance of multi-SIM automatic synchronization may begin.
Periodic monitoring may be performed in each mobile device, which is involved in multi-SIM automatic synchronization, for the occurrence of events for which multi-SIM automatic synchronization is being performed. For example, when mobile device A or mobile device B notices an action that affects multi-SIM automatic synchronization, appropriate information may be sent to the other mobile device.
For example,
The same incoming call that was answered by mobile device A was not answered by mobile device B, and mobile device B's log and notification show the call as a missed call, as shown at 1006 and 1008. In response to receiving the information about the answered call from device A, device B's log is updated accordingly and the notification of the missed call is removed, as shown at 1010. Existing logs application and messaging systems already have API's (Application Programming Interfaces) that can be used to reset the messages like “3 missed calls” and the like.
Time stamps, along with the other information that data being synchronized contains, may be used to find matching synchronization items. Mobile devices typically do not have a stable system time. Time settings may be changed by the user or by the network. In certain embodiments, this situation may be addressed by sending the device's system time during each synchronization session. In this way, the changes of the device's system time will be taken into account when comparing the items' time stamps. Items may be noted as corresponding to the same item if the other data matches, and time stamps would belong to the same time window, calculated based on the system time information. Because the precise time between synchronization sessions when the time setting was changed is unknown, two time windows may be used. One time window may be used in which the time has not changed, and, in the other time window, the time is considered to have changed for the duration of the time window. This solution does not cover all the cases, but would typically be an accurate enough approximation.
If the other mobile device is not in range for communication, synchronisation may be tried according to defined settings, and may be performed when it is possible. For example, communication may be attempted every 5 minutes for the first 30 minutes, every 30 minutes for the next 12 hours, and every 120 minutes after that.
If data type modifications are done in one of the mobile devices, information may be sent to the other one or more mobile devices in a manner similar to that discussed above in connection with Multi-SIM automatic synchronization activation. Similarly, if Multi-SIM automatic synchronization usage is turned off in one of the mobile devices, information may be sent to the other one or more mobile devices in a manner similar to that discussed above in connection with Multi-SIM automatic synchronization activation.
In certain embodiments, multi-SIM synchronization may happen periodically or based on requests. The request may be made manually or automatically after one or more communication events. One implementation may include operator/network driven functionality in which the operator performs the call log update/synchronization by sending signalling messages based on the network.
In another implementation, a transaction log may be created locally. The transaction log may then be periodically sent to the network and/or one or more other mobile devices. The network may send the log to Multi-SIM devices, and the synchronization may be done locally based on this log. The sending method may be a WAP unconfirmed push message, which is not visible to the user. The transaction log may contain information that specifies where to save the arrived messages and which calls have been answered and which have not been answered, and the like.
In yet another implementation, a network operator may connect a data call or other connection between the multi-SIM devices, and the transaction logs may then be synchronized via that connection. The network operator may have a list of the multi-SIM numbers and may send the synchronization logs concerning phone calls and information about answered calls to multi-SIM devices.
For synchronization of text messages, the used terminal may send a synchronization log to the network operator, which then may send the synchronization information to the other terminals/SIM's.
In still another implementation, synchronization may be performed locally over Bluetooth or an analogous local connectivity radio, when the terminals are in relatively close proximity to one another.
A device user may enable or disable such a sent text message synchronization service as desired via a settings menu.
In certain alternate embodiments, a network operator may host a service that sends the WAP unconfirmed push messages. In these embodiments, the copies of sent text messages are not sent from the mobile device. But, the message receiving logic and settings UI aspects discussed in connection with the embodiments of
One or more aspects of the invention may be embodied in computer-executable instructions, such as in one or more program modules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types when executed by a processor in a computer or other device. The computer executable instructions may be stored on a computer readable medium such as a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid state memory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. In addition, the functionality may be embodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such as integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), and the like. The term “processor” and “memory” comprising executable instructions should be interpreted to include the variations described in this paragraph and equivalents thereof.
For example, in certain embodiments, functions, including, but not limited to, the following functions, may be performed by a processor executing computer-executable instructions that are recorded on a computer-readable medium: displaying a query for user input regarding activation of multiple-subscriber-identity-module (“multi-SIM”) automatic synchronization; in response to user input indicating that multi-SIM automatic synchronization should be activated, displaying a query for user input regarding one or more data types for which multi-SIM automatic synchronization should be performed; sending from a first mobile device to at least one additional mobile device a request to activate multi-SIM automatic synchronization on the at least one additional mobile device for the one or more data types for which multi-SIM automatic synchronization should be performed; and upon receiving from the at least one additional mobile device notification of acceptance of the request to activate multi-SIM automatic synchronization on the at least one additional mobile device, activating multi-SIM automatic synchronization on the first mobile device, wherein the one or more data types for which multi-SIM automatic synchronization should be performed includes incoming calls and sending from the first mobile device to the at least one additional mobile device information about an answered incoming call.
Embodiments include any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein either explicitly or any generalization thereof. While embodiments have been described with respect to specific examples including presently preferred modes of carrying out the invention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are numerous variations and permutations of the above described systems and techniques. Thus, the spirit and scope of the invention should be construed broadly as set forth in the appended claims.
