Patent Application
20150327029
The present disclosure relates to the field of data processing, in particular, to apparatuses, methods and storage media associated with messaging between devices.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Messaging and other modern, asynchronous communication techniques, are increasingly popular as mobile devices become more and more common. In particular, businesses and other non-personal entities find themselves communicating using Twitter and other modern communication paradigms.
However, one paradigm that is sometimes difficult for businesses is text messaging (which may include, in various examples, transmission of text, images, audio and/or video through various communication protocols). While businesses may wish to encourage short-form communication through text messaging, text messaging often requires a sender to know a specific communication address, such as a phone number or IP address in order to send the text message. However, this may discourage messaging to businesses, because individuals may not know such a communication address for a business, and may be disinclined to look it up.
Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the Figures of the accompanying drawings.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof wherein like numerals designate like parts throughout, and in which is shown by way of illustration embodiments that may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of embodiments is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
Various operations may be described as multiple discrete actions or operations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the claimed subject matter. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations may not be performed in the order of presentation. Operations described may be performed in a different order than the described embodiment. Various additional operations may be performed and/or described operations may be omitted in additional embodiments.
For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A and/or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase “A, B, and/or C” means (A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).
The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,” or “in embodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous. The description also uses the term “programmable instructions,” and “business or device instructions.” “Programmable instructions” refer to processor executable assembler or machine instructions, or high level programming instructions that can be compiled or interpreted into executable assembler or machine instructions. Whereas “business or device instructions” refer to high level commands of a business or device language with semantic meanings to the business or device.
As used herein, the term “logic” and “module” may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality.
In various embodiments, methods, systems, apparatuses, devices, and computer-readable media directed to mnemonic-based text messaging are described. It should be noted that, in various embodiments, text messaging may include various forms of asynchronous communication, including sending of text, images, audio, video, or combinations thereof. For the sake of simpler description, however, the term “text messaging” will be used herein and will be understood to include one or more of these communication techniques. In various embodiments, a text messaging application (“TMA”) may be configured to operate on a source client device to facilitate entry of a text message to a business or a device. The text message may include one or more business or device instructions that may be recognized by the business or the device. Based on the business or device instructions received in the text message, the business or device may perform one or more actions. In various embodiments, the text message may be sent via various text messaging protocols configured to facilitate transmission of text messages (including sending of text, images, audio, video, or combinations thereof, as described above). In various embodiments, the text messaging protocol may include short message service (“SMS”), multimedia messaging service (“MMS”), and/or IP-based messaging protocols, such as, for example, protocols used in the iMessage® service.
In various embodiments, the TMA may be configured to facilitate entry of a text message that includes a mnemonic for the business or device that is registered with a business/device mnemonic service (“BMS”). In various embodiments, the TMA may be configured to resolve the mnemonic with the BMS and to send the text message to a destination client device (such as the registered device or a device associated with the registered business).
In other embodiments, the text message may include abbreviated vocabulary. This abbreviated vocabulary may be known to a vocabulary service (“VS”), which may be configured to translate the abbreviated vocabulary into translated text to be included in the text message when it is presented to the destination client device. In various embodiments, the abbreviate vocabulary may include one or more business or device instructions which may be performed by the business or device receiving the text message. Other embodiments and implementation details are described below.
Referring now to
In various embodiments, the SCD 110 and DCD 190 may include respective text messaging applications 115 and 195 (“TMAs 115 and 195”), which may be configured to send and receive text messages, respectively. In various embodiments, the TMAs 115 and 195 may be configured to receive messages generated by users, such as by accepting text, audio, images, video, etc. entered or otherwise received on the SCD 110 or DCD 190. In various embodiments, one or more of the TMAs 115 and 195 may include an interface configured to operate between a user of the SCD 110 and/or DCD 190 and traditional text messaging applications (not illustrated). In various such embodiments, the one or more TMAs 115 and 195 may be to provide one or more of the mnemonic-based text messaging techniques described herein (and/or the abbreviated vocabulary techniques described herein) on top of the facilities provided by the traditional text messaging applications. Thus, in such embodiments, the use of mnemonics to sends text messages to businesses or devices may be utilized without requiring a change in an underlying text message protocol used by the SCD 110 and/or the DCD 190. In other embodiments, one or more of the TMAs 115 and 195 may be configured to perform actual sending and/or receiving of text messages in addition to mnemonic techniques described herein.
In various embodiments, the TMA 115 of the SCD 110 may be configured to resolve a mnemonic for delivery of a message sent from the SCD 110. In various embodiments, the mnemonic may be resolved, such as by the TMA 115 or by a separate service (such as a business/device mnemonic service 130, or “BMS 130,” described below), to a communication address for the DCD 190 in order to facilitate transmission of messages to the DCD 190 without requiring specific knowledge of the communication address by a user. In various embodiments, by including a mnemonic, users may be facilitated in sending messages to a business, a device, and/or another entity that is associated with the DCD 190 more easily than if the users had to know the communication address of the DCD 190.
In various embodiments, mnemonics may include various alphanumeric names that may be used to identify a business, device, or other entity associated with the DCD 190. For example, a mnemonic may include a device name (e.g., “&billshybrid”, “&homewaterheater”), a business name (e.g., “&frankslaundry”, “&hotdogwarehouse”), a personal name (e.g., “&frankrichards”), a description of an industry or service (e.g., “&portlandlaundry”), a motto or tagline for a business (e.g., “&cleanandsupreme”), etc., or an abbreviation thereof. In various embodiments, the TMA 115 may be configured to recognize a mnemonic based on application of a specific identifying character that may be appended to the mnemonic, such as the “&” character used in the examples above. In some embodiments a hashtag or other tag (e.g., “#mnemonic”) may be included in a message to indicate that a mnemonic is present.
In various embodiments, the TMAs 115 and/or 195 may be configured to interact with one or more remotely-disposed services to facilitate techniques described herein. For example, the TMA 115 may be configured to send a resolution request to a business/device mnemonic service 130 (“BMS 130”). In various embodiments, the BMS 130 may be configured to resolve the mnemonic received in the resolution request to a communication address. In various embodiments, the BMS 130 may be configured to perform the resolution by looking up the mnemonic in a mnemonic storage that is included in the BMS 130 (or otherwise communicatively available to the BMS 130). In various embodiments, the BMS 130 may reply to the resolution request with the communication address.
In other embodiments, the TMA 115 may be configured to resolve the mnemonic without making a request of the BMS 130. For example, the TMA 115 may include a mnemonic cache 118 that may be configured to store associations between mnemonics and communication addresses. In various embodiments, one or more associations in the mnemonic cache 118 may be created by the TMA 115 after receipt of a communication address from the BMS 130 in response to a resolution request.
In various embodiments, the TMA 115 may also be configured to interact with a vocabulary service 140 (“VS 140”) to translate abbreviated vocabulary in a message before the message is presented to a user of the DCD 190. In various embodiments, the abbreviated vocabulary may include various combinations of alphanumeric and/or punctuation characters that may be associated with a word or phrase that is associated with the business or other entity associated with the DCD 190. In various embodiments, a special character, such as, for example, a “̂” character, may be appended to the abbreviated vocabulary in order to highlight the abbreviated vocabulary for translation. In other embodiments, a different character, or no character at all, may be used.
In various embodiments, abbreviations may be associated with particular businesses or generally with industries or services. For example, an instance of abbreviated vocabulary for a laundry industry might be “̂dct”, which may translate to “dry cleaning available tomorrow?” while a business-specific instance of abbreviated vocabulary may be “̂iff”, which may translate to “instructions for Frank.” In various embodiments, the business may publish the abbreviated vocabulary so that users may be able to use it when generating messages. In various embodiments, the DCD 190 may be associated with a particular service type, industry, and/or locale in order to provide for the use of abbreviated vocabulary that is not specifically associated with the DCD 190 itself (such as in the example of “̂dct” above).
In various embodiments, in addition to communication with the BMS 130, the TMA 115 may be configured to send a translation request to the VS 140, which may be a remotely-disposed service configured to provide translated text for abbreviated vocabulary. Thus, the TMA 115 may send a translation request to the VS 140, which may include various instances of abbreviated vocabulary. In various embodiments, the VS 140 may be configured to receive entire messages that include the abbreviated vocabulary, and/or to receive only the abbreviated vocabulary itself. In various embodiments, the VS 140 may be configured to look up translated text for the abbreviated vocabulary, such as in a vocabulary storage 145 that is included in the VS 140 (or otherwise communicatively available to the VS 140). In other embodiments, such as described below, the TMA 195 of the DCD 190 may be configured to translate the abbreviated vocabulary by looking up the vocabulary on a vocabulary cache that is associated with the TMA 195. Use of the vocabulary cache is described in greater detail below.
In various embodiments, the DCD 190 may optionally include a message processing module 198 (“MP 198”). The MP 198 may be configured to process and/or perform one or more actions based on the business/device instructions in a message received according to techniques described herein. For example, if the DCD 190 is associated with a particular device, such as a car, the MP 198 may be configured to receive messages directing actions relating to operation of the car, such as, for example, “̂startup” or “̂tempto68”, which may translate to instructions to start the car or turn a car thermostat to 68° F. In the example of a DCD 190 that is associated with a business, the MP 198 may be configured to receive messages associated with business services, such as, for example, “̂accountbalance” or “̂cancelorder”. In various embodiments, the VS 140 may be configured to translate abbreviated vocabulary into instructions which may be understood by the MP 198. In other embodiments, the MP 198 may be configured to directly understand instructions sent to it, which may be demarcated by a specific character and/or sent as plain text. In other embodiments, rather than perform additional processing of the received message, the TMA 195 of the DCD 190 may display the message, such as for review by a user.
Referring now to
Referring back to
Next, at action 3, the TMA 115 may send the received abbreviated vocabulary to the VS 140 for translation. In various embodiments, the abbreviated vocabulary may be sent by itself, or as part of a whole or partial message that includes the abbreviated vocabulary. In response, at action 4 the VS 140 may reply to the TMA 115 with one or more translations of the received abbreviated vocabulary.
Next, at action 5, the TMA 115 may send the translated message to the CS 150, such as using a text messaging protocol, as described above. In various embodiments, the message may be sent by the TMA 115 via the CS 150 using the one or more communication addresses that were received in from the BMS 130. The CS 150 may then, at action 6, send the translated message to the TMA 195 of the DCD 190. The DCD 190 may then display and/or process the received and translated message.
Referring now to
Next, at action 3, the TMA 115 may send the message, which may include untranslated abbreviated vocabulary, to the CS 150, such as using a text messaging protocol, as described above. In various embodiments, the message may be sent by the TMA 115 via the CS 150 using the one or more communication addresses that were received in from the BMS 130. The CS 150 may then, at action 4, send the untranslated message to the TMA 195 of the DCD 190.
Next, at action 5, the TMA 195 of the DCD 190 may send the received abbreviated vocabulary to the VS 140 for translation. In various embodiments, the abbreviated vocabulary may be sent by itself, or as part of the received message that includes the abbreviated vocabulary. In response, at action 6 the VS 140 may reply to the TMA 195 with one or more translations of the received abbreviated vocabulary. The DCD 190 may then display and/or process the received and translated message.
Referring now to
In a first action, a message may be sent to the CS 150 by the TMA 115 of the SCD 110, including both mnemonics for the destination of the address, as well as abbreviated vocabulary. In this use case, the TMA 115 may not have knowledge or otherwise not be configured to perform mnemonic resolution or request translation of abbreviated vocabulary. Next, at action 2, the BMS 130 may resolve the mnemonics received in the message and send the message, including any communication addresses, to the VMS 140. The message may still include the abbreviated vocabulary, however.
Next, at action 3, the VS 140 may translate the abbreviated vocabulary and send the message with translated vocabulary to a message transmission module 155. In various embodiments, the message transmission module 155 may be configured to send the message, using a text messaging protocol, to one or more DCDs 190 at action 4. In various embodiments, a message transmission module 155 may also have been used in the example use cases of
Referring now to
Next, at operation 420, the recipient may register with the VS 140 an indication of an industry, service type, and/or locale that may be associated with the registered mnemonic/communication address. For example, the VS 140 may receive an indication that a communication address and/or mnemonic are associated with the dry cleaning industry, making dry-cleaning-related abbreviated vocabulary available to senders sending text messages to that mnemonic in the future. In various embodiments, the registered industry, service, type, and/or locale may be stored at the vocabulary storage 145. In various embodiments, the VS 140 may provide for registration of industry/service type/locale-related abbreviate vocabulary, though this may not be performed for registration of any particular DCD 190.
Next, at operation 430, the recipient may register recipient-specific abbreviated vocabulary information with the VS 140. For example, the recipient may, at operation 430, register abbreviated vocabulary such as “̂iff”, which may translate to “instructions for Frank.” At operation 450, the recipient may publish the registered mnemonic, possibly along with pieces of registered abbreviated vocabulary, to be read by potential senders of text messages. By publishing easier-to-remember mnemonics, communication with the DCD 190, and therefore with the business and/or person, may be facilitated. The process may then end.
Referring now to
The process may begin at operation 510, where a sender, using a SCD 110 generate a message to be sent to a mnemonic, such as a business or device. In various embodiments, the message may include abbreviated vocabulary, and/or may include an indication that a mnemonic is used. Next, in use cases 1 and 2, at operation 523, the TMA 115 may request resolution of the mnemonic. In various embodiments, the resolution may be performed by the BMS 130 or by a local mnemonic cache 118. In the example of use case 3, however, where the CS 150 includes the BMS 130, the TMA may send the message, including the mnemonic, to the CS 150 for transmission to the DCD 190. Next, at operation 530, the mnemonic may be resolved, such as by the BMS 130 or a local mnemonic cache 118, to a stored communication address.
Next, in the example of use case 1, the TMA 115 may request translation of abbreviated vocabulary in the message from the VS 140 at operation 533. However, in the example of use case 2, the TMA 115 may send the message with abbreviated vocabulary to the TMA 195 of the DCD 190 (such as through the CS 150) at operation 535. The receiving TMA 195 may then request translation of abbreviated vocabulary in the message from the VS 140 at operation 538.
In all three use cases, at operation 540, the VS 140 may translate the received abbreviated vocabulary. In various embodiments, the VS 140 may receive the full message sent (or part of the message sent) and reply with the message. In others, only the abbreviated vocabulary may be sent and the VS 140 may reply only with translation of the abbreviated vocabulary. In various embodiments, the abbreviated vocabulary may be translated into text. In various embodiments, the text of the translated vocabulary may be processed by the MP 198 for the DCD 190 to perform one or more actions.
In the example of use case 2, the TMA 195 of the DCD 190 has already received the message at this point. In the example of use case 1, however, at operation 543, the TMA 115 may send the message, including text of the translated vocabulary, to the DCD 190, such as through the CS 150. In the example of use case 3, the CS 150 already has the message, now including text of the translated vocabulary, and so at operation 545, the CS 150 may send the message to the DCD 190.
Next, in all three examples, at operation 550, the DCD 190 may receive the translated message. Then, at operation 560, the MP 198 may process the received message and/or the TMA 195 may display the received/translated message. In various embodiments, the MP 198 may cause the DCD 190 to perform one or more actions based on its processing of the text of the translated vocabulary found in the message. The process may then end.
Referring now to
Each of these elements may perform its conventional functions known in the art. In particular, system memory 604 and mass storage devices 606 may be employed to store a working copy and a permanent copy of the programming instructions implementing the modules shown in
The permanent copy of the programming instructions may be placed into permanent storage devices 606 in the factory, or in the field, through, for example, a distribution medium (not shown), such as a compact disc (CD), or through communication interface 610 (from a distribution server (not shown)). That is, one or more distribution media having an implementation of the agent program may be employed to distribute the agent and program various computing devices.
The number, capability and/or capacity of these elements 610-612 may vary. Their constitutions are otherwise known, and accordingly will not be further described.
Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description, a wide variety of alternate and/or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that embodiments described herein be limited only by the claims.
Where the disclosure recites “a” or “a first” element or the equivalent thereof, such disclosure includes one or more such elements, neither requiring nor excluding two or more such elements. Further, ordinal indicators (e.g., first, second or third) for identified elements are used to distinguish between the elements, and do not indicate or imply a required or limited number of such elements, nor do they indicate a particular position or order of such elements unless otherwise specifically stated.
