Remote access to a mobile communication device over a wireless local area network (WLAN)

• US 10,206,074 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2017
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Yovin, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Jr., Michael J
• Application Number:
  US15/426,477
• Publication Number:
  US 20170215051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 735 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/1091 Fixed mobile conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42263 where the same subscriber uses different terminals, i.e. nomadism
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/54 Arrangements for diverting calls for one subscriber to another predetermined subscriber based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; to voice mail H04M3/53308
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1285 Details of finding and selecting a gateway for a particular call
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A method and arrangement is provided which allows a PC or other client device to be used to communicate with third parties through a mobile communication device when a user and the mobile communication device are not in the vicinity of one another. The arrangement allows the user to control operation of the mobile communication device over a WLAN so that the user can send or receive messages such as voice and text messages to a remote party from the client device through the mobile communication device over the WLAN and the mobile communication network employed by the mobile device.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that cause a mobile communication device to forward a communication, the instructions operable to:

execute a remote access application that receives and stores user-specified classifications regarding handling of different types of communications including voice calls and messages, wherein the user-specified classifications specify when a received voice call or message is to be forwarded to one or more client devices and how the mobile communication device is to respond when the voice call or message is received,

upon receipt of a voice call or message communication from a remote party device, determine if the communication is of a type within the received and stored user-specified classifications, and

forward the received communication over a wireless connectivity network to the one or more client devices selected based on the user-specified classifications received and stored into the remote access application for the determined communication type,

wherein the received communication is forwarded to the one or more client devices such that the mobile communication device remains in use in a communication path between the remote party device and the one or more client devices.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to receive and store user-specified classifications are operable to cause the remote access application to:

interact with a contacts application residing on the mobile communication device for classifying voice calls and messages from contacts included in the contacts application as the stored user-specified classifications.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the instructions to receive and store user-specified classifications are operable to cause the remote access application to:

classify the voice calls and messages from the contacts received during predetermined time periods as the stored user-specified classifications.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to receive and store user-specified classifications are operable to cause the remote access application to:

expose controls to the user on at least one of the one or more client devices wherein the exposed controls are based on inherent features of the mobile communication device.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to receive and store user-specified classifications are operable to cause the remote access application to:

expose controls to the user on at least one of the one or more client devices wherein the exposed controls are modified for use on the at least one client device.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions to expose controls to the user modified for use on the at least one client device cause the remote access application to:

modify the controls for accommodating a larger display of the at least one client device.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions to expose controls to the user modified for use on the at least one client device cause the remote access application to:

modify the controls for providing access to a full keyboard of the at least one client device to the user.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine if the communication is of a type within the stored user-specified classifications are operable to cause the remote access application to:

access metadata of the received communication that pertains to an identity of a sender of the received communication.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions to forward the received communication over a WLAN to one or more client devices are operable to cause the remote access application to:

forward the received communication to the one or more client devices if the metadata of the received communication indicates that the received communication is of the type within the stored user-specified classifications.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions to forward the received communication over a WLAN to one or more client devices selected based on the user-specified classifications are operable to cause the remote access application to:

select one of the one or more client devices based on the received and stored user-specified classifications; and

forward the received communication to the selected client device.

11. A method of enabling communications through a mobile communication device comprising:

receiving a communication from a remote device;

accessing user-specified classifications regarding handling of different types of communications including voice calls and messages received at the mobile communication device, wherein the user-specified classifications specify whether a voice call or message is to be forwarded to one or more client devices;

determining that the communication from the remote device is of a type included within the stored user-specified classifications;

forwarding the communication received from the remote device over a wireless network to one of the one or more client devices selected based on the user-specified classifications for the determined communication type,

exposing controls on the selected client device that enable a user of the client device to respond to the communication using the selected client device;

receiving, from the selected client device, a response composed by the user to the communication, and

transmitting the response from the user to the remote device,

wherein the mobile communication device remains in use in a communication path between the remote device and the selected client device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving a communication from a remote device further comprises:

receiving a Short Message Service (SMS) message from the remote device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein exposing controls on the selected client device further comprises:

exposing controls modified for a larger display of the selected client device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein exposing controls on the selected client device further comprises:

exposing a full keyboard on the selected client device.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving the user'"'"'s input for the user-specified classifications from the selected client device.

16. A mobile communication device comprising,

a processor;

and

a computer-readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions that cause the processor to forward a communication, the instructions operable to;

execute a remote access application that receives and stores user-specified classifications regarding handling of different types of communications including voice calls and messages, wherein the user-specified classifications specify when a received voice call or message is to be forwarded to one or more client devices and how the mobile communication device is to respond when the voice call or message is received;

upon receipt of a voice call or message communication from a remote party device, determine if the communication is of a type within the stored user-specified classifications; and

forward the received communication over a wireless connectivity network to the one or more client devices selected based on the user-specified classifications received and stored in the remote access application for the determined communication type,

wherein the received communication is forwarded to the one or more client devices such that the mobile communication device remains in use in a communication path between the remote party device and the one or more client devices.

17. The mobile communication device of claim 16, wherein the processor-executable instructions are further operable to:

receive the user'"'"'s input for the user-specified classifications from one of the one or more client devices.

18. The mobile communication device of claim 16, wherein the processor-executable instructions for implementing the user-specified classifications regarding handling of different types of communications are further operable to:

cause the remote access application to interact with another messaging application residing on the mobile communication device for classifying the voice calls and messages.

19. The mobile communication device of claim 16, wherein the processor-executable instructions to forward the received communication over a WLAN to the one or more client devices are further operable to:

access metadata associated with the received communication, the metadata pertains to an identity of a sender of the received communication; and

identify a match between the metadata and an identity of a third party who has been specified in the user-specified classifications.

20. The mobile communication device of claim 16, wherein the remote processing application is embedded into an operation system of the mobile communication device.