Group communication method for a wireless communication device

• US 20040137882A1
• Filed: 10/28/2003
• Published: 07/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbian Limited (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Forsyth, John Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 7,047,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06

Abstract

A group communication method for a wireless information device, in which the method comprises the step of using an application independent object which defines or references members of a group in a way that enables communication to take place between two or more members of the group. The group object defines solely the identities of members of a group as such, it is application (and hence also content) independent. This means that a group created in one application (e.g. a diary/agenda application could use that same group as the recipient list for an invitation,itation to a meeting); a voice application could use that same group to allow a voice to be conferenced across to all group members. Similarly, data specifically created for one group and in one application can be re-used in a different application and the data viewed appropriately for that different application.

Claims

1. A group communication method for a wireless information device that enables communications to be sent and received between several wireless information devices operated by end-users that form a group of end-users, the group being a sub-set of the end-users for whom the device stores contact information;

in which the method comprises the steps of;

(a) the end-user of the device defining g the identities of end-users that form the group;

(b) a group object being constructed tat defines or references =abers of the group in a way that enables co i tion to the place from the device and all other members of the group;

(c) the group object beg used by a E=application running on the device to enable communication from the device to be made automatically to all members of the group;

(d) the group object being used by a second application running on the device, unrelated to the first application, to enable communication from the device to be made automatically to all members of the group.

3. The group communication method of claim 1 or 2 in which the same group object is capable of being used by any of the following applications irrespective of it being used by any other application:

(a) e-mailing application

(b) text based messaging application

(c) voice telephony

(d) multi-media messaging

(c) productivity applications including word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation applications)

(f) gaming applications

(g) music playback

(h) video playback

(i) diary application

(j) address book application

4. The method of any preceding claim in which communication can be over ay bearer or protocol supported by te device.

5. The method of any preceding claims in which communication is a voice conference across potentially all members of a group, and is initiated by one person sending a message from his device telling th}e network to set up a conference call involving all members of thc group by notifying each group member appropriately.

6. Thc method of any preceding claim In which communication between two members of a group can be marked as public by either member and hence made accessible to any other member of the group.

7. The method of any preceding claim in which the group object composes a unique ID or IDs which define=the identifier of mb=of the group md ec bz used by the dece and/or a server to establish communication with each member of the group.

8. Thc method of preceding claim 7 in which the orcach ID is a pcdate to mouw maintained on a remote server.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the or each D is a persistent identifier and is independent of conventional communications identifiers and instead references up to date versions of those conventional communications identifiers.

10. The method of any preceding claim in which members of a group defined by a group object share a common physical location.

11. The method of claim 10 in which a location specific group object is auto-generated.

12. The method of any preceding claim in which the group object is gaming related.

13. The method of claim 12 in which the gaming related group object is auto-generated according to predefined criteria.

14. The method of any preceding claim in which the group object is interest specific.

15. The method of any preceding claim in which the group object is used to share personal content amongst a pre-defined group.

16. The method of claim 15 in which personal content comprises photographs, opinions, music playlists and/or music tracks.

17. The method of claim 16 in which personal content includes music tracks which are then streamed to all members of the group.

18. The method of any preceding claim in all communications in a group on a given subject are treated as single object.

20. A wireless information device as claimed claim 19 which is programmed to perform the method of any preceding claim 2 -18.

2. The group communication method of Cairn 1 in which the group object is used to initiate one or more of the following

(a) . group based e-mail

(b) group based text messaging

(c) group based telephone calls

(d) group based multi-player gaming

(e) group based multi-media messaging

(f) group based accessing of documents, music files or web sites

19. A wireless information device programmed with computer software which enables communications to be sent and received between several wireless information devices operated by end-users that form a group of end-users, the group being a sub-set of the end-users for whom the device stores contact information;

in which the device;

(a) receives from the end-user of the device the identitics of the group of end-users;

(b) constructs a group object that defines or references members of the group in a that enables communication to take place from the device and all other members of the group;

(c) uses the group object with a first application running on the device to enable communication from the device to be made automatically all members of the group;

(d) uses the group object with a and application running on the device, unrelated to the first application, to enable communication from the device to be made automatically to all members of the group.