Multimedia broadcasting, broadcast services for cell phone and other users and modified sim card and related means for enabling such broadcast reception

• US 20040209649A1
• Filed: 06/02/2004
• Published: 10/21/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Paperless Interactive Newspaper LLC
• Original Assignee: Paperless Interactive Newspaper LLC
• Inventors: Lord, Frank H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,054,660 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/558
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72409 by interfacing with external accessories hands-free H04M1/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/40 for selective distribution or broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

Preferred embodiments enable cell phone users to plug in a novel SIM card and receive a multimedia broadcast of their choice, television, celebrity broadcast calls, newspapers, games, video and the like, without initializing with a service provider. Adapters can provide additional cell phone communication channels enabling a user to talk on the phone while receiving a broadcast into storage or to quickly receive a broadcast over multiple channels. Cell phone TV flicker can be inhibited by receiving over multiple channels. Each channel can be controlled or activated by its own SIM card. Novel product-specific SIM cards are provided to enable reception of specific broadcasts.

Claims

1. A computerized radiotelephone receiver (20) capable of telephone communication on a cellular radiotelephone system, the radiotelephone receiver (20) comprising a removable electronic accessory device (34) encoded with a machine-readable electronic key, optionally a telephone number, and having the ability to receive a broadcast transmission from a cellular phone system transmitter-receiver (10), characterized in that the cellular radiotelephone system provides broadcast transmissions of large data files intended for simultaneous reception by all enabled receivers of the broadcast transmission in that the radiotelephone receiver (20) comprises a cell phone or a cellular-wireless-enabled computer (8, 9) capable of receiving large data files and in that the electronic key enables reception of the broadcast transmission without initializing with the radiotelephone system.

2. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the radiotelephone receiver (20) comprises a cell phone having sufficient memory for storage of large data files and the electronic accessory device (34) comprises a SIM card.

3. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the radio telephone receiver comprises a foldable screen and optionally comprises a laptop computer (8) or a desktop computer (9).

4. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the receiving devices comprise a software or firmware product interface capable of recognizing and enabling reception of the broadcast without initializing.

5. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the radiotelephone receiver (20) comprises user-controllable writable memory and control software to control the memory and the reception of broadcasts and in that the control software can store or not store an incoming broadcast according to choices made by the computer user.

6. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the electronic accessory device (34) is readable by and mechanically cooperative with the computerized radiotelephone receiver (20) and is receivable in or attachable to the radiotelephone receiver (20).

7. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the electronic key comprises a personal broadcast key which enables the reception of at least one specified channel for a defined period of time.

8. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the personal broadcast key comprises a private code and the specific broadcast to be enabled can comprise a public code, the private and public codes being cooperative to unlock the receiving devices to process the specific broadcast for viewing, listening and/or storage by the viewer.

9. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 2 characterized in that the SIM card (34) is received into a slot in the back of the cell phone and has a laminar configuration with a beveled corner to orient the card in the cell phone.

10. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 2 characterized in that the SIM card (34) can enable conventional SIM card-compatible cell phones to receive broadcasts via at least one broadcast-specific phone number and is retrofittable to provide broadcast reception capability to SIM card-compatible cell phones that lack broadcast reception capability.

12. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 2 characterized in that multiple such broadcast access numbers are provided on a single SIM card (34).

13. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that a function key, is automatically programmed to provide one-button access and display of the specific channel or channels.

14. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 10 characterized in that the SIM card (34) comprises user identification data and user preferences for configuration of the cell phone for broadcast reception.

15. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the SIM card (34) is tunable to permit the user to select a desired broadcast from two or more broadcasts.

16. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the SIM card (34) has multiple telephone numbers or recognition codes and in that one of the multiple numbers is the user'"'"'s personal cell phone number for receiving cell phone calls at least a second number or codes is used for receiving multimedia broadcasts.

17. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized in that the cell phone comprises a multi-line adapter optionally a two-line adapter to add one or more lines to cell phone.

39. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 3 characterized in that the foldable screen comprises a multimedia viewing screen, that is divided into two or more foldable sections that can be viewed as one screen when opened.

40. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized by comprising a screen that is movable to facilitate the reading of large data files such as newspapers and the viewing of television and films and all other forms of multimedia data.

43. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 1 characterized by comprising a cell phone receiver module that is built into or plugged onto a television receiver to enable the received cellular broadcasts to be played on the television receiver wherein optionally the cell phone receiver can output to the antenna input of the television receiver and has pass-through connections permitting a conventional terrestrial, satellite or cable TV signal to be used.

44. Control software for a radiotelephone as claimed in claim 1 characterized by comprising procedures to control storage and reception of received broadcast data files permitting the user to store or alternatively not store, to play or display, and optionally to edit, an incoming broadcast according to choices made by the computer user optionally from an incoming broadcast menu of available multimedia data.

11. A radiotelephone receiver (20) according to claim 11 characterized in that the SIM card (34) comprises a processor one or more programs and random-access memory user data and a product interface, optionally a phone number to provide access to one or more specific broadcasts enabled by SIM card.

18. A removable electronic accessory device (34) for a computerized radiotelephone receiver (20) capable of telephone communication on a cellular radiotelephone system and of receiving cellular phone broadcast transmissions, the accessory device being encoded with a machine-readable electronic key, optionally a telephone number, characterized in that the electronic accessory device (34) comprises a SIM card, the SIM card (34) can enable conventional SIM card-compatible cell phones to receive broadcasts via at least one broadcast-specific phone number and is retrofittable to provide broadcast reception capability to SIM card-compatible cell phones that lack broadcast reception capability and in that the electronic key enables reception of broadcast transmission of large data files by the radiotelephone system.

19. An accessory device (34) according to claim 18 characterized in that the radiotelephone receiver (20) comprises a cell phone.

20. An accessory device (34) according to claim 19 characterized in that the SIM card (34) is received into a slot in the back of the cell phone and has a laminar configuration with a beveled corner to orient the card in the cell phone.

21. An accessory device (34) according to claim 19 characterized in that the SIM card (34) provides storage for large data files and enables and comprises multiple broadcast access numbers.

22. An accessory device (34) according to claim 19 characterized in that the SIM card (34) comprises a processor, one or more programs, random-access memory, user data and a product interface, optionally a phone number to provide access to one or more specific broadcasts enabled by SIM card (34).

23. An accessory device (34) according to claim 19 characterized in that multiple such broadcast access numbers are provided on a single SIM card (34).

24. A method of broadcasting a communication, optionally a program or a channel providing continuous content the method comprising transmitting the communication from cellular radiotelephone system to a population of users of computerized radiotelephone receivers (20) each having a removable electronic accessory device (34) encoded with a machine-readable electronic key, optionally a telephone number, characterized by the electronic key enabling reception of the broadcast communication, by each radiotelephone receiver (20) having the ability to receive the broadcast communication from the radiotelephone system without initializing with the radiotelephone system, by the method further comprising distributing the electronic key to the users prior to broadcasting the communication and by one or more broadcasts from a given terrestrial or satellite transmitter being simultaneously receivable by any suitably equipped receiving devices within signal range.

25. A method according to claim 24 characterized by the broadcasts comprising cellular phone broadcasts of large data files and by the radiotelephone receivers comprising cell phones.

26. A method according to claim 24 characterized by multiple channels being broadcast simultaneously to individual receiver (20)s within range of a transmitting transceiver.

27. A method according to claim 24 characterized by the broadcast being made to and received by users who have previously received an electronic key to authorize reception of a particular broadcast or broadcast channel or channels.

28. A method according to claim 24 characterized by the electronic key being supplied by a service or content provider and comprises an electronic personal broadcast key which is unique to an individual user and enables reception of a specific broadcast channel or channels or content of a specific channel for a defined period of time, optionally the duration of a show or an event.

29. A method according to claim 25 characterized by the SIM cards (34) being distributed by a service or content provider to users of radiotelephone receivers (20) users through retail, wholesale, mail order or Internet channels.

30. A method according to claim 24 characterized by the service or content provider coding the respective broadcast transmission to be accessible by the electronic key embodied in the particular SIM cards (34) distributed so that particular SIM cards (34) are associated with a particular broadcast or broadcast service and optionally are distinctively marked, packaged and/or promoted for that purpose.

31. A method according to claim 24 characterized by multiple types of SIM cards (34) being available for multiple services and by a user being able to choose the service by choosing an appropriate SIM card.

32. A method according to claim 24 characterized by the user inserting the selected SIM card in their cell phone (20) selecting one of multiple available broadcast-specific phone numbers and receiving the chosen broadcast sent out by the service provider.

33. A method according to claim 24 characterized by the broadcast comprising a text message, a celebrity phone call, multimedia content, television, video, sound, music, newspapers, computer games, or one or more stories or combinations of any two or more of said broadcasts.

34. A method according to claim 25 characterized by reception of broadcasts not requiring an initializing exchange with the service provider.

35. A method according to claim 24 characterized by comprising employing a tunable SIM card to enable the cell phone to receive data regarding available programming and/or channels or events from which the user can use the data to select the broadcast of their choice.

36. A method according to claim 25 characterized by the multimedia broadcast-receiving numbers not having to initialize with the service provider, the broadcast or broadcasts are receivable by any or all enabled users within the transmission range, and a broadcast phone number or recognition code is associated with a specific broadcast or broadcast channel so that all users within the transmission range employ the same phone number or recognition code to receive the broadcast and characterized by the broadcast being transmitted to multiple users within the transmission range simultaneously, enabling the users to all receive the digital multimedia broadcast information transmitted by the cell phone service provider at the same time.

37. A method according to claim 24, 25 or 35 characterized by comprising employing a multi-channel SIM card to enable receiving of multiple broadcasts simultaneously.

38. A method according to claim 24 characterized by embedding a personalized message or other communication in a broadcast and targeting the message to be received only by a specific user, optionally by encoding the message in the broadcast.

41. A tuneable or nontuneable cellular phone receiver-enabled computerized device characterized by having the ability to receive multimedia data broadcast from cell phone transmitters over multiple channels.

42. A cell phone, SIM card, computerized radiotelephone receiver or memory stick characterized by being tunable to permit the user to select a desired broadcast from multiple available broadcasts.