E-mail notification device

• US 20050114458A1
• Filed: 12/29/2004
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Buffalo Patents, LLC
• Original Assignee: DesignTech International Incorporated
• Inventors: Gottlieb, Mark M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,001,209 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for notifying a user of recently received information while away from the display connected to the computer. Using a non-commercial, private network, the information is forwarded from a computer through a transmitter to a portable receiver with an integrated display. Such information may be in the form of e-mails, stock quotes, and calendar alarms.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising:

a computer storage medium and a computer program code mechanism embedded in the computer storage medium for causing a computer to forward a portion of a message to a wireless notification device using a private, non-commercial network., the computer program code mechanism comprising;

a first computer code device configured to periodically connect to a remote information server to poll for new messages;

a second computer code device configured to download a portion of each of the new messages;

a third computer code device configured to transmit, for a subset of the new messages, the portion of the subset of messages using a private, non-commercial network.

2. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to connect to a remote e-mail server, wherein the message is an e-mail message.

3. The computer program product as claimed in claim 2, wherein the second computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to download the e-mail message in its entirety.

4. The computer program product as claimed in claim 2, wherein the second computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to download a “

From;

”

field and a “

Subject;

”

field of the e-mail message.

5. The computer program product as claimed in claim 2, wherein the second computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to download a header of the e-mail message.

6. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to connect to a remote hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server, wherein the message is a dynamically updated web-page.

7. The computer program product as claimed in claim 2, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to select the subset using at least one of a “

From;

”

field and a “

Subject;

”

field of the e-mail message.

8. The computer program product as claimed in claim 2, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to select all e-mail messages as belonging to the subset.

9. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to transmit the portion of the subset of messages using at least one of a parallel port, a serial port, a PS/2 port, a USB port, an audio output port, and an infrared link.

10. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fourth computer code configured to transmit the portion of the subset of messages using a wireless radio frequency.

11. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fourth computer code configured to transmit the portion of the subset of messages using at least one of an X-10 transmitter and a Bluetooth transmitter.

12. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first computer code device further comprises a fourth computer code configured to transmit at least one of calendar events, weather info, stock quotes, and sports results.

13. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to connect to a remote instant messaging server, wherein the message is a list of people available for participating in computer-based “

chat”

conversation.

14. An information notification device comprising:

a non-commercial, private network receiver for receiving information downloaded by a computer and forwarded from the computer; and

a display for displaying the received information.

15. The information notification device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the display comprises at least one of a multi-line display and dot matrix display for displaying at least one line of an e-mail message.

16. The information notification device as claimed in claim 14, further comprising an information parsing code device configured to parse out information fields from the information and display like information fields together on the display.

17. The information notification device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the display comprises at least one of a multi-line display and dot matrix display for displaying at least one line of headers of plural e-mail messages grouped together.

18. The information notification device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the display comprises a graphic display.

19. An appliance control system comprising:

a communications adapter for downloading information from a Wide-Area Network;

a first non-commercial, private network transmitter for transmitting to at least one of a home appliance and an office appliance using at least one of a power-line carrier and a Bluetooth protocol to control the at least one of a home appliance and an office appliance;

a microprocessor; and

memory configured to control the microprocessor to control the communications adapter and the appliance transmitter.

20. The appliance control system as claimed in claim 19, further comprising a power regulator for regulating power to the at least one of a home appliance and an office appliance.

21. The appliance control system as claimed in claim 19, further comprising a sensor receiver for receiving status information from the at least one of a home appliance and an office appliance.

22. The appliance control system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the at least one of a home appliance and an office appliance further comprises a second non-commercial, private network transmitter for transmitting the status information to the microprocessor.

23. The appliance control system as claimed in claim 22, further comprising a sensor having an ID wherein the status information is transmitted along with the ID of the sensor by the second non-commercial, private network to the microprocessor.

24. The appliance control system as claimed in claim 22, further comprising a sensor receiver for receiving the status information from the sensor.

25. The appliance control system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the power-line carrier is an X-10 protocol.