SMS+4D: Short Message Service plus 4-dimensional context

• US 20070066327A1
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: U Owe Me, Inc.
• Original Assignee: U Owe Me, Inc.
• Inventors: Karmakar, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 7,551,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/274 Converting codes to words; Guess-ahead of partial word inputs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/184 Messaging devices, e.g. message centre

Abstract

A Short Message Service (SMS) enables a sender to send an asynchronous short text message from his source device to one or more receiving devices specified by the sender that represent one or more recipients. SMS+4D embeds, and allows the recipient to elicit contextual and explanatory information concerning the meaning of the short text message from the SMS, thus creating ‘sideband’ capability for text messages analogous to the visual and aural cues from accompanying facial and body expressiveness and the tone, timbre, pitch, and timing of a spoken message. SMS+4D may also learn, through embedded formal analysis and pattern comprehension, to associate specific contextual information to support the sender'"'"'s original meaning, thereby clarifying surficially indefinite text words, phrases, or structures.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method whereby a Short Message Service provides contextual support for social obligations, said method comprising:

taking a Short Message from a Sender for at least one Recipient through a first Unit;

processing the Short Message through at least one Server, said processing further comprising;

parsing the Short Message;

generating the Short Message'"'"'s Context Metadata by any set of the following;

attaching a current Global Positioning System (‘

GPS’

) location for the Sender as Context Metadata;

attaching a current timestamp as Context Metadata;

attaching an image as Context Metadata;

attaching a file as Context Metadata; and

attaching a referent to a prior Short Message from Sender as Context Metadata;

associating explicitly the Context Metadata to the Short Message; and

,

delivering the Short Message and its Context Metadata to the Recipient through a second Unit.

2. A method as in claim 1, further comprising:

enabling the Recipient to mark at least one specific element of the original SM as not being understood; and

,

returning the marked SM to the Sender for clarification of the specific element that Recipient has marked.

3. A method as in claim 1, wherein the Server includes at least a Cultural Database containing prior Short Messages including tokens and word structure patterns, and the step of processing the Short Message through at least one Server further comprises:

comparing each indeterminate token in the Short Message against the tokens contained in the Cultural Database to find a best match;

comparing the word structure pattern of the Short Message against the word structure patterns contained in the Cultural Database to find a best match; and

,

using the best match for each indeterminate token and word structure pattern of the Short Message to establish a translation linkage between the Short Message and Context Metadata.

4. A method as in claim 3 further comprising:

incorporating to the SMS+4D in a form recoverable by the Recipient upon request, the following;

an explicit trace of the translation linkage;

an ordered listing of alternative linkages;

an association-strength measurement for the translation linkage; and

,

a query-for-accuracy of linkage that can be returned to Sender.

5. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

incorporating an evolving set of common norms between a particular Sender and a particular Recipient arising from mutual interactions creating this new set of cultural norms through shared joint behavior and prior Short Messages.

6. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

incorporating an ordered collection of prior SM linkages used by Sender and Recipient, in original form if not corrected and in corrected form otherwise, arising from their mutual interactions.

7. A method as in claim 2, wherein the step of processing the Short Message through at least one Server further comprises using software enabling translation across different media display capabilities.

8. A method as in claim 3, further comprising

consulting a set of standardized simplified images, each linked to a predetermined meaning, and producing an analogue from the image on the Sender'"'"'s medium of input on the Recipient'"'"'s medium of display of that standardized simplified image which is closest to the image on the Sender'"'"'s medium of input.

9. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

having the Recipient identify a part of the Short Message that is not understood by the Recipient;

applying a deconstructive linkage that can be attained through a linguistic assignment method to the Short Message;

using a mapping technique to connect the contextual metadata to the part of the Short Message that is not understood by the Recipient; and

,

returning the Short Message with the mapped contextual metadata to the Recipient;

repeating the above steps on Recipient'"'"'s request for alternative mappings.

10. A method as in claim 9, further comprising:

correcting for directionality of any such prior message;

searching for any linkage between the context metadata and the part of the Short Message that is not understood by the Recipient in the prior exchanges between Sender and Recipient; and

,

if a linkage is found in a prior message, using that to perform the mapping.

11. A method as in claim 9, further comprising:

correcting for directionality of any such prior message;

searching for any linkage between the word structure pattern of the part of the Short Message that is not understood by the Recipient and all word structure patterns used in the prior exchanges between Sender and Recipient; and

,

if a linkage is found in a prior message, using that to perform the mapping.

12. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

discarding from the comparison any prior Short Message that would create a contradictory and inconsistent meaning in the Short Message.

13. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

upon successfully identifying a current and ambiguous Short Message with any set of word structure patterns and token association, strengthening the weighting of association of that set of word structure patterns and token associations in a neural net used to process each ambiguous SMS message.

14. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

upon successfully identifying a current and ambiguous Short Message with any set of word structure patterns and token association, applying heuristic rules to record all strengthened associations of that set of that set of word structure patterns and token.

15. A method as in claim 3, further comprising:

upon successfully identifying a current and ambiguous Short Message with any set of word structure patterns and token association, use a combination of strengthened association of that specific word structure pattern and the known specific token in a neural net used to process each ambiguous SMS message, and application of apply heuristic rules, to deepen the recorded comprehension of semantic meaning.