METHOD OF E-MAILING A MAP LOCATION USING PREDEFINED CONTEXT-SENSITIVE MESSAGES

• US 20080182598A1
• Filed: 01/29/2007
• Published: 07/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: BOWMAN, Gordon Gregory
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,045 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A wireless communications device generates a message from a map application to enable a recipient of the message to view a location on a map. After a user selects a location to be sent to the recipient, the map application determines location information associated with the location and generates the message to be sent to the recipient. The message contains a link to enable the recipient to download the map showing the location and further contains the location information embedded as text within the message. The map application can determine whether the location is based on a GPS position fix, whether it is a Point of Interest or whether it is part of a map route. In each case, predetermined text is automatically embedded in the message to convey the location information to the recipient.

Claims

1. A method of generating a message from within a map application, the method comprising steps of:

selecting a map location to be sent to the recipient;

determining map location information associated with the map location; and

generating the message to be sent to the recipient, the message containing a hyperlink to enable the recipient to download a map showing the map location and further containing the map location information automatically embedded as text within the message.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of determining map location information comprises determining whether the location is based on a GPS position fix for the device.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the step of generating the message comprises inserting text into the message to notify the recipient that the map location represents the current position of the device.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of determining location information comprises determining whether the location is a Point of Interest.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the step of generating the message comprises inserting address information for the Point of Interest as text into the message.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of selecting the map location comprises steps of specifying a starting location and specifying a destination location to thus define a route whereby the message is generated by embedding route directions as text directly into the message.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of determining location information comprises a step of determining which application originated a mapping of the location to be sent.

8. A computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of claim 1 when the computer program product is loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device.

9. The computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of claim 2 when the computer program product is loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device.

10. The computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of claim 3 when the computer program product is loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device.

11. The computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of claim 4 when the computer program product is loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device.

12. The computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of claim 5 when the computer program product is loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device.

13. The computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of claim 6 when the computer program product is loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device.

14. The computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of claim 7 when the computer program product is loaded into memory and executed on a processor of a wireless communications device.

15. A wireless communications device for sending a message to enable a recipient to view a location on a map, the wireless communications device comprising:

an input device for enabling the user to select a map location to be sent to the recipient; and

a memory and a processor to store and execute a map application for determining map location information associated with the map location and for generating the message to be sent to the recipient, the message containing a link to enable the recipient to download the map showing the map location and further containing the map location information automatically inserted as text within the message.

16. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 15 further comprising a GPS receiver for providing a GPS position fix to enable the processor to determine whether the map location is a current position of the device.

17. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 16 wherein the text comprises a statement that the map location sent to the recipient represents the current position of the device.

18. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 15 wherein the text comprises address information for a Point of Interest.

19. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 15 wherein the input device enables the user to select a starting location and a destination location thus defining a map route and wherein the text comprises route directions generated by the map application.

20. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 15 wherein the map application determines the map location information by identifying an application that has initiated a mapping of the location to be sent.

21. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the application that has initiated the mapping of the location to be sent is a calendaring application having a function for viewing a location of an event.

22. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the application that has initiated the mapping of the location to be sent is an address book application having a function for viewing a location of an address.