TRACKING A GROUP OF MOBILE TERMINALS

• US 20080200189A1
• Filed: 02/16/2007
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Foxenland, Eral Denis, Almas, Randi-Lise Hjelmeland, Lindahl, Lisa Wiveca, Lagerstedt, Anna-Maria
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/461
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/14 between corresponding nodes

Abstract

A method performed by a mobile terminal may include identifying a group of mobile terminals, generating a message that includes a link to a map showing a position each of the mobile terminals in the group and transmitting the message to each of the plurality of mobile terminals in the group.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting information identifying a position of a mobile terminal;

transmitting information identifying a destination address; and

receiving and displaying a message that includes a map including the position of the mobile terminal and the destination address.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inputting information identifying a group of mobile terminals.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving and displaying a map that includes the position of each of the group of mobile terminals.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the received and displayed message includes text.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the received and displayed message is transmitted from another mobile terminal.

6. A mobile terminal, comprising:

an input device for entering information identifying a mobile terminal and a destination address;

a display; and

logic configured to;

transmit a signal indicating a position of the identified mobile terminal,

transmit the destination address,

receive a message that includes a map of the position of the mobile terminal and the destination address, and

control the display to display the received map.

7. The mobile terminal of claim 6, wherein the logic is further configured to:

receive information from the input device that identifies a group of mobile terminals.

8. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the logic is further configured to:

store the information that identifies the group of mobile terminals in a contact list.

9. The mobile terminal of claim 8, wherein the logic is further configured to:

transmit a text message to each one of the mobile terminals in the identified group of mobile terminals.

10. The mobile terminal of claim 7, wherein the logic is further configured to:

receive and display a message that includes a map showing the position of each of the mobile terminals in the identified group.

11. A method comprising:

identifying a group of mobile terminals;

generating a message that includes a map showing a position of each of the mobile terminals in the group or a link to the map showing a position of each of the mobile terminals in the group; and

transmitting the message to each of the plurality of mobile terminals in the group.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

identifying a destination address of the group of mobile terminals, wherein the map shows the position of the destination address.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the message further includes directions to the destination address or provides a link to the directions.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the message further includes links related to the destination address.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

activating the link; and

displaying the map showing a position each of the mobile terminals in the group.

16. A method comprising:

receiving signals relating to positions of each of a plurality of mobile terminals;

receiving a destination address for the plurality of mobile terminals;

generating a map showing the position of each of the plurality of mobile terminals based on the received signals from each of the plurality of mobile terminals and the destination address; and

transmitting the generated map to each of the plurality of mobile terminals.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving information identifying each of the plurality of mobile terminals.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

calculating the position of each of the plurality of mobile terminals based on the received signals from each of the plurality of mobile terminals.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating directions to the destination address based on the calculated position of each of the plurality of mobile terminals and a position of the destination address.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

automatically sending a message to a mobile terminal based on a distance between the calculated position of the mobile terminal and the destination address.