METHOD OF UTILIZING FORCED ALERTS FOR INTERACTIVE REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20090075685A1
• Filed: 11/26/2008
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AGIS Software Development LLC (AGIS Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Advanced Ground Information Systems, Inc. (AGIS Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Beyer, Malcolm K. JR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,213,970 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/62 user interface aspects of conference calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/64 file transfer between terminals download of applications H04M1/72406; transfer of messages, e.g. SMS, e-mail or MMS H04M1/7243
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

The system and method having a specialized software application on a personal computer or a PDA/cell phone that that enables a participant to force an automatic acknowledgement and a manual response to a text or voice message from other participants within the same network. Each participant'"'"'s PC or PDA/cell phone includes a force message alert software application program for both creating and processing these forced message alerts. The system and method enabled by the force message alert software application program provides the ability to (a) allow an operator to create and transmit a forced message alert from a sender PC or PDA/cell phone to one or more recipient PCs and PDA/cell phones within the communication network; (b) automatically transmit an acknowledgement of receipt to the sender PC or PDA cell phone upon the receipt of the forced message alert; (c) periodically resend the message to the recipient PCs and PDA/cell phones that have not sent an acknowledgement; (d) provide an indication of which recipient PCs and PDA/cell phones have acknowledged the forced message alert; (e) provide a manual response list on the display of the recipient PC and PDA/cell phone'"'"'s display that can only be cleared by manually transmitting a response; and (f) provide an indication on the sender PC or PDA/cell phone of the status and content the manual responses

Claims

1. A communication system for transmitting, receiving, confirming receipt, and responding to an electronic message, comprising:

a predetermined network of participants, wherein each participant has a similarly equipped PC or PDA/cell phone that includes a CPU and a touch screen display a CPU and memory;

a data transmission means that facilitates the transmission of electronic files between said PCs and said PDA/cell phones in different locations;

a sender PC or PDA/cell phone and at least one recipient PC or PDA/cell phone for each electronic message; and

a forced message alert software application program loaded on each participating PC or PDA/cell phone.

2. The system as in claim 1, wherein the forced message alert software application program on the sender PC or PDA/cell phone:

means for attaching a forced message alert software packet to a voice or text message creating a forced message alert that is transmitted by said sender PC or PDA/cell phone to the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone, wherein said forced message alert software packet contains a response list and requires the forced message alert software on said recipient PC or PDA/cell phone to transmit an automatic acknowledgment to the sender PC or PDA/cell phone as soon as said forced message alert is received by the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone;

means for receiving and displaying a listing of which recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones have automatically acknowledged the forced message alert and which recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones have not automatically acknowledged the forced message alert;

means for periodically resending said forced message alert to said recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones that have not automatically acknowledged the forced message alert; and

means for receiving and displaying a listing of which recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones have transmitted a manual response to said forced message alert and details the response from each recipient PC or PDA/cell phone that responded.

3. The system as in claim 1, wherein the forced message alert software application program on the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone:

means for transmitting the acknowledgment of receipt to said sender PC or PDA/cell phone immediately upon receiving a forced message alert from the sender PC or PDA/cell phone;

means for controlling of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone upon transmitting said automatic acknowledgment and causes, in cases where the force message alert is a text message, the text message and a response list to be shown on the display of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone or causes, in cases where the force message alert is a voice message, the voice message to be periodically repeated by the speakers of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone while said response list is shown on the display;

means for allowing a manual response to be manually selected from the response list or manually recorded and transmits said manual response to the sender PC or PDA/cell phone; and

means for clearing the text message and a response list from the display of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone or stops the repeating voice message and clears the response list from the display of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone once the manual response is transmitted.

4. The system as in claim 1, wherein said data transmission means is TCP/IP or another communications protocol.

5. The system as in claim 1, wherein the response list that is transmitted within the forced message alert software packet is a default response list that is embedded in the forced message alert software application program.

6. The system as in claim 1, wherein the response list that is transmitted within the forced message alert software packet is a custom response list that is created at the time the specific forced message alert is created on the sender PC or PDA/cell phone.

7. A method of sending a forced message alert to one or more recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones within a predetermined communication network, wherein the receipt and response to said forced message alert by each intended recipient PC or PDA/cell phone is tracked, said method comprising the steps of:

accessing a forced message alert software application program on a sender PC or PDA/cell phone;

creating the forced message alert on said sender PC or PDA/cell phone by attaching a voice or text message to a forced message alert application software packet to said voice or text message;

designating one or more recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones in the communication network;

electronically transmitting the forced message alert to said recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones;

receiving automatic acknowledgements from the recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones that received the message and displaying a listing of which recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones have acknowledged receipt of the forced message alert and which recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones have not acknowledged receipt of the forced message alert;

periodically resending the forced message alert to the recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones that have not acknowledged receipt;

receiving responses to the forced message alert from the recipient PCs or PDA/cell phones and displaying the response from each recipient PC or PDA/cell phone; and

clearing the receiver'"'"'s display screen or causing the repeating voice alert to cease upon selecting a response.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein each PC or PDA/cell phone within a predetermined communication network is similarly equipped and has the forced message alert software application program loaded on it.

9. The method as in claim 7, wherein said forced message alert application software packet contains a response list, wherein said response list is a default list embedded in the forced message alert software application program.

10. The method as in claim 7, wherein said forced message alert application software packet contains a response list, wherein said response list is a custom response list that is created at the time the specific forced message alert is created on the sender PC or PDA/cell phone.

11. A method of receiving, acknowledging and responding to a forced message alert from a sender PC or PDA/cell phone to a recipient PC or PDA/cell phone, wherein the receipt, acknowledgment, and response to said forced message alert is forced by a forced message alert software application program, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving an electronically transmitted electronic message;

identifying said electronic message as a forced message alert, wherein said forced message alert consists of a voice or text message and a forced message alert application software packet, which triggers the activation of the forced message alert software application program within the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone;

transmitting an automatic acknowledgment of receipt to the sender PC or PDA/cell phone, which triggers the forced message alert software application program to take control of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone and show the content of the text message and a response list on the display recipient PC or PDA/cell phone or to repeat audibly the content of the voice message on the speakers of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone and show the response list on the display recipient PC or PDA/cell phone; and

transmitting a selected response, whether said selected response is a chosen option from the response list, causing the forced message alert software to release control of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone and stop showing the content of the text message and a response list on the display recipient PC or PDA/cell phone and or stop repeating the content of the voice message on the speakers of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phone;

displaying the response received from the PC or PDA cell phone that transmitted the response on the sender of the forced alert PC or PDA/cell phone; and

providing a list of the recipient PC or PDA/cell phones have automatically acknowledged receipt of a forced alert message and their response to the forced alert message.

12. The method as in claim 11, wherein each PC or PDA/cell phone within a predetermined communication network is similarly equipped and has the forced message alert software application program loaded on it.

13. The method as in claim 11, wherein said forced message alert application software packet contains a response list, wherein said response list is a default list embedded in the forced message alert software application program.

14. The method as in claim 11, wherein said forced message alert application software packet contains a response list, wherein said response list is a custom response list that is created at the time the specific forced message alert is created on the sender PC or PDA/cell phone.