FILTERED IN-BOX FOR VOICE MAIL, E-MAIL, PAGES, WEB-BASED INFORMATION, AND FAXES

• US 20090215474A1
• Filed: 02/18/2009
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hellebust, Kent A., Trinneer, Thomas J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,742,893 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/458
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/041 Encoding the ringing signal, i.e. providing distinctive or selective ringing capability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system for displaying, organizing, and prioritizing the incoming information on a wireless device. Using the present invention the wireless device can display the number of voice mails, e-mails, pages, and Internet information alerts that have been received by the wireless device during a specified time period. The invention also allows the incoming information to be separated by any number of user-specified criteria such as the originating sender, or divided by work related and personal messages. The present invention allows the wireless device user to see at a glance what kind of information has been received and is being stored on the wireless device.

Claims

1. A wireless communication device, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a plurality of messages of a first format and a plurality of messages of a second format; and

a display configured to present classification information associated with the messages of the first format and the second format.

2. The wireless communication device of claim 1, further comprising a processor configured to determine the classification information for the plurality of messages of the first format and the plurality of messages of the second format.

3. The wireless communication device of claim 2, further comprising a memory, wherein the processor is configured to determine the classification information based on at least one a rule stored in the memory.

4. The wireless communication device of claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to produce updated classification information, and the display is configured to present the updated classification information.

5. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to receive classification information associated with messages from the plurality of messages of the first format and the plurality of messages of the second format, and the display is configured to display a first message counter or a second message counter corresponding to the first format or the second format, respectively, based on the received classification information.

6. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the classification information includes information about an origin of at least one received message.

7. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the receiver is configured to receive a plurality of messages of a third format.

8. The wireless communication device of claim 1, where the first format is a voice mail format.

9. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the first format is a fax format.

10. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the first format is an e-mail format.

11. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the first format is a paging format.

12. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the first format is a short message service format.

13. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the first format is based on a Wireless Markup Language.

14. A network device for a wireless infrastructure, comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a message for a wireless network user; and

a processor configured to evaluate the message based on a predetermined rule set and produce a message classification.

15. The network device of claim 14, further comprising a transmitter configured to transmit the message classification.

16. The network device of claim 15, wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the received message to the wireless network user.

17. The network device of claim 14, further comprising a transmitter configured to transmit at least one of the received message and the message classification to a wireless communication device.

18. The network device of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to produce an updated message count associated with the message classification.

19. The network device of claim 14, further comprising a memory configured to store the predetermined rule set.

20. The network device of claim 14, wherein the receiver is configured to receive at least a portion of the predetermined rule set from a wireless communication device.