ASSOCIATION OF CONTEXT DATA WITH A TEXT-MESSAGE COMPONENT

• US 20100120456A1
• Filed: 01/21/2010
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Buckyball Mobile, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Buckyball Mobile, Inc.
• Inventors: Karmarkar, Sharada, Karmarkar, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 8,509,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• 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: 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 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Disclosed are a system, method, and article of manufacture of an association of context data with a text-message component. A context data is associated with a text-message component. The association between the context data and the text-message component may be indicated with a user interface. The association between the context data and the text-message component may be embedded in a text-message signal. The association between the context data and the text-message component may be embedded in a short message service (SMS) signal.

Claims

1. A method comprising associating a context data with a text-message component.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

indicating the association between the context data and the text-message component with a user interface.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

embedding the association between the context data and the text-message component in a text-message signal.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

embedding the association between the context data and the text-message component in an SMS signal.

5. In a computer system having a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising a display and a selection device, a method comprising:

rendering a text-message component on a GUI;

rendering a context-data icon on the GUI;

retrieving a context-data measurement associated with the text-message component; and

transforming the context-data icon according to the context data measurement.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the computer system comprises a mobile device.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

transforming the context-data icon if a user-controlled pointer is passed over the text-message component.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

rendering the context-data icon as a set of bars.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the context-data measurement is provided by a sending mobile device or a server communicatively coupled to a text-messaging network through which the text-message component is transmitted to the computer system.

10. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

rendering a window in the GUI that comprises information related to the context data.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

providing a hyperlink to an webpage comprising additional information related to the context data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the webpage comprises a social networking webpage of a sender of the text-message component.

13. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

rendering an interface element of the GUI to allow selection of the text-message component.

14. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

providing a GUI widget to enable selection of a context-data icon graphic.

15. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

render a text-message component on a graphical user interface (GUI);

render a context-data icon on the GUI;

retrieve a context data availability associated with the text-message component; and

transform a context data indicator according to the context data availability.

a processor readable memory;

a context data sensor configured to;

acquire a context data current to a context of the computer system;

a user input device; and

a display device.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the computer system comprises a smart phone.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the context data indicator comprises a graphical icon rendered in the GUI by the processor.

18. The computer system of claim 16 further comprising:

a speaker, and

wherein the context data indicator comprises an audio signal propagated by the speaker of the smart phone.

19. A method comprising:

providing a text message application;

analyzing a portion of a text message generated by the text message application;

acquiring a context data that relates to the portion of the text message; and

linking the context data to the portion of the text message.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:

signifying a linkage of the context data and the portion of the text message with a user interface.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the context data is acquired with a sensor of a mobile device.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the context data is acquired from a database in the mobile device.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the context data is acquired from a third-party database.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the portion of the text message is linked to the context data after the text message has been generated.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the portion of the text message is linked to the context data during the composition of the text message.

26. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

transmitting the linkage of the context data and the portion of the text message to another mobile device.

27. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

transmitting the linkage of the context data and the portion of the text message to a server.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the server provides additional information about the context data to the other mobile device.

29. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method of claim 20.