"I am driving/busy" automatic response system for mobile phones

• US 20120058755A1
• Filed: 11/10/2011
• Published: 03/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Julia Olincy, Ronald C. Fish
• Original Assignee: Julia Olincy, Ronald C. Fish
• Inventors: Olincy, Julia, Fish, Ronald C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,412,161 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/417
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/64 Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations centralised dictation systems H04M11/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

A cell phone which has been modified by the addition of software which responds to the press of one or more Busy keys by automatically sending a pre-typed text message to the sender of the latest text message just received or automatically answering an incoming call immediately upon pressing the Busy key and playing a pre-recorded audio message. The outgoing text or audio message can inform the sender of the incoming text or the caller that the user is driving or otherwise engaged and cannot respond immediately. In some embodiments, one or more Busy keys can be added keys or one or more existing keys on the cell phone or on the keypad of the cell phone or on a touchscreen or a visual depiction of a keypad on a touchscreen of the cell phone.

Claims

1-23. -23. (canceled)

24. A process carried out on a cell phone comprising the steps:

A) receiving a text message on said cell phone or receiving an incoming cellular phone call on said cell phone;

B) detecting a push of a Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) on said cell phone and sending that event to an operating system of said cell phone with a request to send to a Busy application program on said cell phone the time of the Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) push and the time the latest SMS text message was received in the case of a Busy key (SMS) push or information on whether an incoming call is currently ringing said cell phone in the case of a Busy key (Call) push;

C) making a function call to said Busy application program to launch it after receiving information that either said Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) was pushed and sending the information requested in step C to said Busy application program;

D) determining if said Busy key (SMS) was pushed within a predetermined time of the time of receipt of the latest SMS text message, and, if so, doing whatever steps are necessary on the host cell phone upon which said Busy application program is running to automatically select the latest text message received and automatically send a pre-typed text message to the sender of said latest text message without any further interaction with said user of said cell phone;

E) if said Busy key (SMS) was not pushed within a predetermined time of receipt of the latest text message, determining if said Busy key (Call) was pushed while an incoming cell call was ringing said cell phone, and, if so, doing whatever steps are necessary on the host cell phone upon which said automated response application program is running to automatically answer an incoming cell phone and play a pre-recorded audio message to said caller; and

F) if steps E and F determine that neither the Busy key (SMS) was pushed within a predetermined time of receipt of the latest SMS text message nor the Busy key (Call) was pushed while an incoming phone call is ringing said cell phone, then shutting down said Busy application program.

25. The process of claim 24 wherein step F further comprises carrying out whatever steps are required on said cell phone executing said Busy application to divert said incoming call to voicemail after playing said pre-recorded audio message.

26. A process carried out on a cell phone comprising the steps:

A) receiving an incoming SMS text message or an incoming phone call;

B) detecting a push of a Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) on said cell phone and sending that event to an operating system of said cell phone with a request to send to a Busy application program on said cell phone the time of the Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) push;

C) sending a function call to a Busy application program on said cell phone with the time of the Busy key push and which Busy key was pushed;

D) launching said Busy application program on said phone when said function call in step C is sent and starting a timer and incrementing a count of the number of pushes of the particular one of the Busy keys which was pushed;

E) determining if the same Busy key was pushed X time in Y seconds, which of the Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) was pushed X times in Y seconds;

F) if said Busy key (SMS) was pushed X times in Y seconds, doing whatever steps are necessary on the host cell phone upon which said Busy application program is running to automatically select the latest text message received and automatically send a pre-typed text message to the sender of said latest text message without any further interaction with said user of said cell phone; and

G) if said Busy key (Call) was pushed X times in Y seconds, doing whatever steps are necessary on the host cell phone upon which said automated response application program is running to automatically answer an incoming cell phone and play a pre-recorded audio message to said caller.