Text Message Transmissions Indicating Failure of Recipient Mobile Device to Connect with a Call

• US 20120238251A1
• Filed: 03/15/2011
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Jae Han, Sethuraman, Anand
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,148 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• 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 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

An originating communications device is configured to transmit a text message to a recipient mobile device when the originating device determines that the recipient device has failed to connect with a call that was initiated by the originating device. The text message is designed to indicate that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call; in addition or as an alternative, the text message includes a code that indicates to the recipient device that it is potentially in a poor RF coverage area. The recipient mobile device, upon receiving and displaying the text message, may determine that it is indeed in an area with poor coverage and will in response store its current geographic location as a poor coverage area. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method performed by an originating communications device, comprising:

initiating a call with a recipient mobile device;

determining that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call;

generating a text message indicating said failure of the recipient device to connect with the call; and

transmitting the text message to the recipient device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call comprises:

detecting no rings before the call is routed to one of a voicemail of a user of the recipient device and a pre-recorded carrier message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call comprises:

detecting too few rings before the call is routed to one of a voicemail of a user of the recipient device and a pre-recorded carrier message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting a user of the originating device to confirm, before transmitting the text message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the text message includes a code that indicates the recipient device is in an area of potentially poor radio frequency signal coverage.

6. A method performed by a recipient mobile device, comprising:

receiving a text message from an originating communications device;

determining that the text message is a radio frequency (RF) coverage alert;

determining a current geographic location of the recipient device in response to the alert; and

then

storing the geographic location in association with an RF coverage area evaluation.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

newly determining a geographic location of the recipient device; and

providing a warning alert whenever the newly determined geographic location is near the stored geographic location that is associated with the RF coverage area evaluation.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein determining that the text message is a RF coverage alert comprises:

parsing the text message for a predetermined code that indicates the recipient device is in an area of potentially poor RF coverage.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether or not a received RF signal strength is below a threshold in response to the alert.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the geographic location is stored as part of an RF coverage area evaluation only if the received RF signal strength is below the threshold.

11. An originating communications device, comprising:

communications circuitry to transmit a request to initiate a call with a recipient mobile device;

a call processing controller to determine that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call; and

a text messaging controller to generate a text message, in response to the determination that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call, that is to be transmitted to the recipient device to notify a user of the recipient device regarding radio frequency (RF) coverage of the recipient device.

12. The originating communications device of claim 11, further comprising:

a user interface to prompt a user of the originating device to confirm, before transmitting the text message.

13. The originating communications device of claim 11, wherein the call processing controller determines that the call failed to complete by detecting no rings before the call is routed to one of a voicemail of a user of the recipient device and a pre-recorded carrier message.

14. The originating communications device of claim 11, wherein the call processing controller determines that the call failed to complete by detecting too few rings before the call is routed to one of a voicemail of a user of the recipient device and a pre-recorded carrier message.

15. The originating communications device of claim 11, wherein the text messaging controller includes in the text message a predetermined code that indicates a type of RF coverage area in which the recipient device is located.

16. The originating communications device of claim 11, wherein the call processing controller determines that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call by detecting that an RF communication link to the recipient device cannot be established.

17. A recipient mobile device, comprising:

RF communications circuitry to receive a text message that indicates a failure of the recipient device to connect with a call from an originating device;

geopositioning circuitry to determine a current geographic location of the recipient device in response to the text message; and

data storage circuitry to store the determined geographic location as a poor RF coverage area.

18. The recipient mobile device of claim 17, further comprising:

RF signal strength detector to measure a received RF signal strength in response to the text message.

19. The recipient mobile device of claim 17, further comprising:

alert circuitry to alert a user of the recipient device that the user is near the stored geographic location.

20. The recipient mobile device of claim 17, further comprising:

text message processing circuitry to parse the text message for a predetermined code that indicates the recipient device is in an area of potentially poor RF coverage.

21. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable medium containing stored instructions that program an originating communications device to initiate a call with a recipient mobile device, determine that the recipient device has failed to connect with the call and in response prompt a user of the originating device to confirm that a text message, which indicates said failure of the recipient device to connect with the call, is to be automatically generated and transmitted to the recipient device.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium contains additional stored instructions that program the originating device to include in the text message a predetermined code that indicates the recipient device is in an area of potentially poor radio frequency coverage.

23. An article of manufacture, comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable medium containing stored instructions that program a recipient mobile device to, in response to receiving a text message, determine that the text message is a poor radio frequency (RF) coverage alert and in response determine a current geographic location of the recipient device, and store the current geographic location as a poor RF coverage area.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium contains additional stored instructions that program the recipient device to provide a warning alert whenever the recipient device is near the geographic location.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the stored instructions program the recipient device to determine that the text message is a poor RF coverage alert by parsing the text message for a code that indicates the recipient device is in an area of potentially poor RF coverage.