Method, device arrangement, terminal device of a cellular network and a program application in the terminal device for giving a location-based alert

• US 7,221,948 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2004
• Issued: 05/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/12/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Tokkonen, Timo
• Primary Examiner(s): Kincaid, Lester G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Au, Gary
• Application Number:
  US10/867,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20050009573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/414.2
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a device arrangement utilizing the method and a mobile terminal device (14) belonging to the device arrangement, in which method for giving an alert to the user of a cellular network terminal device (14), the user at first searches for interesting objects from the information networks (12) by means of a network browser in the data processing device (11), and after that saves the linking information of the found object as a bookmark into the personal bookmark archive (13). The bookmark archive can be located either in the cellular network terminal device (14), or in some data processing device, such as a server, to which the terminal device (14) can establish a data transfer connection. The information in the bookmark archive (13) is used for giving an alert to the mobile terminal device (14) about an object that interests the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing an alert about an object, the method comprising:

searching for objects from information networks by means of a network browser;

saving the information of the object as a bookmark in a personal bookmark archive, the information comprising a piece of information indicating a geographical location of the object, wherein acceptance of the piece of information causes the geographical location information of the object to become part of the bookmark; and

using the piece of information of the bookmark indicating the geographical location of the object as an alert criterion in a terminal device.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the bookmark archive used is in the terminal device of the cellular network.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein only bookmarks from the bookmark archive that are accessible by the terminal device are utilized for providing an alert in the terminal device.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the alert is provided only of the bookmarks in the memory of the terminal device that are accessible on the basis of a geographic proximity of the terminal device.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the positioning of the terminal device is carried out either by means of GPS or by utilizing a cellular network serving the terminal device.

6. The method according to claim 3 wherein after the received alert, no alert is provided for the bookmark during a specified period of time or before the terminal has left the area in which the alert was provided.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein the bookmark archive is located in a data processing device or in a server in a data transfer network, from which the bookmarks of a certain geographical area are transferred to the terminal device for providing the alert.

8. A device arrangement for providing an alert to a terminal device of a cellular network, the device arrangement comprising a data processing device with a network browser for searching for objects from information networks;

a user-specific electronic bookmark archive for saving linking information of the objects found from the information network as bookmarks, the linking information comprising a piece of information indicating the geographical location of the object, wherein acceptance of the piece of information causes the geographical location information of the object to become part of the bookmark, the piece of information being arranged as an alert criterion in the terminal device, and a mobile terminal device of a cellular network, to which bookmarks of the bookmark archive can be transferred for providing an alert about an object of interest.

9. The device arrangement according to claim 8 wherein the bookmark archive is in a server connected to the cellular network.

10. The device arrangement according to claim 9 wherein bookmarks of only the objects that are accessible by the terminal device are arranged to be downloaded to the mobile terminal device from the bookmark archive.

11. The device arrangement according to claim 10 wherein the alert to the terminal device is arranged to be provided of a bookmark in the bookmark archive that on the basis of the location of the terminal device is accessible by the terminal device.

12. The device arrangement according to claim 11 wherein the positioning of the terminal device is arranged to be carried out either by means of GPS or by utilizing a cellular network serving the terminal device.

13. The device arrangement according to claim 11 wherein after acknowledgement of the received alert, no alert is provided for the bookmark during a specified period of time or before the terminal has left the area in which the alert was provided.

14. A terminal device of a cellular network, the terminal device comprising:

means for transmitting and receiving messages, a control unit, a memory, a user interface, and a world wide web browser, the terminal device being arranged to save in its memory a world wide web browser bookmark of an object and a piece of information indicating the geographical location of the object associated with the world wide web browser bookmark, wherein acceptance of the piece of information causes the geographical location information of the object to become part of the bookmark, the piece of information being arranged to be used in the terminal device as a criterion for alerting the user.

15. The terminal device according to claim 14 which also comprises means for determining the geographical location of the terminal device.

16. The terminal device according to claim 15 wherein the means for determining the geographical location of the terminal device comprise a GPS positioning device.

17. The terminal device according to claim 14 wherein the world wide web browser bookmarks saved in the terminal device and the location information of the objects associated with the world wide web browser bookmarks constitute a bookmark archive.

18. The terminal device according to claim 17 wherein only world wide web browser bookmarks of the bookmark archive that are accessible by the terminal device are arranged to be utilized as alert criteria in the mobile terminal device.

19. The terminal device according to claim 18 wherein the alert is arranged to be provided of world wide web browser bookmarks in the memory of the terminal device that are accessible based on proximity to the terminal device.

20. The terminal device according to claim 14 wherein after an acknowledged received alert, the terminal device provides no further alert during a specified period of time or before the the terminal has left the area in which the alert was provided.

21. The terminal device according to claim 14 wherein the world wide web browser bookmarks of only the objects that is accessible by the terminal device are arranged to be saved into the mobile terminal device from an external bookmark archive.

22. A computer program saved in a terminal device of a cellular network comprising:

computer readable code means for saving a world wide web browser bookmark archive, which world wide web browser bookmark comprises a piece of information indicating the geographical location of the world wide web browser bookmark, wherein acceptance of the piece of information causes the geographical location information of the object to become part of the bookmark, computer readable code means for processing location information received by the terminal device, and computer readable code means for providing an alert on the basis of the geographical location contained by the world wide web browser bookmark, the world wide web browser bookmark being accessible by the terminal device on the basis of the location information available to the terminal device.