Compression and abbreviation for fixed length messaging

• US 7,315,902 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2002
• Issued: 01/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kirkland, Dustin C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baturay; Alicia
• Application Number:
  US10/324,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20040122979A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,839 Days
• Field of Search: 707/4
• US Class Current: 709/247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/123 Storage facilities
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation

Abstract

A method, computer program product, and data processing system for compressing and abbreviating text messages at a first text messaging device for transport and subsequent interpretation at a second text messaging device is disclosed. A user-defined message length reduction profile for producing human-readable compressed text is associated with a source text message at a first text messaging device. The source text message is then shortened using abbreviations and transformation rules in the profile. The shortened text message can then be transmitted to a second text messaging device. In addition, the compression provided by the present invention, although intended to be human-readable, can be complemented with decompression software to expand the compressed and abbreviated text to its full length and verifying, using a checksum or other error detecting code, that the expanded version corresponds to the original text.

Claims

1. A method for text based messaging using user defined abbreviations, the method comprising:

associating, at a first text messaging device, a message length reduction profile with a source text message;

shortening the source text message only to the extent needed for the source text message to fit within a maximum message length constraint in accordance with the message length reduction profile to obtain a shortened text message;

compressing the message length reduction profile;

transmitting to a second text messaging device the message length reduction profile as compressed;

transmitting to the second text messaging device information that denotes a correspondence between the message length reduction profile and the shortened text message; and

transmitting the shortened text message to the second text messaging device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information that denotes a correspondence between the message length reduction profile and the shortened text message comprises an identification of the message length reduction profile.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the message length reduction profile includes a personal dictionary of abbreviations associated with one of a user of the first text messaging device and a user of the second text messaging device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message length reduction profile includes a designation of compressive transformation rules to be applied to shorten text messages.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the message length reduction profile is associated with a user of the second text messaging device and the source text message is associated with the message length reduction profile in response to the second text messaging device being designated as an intended recipient of the text message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the message length reduction profile is transmitted to the second text messaging device prior to transmitting the shortened text message to the second text messaging device, and wherein the second text messaging device is adapted to perform a lookup operation to retrieve the message length reduction profile from a plurality of stored message length reduction profiles in response to receiving the shortened text message, which has been constructed using the message length reduction profile.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second text messaging device applies the message length reduction profile to the shortened text message to decode the text message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the maximum message length constraint is a pre-defined constraint on a length of the source text message.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the message length reduction profile is known ahead of time by the first text messaging device and the second text messaging device.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the message length reduction profile is one of shared by the first text messaging device and the second text messaging device, and downloadable from a server.

16. The method of claim 3, wherein the personal dictionary of abbreviations is in the form of an associative array.

17. The method of claim 4, wherein the compressive transformation rules map a text message into a shorter but human-readable text message.

9. A method in a data processing system comprising:

receiving a shortened text message that is a shortened version of a source text message only to the extent needed for the source text message to fit within a maximum message length constraint in accordance with a message length reduction profile, wherein at least a portion of the shortened text message includes reduced character set text in which only a subset of a character set associated with the source text message is used;

receiving the message length reduction profile associated with the shortened text message, wherein the message length reduction profile is compressed;

receiving a first error-detecting code associated with the shortened text message;

retrieving a set of full-length text strings corresponding to the reduced character set text;

selecting a full-length text string from the set of full-length text strings, wherein the full-length text string is selected on the basis of the full-length text string being a likely expansion of the reduced character set text;

expanding the shortened text message using the full-length text string to obtain an expanded text message;

calculating a second error-detecting code from the expanded text message; and

comparing the first error-detecting code with the second error-detecting code to determine whether the full-length text string is a proper expansion of the reduced character set text.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to a determination that the full-length text string is not a proper expansion of the reduced character set text, performing a set of actions that includes;

selecting a second full-length text string from the set of full-length text strings; and

expanding the shortened text message using the second full-length text string.

11. A data processing system for text based messaging using user defined abbreviations, the data processing system comprising:

means for associating, at a first text messaging device, a message length reduction profile with a source text message;

means for shortening the source text message only to the extent needed for the source text message to fit within a maximum message length constraint in accordance with the message length reduction profile to obtain a shortened text message;

means for compressing the message length reduction profile;

means for transmitting to a second text messaging device the message length reduction profile as compressed;

means for transmitting to the second text messaging device information that denotes a correspondence between the message length reduction profile and the shortened text message; and

means for transmitting the shortened text message to the second text messaging device.

12. A data processing system comprising:

means for receiving a shortened text message that is a shortened version of a source text message only to the extent needed for the source text message to fit within a maximum message length constraint in accordance with a message length reduction profile, wherein at least a portion of the shortened text message includes reduced character set text in which only a subset of a character set associated with the source text message is used;

means for receiving the message length reduction profile associated with the shortened text message, wherein the message length reduction profile is compressed;

means for receiving a first error-detecting code associated with the shortened text message;

means for retrieving a set of full-length text strings corresponding to the reduced character set text;

means for selecting a full-length text string from the set of full-length text strings, wherein the full-length text string is selected on the basis of the full-length text string being a likely expansion of the reduced character set text;

means for expanding the shortened text message using the full-length text string to obtain an expanded text message;

means for calculating a second error-detecting code from the expanded text message; and

means for comparing the first error-detecting code with the second error-detecting code to determine whether the full-length text string is a proper expansion of the reduced character set text.

13. The data processing system of claim 12, further comprising:

means, responsive to a determination that the full-length text string is not a proper expansion of the reduced character set text, for performing a set of actions that includes;

means for selecting a second full-length text string from the set of full-length text strings; and

means for expanding the shortened text message using the second full-length text string.