Method and apparatus for sender controllable modalities

• US 7,373,181 B2
• Filed: 10/24/2003
• Issued: 05/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Colonna, Frank C., Ferrans, James C., Vogedes, Jerome O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng; George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Afshar; Kamran
• Application Number:
  US10/692,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20050101302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,663 Days
• Field of Search: 455/567, 455/410, 455/411, 455/412.2, 455/415, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/550.1, 455/556.2, 455 901- 902, 455/425, 455/414.2, 455418-420, 340/825.36, 340/7.39, 340/7.28, 340 758- 763, 709203-207, 348/14.05, 379/102.01, 379/88.12, 379/100.05, 379/376.8, 379/374.01
• US Class Current: 455/567
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

A method and apparatus (110) for sender controllable modalities includes the step of generating a communication command (108). The method and apparatus further includes generating a priority command (110) wherein the priority command includes a modality alert command. The priority command (108) may be any suitable command indicating a level of priority as it relates to the communication command (110). The method and apparatus further includes thereupon transmitting the communication command and the priority command (112) to the recipient device (120). The method and apparatus further includes the recipient device (120) verifying the sender device (100) and performing an internal verification (124) of whether the sender device (100) has the ability to override the internal modality setting and to verify if the priority level requests overriding the internal modality setting.

Claims

1. An apparatus for sender controllable modalities, the apparatus comprising:

a notification system having an internal alert modality setting;

a receiver operably coupled to the notification system, wherein the receiver receives a communication command and a priority command that indicates a level of priority as related to the communication command and from a sender device;

a verification module operably coupled to the receiver such that the verification module verifies the sender device and the priority command so that if the sender device is verified and the priority command is verified, a modality alert command is provided to the notification system to override the internal modality setting, wherein the modality alert command is disposed within a notification command; and

a notification device operably coupled to the notification system such that in response to the notification command, the notification device provides an alert in accordance with the modality alert command.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a position location device such that the position location device generates a location indicator;

a transmitter operably coupled to the position location device such that the transmitter transmits the location indicator to an intermediate server, wherein the communication command and the priority command may be received from the intermediate server based on the location indicator.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the modality alert command includes instructions such that the alert is at least one of the following:

a vibration, a predetermined ring tone, one or more beeps, one or more flashing lights, a wake-up command and a defined output multi-modal output modality setting.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the verification module further includes a memory device storing a plurality of sender device identifiers and the internal modality setting such that the verification module verifies that the sender device may override the internal modality setting based on a comparison of the sender device with the plurality of sender device identifiers.

5. A method for sender controllable modalities in a recipient device, the method comprising:

receiving a communication command and a priority command that indicates a level of priority as related to the communication command and from a sender device;

verifying the sender device such that the sender device may override an internal modality setting;

if the sender device is verified, verifying the priority command such that the priority command has a priority level to override the internal modality setting; and

if the sender device is verified and the priority command is verified, overriding the internal modality setting.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

prior to receiving a communication command and a priority command, transmitting a proximity indicator indicating the general location of the recipient device.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the modality alert command includes at least one of the following:

a vibratory alert, a ring-tone, a wake-up command, a text-based alert, an illumination alert and a defined output multi-modal output modality setting.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the communication command may be at least one of the following:

a caller identification, a text message, an auditory message and a visual message.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of receiving the communication command and the priority command from the sender device further includes receiving the communication command and the priority command to from intermediate server wherein the intermediate server receives the communication command and the priority command from the sender device.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of verifying the sender device may be performed on the intermediate server and the step of verifying the priority command may be performed on the intermediate server.

11. A system for sender controllable modalities, the system comprising:

a sending device including;

a priority command generator capable of generating a priority command that indicates a level of priority as related to a communication command and that includes a modality alert command;

a communication command generator capable of generating the communication command; and

a transmitter operably coupled to the priority command generator and the communication command generator such that the priority command and the communication command are transmitted to a recipient device; and

the recipient device including;

a notification system having an internal alert modality setting;

a receiver operably coupled to the notification system, wherein the receiver receives the communication command and the priority command from a sender device;

a verification module operably coupled to the receiver such that the verification module verifies the sender device and the priority command so that if the sender device is verified and the priority command is verified, a modality alert command is provided to the notification system to override the internal modality setting, wherein the modality alert command is disposed within a notification command; and

a notification device operably coupled to the notification system such that in response to the notification command, the notification device provides an alert in accordance with the modality alert command.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the sender device further includes an input device operably coupled to the communication command generator such that the communication command generator generates the communication command in response to an input communication command and the input device operable coupled to the priority command generator such that the priority command generator generates the modality alert in response to an input priority command.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the recipient device further includes a position location device such that the position location device generates a location indicator;

and a transmitter operably coupled to the position location device such that the transmitter transmits the location indicator to an intermediate server, wherein the communication command and the priority command may be received from the intermediate server based on the location indicator.

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the communication command includes a multi-modal message such that the internal modality setting provides for an output display of the communication command and the modality alert command includes instructions for adjusting the form of output display for the communication command.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the modality alert command includes instructions such that the alert is at least one of the following:

a vibration, a predetermined ring tone, one or more beeps, one or more flashing lights, a wake-up command and a defined multi-modal output modality setting.