Method and system for enhanced messaging

• US 7,403,972 B1
• Filed: 03/26/2003
• Issued: 07/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IpVenture, Inc.
• Original Assignee: IpVenture, Inc.
• Inventors: Lau, Chung, Thomas, C. Douglass
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US10/397,474
• Time in Patent Office: 1,945 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/207, 709/217, 709/218, 709/226, 709/229, 709/250, 715/740
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse, heart rate, blood pressure or blood flow; Combined pulse/heart-rate/blood pressure determination; Evaluating a cardiovascular condition not otherwise provided for, e.g. using combinations of techniques provided for in this group with electrocardiography or electroauscultation; Heart catheters for measuring blood pressure
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/24 Detecting, measuring or recording bioelectric or biomagnetic signals of the body or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6801 specially adapted to be attached to or worn on the body surface
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7282 Event detection, e.g. detecting unique waveforms indicative of a medical condition A61B5/4094, A61B5/4818, A61B5/349, A61B5/0823 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0832 Special goods or special handling procedures, e.g. handling of hazardous or fragile goods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 : for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 : relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 : for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 : for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 : specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 : specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 : Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 : Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 : Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

Techniques for acquiring, sending, receiving or using status information from a remote location over a network are disclosed. The status information is transmitted over the network between or among electronic devices. The status information can be provided by one or more sensors associated with the electronic device that is transmitting the status information. The status information can be transmitted with messages so as to enhance the messages. The electronic devices include at least computing devices, such as personal computers, personal digital assistants, pagers, and mobile telephones.

Claims

1. A method for providing communications between computing devices, said method comprising:

obtaining a message at a first computing device to be delivered to a second computing device;

acquiring status information at the first computing device, the status information including at least user-related condition information pertaining to a user of the first computing device;

associating the status information to the message; and

sending, at the request of the user of the first computing device, the message along with the status information to the second computing device,

wherein the message is created by the user of the first computing device,

wherein the message is from the user of the first computing device to be received by another user via the second computing device, and

wherein the message contains text entered by the user of the first computing device and the message is distinct from the status information, which serves to augment the message.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said acquiring of the status information is performed automatically without user interaction.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least one of position information and environmental information.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein said acquiring of the status information is performed automatically without user interaction.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the status information is acquired by a plurality of sensors.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the portion of the status information further includes position information and environmental information.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user-related condition information is acquired at the first computing device by at least one sensor device that is internal to the first computing device, attached to the first computing device, or wirelessly connectable to the first computing device.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said associating of the status information to the message attaches the status information to the message.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said associating of the status information to the message embeds the status information within the message.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least position information.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least device-related condition information.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least environmental information.

13. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least two of position information, environmental information and device-related condition information.

14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one of the first computing device and the second computing device is a mobile communication device.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the mobile communication device is a mobile telephone.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the status information is acquired by a sensor.

17. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the sensor is internal to the first computing device.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the sensor is provided in a sensor device separate from the first computing device.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the sensor device wirelessly couples to the first computing device.

20. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the message is a text message.

21. A method as recited in claim 20, wherein the text message is an instant message or short text message.

22. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least position information related to the first computing device,

wherein the user-related condition information and the position information are acquired from different types of sensors, and

wherein the first computing device and the second computing devices are mobile communication devices.

23. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the second computing device is a personal computer.

24. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

determining whether the second computing device or a user thereof is permitted to obtain the status information from the first computing device; and

blocking said sending of the status information to the second computing device when said determining determines that the second computing device or a user thereof is not permitted to obtain the status information from the first computing device.

25. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

determining an extent to which the second computing device or a user thereof is permitted to obtain the status information from the first computing device; and

limiting said sending of at least a portion of the status information to the second computing device based on the extent to which the second computing device or a user thereof is permitted to obtain the status information from the first computing device.

26. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the status information further includes at least first position information associated with the first computing device, and

wherein said method further comprises processing at least the first position information of the status information received at the second computing device to determine and display an indication of relative positions of the first and second computing devices.

27. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein the second computing device has second position information associated therewith, and wherein said processing determines the relative positions based on the first position information and the second position information.

28. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

processing the status information to categorize the type of movement pertaining to the first computing device.

29. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein said method further comprises:

displaying a graphical indication of the type of movement.

30. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

processing the status information to determine a users health state.

31. A method as recited in claim 30, wherein said method further comprises:

displaying a graphical indication of the user'"'"'s health state.

32. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

processing the status information to determine a user'"'"'s stress level.

33. A method as recited in claim 32, wherein said method further comprises:

displaying a graphical indication of the user'"'"'s stress level.

34. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

processing the status information to determine a user'"'"'s emotional state.

35. A method as recited in claim 34, wherein said method further comprises:

displaying a graphical indication of the users emotional state.

36. A method as recited in claim 34, wherein said obtaining of the message comprises receiving the message via a user interacting with the first computing device.

37. A method for providing communications between computing devices, said method comprising:

obtaining a message at a first mobile communication device to be delivered to a second mobile communication device, the message being from a user of the first mobile communication device, and the message to be received by another user via the second mobile communication device;

determining whether status information is to accompany the message;

sending the message without any status information when said determining determines that status information is not to accompany the message; and

acquiring status information at the first mobile communication device and then sending the message and the status information to the second mobile communication device when said determining determines that status information is to accompany the message,

wherein the status information includes at least position information and at least one of user-related condition information or environmental information, the user-related condition information pertaining to the user of the first mobile communication device, and the environmental information being associated with an environment pertaining the first mobile communication device or the user thereof.

38. A method as recited in claim 37, wherein the status information is embedded within the message prior to said sending the message to the second mobile communication device.

39. A method as recited in claim 38, wherein the status information is embedded within the message in a hidden manner.

40. A method as recited in claim 38, wherein the message has a markup language format, and the status information is embedded in the message using the markup language format.

41. A method as recited in claim 37, wherein the status information is attached to the message prior to said sending the message to the second mobile communication device.

42. A method as recited in claim 37, wherein said determining operates to determine whether status information is to accompany the message based on at least one of a user input and predetermined criteria.

43. A method as recited in claim 42, wherein the predetermined criteria is based on at least one of time and the status information.

44. A method for displaying a message on a display device for a user of a computing device, said method comprising:

receiving a message from another computing device over a network;

determining whether the message includes at least status information;

extracting the status information from the message when said determining determines that the message includes at least the status information; and

displaying the message and at least one representation of the status information on the display device following said extracting when said determining determines that the message includes at least the status information,

wherein the message is initiated by a user of the another computing device, wherein the message contains text entered by the user of the another computing device, and wherein the message is different from the status information, which serves to augment the message.

45. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein said method further comprises:

displaying the message without any representation of the status information on the display device when said determining determines that the message does not include status information.

46. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein the message is a text message, and wherein the network comprises at least one of a wired network and a wireless network.

47. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein at least one of the computing device and the another computing device are mobile communication devices.

48. A method as recited in claim 44, wherein said method further comprises:

analyzing or interpreting the status information after being extracted from the message to identify at least one status condition.

49. A method as recited in claim 48, wherein the at least one representation being displayed is a symbol that represents the status condition.

50. A method as recited in claim 48, wherein the status information pertains to at least one of the another computing device, its user, or the environment which the another computing device or the user is in.