Apparatus and method for facilitating contact selection in communication devices

• US 7,580,363 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2004
• Issued: 08/25/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Gheorghiu, Catalin, Salmenkaita, Jukka-Pekka, Toivonen, Hannu, Sorvari, Antti, Kahari, Markus
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Ajit
• Application Number:
  US10/919,020
• Publication Number:
  US 20060035632A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,835 Days
• Field of Search: 455/557, 455/418
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27453 Directories allowing storage of additional subscriber data, e.g. metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs

Abstract

An apparatus and method for facilitating user selection of communication recipients via communication devices. Communication attributes of previous communication events involving the communication device are monitored. Selection criteria are established based on the monitored communication attributes. One or more adaptive recipient history lists are maintained, which correspond to contacts that are affiliated with the communication events satisfying the selection criteria. At least one of the adaptive recipient history lists are presented to the user via the communication device, thereby allowing the user to select the intended recipient via more relevant, focused short lists of likely recipients.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring one or more communication attributes of previous communication events involving device-to-device communications between a user of a communication device and other device users;

determining a frequency of the communication events based on the monitored communication attributes for each of the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events;

maintaining one or more sets of selectable contact identifiers corresponding to the other device users that are affiliated with the determined frequency of the communication events; and

presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers of the other device users to the user via the communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising facilitating user selection of one or more of the contact identifiers presented via a user interface of the communication device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising directing at least one current communication to the contacts corresponding to the one or more contact identifiers selected by the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitored communication attributes comprise any one or more of a contact identifier, an incoming communication indication, an outgoing communication indication, a communication type, a communication duration, a message type, or a time elapsed from one or more previous communications.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the communication type includes any one or more of a voice communication or a messaging communication.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the messaging communication comprises any one or more of a text message, a multimedia message, or an e-mail message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

maintaining one or more sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises maintaining one or more adaptive recipient history lists corresponding to the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events that correspond to the determined frequency.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a frequency of the communication events comprises determining a frequency of the communication events directed from the contacts to the communication device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a frequency of the communication events comprises determining a frequency of the communication events directed from the communication device to the contacts.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a frequency of the communication events comprises determining a frequency of the communication events directed either from the communication device to the contacts or from the contacts to the communication device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein:

determining a frequency of the communication events comprises determining a frequency of the communication events of one or more particular communication types; and

maintaining one or more adaptive recipient history lists comprises maintaining a plurality of the adaptive recipient history lists to respectively correspond to the one or more particular communication types.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the communication types comprise any one or more of a voice communication, text message, multimedia message, and e-mail message.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a frequency of the communication events comprises determining a frequency of the communication events occurring within a time period for each of the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing one or more weighting factors by determining a recency and the frequency of the communication events for each of the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events; and

maintaining one or more sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises maintaining one or more adaptive recipient history lists corresponding to the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events that correspond to the specified frequency and recency.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises presenting the at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers in response to a user request for presentation of the at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises presenting the at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers in response to invoking a communication application via the communication device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein presenting the at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers in response to invoking a communication application comprises presenting the set of selectable contact identifiers corresponding to the communication type of the invoked communication application.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a link to a contact database if the selectable contact identifier for an intended communication recipient is not presented via the presented set of selectable contact identifiers.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

facilitating user entry of at least a portion of a contact identifier via a user interface; and

utilizing the one or more sets of selectable contact identifiers as a basis for auto-completion of the user entry of the contact identifier.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein utilizing the one or more sets of selectable contact identifiers as the basis for auto-completion completion comprises:

presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers to the user; and

eliminating from the presentation the selectable contact identifiers that do not match the portion of the contact identifier entered by the user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein facilitating user entry of at least a portion of a contact identifier and presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises facilitating the user entry and presenting the at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers via an idle screen of the communication device.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein facilitating user entry of at least a portion of a contact identifier and presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises facilitating the user entry and presenting the at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers via a communication application of the communication device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein facilitating user entry of at least a portion of the contact identifier comprises facilitating user entry of at least a portion of the contact identifier into a “

To”

field of a user interface to the communication application.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the communication application comprises any of a text messaging application, a multimedia messaging application, an e-mail application, or a telephony application.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises presenting a perceivable portion of the at least one set of selectable contact identifiers to the user via the communication device.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers comprises presenting all of the at least one set of selectable contact identifiers to the user via the communication device.

27. A method comprising:

monitoring one or more communication attributes of previous communication events involving device-to-device communications between a user of a communication device;

determining a frequency of the communication events based on the monitored communication attributes for each of the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events;

maintaining one or more sets of contact identifiers of the other device users involved in the communication events based on the frequency of the communication events;

facilitating entry of voice-entered contact identifiers;

generating a plurality of possible contacts corresponding to the voice-entered contact identifiers; and

combining at least one of the sets of contact identifiers with the generated plurality of possible contacts to create a set of selectable contact identifiers; and

presenting at least a portion of the set of selectable contact identifiers of the other device users to the user via the communication device.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein combining at least one of the sets of contact identifiers with the generated plurality of possible contacts comprises applying the set of contact identifiers to the generated plurality of possible contacts to reduce the generated plurality of possible contacts to those matching the applied set of contact identifiers.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein combining at least one of the sets of contact identifiers with the generated plurality of possible contacts comprises applying the generated plurality of possible contacts to the set of contact identifiers to reduce the set of contact identifiers to those matching the generated plurality of possible contacts.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein combining at least one of the sets of contact identifiers with the generated plurality of possible contacts comprises generating the plurality of possible contacts from only the set of contact identifiers.

31. The method of claim 27, wherein presenting at least a portion of the set of selectable contact identifiers comprises audibly presenting at least a portion of the set of selectable contact identifiers.

32. The method of claim 27, wherein presenting at least a portion of the set of selectable contact identifiers comprises audibly presenting at least a portion of the set of selectable contact identifiers in an order dictated by the one or more sets of contact identifiers.

33. An apparatus comprising:

a memory to store selection criteria including one or more frequencies in which communication events occur;

an adaptive list engine configured to monitor at least the frequency of the communication events involving device-to-device communications between a user of the apparatus and other device users, and to maintain one or more adaptive lists of contact identifiers of the other device users involved in the communication events occurring at one or more of the monitored frequencies; and

a user interface to present at least a portion of one or more of the adaptive lists of contact identifiers to the user, and to facilitate user selection of one or more of the contact identifiers in the presented adaptive lists as intended recipients of a current communication.

34. The aparatus as in claim 33, wherein the communication events involving the communication device comprise communications directed to or initiated from the communication device.

35. The aparatus as in claim 33, wherein the adaptive list engine comprises a processor executing instructions configured to monitor the frequency of the communication events, and to maintain the one or more adaptive lists of contact identifiers corresponding to the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events occurring at the one or more of the monitored frequencies.

36. The aparatus as in claim 33, further comprising:

a speech recognition module to receive voice-entered contact identifiers and to generate a plurality of possible contacts corresponding to the voice-entered contact identifiers; and

a combination module coupled to the speech recognition module and to the adaptive list engine to combine at least one of the adaptive lists with the generated plurality of possible contacts to create a set of selectable contact identifiers.

37. The apparatus as in claim 33, further comprising a speech recognition module to receive voice-entered contact identifiers and to generate a plurality of possible contacts corresponding to the voice-entered contact identifiers, wherein the speech recognition module is coupled to the adaptive list engine to receive the one or more adaptive lists and to modify the plurality of possible contacts based on the one or more adaptive lists.

38. The aparatus as in claim 33, further comprising a speech recognition module to receive voice-entered contact identifiers and to generate a plurality of possible contacts corresponding to the voice-entered contact identifiers, wherein the adaptive list engine is coupled to the speech recognition module to receive the plurality of possible contacts and to modify the one or more adaptive lists based on the plurality of possible contacts provided by the speech recognition module.

39. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which are executable by a computer system to perform steps comprising:

monitoring one or more communication attributes of previous communication events involving device-to-device communications between a user of a communication device and other device users;

determining a frequency of the communication events based on the monitored communication attributes for each of the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events;

maintaining one or more sets of selectable contact identifiers corresponding to the other device users that are affiliated with the determined frequency of the communication events; and

presenting at least a portion of at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers of the other device users to the user via a user interface.

40. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon which are executable by a computer system to perform steps comprising:

monitoring one or more communication attributes of previous communication events involving device-to-device communications between a user of a communication device;

determining a frequency of the communication events based on the monitored communication attributes for each of the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events;

maintaining one or more sets of contact identifiers of the other device users involved in the communication events based on the frequency of the communication events;

facilitating entry of voice-entered contact identifiers;

generating a plurality of possible contacts corresponding to the voice-entered contact identifiers;

combining at least one of the sets of contact identifiers with the generated plurality of possible contacts to create a set of selectable contact identifiers; and

presenting at least a portion of the set of selectable contact identifiers of the other device users to the user via a user interface.

41. A communication device comprising:

means for monitoring one or more communication attributes of previous communication events involving device-to-device communications between a user of the communication device and other device users;

means for determining a frequency of the communication events based on the monitored communication attributes for each of the contacts that are affiliated with the communication events;

means for maintaining one or more sets of selectable contact identifiers corresponding to the other device users that are affiliated with the determined frequency of the communication events; and

a user interface to present at least a portion of at least one of the sets of selectable contact identifiers of the other device users to the user.