Telephone number parsing and linking

• US 7,835,504 B1
• Filed: 11/04/2003
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Matiskella, David J., Donald, Richard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan; Joseph T
• Application Number:
  US10/701,937
• Time in Patent Office: 2,569 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.22, 379/88.13, 379/88.08, 379/88.11
• US Class Current: 379/88.11
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs logging of telephone numbers H04M1/56, H04M1/57

Abstract

The present invention relates to identifying phone numbers in a text string including multiple data types and multiple number formatting types. A device such as a mobile device receives text strings from, for example, a memory, a networked content provider, another mobile device, or a keypad. A parsing engine comprises a telephone number module to analyze the text string by applying a set of parsing rules from a parsing rules database that describe telephone number characteristics. The parsing engine also comprises a non-telephone number module to identify non-telephone numbers such as an IP address, an email, a social security number, or the like. The parsing engine outputs parsing information including identified telephone numbers to a display application. The display application renders a user interface that displays the text string other than the telephone number in a first format and the telephone number in a second format including an activatable link.

Claims

1. A method for identifying one or more telephone numbers within a text string, comprising:

receiving the text string;

recognizing a portion of the text string less than the entire text string having a potential telephone number;

identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number by applying a set of number parsing rules to the portion of the text string, the number parsing rules comprising a set of telephone number rules to identify a telephone number by comparing characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more formats associated with telephone numbers;

determining whether the potential telephone number is a telephone number or a non-telephone number, wherein the parsing rules further comprise a set of non-telephone number rules which compare characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more characteristics associated with non-telephone numbers,

wherein the set of non-telephone number rules identify a non-telephone number comprising an electronic mail address or a Uniform Resource Locator address;

displaying, in an SMS (Short Message Service) application, the portion of the text string not including the potential telephone number in a first format;

displaying a pop-up box including the potential telephone number and requesting user verification of the potential telephone number as a telephone number;

responsive to receiving user verification of the potential telephone number, identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number and creating a new telephone number rule based on the user verified telephone number from the pop-up box; and

displaying, in the SMS application, the telephone number in a second format as a link, wherein the link is activatable to dial the telephone number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephone number comprises one selected from the group consisting of:

a local telephone number, a national telephone number, and an international telephone number.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the telephone number comprises:

identifying the telephone number in a low tolerance mode.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying the telephone number comprises:

identifying the telephone number in a high tolerance mode.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying the telephone number in a high tolerance mode comprises:

identifying the telephone number with high tolerance telephone number rules, wherein the high tolerance telephone number rules allow more format character variations then the telephone number rules.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first format comprises a first font and the second format comprises a second font.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first format comprises a first color and the second format comprises a second color.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the link is activatable to store the telephone number in a telephone book.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of telephone rules a sequential relationship between a plurality of format characters.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one parsing rule in the set of parsing rules is based on a plurality of format characters within a single text string.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of telephone number rules comprises at least one from the group consisting of:

a local telephone number rule, a national telephone number rule, and an international telephone number rule.

36. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of non-telephone number rules further identify a non-telephone number comprising a date.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of non-telephone number rules further identifier a non-telephone number comprising an Internet Protocol address or a social security number.

12. A computer-readable storage device having computer program logic embodied thereon for identifying one or more telephone numbers within a text string, comprising:

receiving a text string;

recognizing a portion of the text string less than the entire text string having a potential telephone number;

identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number by applying a set of number parsing rules to the portion of the text string, the number parsing rules comprising a set of telephone number rules to identify a telephone number by comparing characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more formats associated with telephone numbers;

determining whether a potential telephone number is a telephone number or a non-application telephone number, wherein the parsing rules further comprise a set of non-telephone number rules which compare characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more characteristics associated with non-telephone numbers,

wherein the set of non-telephone number rules identify a non-telephone number comprising an electronic mail address or a Uniform Resource Locator address;

displaying, in an SMS (Short Message Service) application, the portion of the text string not including the potential telephone number in a first format;

displaying a pop-up box including the potential telephone number and requesting user verification of the potential telephone number as a telephone number;

responsive to receiving user verification of the potential telephone number, identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number and creating a new telephone number rule based on the user verified telephone number from the pop-up box; and

displaying, in the SMS application, the telephone number in a second format as a link, wherein the link is activatable to dial the telephone number.

13. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the telephone number comprises one selected from the group consisting of:

a local telephone number, a national telephone number, and an international telephone number.

14. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the identifying the telephone number comprises:

identifying the telephone number in a low tolerance mode.

15. The computer product of claim 12, wherein identifying the telephone number comprises:

identifying the telephone number in a high tolerance mode.

16. The computer product of claim 15, wherein identifying the telephone number in a high tolerance mode comprises:

identifying the telephone number with high tolerance telephone number rules, wherein the high tolerance telephone number rules allow more format character variations then the telephone number rules.

17. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the first format comprises a first font and the second format comprises a second font.

18. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the first format comprises a first color and the second format comprises a second color.

19. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the link is activatable to store the telephone number in a telephone book.

20. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the set of telephone rules a sequential relationship between a plurality of format characters.

21. The computer product of claim 12, wherein at least one parsing rule in the set of number parsing rules is based on a plurality of format characters within a single text string.

22. The computer product of claim 12, wherein the set of telephone number rules comprises at least one from the group consisting of:

a local telephone number rule, a national telephone number rule, and an international telephone number rule.

38. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the set of non-telephone number rules further identify a non-telephone number comprising a date.

39. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the set of non-telephone number rules further identifier a non-telephone number comprising an Internet Protocol address or a social security number.

23. A mobile device for identifying telephone numbers in text strings used by applications on the mobile device, the mobile device comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor;

a parsing engine stored in the memory and executable by the processor, the parsing engine comprising;

a delimiter module to recognize a portion of the text string less than the entire text string having a potential telephone number;

a telephone number module to identify the potential telephone number as a telephone number by applying a set of number parsing rules to the portion of the text string, the number parsing rules comprising a set of telephone number rules to identify a telephone number by comparing characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more formats associated with telephone numbers; and

a non-telephone number module to identify the potential telephone number as a non-telephone number by applying the number parsing rules, the number parsing rules further comprising a set of non-telephone number rules to identify a non-telephone number which compare characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more characteristics associated with non-telephone numbers, the non-telephone number comprising an electronic mail address or a Uniform Resource Locator address; and

a plurality of applications stored in the memory and executable by the processor, each application configured to provide a text string to the parsing engine and in response receive an identified telephone number within the text string from the parsing engine, each application further configured to display the identified telephone number in a first format and a portion of the text string not including the identified telephone number in a second format different from the first format;

displaying a pop-up box including the potential telephone number and requesting user verification of the potential telephone number as a telephone number;

responsive to receiving user verification of the potential telephone number, identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number and creating a new telephone number rule based on the user verified telephone number from the pop-up box; and

displaying the second format as a link, wherein the link is activatable to dial the telephone number.

24. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the telephone number comprises one selected from the group consisting of:

a local telephone number, a national telephone number, and an international telephone number.

25. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the telephone number module identifies a telephone number in a low tolerance mode.

26. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the telephone number module identifies a telephone number in a high tolerance mode.

27. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the first format comprises a first font and the second format comprises a second font.

28. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the first format comprises a first color and the second format comprises a second color.

29. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the link is activatable to store the telephone number in a telephone book.

30. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein one of the plurality of applications comprises a web browser.

31. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein one of the plurality of applications comprises SMS (Short Message Service) application.

32. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the set of telephone rules a sequential relationship between a plurality of format characters.

33. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein at least one parsing rule in the set of number parsing rules is based on a plurality of format characters within a single text string.

34. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the set of telephone number rules comprises at least one from the group consisting of:

a local telephone number rule, a national telephone number rule, and an international telephone number rule.

35. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the delimiter module receives the text string from a text buffer.

40. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the set of non-telephone number rules further identify a non-telephone number comprising a date.

41. The mobile device of claim 23, wherein the set of non-telephone number rules further identifier a non-telephone number comprising an Internet Protocol address or a social security number.