System and method for using SMS and tagged message to send position and travel information to server and/or to peers

• US 8,060,123 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2007
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ismail, Samir
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro; Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Johnson; Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/725,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20080233981A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,702 Days
• Field of Search: 455/457, 455/466
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

The GPS position or other short information related to a wireless telephone is encapsulated in a tagged protocol such as XML and sent using short message service (SMS) to peers or Internet servers, which can parse the tagged messages and extract, e.g., position information for display on a map.

Claims

1. A wireless telephone, comprising:

at least one wireless telephony transceiver;

at least one input device;

at least one position receiver configured for outputting geographic position information; and

at least one processor receiving user-generated signals from the input device and configured for executing logic to encapsulate the geographic position information and/or other information in a message having a tagged protocol, the message being sent using short message service (SMS) to a receiver, wherein the processor;

receives a user-input speed from the input device;

presents at least a first graphical user interface (U/I) visibly listing items of data from which a user can select an item of data to be sent, an item of data to be sent as selected by the user being transmitted by the wireless telephone, at least a first item on the list being a position of the telephone and at least a second item on the list being an arrival time at a location determined by the processor based at least in part on the speed input by a user; and

further wherein the processor presents at least a second graphical U/I visibly listing possible recipients for the item of data.

2. The telephone of claim 1, wherein the geographic position information is encapsulated in the message.

3. The telephone of claim 2, wherein the position information is encapsulated in the message automatically without user action and sent to a server.

4. The telephone of claim 2, wherein the processor presents a user interface to the user from which the user can select to send the position information to a user-selected recipient.

5. The telephone of claim 1, wherein the protocol is extensible markup language (XML).

6. The telephone of claim 1, wherein the recipient is a wireless telephone peer of an end user, and the message is sent directly to the peer without passing through an Internet server.

7. The telephone of claim 1, wherein the recipient is an Internet server.