I am driving/busy automatic response system for mobile phones

• US 8,359,014 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2010
• Issued: 01/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Julia N M N Olincy, Ronald C. Fish
• Original Assignee: Julia N M N Olincy, Ronald C. Fish
• Inventors: Olincy, Julia N M N, Fish, Ronald C.
• Primary Examiner(s): MIZRAHI, DIANE D
• Application Number:
  US12/658,449
• Publication Number:
  US 20110151852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,079 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 455/466
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/651 Text message transmission triggered by call automatic reactions in messaging within packet-switching networks H04L51/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

A cell phone which has been modified by the addition of software which responds to the press of one or more Busy keys by automatically sending a pre-typed text message to the sender of the latest text message just received or automatically answering an incoming call immediately upon pressing the Busy key and playing a pre-recorded audio message. The outgoing text or audio message can inform the sender of the incoming text or the caller that the user is driving or otherwise engaged and cannot respond immediately. In some embodiments, one or more Busy keys can be added keys or one or more existing keys on the cell phone or on the keypad of the cell phone or on a touchscreen or a visual depiction of a keypad on a touchscreen of the cell phone. In some embodiments, only the text of the automated reply message is entered automatically, and all other commands to launch the SMS service, select the text message to reply to and send the automated reply message are manually given.

Claims

1. A method carried out on a cell phone comprising the steps:

A) receiving a text message on a cell phone;

B) manually selecting and launching a Short Message Service (hereafter SMS) text message application on said cell phone;

C) manually selecting the SMS text message received most recently such that said cell phone displays said most recently received SMS text message;

D) manually putting said SMS text message application into reply mode to reply to said text message selected and displayed in step C;

E) receiving an auto-reply command from a user of said cell phone which causes said cell phone to execute a macro or program to automatically enter the text of an automated reply text message into a buffer memory that stores the text of a text message to be sent and sends said text message stored in said buffer memory, the content of said buffer memory being displayed in a field on a display of said cell phone, said automatically entered text stored in said buffer memory having words to the effect the user of said cell phone is driving or is busy and cannot or chooses to not respond immediately to said text message selected in step C.

2. A method carried out on a cell phone comprising the steps:

A) receiving a text message on said cell phone or receiving an incoming cellular phone call on said cell phone;

B) detecting an event comprised of a “

push”

of a Busy key (SMS) or a “

push”

of a Busy key (Call) on said cell phone and sending an indication that said event occurred to an operating system of said cell phone with a request to send to a Busy application program on said cell phone the fact that said event occurred and the time said event occurred, i.e., the fact that the “

push”

of the Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) occurred where “

push”

or “

pushed”

means any form of receipt of a command indicating the user is busy and cannot or chooses not to respond immediately to the incoming SMS message or phone call including, but not limited to, pushing of a physical button, touching of a spot on a touch screen or recognition of a voice command, and requesting to send to said Busy application program the time the latest SMS text message was received to which the “

push”

of the Busy key (SMS) is a response, and, in the case of a Busy key (SMS) push, requesting to said Busy application program information regarding whether an incoming cellular phone call is currently ringing said cell phone;

C) making a function call to said Busy application program to launch said Busy application program after receiving information that either said Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) was pushed and sending the information identified in step B to said Busy application program;

D) determining if said Busy key (SMS) was “

pushed”

within a predetermined time of the time of receipt of the latest SMS text message, and, if so, automatically selecting the latest text message received and automatically sending a pre-typed text message to the sender of said latest text message without any further interaction with said user of said cell phone;

E) if said Busy key (SMS) was not “

pushed”

within a predetermined time of receipt of the latest text message, determining if said Busy key (Call) was “

pushed”

while an incoming cell call was ringing said cell phone, and, if so automatically answering said incoming cell phone and automatically playing a pre-recorded audio message to said caller; and

F) if steps E and F determine that neither the Busy key (SMS) was pushed within a predetermined time of receipt of the latest SMS text message nor the Busy key (Call) was pushed while an incoming phone call is ringing said cell phone, then shutting down said Busy application program.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein step F further comprises carrying out whatever steps are required on said cell phone executing said Busy application to divert said incoming call to voicemail after playing said pre-recorded audio message.

4. A method carried out on a cell phone comprising the steps:

A) receiving an incoming SMS text message or an incoming phone call on a cell phone;

B) detecting a “

push”

event of a Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) on said cell phone where a “

push”

event is defined as receipt of any form of command given the user interface of said cell phone that indicates a desire by a user of said cell phone to automatically respond to the sender of said incoming SMS text message by automatically sending a pre-arranged text message back to said sender of said incoming indicating said user is driving or otherwise busy and cannot immediately respond or automatically answering said incoming phone call and playing of a pre-recorded message to said caller indicating said user of said cell phone is driving or otherwise busy and cannot immediately take said call, said “

push”

even including but not limited to the push of a keyboard button, touching of a specific location of a touchscreen or giving of a voice command, and sending the fact that said “

push”

event has occurred to an operating system of said cell phone with a request to send to a Busy application program on said cell phone the time of the Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) “

push”

event;

C) sending a function call to a Busy application program on said cell phone with the time of the Busy key “

push”

event and which Busy key was pushed;

D) launching said Busy application program on said phone when said function call in step C is sent and starting a timer and incrementing a count of the number of “

pushes”

of the particular one of the Busy keys which was pushed, meaning the number of “

push”

events which have occurred for the particular Busy key which was pushed;

E) determining if the same Busy key was “

pushed”

X time in Y seconds, and determining which of the Busy key (SMS) or Busy key (Call) was pushed X times in Y seconds;

F) if said Busy key (SMS) was pushed X times in Y seconds, automatically selecting the latest text message received and automatically sending a pre-typed text message to the sender of said latest text message without any further interaction with said user of said cell phone; and

G) if said Busy key (Call) was pushed X times in Y seconds, automatically answering said incoming cell phone call and playing a pre-recorded audio message to said caller.