“I am driving/busy” automatic response system for mobile phones

• US 8,364,183 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2011
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Julia Olincy, Ronald C. Fish
• Original Assignee: Julia Olincy, Ronald C. Fish
• Inventors: Olincy, Julia, Fish, Ronald C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Arevalo, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US13/373,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20120058750A1
• Time in Patent Office: 446 Days
• Field of Search: 455/413, 455/414.1, 455/418, 455/466, 455/412.1, 455/415, 379/80, 379/88.01, 379/360
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6075 adapted for handsfree use in a vehicle H04M1/6058 takes precedence; arrangements for holding telephones in a vehicle B60R11/0241
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/64 Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations centralised dictation systems H04M11/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

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.

Claims

1. A conventional cell phone apparatus which has been modified to add a software application or which has had the operating system or other software installed by the manufacturer of said cell phone apparatus modified such that said software application which has been added or said operating system or other software installed by said manufacturer of said cell phone apparatus is structured to control said cell phone to respond to the touch or press by a user of said cell phone apparatus of one or more Busy keys in a predetermined sequence, each of said Busy keys being a key or switch which has been added to said cell phone or to a keypad of said cell phone or each of said one or more Busy keys being a touch sensitive area which has been added to an area of a screen or page displayed on a touchscreen display of said cell phone apparatus and displayed on said touchscreen display with an indication of the function which will be invoked if that area is touched, or a touch sensitive area which has been added to the visual depiction of a keypad on said touchscreen display of said cell phone apparatus, said software application which has been added to said cell phone apparatus or said operating system of said cell phone apparatus or said other software installed by said manufacture of said cell phone apparatus controlling said cell phone apparatus to automatically respond to the touch or press of a said one or more Busy keys in said predetermined sequence in response to an incoming text message so as to send a predetermined text message to the sender of said text message just received, via the Short Message Service Data Channel on which said incoming text message was received.

2. A conventional cell phone apparatus which has been modified to add a software application or which has had the operating system or other software installed by the manufacturer of said cell phone apparatus modified such that said software application which has been added or said operating system or other software installed by said manufacturer of said cell phone apparatus is structured to control said cell phone to respond to the touch or press by a user of said cell phone apparatus of one or more Busy keys in a predetermined sequence, each of said Busy keys being a key or switch which has been added to said cell phone or to a keypad of said cell phone or each of said one or more Busy keys being a touch sensitive area which has been added to an area of a screen or page displayed on a touchscreen display of said cell phone apparatus, said touch sensitive area displayed on said touchscreen display with an indication of the function which will be invoked if said touch sensitive area is touched, or a touch sensitive area which has been added to the visual depiction of a keypad on said touchscreen display of said cell phone apparatus, said software application which has been added to said cell phone apparatus or said operating system of said cell phone apparatus or said other software installed by said manufacture of said cell phone apparatus controlling said cell phone apparatus to automatically respond to the touch or press of a said one or more Busy keys in a predetermined sequence in response to an incoming cellular phone call so as to answer said phone call and send it to voicemail and also send a predetermined text message to the sender of said text message just received, via the Short Message Service Data Channel.

3. A process carried out on a cell phone comprising the steps:

A) receiving an incoming Short Message Service text message or an incoming cellular phone call;

B) detecting a push of a Busy key on said cell phone and sending that event 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 push;

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

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 said Busy key;

E) determining if said Busy key was pushed X time in Y seconds;

F) if said Busy key was pushed X times in Y seconds, determining if a text message was received just before said Busy key was pushed or was received while said Busy key was being pushed, and, if so, automatically selecting the text message received just before the Busy key was pushed or which was received while said Busy key was being pushed and automatically sending a pre-typed text message to the sender of said text message without any further interaction with said user of said cell phone; and

G) if said Busy key was pushed X times in Y seconds while an incoming cellular telephone call was ringing the ringtone of said cell phone, automatically answering said incoming cell phone call and playing a pre-recorded audio message to said caller.

4. The process of claim 3 further comprising the step of playing a voicemail announcement message after playing said pre-recorded audio message to said caller and recording any message said caller chooses to leave.

5. A cell phone apparatus which has software therein to monitor a Busy key, said software being designed to control said cell phone to respond to X presses or touches of a Busy key within Y seconds by a user of said cell phone of said Busy key, where X and Y are predetermined variables, by automatically launching a process to determine if said cell phone has just received a Short Message Service text message or is receiving a text message at the time said Busy key is pushed or touched X times within Y seconds or is receiving an incoming cellular phone call at the time said Busy key is pushed or touched X times within Y seconds, and, if a text message has been received or is being received, respond thereto by sending a pre-typed text message to the sender of said text message just received via the Short Message Service Data Channel, and, if an incoming cellular telephone phone call is being received at the time said Busy key is pushed or touched X times within Y seconds, to respond thereto automatically by automatically answering said incoming cellular call and automatically playing a pre-recorded audio message to said caller and/or automatically sending a predetermined text message to said caller.