Contact entry population from call entity information

• US 8,676,755 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sousa, Audrey Yung-Ch'In, Asbun, Arturo Ortiz, St. Pierre, Robert Paul, Brown, Shawn Michael, Schweizer, Charles B, Chin, Kevin A
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, UYEN T
• Application Number:
  US12/335,552
• Publication Number:
  US 20100153459A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,918 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/621
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27453 Directories allowing storage of additional subscriber data, e.g. metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2757 by data transmission, e.g. downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42102 Making use of the called party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42153 by subscriber
• 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 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold

Abstract

Populating a contact entry with selected entity information based on an identifier associated with a call (e.g., a telephone call, VoIP call, text message, electronic mail message, or any other communication). As the call is detected, entity information for the identifier (e.g., a telephone number, VoIP address, MAC address, etc.) is generated. The entity information is filtered based on a category of the entity information, user preferences, location of a computing device (e.g., mobile telephone) of the user, or other filtering criteria. The filtered entity information is associated with the contact entry for the identifier, thereby enhancing the contact entry while reducing typing on the computing device. In some embodiments, additional information such as advertisements for a competitor of the entity are provided to the user.

Claims

1. A system for creating or updating contact information based on telephone calls, said system comprising:

a memory area for storing a contact entry for a telephone number; and

a processor associated with a mobile computing device, said processor programmed to;

detect, associated with a telephone call, the telephone number inbound to or outbound from the mobile computing device;

responsive to the detection of the telephone number associated with the telephone call, receive entity information from a data source, said entity information relating to the detected telephone number associated with the telephone call and including at least a coupon;

determine a category describing the received entity information, said category being personal or commercial;

select a subset of the received entity information based on the determined category; and

update the contact entry stored in the memory area with the selected subset of the received entity information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to store the detected telephone number by updating a contact entry previously associated with the detected telephone number.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the category is commercial, and wherein the processor is programmed to select the subset of the received entity information by selecting one or more of the following:

directions to a location associated with the telephone number, hours of operation, and an advertisement associated with the location associated with the telephone number.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to provide the detected telephone number to the data source prior to receiving the entity information from the data source.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to receive the entity information by receiving the entity information from a web service, the entity information being received for the telephone number that lacks a corresponding contact entry.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to provide the selected subset of the received entity information to the mobile computing device for display, the entity information being received only when a user inputs a code, to receive the entity information, while dialing the telephone number.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to determine a location of the mobile computing device, and wherein the processor is programmed to select the subset of the received entity information by selecting the subset of the received entity information based on the determined category and the determined location of the mobile computing device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to determine a location of the mobile computing device by determining, via a global positioning system, the location of the mobile computing device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the category by identifying the category from the received entity information.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory area is associated with the mobile computing device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to identify the entity information relevant to a user based on a location of the mobile computing device and the category describing the entity information.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to profile a user of the mobile computing device to select the subset of the received entity information.

13. A method for execution by a web service, said method comprising:

analyzing an address book of a user to determine filtering criteria, said filtering criteria describing one or more field preferences of the user;

receiving determination of an identifier associated with a call by the user on a computing device;

generating entity information associated with the identifier associated with the call;

selecting a subset of the generated entity information based on a location of the computing device and the field preferences from the determined filtering criteria; and

providing the selected subset of the generated entity information to the computing device for associating the selected subset of the generated entity information with a contact entry for the identifier, associated with the call, in the address book of the user.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein analyzing the address book comprises determining a category for one or more contact entries in the address book, and further comprising generating, based on the determined category, additional information for association with the contact entry.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein receiving determination of the identifier comprises receiving determination of the identifier associated with one or more of the following:

a telephone call, a voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) call, an electronic mail message, and a text message.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein analyzing the address book comprises determining the location of the computing device during the call.

17. One or more computer storage media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

a contact component for maintaining an address book for a user;

an interface component for detecting a call inbound to or outbound from a computing device, said call having an identifier associated therewith;

an update component for receiving entity information from a data source, said entity information relating to the identifier detected by the interface component; and

a preference component for filtering the entity information received by the update component based on a location of the computing device and a category derived from the entity information received by the update component, wherein the contact component edits the address book with the filtered entity information for the identifier detected by the interface component.

18. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device, and wherein the contact component, update component, and preference component execute while the mobile computing device is connected to a desktop computer connected to the data source via a network.

19. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the contact component, update component, and preference component execute after termination of the call.

20. The computer storage media of claim 17, wherein the preference component further profiles the user by analyzing the address book maintained by the contact component to determine one or more field preferences of the user.