Method and apparatus pertaining to contact information disambiguation

• US 8,805,340 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2012
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Fry, Darrin Kenneth John, Lau, Stephen, Shi, Jianqiang
• Primary Examiner(s): DOAN, KIET M
• Application Number:
  US13/524,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20130337781A1
• Time in Patent Office: 788 Days
• Field of Search: 455/556.1, 455/63.3, 455/415, 455/414.1, 455/550.1, 455/456.1, 704/9, 704/250, 704/275, 704/235, 704/246, 704/251, 379/93.24, 379/142.06, 379/218.01
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2745 using static electronic memories, e.g. chips
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27467 Methods of retrieving data
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/725 Cordless telephones user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

These teachings provide for receiving from a user (via, for example, a voice-recognition component) a name-based identifier for an entity to be contacted via wireless communications and then using that name-based identifier to access a contacts list to identify a corresponding communications address to use when contacting the entity via the wireless communications. Upon determining that the contacts list includes at least two contacts having the same name-based identifier, these teachings then provide for providing to the user location information as pertains to at least one of the candidate contacts to thereby facilitate disambiguation.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a memory having a contacts list stored therein;

a voice-recognition component;

a wireless-communications component;

a control circuit operably coupled to the memory, the voice-recognition component, and the wireless-communications component and configured to;

receive from a user, via the voice-recognition component, a name-based identifier for an entity to be contacted via the wireless-communications component;

use the name-based identifier to access the contacts list to identify a corresponding communications address that comprises a telephone number to use when contacting the entity via the wireless-communications component;

upon determining that the contacts list includes at least two contacts having the same name-based identifier, use at least a portion of the telephone number for each of the at least two contacts to determine corresponding location information for each of the at least two contacts and provide to the user the location information as pertains to at least one of the at least two contacts to facilitate disambiguation,

wherein the control circuit is configured to use at least a portion of the telephone number to determine a corresponding location by, at least in part, accessing a remote data resource to obtain the corresponding location.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the apparatus comprises a portable communications device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the wireless-communications component comprises a cellular-telephony transceiver.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the portion of the telephone number comprises at least one of a country code and an area code.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control circuit is configured to provide the location information to the user in an audible form.

6. A method comprising:

by a control circuit;

receiving from a user, via a voice-recognition component, a name-based identifier for an entity to be contacted via wireless communications;

using the name-based identifier to access a contacts list to identify a corresponding communications address that comprises a telephone number to use when contacting the entity via the wireless communications;

upon determining that the contacts list includes at least two contacts having the same name-based identifier, using at least a portion of the telephone number for each of the at least two contacts to determine corresponding location information for each of the at least two contacts and providing to the user the location information as pertains to at least one of the at least two contacts to facilitate disambiguation,

wherein using at least a portion of the telephone number to determine the location information comprises, at least in part, accessing a remote data resource to obtain the location information.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the portion of the telephone number comprises at least one of a country code and an area code.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein providing the location information to the user comprises, at least in part, providing the location information to the user in an audible form.