Facilitating arrangement in a communication system

• US 9,191,504 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2008
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Truphone Limited
• Original Assignee: Truphone Limited
• Inventors: Campbell, Alistair James, Tagg, James, Dixon, Kevin, Minhas, Mal, Syrjanen, Tuomas, Vehkamaki, Sampsa, Koola, Timo, Tielinen, Laurl, Valminen, Pasi
• Primary Examiner(s): LIN, WEN TAI
• Application Number:
  US12/523,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20100211604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,860 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42093 Notifying the calling party of information on the called or connected party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42374 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

A method for determining the availability of at least one target user for a specific type of communication is described. The method comprises: retrieving contact information of at least one target user from a memory of a requesting user terminal; sending a request for communication status information of the at least one target user to a status network element, the status network element being arranged to provide the communication status information regarding the availability of the target user for the specific type of communication, wherein the request comprises at least a portion of the contact information of the at least one target user and identifies the specific type of communication; receiving, as a response to the request, a response message from the status network element, wherein the response message comprises the communication status information of the at least one target user; and modifying at least a portion of stored contact information when the received status information indicates that the target user is available for communication via the specific communication type, such that the modified contact information indicates on the requesting user terminal the current availability of the at least one user for communication via the specific communication type.

Claims

1. A method for use in a mobile communication terminal for determining current availability of a target user for real time two way communication via a specific communication channel connection type from a plurality of different communication channel connection types associated with the target user, the method comprising:

retrieving contact information of the target user from a contact information database stored in a memory of the mobile communications terminal of a requesting user;

sending a request for communication status information of the target user to a status network element, the status network element being arranged to provide the communication status information regarding the availability of the target user for communication via the specific communication channel connection type, wherein the request comprises at least a portion of the contact information of the target user and identifies the specific communication channel connection type;

receiving, as a response to the request, a response message from the status network element, wherein the response message comprises the communication status information of the target user;

accessing the contact information database and modifying the contact information database by modifying at least a portion of the stored contact information stored in the contact information database such that the modified contact information indicates the current availability of the target user for the real time two way communication via the specific communication channel connection type; and

retrieving the contact information for the target user from the contact information database and displaying the contact information for the target user, on the requesting user mobile communications terminal,

wherein displaying the contact information comprises;

displaying a plurality of numbers or addresses each providing a separate communication channel connection type for the target user, including displaying the current availability information for the target user for the specific communication channel connection type, from the plurality of numbers or addresses;

adding a visual indication of the user'"'"'s availability for communication according to the specific communication channel connection type to the user'"'"'s contact information; and

modifying an image forming part of the user'"'"'s contact information such that the modified image includes a visual indication of the user'"'"'s availability for communication according to the specific communication channel telephonic connection type;

wherein said method is performed by a contact management application in the mobile communications terminal, wherein the contact management application is independent of each of the plurality of different communication channel connection types, and wherein the contact management application is triggered to perform said method by a predetermined trigger event in the mobile communications terminal.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises sending the request for status information as a response to storing new contact information into the memory of the user terminal.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises sending a plurality of the requests for status information as a group.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises receiving a plurality of the response messages as a group.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises adding the user to a contact group.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises receiving in the response message the user'"'"'s contact information corresponding to the specific communication channel connection type, wherein the network element is further arranged to provide said contact information corresponding to the specific communication channel connection type.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein the method further comprises creating a new contact group and adding the target user to the new contact group.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the specific telephonic connection type comprises a Voice over IP (VoIP) channel.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the specific communication channel connection type comprises a GSM call channel.

10. A system for determining the current availability of a target user for real time two way communication via a specific communication channel connection type from a plurality of different communication channel connection types associated with the target user, the system comprising a user mobile communications terminal and a status network element, wherein the user mobile communications terminal itself comprises a memory storing a contact information database, a contact management application, and a processor:

wherein the contact management application is independent of each of the plurality of different communication channel connection types, and wherein when triggered by a predetermined trigger event in the mobile communications terminal, the processor runs the contact management application to perform the following functions;

retrieval of contact information of the target user from the contact information database;

sending a request for communication status information of the target user to the status network element, the status network element being arranged to provide the communication status information regarding the availability of the target user for communication via the specific communication channel connection type, wherein the request comprises at least a portion of the contact information of the target user and identifies the specific communication channel connection type;

receiving, as a response to the request, a response message from the status network element, wherein the response message comprises the communication status information of the target user; and

accessing the contact information database and modifying the contact information database by modifying at least a portion of the stored contact information stored in the contact information database such that the modified contact information indicates the current availability of the target user for real time two way communication via the specific communication channel telephonic connection type; and

retrieving the contact information for the target user from the contact information database and displaying the contact information for the target user, on the requesting user mobile communications terminal,

wherein displaying the contact information comprises displaying a plurality of numbers or addresses each providing a separate communication channel connection type for the target user, including displaying the current availability information for the target user for the specific communication channel connection type;

adding a visual indication of the user'"'"'s availability for communication according to the specific communication channel connection type to the user'"'"'s contact information; and

modifying an image forming part of the user'"'"'s contact information such that the modified image includes a visual indication of the user'"'"'s availability for communication according to the specific communication channel telephonic connection type.

11. A system according to claim 10, wherein the status network element is adapted to retrieve the status information from a database.

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein the status network element further is adapted to request the status information from another network element.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein the status network element further generates a request message in a format supported by the other network element.