Content delivery during call idle time

• US 20090185667A1
• Filed: 01/17/2008
• Published: 07/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Modu Limited (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Ron, Uri, Bychkov, Eyal
• Granted Patent: US 8,675,850 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72442 for playing music files
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4288 Notifying a called subscriber of an incoming call during an ongoing call, e.g. Call Waiting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/44 Additional connecting arrangements for providing access to frequently-wanted subscribers, e.g. abbreviated dialling at the subscriber's set H04M1/27; automatic redialling H04M3/424
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/129 Details of providing call progress tones or announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method for effective utilization of call idle time, including automatically detecting that a first person using a phone has initiated a phone call to a second person, and that the second person has not yet answered the call, wherein the phone is operative in an idle mode to present content pre-designated by the first person, and is operative in a normal mode to send and receive voice communications to and from the second person and to not present the pre-designated content, activating the idle mode of the phone in response to the automatically detecting, further automatically detecting that the second person has answered the call, and automatically activating the normal mode of the phone in response to the further automatically detecting. A cell phone is also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method for effective utilization of call idle time, comprising:

automatically detecting that a first person using a phone has initiated a phone call to a second person, and that the second person has not yet answered the call, wherein the phone is operative in an idle mode to present content pre-designated by the first person, and is operative in a normal mode to send and receive voice communications to and from the second person and to not present the pre-designated content;

activating the idle mode of the phone in response to said automatically detecting;

further automatically detecting that the second person has answered the call; and

automatically activating the normal mode of the phone in response to said further automatically detecting.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said activating the idle mode is performed automatically.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said activating the idle mode is performed manually by the first person.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-designated content is content stored locally on the phone.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-designated content is content served by a content server computer, and wherein the phone is operative to retrieve the pre-designated content from the content server computer via wireless communication.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the content server steams the pre-designated content to the phone.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the phone downloads the pre-designated content from the content server.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing a position indicating where the pre-designated content stopped being presented when said activating the normal mode occurred, and wherein the phone is operative in idle mode to begin presenting the pre-designated content at the stored position.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-designated content is music content.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-designated content is video content.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-designated content is text content.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the text content is a digital book.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-designated content is advertising content served by an ad server computer, and wherein the phone is operative to retrieve the advertising content from the ad server computer via wireless communication.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the ad server streams the advertising content to the phone.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the phone downloads the advertising content from the ad server.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the phone is operative in idle mode to play a game.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the game is a single player game.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the game is a multi-player game with other phone users.

19. A method for effective utilization of call idle time, comprising:

detecting that a first person using a phone, during a phone conversation with a second person, has been placed on call waiting by the second person, wherein the phone is operative in an idle mode to present content pre-designated by the first person, and is operative in a normal mode to send and receive voice communications to and from the second person and to not present the pre-designated content;

activating the idle mode of the phone in response to said detecting;

further detecting that the second person has resumed the call; and

activating the normal mode of the phone in response to said further detecting.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said detecting, said activating the idle mode, said further detecting and said activating the normal mode are repeated until the phone conversation between the first person and the second person ends.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein said activating the idle mode is performed automatically.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein said activating the idle mode is performed manually by the first person.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein said activating the normal mode is performed automatically.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein said activating the normal mode is performed manually by the first person.

25. The method of claim 19 wherein said detecting comprises detecting that the first person has been placed on call hold by the second person.

26. The method of claim 19 wherein said detecting comprises detecting that the first person and the second person have stopped speaking.

27. The method of claim 19 wherein the pre-designated content is content stored locally on the phone.

28. The method of claim 19 wherein the pre-designated content is content served by a content server computer, and wherein the phone is operative to retrieve the pre-designated content from the content server computer via wireless communication.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the content server steams the pre-designated content to the phone.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein the phone downloads the pre-designated content from the content server.

31. The method of claim 19 further comprising storing a position indicating where the pre-designated content stopped being presented when said activating the normal mode occurred, and wherein the phone is operative in idle mode to begin presenting the pre-designated content at the stored position.

32. The method of claim 19 wherein the pre-designated content is music content.

33. The method of claim 19 wherein the pre-designated content is video content.

34. The method of claim 19 wherein the pre-designated content is text content.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the text content is a digital book.

36. The method of claim 19 wherein the pre-designated content is advertising content served by an ad server computer, and wherein the phone is operative to retrieve the advertising content from the ad server computer via wireless communication.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the ad server streams the advertising content to the phone.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein the phone downloads the advertising content from the ad server.

41. The method of claim 19 wherein the phone is operative in idle mode to play a game.

42. The method of claim 41 wherein the game is a single player game.

43. The method of claim 41 wherein the game is a multi-player game with other phone users.

44. The method of claim 41 further comprising storing a game state representing the state of the game when said activating the normal mode occurred, and wherein the phone is operative in idle mode to resume playing the game at the stored game state.

45. A method for effective utilization of caller idle time, comprising:

in response to a first person being placed on call hold or on call waiting by a second person during a phone conversation between the first person and the second person, transmitting a pre-recorded message from the first person'"'"'s phone to the second person'"'"'s phone instructing the second person to push a specified button or combination of buttons to resume the conversation;

receiving, by the first person'"'"'s phone, a DTMF signal from the second person'"'"'s phone corresponding to the specified button or combination of buttons; and

in response to said receiving, notifying the first person that the conversation has resumed.

46. A cell phone with effective utilization of call idle time, comprising:

an antenna;

a baseband modem connected to said antenna, comprising a radio frequency interface;

a power subsystem;

an audio/video/text player;

a controller connected to said baseband modem, to said power subsystem and to said audio/video/text player for programmatically operating the cell phone in an idle mode and in a normal mode, whereby in normal mode the cell phone sends and receives voice communications via said baseband modem, and in idle mode the cell phone presents pre-designated content via said audio/video/text player.

47. The cell phone of claim 46 wherein said controller is programmed to switch the cell phone to idle mode when the cell phone is calling another cell phone and the controller detects that the other cell phone is ringing and waiting to be answered.

48. The cell phone of claim 46 wherein said controller is programmed to switch the cell phone to normal mode when said controller detects that the other cell phone has been answered by a person or by an answering machine.

49. The cell phone of claim 46 wherein said controller is programmed to switch the cell phone to idle mode when the cell phone is in communication with another cell phone and said controller detects that the other cell phone has activated call waiting or call holding.

50. The cell phone of claim 46 wherein said controller is programmed to switch the cell phone to idle mode when the cell phone is in communication with another cell phone and said controller detects that voice communications received from the other cell phone have been silent for a specified period of time.

51. The cell phone of claim 46 wherein said controller is programmed to switch the cell phone to idle mode upon manual instructions by a user, while the cell phone is in communication with another cell phone, and wherein said controller subsequently sends a pre-recorded message to the other cell phone with instructions how to resume the call.

52. The cell phone of claim 51 wherein said controller is programmed to switch the cell phone to normal mode upon receipt of a DTMF signal transmitted from the other cell phone corresponding to the instructions in the pre-recorded message.

53. The cell phone of claim 46 further comprising a memory for data storage, and wherein the pre-designated content is stored in said memory.

54. The cell phone of claim 46 wherein the pre-designated content is streamed to the cell phone via said baseband modem.

55. A cell phone that also functions as a media player, comprising:

an antenna;

a baseband modem connected to said antenna, comprising a radio frequency interface;

a power subsystem;

an audio/video/text player;

a controller connected to said baseband modem, to said power subsystem and to said audio/video/text player for programmatically operating the cell phone in an player mode and in a phone mode, whereby in phone mode the cell phone sends and receives voice communications via said baseband modem, and in player mode the cell phone presents content via said audio/video/text player, wherein said controller switches the cell phone from phone mode to player mode during silent portions of a phone conversation, and switches the cell phone from player mode to phone mode during non-silent portions of a phone conversion.

56. The cell phone of claim 55 wherein said controller switches the cell phone from phone mode to player mode when a phone conversation is finished.

57. The cell phone of claim 55 wherein said controller stores a content stop position when it switches the cell phone from player mode to phone mode, and resumes presenting the content from the stored stop position when it subsequently switches the cell phone from phone mode back to player mode.

58. The cell phone of claim 55 wherein said controller programmatically operates the cell phone is operative in player mode to play a game.

59. The cell phone of claim 58 wherein the game is a single player game.

60. The cell phone of claim 58 wherein the game is a multi-player game, player with other phone users via said baseband modem.

61. The cell phone of claim 58 wherein said controller stores a game state representing the state of the game when said activating the normal mode occurred, and resumes playing the game at the stored game state when it subsequently switches the cell phone from phone mode back to player mode.