DYNAMIC CONTACT LIST DISPLAY

• US 20100330972A1
• Filed: 06/30/2009
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: ANGIOLILLO, Joel S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,417 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays

Abstract

A dynamic contact list for a mobile device presents address book contacts in varying arrangements based on external factors. The mobile device may receive a request to display a contact list and may retrieve a sort procedure for the contact list. The sort procedure may be based on a user'"'"'s prior selections from a group of contact sort rules. The mobile device may retrieve a list of contact identifiers and other information associated with each contact identifier that is applicable to the sort procedure. The mobile device may then apply the sort procedure to the list of contact identifiers and to the information associated with each contact identifier so as to displaying a sorted list of contact identifiers based on the applied sort procedure.

Claims

1. A computing device-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, a request to display a contact list;

retrieving, from a memory of the computing device, a sort procedure for the contact list, the sort procedure being based on selections from a group of contact sort rules;

retrieving, from the memory, a list of contact identifiers;

retrieving, from the memory, information associated with each contact identifier that is applicable to the sort procedure;

applying the sort procedure to the list of contact identifiers and to the information associated with each contact identifier; and

displaying, on a display of the computing device, a sorted list of contact identifiers based on the applied sort procedure.

2. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving the group of contact sort rules, where each of the contact sort rules has a sort rule identifier;

presenting, on the display, the sort rule identifiers;

receiving, from a user, a selection of one or more sort rule identifiers; and

compiling the sort procedure based on the selected one or more sort rule identifiers.

3. The computing device-implemented method of claim 2, where each of the sort rule identifiers includes a title for the associated contact sort rule and a description of the associated contact sort rule.

4. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the one or more sort rules are selected by the user from a group of pre-defined sort rules.

5. The computing device-implemented method of claim 4, where the group of pre-defined sort rules includes one or more of:

a sort rule based on the geographic location of the computing device when the request to display the contact list is received,

a sort rule based on the time when the request to display the contact list is received,

a sort rule based on a level of communication activity preceding receipt of the request to display the contact list,

a sort rule based on a type of user activity preceding receipt of the request to display the contact list,

a sort rule based on the association of contacts with a schedule event, or

a sort rule based on contact sort rules of other devices.

6. The computing device-implemented method of claim 4, where the group of pre-defined sort rules is stored on a remote server and where the sort procedure is stored in the memory of the computing device.

7. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving a group of contact sort rule identifiers from a remote device via a network;

presenting, on the display of the computing device, the group of contact sort rule identifiers;

receiving, from a user, selection of one or more of the contact sort rule identifiers;

sending an indication of the selection to the remote device; and

receiving from the remote device a sort procedure based on the selected one or more contact sort rule identifiers.

8. The computing device-implemented method of claim 1, where the computing device comprises:

a radiotelephone,

a personal communications system (PCS) terminal, or

a personal digital assistant (PDA).

9. A device, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions;

a display to present information to a user of the device; and

a processor to execute instructions in the memory to;

retrieve a sort procedure for a contact list, the sort procedure being based on selections from a group of contact sort rules;

retrieve a list of contact identifiers associated with the contact list;

retrieve information associated with each contact identifier that is applicable to the sort procedure;

apply the sort procedure to the information associated with each contact identifier to obtain a sorted list of contact identifiers; and

present, on the display, the sorted list of contact identifiers.

10. The device of claim 9, where the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to:

retrieve the group of contact sort rules, where each of the contact sort rules has a sort rule identifier,

present, on the display, the sort rule identifiers,

receive user selection of one or more sort rule identifiers, and

determine the sort procedure based on the selected one or more sort rule identifiers.

11. The device of claim 10, where each of the one or more sort rule identifiers includes a title for the associated contact sort rule and a description of the associated contact sort rule

12. The device of claim 9, where the group of contact sort rules includes one or more of:

a sort rule based on the geographic location of the computing device when a request to display a list of contacts is received,

a sort rule based on the time when the request to display a list of contacts is received,

a sort rule based on a level of communication activity preceding the receiving the request to display a list of contacts,

a sort rule based on a type of user activity preceding the receiving the request to display a list of contacts,

a sort rule based on the association of contacts with a schedule event, or

a sort rule based on contact sort rules of other devices.

13. The device of claim 9, further comprising:

a communication interface, where the group of contact sort rules is retrieved from a remote server via the communication interface.

14. The device of claim 9, where the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to:

determine a geographic position of the device, where the sort procedure is based on the geographic location of the device.

15. The device of claim 14, where the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to:

determine a geographic location of a stationary device associated with a contact identifier, where the sort procedure is further based on the geographic location of the stationary device.

16. The device of claim 9, where the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to:

retrieve a group of contact sort rule identifiers from a remote server via a network;

present, on the display, the group of contact sort rule identifiers;

receive user selection of one or more of the contact sort rule identifiers;

send an indication of the selection to the remote server; and

receive from the remote sever a sort procedure based on the selected one or more contact sort rule identifiers.

17. The device of claim 12, where the device comprises:

a radiotelephone,

a personal communications system (PCS) terminal, or

a personal digital assistant (PDA).

18. A device, comprising:

means for presenting to a user a list of sort rule identifiers for a contact list;

means for receiving user selection of one or more sort rule identifiers;

means for determining a sort procedure based on the selected one or more sort rule identifiers;

means for retrieving a list of contact identifiers to sort;

means for retrieving information associated with each contact identifier that is applicable to the sort procedure;

means for applying the sort procedure to the list of contact identifiers and to the information associated with each contact identifier; and

means for displaying a sorted list of contact identifiers based on the applied sort procedure.

19. The device of claim 18, further comprising:

means for determining a geographic location of the device, where the device applies the geographic location of the device to the sort procedure.

20. The device of claim 18, further comprising:

means for retrieving the list of sort rule identifiers from a remote server via a network; and

means for retrieving sort rules associated with the sort rule identifiers from the remote server via the network.