CONTEXT-AWARE MOBILE INCORPORATING PRESENCE OF OTHER MOBILES INTO CONTEXT

• US 20110177802A1
• Filed: 03/02/2010
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: GUPTA, RAJARSHI
• Granted Patent: US 8,750,850 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• 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 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A first mobile device (for example, a cellular telephone) learns of the presence of second mobile devices (for example, other cellular telephones) that are located nearby the first mobile device. A relatively short range wireless communication mechanism (for example, Bluetooth) of the mobile devices may be used to discover other nearby devices automatically by establishing direct mobile-to-mobile communications without use of the cellular telephone functionality of the mobile devices. Regardless of how the presence of other nearby mobiles is detected, information on the presence of these nearby mobiles can be matched with other information on the users of the nearby mobiles such as user class information. The collected information is then used as an input to a context-aware functionality. The context-aware functionality applies a rule that causes the first mobile to be configured in a way that is better suited the situation and/or to who the other nearby cellular telephone users are and what they are doing.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) learning of a presence of one or more second mobile communication devices that are within a relatively small distance of a first mobile communication device, wherein the first mobile communication device is adapted to transmit cellular telephone signals to a cellular telephone base station located at a relatively larger distance from the first mobile communication device;

(b) storing on the first mobile communication device first information indicative of whether each of the second mobile communication devices is within a predefined proximity range of the first mobile communication device;

(c) storing on the first mobile communication device second information indicative of whether an owner of each of the second mobile communication devices belongs to a class of users; and

(d) using the first and second information to determine how to change a behavior of the first mobile communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the learning of (a) occurs without a sending or a receiving of any cellular telephone communication by the first mobile communication device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first mobile communication device learns of the presence of the one or more second mobile communication devices in (a) by communicating with each of the second mobile communication devices using a short range wireless communication protocol, wherein the short range wireless communication protocol is taken from the group consisting of:

a Bluetooth protocol, a WiFi protocol, a WiMAX protocol, a ZigBee protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information in (b) includes an indication of whether each of the second mobile communication devices is in a Bluetooth wireless communication range of the first mobile communication device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first information in (b) includes an indication of whether each of a plurality of mobile communication devices is located nearby the first mobile communication device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second information in (c) includes a telephone number associated with each second mobile communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second information in (c) includes a Bluetooth globally-unique identifier associated with each second mobile communication device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mobile communication device uses a Bluetooth globally-unique identifier of a second mobile communication device to determine whether the owner of the second mobile communication device belongs to the class of users.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the change of behavior of (d) is taken from the group consisting of:

(1) reporting information to an originator of a telephone call made to the first mobile communication device where the information reported indicates a status of the first mobile communication device, (2) reporting information to an originator of a telephone call made to the first mobile communication device where the information reported indicates a status of a user of the first mobile communication device, (3) modifying operation of the first mobile communication device such that a call received onto the first mobile communication device is blocked, (4) modifying operation of the first mobile communication device such that a call received onto the first mobile communication device is not blocked, (5) changing whether a call received onto the first mobile communication device is diverted, (6) changing whether an email addressed for a user of the first mobile communication device is blocked, (7) changing whether an email addressed for a user of the first mobile communication device is diverted, (8) changing whether a speakerphone is used in a call received onto the first mobile communication device, (9) changing a ringtone used to alert a user of the first mobile communication device of an incoming call, (10) changing how information relating to a telephone call is displayed on the first mobile communication device, and (11) changing whether information from a call received onto the first mobile communication device is forwarded in a FM transmission.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the relatively small distance is a communication range of a short range wireless communication technology taken from the group of:

Bluetooth, WiFi, and WiMAX, and wherein the communication range is less than one thousand feet, and wherein the relatively larger distance in (a) is substantially greater than one thousand feet.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a list of identifiers is stored in the first mobile communication device, wherein there is one identifier for each of the second mobile communication devices, and wherein for each second mobile communication device the first mobile communication device also stores an indication of a class of user of the second mobile communication device.

12. A method comprising:

(a) using a first short range wireless communication mechanism on a first cellular telephone to learn of a presence of second cellular telephone that is nearby the first cellular telephone, wherein the first short range wireless communication mechanism uses a protocol taken from the group consisting of;

a Bluetooth protocol, a WiFi protocol, a WiMAX protocol, a ZigBee protocol;

(b) for each second cellular telephone of (a) storing class information indicative of a class of a user of the second cellular telephone; and

(c) based on the class information in (b) for each of the second cellular devices changing how an incoming call coming into the first mobile communication device is handled, wherein the storing of (b) and the changing of (c) are performed by the first cellular telephone.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the indication of the class in (b) is an indication of whether the user of the second cellular telephone is likely in a group of people, wherein the group of people is taken from the group consisting of:

a family, a group of co-workers, a group of friends.

14. An apparatus comprising:

a short range wireless communication functionality taken from the group consisting of;

a Bluetooth communication functionality, a Wi-Fi communication functionality, a WiMAX communication functionality, and a ZigBee communication functionality;

a cellular telephone communication functionality; and

means for using the short range wireless communication functionality to learn of a presence of one or more second mobile communication devices that are within a relatively small distance of the apparatus, wherein the means is also for determining class information indicative of whether a user of each of the second mobile communication devices belongs to a class of user, and wherein the means is for using the class information for each of the second mobile communication devices to determine how to change a behavior of the apparatus.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the means learns the presence of the second mobile communication devices by establishing direct wireless communication between the apparatus and each of the second mobile communication devices, wherein the direct wireless communication occurs via the short range wireless communication functionality.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the means learns the presence of the second mobile communication devices without receiving or transmitting with the cellular telephone communication functionality.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the means classifies a mobile communication device based at least in part on whether the short range wireless communication functionality is usable to establish communication between the apparatus and the mobile communication device.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the class information includes an indication of whether a user of a second mobile communication device is likely a member of a group of people, wherein the group of people is taken from the group consisting of:

a family, a group of co-workers, a group of friends.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the change of behavior of the apparatus is a change in how information received onto the apparatus via the cellular telephone communication functionality is presented to the user of the apparatus.

20. A method comprising:

(a) learning of a presence of one or more second mobile communication devices that are within a predefined range of proximity of a first mobile communication device;

(b) storing on the first mobile communication device first information indicative of whether each of the second mobile communication devices is within the predefined range of proximity of the first mobile communication device;

(c) storing on the first mobile communication device second information indicative of whether an owner of each of the second mobile communication devices belongs to a class of users; and

(d) using the first and second information to determine how to change a behavior of the first mobile communication device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the learning of (a) occurs without a sending or a receiving of any cellular telephone communication by the first mobile communication device, and wherein the first mobile communication device learns of the presence of the one or more second mobile communication devices in (a) by communicating with each of the second mobile communication devices using a short range wireless communication protocol.