E-mail notification device

• US 6,446,118 B1
• Filed: 02/29/2000
• Issued: 09/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: S Aqua Semiconductor LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: DesignTech International Incorporated
• Inventors: Gottlieb, Mark M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Dung C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Salad, Abdullahi E.
• Time in patent office: 917 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/205, 709/248
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer aided management of electronic mail electronic mail protocols H04L29/06; arrangements for user-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, e.g. e-mail or instant messages, H04L41/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/24 with notification on incoming messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/38 in combination with wireless systems mobile application service signalling using messaging, e.g. SMS, H04W4/12

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for notifying a user of recently received information while away from the display connected to the computer. Using a non-commercial, private network, the information is forwarded from a computer through a transmitter to a portable receiver with an integrated display. Such information may be in the form of e-mails, stock quotes, and calendar alarms.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising:

a computer storage medium and a computer program code mechanism embedded in the computer storage medium for causing a computer to forward a portion of a message to a wireless notification device using a private, non-commercial network, the computer program code mechanism comprising;

a first computer code device configured to periodically connect the computer, using a first communications interface of the computer, to a remote information server to poll for new messages;

a second computer code device configured to download a portion of the new messages using the first communications interface of the computer; and

a third computer code device configured to wirelessly transmit, using a private, non-commercial network transmitter, for a subset of the new messages, the portion of the subset of messages downloaded by the second computer code device, wherein the private, non-commercial network transmitter is connected to a second communications interface of the computer.

2. The computer program product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to connect to a remote e-mail server, wherein the message is an e-mail message.

3. The computer program product as claimed in claim 2, wherein the second computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to download the e-mail message in its entirety.

4. The computer program product as claimed in 2, wherein the second computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to download a “

From;

”

field and a “

Subject;

”

field of the e-mail message.

5. The computer program product as claimed in 2, wherein the second computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to download a header of the e-mail message.

6. The computer program product as claimed in 1, wherein the first computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to connect to a remote hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server, wherein the message is a dynamically updated web-page.

7. The computer program product as claimed in 2, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to select the subset using at least one of a “

From;

”

field and a “

Subject;

”

field of the e-mail message.

8. The computer program product as claimed in 2, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fifth computer code device configured to select all e-mail messages as belonging to the subset.

9. The computer program product as claimed in 1, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to transmit the portion of the subset of messages using at least one of a parallel port, a serial port, a PS/2 port, a USB port, an audio output port, and an infrared link.

10. The computer program product as claimed in 1, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fourth computer code configured to transmit the portion of the subset of messages using a wireless radio frequency.

11. The computer program product as claimed in 1, wherein the third computer code device comprises a fourth computer code configured to transmit the portion of the subset of messages using at least one of an X-10 transmitter and a Bluetooth transmitter.

12. The computer program product as claimed in 1, wherein the first computer code device further comprises a fourth computer code configured to transmit at least one of calendar events, weather info, stock quotes, and sports results.

13. The computer program product as claimed in 1, wherein the first computer code device comprises a fourth computer code device configured to connect to a remote instant messaging server, wherein the message is a list of people available for participating in computer-based “

chat”

conversation.