Prioritising phonebook numbers in a telephone

• US 7,925,690 B2
• Filed: 11/01/2004
• Issued: 04/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Staddon, Simon, Smith, Alan Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh; Khanh Q
• Application Number:
  US10/546,553
• Publication Number:
  US 20080123829A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,353 Days
• Field of Search: 703/203, 703/228, 455/405, 379/356, 709/203, 709/228, 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2746 Sorting, e.g. according to history or frequency of use

Abstract

A circuit for a telephone, having a data store for storing user data including telephone numbers and associated data, and sorting means (46) for sorting the user data for display. The sorting means sorts the user data according to frequency of use (e.g. frequency of calls received and frequency of connections requested) of the telephone numbers.

Claims

1. A mobile phone method of managing an electronic telephone address-book having a plurality of contacts, comprising:

associating a frequency-of-use parameter with each contact for a current date and for each day indicated by a time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored;

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact;

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is sent to the telephone number associated with that contact;

summing the frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

comparing the summed frequency-of-use values of each contact to select a number of contacts indicated by a configurable list size parameter having the highest frequency-of-use values;

sorting the selected contacts in accordance with the summed frequency-of-use values; and

populating a display with the sorted selected contacts.

2. The mobile phone method of claim 1, further comprising:

prompting a user to select a time period value;

receiving the user'"'"'s selection of the time period value; and

setting the time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored as the time period value selected by the user.

3. The mobile phone method of claim 1, wherein incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call is accepted by a user operating the mobile phone.

4. The mobile phone method of claim 1, wherein incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call is not answered by a user operating the mobile phone.

5. The mobile phone method of claim 1, further comprising:

populating the display with a second set of selected contacts;

associating a second frequency-of-use parameter with each contact for a current date and for each day indicated by the time period parameter;

incrementing the second frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact and accepted by a user of the mobile phone;

summing the second frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

comparing the summed second frequency-of-use values of each contact to select the second set of contacts having the highest second frequency-of-use values;

sorting the second set of selected contacts in accordance with the summed second frequency-of-use values; and

populating the display with the sorted second set of selected contacts.

6. A mobile phone configured with an electronic telephone address-book having a plurality of contacts, comprising:

means for associating a frequency-of-use parameter with each contact for a current date and for each day indicated by a time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored;

means for incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact;

means for incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is sent to the telephone number associated with that contact;

means for summing the frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

means for comparing the summed frequency-of-use values of each contact to select a number of contacts indicated by a configurable list size parameter having the highest frequency-of-use values;

means for sorting the selected contacts in accordance with the summed frequency-of-use values; and

means for populating a display with the sorted selected contacts.

7. The mobile phone of claim 6, further comprising:

means for prompting a user to select a time period value;

means for receiving the user'"'"'s selection of the time period value;

means for setting the time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored as the time period value selected by the user.

8. The mobile phone of claim 6, wherein means for incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

means for incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call is accepted by a user operating the mobile phone.

9. The mobile phone of claim 6, wherein means for incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

means for incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call is not answered by a user operating the mobile phone.

10. The mobile phone of claim 6, further comprising:

means for populating the display with a second set of selected contacts;

means for associating a second frequency-of-use parameter with each contact for a current date and for each day indicated by the time period parameter;

means for incrementing the second frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact and accepted by a user of the mobile phone;

means for summing the second frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

means for comparing the summed second frequency-of-use values of each contact to select the second set of contacts having the highest second frequency-of-use values;

means for sorting the second set of selected contacts in accordance with the summed second frequency-of-use values; and

means for populating the display with the sorted second set of selected contacts.

11. A mobile phone configured with an electronic telephone address-book having a plurality of contacts, the mobile phone comprising:

a display;

a memory;

a processor coupled to the memory and to the display, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

associating a frequency-of-use parameter with each contact for a current date and for each day indicated by a time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored;

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact;

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is sent to the telephone number associated with that contact;

summing the frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

comparing the summed frequency-of-use values of each contact to select a number of contacts indicated by a configurable list size parameter having the highest frequency-of-use values;

sorting the selected contacts in accordance with the summed frequency-of-use values; and

populating the display with the sorted selected contacts.

12. The mobile phone of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform further operations comprising:

prompting a user to select a time period value;

receiving the user'"'"'s selection of the time period value;

setting the time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored as the time period value selected by the user.

13. The mobile phone of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions such that incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call is accepted by a user operating the mobile phone.

14. The mobile phone of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions such that incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call is not answered by a user operating the mobile phone.

15. The mobile phone of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

populating the display with a second set of selected contacts;

associating a second frequency-of-use parameter with each contact for a current date and for each day indicated by the time period parameter;

incrementing the second frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact and accepted by a user of the mobile phone;

summing the second frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

comparing the summed second frequency-of-use values of each contact to select the second set of contacts having the highest second frequency-of-use values;

sorting the second set of selected contacts in accordance with the summed second frequency-of-use values; and

populating the display with the sorted second set of selected contacts.

16. A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions configured to cause a mobile phone processor to perform operations comprising:

associating for each contact in an electronic telephone address-book a frequency-of-use parameter with a current date and for each day indicated by a time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored;

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact;

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is sent to the telephone number associated with that contact;

summing the frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

comparing the summed frequency-of-use values of each contact to select a number of contacts indicated by a configurable list size parameter having the highest frequency-of-use values;

sorting the selected contacts in accordance with the summed frequency-of-use values; and

populating a display with the sorted selected contacts.

17. The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the mobile phone processor to perform further operations, comprising:

prompting a user to select a time period value;

receiving the user'"'"'s selection of the time period value;

setting the time period parameter identifying a number of days over which received calls and sent calls are to be monitored as the time period value selected by the user.

18. The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the mobile phone processor to perform operations such that incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call is accepted by a user operating the mobile phone.

19. The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the mobile phone processor to perform operations such that incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with the contact comprises:

incrementing the frequency-of-use parameter only when the received call not answered a user operating the mobile phone.

20. The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the stored processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the mobile phone processor to perform operations further comprising:

populating the display with a second set of selected contacts;

associating a second frequency-of-use parameter with each contact for a current date and for each day indicated by the time period parameter;

incrementing the second frequency-of-use parameter associated with a contact for the current date each time a call is received from a telephone number associated with that contact and accepted by a user of the mobile phone;

summing the second frequency-of-use values for each contact for the current date and for the number of days indicated by the time period parameter;

comparing the summed second frequency-of-use values of each contact to select the second set of contacts having the highest second frequency-of-use values;

sorting the second set of selected contacts in accordance with the summed second frequency-of-use values; and

populating the display with the sorted second set of selected contacts.