Abstract:
A method for delivering program related content information to users over broadcast media. A user initiates a request to contact a program such as a shopping television program by inputting an indication that the user would like to contact the program. The mobile terminal utilizes contact information embedded in a broadcast signal to initiate a connection between the mobile device and a telephone or other device associated with the program. The contact information received in the broadcast signal may be stored in a phone book application of the mobile terminal.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The invention relates generally to communications networks. More specifically, the invention provides a method for providing contact information to mobile terminals over broadcast media.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     A variety of mobile computing and receiver devices exist, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, digital players, and mobile terminals. These mobile computing devices perform various functions specific to the device, and are often capable of communicating with other devices. The mobile computing devices may also be capable of receiving broadcasting services and multi-media content distributed by such broadcasting services.  
         [0003]     Digital broadcast technologies using standards such as DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial) are rapidly expanding in various countries around the world. Other standards such as DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld) are taking the DVB-T standard further by enabling digital content providers to address all types of terminals ranging from low-end to high-end set top boxes, integrated digital TV sets and multimedia PCs. In addition, the standards provide for the reception of digital broadcasting with handheld devices such as mobile data terminals. The DVB transmission technology (also known as IP datacasting) may also be combined with Internet Protocol (IP). The combination makes it possible to transfer digital content as IP packets. IP datacasting offers the advantage that all existing IP-based digital content such as video streams, web pages, music files, or game software may be distributed over a mobile broadcast. IP datacasting for mobile devices, as compared to traditional broadcasting, creates a variety of advantages over traditional broadcasting systems such as the transmission of additional services over the same channel.  
         [0004]     Additionally, mobile terminal devices are also capable of receiving FM radio transmissions. For instance, a portable device may receive data streams of related information through in-band transmission such as RDS (Radio Data System) and/or DARC (Radio Data Channel-ETSI ETS 300751) and/or IBOC for analog FM radio.  
         [0005]     Although these mobile terminal devices may receive various sources of data, these devices do not include means for providing program related contact information to the mobile terminals over broadcast media. For example, call-in radio/television talk shows or TV shopping programs often provide a telephone number or email address through which listeners or viewers can contact the show (e.g., to talk to the show&#39;s host or purchase merchandise while the show is on the air). These shows typically provide the call-in telephone number by announcing it over the air. If an audience member does not hear the telephone number, e.g., because the audience member tuned into the show already in progress, then the audience member cannot call into the show. In addition, telephone numbers are often spoken very fast, leading to the possibility that a listener may not be able to write down the number, especially while driving a car or when the listener&#39;s eyes and/or hands are busy.  
         [0006]     Thus, there exists a need in the art for a method and system that enables audience members or viewers to call into a program or show without being required to receive and/or remember contact information such as telephone numbers. The contact information may be broadcasted via the broadcast media and presented to a user of the mobile terminal. The contact information may be stored in the mobile terminal devices or in an application running on the mobile device such as a contact application (phone book).  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007]     As more sophisticated mobile devices are developed, the same mobile device can be used for mobile telephony as is used for receiving radio and/or television broadcasts or datacast services in general. For example, 3G cellular devices may receive radio as well as perform traditional mobile telephony operations. The invention provides a method for delivering program related contact information over broadcast media to mobile terminal devices and directly links to embedded phone functions.  
         [0008]     Contact information in the form of WTAI (Wireless Telephony Application Interface) information may be embedded in the broadcasted digital data. The contact information may be delivered using an RDS, DARC, DRM or DAB or IBOC based object transport mechanism like MOT (Multimedia Object Transport) protocol and/or using IPDC technology. An application in the mobile terminal device may extract the contact information from the broadcast media, present it to the user for verification (maybe as a new Tab in the Protocol Application) and immediate action, or to store it directly in a phonebook application of the mobile terminal for later usage. Once the user has authorized certain actions, those actions can also be done automatically.  
         [0009]     In other aspects of the invention, computer-readable instructions for implementing the disclosed methods are stored on computer-readable media. Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent with reference to the following detailed description and figures. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]      FIG. 1  illustrates a block diagram of a wireless communication system in which various aspects of the present invention may be implemented.  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  illustrates a block diagram of a mobile terminal in accordance with an aspect of the present invention.  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  illustrates a block diagram of a mobile terminal user interacting with a television or radio shopping program in accordance with an aspect of the invention.  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  illustrates a method of establishing a communication between a mobile terminal and a device associated with a broadcast program in accordance with an aspect of the invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0014]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example of a wireless communication system  110  in which the systems and methods of the present invention may be advantageously employed. One or more network-enabled mobile devices  112 , such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular telephone, mobile terminal, personal video recorder, portable television, personal computer, digital camera, digital camcorder, portable audio device, portable radio, or combinations thereof, are in communication with a service source  122  through a broadcast network  114  and/or cellular network  116 . The mobile terminal/device  112  may comprise a digital broadcast receiver device. The service source  122  may be connected to several service providers that may provide their actual program content or information or description of their services and programs to the service source that further provides the content or information to the mobile device  112 . The several service providers may include but are not limited to one or more television and/or digital television service providers, analog and/or digital AM/FM radio service providers, SMS/MMS push service providers, Internet content or access providers.  
         [0015]     The broadcast network  114  may include a radio transmission of IP datacasting over DVB and/or DVB-H. The broadcast network  114  may broadcast a service such as a digital or analog television signal and supplemental content related to the service via transmitter  118 . The broadcast network may also include a radio, television or IP datacasting broadcasting network. The broadcast network  114  may also transmit supplemental content which may include a television signal, audio and/or video streams, data streams, video files, audio files, software files, and/or video games. In the case of transmitting IP datacasting services, the service source  122  may communicate actual program content to user device  112  through the broadcast network  114  and additional information such as user right and access information for the actual program content through the cellular network  116 .  
         [0016]     The mobile device  112  may also contact the service source  122  through the cellular network  116 . The cellular network  116  may comprise a wireless network and a base transceiver station transmitter  120 . The cellular network may include a second/third-generation (2G/3G) cellular data communications network, a Global System for Mobile communications network (GSM), or other wireless communication network such as a WLAN network.  
         [0017]     In one aspect of the invention, mobile device  112  may comprise a wireless interface configured to send and/or receive digital wireless communications within cellular network  116 . The information received by mobile device  112  through the cellular network  116  or broadcast network  114  may include user selection, applications, services, electronic images, audio clips, video clips, and/or WTAI (Wireless Telephony Application Interface) messages. As part of cellular network  116 , one or more base stations (not shown) may support digital communications with receiver device  112  while the receiver device is located within the administrative domain of cellular network  116 .  
         [0018]     As shown in  FIG. 2 , mobile device  112  may include processor  128  connected to user interface  130 , memory  134  and/or other storage, and display  136 . Mobile device  112  may also include battery  150 , speaker  152  and antennas  154 . User interface  130  may further include a keypad, touch screen, voice interface, one or more arrow keys, joy-stick, data glove, mouse, roller ball, touch screen, voice interface, or the like.  
         [0019]     Computer executable instructions and data used by processor  128  and other components within mobile device  112  may be stored in a computer readable memory  134 . The memory may be implemented with any combination of read only memory modules or random access memory modules, optionally including both volatile and nonvolatile memory. Software  140  may be stored within memory  134  and/or storage to provide instructions to processor  128  for enabling mobile device  112  to perform various functions. Alternatively, some or all of mobile device  112  computer executable instructions may be embodied in hardware or firmware (not shown).  
         [0020]     Mobile device  112  may be configured to receive, decode and process transmissions based on the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard, such as DVB-H or DVB-MHP, through a specific DVB receiver  141 . Additionally, receiver device  112  may also be configured to receive, decode and process transmissions through FM/AM Radio receiver  142 , WLAN transceiver  143 , and telecommunications transceiver  144 . In one aspect of the invention, mobile device  112  may receive messages via radio data system (RDS).  
         [0021]     In an example of the DVB standard, one DVB 10 Mbit/s transmission may have 200, 50 kbit/s audio program channels or 50, 200 kbit/s video (TV) program channels. The mobile device  112  may be configured to receive, decode, and process transmission based on the Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) standard or other DVB standards, such as DVB-MHP, DVB-Satellite (DVB-S), DVB-Terrestrial (DVB-T) or DVB-Cable (DVB-C). Similarly, other digital transmission formats may alternatively be used to deliver content and information of availability of supplemental services, such as ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee), NTSC (National Television System Committee), ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial), DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) or DIRECTV. Additionally, the digital transmission may be time sliced, such as in DVB-H technology. In this case the mobile device  112  may have one or more buffer memories for storing the decoded time sliced transmission before presentation.  
         [0022]      FIG. 3  illustrates an aspect of the invention using a block diagram for illustration of a mobile terminal user interacting with a television or radio shopping program. In this exemplary scenario, a user of a mobile terminal  112  receives a broadcast soliciting the listener or viewer to call into a show to purchase products. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the service source  122  may provide access information which may include a telephone number, an email address, an IP address, a URL, an SMS message address, or the like for contacting the provider. A listener or viewer receiving the content of the program may decide to contact the program  330  using their mobile terminal  112  in order to purchase the advertised product. The access or contact information may be transmitted to a service provider or broadcaster  310  in the form of an IP stream  302 . The IP stream  302  may include the contact information in WTAI format. The contact information may take the form of a phone number. Service provider  310  may broadcast  312  the shopping program along with contact information. The broadcast may be based on the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) standard, such as DVB-H or DVB-MHP or a FM/AM transmission. In another aspect of the invention, the broadcast may contain an RDS or DARC or IBOC message. Moreover, the transmission may be based on a RTP transmission. For an RTP transmission, the WTAI data may be transmitted as own RTP-stream corresponding to audio, video and subtitling.  
         [0023]     WTAI data may also be sent using WAP Push protocol, e.g. by using SMS. For WAP Push two protocols may be defined: HTTP and WSP. Additional information or data may also be provided in XML format and transmitted along with the contact information. The data may be embedded in a DVB signal by using a different IP source address than for the other IP streams (video, audio, etc.). The message format for the associated data may comprise XML, XHTML or the like.  
         [0024]     A mobile terminal  112  may comprise a broadband digital receiver  314  (e.g. a DVB-H receiver) and/or a mobile phone transceiver  316 . Additionally, the mobile terminal  112  may also comprise an analog receiver (e.g. a FM receiver in  FIG. 2 ) and/or a narrowband digital receiver.  
         [0025]     The WTAI message embedded in the broadcasted signal may be extracted by processor  128  and the contact information stored in data storage  325  or  326 . The extraction of the WTAI message data may be performed in one embodiment of the invention using a WTA (Wireless Telephony Application) user agent residing in the mobile device. The extracted information may influence the message shown on the display of the device. The displayed message may inform the user that a new message has been received, and/or that the user may select to store the received message or parts thereof to the memory of the device, e.g. to the phonebook. The contact information may be displayed in one embodiment of the invention directly in a portion of the screen or in a predefined location. The predefined location may be a field that is used for inputting a phone number for establishing a call, wherein the user may set up a call to the displayed number easily, e.g. by a single push of a button. The contact information may take the form of telephone numbers which may be stored in a phone book application. Additional data which may be included in the broadcasted signal may include suggested or allowed calling times for using the contact information. The suggested or allowed calling times may be used for setting an alarm  328  or making a call during the suggested/allowed time.  
         [0026]     In another aspect of the invention, the contact information such as the phone numbers and/or calling times may be defined regionally so that they are transmitted only in the selected regions at selected times. The regional selection can be based on information in SI/PSI tables (e.g. cell_id) or on mobile phone cell_id. In one embodiment, the mobile terminal  112  may make the selection as to when to show the number/message based on the cell_id (phone or DVB). In another embodiment, the transmission coverage (region or time) of the phone number(s) and/or other data may be decided by service provider  310 .  
         [0027]     In another aspect of the invention, the system may be used in simple voting applications, wherein the possible (allowed) alternatives may be associated with different phone numbers. In one embodiment the user may send a SMS  334  to the selected number. The user may input or select the message content of the SMS/MMS. The selection may be made from data stored in the mobile terminal  112  or from the associated data that was delivered together with the phone number. Further in one embodiment each of received telephone numbers may be associated with different message data. If the possible alternatives are not associated with different phone numbers, the SMS message may comprise the selected alternative inputted by the user according to instructions. In another aspect of the invention the user may select to establish an automatic voice call  332 , wherein the call may or may not include a voice message. The voice message in the automatic voice call may have been received as part of the additional data or it may be retrieved from the data store  326 .  
         [0028]      FIG. 4  illustrates a method of establishing a communication between a mobile terminal  112  and a device associated with a broadcast program in accordance with an aspect of the invention. In  FIG. 4 , at step  402  a mobile terminal  112  receives a broadcast signal. The broadcast signal may contain a television or radio program. In step  404 , the mobile terminal  112  receives contact information. The contact information may be extracted by the mobile terminal  112  from the broadcast signal. The contact information may be automatically stored in a telephone book application for later retrieval. The contact information stored in the telephone book application may be tagged as anew contact. A user of the telephone book application may browse or search the contacts stored in the telephone book application and choose to manually store the contact information. If the contact information is not saved by the user or used within a determined period of time (e.g.  2  days—parameter which the end user should set) the contact information may be automatically erased from the telephone book application.  
         [0029]     The contact information may be used to establish a voice connection with a device associated with the broadcasted program. In step  406 , the mobile terminal  112  receives input from a user to establish a connection with the device associated with the broadcasted program. In step  408 , a connection is established between the mobile terminal  112  and the program device in order for a user to communicate with the show or program.  
         [0030]     One of skill in the art will appreciate that many variations are possible that remain within the scope of the present invention. While the above examples refer to call-in radio and TV programs, the principles taught herein may also be used to receive additional information regarding other types of broadcasts, including advertisements and game shows. For example, when an advertisement is being broadcast that a user wants to learn more about, the user can use the contact information to connect the mobile terminal  112  to a third party associated with the advertisement (e.g., a sales representative). It should be apparent to one of skill in the art that, while the above examples are directed to mobile devices, the inventive methods and systems may also be used with non-mobile devices that receive broadcasts and perform telephony operations. In addition, the principles taught herein may also be used with non-wireless systems, such as Internet radio, TV, telephony or any other future broadcast systems.  
         [0031]     While the invention has been described with respect to specific examples including presently preferred modes of carrying out the invention, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are numerous variations and permutations of the above described systems and techniques that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.