Systems, Apparatuses, Methods and Computer Executable Code for Providing Interactive Friends and/or Contacts Graphic User Interfaces

The present invention includes systems, apparatuses, methods and computer executable code for providing interactive friends and/or contacts graphic user interfaces (GUI). According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may be provided an Interactive Friends and/or Contacts Interfacing Module (IFI) residing within or otherwise functionally associated with a computational device, which computational device includes a friends or contacts functionality (e.g. a cellular phone). An IFI may be adapted to retrieve contact/friend data and provide a user of a mobile phone with an interactive display of contact/friends lists, including data relating to the contacts/friends (e.g. online status) in graphic form and control elements for accessing actions relating to the listed contacts/friends.

It should be understood that the exemplary names and images presented in the drawings are presented for demonstrative purposes only, and their particular identity and appearance are insignificant beyond demonstrating examples of titles and images associated with contacts/friends. Equally it should be understood that multiple appearances of the same title or image are not intended to represent any correlation between the images and should be viewed as if each title and character/face appearing were distinct. Furthermore, inFIGS. 15-16, exemplary images+titles of contacts in some cases have been replaced with a square including a smiley face in its center. Such representations should be understood to be equivalent to a picture+Title of a contact/friend.

It should be understood that the accompanying drawings are presented solely to elucidate the following detailed description, are therefore, exemplary in nature and do not include all the possible permutations of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as “processing”, “computing”, “calculating”, “determining”, or the like, refer to the action and/or processes of a computer or computing system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented as physical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system's registers and/or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. The term server may refer to a single server or to a functionally associated cluster of servers.

The present invention includes systems, apparatuses, methods and computer executable code for providing interactive friends and/or contacts graphic user interfaces (GUI). According to some embodiments of the present invention, there may be provided an interactive Friends and/or Contacts Interfacing Module (hereinafter referred to as an: “IFI”) residing within or otherwise functionally associated with a computational device, which computational device includes a friends or contacts functionality (e.g. a cellular phone) [an example of a communication device including an IFI is demonstrated byFIG. 10]. An IFI may be adapted to retrieve contact/friend data and provide a user of a mobile phone with an interactive display of contact/friends lists, including data relating to the contacts/friends (e.g. online status) in graphic form and control elements for accessing actions relating to the listed contacts/friends.Throughout this disclosure, for the sake of convenience and clarity, embodiments will be described in relation to a mobile phone. It should be understood, however, that the present invention is equally implementable in any computational device (e.g. a personal computer, laptop, digital telephone, etc.) and all descriptions herein should be understood to include such implementations.

According to some embodiments, an IFI may be functionally associated with a friends and/or contacts list residing within a mobile phone, an application including such a list operating on the mobile phone a contact/friends list residing on a remote server accessible from the phone and/or a combination thereof. The IFI may be adapted to retrieve from the device, application and/or server, possibly via an appropriate application programming interface (API), the data contained within the list and/or associated with contacts listed therein, which data may comprise: a graphic representation of each contact/friend (e.g. a profile picture), a title of each contact/friend (e.g. a name), an identifier for the contact/friend, other data relating to the contact/friend contained in the list (e.g. phone number, address, association with a group, current geographical location, etc.), a current status of the contact/friend (e.g. online, offline, etc.) and/or any other data relating to the contact/friend.

According to some embodiments, an IFI may be further adapted to provide upon a display of the mobile phone an interactive GUI of the contact/friend list or lists (hereinafter this GUI is referred to as: “the Contact GUI” or “CGUI”). An IFI may be adapted to provide the CGUI upon request by a user and/or automatically whenever such a list is accessed by a user of the device. Furthermore, an IFI may include options for a user to define when the IFI will provide a CGUI and which CGUI to provide each time. For example, a user may define that local contacts, when displayed, will automatically be displayed by the IFI in a CGUI of one sort, whereas facebook contacts, when accessed via a facebook application, will only be displayed by the IFI in a CGUI at the user request and this will be in a different sort of CGUI. In other words, an IFI may be automatically instanced whenever a contact list is displayed on a device it is associated with and/or upon a user activation. Accordingly, an IFI may include appropriate interfacing code to allow it to function within a framework of other applications (e.g. facebook) without interfering with the operation of the relevant application.

A CGUI may include a collage/matrix of the retrieved images representing the contacts/friends contained in the list [as shown inFIGS. 1-9&11-18], wherein each image may be adjacent to the next (i.e. touching the next image) and may further be adjacent to the image below and/or beneath it [as can be seen inFIGS. 1-2,4-8,11-12&14-18]. The CGUI may further include a title of each image (e.g. the contact/friend name), overlaid on, directly adjacent to or otherwise associated with the image it is a title of. According to further embodiments, images+Titles of contacts/friends may be arranged to show interrelations between the contacts/friends [as shown inFIGS. 3 & 13].

According to some embodiments, a CGUI may further present to the user in graphic form data relating to each of the displayed contact/friend images (e.g. online status). According to some embodiments, the additional data may be presented to the user by:a. increasing/decreasing the brightness/lighting of one or more of the contact/friend images (e.g. images of contacts/friends currently online may be brighter than images of contacts/friends not currently online) [as shown in the figs by marking100];b. adjusting the coloring, sharpness, resolution or contrast of one or more of the contact/friend images (e.g. images of contacts/friends currently online or of a certain group, may be in color while other images may be B&W, or in sharper contrast, etc.) [as shown inFIGS. 1 & 12].FIG. 1illustrates this concept. As can be seen, images marked200are in sharper contrast than others. Turning toFIG. 12it can be seen that the inner circle of contacts/friends is in sharper contrast/higher-resolution then the outer circle. It should be understood that the difference in contrast/resolution between the contact/friend images may not be correlated to the circles, such that images of contacts/friends within the same circle or grid may appear in different contrasts/resolutions in order to present data to the user relating to each of the contacts/friends (e.g. currently online contacts/friends may be presented in sharper contrast/higher resolution than other contacts/friends);c. grouping/arranging the images to present the data (e.g. images of contacts belonging to a particular group may be placed in a specific area of the CGUI). Examples of this concept are presented inFIGS. 2-6&12-16, wherein:FIGS. 2 & 12show exemplary CGUIs in which contact/friend images and titles are arranged in circles. In such CGUIs each circle may signify data related to the contacts/friends whose images appear in that circle (e.g. contacts/friends currently within the same geographical area as the user of the mobile phone may appear in an inner circle, contacts currently within the same country but another geographical area in a second circle and those outside the country in an outermost circle).FIGS. 3 & 13show exemplary CGUIs in which contact/friend images and titles are arranged in “Tree” type arrangement. In such a CGUI arrangement and connections may signify data related to the contacts/friends (e.g. contacts/friends may be arranged according to the interconnections between them).FIGS. 4 & 14show exemplary CGUIs in which contact/friend images and titles are arranged in Trapezoids. In such a CGUI each Trapezoid may signify data related to the contacts/friends whose images appear in that trapezoid (e.g. contacts/friends which are family of the user of the mobile phone may appear in one trapezoid, friends in another and work contacts in the third, etc);FIGS. 5 & 15show exemplary 3D CGUIs in which contact/friend images and titles are arranged in cubical arrangement. In such a CGUI each side of the cube may signify data related to the contacts/friends whose images appear on that side (e.g. contacts/friends which are family of the user of the mobile phone may appear on one side, friends on another and work contacts on the third, etc).FIGS. 6 & 16show exemplary 3D CGUIs in which contact/friend images and titles are arranged in multiple cubes. In such a CGUI each cube signify data related to the contacts/friends whose images appear on that cube and each side of each cube may further signify other data related to the contacts/friends whose images appear on that side (e.g. one cube may be comprised of family members, one of friends and one of work contacts, and within each cube the front side may be comprised of contacts/friends frequently contacted, the top side of contacts/friends less frequently contacted and the third side of contacts/friends rarely or never contacted, etc). In such a CGUI, a user may be able to select one of the cubes, in response to which the IFI may present the selected cube alone [as shown inFIG. 5] or centered/enlarged;d. adjusting shapes of contact representations (e.g. images of contacts having a particular characteristic may be hexagonal, triangular, elongated, etc.) [as shown inFIG. 9]; and/ore. any other graphic representation of data.

Clearly, combinations of the above described graphical representation of data relating to contacts/friends may be implemented. For example, within a cubicle presentation as described above, particular images of certain contacts/friends may be brighter or in sharper contrast than others, and so on).

According to yet further embodiments, a moving CGUI may be provided. For example, contacts may be arranged on the circumference of a ball shape which rotates around its axis, or a linear configuration which slowly moves from left to right or top to bottom, and so on. In such embodiments, motion of the CGUI may be constant, periodical and/or in reaction to user action (e.g. clicking or mousing over a control element). Further, parameters of motion (e.g. motion speed and direction) may be user selectable.

The above described graphical representations of data (a-e) may be used to represent any form of data relating to contacts/friends. Non-limiting examples of data that may be represented may include: (1) current status of contacts/friends (e.g. currently online or currently available to chat contacts/friends), (2) interests/hobbies of contacts/friends (e.g. contacts interested in surfing), (3) current or permanent geographical location or residence of contacts/friends (e.g. contacts/friends currently within 1 mile of the mobile phone), (4) interrelations between contacts/friends, (5) age, gender, occupation, school, and other personal data of contacts/friends, (6) the time of most recent login to a related service of contacts/friends (e.g. last login to facebook), (7) number of mutual contacts/friends shared by each contact/friend, (8) inclusion of contacts/friends to a particular group (e.g. football team the contacts/friends are a fan of); (9) applications installed in the contacts/friends devices (e.g. play a particular game online, such as “chess master”); and/or (10) any other data relating to contacts/friends.

According to further embodiments, an IFI may be adapted to modify the above described graphical representations of data based on a sorting filter or search requested by the user. For example, based on a user request, images of contacts/friends who are fans of the Atlanta Falcons may be highlighted or otherwise distinguished using the above described graphical representations.

According to further embodiments, an IFI CGUI may include options for a user to input sorting and/or filtering instructions to the IFI. Upon receiving such instructions an IFI may rearrange the images contained with the CGUI based on the requested sorting and/or filtering. According to yet further embodiments, an IFI may be adapted to automatically and/or upon user request, save requested filtering and/or sorting requests such that in future instancements of the IFI the CGUI may be initially presented according to the saved filtering and/or sorting. Similarly, an IFI may provide for a user to select among possible CGUI's and define their parameters. i.e. a user may be able to select the type of graphical representations implemented and/or the data to be represented. According to yet further embodiments, an IFI may be adapted to save multiple profiles of CGUI types and sorting and filtering preferences relating to the CGUI. For example, an IFI may use one sorting and filtering profile for facebook contact listings and a separate sorting and filtering profile for the device contact listings. Equally, different users may each have an profile saved on the device.

According to some embodiments, each image presented in the CGUI may function as a control element, such that when a user selection device (e.g. touch screen, mouse, etc.) is actuated on the image an action may be performed in relation to the associated contact (e.g. a call to the contact/friend may be initiated). According to further embodiments, different actuations performed by a user upon the CGUI may result in different actions being performed in relation to the contact with which the actuation is associated. For example, a left click upon the image of a contact may initiate a call to the contact, a right click may result in a SMS message window opening with the contact included as a addressee and a combination right and left click on the image of a contact may result in further details relating to the contact being displayed. According to further embodiments, a CGUI may include control elements or options to manipulate the display (e.g. scroll down, rotate, etc.), and/or change the display format (e.g. switch from square to circle format). * in this description and accompanying claims, rendering a control element upon a display which appears as an image may be referred to as “skinning” the control element with the image. The image is thus referred to as the “skin” of the control element.

According to further embodiments, an IFI may be adapted to present any of the above mentioned CGUI's aside or upon another display (e.g. a video clip). This concept is exemplified inFIG. 7, which illustrates an exemplary CGUI aside a video clip.

According to yet further embodiments, an IFI may be adapted to present multiple images of each contact/friend. This concept is illustrated inFIGS. 8 & 18. InFIGS. 8 & 18each contact/friend is represented by both a profile picture and the latest image or videoclip posted by that contact/friend on facebook. Similarly, each contact/friend “square” may include a collage of pictures of that contact/friend.

According to some embodiments, an IFI may be adapted to communicate with an external IFI server adapted to provide, via a distributed data network (e.g. the internet) support and/or communication functionalities to IFI Applications. According to further embodiments, the functionalities of a IFI external server may be performed by modules or servers hosted by, embedded in or otherwise functionally associated with Social Networking Sites, and all descriptions herein relating to an IFI should be understood to apply equally to such embodiments with the relevant modifications.

According to some embodiments, an IFI may be further adapted to determine a geographical location of the mobile phone it is associated with (e.g. may retrieve geo data from a GPS unit of the user device). According to some embodiments, geo data relating to a communication device may be used to organize some of the CGUIs for example, in CGUIs where contacts are arranged based at least partially on physical proximity to the device. According to yet further embodiments, an IFI may be further adapted to retrieve other data relating to a user or device it is associated with from other applications in the device, network resources and/or social networks. This data may be used to properly arrange a CGUI for example, an IFI may retrieve from a social networking application of the user data relating to his/her topics of interest/hobbies, which may then allow the IFI to properly arrange a CGUI to which the data is relevant.

The present invention can be practiced by employing conventional tools, methodology and components. Accordingly, the details of such tools, component and methodology are not set forth herein in detail. In the previous descriptions, numerous specific details are set forth, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it should be recognized that the present invention might be practiced without resorting to the details specifically set forth.

In the description and claims of embodiments of the present invention, each of the words, “comprise” “include” and “have”, and forms thereof, are not necessarily limited to members in a list with which the words may be associated.