Abstract:
Personalized location enabled indicators, such as ring backs or ring tones are described. Such capability can be provided by wireless service providers to offer their customers a host of unique location based ring tones and ring backs of both an audio and video nature. By way of example, a first calling party may be provided with a video ring back indicative of location, such as a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge when a second called party is in San Francisco, or a ring tone may indicate a called party is at work and busy, at home and not busy, or the like, with different ring tones for different classes of callers, such as coworkers, family, friends or specified individuals.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to improvements in the field of mobile communication, and, in particular, to systems and methods for providing personalized location enabled indicators, such as ring tones or ring backs. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Ring tones and ring backs are a growing business in the world of telecommunications. Cellular or wireless subscribers in many parts of the world are eager to buy and exchange new ring tones and also set ring back preferences. On the one hand, ring tones are the sounds, such as rings, for example, played on mobile phones upon receiving a call. Simply by way of example, it is not uncommon for a user to download a ring tone which is part of a favorite song or which is selected from a menu of options with many distinctive choices. Today&#39;s phones typically provide the user with the capabilities of setting different ring tone preferences based on the caller and even time of day. 
     Ring backs, on the other hand, are typically sound bytes sent back to the calling party after a call has been dialed depending on preferences set by the called party. While ring tones can be supported by software technology residing purely on the handset, supporting ring backs requires extensive support from the wireless network during the call setup stage. Lucent Technologies Inc. of 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, N.J. 07974, a provider of communications products and services, has developed a product called MiRingBack that enables service providers to deploy sophisticated ring back solutions in their wireless networks. 
     iLocator is a location based service platform also from Lucent Technologies Inc. which supports custom location and presence based services such as alerting and tracking family, friends and enterprises, incorporating privacy controls. Among its many capabilities, it interfaces with the Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG) product from Lucent Technologies Inc. to obtain network related information. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Among its several aspects, the present invention recognizes that the capabilities of the aforementioned products can be advantageously combined as taught herein to provide a wide array of personalized location indicators, such as personalized location enabled ring backs and ring tones, as described further herein. While it is hard to envision all the creative uses that service providers may want to offer or mobile users may want, several illustrative examples are discussed below. With the present invention, a user could set different personalized ring backs or ring tones to be sent back to a specific set of callers based on the user&#39;s location. For example, a first tone could indicate to coworkers that the user is at work, but would indicate that he was busy to friends. A second tone could indicate that he is at work, but not busy to family members. A third tone could be employed to indicate that the user is downtown, and a fourth tone could be used to indicate that the user is at home and not busy. 
     As an alternative or in addition, a user could set a preference such that selected callers get an automated message that indicates the current location of the user, while the call is being connected. 
     Callers with phones that have multimedia messaging service (MMS) capability could advantageously receive an MMS message indicating the current location of the called party. For example, an MMS message may include a picture of Times Square if the called party is in New York City, a picture of the White House if the called party is in Washington D.C., or simply a map of the current location of the user. 
     To this end, the present invention addresses among its several aspects a method for providing a personalized location enabled indicator, such as a ring tone or ring back, comprising: obtaining location information for a mobile device of a called party; and providing the personalized location enabled indicator to the calling party, said personalized location enabled indicator being a function of the location information for the mobile device of the called party. In a further aspect, the step of obtaining location information is done as part of call set up. 
     According to another aspect, the present invention addresses a system for providing a personalized location enabled indicator, such as a ring tone or ring back, the system comprising: means for obtaining location information for a mobile device of a called party; and means for providing said personalized location enabled indicator to the calling party, said location enabled indicator being a function of the location information for the mobile device of the called party. Aspects of the system may be embodied in a wireless base station or a cellular telephone handset. 
     A more complete understanding of the present invention, as well as further features and advantages of the invention, will be apparent from the following Detailed Description and the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary network system in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  shows an exemplary call flow between the network elements of  FIG. 1  to provide a personalized location specific ring back depending on the location of a called party in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  shows an exemplary call flow between the network elements of  FIG. 1  to provide a personalized location specific multimedia message depending on the location of a called party in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates exemplary functional components of the location server of  FIG. 1  in accordance with the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  shows a flowchart of a method for providing personalized location enabled indicators, such as ring tones and ring backs, in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which several presently preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. 
     As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as methods, systems, or computer readable media. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the form of a hardware embodiment, a software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects such as firmware. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium. Any suitable computer readable medium may be utilized including hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, flash memories, magnetic storage devices, or the like. 
     Computer program code or “code” for carrying out operations according to the present invention may be written in an object oriented programming language such as JAVA®, Smalltalk, JavaScript®, Visual Basic®, TSQL, Perl, C, C++ or in various other programming languages. Software embodiments of the present invention do not depend on implementation with a particular programming language. Portions of the code may execute entirely on one or more systems utilized by a network server or a wireless device. 
     The code may execute partly on one network server and partly on another network server or on a mobile or wireless device in communication with the network server over a communications network. Regarding the former scenario,  FIG. 1  shows an exemplary system  100  for providing personalized location enabled indicators, such as personalized ring tones or ring backs, in accordance with the present invention. The system  100  includes an intelligent network (IN)  101  which provides a medium for establishing a call between wireless devices such as wireless devices  105   1 - 105   n  and wireless devices  115   1 - 115   n . A mobile device may be a wireless device, a cellular or wireless phone, or some other type of mobile device, such as an Internet protocol (IP) phone or mobile network device which is mobile and communicates with multiple other users for which a personalized location indicator, such as specific ring tones or ring backs, might be considered valuable. The system  100  includes a mobile switching center (MSC)  110  coupled to a set of intelligent network (IN) devices including an intelligent peripheral server  130  such as Lucent Technologies&#39; enhanced media resource server (eMRS), a data server  140  such as Lucent Technologies&#39; enhanced control server (eCS), an intelligent services gateway (ISG)  150  such as Lucent Technologies&#39; MiLife® ISG, and a location server  160 , such as Lucent Technologies&#39; iLocator server. 
     MSC  110  provides wireless device voice and data connectivity to the intelligent network  101 . MSC  110  includes an optional database  120  to determine whether a called party subscribes to a ring back service, such as MiRingBack. MSC  110  also includes a function of acting as a service switching point (SSP) which allows MSC  110  to communicate using signaling system 7 (SS/7) signaling protocol. In particular, integrated services digital network user part (ISDNUP) messaging is used to initiate a call. However, other protocols may also be used, such as ISDN messaging protocols, and the like. Although wireless devices  105   1 - 105   n  and  115   1 - 115   n  are shown to communicate with MSC  110 , it will be recognized that multiple MSCs couple to intelligent network  101  and, depending on the location of a wireless device, the wireless device may communicate through another MSC. Also, while phones are shown for purposes of illustration, many other mobile devices with communication capabilities are also contemplated. After a call is established between one or more wireless devices over intelligent network  101 , a voice communication path may be carried over intelligent network  101  or another network to which MSC  110  may connect, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN) which is not shown. 
     Intelligent peripheral server  130  provides MSC  110  intelligent network features such as distributing call processing capabilities across multiple intelligent network devices. Data server  140  contains an intelligent database service that offers large database capabilities, including sort call handling and routing information for intelligent network (IN) services executed by service switching points (SSPs), such as MSC  110 . In particular, data server  140  contains predetermined profiles of subscribers to a ring back service, such as the MiRingBack service adapted in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. A profile may include subscriber preferences such as rules for sending different sound bytes to a calling party before call establishment depending on the location or presence of the subscribed party. Additionally, the different sounds may depend upon whether the calling party falls into a predetermined category, such as family, friend, coworker, high priority caller, or the like. The profile may also contain other call treatment rules such as sending a map showing the location of the called party or a tailored message depending on the location of the called party, the calling party, or both. The data server  140  also may suitably execute user preference application code which applies the rules specified in a profile in response to a query. 
     ISG  150  translates queries made in one communication protocol to another communication protocol. A suitable intelligent services gateway is a parlay/OSA (open services access) standard compliant network element that exposes network capabilities to end user applications. It provides a single entry point regardless of the different flavors of wireless networks such as time division multiple access (TDMA) digital, code division multiple access (CDMA) or universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) networks. It also adheres to different wireless standards such as location interoperability forum (LIF) to support querying of location information from the location related elements. 
     The location server  160  runs server code which provides a location and presence based track and alert service. Wireless devices, such as wireless devices  105   1 - 105   n , may run client code to receive notifications of the presence and/or location of another wireless device. Location server  160  will be described in further detail in connection with  FIG. 4 . It will be recognized that the number of intelligent network devices and mobile switching centers which may be used in intelligent network  101  is not limited to the exemplary ones represented in  FIG. 1 . 
     It should be further noted that the functionality of the data server  140  and IP server  130  may be combined into one server. While devices  105   1 - 105   n  are shown as wireless devices, it should be recognized that many aspects of the present invention apply to a wide variety of other mobile devices capable of initiating or receiving telephone calls. 
       FIG. 2  shows an exemplary call flow  200  in accordance with the present invention. This call flow  200  is shown implemented in conjunction with the system  100  of  FIG. 1  to provide a specific ring back depending on the location of the cellular wireless phone of a called party. It will be recognized that call flow  200  can be readily implemented with other ring back systems. The approach of call flow  200  incorporates a comprehensive set of network operational scenarios that account for network element failures, called party roaming outside the network, and the like. When a mobile switching center (MSC)  110  receives a request for a call from a calling party using a wireless device  105   1 , it queries a database  120  to determine if a called party using a second wireless phone  115   1  or other mobile device is a subscriber of the ring back service. If the ring back service has been activated, the MSC  110  queries the intelligent peripheral (IP)  130  for the appropriate ring tone to be sent back to the caller by sending an initial address message (IAM) or other like message. The intelligent peripheral  130  then sends a request for tone details message to data server  140 . 
     In order to support location and presence enabled ring back preferences, the intelligent peripheral  130  or data server  140  also queries intelligent services gateway (ISG)  150  with a query  121  to obtain the current location of the called party. Query  121  contains the address of the called party. Query  121  can be initiated directly to the ISG  150  or to the location server  160 . A direct interface to ISG  150  is suitable when only the location of the called party needs to be determined. However, when a location based MMS message, for example, a map of the current location of the called party is to be delivered as the ring back, it is beneficial for the intelligent peripheral server  130  to interface directly with locator server  160  which supports this functionality. The latter situation will be described further in connection with the discussion of  FIG. 3 . In general, the direct connection to the location server is used only when the users are known to be on the same network with a similar wireless technology. In other instances, it is recommended that the calls flow through the ISG  150  which provides a protocol transparency for end user applications. 
     In the former situation as illustrated in  FIG. 2 , ISG  150  translates query  121  from a protocol used between IP  130  and ISG  150  such as ISDNUP into a second protocol such as parlay/OSA (open services access) and forwards a query  123  which is similar to query  121  except that its carried over the second protocol. The ISG  150  in turn uses the LIF protocol to talk to the location server  160 . The location server  160  tracks subscribers&#39; location information, such as location information for subscribers utilizing wireless devices  115   1 - 115   n , and contains a database of records indicating the current location of wireless devices  115   1 - 115   n . By way of example, the location server  160  may suitably employ well known tri-lateration based techniques to compute the locations using signal measurements from three or more base stations. Alternatively, where a mobile device is connecting to the network with a Wi-fi® standard or Bluetooth® standard connection to a hot spot connection point or the like, the phone is registered at the connection point, and as the location of the connection point is known to the system, it can be readily determined that the mobile device is in proximity to the connection point and this location information can be utilized. While two examples are given above as to how location information can be obtained, it will be recognized that other techniques may also be employed. 
     Upon receipt of query  123 , the location server  160 , utilizing the address of the called party, queries the database of records to retrieve the location information for the wireless device corresponding to the called party, such as the location information for wireless device  115   1 , for example. The location server  160  then returns the location information for wireless device  115   1  to ISG  150  in a message  125 . The location may contain a raw location of the wireless device  115   1  specified in latitude and longitude, for example, or may contain a geographic address such as “600 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, N.J.” 
     Upon receipt of message  125 , ISG  150  converts message  125  carried over the second protocol to message  127  which is carried over the first protocol to data server  140 . Data server  140 , executing user preference application code, retrieves a subscriber profile corresponding to the called party address and applies the rules stored in the profile for generating the appropriate ring back. For example, the returned information for wireless device  115   1  may trigger a rule in the subscriber profile to send back sound bytes for a first tone indicating that the called party is at work, to send back sound bytes for a second tone indicating that the called party is busy because he or she is at work, or the like. In addition to the returned location of the called party, the rules in the profile may also depend on the calling party&#39;s address, the time of day, or the like. 
     The data server  140  sends a response to tone details message to the intelligent peripheral  130 . The response to the tone details message indicates the particular sound bytes which should be generated by the wireless device  105   1  of the calling party, for example. The intelligent peripheral  130  sends a continuity message (CON) to MSC  110  to indicate that the called party is valid. The ring back service executing on MSC  110  sends ring messages in accordance with the application of the rules in the subscriber profile. For example, if the user of wireless device  115   1  was in the office and the user of wireless device  105   1  is only an acquaintance of the user of wireless device  115   1 , the ring back service may send sound bytes which indicate that the user of wireless device  115   1  is busy and a busy tone would be heard by the acquaintance while coworkers&#39; calls might ring through to the called party when the called party is at his or her desk or would hear a different ring back if he or she were away from his or her desk. By way of another example, regardless of who is calling wireless device  115   1  while the wireless device  115   1  is at work, the ring back service may send sound bytes which indicate that the user is busy. By way of another example, the user of wireless device  115   1  may accept calls in the afternoon while he or she is at work but will not accept calls in the morning. In this case, busy tones would be provided in the morning while audible ringing tones would be provided in the afternoon to callers. It will be clear that a wide variety of advantageous ring tones and ring backs may be provided. 
     For completeness, if some type of audible ringing tone is provided to the calling party, intelligent peripheral  130  would send an alerting message to wireless device  115   1 . Once the called party answers the call, an answer message is sent to MSC  110  to establish a voice communication path. Although these messages are shown to terminate directly to and from wireless device  115   1 , these messages would typically be sent to and from an MSC servicing wireless device  115   1 . The release (REL) and release complete (RLC) message are sent between MSC  110  and IP  130  when either party disconnects from the call. 
       FIG. 3  shows a further exemplary call flow  300  between the network elements of  FIG. 1  to provide a multimedia message depending on the location of a called party in accordance with the present invention. Up to point  301 , the flows described with respect to  FIG. 2  apply in  FIG. 3  as well. Upon receipt of a request for tone details message, data server  140  sends a request for location details message  305  to location server  160  to find the location of a called party such as the user of wireless device  115   1 . Location server  160 , utilizing the address of the called party, queries its database of records to retrieve the location information for the wireless device corresponding to the called party, such as wireless device  115   1 , for example. The location server  160  then returns the location of wireless device  115   1  to data server  140  in a returned location details message  315 . The location may contain a raw location of the wireless device  115   1  specified in latitude and longitude, for example, or may contain the geographic address such as “600 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, N.J.” 
     Data server  140 , executing user preference application code, retrieves a subscriber profile corresponding to the called party address and applies the rules stored in the profile for generating an MMS message. The generated MMS message may include a map of where the called party is located, a text or voice recording tailored to the location of the called party, a video of the location of the called party, or the like. For example, the returned location or called party address of wireless device  115   1  may trigger a rule in the subscriber profile to send back a map indicating the location of the called party. In this example, the returned geographic location is utilized to look up a map stored on data server  140  or an external mapping service coupled through the Internet. By way of a further example involving text tailored to the location of the called party, the returned location is returned to the intelligent peripheral  130 . Intelligent peripheral  130  converts text tailored to the location such as “600 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, N.J.,” to speech and passes the speech to a calling party, such as the user of wireless device  105   1  in MMS message  325 . The data server  140  sends a response to tone details message  335 . Message  335  will optionally contain a specific audible ring or sound bytes if the called party&#39;s profile contains rules to send both specific audible rings in addition to the retrieved map or text message. When a text to speech conversion is necessary, the location text is first sent from the data server to the intelligent peripheral  130 , for example, which then performs the translation. 
     Intelligent peripheral  130  then sends a continuity message to indicate to MSC  110  that the called party is valid. If the message  335  contains a specific audible ring, the intelligent peripheral  130  generates the location keyed ring tones to the calling party. 
     In this exemplary call flow, the calling party devices, such as devices  105   1 - 105   n , will have a display to display a map, picture, or text keyed to the location of the called party. 
     Further details of a suitable architecture  400  of a location server  160  interfacing with ISG  150  are shown in  FIG. 4 . The location server  160  includes several software components including a client renderer  410 , a location manager  420 , a profile manager  430 , server logic  440 , and a proxy server  415 . The intelligent peripheral  130  maintains the user preferences of what ring tone or ring tones should be played for what location. The location server  160  running code according to the teachings of the invention provides this location information by interfacing with the ISG  150 . The location server  160  may be suitably implemented as application host environment (AHE) hardware. The location server  160  may be a front end to ISG  150  to obtain the location plus maps and other information. The location server  160  communicates with Internet protocol multi-media subsystem (IMS) elements  460 . The MMS elements may include the ISG  150 , a super distributed home location register (SDHLR) user profile information server  462 , location servers  464 , and enhanced business services provisioning  466 . 
     Client code  470  executes on a mobile device or handset such as wireless device  115   1 . As addressed above, the present location enabled approach is not just limited to cellular networks, but can also obtain the user location from a nearby Wi-fi® access point bypassing the call flow to the ISG  150 . Once the location is obtained by interfacing with the ISG  150  or location server  160  as described above, or otherwise, the intelligent peripheral  130  infers the context of the called user and applies the series of ring back tone preferences with their priorities to determine the right ring tone or ring back to be played. 
     Location server  160  can also play the role of reverse geocoding. In other words, location server  160  can be utilized to translate a raw location of a called user, specified in latitude and longitude, obtained from an ISG, such as ISG  150 , to a geographic address, such as “Murray Hill, N.J.”. This geographic address is then passed back to the IP server  130  and is converted to synthetic speech which is then sent to the caller just before the ring tone. 
       FIG. 5  shows a flowchart of a method  500  for providing personalized location enabled indicators, such as personalized ring tones and ring backs, in accordance with the present invention. Method steps  510  and  520  are optional. At step  510 , personalized location indicators, such as ring tones or ring backs or both ring tones and ring backs, are optionally stored for subsequent retrieval. At step  520 , at least two categories of calling parties are optionally established. Furthermore, at step  520 , at least two different ring tones or ring backs are stored according to the at least two categories of calling parties. Step  520  is optional because this step applies if the ring tones or ring backs provided to a calling party are dependent on the calling party. At step  530 , a calling party initiates a call to a wireless device of a called party. At step  540 , location information for the wireless device of the called party is obtained or received. 
     At this point in method  500 , three paths may be optionally followed for the next step if desired. If step  550  is selected by a user preselection, a ring tone or ring back which is a function of the location information for the wireless device of the called party is provided to the calling party. If step  560  is selected by a user preselection, a map, a picture, or a message which is a function of the location information for the wireless device of the called party is provided to the calling party. If step  570  is selected by a user preselection, both a map, a picture, or a message and a ring tone which is a function of the location information of the wireless device of the called party is provided to the calling party. 
     While the present invention has been disclosed mainly in a presently preferred context of cellular or wireless phones, it will be recognized that the present teachings are applicable to a wide array of mobile network accessible devices such as internet protocol (IP) phones, portable game devices, or the like, which can be used at various locations and which could be advantageously located using the present teachings. Further, aspects of the invention can be implemented in a mobile handset or as part of a base station in a wireless phone system.