Abstract:
A method of using color displays to visually identify another communicating individual to a Smartphone user. The method may be implemented as downloadable App software and run on the Smartphone&#39;s microprocessor. Here, various communications means, such as the communicating individual&#39;s telephone numbers, email addresses, SMS addresses, or social network identities are assigned to that individual&#39;s contact group, and this in turn is linked to a color or combination of colors. When the communicating individual contacts the Smartphone or makes an appropriate social network posting, the App software and processor detect this event, generates the appropriate color display, which can then be seen by the Smartphone user.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention is in the field of caller identification methods for telecommunications devices, with a particular emphasis on mobile phones (e.g. cell phones) and Smart phones. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Caller identification (Caller ID) methods of establishing the identity of incoming callers to land line telephones and mobile telephones are well established in the art. Such methods generally show the caller&#39;s phone number, and often additional information as well such as the caller&#39;s name or business. 
     Prior art in various forms for Caller ID for cell phones include Yomoda, US patent publication 2005/0020318 who taught a “Handheld terminal device and display control method therefor”. Other prior art includes Lim, US patent application 2006/029559, “Telephone device with ornamental lighting”, and Burgan et. al., US patent application 2008/0125183, who taught a “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LIGHTED PUSH-TO-CONNECT”. 
     Despite such prior art, often mobile phone and Smartphone users are present in situations, such as driving or in meetings, where it is socially awkward or even dangerous to spend much time reading text on a cell phone display screen. Thus further improvements in Caller ID methods would be useful. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention is based, in part, on the insight that in many situations, what mobile phone and smart phone users need is a discrete method of, at a glance, and without undue distraction, instantly ascertaining the identity of an important caller, email message sender, SMS message sender, or even social network poster. To avoid undue distraction, the Caller ID output method should be visual, but preferably not so conspicuous as flashing an entire display screen, for example. 
     The invention is also based in part, on the insight that at least certain modern smart phones, exemplified by the popular BlackBerry™ series of smart phones, are equipped with variable color light emitting diodes that are under the control of the smart phone&#39;s processor (microprocessor). 
     Thus in one embodiment, the invention may be a method of visually signaling the identity of an incoming caller contacting a Smartphone, such as a variable color light emitting diode (LED) equipped smart phone, operated by a user. This method may be performed by determining at least one of the incoming caller&#39;s individuals telephone numbers, email addresses, or SMS addresses, and assigning these telephone numbers, email addresses, or SMS addresses (or other messages, such as social network postings) into a contact group associated with the incoming caller. The user may also use the Smartphone&#39;s graphical user interface to assign at least one LED color to the contact group associated with this incoming caller, thus producing a contact group LED color assignment, and saving this LED color assignment in memory. The method may then involve programming the Smartphone (often using a downloaded software App for this purpose). Here this software can set the Smartphon so that for each incoming telephone call, email, SMS message or social network posting from the contact group associated with that particular incoming caller, the software will flash the cell phone&#39;s LED or color display according to the color assignment of that individuals contact group. 
     Thus although in a preferred embodiment, the method may use the Smartphone&#39;s or cell phone&#39;s colored LED for Caller ID purposes, other embodiments are also possible. In an alternative embodiment, other visual output methods, such as a colored bar or other icon on the smart phone&#39;s display screen may also be used for Caller ID purposes. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows a diagram showing a simplified version of the major components of a Smartphone. 
         FIG. 2  shows a flow chart showing how different communications modalities can be assigned to the same contact group and color code. 
         FIG. 3  shows a specific example of how different incoming callers can be assigned to different color output schemes, such as color LED output schemes. 
         FIG. 4  shows an example of a two-color contact group color assignment scheme. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     In this discussion, the operator of the Smartphone will be designated as the Smartphone “user”. 
     As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the invention may be a software implemented method of visually signaling the identity of an individual contacting a Smartphone (e.g. an incoming caller). As shown in  FIG. 1 , this Smartphone will generally comprise a cellular phone transceiver ( 100 ), processor ( 102 ), memory ( 104 ), software ( 106 ), and a graphical user interface (such as a touch sensitive display screen, often capable of displaying color) ( 108 ). 
     The Smartphone will also have at least one colored light emitting device capable of emitting light in a first plurality of software controlled colors. In some embodiments, this colored light emitting device may be the phone&#39;s display screen itself ( 108 ), while in other embodiments, the colored light emitting device may also comprise one or more light emitting diodes (LEDs) or equivalent devices ( 110 ) that are separate and distinct from the phone&#39;s display screen ( 108 ). 
     The invention&#39;s methods may often be implemented by software, such as for example a downloadable “App” ( 106 ). Indeed, an example of such an App, entitled “Who Is It—LED Color Light Alerts for Contacts” was previously developed and published by applicant through the Blackberry App World™ store initially on Nov. 8, 2011, and in a later release on Dec. 22, 2011. This App has since been well received, and has in fact enjoyed a significant amount of commercial success. It is available as a paid App, and as of May 1, 2012, the application has received 12,558 reviews, generally at a very high degree of customer satisfaction ranking (e.g. greater than 4.5 out of 5 stars). 
     The basic philosophy of this App, as published on November 2011 on the Blackberry App World store, is, with a small amount of reformatting and editing, as follows: 
     Finally, a BlackBerry® app that lets YOU decide whether to take the call, email, or SMS now or later with ‘Who Is It’. Using your BlackBerry&#39;s® front LED, assign up to 10 colors to different callers. Parents? Green. Boss? Yellow. Tax accountant? Blue, blue, blue. 
     You know who&#39;s on the line at a glance so you decide if this is a contact that needs attention now, or a call, email or SMS that can wait a while. 
     For the free App, you may choose up to 10 different contacts and assign 10 different LED colors so you know who&#39;s on the line all of the time. You can easily stop blinking at any time with menu item in every menu. No Smartphone reconfiguration is required. Just download and set up ‘Who Is It’ with a few taps. It&#39;s designed to be easy, like all JaredCo apps. The user-friendly interface allows you to quickly set the LED color to your preferences and needs. Tap, tap, tap. Done. 
     You can change colors or contacts in just seconds. When you&#39;re plugged in to the digital grid, you know how important it is to manage your connections and your time. ‘Who Is It’ is the one app that does it all with nothing more than your BlackBerry&#39;s® LED. Sweet. Add a little color to your life and to your BlackBerry®. And finally get organized with ‘Who Is It—the energy-efficient, “at-a-glance” caller ID that puts connections under your control. 
     Typical customer feedback on the “Who Is It?” App praises the App&#39;s ability to function discretely in meeting situations when the phone is otherwise set to silent. 
     Returning to the details of how the invention&#39;s method functions, when the App software is downloaded by the user and run on the target Smartphone, the App will generally prompt the user to determine at least some information pertaining to the telephone numbers, email addresses, social network postings, or SMS addresses of one or more potential callers. The software App will then prompt the user to assign these telephone numbers, email addresses, social network postings (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) or SMS addresses, on a per caller basis, to a contact group associated with this particular caller (here called the “individual”). This contact group based color assignment process is shown in  FIG. 2 . 
     The App will then prompt the user to use the Smartphone&#39;s graphical user interface (GUI) (e.g. display screen) to assign at least one colored light on the colored light emitting device (e.g. the display screen itself ( 108 ), or an optional colored LED mounted on the Smartphone ( 110 )) to the contact group associated with the individual (incoming caller). The net effect will be to produce a contact group colored light emitting device color assignment. An example of such an assignment is shown in  FIG. 3 . 
     Here for example, the incoming caller named “Jim” ( 300 ) has been assigned a color that originally (before the figure was converted to black and white for patent purposes) was yellow. These color assignments ( 302 ) will be saved in the Smartphone&#39;s memory ( 104 ). 
     Then, when an assigned caller, such as “Jim” calls, sends an email, SMS message, or posts on a social network site monitored by the App (i.e. the App can be instructed to scan Jim&#39;s Facebook site, Twitter Site, etc. detect posts by Jim, and inform the user as desired) the Smartphone will detect this and flash the colored light emitting device according to the contact group colored light emitting device color assignment. In other words, if Jim is assigned the color “yellow”, and if the colored light emitting device is a colored LED ( 110 ), then whenever Jim calls, texts, sends an SMS message, etc. to the user&#39;s Smartphone, the App can instruct the user&#39;s Smartphone to, for example turn on a yellow LED light ( 110 ), ( 304 ). 
     Various color assignments may be used. Often one steady color may be used for a particular caller or individual, but this need not be the case. In some embodiments, the colored light emitting device (e.g. colored LED) may be instructed to show two colors, either simultaneously, or consecutively (e.g. by first flashing one color, and then flashing a different color) 
     An example of such a two color assignment scheme is shown in  FIG. 4 . 
     The process of assigning incoming callers (individual&#39;s) various telephone numbers, email addresses, social network postings, or SMS addresses to a contact group associated with the individual can be done by various methods. 
     In one embodiment, the process of linking these various pieces of data to a contact group associated with an individual may be done by an outside messaging server, such as for example a Blackberry messenger server. Here, for example, the outside messaging server may expose the contact group to the Smartphone by way of an outside messaging server API (such as the Blackberry messaging server API). Thus here, the process of determining that a contact group is associated with a particular individual can be done by directing the Smartphone to use the outside messaging server API to query the outside messaging server for this contact group. 
     Alternatively or additionally, the process of linking an individual&#39;s telephone numbers, email addresses, social network links, or SMS addresses, and assigning these different data to a contact group associated with this individual can be done using the Smartphone&#39;s user interface. 
     In other embodiments, the process of linking an individual&#39;s telephone numbers, email addresses, social network links, or SMS addresses, and assigning these different data to a contact group associated with this individual can be done by direct transmission of vCard information from the individual to the user. 
     Other options for defining a contact group and assigning colors include: 
     Option 1: The user can manually enter in the caller&#39;s (individual&#39;s) contact details into the system, such as the home phone, work phone, cell phone, other phone, email address, instant message ID, Twitter ID, Facebook ID, What&#39;s App ID, or an essentially unlimited number of other Social IDs. 
     Option 2: The user can select a record from the user&#39;s address book, which will generally already contain a majority of important attributes such as home phone, work phone, cell phone, other phone, email address, instant message ID, etc. In some cased, this contact record could also be used to identify the contact from other instant messaging apps as well. 
     In use, once the caller or individual contacts the Smartphone by some method, the Smartphone can, for example, continue to flash the colored light emitting device according to its previously specified color assignment until the user opens the phone or the list of callers on the phone (e.g. phone listing software) and determines the identity of the caller. 
     Alternatively, the app may instruct the Smartphone to flashing the phone&#39;s colored light emitting device phone&#39;s user contacts the caller. 
     As yet another alternative, the app may allow the user to use the Smartphone&#39;s user interface to establish a preset timeout interval. This preset timeout interval can then be used to flash the phone&#39;s colored light emitting device ( 108 ), ( 110 ) until this preset timeout interval has been exceeded. Thus for example, if the preset timeout interval is five minutes, the phone will flash for five minutes after the caller has called, and then stop.