Patent Publication Number: US-8537995-B2

Title: Mobile communications terminal and method

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
     This application is a continuation of, and claims the benefit of and priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/913,052, filed on Aug. 5, 2004, now allowed, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     The aspects of the disclosed embodiments relate to a telephone terminal, a method and a computer program in a telephone terminal involving output of media data to announce an incoming call. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Mobile telephones, and the use of mobile telephones, have evolved into something more than a tool for the specific purpose of providing a simple channel of voice communication between two communicating entities. The mobile phones of today are almost as much tools for personal expression as they are communication tools. One, widely used and popular, specific way of personalizing a telephone is to enable it to reproduce ring tones that vary depending on the identity of the caller. Typically, this is achieved by way of downloading data from a provider of ring tones and then using, e.g., phone book functionality, to associate a caller identity with the ring tone. Similarly, an association between a caller identity and other media data, such as a picture, to be presented upon call reception is also widely used. 
     However, present day telephone functionality does not provide, in a flexible manner, a way in which any caller can express personality by having the telephone of a called party play a personal ring tone associated with the caller, irrespective of whether or not the receiving party has downloaded a specific ring tone or not. 
     SUMMARY 
     The aspects of the disclosed embodiments address drawbacks relating to lacking flexibility of prior art telephone terminals. 
     A method, which preferably is realized by way of a computer program, in a telephone terminal comprises detecting an incoming call from a calling entity followed by determining a caller identity of the calling entity. Then it is determined whether the caller identity is associated with a subscription to presence information associated with the calling entity, where the presence information comprises media data for output through an output unit in the telephone terminal. If the caller identity was determined to be associated with a subscription to presence information, it is determined whether the media data is present in the terminal, and if the media data is present in the terminal, the media data is output through an output unit in the telephone terminal. 
     That is, the telephone of a called party will play a personal media presentation associated with the caller, which has the advantage that it provides increased flexibility for telephone users wishing to express personality when making and receiving calls. 
     If the caller identity was determined to be associated with a subscription to the presence information and if the media data is not present in the terminal, the media data is fetched from the presence information associated with the caller identity. 
     Preferably, the determining whether the caller identity is associated with a subscription to presence information comprises communication with a presence server. Also, if necessary, the fetching of media data comprises fetching data from the presence server. This is advantageous in that it is easy, and hence non-expensive, to realize, for example by way of modifying already existing presence service servers. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the media data comprises a ring-tone. 
     Other aspects of the disclosed embodiments include a telephone terminal comprising means for performing the method discussed above as well as a computer program that is loadable into memory means of the terminal and, when executed, performs the method discussed above. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  shows schematically a block diagram of a mobile telephone according to the disclosed embodiments. 
         FIG. 2  shows schematically interconnected communication networks where a method according to the disclosed embodiments is realized. 
         FIG. 3  is a signaling diagram illustrating a method according to the disclosed embodiments. 
         FIG. 4  is a flow chart illustrating a method according to the disclosed embodiments. 
     
    
    
     PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates schematically a communication terminal  101  in which the aspects of the disclosed embodiments can be implemented. The telephone  101  is capable of communication via an air interface  103  with a mobile (radio) communication system  105  such as the well known systems GSM/GPRS, UMTS, CDMA 2000 etc. The terminal comprises a processor  107 , memory  109  as well as input/output units in the form of a microphone  111 , a speaker  113 , a display  115  and a keyboard  117 . Radio communication is realized by radio circuitry  119  and an antenna  121 . The details regarding how these units communicate are known to the skilled person and is therefore not discussed further. The communication terminal  101  may for example be a mobile telephone terminal or a PDA equipped with radio communication means. 
     The methods according to the preferred embodiments will in general reside in the form of software instructions of a computer program  110 , together with other software components necessary for the operation of the terminal  101 , in the memory  109  of the terminal  101 . The computer program  110 , which may be loaded into the memory  109  from a software provider  123  by way of methods known to the skilled person, will be executed by the processor  107 , which will receive and process input data from all other units in the terminal  101 . 
     Turning now to  FIGS. 2 ,  3  and  4 , a method according to the aspects of the disclosed embodiments will be described in some detail. 
     A communication system  200  in which the aspects of the disclosed embodiments are realized is schematically illustrated in  FIG. 2 . A mobile communication system  210 , e.g. the system  105  mentioned above, an IP communication system  212  and a telephone network  220  are interconnected via respective gateways  214  and  218 . A first mobile communication terminal  202  as well as a second  204 , a third  206  and a fourth mobile communication terminal  208  communicate via respective air interfaces  203 ,  205 ,  207  and  209  in the communication system  200 . The mobile communication terminals  202 ,  204 ,  206  and  208  are preferably telephone terminals such as the terminal  101  described above in connection with  FIG. 1 . 
     In a similar manner to the mobile communication network  210 , the telephone network  220 , which typically is a fixed network such as a PSTN, enables a first subscriber unit  222  and a second subscriber unit  224  to communicate in the communication system  200 . 
     Needless to say, the mobile communication system  210 , telephone network  220  and the IP network typically comprises a very large number of connected terminals and other communicating entities, many more than the few illustrated in  FIG. 2 , as the skilled person realizes. 
     Connected to the IP network  212  is a presence server  216 , which provides a presence service as specified by, e.g., the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) IMPS and SIP/SIMPLE. The presence server  216  holds presence information associated with any number of entities, e.g. users and user communication terminals, and includes such media information as ring tones to be reproduced by loud speakers in telephone terminals when receiving incoming calls. The presence information in the form of a ring tone is typically provided to the presence server  216  by the users through uploading already existing ring tones from their terminal. However, other ways of providing ring tone data to the presence server may involve communication with providers of ring tones via, e.g., web service interfaces such as a web portal. 
     Turning now to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , a method involving ring tones will be described. The method involves a first calling entity, in the form of a first user who is in control of the first mobile communication terminal  202 , calling the fourth mobile communication terminal  208  which, when detecting the call, plays a personal ring tone associated with the first user (entity). The personal ring tone is a piece of media data that forms part of presence information associated with the first entity  202  and which has been provided to the presence server  216 , e.g. as discussed above, during a first signaling sequence  302 . 
     The fourth user has, by performing a second signaling sequence  304 , subscribed to at least part of the presence information associated with the first entity. During the second signaling sequence  304  information in the form of media data is loaded into the fourth terminal  208  including a personal ring tone, which is associated with the first entity. For example, using terminology of presence services, the fourth user have created or edited a “buddy list” comprising a list of users or user terminals from whom the fourth user wishes to receive a personalized ring tone. Alternatively, it is not necessary to load all media data making up the ring tone. However, at least an indication that the fourth user subscribes to the personal ring tone is loaded. 
     Following the two signaling sequences  302  and  304 , a sequence of steps are performed which involves the first entity placing a call to the fourth entity  208 . It is to be noted that the above described sequence relating to subscription to presence information may be performed at any time prior to the sequence to be described, as indicated by a gap  305  in the signaling diagram of  FIG. 3 . 
     The first mobile communication terminal  202  calls the fourth communication terminal  208  by utilizing a third signaling sequence  306 . The fourth communication terminal  208  detects the call, in a call detection step  402 , and continues in a subscriber determining step  404  to determine the identity of the calling entity and to determine whether the caller identity is associated with a subscription, belonging to the entity in control of the fourth communication terminal  208 , to presence information associated with the calling entity. The determination of the identity and subscription status is preferably performed by way of a fourth signaling sequence  308  between the fourth communication terminal  208  and the presence server  216 . 
     Upon determining that the entity in control of the fourth communication terminal  208  subscribes to presence information associated with the calling entity, the fourth communication terminal  208  decides in a determination step  406  whether or not to fetch media information in the form of data comprising a personal ring tone associated with the calling entity. If it is determined that the subscription includes a ring tone and that the ring tone is already present in the terminal  208 , i.e. if the ring tone has already been fetched (e.g. during step  304  as described above), the ring tone is output through the speaker in the fourth communication terminal  208  in a play step  407 . 
     A benefit gained from having down loaded the ring tone with the presence information is that as a call arrives the ring tone is already accessible and need not be downloaded as the call is being connected. Otherwise, the download might actually in some cases take too long and the calling party might give up and hang up before the ring tone has been down loaded and played at the called party&#39;s terminal. 
     If it is determined that the subscription includes a ring tone and that the ring tone is not present in the terminal  208 , the data of the ring tone is fetched from the presence server  216  and reproduced via a speaker in the fourth communication terminal  208  in a fetch and play step  408 . 
     If it is determined that there is no subscription or if no ring tone is present in the presence information, no data is fetched and a default ring tone is reproduced via a speaker in the fourth communication terminal  208  in a default ring tone play step  412 . 
     After reproducing the ring tone, the caller and the called entity establishes a connection in a connection establishing step  410 . 
     It should be clear that the media data could also be for example a video clip that is to be played to announce an incoming call. 
     As the skilled person will realize, the method described above may in alternative embodiments involve other communication terminals, such as the terminals  222  and  224  connected to the telephone network  220 . Similarly, other embodiments may involve a first communication terminal connected to the mobile communication system  210  and a second communication terminal connected to the telephone network  220 .