Patent Publication Number: US-2012046019-A1

Title: System, method and computer readable medium for restricting mobile device services

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This disclosure relates to mobile communications systems and applications that can execute in mobile communications environments, in particular within mobile devices. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Laws that have been enacted in many cities are prohibiting the use of mobile devices, such as cellular phones, in certain areas, such as school zones during school hours, for voice and/or text communications. However, policing of these laws is difficult, while flouting of these laws can endanger lives. 
     There are numerous other scenarios where restricted mobile services are required that rely on the user to respect the request to not use their mobile device(s). Such scenarios may include the use of devices at airport check-ins, customs areas, airplanes, hospitals, doctor&#39;s waiting rooms, etc. Another scenario would include the use of devices before, during or after a hurricane, tornado, snowstorm, flood, terrorist event and other manmade or non-manmade events 
     As such, what is a required is an improved system, method and computer readable medium for restricting mobile device usage in certain locations and/or situations. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In one aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method for altering the services of a mobile communications device comprising determining when the mobile communications device is in an altered service zone and altering at least one service of the mobile communications device while the mobile communications device is in the altered service zone. 
     In one aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a mobile communications device comprising an application executable within the mobile communications device. The application may be configured to determine when the mobile communications device is within an altered service zone and alter one or more services of the mobile communications device when the mobile communications device is within the altered service zone. 
     In one aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by a processor of a mobile communications device, that, when executed, cause the processor to receive a notification from a server, and alter one or more services of the mobile communications device. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Reference will now be made, by way of example only, to specific embodiments and to the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows a system for altering mobile device services; 
         FIG. 2  shows a process for altering mobile device services; 
         FIG. 3  shows a system in which boundary definitions are provided to a mobile device; 
         FIG. 4  shows a process for downloading boundary definitions to a mobile device; 
         FIG. 5  shows a system where an altered service zone is determined with reference to a reference point; 
         FIG. 6  shows a processor and memory of a mobile device; and 
         FIG. 7  shows an instruction set executable on the processor of the mobile device of  FIG. 6 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The following description contains numerous conjectural embodiments. These embodiments can assist to broaden the disclosure and correspondingly, the scope of the claims. The embodiments should be reviewed closely for feasibility and additional enabling description, such as more detailed information related to the steps in the embodiments. Also, additional features, processes and components should be added where appropriate. Please also identify what is the most likely implementation so that we can make sure that it is fully enabled and so that the claims can be focused to this embodiment. 
     In  FIG. 1 , there is shown a system  10  in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure. The system  10  includes a server  12  that provides mobile telecommunication services to one or more mobile devices  20  via one or more base stations  14  to define a telecommunications network. Within a geographic area of the network, there may be defined one or more special service zones  16  in which particular services may be restricted, altered or excluded. 
     In the flowchart  100  of  FIG. 2 , there is shown a method for operating the mobile device as it moves through the system  10 . At step  101 , the device  20  is determined to be within an altered service zone  16  which causes at least one service of the mobile communications device to be altered (step  102 ). With reference to  FIG. 1 , the mobile device  20  may execute an internal application  22  for altering the availability of services based on the device&#39;s location. The application  22  may be preconfigured into the device or may be downloaded to the device when required. The application  22  may be coded to be device vendor specific so that the application may interface with other applications of the device, such as for access to directories and settings, access to voice and messaging services and access to ancillary functions such as games, galleries, cameras, voice recorders, etc. 
     The application  22  determines when the mobile device  20  has entered an altered zone  16 , has reached a predetermined rate of motion or combinations thereof, and alters the availability of services accordingly. In one embodiment, the services to be altered may be transmission/reception services. That is, the application  22  may prevent the mobile device  20  from communicating with the server  12  and/or the application  22  may prevent the server  12  from communicating with the mobile device  20 . In one embodiment, the application  22  will notify server  12  when vehicle has entered an altered service zone  16 , reached a predetermined rate of motion or combinations thereof, and inform server to cease communication with mobile device  20  until mobile device  20  has vacated the altered service zone  16 , lowered its rate of motion below the predetermined rate of motion or combinations thereof. In another embodiment, the application  22  may disable all network and wireless capabilities when mobile device  20  is in the altered service zone  16 , reached a predetermined rate of motion or combinations thereof, preventing communication between server  12  and the mobile device  20 . The communications may be prevented for all services or particular subsets of services, such as voice services, text messaging services, or notification services such as blogs, twitter, facebook, etc, that might require a user to provide excess attention to the on screen display. 
     As an alternative to limiting Tx/Rx services at the device end, these services may be limited at the server  12 . That is, the server  12  may receive a communication request from or to the device  20 , determine that the device  20  is within an altered service zone such as zone  16 , and prevent the communication request from reaching the target device (the device  20  for incoming communications or another device for outgoing communications and requests). In this case, the application  22  within the device  20  may not need to be present. 
     While limiting the transmission/reception services of a mobile device may prevent some types of communications, other services within the mobile device  20  may still draw excess attention from the user. Thus, the application  22  may alter or otherwise limit other services of the mobile device. For example, text messaging applications may be restricted so that a user is unable to type a new message or read existing messages. Other screen and/or keypad based services such as games, and gallery based services such as reviewing images or using a camera function may also be prevented. 
     When the mobile device  20  has entered an altered service zone such as zone  16 , the application  22  may activate an alert such as a characteristic ring tone, vibration or on screen display that alerts the user that an altered service zone has been entered. In one embodiment, the keypad may be made at least partially inactive (larger buttons such as the major selection buttons and call answering, cancel buttons etc may be left operative) and any onscreen buttons may be grayed out in a manner that quickly indicates to a user that functions associated with those buttons are inactive. Similarly, when the mobile device  20  departs the altered service zone, a second alert may be activated to notify the user that services have been restored. 
     In one embodiment, the application may receive and store messages from the server but may override any user prompts such as the onscreen display, ring tones or device vibrations so that the useris not alerted to the receipt of the message. When the device  20  leaves the altered service zone  16  and normal service is restored, the application may activate whatever user prompts are set for communicating to the user that communications have been received. 
     Different altered service zones may be categorized with different altered service levels. For example, a school zone may allow voice communications but no text or keypad intensive services such as text messaging, whereas a zone defined within a public or private changing room may allow all communications services but may disable camera functions of a mobile device. The application  22  may be configured to determine the altered service zone category and to limit or alter services of the mobile device appropriately. 
     The mobile device  20  may be inherently location aware, such as where the device  20  is fitted with a GPS, accelerometer or similar module. Alternatively, location awareness may be derived from interactions with other network elements, such as by triangulation from base stations, Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) techniques, and/or Location Based Services (LBS). Alternatively or in addition, the software application may be configured with a tracking-based application if the phone does not currently support one. That is, a mobile device that is not inherently location aware may be made location aware by way of the application that receives location data from a server and/or receives service altering instructions from the server. 
     The device  20  may determine whether or not it is within an altered service zone by continually or periodically communicating a position to the server  12 . The server  12  receives the position information, determines whether the position coincides with one or more altered service zones and if so, sends a notification when the device  20  enters an altered service zone  16 . The notification may indicate various information including a boundary of the zone  16 , time entered, and a category of the zone. 
     In one embodiment, zone boundaries may be stored within a memory of the device  20  so that a location aware device may continually or periodically check its location against the stored boundaries and prevent or alter available services whenever the device is within a boundary. In order to reduce the memory requirements of the device for storing boundary information, the device  20  may download only relevant zone boundaries. For example, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the server  12  may store zone definitions  13  that include a plurality of zone boundaries and associated service information. The process is shown in the flowchart  200  of  FIG. 4 . As a device  20  moves through a geographic region, it may periodically transmit its position to the server  12  (step  201 ), e.g. every 10 minutes, and request  38  any relevant zone boundaries (step  202 ). By comparison of the device&#39;s position to some proximity thresholds, the server  12  is able to determine that the device is proximate to the zones  31 ,  32  and  33  (step  203 ). By the same comparison, the server  12  is able to determine that the zone  34  is not relevant for the device&#39;s current position. The server  12  responds to the device&#39;s request by transmitting the relevant zone boundary definitions  39  (step  204 ), i.e. for the zones  31 ,  32  and  33 . The boundary definitions are received and stored in a memory of the device  20  (step  205 ) and allow the device to internally determine when the device  20  enters any altered service zones. The boundary definitions may include a category of the altered service zone or other information that allows the device to determine what services are to be restricted or altered for each zone. As the device position changes, the device may re-transmit its position to the server and request an updated set of relevant boundary definitions. 
     Whenever a device  20  determines that is within an altered service zone, either by receiving a notification from the server, by an internal determination, or by other means, information may be displayed on a display of the device  20 , an alert may sound, and/or a voice message may be played to the user, so that the user is made aware of what services are available and what services are restricted. A similar message may be displayed and/or played whenever it is determined that the device  20  has departed an altered service zone. 
     As shown in  FIG. 5 , a zone boundary  51  may be defined relative to a reference  52 , e.g. as a proximity to a transmitter  54 . In one embodiment, the reference  52  may be a base station of the mobile communications network such that any device communicating through that base station is provided with restricted or altered service access. In alternative embodiments, the reference  52  may be a local area transmitter configured for peer to peer communications with mobile devices such that the device  20  is able to communicate directly with the reference  52 , thereby enabling the device to alter the available services of the device without reference to the server  12 . Such local transmitters may be provided in locations where restricted device service is required, such as in public libraries, change rooms, movie theatres, concert halls, airports, etc. and may be used to restrict an array of services such as voice, text, camera functions, blogging services etc. 
     In one embodiment, the reference  52  may be a moving reference. For example, vehicles may be configured with a location transmitter that transmits the location of the vehicle to the server  12 . The server receives the location of a mobile device and Compares it to the position of the vehicle location transmitter. If the mobile device is within a threshold distance of the transmitter, say, 2 meters, then the server may block or alter service access. 
     As an alternative to server based communications, the moving transmitter may be configured for peer to peer communications with mobile devices as described above, such that the mobile application  22  of the mobile device  20  may determine whether the device  20  is within a threshold distance of the moving transmitter and restrict or alter the device services accordingly. 
     In one embodiment, the application  22  and/or server  12  may be configured to determine the type of transport the device  20  is in and thus provide users of those devices with an ability to continue to use the device services. For example, if the transport is believed to be a bus, then text messaging may be allowed by the passengers but not the driver. The ability to determine the driver&#39;s device vs. the passengers&#39; devices can be performed based on distance from the devices to one another (in a bus, the driver is in a specific location), based on movement of the device relative to a reference point (if devices are entering and exiting the transport in various locations, those locations should be appropriate for using the service but if a single device remains in a certain position for a period of time in the transport, that device would be associated with the driver and thus would not be able to use the service), or based on proximity to the reference point e.g. where the reference point is located within a driver area. 
     As will be apparent from the foregoing, the system  10  may be used to limit a driver&#39;s access to device services whilst a driver is passing through an altered service zone, such as a school zone. In one embodiment, the altered service zone may have time limits such that the service restrictions only apply at specific hours, e.g. school hours in a school zone, or during event hours for various other events. In one embodiment, when a device is within an altered service zone where text messages are prevented, the opening of a text message may divert the text message from a screen display of the text to a voice rendition of the text message. Also, if a user is texting and then enters a text service exclusion zone before the text is complete, the software application may automatically shift to a voice command state allowing the user to complete the message with voice commands. 
     In order to ensure that only car occupant phones are restricted, the system may use a correlation between the location of the device, the school zone and a reference point (e.g. of the car). That is, all three aspects must be co-located in order for the altered services to apply. Also, restricted services may only apply to devices located on roadways and/or to moving devices, so that stationary phones or phones located on pathways, e.g. by pedestrians, do not have restricted access. Movement of devices may be determined by successive location readings, by an internal accelerometer of the device or by other appropriate means. 
     Whilst restricting mobile device services for drivers was a primary motivation for the system  10 , other applications of the system  10  will be apparent to a person skilled in the art. In one specific example, a school zone may also be used to limit services for students. That is, during class hours, exam times, etc., the mobile application  22  within a device may be used to prevent students from communicating by voice and/or text and/or from accessing web services. The application  22  may also prevent a student from accessing various directories and data storage of the device which might store cheat notes or other information that could be used during student exams. For such embodiments, the server  12  may provide an administrator function that allows an administrator to log into the server  12 , e.g. via a web interface, and set parameters of the altered service zone, such as the hours during which the altered services apply and the types of services that are to be altered, restricted or excluded. 
     In an alternative embodiment, the system  10  of  FIG. 1  may be used to alter available services on a mobile device  20  without regard to a location dependent zone. Under some circumstances, e.g. in a security context, a notification may be sent from the server  12  to mobile devices  20  that restrict or alter the services that a device is able to provide. Such restriction may be provided during an emergency event, for example, to prevent a network overload and/or to ensure that a mobile device is available to receive emergency notifications such as evacuation instructions from authorities. 
     Where an altered service zone is in operation, a system override may also operate in cases of emergency so that full device services can be quickly restored where required. 
     While the altered service zones are depicted in the above described embodiments as being in discrete and separate geographic locations, in practice, the altered service zones may overlap. In particular, zones of different categories may overlap such that the affected services of one zone may be different to the affected services of an overlapping zone. Logic rules may be applied by the application and/or by the server to determine what services are available to a mobile device when the device is located in an overlapping portion of multiple altered service zones. 
     The components of the system  10  may be embodied in hardware, software, firmware or a combination of hardware, software and/or firmware. In a hardware embodiment, the application  22  may be executed on a processor  61  of the mobile device  20  that is operatively associated with, a memory  62  as shown in  FIG. 6 . The memory  62  may store instructions that are executable on the processor  61 . In addition, the memory  62  may store additional information such as the boundary definitions, zone categories and the like. The processor  61  may communicate with a processor  63  of the server or a reference point through wireless communications  65 . The server/reference point processor may also be operatively associated with a memory  64 . An instruction set  300  that may be executed on the processor  61  is depicted in the flowchart of  FIG. 7 . Specifically, when executed, the instruction set  300  allows the processor  61  to receive a notification from a server (step  301 ) and alter one or more services of the mobile communications device (step  302 ). Specifically, the processor  61  may restrict one or more communications services of the mobile device. 
     Although embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilities of the invention can be performed fully and/or partially by one or more of the blocks, modules, processors or memories. Also, these capabilities may be performed in the current manner or in a distributed manner and on, or via, any device able to provide and/or receive information. Further, although depicted in a particular manner, various modules or blocks may be repositioned without departing from the scope of the current invention. Still further, although depicted in a particular manner, a greater or lesser number of modules and connections can be utilized with the present invention in order to accomplish the present invention, to provide additional known features to the present invention, and/or to make the present invention more efficient. Also, the information sent between various modules can be sent between the modules via at least one of a data network, the Internet, an Internet Protocol network, a wireless source, and a wired source and via plurality of protocols.