GB2476991A

GB2476991A - Combar data supply system

Info

Publication number: GB2476991A
Application number: GB1000840A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Svein Johnsen; Anders Solheim
Original assignee: COMCOM AS
Current assignee: COMCOM AS
Priority date: 2010-01-19
Filing date: 2010-01-19
Publication date: 2011-07-20
Also published as: GB201000840D0

Abstract

A combar (communication bar) data supply system (300, Fig. 3) is operable to supply at least one mobile telephone (10) with data for combars (150) and associated sub-banners (160, 170 Fig. 2). The system (300) is operable to download to the at least one mobile telephone or PDA (10) combar data in a batch-transfer manner for the at least one mobile telephone (10) subsequently to present in an off-line manner in one or more combars (150) of one or more corresponding display screens(100) of the at least one mobile telephone (10). The at least one mobile telephone (10) is operable to present one or more sub-banners (160, 170) in response to the one or more combars (150) being user-invoked, the one or more sub-banners (160, 170) including at least a portion of their respective presentation fields being pre-loaded in a batch-transfer manner to the at least one mobile telephone (10). In one embodiment the combar data relates to advertisements that are displayed when the mobile telephone is inactive/idle or presented on a home screen. The arrangement reduces the quantity of data to be transferred in a real-time manner but provides the appearance of working in real-time to present the combar and sub-banners using the previously batch-transferred content which can be presented offline. Click-to-web, click-to-call and click-to-SMS interactive functionality may be provided by the banners/sub-banners. Furthermore, a combination of real-time information and pre-fetched content may be used to display banners/sub-banners on the mobile telephones.

Description

INTELLECTUAL

. .... PROPERTY OFFICE Application No. GB 1000840.7 RTM Date:26 January 2011 The following terms are registered trademarks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document: Sky Sports Facebook Twitter Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.ipo.gov.uk

COMBAR DATA SUPPLY SYSTEM

Technical field of the invention

The present invention relates to data supply systems for supplying data to mobile telephones and similar portable communication apparatus for use in association with "Combars", namely display screen communication bars. Moreover, the present invention also concerns methods of supplying data to mobile telephones and similar portable communication apparatus using these data supply systems. Furthermore, the present invention also relates to software products executable on computing hardware for implementing these methods.

Background to the invention

Contemporary mobile telephones and similar portable communication apparatus have become essentially pocket-sized personal computers equipped with wireless interfaces.

These contemporary telephones support voice communication as well as additional functions such as Internet surfing. More recently, it has become customary to provide advertising on mobile telephones, for example as described in a published international PCI patent application W02009/017415A1 (PCT/N02008/000256; Comcom AS). Screens of mobile telephones tend to be relatively small, and hence it is not practical to include large adverts on mobile telephone and similar screens which occupy a majority of screen area. It has thus become contemporary practice to employ communication bars ("combars") occupying a minor portion of area of a mobile telephone screen to draw attention of a user of the mobile telephone to information accessible via the combars. In certain implementations, the *..ê .... combars are semitransparent so as not to obscure information presented over an entirety of :4 the mobile telephone screen. The user is able to employ a form of curser control or selected display field control to activate the combar to receive further information. *.S * * *

It is contemporary practice for a combar of a mobile telephone to display various * advertisements. The advertisements are optionally pertinent to a geographical locality of the mobile telephone as determined by which mobile telephone network cell the mobile telephone is operatively employing for achieving exchange of data. However, when an advertisement or similar is shown on the combar to the user which is of interest to the user, the user activates or otherwise "clicks" on the combar which then initiates further data downloading to the mobile telephone, for example a full presentation screen of information.

A problem which such functionality associated with the combar is that a considerable amount of data flow can occur which causes data capacity stress on a mobile telephone communications infrastructure. Such data stress can significantly add to data traffic and therefore be eventually a costly extra functionality for users of mobile telephones and/or an additional data supply burden for operators of mobile telephone networks.

Various encoding techniques have been proposed for use in wireless communication systems which are capable of reducing redundancy in data flows.

Summary of the invention

The present invention is concerned with a problem of reducing a quantity of data that is required to be communicated by wireless when implementing combars on mobile telephones and similar portable wireless communication apparatus.

According to a first embodiment of the invention, there is described a combar data supply system for supplying at least one mobile telephone with data for combars and associated sub-banners, characterized in that the system is operable to download to the at least one mobile telephone combar data in a batch-transfer manner for the at least one mobile telephone subsequently to present in an off-line manner in one or more combars of one or more corresponding display screens of the at least one mobile telephone; and the at least one mobile telephone is operable to present one or more sub-banners in response to the one or more combars being user-invoked, the one or more sub-banners S...

including at least a portion of their respective presentation fields being pre-loaded in a batch-transfer manner to the at least one mobile telephone.

S... *.

* The invention is of advantage in that batch downloading of combar-related data and/or sub- banner data and presentation of the data locally at the at least one mobile telephone by way *. * of software execution local to the at least one mobile telephone is capable of reducing a quantity of data transfer which is required to be executed in real time.

Optionally, the combar data supply system is operable to provide data in real-time for at least one text field included in the one or more sub-banners.

Optionally, the system is adapted to receive information from the at least one mobile telephone corresponding to user click-responses to the one or more combars. -.3-

Optionally, the system is operable to supply data to the telephone via use of one or more Internet web-sites defied by universal resource locators (URL).

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a mobile telephone adapted to operate with a combar data supply system pursuant to the first aspect of the invention, characterized in that the mobile telephone is operable to present combars and/or sub-banners which have been earlier batch downloaded to the mobile telephone in a manner appearing similar to real-time downloading of data to the mobile telephone.

Optionally, in respect of the mobile telephone, the sub-banners include one or more text sub-fields which are susceptible to being downloaded to the mobile telephone in real time.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a software product stored on a machine-readable data carrier, the software product being executable on computing hardware of a system pursuant to the first aspect of the invention for enabling presentation of combars and/or sub-banners.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a software product stored on a machine-readable data carrier, the software product being executable on computing hardware of a mobile telephone pursuant to the second aspect of the invention for enabling presentation of combars and/or sub-banners.

***. According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of communicating S...

combar-related data within a combar data supply system to at least one mobile telephone, characterized in that the method includes: 0*. S. * . :. using the system to download to the at least one mobile telephone combar data in a batch-transfer manner for the at least one mobile telephone subsequently to present in an off-line * .: manner in one or more combars of one or more corresponding display screens of the at least *9 one mobile telephone; and using the at least one mobile telephone to present one or more sub-banners in response to the one or more combars being user-invoked, the one or more sub-banners including at least a portion of their respective presentation fields being pre-loaded in a batch-transfer manner to the at least one mobile telephone.

Features of the invention are susceptible to being combined in any combination without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.

Description of the drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the following diagrams wherein: FIG. I is an illustration of a mobile telephone equipped with a screen which is operable to present a "combar' to a user of the telephone, wherein the "combar" is provided with information via a combar data supply system pursuant to the present invention; FIG. 2 is an illustration of the mobile telephone of FIG. I in a situation wherein the user has invoked the "combar" for presenting a sub-bannner; and FIG. 3 is an illustration of a combar data supply system suitable for supporting the "combar" of FIG. 1 and the sub-banner of FIG. 2.

In the accompanying diagrams, an underlined number is employed to represent an item over which the underlined number is positioned or an item to which the underlined number is adjacent. A non-underlined number relates to an item identified by a line linking the non-underlined number to the item. When a number is non-underlined and accompanied by an associated arrow, the non-underlined number is used to identify a general item at which the arrow is pointing.

Description of embodiments of the invention

**. The present invention concerns a new way of combining: S...

(i) low bandwidth benefits of mobile telephones and similar portable wireless * 25 communication apparatus being off-line; and : (ii) whilst off-line, the mobile telephones and similar apparatus providing users thereof with an appearance that their mobile telephones and similar apparatus being updated and being coupled on-line.

..: Such benefits are provided by the present invention by pre-loading or batch loading combar & data which is then presented to the user when the mobile telephone is substantially off-line.

The present invention is thus capable of enabling news and information updates in an idle screen and/or home screen of a mobile telephone or similar portable wireless communication apparatus, for example a wireless PDA (personal digital assistant), in a user-friendly manner whilst consuming a low level of data communication capacity in comparison to mobile Internet surfing in real-time.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described. In FIG. 1, there is shown a mobile telephone indicated generally by 10. The telephone 10 includes a wireless interface coupled to a data processor 30. The processor 30 is further coupled to a keyboard 40, an audio interface 50 including at least one microphone and at least one loudspeaker, and optionally to a camera 60. Moreover, the processor 30 is additionally coupled to a screen 100. Optionally, the keyboard 40 is implemented in conjunction with the screen 100 as a contemporary "touch screen" for tactile data entry via the screen 100. In operation, the screen 100 is operable to present visual information to a user 110 of the telephone 10. In FIG. 1, the screen 100 is operable to present a home screen including a main banner 150 towards a lower portion of the screen 100. The banner 150 is known as a "combar", namely "communication bar" in which teaser-type information offers are presented in operation to the user 110. The telephone 10 is capable of functioning with its screen in a second mode as illustrated in FIG. 2, wherein there is illustrated a sub-banner 160 in combination with a full

screen presentation of a text field 170.

In operation, banner information for the combar 150 is pre-loaded as a batch data transfer by wireless to the telephone 10, for example at regular times during a day (for example morning, midday, evening) and/or when the telephone 10 is activated by the user 110. The batch data transfer includes information for one or more banners, for example several hundred banners, which are stored locally in data memory of the processor 30. When the screen 100 presents the home screen, the combar 150 presents a changing sequence of the one or more batch-loaded banners, for example in a side-ways rolling manner, or in a temporally changing *. sequence. Optionally, banner changing in the combar 150 is executed in response to the : user 110 entering input at the keyboard 40 and/or in response to aural commands issued by * 25 the user 110 and conveyed via the at least one microphone to the processor 30. When a banner presented on the combar 150 is of interest to the user 110, such the user 110 is :. desirous to receive further information, the user 110 invokes the banner being presented on the combar 150 which causes the telephone 10 to switch from presenting the home screen as depicted in FIG. 1 to presenting the sub-banner as illustrated in FIG. 2. Beneficially, the sub-banner of FIG. 2 has its text field 170 populated in real-time using relatively little text data which consumes negligible data communication bandwidth capacity. Optionally, a portion of the text field 170 is downloaded to the telephone 10 beforehand, for example in data batch downloading operation.

Optionally, the combar 150 is observed by the user 110 to rotate every time the user returns to the home screen or idle screen, for example as depicted in FIG. 1. By such a manner of operation and presentation, banners presented on the combar 150 attract attention from the user 110 without being intrusive. Optionally, the aforementioned batch download of data for graphics of the combar 150 and the sub-banner (for example as depicted in FIG. 2) is provided a backup system (MCMS), the batch download of data being beneficially segmented and published to the telephone 10 is response to age, gender, location and/or interests of the user 110.

When publishing a new batch data transfer, known as "an RSS feed", a publisher uploads graphics for the combar 150 together with segmentation information, universal resource locators (URL) for accessing data for the text field 170, and also parameters for controlling which feeds to the telephone 10 should be updated at what time intervals during a day, season of year and so forth.

A communication system configured to implement the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 3, the system being indicated generally by 300. The communication system 300 includes an order management system 310, a reporting managing system 320, a news provider 330, a banner management system 340 and the telephone 10 with its associated user 110. The news provider 330 is operable to communicate information to the order management system 310 and to receive statistical information from the reporting management system 320 as shown. Likewise, the order management system 310 is operable to communicate information to the reporting management system 320. Moreover, the order management system 310 is operable to provide banner information to the banner management system 340.

Furthermore, the banner management system 340 is operable to provide user 100 click *. information entered at the telephone 10 by the user 110. Additionally, the banner management system 340 is operable to function as a data publishing backend for providing banner information and sub-banner information to the telephone 10, as well as receiving click :h information collated by the telephone 10. The processor 30 of the telephone 10 is beneficially provided with one or more software products for storing in its data memory for enabling the telephone 10 to interface with the communication system 300 in a manner as : graphically illustrated in FIG. 3. Moreover, the system 300 is optionally susceptible to being implemented, at least in part, via the Internet.

RSS feeds for the combar 150 can be used to update news and content in one or more of following categories: (i) news; (ii) sports; (iii) weather forecasts; (iv) horoscopes; (v) humour and/or jokes; (vi) advertiser updates; (vii) travel information; (viii) social network updates, for example in a manner of contemporary Twitter and Facebook; note that "Twitter" and "Facebook" are proprietary trade marks.

The present invention is capable of providing numerous benefits to the user 110 and other similar users: (a) user friendly: most mobile telephone users do not know how to access mobile Internet. Moreover, these users are also unaware where to search on the Internet for latest news. The present invention provides a user-friendly route for easily accessing and receiving updates pertinent to preferred interests of users; (b) data traffic reduction: the present invention is capable of enabling a reduction in data traffic for active mobile Internet users to be achieved. The present invention enables mobile telephone users to access the mobile Internet to receive updates in a manner which is less data consuming than surfing in real time on the Internet. Such reduction in data traffic is capable of reducing costs to users; (c) increased usage for operators: the present invention provide users to give easy access to feed providers of mobile Internet pages through an interactive "URI -click to web" functionality; "URI" is an abbreviation of "universal resource locator". This functionality leads users directly to full news stories via the mobile Internet, without a need to employ search engines; *. (d) mobile advertising potential: by using the present invention, it is more convenient for *e..

content providers to update news and offers, namely providing an easier manner for content providers to communicate with their customers. Such benefit is provided by interactive rh functionality such as "click to call" and "click to SMS", the invention thus provides extended :. possibilities to communicate and interact with consumers.

*. The system 300 is capable of taking part of user administration, advertising campaign and 3* banner management for the aforementioned combar 150, harmonization, coordination and generation of statistics/report. Beneficially, all backend functionality is available at a standard Internet web interface. The banner management system 340, namely the aforementioned backend, is beneficially operable to synchronize banners and advertising campaigns using the combar 150 throughout a period of a complete day (24 hours).

In the foregoing, technical expressions are employed which will now be elucidated in greater detail.

RSS feed: "RSS is an abbreviation for "Really Simple Syndication" and is originally a technique, namely method, of publishing information which is to be frequently updated in a standardized format via the Internet. An RSS feed is most often a summary of latest news updates from a news provider, a weather forecast provided by a blogger, but can also be used by numerous Internet sites such as horoscope sites, joke sites, humorous story sites, social network sites and so forth.

Idle screen/home screen: this is a screen presented on a mobile telephone, or similar communication apparatus including a graphics display, which is visible when the telephone is not in use for supporting aural communication, when a screensaver function has not been activated.

Backend: this term relates to servers used to perform backoffice and administrative functions within a communication system. In the system 300, the backend is referred to as being "MCMS", wherein "MCMS" is an abbreviation for "Mobile Content Management System".

URI: this term is an abbreviation for "Universal Resource Locator", namely a link address employed to give commands to the telephone 10 when using interactive furictionalities, for example a functionality such as "click to call".

*..... Modifications to embodiments of the invention described in the foregoing are possible without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.

r Expressions such as "including", "comprising", "incorporating", "consisting of", "have", "is" used to describe and claim the present invention are intended to be construed in a non-exclusive manner, namely allowing for items, components or elements not explicitly described also to be present. Reference to the singular is also to be construed to relate to *: the plural.

Numerals included within parentheses in the accompanying claims are intended to assist understanding of the claims and should not be construed in any way to limit subject matter claimed by these claims.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A combar data supply system (300) for supplying at least one mobile telephone (10) with data for combars (150) and associated sub-banners (160, 170), characterized in that said system (300) is operable to download to said at least one mobile telephone (10) combar data in a batch-transfer manner for said at least one mobile telephone (10) subsequently to present in an off-line manner in one or more combars (150) of one or more corresponding display screens (100) of said at least one mobile telephone (10); and said at least one mobile telephone (10) is operable to present one or more sub-banners (160, 170) in response to said one or more combars (150) being user-invoked, said one or more sub-banners (160, 170) including at least a portion of their respective presentation fields being pre-loaded in a batch-transfer manner to said at least one mobile telephone (10).
2. A combar data supply system (300) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system (300) is operable to provide data in real-time for at least one text field (170) included in said one or more sub-banners (160).
3. A combar data supply system (300) as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said system *. (300) is adapted to receive information from said at least one mobile telephone (10) corresponding to user (110) click-responses to said one or more combars (150).
4. A combar data supply system (300) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, :. wherein said system (300) is operable to supply data to the telephone (10) via use of one or more Internet web-site defied by universal resource locators (URL).

*t4
5. A mobile telephone (10) adapted to operable with a combar data supply system (300) as defined in any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said mobile telephone (10) is operable to present combars (150) and/or sub-banners (160) which have been earlier batch downloaded to the mobile telephone (10) in a manner appearing similar to real-time downloading of data to the mobile telephone (10). -10-
6. A mobile telephone (10) as claimed in claim 5, wherein said sub-banners (160) include one or more text sub-fields (170) which are susceptible to being downloaded to the mobile telephone (10) in real time.
7. A software product stored on a machine-readable data carrier, said software product being executable on computing hardware of a system (300) as claimed in claim 1 for enabling presentation of combars (150) and/or sub-banners (160).
8. A software product stored on a machine-readable data carrier, said software product being executable on computing hardware (30) of a mobile telephone (10) as claimed in claim for enabling presentation of combars (150) and/or sub-banners (160).
9. A method of communicating combar-related data within a combar data supply system (300) to at least one mobile telephone (10), characterized in that said method includes: using said system (300) to download to said at least one mobile telephone (10) combar data in a batch-transfer manner for said at least one mobile telephone (10) subsequently to present in an off-line manner in one or more combars (150) of one or more corresponding display screens (100) of said at least one mobile telephone (10); and using said at least one mobile telephone (10) to present one or more sub-banners (160, 170) in response to said one or more combars (150) being user-invoked, said one or more sub- ". banners (160, 170) including at least a portion of their respective presentation fields being pre-loaded in a batch-transfer manner to said at least one mobile telephone (10). * * *. * * * . * ** *. . * I * **