GB2413405A

GB2413405A - SMS/MMS communication system employing searchable database

Info

Publication number: GB2413405A
Application number: GB0408796A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Fahad El-Khaled
Original assignee: Dizlee Comm W L L
Current assignee: Dizlee Comm W L L
Priority date: 2004-04-20
Filing date: 2004-04-20
Publication date: 2005-10-26
Also published as: GB0408796D0

Abstract

A system is disclosed in which data is transmitted via SMS/MMS, over a wireless network from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network. The data is saved in a database and made available for searching by other subscribers to the network. The wireless network may be a mobile telephone network and the wireless transceivers associated with the network are mobile telephones each having a unique telephone number. The results of a search of the saved data are provided to a searching subscriber mobile telephone without revealing the telephone number of the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

Description

24 1 3405

COMMUNICATIONS APPARATUS AND METHODS

The present invention relates to communications apparatus and methods.

The Short Messaging Service (SMS) in mobile communications has proved to be a very useful and successful protocol. However, the conventional SMS concept relies on a pure one-to-one (person-to-person) way of communication.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of communication, the method comprising: receiving data transmitted over a wireless network from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network; saving the data in a database; and, making the saved data available for searching by other subscribers to the network.

In one preferred embodiment, the data includes text transmitted using the SMS protocol. Alternatively or additionally, the data includes multimedia data transmitted using the MMS protocol.

In a preferred embodiment, the wireless network is a cellphone network and the wireless transceivers associated with the network are cellphones each having a unique telephone number, wherein the results of a search of the saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone without revealing the telephone number of the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data. Preferably, each subscriber is allocated a unique code, which is different to the telephone number of that subscriber's cellphone, and the results of a search of the saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone together with the unique code for the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided communication apparatus, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving data transmitted over a wireless network from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network; means for saving the data in a database; and, means for making the saved data available for searching by other subscribers to the network.

In one preferred embodiment, the data receiving means is arranged to receive data that includes text transmitted using the SMS protocol. Alternatively or additionally, data receiving means is arranged to receive data that includes multimedia data transmitted using the MMS protocol.

In a preferred embodiment, the wireless network is a cellphone network and the wireless transceivers associated with the network are cellphones each having a unique telephone number, wherein the apparatus is arranged such that the results of a search of saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone without revealing the telephone number of the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data. Preferably, each subscriber is allocated a unique code, which is different to the telephone number of that subscriber's cellphone, wherein the apparatus is arranged such that the results of a search of saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone together with the unique code for the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of communication by which information can be stored and searched via a central database via a SMS protocol and/or MMS protocol, the method comprising: transmitting data over a wireless network from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network to a central database such that the data can be saved in the database; and, searching the data saved in the database by transmitting search requests from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network and receiving the results of the search request at said wireless transceiver.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for enabling communication by which information can be stored and searched via a central database via a SMS protocol and/or MMS protocol, the apparatus comprising: a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to a wireless network that is enabled to transmit data over the network to a central database such that the data can be saved in the database, and that is enabled to allow the data saved in the database to be searched by transmitting a search request from the wireless transceiver to the network and to receive and display the results of the search request at the wireless transceiver.

In one preferred embodiment, the wireless transceiver is arranged such that the data that is sent and received includes text transmitted using the SMS protocol.

Alternatively or additionally, the wireless transceiver is arranged such that the data that is sent and received includes multimedia data transmitted using the MMS protocol.

Thus, the preferred embodiment of the present invention extends the basic functionality of the SMS protocol using a store and search function whereby SMS users can share (by storing and making available for searching) SMS-format-based information among themselves whilst maintaining the secrecy of their true identity.

Thus a sort of a "mid-point" or central data pool is created for SMS users such that they can exchange information without the need of knowing who is on the other side. The one-to-one limitation of SMS protocol mentioned earlier no longer applies. Furthermore, the preferred embodiment adds mobility features to the concept of search engines suitable for wireless messaging protocols, such as SMS.

The preferred embodiment is designed in a way so that it can be added as an overlay onto two of the most popular wireless messaging protocols: Short Messaging (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging (MMS). In this specification, the design and practical implementation of the information sharing service (ISS) over SMS protocol is explained in detail, the complete system generally being referred to as SMS-ISS. SMS-ISS facilitates information sharing between mobile subscribers through SMS, and via an information database to which subscribers can post and from which subscribers can retrieve data. In addition, a hi- or multi-lingual search engine is designed in a way that satisfies the needs of subscribers being on the move.

SMS-ISS is very helpful for subscriber in terms of finding friends, selling or buying goods, sharing thoughts and ideas, etc. SMS-ISS is very helpful for subscribers who are in need of quick and concise information about anything posted by others and for publishing certain information among others of similar interest.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 illustrates schematically the environment in which an embodiment of the present invention operates; Fig. 2 shows schematically the high level design of an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 3 shows the high level design of a search engine component according to an embodiment of the present invention; and, Fig. 4 illustrates the complete usage flow of an embodiment of the present invention from a user's prospective.

Referring first to Figure 1, an embodiment of the present invention, referred to herein as Short Messaging Service Information Sharing Service or "SMS-ISS ", operates in a mobile wireless network environment, and is surrounded by the cellular network infrastructure of a mobile network operator. As used herein, the term "SMS-ISS " will be used to refer to the software that provides the functionality, or the hardware on which the software runs, or a combination of the two, depending on the context. As will be understood, the hardware will typically be one or more PCs or servers or the like.

In this embodiment, SMS-ISS has four major functions, the most important of which are SAVE and SEARCH by means of which users can store and search any kind of information by sending an SMS to a certain SMS service number. For the sake of explanation, the number 990 is assumed here as the SMS service number.

The SMS-ISS communicates with the mobile operator's SMS Centre (SMSC) server through a SMSC connectivity component. The SMSC connectivity component of this embodiment communicates with the SMSC server using the Short-Message-Peer-to-Peer (SMPP) protocol. The SMPP connectivity protocol was invented by LogicaCMG Corporation. It should be noted that adaptation of the SMS-ISS concept to work with the Multimedia Messaging (MMS) Protocol is straightforward.

As shown in Fig. 2, the SMS-ISS has two receiver components (Receiver 1 and Receiver 2) which receive all incoming requests received from the SMSC server and commit those requests to a request-listener database.

On the other side, a request listener polls the request-listener database and conveys signals, such as data or queries, to corresponding components depending on the nature of the request. For example, if the request is a search request, then a query is sent to a search engine, or if a save request then data is sent to a save request handler, and so on.

A language detector component detects whether the request language is English or some other language, such as Arabic.

If the subscriber sends valid English data with a SAVE or S command to the 990 service number, then a save request handler component stores the data in an english_data database under a unique code. Every user is allocated a single unique code which is used as a substitute for his/her true telephone number in the SMS-ISS.

If the subscriber sends valid multilingual (such as Arabic) data with a SAVE or S command to the 990 service number, then the save request handler component stores the data in a multiling_data database (if it is valid) with a unique code.

Otherwise, a corresponding error message is conveyed to the subscriber.

As mentioned earlier, every subscriber has a unique code (consisting of the service number combined with a unique seven or higher digit number), which ensures privacy as the SMS-ISS will not display the subscriber's original telephone number to anyone. Instead, the SMS-ISS only shows the subscriber's code in any operation within the SMS-ISS itself.

If a subscriber performs a SEARCH with some information as the search request and sends it to the 990 service number, then the components of the SMS-ISS acknowledge this as a search request. A search engine is then activated to try to find the exact or related information from the relevant SMS-ISS database. If such information is located in the database, it is sent to the subscriber concerned and the unique code assigned to the subscriber who posted the located content is also shown.

The subscriber can communicate with the message poster (i.e. the user who saved the resulting content in the SMS-ISS) after a SEARCH request by simply replying to the message received from the SMS- ISS. If the subscriber sends a reply message to the code for the message poster, then a forward request handler of the SMS-ISS forwards the message to the message poster, with the sender identity being given as the subscriber's unique code and again - 9 - without revealing the real telephone number of the subscriber.

If the subscriber sends a CANCEL command to the 990 service number, then a utility request handler component deletes all information from the SMSISS database that is stored by that subscriber, though preferably only after receiving a confirmation from the subscriber.

If the subscriber sends a CANCEL CODE command to the 990 service number, then the utility request handler component deletes the subscriber's code and all his related information from SMS-ISS database, again preferably after confirmation. No-one can communicate with the subscriber after a code cancellation.

If the subscriber sends a CONTENT command to the 990 service number, then the utility request handler component finds the total number of information content items already saved by the subscriber in the english_data database if the request is in English. Otherwise, if the request is in Arabic or some other language, then the utility request handler finds the total number of content items already saved by the subscriber in the multiling_data database.

Either way, the result is then forwarded to the concerned subscriber.

If the subscriber sends a HELP command to the 990 service number, then the utility request handler component sends some online help information to the subscriber.

All system responses which are sent by the SMS-ISS to subscribers are stored in a response_listener database. A response listener component polls the response_llstener database. If any response comes to the response_listener database, then it sends the response to the transmitter.

After receiving a response from the response_listener database, the transmitter stores the response in a response_log database and then sends the response to the SMSC. The mobile operator SMSC then forwards the response to the subscriber.

Referring to Figure 3, to get the most appropriate information record for a certain SEARCH request, the search engine follows an X7 logic which increases the probability that the first returned result will satisfy the concerned user. This is very important for people on the move where the least number of user-initiated operations are expected.

The search engine explained here differs from other search engines, such as web-based search engines, in a way that it is specifically designed for a wireless messaging (such as SMS) based search. The search engine is expected to search for information in a large number of documents where each document is typically small in size. Therefore, owing to the fact that the size of a single SMS document is normally 160 characters (69 characters in case of Arabic) in this case the probability of text-relevance is greater and variation is less between documents. To overcome such a constraint, the search engine employs seven levels of search stages which can differentiate even more related records and can score accordingly. The seven searches work in coordination to find the most appropriate record relative to a certain search request. -1 1-

The scoring is based on priority where priority and scoring are directly proportional in the sense that the higher the priority, the higher the score will be.

Searching priority is given below in descending order (X7 search stages): Exact match If an exact match exists between the input request and a certain document in the database, then this has the highest priority.

2. Phrase match Documents in the SMS-ISS database containing the search phrase one or more times are treated as a match and given a score based on the number of occurrences of the phrase. So, for example, if the user search request contains one or more phrases that are identical to one or more phrases found in a document within the database, then a certain score would be given in this case, and the more a certain phrase (that is identical to a part of the user search request) is repeated, the higher the score will be.

3. Near match The proximity among the words are given more importance when comparing the search input and the records in the database. So, for example, if the user search request is "European Union", then a document in the database containing text like "European blahl blah2 Union" scores more than a document in the database containing text like "European blahl blah2 blah3 Union". This allows the search engine to be in a better position to distinguish between documents that may be very similar in their content.

4. Word match If a document contains at least one word matching at least a subset of the input search phrase, then this document is treated as a match and will be scored based on the number of words and number of occurrences.

5. Stemming match This eliminates tense variations in the search phrase such that documents containing the expansion are treated as a match.

6. Soundex match All documents containing at least one word which sounds like one word within the input search phrase are treated as a match.

7. Wild card match This term allows the search engine to tolerate possible spelling mistakes by users/subscribers. Although this term attempts to correct possibly misspelled search string(s) in order to find matching document(s), misspelled input strings will always have a lesser score than correctly spelled ones.

The above seven stages of the search are applicable for English language data (and data in some other languages), whereas only five of the above stages (1 to 4 and 7) are applicable to Arabic data. Stages 5 and 6 are not applicable to Arabic as the language does not vary phonetically and is based on tense. Instead, some custom pre-processing based on character mapping can be added to compensate for the non-applicable Soundex stage.

Whether it is English or Arabic or some other language, the seven search stages, X7, work in close coordination with each other without colliding. The addition of other languages is almost seamless.

Finally, the search engine is designed in such a way so that it will return the document with highest score relative to the specific search string. For every search request, and provided that appropriate matching data records are available in the database, the search engine has the ability to cache in a cache bank up to 10 (configurable via property file) different records (sorted with descending priorities) which can be viewed by the concerned user. This is true for both languages: English, and Arabic.

In any search process, time is considered to be an important factor. Thus, in the preferred embodiment, SMS-ISS always gives a small percentage of preference to the information that has been most recently saved in the database(s), so that a user always gets the latest or most recent "matching" information posted by other users.

In the preferred embodiment, the cache bank will be cleared after 30 minutes (relative to the time of a specific search request). Else, if the user performs some other search with a different search string, then a new search cache bank is generated and the old cache bank is removed.

Embodiments of the present invention have been described with particular reference to the examples illustrated. However, it will be appreciated that variations and modifications may be made to the examples described within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of communication, the method comprising: receiving data transmitted over a wireless network from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network; saving the data in a database; and, making the saved data available for searching by other subscribers to the network.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the data includes text transmitted using the SMS protocol.

3. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the data includes multimedia data transmitted using the MMS protocol.

4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the wireless network is a cellphone network and the wireless transceivers associated with the network are cellphones each having a unique telephone number, wherein the results of a search of the saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone without revealing the telephone number of the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein each subscriber is allocated a unique code, which is different to the telephone number of that subscriber's cellphone, and the results of a search of the saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone together with the unique code for the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

6. Communication apparatus, the apparatus comprising: means for receiving data transmitted over a wireless network from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network; means for saving the data in a database; and, means for making the saved data available for searching by other subscribers to the network.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the data receiving means is arranged to receive data that includes text transmitted using the SMS protocol.

8. Apparatus according to claim 6 or claim 7, wherein data receiving means is arranged to receive data that includes multimedia data transmitted using the MMS protocol.

9. Apparatus according to any of claims 6 to 8, wherein the wireless network is a cellphone network and the wireless transceivers associated with the network are cellphones each having a unique telephone number, wherein the apparatus is arranged such that the results of a search of saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone without revealing the telephone number of the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, wherein each subscriber is allocated a unique code, which is different to the telephone number of that subscriber's cellphone, wherein the apparatus is arranged such that the results of a search of saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone together with the unique code for the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

11. A method of communication by which information can be stored and searched via a central database via a SMS protocol and/or MMS protocol, the method comprising: transmitting data over a wireless network from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network to a central database such that the data can be saved in the database; and, searching the data saved in the database by transmitting search requests from a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to the network and receiving the results of the search request at said wireless transceiver.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the data includes text transmitted using the SMS protocol.

13. A method according to claim 11 or claim 12, wherein the data includes multimedia data transmitted using the MMS protocol.

14. A method according to any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the wireless network is a cellphone network and the wireless transceivers associated with the network are cellphones each having a unique telephone number, wherein the results of a search of the saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone without revealing the telephone number of the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein each subscriber is allocated a unique code, which is different to the telephone number of that subscriber's cellphone, and the results of a search of the saved data are provided to a searching subscriber cellphone together with the unique code for the subscriber cellphone that initially transmitted the data.

16. Apparatus for enabling communication by which information can be stored and searched via a central database via a SMS protocol and/or MMS protocol, the apparatus comprising: a wireless transceiver of a subscriber to a wireless network that is enabled to transmit data over the network to a central database such that the data can be saved in the database, and that is enabled to allow the data saved in the database to be searched by transmitting a search request from the wireless transceiver to the network and to receive and display the results of the search request at the wireless transceiver.

17. Apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the wireless transceiver is arranged such that the data that is sent and received includes text transmitted using the SMS protocol.

18. Apparatus according to claim 16 or claim 17, wherein the wireless transceiver is arranged such that the data that is sent and received includes multimedia data transmitted using the MMS protocol.

19. A method of communication, substantially in accordance with any of the examples as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

20. Communications apparatus, substantially in accordance with any of the examples as hereinbefore described with -1 9- reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.