GB2597152A

GB2597152A - Messaging method

Info

Publication number: GB2597152A
Application number: GB2115078.4A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ho Stanley; Kelly Jason
Original assignee: Digital IP Holdings Ltd
Current assignee: Digital IP Holdings Ltd
Priority date: 2016-03-24
Filing date: 2016-03-24
Publication date: 2022-01-19
Anticipated expiration: 2036-03-24
Also published as: GB202115078D0; GB2597152B

Abstract

A method of transmitting a textual message, comprising at a mobile transmitting device: displaying a colour selection panel associated with a keyboard of a mobile transmitting device, wherein the colour selection panel comprises a plurality of discrete colour keys, each colour key coloured with a respective different colour. The colour selection panel and the character selection panel associated with the keyboard are displayed simultaneously. The colour selection panel is configured to receive a scroll input and in response to receiving a scroll input to scroll through a further plurality of colour keys. The method comprises receiving a first selection of a colour from the keyboard input through the colour selection panel, receiving at least one first character from the keyboard input through the character selection panel subsequent to receiving the first selection of a colour, generating a textual message comprising a portion encoded to indicate that the at least one first character is to be displayed in the first colour, and transmitting the textual message.

Description

Messaging Method

Technical Field

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for telecommunication, and in particular to transmitting and receiving textual messages.

Background of the Invention

Users of mobile devices may communicate through an exchange of messages. These messages may be transmitted in various formats. For example, a message may be transmitted in the format of a Short Message Service (SMS) message which only permits the transmittal of text. Another example is a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) message which permits the transmittal of multimedia content such as images and video in addition to text. Additionally, messages may be exchanged through an Instant Messaging application Regardless of the format of the message, it is desirable to increase the information content in a message. This is especially the case for textual messages where information content may be limited due to the nature of text. In particular for mobile devices which may comprise relatively small screens and be limited in bandwidth, it is especially desirable to enhance the information content of a message without incurring a high cost in terms of increased bandwidth requirements, processing power and the like. Therefore there remains a need to provide improved encoding of messages.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of transmitting a textual message, comprising at a mobile transmitting device, receiving a first selection of a colour from a keyboard of the mobile transmitting device, receiving at least one first character from the keyboard, generating a textual message comprising a portion encoded to indicate that the at least one first character is to be displayed in the first colour, and transmitting the textual message.

By providing a keyboard on the mobile transmitting device which allows for encoding of different characters of a textual message in different colours, it may make it easier for a user to differentiate between parts of a textual message or may provide emphasis to a part of the message thereby increasing/enhancing the information content of the textual message. Additionally, the colour encoding may be associated with the mobile transmitting device such that the colour encoding may be used to identify the transmitting device at a receiving device.

Furthermore, by generating and transmitting a textual message rather than for example, encoding the colour and character information as image data, the amount of bandwidth required to transmit the message is reduced.

It will be understood that receiving a first selection of a colour from the keyboard and receiving at least one first character from the keyboard may occur in any order. That is, the first selection of a colour may be received before the at least one first character or the at least one first character may be received before the first selection of a colour.

The method may further comprise, at a mobile receiving device receiving the textual message comprising a part having at least one first character encoded based upon a first colour; and displaying the at least one first character based upon the encoded first colour. The method may also comprise decoding the received textual message to determine the at least one first character and the first colour.

The method may further comprise, at the mobile transmitting device, receiving a second selection of a colour from the keyboard and receiving at least one second character from the keyboard. Generating a textual message may further comprise generating a textual message comprising a portion encoded to indicate that the at least one second character is to be displayed in the second colour.

The first colour and the second colour may be different. In this way, a textual message may comprise a plurality characters encoded in a plurality of colours.

The method may further comprise, at a mobile receiving device, receiving a textual message comprising a part having at least one second character encoded based upon a second colour and displaying the at least one second character based upon the encoded second colour. The method may also comprise decoding the received textual message to determine the at least one second character and the second colour.

The method may further comprise displaying a colour selection panel associated with the keyboard. The colour selection panel may be displayed in place of a character selection panel associated with the keyboard. For example, a character selection panel comprising a plurality of character keys associated with the keyboard may be displayed. Upon receiving a predetermined input, the character selection panel may be replaced with the colour selection panel in order for a colour to be selected.

Alternatively, the colour selection panel and the character selection panel may be displayed simultaneously.

The received selection of a colour from the keyboard may be a selection of a colour from the colour selection panel associated with the keyboard.

The method may further comprise, at the mobile receiving device, displaying a keyboard comprising a colour selection key on the mobile transmitting device and receiving a selection of the colour selection key from the keyboard. The colour selection key may be displayed so as to indicate the colour selection. The colour selection panel may be displayed in response to a selection of the colour selection key.

The keyboard may comprise physical keys and/or may be a touchscreen keyboard displayed on a screen of the mobile transmitting device.

The textual message may be a Short Message Service (SMS) message or a textual part of a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) message. The textual message may be generated by an instant messaging application.

Aspects of the invention can be combined and it will be readily appreciated that features described in the context of one aspect of the invention can be combined with other aspects of the invention.

It will be appreciated that aspects of the invention can be implemented in any convenient form. For example, the invention may be implemented by appropriate computer programs which may be carried on appropriate carrier media which may be tangible carrier media (e.g. disks) or intangible carrier media (e.g. communications signals). Aspects of the invention may also be implemented using suitable apparatus which may take the form of programmable computers running computer programs arranged to implement the invention.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a system suitable for transmitting and receiving textual messages in accordance with the present invention; Figure 1A is a schematic illustration of a device of the system of Figure 1 in more detail; Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the transmitter of the system of Figure 1 in more detail; Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary data format of an encoded textual message; Figure 4 is a schematic illustration of the receiver of the system of Figure 1 in more detail; Figures 5A -5B are schematic illustrations of a keyboard and a colour selection panel; Figure 6 is a flowchart showing processing carried out to transmit a textual message; Figure 7 is a flowchart showing more detailed exemplary processing to carry out the processing of Figure 6; Figure 8 is a flowchart showing processing carried out to receive a textual message; Figure 9 is a flowchart showing more detailed exemplary processing to carry out the processing of Figure 8.

Detailed Description

Referring now to Figure 1, a transmitter 101 is arranged to transmit a textual message over a network 102 to a receiver 103. The network 102 may take any suitable form and may, for example, comprise a mobile (cellular) telephone network, a wireless local area network, a wired local area network, the Internet or any combination of such networks.

In general terms, the transmitter 101 encodes and transmits textual messages such that the receiver 103 will display specified characters of the received textual messages in a selected one of a plurality of colours. In this way, the information content of the textual message can be increased/enhanced.

It will be understood that a textual message comprises data encoded in a format indicating to a device that the data is to be treated as text. In this way, the individual characters of the textual message may be selected and manipulated. For example, text may be copied from a displayed textual message and be transferred for use in another application such as in a textbox on a web page displayed by a web browser. By encoding different characters of a textual message in different colours, it may make it easier for a user to differentiate between parts of a textual message or may provide emphasis to a part of the message thereby increasing the information content of the textual message.

Additionally, textual messages may be exchanged between multiple parties within in a group. For example, SMS, MMS and instant messaging allow for group messaging functions in which messages from multiple (more than two) participants are displayed in a single message stream. The textual messages transmitted by each party may be encoded with a different colour to enable easy differentiation and/or identification of the transmitting party. Identification of a party's textual messages through colour encoding permits the omission of additional identifying information which may take up valuable screen space. This is particularly useful for mobile devices which may have a limited screen size.

Furthermore, by generating and transmitting a textual message rather than for example, encoding the colour and character information as image data, the amount of bandwidth required to transmit the message is reduced. This is especially useful for mobile devices for which bandwidth may be limited by, for example, mobile telephone (cellular) networks.

In addition, the characters encoded in an image cannot be easily selected and manipulated as the characters encoded and display as text. Also, the smaller display of a mobile device may be more suitable for the display of text over the display of an image Figure 1A shows the transmitter 101 of Figure 1 in further detail. It can be seen that the transmitter 101 comprises a CPU 101a which is configured to read and execute instructions stored in a random access memory 101b which may take the form of a volatile memory. The random access memory 101b stores instructions for execution by the CPU 101a and data used by those instructions. For example, in use, a textual message pending transmission may be stored in the volatile memory 101b.

The transmitter 101 further comprises storage which may take the form of non-volatile memory, for example, a hard disc drive 101c (although other forms of storage may be used). For example, a transmitted textual message may be stored on the hard disc drive 101c. The transmitter 101 further comprises an I/O interface 101d to which are connected peripheral devices used in connection with the transmitter 101. More particularly, a display 101e is configured so as to display output from the transmitter 101. The display 101e may, for example, display the textual message as it is being created. The display 101e may take the form of a touchscreen display, which may also allow interaction with the transmitter 101. Other input devices may also be connected to the I/O interface 101d and may include a keyboard 101f and a pointing device 101g (shown as a mouse) which allow interaction with the transmitter 101. It will be appreciated that for ease of depiction a "hard" keyboard and a "traditional" mouse are depicted, these are merely schematic. For example, the keyboard may be a "soft" keyboard displayed on a touchscreen while the pointing device may take any appropriate form such as a gesture recognition system (e.g., a sensor and appropriate software). A network interface 101h allows the transmitter 101 to be connected to an appropriate communications network so as to receive and transmit data from and to other computing devices. The CPU 101a, random access memory 101b, non-volatile memory 101c, I/O interface 101d, and network interface 101h, are connected together by a bus 101i.

The transmitter 101 may take the form of, for example, a smartphone, a tablet, a PDA, a smartwatch and the like. It will be appreciated the above description of the transmitter 101 is equally applicable to the receiver 103. It will be appreciated that the above description is only exemplary and the transmitter 101 and receiver 103 may take any appropriate form. For example, the hard disc drive 101c may alternatively be in the form of flash memory or other memory technology. More generally, each of the components depicted in Figure 1A may be replaced with a suitable alternative or additional components may be included.

Referring now to Figure 2, the transmitter 101 further comprises a keyboard 201. The keyboard 201 may be a "soft' keyboard in that it is displayed on a display screen associated with the transmitter 101. The display screen may be a touchscreen such that a user may select a key of the keyboard 201 by touching the appropriate location of the key displayed on screen. Alternatively, the user may interact with the soft keyboard 201 using a cursor controlled by the user. The use of touchscreens to facilitate input will be well known to a person skilled in the art and is not therefore described in detail herein.

The keyboard 201 may comprise a colour selection key 202. The colour selection key 202 may display the currently selected colour. Selecting the colour selection key may cause a colour selection panel associated with the keyboard 201 to be displayed. The colour selection panel is described in further detail later with reference to Figures 5A - 5B. In general terms, the colour selection panel permits the user to select a colour in which particular characters of a textual message are to be displayed by receiver 103. The act of selecting a colour using the colour selection panel generates a colour selection 204. The user's colour selection 204 may, for example, be stored in the volatile memory 101b of the transmitter 101.The keyboard 201 further comprises standard character keys 203 to enable a user to type out a textual message. The transmitter 101 receives a character key selection 205 from the keyboard and encodes the character based upon the current colour selection 204. The encoded character is inserted into the textual message 206 for transmission. Alternatively, the selected colour and character may be stored temporarily and a textual message 206 is generated once the user has indicated that the textual message has been completed. Once the encoded textual message 206 is ready for transmission, the transmitter 101 transmits the encoded textual message 206 over the network 102 intended for a receiver 103.

Additionally, or alternatively, the colour selection panel may be displayed in response to a combination of key presses. In such a case, the colour selection key 202 may be absent from the soft keyboard 201.

Alternatively, the keyboard 201 of the transmitter may be a "hard" keyboard with physical keys. There may be provided a dedicated physical colour selection key 202 or a combination of key presses may be interpreted by the transmitter 101 as the colour selection key 202. Selecting the colour selection key 202 may, for example, display the colour selector panel on the display screen of the transmitter 101. The currently selected colour may be highlighted. The user may interact with the colour selection panel to make a colour selection using the physical keys of keyboard 201. The physical keys may have displays such that each key can display either characters or a colour selection panel. Alternatively, or additionally, the keyboard 201 may comprise a backlight such that the colour selection panel may be physically represented by lighting up each key based upon one of the plurality of selectable colours.

It has been described above that text may be encoded with a currently selected colour. It will be appreciated that it may also, or alternatively, be possible to select already input characters and to apply a colour to those selected characters. Generally, therefore, it will be understood from the above that the keyboard 201, colour selection key 202, and character keys 203 allow a user to apply a respective colour to individual characters of a textual message.

Referring now to Figure 3, a schematic illustration of an exemplary format of the encoded textual message 206 is depicted. The textual message 206 may comprise a header portion 301 and a payload portion 302. The header portion 301 may comprise a field identifying the receiver of the textual message 206 and may also comprise a field identifying the source of the textual message 206. The header portion 301 may further comprise other fields in accordance with the encoding format or standard being used to transmit the textual message 206. For example, the textual message may be a Short Message Service (SMS) message or a textual portion of a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) message or be of any other suitable format.

The payload portion 302 of the textual message 206 may comprise encoded data representing a plurality of characters with each character encoded based upon the corresponding colour selection 204 at the time of when the character 205 was selected.

An exemplary encoding scheme is illustrated in Figure 3 in which data 303 representing a first selected colour, CLRi, is followed by data 304 representing a first plurality of characters which are to be displayed by the receiver 103 based upon the first selected colour. Further details on the processing performed by the receiver 103 is described below with reference to Figures 7 and 8.

Referring back to Figure 3, the first data 303, 304 may be followed by data 305 representing a second selected colour, CLR2, and data 306 representing a second plurality of characters which are to be displayed by the receiver 103 based upon the second selected colour. Further data 307 representing further selected colours and corresponding plurality of characters 308 may follow according to a similar scheme.

It will be appreciated that the encoded data is not limited to the scheme described above and may follow any suitable scheme and be encoded in any suitable format as would be apparent to the person skilled in the art given the above.

Referring now to Figure 4, the receiver 103 further comprises a decoder 401. A received encoded textual message 206 is decoded by the decoder 401. The decoder 401 outputs the characters 402 and the corresponding colour 403 of each character 402 contained within the encoded textual message 206. The decoded characters 402 are displayed on a display 404 associated with the receiver 103 based upon the decoded colours 403.

Referring now to Figures 5A and 5B, in each Figure, an exemplary colour selection panel is shown. In the left-hand panel of Figure 5A, a transmitter 101, in this case a smartphone is shown. The transmitter 101 has a display 101e and a keyboard 201 comprising a colour selection key 202 is displayed on the display 101e. When the colour selection key 202 is pressed, the keyboard 201 is replaced with a colour selection panel 501 as shown in the right-hand drawing of Figure 5A. The colour selection panel 501 comprises a plurality of colour keys from which a user may make a selection. Further colour keys may be displayed and become selectable if, for example, a user makes a swiping gesture in the direction of arrows 502 and 503. It will be appreciated that other methods of scrolling through a plurality of colour keys may be used as will be readily apparent to the skilled person. Similarly, it will be appreciated that the colour selection panel 501 may be caused to be displayed by any appropriate means or input.

Upon selection of a colour, the colour selection 204 is received by the transmitter 101 (shown in Figure 2). The colour selection panel 501 is replaced with the keyboard 201 and the colour selection key 202 changes to display the colour selection 204.

Alternatively, as shown in Figure 5B, the colour selection panel 501 may be displayed above the keyboard 201 when the colour selection key 202 is pressed. The colour selection panel 501 may, for example, be displayed as a row of colour keys. Further colour keys may be displayed and become selectable if, for example, the user makes a swiping gesture. It will be appreciated that other methods of scrolling through a plurality of colour keys may be used as will be readily apparent to the skilled person Upon selection of a colour, the colour selection 204 is received by the transmitter 101 and the colour selection key 202 changes to display the colour selection 204.

Referring now to Figure 6, processing performed by the transmitter 101 shown in Figures 5A and 5B to generate and transmit a textual message is shown. At step S601, a selection of a colour 204 is received from the keyboard 201. As described above, the selection of a colour 204 may be input in any appropriate way, including by way of selection of a specific colour key of a colour panel, or by means of a predetermined combination of character keys. At step 5602, at least one character 205 is received from the keyboard 201. Processing then proceeds to step 5603 in which a textual message 206 comprising a portion encoded to indicate the at least one character 205 and the colour 204 is generated. At step S604, the textual message 206 is transmitted. In this way, individual characters or groups of characters may be encoded based upon different colours, thereby increasing the information content of the textual message. It will therefore be appreciated that a textual message may comprise a first character or plurality of characters to be displayed by the receiver 103 in a first colour and a second character or plurality of characters to be displayed by the receiver 103 in a different second colour. Further characters may be displayed in any number of additional colours As an example, the processing of Figure 6 is shown in more detail in Figure 7. At step 3701, a keyboard 201 comprising a colour selection key 202 is displayed on the display 101e. The keyboard 201 may be displayed automatically in response to opening a particular application such as a messaging application or the like. At step 3702, a selection of the colour selection key 202 is received from the keyboard 201 and stored at the transmitter 101.

Processing then proceeds in similar manner to steps 3601 -3604. At step 3703, a selection of a colour 204 is received from the keyboard 201. At step 3704, at least one character 205 is received from the keyboard 201. Processing then proceeds to step 3705 in which a textual message 206 comprising a portion encoded to indicate the at least one character 205 and the colour 204 is generated. At step S706, the textual message 206 is transmitted.

Referring now to Figure 8, processing for displaying a textual message is shown. At step 3801, a textual message is received. The textual message comprises a part having at least one character encoded based upon a colour. Processing then proceeds to step S802wherein the at least one character is displayed based upon the encoded colour.

As an example, the processing of Figure 8 is shown in more detail in Figure 9. At step 3901, the textual message of step 3801 is received. At step 3902, the textual message is decoded to determine the at least one character and the corresponding colour the at least one character was encoded based upon. Processing then proceeds to step 3903 wherein the decoded at least one character is displayed based upon the decoded colour from step 3902.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described above, it will be appreciated that various modifications can be made to the described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. That is, the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects exemplary and non-limiting. In particular, where a particular form has been described for particular processing, it will be appreciated that such processing may be carried out in any suitable form arranged to provide suitable output data.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A method of transmitting a textual message, comprising at a mobile transmitting device: displaying a colour selection panel associated with a keyboard of a mobile transmitting device, wherein: the colour selection panel comprises a plurality of discrete colour keys, each colour key coloured with a respective different colour; the colour selection panel and the character selection panel associated with the keyboard are displayed simultaneously; and the colour selection panel is configured to receive a scroll input and in response to receiving a scroll input to scroll through a further plurality of colour keys; receiving a first selection of a colour from the keyboard input through the colour selection panel; receiving at least one first character from the keyboard input through the character selection panel subsequent to receiving the first selection of a colour; generating a textual message comprising a portion encoded to indicate that the at least one first character is to be displayed in the first colour; and transmitting the textual message.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the colour selection panel is displayed as a row directly above the keyboard such that the keyboard and the colour selection panel define a contiguous user input element.
3. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising, at a mobile receiving device: receiving a textual message comprising a part having at least one first character encoded based upon a first colour; decoding the received textual message to determine the at least one first character and the first colour; and displaying the at least one first character based upon the encoded first colour.
4. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising at the mobile transmitting device: receiving a second selection of a colour from the keyboard; receiving at least one second character from the keyboard; and wherein generating a textual message further comprises generating a textual message comprising a portion encoded to indicate that the at least one second character is to be displayed in the second colour.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first colour and the second colour are different.
6. The method of any one of claims 4 and 5, further comprising, at a mobile receiving device: receiving a textual message comprising a part having at least one second character encoded based upon a second colour; decoding the received textual message to determine the at least one second character and the second colour; and displaying the at least one second character based upon the encoded second colour.
7. The method of any preceding claim, further comprising, at the mobile transmitting device: displaying the keyboard, the keyboard comprising a colour selection key; receiving a selection of the colour selection key from the keyboard.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the colour selection key indicates the colour selection.
9 The method of any preceding claim, wherein the textual message is a Short Messaging Service, SMS, message.
10. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the textual message is a textual part of a Multimedia Messaging Service, MMS, message.
11. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the textual message is generated by an instant messaging application.
12. A computer program comprising computer readable instructions configured to cause a computer to carry out a method according to any one preceding claim.
13. A computer readable medium carrying a computer program according to claim 12.
14. A mobile transmitter device comprising: a memory storing processor readable instructions; and a processor arranged to read and execute instructions in the memory, wherein the processor readable instructions comprise instructions arranged to control the device to carry out a method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, 4 to 5, and 7 to 11.
15. A mobile receiving device comprising: a memory storing processor readable instructions; and a processor arranged to read and execute instructions in the memory; wherein the processor readable instructions comprise instructions arranged to control the device to carry out a method according to any one of claims 3 and 6.