WO2008140569A1

WO2008140569A1 - System and method for calling party to specifiy a ring tone used by a called party's mobile phone

Info

Publication number: WO2008140569A1
Application number: PCT/US2007/084711
Authority: WO
Inventors: Robert J. Stewart
Original assignee: Yardarm Technologies, Llc
Priority date: 2007-05-14
Filing date: 2007-11-14
Publication date: 2008-11-20

Abstract

A calling party is permitted to determine a ring tone to be played by a calling party's mobile phone. Upon receiving an indication of the called party telephone number and a ring tone to be pushed to the called party's handset, the calling party is placed on hold on a conference bridge. The subject ring tone and a designated ANI are transmitted to the called party's handset. Thereafter, an outbound call is placed to the called party's handset such that a ringing signal transmitted to the called party's handset includes the designated ANI. When a connection is established with the called party's handset, the outbound call is bridged with the calling party's call on the conference bridge.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CALLING PARTY TO SPECIFY A RING TONE USED BY A

CALLED PARTY'S MOBILE PHONE

RELATED APPLICATION

|0001] This application is anon-provisional of, claims priority to and incorporates by reference U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/928,986, filed 14 May 2007, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002) The present invention relates to telecommunications systems and, more specifically, to methods and systems for a calling party to specify and/or control, for example on a per-call basis, a ring tone to be played by a mobile phone (or similar device) of a called parly.

BACKGROUND

|0003] A ring tone (or ringtone (herein the bifurcated form of this term will be used)) is the sound made by a telephone to alert a called party to an incoming call. The term is most often associated with customizable sounds available on mobile phones that allow users to distinguish the ringing sound made by their own phones from those made by phones of others. Thus, a ring tone is distinguished from a ringing signal, which in the case of a mobile phone is a radio-frequency signal transmitted to a mobile phone handset over a call control channel. Upon receipt of a ringing signal, a mobile phone will play a ring tone (provided the mobile phone's ringer is not muted or otherwise disabled). (0004) In recent years, mobile phone ring tones have become quite popular and entire businesses are now devoted to producing and selling such ring tones to mobile phone users. It is very common for mobile phone users to change their ring tones frequently and/or to assign unique ring tones to different callers. This individual association of a ring tone to one or more unique callers relies on the use of calling party information that is transmitted to the mobile phone prior to call establishment and information previously stored on the subject mobile phone. By comparing the calling party's ANI with stored records of phone numbers, the mobile phone is able to determine, and subsequently play, the associated ring tone for that calling party. Note, this process requires that the owner/user of the subject mobile phone handset program the mobile phone with surficient information to identify the calling party's ANI and with an associated ring tone. It is also indeterminable from the calling party^'s point of view in that the calling party cannot control or influence the ring tone to be played by the called party's mobile phone handset.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

(0005) In one embodiment of the present invention, a calling party provides a called party telephone number and a ring tone to be pushed to that telephone number. The calling party is placed on hold on a conference bridge and the ring tone and an ANI are transmitted to the called party's telephone number in a format suitable for use by a mobile phone handset associated with the called party telephone number. Thereafter, an outbound call is placed to the called party's telephone number such that a ringing signal transmitted to the called party's telephone number includes the ANI. This causes the called party's mobile phone handset to play the pushed ring tone. Upon establishing a connection with the called party's telephone number, the outbound call is bridged with the call from the calling party on the conference bridge.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006} The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

[0007] Figure 1 illustrates an example of a network architecture within which embodiments of the present invention are implemented; and [0008] Figure 2 is a flow diagram illustrating one example of a call flow for pushing ring tones in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(0009) Embodiments of the present invention are directed to telecommunication systems and methods for allowing a calling party to specify a ring tone to be played by a called party's mobile phone handset (or similar device, e.g., a personal digital assistant that includes mobile phone capability). In one example, the calling party is permitted to specify the ring tone as part of the call process. This ring tone is not necessarily limited to tones, but may also include music and/or recorded voice files. Thus, even if the called party already has programmed a distinctive ring tone for his/her mobile phone, including a unique ring tone associated with the specific calling party, the present invention enables the calling party to override or '"trump" that currently programmed ring tone of the called party^'s mobile phone and have a calling party-specified ring tone played on that device to announce the call by the calling party. These "trump" ring tones will be referred to herein as "push ring tones".

[0010] In order to facilitate the association of a calling parry's ANI with a specific push ring tone on a called party's mobile phone, an application programming interface (API) is downloaded to the called party's mobile phone prior to call initiation. For example, this download and installation may be made when the called party joins a particular '"user base" -- a collection of users that have agreed to permit calling parties to push ring tones to their mobile phones. User bases may be associated with particular telecommunications carriers, social network providers, or other organizations. An individual may be associated with more than one user base and, hence, may permit different groups of calling parties to push similar or different ring tones to his/her mobile phone. [0011] As further discussed below, the downloaded API permits a calling party's ANI to be associated with a push ring tone. This may be a push ring tone previously stored on the called party's mobile phone handset or a new push ring tone provided via short message service (SMS) or multimedia message service (MMS) message. The push ring tone is transmitted to the called parly's handsel (or recalled from memory if previously stored on the called party^'s handset) and temporarily overrides the called party's pre-set ring tone when the associated calling party's ANI is recognized as part of a ringing signal. Further details of this process are described below.

[0012] For a given mobile phone or similar device, a microprocessor or similar unit acts as central controller. This processing unit executes computer-readable instructions (which are stored in memory accessible by the microprocessor) to carry out the operations of the mobile phone, including the playing of ring tones in response to the receipt of ringing signals. More specifically, in response Io the receipt of a ringing signal, a sequence of computer-readable instructions that direct the microprocessor to control the vibration of the mobile phone^'s speaker unit are executed. By controlling the oscillation of the speaker in a given paltern, different musical notes (as experienced by the user) are played. Hence, a ring tone program may be regarded as a set of instructions for which of these notes to play, in which order and at what speed. By adjusting these variables, the mobile phone's microprocessor can control the playing of a virtually infinite number of ring tones. Of course, different mobile phone manufacturers use differing syntaxes for these ring lone programs, but such details are not critical for purposes of the present invention.

[0013] Ring tones (that is. ring tone programs) may be stored to a mobile phone's memory in any of a variety of ways, including by downloading the ring lone over the air. That is, the short programs that make up the ring tones when the computer-readable instructions are executed by the mobile phone's microprocessor may be transmitted to the mobile phone via the a wireless communication channel using SMS or the related, enhanced messaging service (EMS) (MMS is one example of EMS). SMS was originally developed for transferring short text messages between mobile phone users. but has evolved to permit the transfer of ring tone programs. [0014] SMS messages do not travel directly between mobile phone handsets. Instead, messages transmitted by one mobile phone travel through an SMS center (SMSC) before being transmitted to the destination mobile phone. The SMS message protocol uses the same call control channel as is used by the ringing signal. Hence, the SMSC, which acts as a media gateway at the edge of the mobile phone RF network, can also be used to transfer ring tone programs to a target mobile phone. Indeed, the present invention makes use of such facilities to transfer calling party-specified (push) ring tones (i.e., push ring tone programs) to the called party's mobile phone. [0015| In one embodiment of the present invention, a calling party dials a telephone number associated with a push ring lone service. The call is answered by an automated system (which may include an interactive voice response system) that allows the calling party to specify his/her desired to push a ring tone to a called parly as part of a call set up process. For example, the automated system may prompt the user to select a desired push ring tone from a menu of available choices by entering a selection via a touch tone key sequence from the calling parly's mobile phone. Alternatively, or in addition, the calling party may select a desired push ring lone and/or a called party from a pre- established account.

[0016| Once a desired ring tone has been specified, the calling party is prompted to provide the mobile phone number for the called party. Note, in some cases the called party's number may be collected before the push ring tone is selected. The order of such operalions is not critical to the presenl invention. Again, this information may be provided via a touch tone key sequence from the calling party's mobile phone or selected from a pre-established account (e.g., from an electronic address book). For example, as part of a subscription process, a user (the calling party in ihis example) may create an account and store multiple telephone numbers of conlacts for later use. Desired push ring tones may be associated with some or all of these telephone numbers/contacts at the time the account is created, at a later lime, or on-the-fly during a call establishment process. |0017] As an aside, as part of the subscription or registration process, the above- described API may be downloaded to the user^'s mobile phone. This API is a program resident on the user^'s mobile phone that permits association of a push ring tone with a calling party's ANl when a ringing signal is received. The details of such a program will vary according to the user's mobile phone operating system, but in general the association must be between the calling parly's ANI and the specified push ring tone, which is either pushed to the called party's mobile phone via SMS/MMS or is previously stored on the called party's mobile phone as discussed above.

[0018] In addition, during the subscription/registration process, the user may specify one or more user bases which he/she wishes to join. These are groups of users that have consented to other members of the same user group pushing ring tones to their respective mobile phones. This way users can control which third parties have the ability to affect the ring tone played by their respective mobile phones. Without such control, inappropriate ring tones may be pushed to unsuspecting called parties. The user bases may be associated with existing social networks to which the users belong or they may be newly created user bases specifically for the purposes of using the push ring tones. Users may register their own mobile phone telephone numbers with the user base and may also specify which push ring tones they are willing to receive. For example, some users may prohibit push ring tones that involve inappropriate material or which are spoken voice and not prerecorded ring tones. Further, in some embodiments the users may designated times when push ring tones are acceptable and other times when they are not. For example, some users may wish to prohibit push ring tones during business hours, but permit them during other times (e.g., on weekends). Many other personal user preferences can be similarly designated as part of the subscription/registration process, as is common with other registration processes for personalized services. [0019] Once the desired push ring tone and the called party^'s telephone number have been provided, the calling parly's call is connected to a conference bridge and placed on hold. In parallel, the automated system may check to see whether or not the desired push ring tone is already stored on the called party's mobile phone handset. To facilitate this look up process, the automated system may keep a log of which push ring tones have already been provided to which called party numbers and/or which ring tones have been downloaded to that number (e.g., via a Web interface or over-the-air process). Such information may be stored as part of a user's individual account or as part of a user base account. Such details are not critical to the present invention. If the desired push ring tone is already stored on the called party's mobile phone handset, the automated system may proceed to place a call to the called party's number as discussed below. |0020] If the selected push ring tone has not been previously provided to the called party's handsel, the automated system transmits an SMS (or similar) message to the called party's mobile phone (i.e., the telephone number specified by the calling party) via the call control channel of the called party's mobile phone service. The SMS message includes the calling party's specified ring tone (i.e., a program that will direct the called party's mobile phone to play the specified ring tone). The push ring tone (i.e., the ring tone program) is stored to the called party's mobile phone upon receipt. (0021) Following transmission of the SMS message containing the pushed ring tone, the automated system places an outbound call to the called party's mobile phone number. This causes a ringing signal to be transmitted to the called party^'s mobile phone. That ringing signal may be tagged in order to trigger playback of the pushed ring tone (i.e., execution of the pushed ring tone program by the microprocessor in the called party's mobile phone).

[0022] For example, the pushed ring tone may be transmitted or downloaded to the called party's mobile phone in conjunction with an identifier (e.g., an ANI) of the automated service. Hence, when the automated service places the outbound call to the called party's mobile phone, the ringing signal transmitted to that mobile phone will include the ANl stored in conjunction with the pushed ring tone. When that ANI is recognized by the called party's mobile phone, the stored ring tone will be played. (0023) Upon answering the call, the called party will be connected to the conference bridge where the calling party's call was parked. Thus, the two parties are connected via a voice channel and can now speak with one another. At the end of the call, a disconnect signal from one or both of the calling party's mobile phone and/or the called parly's mobile phone will signal the automated system to tear down the conference bridge and terminate the call.

[0024] In the event the called party does not answer the call, the calling party may be so informed by the automated service. In such instances, the calling party may be presented with the option to leave the called party a message for later retrieval by the called party (e.g., in response to a further SMS message advising the called party of the availability of the message and number to call to retrieve same) or to terminate the call. [0025) S indicated above, to prevent abuse of pushed ring tones, in some embodiments of the invention a called party must "opt in" to the use of such pushed ring tones. That is. the automated system may be configured to first determine whether or not a called party has indicated his/her consent to receipt of same. This may entail a further database lookup prior to transmission of the pushed ring tone to the called party's number. [0026] For example, upon receipt of the called parry^'s number from the calling parry, the automated system may consult a database of telephone numbers to which push ring tones may be transmitted. If the called party's number appears in that list, the push ring tone will be transmitted. If not, the calling party may be advised that the push ring tone cannot be transmitted because the called party has not consented to receipt of same. In this latter case, an SMS message may be transmitted to the called party advising of the push ring tone service and allowing the called party to opt in to subsequent receipt of push ring tones by indicating his her consent to same.

[0027] As further indicated above, in various embodiments of the present invention, the automated service described above may be associated with a social network system. Users participating in the social network system may opt in to the push ring tone service.

As part of such a subscription, users may be asked to identify their individual mobile phone service and/or individual mobile phone handset type so that the push ring tone service can select and use appropriate ring tone programs for the service/handset. [0028] In some cases, the push ring tone program may be fashioned from a recording of the calling party^'s voice. For example, during the call process instead of selecting an existing ring tone as the push ring tone the calling party may opt to use a voice ring tone. In such cases, the calling party is prompted to record a short (e.g., a few seconds) voice message, which the automated service will transform into a ring tone program. Services for transforming music and/or voice files to ring tones are already well know in the art and so will not be described further herein. Once the voice ring tone is ready, it is pushed to the called party^'s phone in the manner discussed above and played out as a ring tone upon receipt of the outbound call from the automated service. In some cases, this may obviate the need for a linger call where the calling party simply wants to transmit a brief message to the called parly. In light of such capabilities, premium service rates may apply for the use of such pushed voice message ring tones. [0029) Subscription to the social network discussed above may be offered as a standalone service or integrated with other calling plan packages by a mobile phone service provider. Social networks may be defined by service provider, mobile phone brand/model and/or mobile phone network communication protocol. Moreover, the social network and/or the automated system may be made accessible via the Internet so that users can customize their individual accounts. For example, a user may configure a personal address book and associate one or more contacts with ring tones and or voice messages to later be pushed to called parties via a personal computer communicatively coupled (e.g., via the Internet) to a host platform operated by the push ring tone service provider. This host platform may be accessed by the automated service that responds to calling party calls as discussed above, or it may be periodically replicated on other platforms accessible by same. [0030J One example of a network architecture for implementing embodiments of the present invention is shown in Figure 1. System 10 includes an IP network 12 wherein a Softswitch 14 resides. The IP network may be the Internet or may be a private network. In some cases, IP network 12 will be a private network communicatively coupled to the internet and accessible therethrough. Softswitch 14 is communicatively coupled to one or more application servers 16 and to one or more media servers 18. Note, in some embodiments, one or more of these functions may be combined in a single server/soflswitch, but are shown here as separate functional units for ease of description. Likewise, although not shown in the illustration, a separate server may be used for caller authentication purposes. Alternatively, caller verification functions may be performed by the Softswitch 14 and/or an application server 16.

[0031] Softswitch 14 is also communicatively coupled to media gateways 20a and 20b. These media gateways act as call lermination points for calls made via mobile networks/PSTNs 22a and 22b. respectively. In practice there will be segregations between the mobile phone networks and PSTNs, however, for purposes of the present invention these distinctions are not critical. Hence, the details of each network are not illustrated and the multiple networks may be treated as a single netowrk for the present purposes. In some cases, the different mobile networks/PSTNs and media gateways will be located in the same calling area. Often, however, the respective pairs of PSTNs and media gateways will be located in different calling areas. Communicatively coupled to the mobile networks/PSTNs 22a and 22b are mobile phones 24a and 24b, respectively. |0032| In operation, a calling party may place a call from mobile phone 24a to a telephone number associated with a port on media gateway 20a. The call is transported via mobile network/PSTN 22a and terminated on media gateway 22a. As further discussed below, the number dialed by the calling party is associated with the push ring tone service. Hence, following optional user authentication (which may involve requesting and verifying a user's account number or other identifying information to allow for debiting of the user's prepaid account) the associated service is provisioned by Softswitch 14 when the call is recognized as having been received on the port of media gateway 20a that is associated with the telephone number of the push ring tone serv ice.

IO Provisioning the call may require the Softswitch to launch an application hosted at application server 16 and/or providing media from media server 18. For example, the Softswitch 14 may connect the call with a push ring tone application running on application server 16,

[0033] Further details of the call process are illustrated by process 30. shown in the flow diagram of Figure 2. Initially, step 32, lhe calling party's call is placed to the automated service associated with the push ring tone (PRT) facilities. This may be a toll free number or a local access (e.g.. DID or DDI) number. Separate access numbers may be provided for separate user bases (e.g., pre-determined group of users who have agreed to allow each other to send pre-approved PRTs to each other's phones). Alternatively, a single access number may be used for all user bases and uiquew user base pass codes assigned for use at the time a calling party places a call (e.g., to identify an individual user base through a data base look-up). Or. the proper user base may be identified through an ANl identification and/or previously provided personal identification number. [0034J Upon receipt of the calling party's call and (optionally) entry of an access code or receipt of other identifying information, the Softswitch 14 determines whether the calling parly^'s number is already associated with a called party's telephone number and a particular push ring tone (step 34). This may involve the calling party entering personal identification information to access his/her previously established account or the calling party providing credit card or other payment information for a one-time use, etc. If the calling party is not authorized to use the service, the call may be terminated. [0035] Assuming the calling part}' is authorized to use the service, the calling party is connected to the appropriate application and is prompted to either select an existing called party^'s record (e.g , a phone number previously associated with a selected push ring tone) or enter the called part}' identification information (step 36) and to select a push ring tone (or record a voice ring tone) (step 38). [00361 As shown in the illustration, if the called party is already associated with a push ring tone (step 34), the call process skips to placing the calling party on hold on the

I l conference bridge (step 40). Otherwise, the calling party interacts with the automated service as discussed above to select a ring tone to be pushed to the called party. Optionally, the service may check to determine whether the called party has opted in to receiving such push ring tones. If not, the call is terminated. Otherwise, the call proceeds and the calling party is placed on hold on the conference bridge. While on hold, advertisements or other messages may be played to the calling party (step 42). |0037) While the calling party is on hold, the automated service proceeds to determine whether or not the selected push ring tone is already stored on the calling party's handset (step 44). This may involve a data base look up to determine what ring tones have already been pushed to the called party and which ring tones the called party may have already downloaded. Such information may be associated with the called party's account or user base records.

|0038) If the selected push ring tone has already been stored to the called party's mobile phone handset, the service proceeds to place a call to the called party as discussed below. Otherwise, the service transmit the push ring tone to the called party as discussed above (step 46). This may involve the Softswitch 14 transmitting an SMS/MMS message (e.g., encapsulated as an IP message for transport across the IP network 12) to media gateway 20b associated with an outbound PSTN/mobile network 22b. Al the media gateway 20b, the SMS message is extracted from the IP message and transmitted to the called party's mobile phone 24b using PSTN/mobile network 22b. The Softswitch 14 would have already formatted the SMS message to be compatible with that service provider's network and with the called party's mobile phone (e.g., as identified when the called party was verified as having opted in to receive push ring tones).

(0039) After allowing sufficient time for the called party's mobile phone to receive and store the push ring tone (step 48), during which time the push ring tone is associated with the ANI that will be used to place the call to the called party's handset, the Softswitch 14 places an outbound call to the called parly (step 50). This is an IP-to-PSTN call and the manner of making such calls is well known in the art. Importantly, the call is placed using an ANI with a number associated with the now stored push ring lone. Upon answer by the called party, the calls are bridged (step 52) and the telephone call between the parties proceeds until one or the other ends the call (step 54) and the call is finally terminated.

[0040] In other embodiments, the calling party may designate more than one called party to receive the push ring tone and the subsequent call. Thus, a personalized ring tone for a conference call may be pushed to all of the conference participants. Of course, the different participants may each receive unique push ring tones instead of the same ring tone.

(0041) Thus, systems and methods for allowing a calling party to specify a ring tone to be played by a called party^'s mobile phone handset have been described. Importantly, the embodiments described herein are intended to serve as non-limiting examples of the present invention. In other instances, for example, all future ring tones received by the called party from the calling party may make use of a selected push ring tone until the calling party changes same, but only so long as the calling party makes use of the automated service discussed above. Direct handset-to-handset calls that are not initiated via the automated service will not trigger the playback of the push ring tone because the ANI of the calling part}- will not be one associated with that push ring tone. Alternatively, when the automated service pushes the ring tone to called party's handset, the service may associate the push ring tone with the calling party's ANI and so future handset-to-handset calls would trigger the playing of the previously pushed ring tone.

[0042) As indicated above, it may be preferable to restrict the pushing of ring tones to only those mobile phones previously indicated as willing to accept same. This way, only content authorized by each member of the social network is allowed to become part of the group's library of content. This prevents socially unacceptable, unethical, inappropriate, or otherwise undesirable content to be received by a called party.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising upon receiving an indication of a called party telephone number and a ring tone to be pushed to the called part}- telephone number, placing a call from a calling party on hold on a conference bridge; transmitting the ring tone and an ANI to the called parly telephone number in a format suitable for use by a mobile phone handset associated with the called party telephone number; thereafter, placing an outbound call to the called party telephone number such that a ringing signal transmitted to the called party telephone number includes the ANI; and upon establishing a connection with the called party telephone number, bridging the outbound call with the call from the calling party on the conference bridge.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ring tone to be pushed to the called party's telephone number is selected by the calling party.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ring tone to be pushed to the called party's telephone number is associated with the called party's telephone number prior to the call by the calling party.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the outbound call is placed after a time sufficient for the ring tone to be stored by a handset associated with the called party's telephone number.

5. A method, comprising transmitting a ring tone and an ANI associated with a telephone number from which a call will be placed to a mobile phone number associated with a called party identified by a calling party; and, thereafter, placing the call to the mobile phone number so as to cause a handset associated with the mobile phone number to play lhe ring tone.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the calling parly identifies the called party from a previously stored list.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the calling party identifies the called party during a call to an automated service.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the calling party identifies the called party by providing the mobile phone number during a call to an automated service and further selects the ring tone during the call to the automated service.

9. A method, comprising receiving from a calling party an indication of a called party to which a ring tone is to be pushed; transmitting the ring tone to a mobile phone telephone number associated with called party; and placing a call to the mobile phone telephone number after a time period sufficient to allow the ring tone to be stored by a handset associated with the mobile phone telephone number.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the indication of the called party, comprises the mobile phone telephone number.

1 1. A method, comprising upon receiving from a calling party an indication of a called party to which a call is to be placed, determining whether or not a ring tone associated with the call is already stored on a handset to which the call is to be placed, and. if so, placing the call to the handset using an ANI associated with the stored ring tone, otherwise, transmitting the ring tone to a mobile phone telephone number associated with the handset and placing a call to the mobile phone telephone number after a time period sufficient to allow the ring tone to be stored by the handset using the ANI associated with the ring tone.

12. The method of claim 1 1, wherein the indication of the called party, comprises the mobile phone telephone number.

13. The method of claim 1 1, wherein the calling parry identifies the called part)' from a preλ'iously stored list.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the calling party identifies the called party during a call to an automated service.

15. The method of claim 1 1, wherein the calling party identifies the called party by providing the mobile phone number during a call to an automated service and further selects the ring tone during the call to the automated service.