WO2008141478A1

WO2008141478A1 - Methods and apparatuses for notifying a party to a phone call that the phone call is about to be dropped by a mobile device being used by another party to the call

Info

Publication number: WO2008141478A1
Application number: PCT/CN2007/001667
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wei-Qiu Li; Yin-Hu Chen; Kui Wang
Original assignee: Motorola, Inc.
Priority date: 2007-05-22
Filing date: 2007-05-22
Publication date: 2008-11-27

Abstract

In accordance with an embodiment, if a mobile device notifies its user of a low battery condition during an active voice call, the mobile device will also cause an audio (e.g., voice) notification to be sent to the peer(s) that notifies them that the mobile device is experiencing a low battery condition and that the call may or will soon be dropped soon. The audio notification may be a system-defined tone, such as a “beep”, a voice notification, such as a pre-recorded voice message, and/or a visual notification, such as a textual message.

Description

METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR NOTIFYING A PARTY TO A PHONE CALL

THAT THE PHONE CALL IS ABOUT TO BE DROPPED BY A MOBILE DEVICE

BEING USED BY ANOTHER PARTY TO THE CALL

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to communications, and more particularly, to a way of informing a participant to a phone call that a mobile device being used by another participant to the call is about to drop the call due to a detected technical condition, such as a low battery, for example.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the current state of technology, mobile devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), for example, are capable of providing a variety of audio or visual indications to a user of the device that inform or notify the user of some technical condition of the device and/or of the network. For example, with many mobile phones and PDAs, a visual indication of the condition of the power supply of the mobile device is displayed to the user on the display device of the mobile device. In addition to this visual indication, most mobile devices provide an audio indication such as a beeping sound that notifies the user that the power supply, or "battery", is low on electrical charge and that the mobile device is about to turn off or shut down. Some mobile devices provide an audio message to the user that informs the user of this condition.

Mobile devices typically provide this notification to the user at all times, i.e., when the device is in an active mode and when the device is in an idle mode. If the user is notified of this condition during a call, i.e., when the device is in the active mode, the user will typically have time to notify the other party to the call that the call may be dropped due to the low battery condition. Otherwise, the other party to the call (i.e., the peer subscriber) will not be notified. In other words, the mobile device that is experiencing the low battery condition does not automatically notify the other party to the call that the call may be dropped soon due to a low battery condition. Consequently, a call may be dropped without all parties being notified of the reason why the call may be dropped, or that it is imminent that the call will_.be dropped.

One known solution to this problem is to have a short message service (SMS) message sent to the peer subscriber(s) that notifies them that one of the other mobile devices is going to drop a current call and power itself off. However, this solution is not completely satisfactory because: (1) the battery may not have sufficient charge to enable the mobile device to complete the task of sending the SMS message; (2) because the SMS message is not instant, the short message may arrive at the peer subscriber(s) mobile device(s) after the call has already been dropped; and/or (3) the peer subscriber(s) may have no capability of receiving SMS messages, and therefore will never receive the notification.

Accordingly, a need exists for a way to ensure that a party to a call is notified in a timely manner by an appropriate type of notification that a mobile device of another party to the call is about to drop the call.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a method and an apparatus for use in a mobile device for notifying a peer device participating in call over a network with a mobile device that the mobile device is experiencing a condition of low power and may or will drop the call. The mobile device comprises transceiver circuitry and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured to perform an algorithm that detects if an amount of electrical charge that is available in a power supply of the mobile device has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping a call. The processing circuitry is configured to cause an audio notification to be transmitted via the transceiver circuitry of the mobile device over the network to the peer device if the condition is detected.

The method comprises performing an algorithm that detects if an amount of electrical charge that is available in a power supply of the mobile device has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping a call. If the algorithm detects that the amount of electrical charge that is available in a power supply of the mobile device has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping the call, an audio notification is transmitted over the network from the mobile device to the peer device to notify the peer device that the call may or will be dropped due to a condition of the mobile device.

These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description, drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

Fig. 1 illustrates a message flow diagram that demonstrates an example of the manner in which audio notifications are provided to peers. FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart that represents the algorithm performed by the mobile device in accordance with an illustrative embodiment to perform the notification process illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram that represents the components of the mobile device that cooperate to perform the algorithm represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

In accordance with an embodiment, if a mobile device notifies its user of a low battery condition during an active voice call, the mobile device will also cause an audio (e.g., voice) notification to be sent to the peer(s) that notifies them that the mobile device is experiencing a low battery condition and that the call may or will soon be dropped. The audio notification may be a system-defined tone, such as a "beep", a voice notification, such as a pre-recorded voice message, and/or a visual notification, such as a textual message. The term "mobile device", as that term is used herein, is intended to denote any device that is worn or carried by a user and is capable of communicating wirelessly over a network, including, for example, mobile telephones and mobile PDAs, for example.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment, at substantially the same time that the user of a mobile device receives a notification from his or her mobile device that the power supply of the mobile device has a low electrical charge, the mobile device causes an audio notification to be sent over the voice channel to the peer(s) that notifies the peer(s) that the mobile device is experiencing a low battery condition and that the call may be dropped soon. The peer(s) may be participating in the call using mobile devices or other types of communications devices (e.g., landline phones, radios, etc.). Alternatively, the notification that is sent to the peer(s) may be sent before or after the mobile device that is experiencing the condition has notified its user of the condition.

Fig. 1 illustrates a message flow diagram that demonstrates an example of the manner in which audio notifications are provided to peers. The terms "peer" and "peers", as those terms are used herein are intended to denote parties to a telephone call other than the user of the mobile device that is about to drop the call due to a low battery condition. In this example, it is assumed that two mobile device users, User A and User B, are participating in a call when the mobile device of user A, Mobile Device A, detects a low battery condition. Thus, in this example User B is the "peer" of User A. Upon detecting the low battery condition, Mobile Device A sends a notification to User A, which is typically an audio notification, as indicated by arrow 1. Preferably, at the same instant in time that Mobile Device A sends a notification to User A, Mobile Device A also sends an audio notification to Mobile Device B, as indicated by arrow 2. The network forwards the audio notification over a voice channel (i.e., over frequencies used by the network to transmit voice) to Mobile Device B, as indicated by arrow 3. Mobile Device B then sends the audio notification to User B, as indicated by arrow 4.

The tasks represented by arrows 1 and 4 typically correspond to the mobile device playing a voice message or audio sound (e.g., a beep) back through the audio circuitry and of the mobile device in the same manner in which the audio circuitry of known mobile devices plays back a voice message or a recorded sound (e.g., a beep). Therefore, in the interest of brevity, a discussion of the manner in which these tasks are performed will not be provided herein. In the case where an audio sound is used as the notification, the sound provided to User B will typically be different from the sound provided to User A so that it will be clear to all parties to the call whose mobile device is low on power. In this example, one beep might be played to User A whereas two beeps might be played to user B, assuming a protocol in which a user who hears a single beep is thereby informed that his or her mobile device is low on power and a user who hears to beeps is thereby informed that the mobile device of the other party is low on power. If a voice message is played back, the message played back to User A might state, for example, "Your battery is low and the call may be dropped within the next twenty seconds". The message to User B might state, for example, "The party you are speaking with is using a device that is low on power and may drop the call soon". Of course, the invention is not limited with regard to the content of the notifications provided to the users.

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart that represents the algorithm 10 performed by the mobile device in accordance with an illustrative embodiment. The algorithm may be running constantly or it may run periodically. To save power, the algorithm will typically run periodically as necessary, and may run only when the mobile device is in the active mode (i.e., during a phone call). In the latter case, the algorithm may be triggered by another algorithm that detects when the user places a call. Also, current mobile devices have algorithms that check the status of the power supply. Such an algorithm could trigger the algorithm represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 2 only when it detects that the power supply is at a sufficiently low level to justify running the algorithm. The flowchart shown in FIG. 2 is merely an example of one suitable way for carrying out these tasks.

At the start of the algorithm, a decision is made as to whether the power has dropped to some low level, which is a level selected to be a suitable threshold level. This step is represented by block 11. If a decision is made that the power level is not low, the algorithm ends. If a decision is made that the power level is low, then a decision is made as to whether a user-defined notification exist for the user of the mobile device executing the algorithm (i.e., whether the user selected or setup a notification and stored it in memory), as indicated by block 12. If not, an audio notification that has been set as a default audio notification by the mobile device executing the algorithm is played back to the user of the mobile device, as indicated by block 13. If a user-defined notification does exist, the user is notified by the user-defined notification, as indicated by block 14. The steps represented by blocks 11 - 14 may be identical or similar to algorithms that currently exist for notifying a user that the battery of his or her mobile device is low by outputting an audio tone via the audio circuitry and speaker of the mobile device. Assuming the algorithm is implemented in a way that enables it to be triggered even when an active call is not in progress, the algorithm may make a determination as to whether an active audio connection currently exists (i.e., whether a voice call is in progress), as indicated by block 16. If a determination is made that no active audio connection currently exists, the process ends. If a determination is made that an active audio connection currently exists, a determination is made as to whether the user of the mobile device has a user-defined notification to be played back to the peer, as indicated by block 17. If not, the mobile device causes a system-defined audio notification to be played back over the voice channel to the peer, as indicated by block 18, and the process ends. If a user-defined audio notification exists, the mobile device causes the user- defined audio notification to be played back to the peer over the voice channel, as indicated by block 19, and the process ends.

Although the algorithm represented by the flowchart indicates that the mobile device executing the algorithm actually plays back the notification to the peer, this task could instead be performed by a device in the network. For example, the mobile device executing the algorithm could send a message to a server on the network that would instruct the server to play back a particular message to the peer's device. Because the network has all of the information it needs to maintain the call, the network is capable of ensuring that the notification is delivered in a timely manner to the peer's device. However, it is possible that if the network is experiencing problems, the notification from the server may not be provided to the peer's device in a timely manner. For this reason, it may be preferable to have the mobile device that is executing the algorithm play back the notification to the peer since it is already participating in the call.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram that represents the components of the mobile device 20 that cooperate to perform the algorithm represented by the flowchart shown in

FIG. 2. The components of the mobile device 20 are the typical components, such as input/output (I/O) interface circuitry 21, a keypad 22, a display device 23, a speaker 24, a microphone 25, a battery 26, processing circuitry 30, and a memory device 40. The processing circuitry 30 is typically a combination of integrated circuits (ICs) and other circuit components mounted on a printed wiring board (not shown) that perform various functions necessary to the operations of the mobile device 20. The processing circuitry 30 typically includes a microprocessor or microcontroller that operates_, as the central processing unit of the device 20. The battery 26 supplies electrical power to all of these components.

The processing circuitry 30 performs the algorithm described above with reference to FIG. 2 to cause the audio notifications to be provided to the user of the mobile device 20 and to the peer(s). The algorithm may be performed in hardware, in software, or in a combination of hardware and software and/or firmware. The components of the processing circuitry 30 that perform the tasks associated with the algorithm typically include the controller circuitry of the mobile device 20 and audio processing circuitry of the mobile device 20. These components may be implemented as, for example, one or more of a microprocessor, a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable gate array, etc. Computer instructions and/or configuration settings are stored in the memory device 40 and used by the processing circuitry 30 to perform the algorithm. The memory device 40 may be any type of computer-readable medium, including, for example, random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), flash memory, read only memory (ROM) compact disk ROM (CD-ROM), digital video disks (DVDs), magnetic disks, magnetic tapes, etc. The invention also encompasses electrical signals modulated on wired and wireless carriers (e.g., electrical conductors, wireless carrier waves, etc.) in packets and in non-packet formats.

When the processing circuitry 30 performs the algorithm and determines that the power level of the battery 26 has fallen below the threshold level, the processing circuitry 30 causes the system-defined or user-defined notification to be played back on the speaker 24 to the user of the mobile device 20. Substantially simultaneously with the play back of that notification, the processing circuitry 30 causes the user-defined or system-defined audio notification to be communicated via the transceiver 31 and antenna 32 of the mobile device over the network to the peer(s)' device(s) so that it is played back on the speaker (not shown) of the peer(s)' device(s). Thus, any peer to the call is notified of the low battery condition of the mobile device 20 in a timely manner. With respect to the various types of audio notifications that may be used, several tones may be pre-defined by mobile device (e.g., mobile phone) manufacture and users may select a tone to be used as the audio notification from the list of pre-defined tones. In addition, or alternatively, the mobile device may provide the user with the capability to edit his/her customized tone(s) by using the tone editor of the mobile device. In addition or as an alternative to using a tone notification, the mobile device may provide the user with the capability to record one or more voice message into his/her mobile device to be used as the notification. In addition or as an alternative to using an audio notification, the user may input a textual message into the mobile device, which will then use currently available Text To Speech (TTS) technology or similar technology to convert the text message into a voice message.

The invention has been described with reference to a few illustrative embodiments for the purpose of describing the principles and concepts of the invention.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein. Many modifications may be made to the embodiments described herein and all such modifications are within the scope of the invention.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A mobile device configured to notify a peer device participating in call over a network if the mobile device experiences a condition of low power, the mobile device comprising: transceiver circuitry; and processing circuitry electrically coupled to the transceiver circuitry, the processing circuitry being configured to perform an algorithm that detects if an amount of electrical charge that is available in a power supply of the mobile device has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping a call, the processing circuitry being configured to cause an audio notification to be transmitted via the transceiver circuitry of the mobile device over the network to the peer device if the algorithm detects that the amount of electrical charge that is available in the power supply has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping the call.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the audio notification comprises one or more tones.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising: a memory device electrically coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the audio notification comprises a voice message that has been pre-recorded and stored in the memory device, the voice message being retrieved from the memory device prior to the voice message being transmitted over the network to the peer device.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, further comprising: a memory device electrically coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the audio notification comprises a text message that is stored in the memory device, the text message being retrieved from the memory device and converted into a voice message prior to the voice message being transmitted over the network to the peer device.

5. A method for notifying a peer device participating in call with a mobile device over a network that the mobile device is experiencing a condition of low power and may or will drop the call, the method comprising: in processing circuitry of the mobile device, performing an algorithm that detects if an amount of electrical charge that is available in a power supply of the mobile device has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping a call; and if the algorithm detects that the amount of electrical charge that is available in a power supply of the mobile device has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping the call, causing an audio notification to be transmitted over the network from the mobile device to the peer device to notify the peer device that the call may or will be dropped due to a condition of the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the audio notification comprises one or more tones.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the audio notification comprises a voice message, the method further comprising: in a memory device of the mobile device, storing the voice message to be used as the audio notification; and prior to transmitting the voice message over the network, retrieving the voice message from the memory device.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the audio notification comprises a voice message that has been converted from a text message, the method further comprising: in a memory device of the mobile device, storing the text message to be converted into a voice message that is used as the audio notification; and prior to transmitting the voice message over the network, retrieving the text message from the memory device and converting the text message into the voice message to be transmitted over the network.

9. A computer program for causing an audio notification that a mobile device is in a low power condition and may or will drop a call between the mobile device and at least one peer device, the program comprising instructions that are stored in a computer- readable medium, the program comprising: instructions for performing an algorithm that detects if an amount of electrical charge that is available in a power supply of the mobile device has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping a call; and instructions for causing an audio notification to be transmitted over the network from the mobile device to the peer device if the algorithm detects that the amount of electrical charge that is available in the power supply has dropped to a level that may or will result in the mobile device dropping the call.

10. The program of claim 9, wherein the audio notification comprises one or more tones.

11. The program of claim 9, wherein the audio notification comprises a voice message.