Patents Examined by Steve D Agosta
  • Patent number: 9282180
    Abstract: This invention provides a mechanism for restricting invocation of wireless mobile terminal (Smartphone) apps whose execution creates a vehicular driving hazard. Events that cause such hazards are included. An event example is “being a vehicle's driver” and attempting to do the app of texting. Events to restrict an app invocation are also included. These include remote restrictions, such as parents remotely turning off the texting app of their children driving an automobile. Spatial parameters, such as driving on high speed and/or heavy traffic roads, also represent restricting events. Events are inserted within an Invoke facility service's Boolean expression by the builder of an Invoke facility service. The Boolean expression determines whether the invocation of its related app takes place.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2016
    Inventor: Thaddeus John Kobylarz
  • Patent number: 9256869
    Abstract: A method to provide authentication services to third party vendors by a service provider hosting an authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) server or a similar device that can authenticate users for some other service. This method enables easy and substantially error-free end-user authentication, which forms the basis for enabling electronic transactions (e.g., web-based) that are less vulnerable to fraud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: Alcatel Lucent
    Inventor: Thyagarajan Nandagopal
  • Patent number: 9247406
    Abstract: Embodiments provide methods and systems for transmitting an emergency (SOS) message from a user (UE) to a cellular network in a highly robust and energy efficient manner. Specifically, embodiments enable the SOS message to be sent in a synchronous manner despite the asynchronous nature of the network, which significantly enhances the probability of successful reception of the SOS message by at least one base station (eNodeB) of the network. Embodiments further provide highly robust SOS message transmission and reception schemes configured to enhance the successful detection and decoding of the SOS message by at least one base station of the cellular network. In addition, embodiments enable the synchronous transmission of the SOS message to the network without requiring network attachment by the UE. This makes embodiments highly suited for emergency situations in which network coverage is affected and can enable significant and precious power savings at the UE.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2016
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Lorenz, Djordje Tujkovic, Erik Stauffer
  • Patent number: 9232040
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for communicating information to medical responders includes registering a plurality of individuals as potential responders for medical problems, receiving at a central service an indication that a person is having a medical problem and receiving information that identifies a current location of the person, and identifying, from among the registered plurality of individuals, one or more registered individuals who are currently in close proximity to the person having a medical problem. The method also includes transmitting, to the one or more registered individuals, information that identifies the location of the person having a medical problem. The one or more individuals comprise lay responders who are not assigned responsibility to provide lifesaving services in an area around the current location of the person.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2016
    Assignee: ZOLL Medical Corporation
    Inventors: David Barash, Mark Totman, Gary A. Freeman
  • Patent number: 9226110
    Abstract: Provided herein are system, methods and computer readable storage media in facilitating the determination of a location of at least one mobile device. In providing such functionality, the system may be configured to, for example, receive contextual data corresponding to a contextual state of a mobile device, determine the location of a mobile device, and transmit the location of the mobile device to at least one other mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2015
    Assignee: Groupon, Inc.
    Inventors: Geoffrey H. Woo, Jonathan R. Zhang, Jonathan D. Chang
  • Patent number: 9215560
    Abstract: A system and a plurality of methods for location detection are disclosed. In some cases, the user's present location is represented by a circle, having a center and a radius, where the radius is indicative of the accuracy of the present location. The desired destination location, or geofence, is also defined as a circle, having a center and a radius. The various methods desclsoed are used to determine when a user has entered or exited the geofence. In some embodiments, these methods attempt to minimize power consumption or another parameter. In another embodiment, the methods attempt to achieve the highest degree of accuracy possible or required for the task.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 15, 2015
    Assignee: two forty four a.m. LLC
    Inventor: Charles Carter Jernigan
  • Patent number: 9210233
    Abstract: A method for sending content to a media device. The method comprises receiving a request by a mobile phone for content, the mobile phone including an antenna effective to communicate with a base station or a satellite. The method comprises sending the request from the mobile phone over the Internet to a content server. The request further comprises receiving the request at the content server; sending the request to a memory; receiving the content from the memory and sending the content from the content server to the mobile phone. The method further comprises receiving the content from the content server at the mobile phone; sending at least some of the content from the mobile phone to a media device; receiving the at least some of the content at the media device; and outputting the content on the media device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: FLIPPS MEDIA AD
    Inventor: Metodi Filipov
  • Patent number: 9210649
    Abstract: An operator identity for an ANDSF management object is described. The operator identity identifies the server that originally provided the data concerned to the management object. In this way, it is possible to determine the operators that are responsible for different branches of an ANDSF management object. The operator identity may take the form of a PLMN identity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignee: NOKIA SOLUTIONS AND NETWORKS OY
    Inventors: Janne Petteri Tervonen, Jari Pekka Mustajarvi
  • Patent number: 9204269
    Abstract: Methods and systems for originating and terminating a short message service (SMS) message using an IP network are disclosed. Delivery of an SMS message is attempted on a first network a first predetermined number of times according to a first predetermined time schedule. Delivery of the SMS message on a second network is attempted after a failure to deliver the SMS message on the first network. Reattempted delivery of the SMS message on the first network is followed by reattempted delivery of the SMS message on the second network, according to a second predetermined time schedule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: CSC HOLDINGS, LLC
    Inventors: Dev Cham, Suman Pothuraju
  • Patent number: 9204280
    Abstract: According to one aspect of the teachings herein, a method and apparatus provide for dynamic, service-triggered provisioning of products, for use in authorizing product-related services to subscribers in a communication network. This approach obviates the need to pre-provision products to cover the possible usage of such services by eligible subscribers, which in turn means that the subscriber database memory requirements are reduced to the extent that the database does not need to hold potentially large numbers of pre-provisioned products. In an example embodiment, the number of products needed to cover an initial usage quota is speculatively generated responsive to a charging trigger and service to the involved subscriber is authorized using those speculatively generated products. Unused products are deleted and new products are generated as needed, to cover continued or subsequent usage of the service by the subscriber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2015
    Assignee: TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET L M ERICSSON (PUBL)
    Inventors: Peter Löwenadler, Björn Ringberg, Peter Skarphagen
  • Patent number: 9198008
    Abstract: A method of operating a cellular telephone comprises presenting a user with an option of a first rule or a second rule, and accepting a selection of the first rule or the second rule. The first rule relates to a voice message, and the second rule relates to a text message. The method determines that reception is not sufficient to establish communication, and stores an address of an intended recipient. The method also stores the voice message if the first rule was selected or the text message if the second rule was selected. When reception is sufficient to establish communication, the stored message is sent to the address.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2015
    Assignee: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I, L.P.
    Inventors: Anthony P. Petronelli, Canhui Ou
  • Patent number: 9189607
    Abstract: A method of policy management and control on a mobile phone. The method comprises receiving a user interface change request by a launcher application executing on the mobile phone, requesting permissions from an interface control application programming interface (API) by the launcher application, receiving a response from the interface control application programming interface by the launcher application, where the response indicates if the user interface change is permitted, and enforcing the received permission by the launcher application, where enforcing the received permission comprises executing the user interface change request when the user interface change is permitted, and where enforcing the received permissions comprises not executing the user interface change request and presenting a message to a user of the mobile phone when the user interface change is restricted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: Sprint Communications Company L.P.
    Inventors: Ryan A. Wick, Nathan R. Smith
  • Patent number: 9191217
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided to facilitate donations via mobile communications. In one aspect, a system includes a data storage facility and an interchange having a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of different controllers of mobile communications. The converters are configured to communicate with the controllers in different formats and with the common format processor in a common format. For a payment to a merchant, the common format processor provides a user interface configured to present charity donation options in response to a phone number being specified in the user interface to identify a fund source. The common format processor uses one of the converters to communicate with a mobile phone at the phone number to confirm the payment to the merchant and a donation to a separate charity organization specified via the user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignee: Boku, Inc.
    Inventor: Javier Francisco Martell
  • Patent number: 9176216
    Abstract: A system and method of determining the location of a mobile device. Network measurement report information may be received from a target mobile device, the NMR having measurement information and range information of the target mobile device from a cell serving the device. The serving cell may be divided a plurality of subsectors and candidate locations placed on an intersection of a range formed from the range information and bisectors of the plurality of subsectors. A subset of neighboring and serving cells may be selected as a function of the NMR measurement information and a radio frequency (RF) coverage centroid determined for each of the selected neighboring cells. A centroid of the determined RF centroids may be determined, and a location of the target mobile device estimated as the candidate location having a minimum distance to the determined centroid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2015
    Assignee: MAPLE ACQUISITION LLC
    Inventors: Khalid Al-Mufti, Ariful Hannan, Suryanarayana Kalenahalli, Navin Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 9161186
    Abstract: Message notifications to an accessory from a mobile communication device are provided according to some embodiments of the invention. When a message such as a text message, email, and/or voicemail is received at a mobile communication device, the mobile communication device can notify an attached accessory that a message has been received. In response, the accessory can request the full message, media associated with the message, an attachment to the message, and/or an audio/video stream of the message for presentation to a user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Lawrence G. Bolton, Shailesh Rathi
  • Patent number: 9143921
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices are described for communicating physical layer wireless parameters over an application programming interface. A wireless modem of a wireless device may measure at least one physical layer wireless parameter. The wireless modem may report the at least one physical layer wireless parameter to an application running on the wireless device over an application programming interface between the wireless modem and the application. A behavior of the application may be adapted to control wireless communications between the application and a network based on the at least one physical layer wireless parameter reported by the wireless modem. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also claimed and described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Jun Hu, Donna Ghosh, Rashid Ahmed Akbar Attar, Jing Sun, Peter P. Ang, Ravindra Mahendrakumar Garach
  • Patent number: 9131337
    Abstract: Disclosed is a wireless communication system that is used with a wireless communication device and a position location system, the wireless communication device being capable of communicating with the position location system. The wireless communication system includes a memory device for storing position locations of the wireless communication device and for storing transactions made relating to the wireless communication device, a processor for determining trends by recalling stored information from the memory device and processing the recalled information, and a transmitter for transmitting targeted broadcasts to the wireless communication device based on the current location of the communication device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2015
    Inventor: Thomas E. Coverstone
  • Patent number: 9131329
    Abstract: This invention provides the processes to efficiently evaluate a Boolean expression of events used to determine if a Smartphone app is to be invoked. Its basis is to establish, for each app, a minimal inverted tree that terminates with leaves that indicate the Boolean expression evaluation of “True” or “False”, where a “True” value indicates the associated app is to be invoked or a “False” indicates the associated app is not to be invoked. The process for minimizing the inverted tree is part of this invention. A metric to measure the efficacy of any inverted tree is also included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2015
    Inventor: Thaddeus John Kobylarz
  • Patent number: 9131421
    Abstract: Systems and techniques for handover management between adjacent cells. A base station, such as a macro base station serving a macro cell identifies a user device as a candidate for handover based on specified criteria and communicates a handover request to a femto base station. The femto base station evaluates specified conditions, such as energy efficiency, for the cell it is serving and allows the handover only if the handover would improve the conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2015
    Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
    Inventors: Matti Latva-Aho, Kapuruhamy Manosha
  • Patent number: 9131328
    Abstract: This invention provides a mechanism for invocation of wireless mobile terminal (Smartphone) apps according to spatial events. The spatial events relate to either entering or being within or exiting or being outside of a physical space. For planes, the spatial boundary may be a circle or the perimeter of an arbitrary polygon. For a three dimensional space, the spatial boundary may be a spherical surface or the surface of an arbitrary polyhedron. Spatial parameters, that identify a boundary, are provided by a Smartphone app builder to an interactive compiler for defining a spatial region. The algorithms for doing so are provided herein. The name of the spatial configuration is afterwards inserted within an Invoke facility service's Boolean expression by the builder of an Invoke facility service. The builder defines which manner of spatial event activity is to be utilized within the Boolean expression.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2015
    Inventor: Thaddeus John Kobylarz