It is a truism that modern cell phones feature a multitude of features that expand on the traditional cell phone functionality. For example, today cell phone users are able to use their phones to connect to the Internet, manage meetings, appointments, and other aspects of their every day lives, listen to music and watch videos, etc. In essence the cell phone—which began as a single-function communicator—has grown into a fully functioning multimedia device. However the fundamental function of a cell phone remains communication. It should be noted that cell phones are also sometimes referred to as mobile phones, which in the proper meaning of the word indicates that the user of that phone is mobile, and is supposedly always available for anyone who might want to contact him or her.
The core functionality of mobile/cell phones has been basically the same since the first devices were made available to consumers. Although there has been a rapid expansion in the feature set of most cell phones, the core functionality has not seen a similar expansion. The reasons for the development discrepancy likely have to do with the fact that the core functionality is sufficient for most users and that there are not just that many ways of enhancing the person-to-person communication experience on a mobile device
Arguably, the most important enhancement in the cell phone, at least as it relates to interpersonal communication, has been the development of the capability of sending short text messages from one phone to another.
Otherwise, the main improvements in communications have been largely concerned with connectivity. For example, communications protocols such as infrared and Bluetooth have become de facto requirements for all but the most inexpensive phones. In addition advances have been made in connectivity to the Internet (for example) and now it is routine for users to be able to access their e-mail and browse the web via their phones.
However, these improvements in connectivity, as welcome as they might be, do not expand on the one-to-one personal communication aspect of the phone. One thing that would be a leap forward in such communications would be the ability to quickly and easily assemble a multi-user communication session that is hardware independent and, further, does not require the user to purchase additional hardware. Although the prior art has provided multi-user communications in the form of, for example, conference calls—the present technology of conference calls is quite limiting to the user. For example, it is typically limited to a predetermined number of user connections (e.g., 5). Further, a start time must be communicated to each user so there is little opportunity for spontaneity. Further, adding more users to the session may be very difficult or impossible. Finally, the conference call will ultimately be limited to known users, i.e., those who are known to one of the participants and have been invited.
Additionally, exchanging short messages between users is a time-delayed communication mode that typically involves a one-to-one communication. Even though some software providers have offered solutions that allow a user to send one short message to multiple participants, such is not the same as real time voice communication between these same users. Of course, such group messaging is a time-delayed communication mode too, in which at least one participant is always in a waiting position. Thus, this communication option also offers little in the way of spontaneity or flexibility to the user.
As was mentioned previously, over the last few years several attempts have been made to enhance the communication options available to owners of mobile devices, for example infrared and Bluetooth have been added but they have been used so far mostly for communication with other devices, i.e. for data transfer—not for direct communication between users.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that infrared is limited to communications over a relative short line-of-sight distance between potential communication partners. As a consequence, the infrared protocol has typically been implemented as a simple data exchange protocol which is useful, for example, in synchronizing data between a mobile phone and a personal computer.
On the other hand, the Bluetooth protocol provides for the creation of networks, so called piconets, in which up to 255 participants can be combined, of which only 8 participants can be active simultaneously, these 8 participants consist of one so called “master” device and seven so-called “slave” or secondary devices. The master device controls the communication and assigns so-called “sendslots” to participants. Additionally, communications within a piconet are based on the client server principle, which imposes the restriction that the master (server) is needed for on-going communications. Thus, when a master device looses the connection the piconet ceases to exist until a new master is selected and re-establishes the piconet by starting the creation process at the beginning. Although a Bluetooth device can be registered in multiple piconets, it can only be registered as master in one piconet.
Additionally, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the term scatternet is often used to refer to a combination of up to 10 piconets in which each piconet is associated with a different identification frequency. However, the technical specifications of the Bluetooth communication protocol limit the functionality of that communication option. For example, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that a piconet can accommodate a maximum of 8 active participants. Further, a piconet will collapse if the server (master) looses the connection.
Others have sought, with varying degrees of success, to deliver enhanced communication functionality despite the limitations of the Bluetooth protocol. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,674,995 teaches the creation of a virtual ball game that utilizes data that is passed between participants via Bluetooth, thereby delivering to them the illusion that they are playing a ball game. As another example, U.S. patent application No. 20020151320 describes a method of giving users in a user community additional functionality when using a software package in a community environment. That is, certain functions are provided to the users depending on the number of participants, with higher user numbers being associated with the unlocking of additional program functionality. However, these sorts of approaches are still fundamentally limited by the nature of the Bluetooth protocol.
As an example of an alternative approach to the use of Bluetooth, consider U.S. patent application 2005/0063409 that teaches a method for allowing users to communicate across several scatternets. However, this invention utilizes multiple interconnected servers and is not suitable for users that wish to quickly arrange and participate in an ad hoc communications group.
None of the prior art communication options, however, deliver a flexible way of communicating with an arbitrary number of individual users. In each case either the users are restricted by the technical limitations of the Bluetooth standard or the communication options necessary to create a group chat are too involved for the average user to accomplish. Note that for purposes of the instant disclosure, the term enhancement of the communication options will be taken to refer to any approach that allows a user to communicate with a mobile device in addition to the already existing communication options.
Thus what is needed is a method that gives the user of a cell phone or users of mobile devices the ability to create multi-user communications on that device without a need for elaborate equipment configurations, planning, or installation and which is not bound by the technical limitations of a specific communication protocol. Preferably the method will extend an invitation to others to join a communications group and will automatically provide the appropriate software for use by new users who do not already have it. Preferably the method will use a commonly available wireless protocol such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Accordingly it should now be recognized, as was recognized by the present inventors, that there exists, and has existed for some time, a very real need for a system and method that would address and solve the above-described problems.
Before proceeding to a description of the present invention, however, it should be noted and remembered that the description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings, should not be construed as limiting the invention to the examples (or preferred embodiments) shown and described. This is so because those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains will be able to devise other forms of the invention within the ambit of the appended claims.