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Gerhard Dietrich Klassen, Waterloo CA

Gerhard Dietrich Klassen, Waterloo CA

Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080201419EFFICIENT TRANSMISSION OF PRESENCE UPDATE INFORMATION TO PRESENCE SERVICE CLIENTS - To promote efficient transmission of presence update information to a presence service client associated or integrated with a communication client such as an instant messaging (IM) client, a separate computing device may be notified when the communication client becomes dormant. The separate device may buffer presence updates destined for the communication client, each presence update containing information regarding availability of at least one of a set of contacts for intercommunication via said communication client. When the separate device learns that either the communication client has ceased being dormant or that an event has occurred which shall cause the communication client to cease being dormant, the buffered presence updates may be sent to the presence service client. Presence updates within the buffered set may be reconciled to eliminate obsolete information. The result may be a conservation of wireless connection bandwidth or reduction in device power consumption.08-21-2008
20090013275SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR QUICK VIEW OF APPLICATION DATA ON A HOME SCREEN INTERFACE TRIGGERED BY A SCROLL/FOCUS ACTION - A home screen user interface permits a user to select an application icon to trigger a quick preview of event data maintained by the associated application. The home screen presents a background and a predetermined number of application icons arranged on the home screen to enable viewing of a majority of the background. At least some of the application icons are operable to invoke respective user interfaces for event applications that manage respective data communication, voice communication and calendar events. Upon a user selecting an application icon corresponding to the respective event application, event data is displayed, preferably after a time delay, on a portion of the home screen.01-08-2009
20090036101Updating Availability of an Instant Messaging Contact - A contact is determined to be unavailable if a predetermined period of time has elapsed since an instant message was sent to the contact and an expected notification for the instant message was not received during that predetermined period of time by the device that sent the instant message. If the expected notification is a delivered notification, then the contact is deemed unreachable. If the expected notification is a read notification and a delivered notification for the instant message has been received by the device that sent the instant message, then the contact is deemed busy.02-05-2009
20090047983TEXT MESSAGING CONVERSATION USER INTERFACE FUNCTIONALITY - A computer readable medium, method and user device for a user interface functionality for SMS and SMS-like message conversations is provided. A group of individual SMS messages is treated as a single entity by the SMS conversation UI, the SMS conversation history UI saves space by including the SMS editor within the conversation history panel, and displays a pop-up display with useful information regarding the SMS message being edited.02-19-2009
20090088193MESSAGING PROTOCOL/SERVICE SWITCHING METHODS AND DEVICES - Methods, devices, and computer readable media for switching communications from a first messaging protocol/service to a second messaging protocol/service by use of messaging information being embedded in a header of a first message of the first messaging protocol/service to enable the recipient to contact the sender over the second messaging protocol/service, is provided.04-02-2009
20090093273DIFFERENTIATING A PORTION OF A TEXT MESSAGE SHOWN IN A LISTING ON A HANDHELD COMMUNICATION DEVICE USING AN ICON - A handheld wireless communication device includes features to send and receive text messages. The handheld wireless communication device is further equipped with a microprocessor configured to run software programs on the device such as text message management program. The text message management program displays a listing of a plurality of received text messages on a display screen and differentiates at least a portion of the display-listed plurality of received text messages using an icon associated with at least one text message and wherein said icon corresponds to a domain address of the associated text message.04-09-2009
20090100378SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ALTERNATIVELY COMMUNICATING WITH AN IM CONTACT USING ADDRESS BOOK VERBS - A system and method for alternatively communicating with an Instant Messaging (IM) contact from an IM application using address book verbs is provided. In an IM application, a context sensitive menu of options is presented to permit a user to invoke alternative communication capabilities (e.g. email, voice, SMS, etc.) of the communication device with the IM contact. Address book contact information stored separately from the IM application is pulled for the IM contact and, for available alternative contact information, respective actions are presented as options (e.g. ‘Call contact’, ‘Email contact’, ‘SMS contact’, etc.). If particular contact information (e.g. phone number is not available) associated alternative communication actions are not presented. Selection of an action invokes the associated alternative application with the appropriate contact information from the IM application.04-16-2009
20090143079MOBILE TRACKING - A method of tracking a first wireless communications device using another computing device, such as a second wireless communications device, includes obtaining current position data for the first wireless communications device and obtaining one or more of speed data, time data, and path data for the first wireless communications device. The first wireless device then transmits the current position data and at least one of the speed data, time data and path data to the second wireless communications device or other computing device. In addition to current position data, the speed, path and time data facilitate tracking of the first wireless communications device. When a first mobile user wants a second mobile user to follow him, the first mobile user can put his device in “follow me” (tracking) mode. This is particularly useful when the first and second mobile users are traveling in respective cars or other vehicles.06-04-2009
20090164784SECURE PEER-TO-PEER MESSAGING INVITATION ARCHITECTURE - A system and methods providing immediate peer-to-peer messaging between mobile devices in a wireless system. An invitation architecture is disclosed which enables the exchange of personal identification numbers (PINs) without requiring a user to directly access or provide his or her PIN. A messaging application encrypts its associated PIN before providing it to a messaging application on another mobile device through an existing communication application. An invitation process for exchanging encrypted PINs involves receiving an invitation containing a question, obtaining user input of an answer, and transmitting the answer back to the sender with an encrypted PIN. The sender confirms the received answer is correct and replies with its encrypted PIN.06-25-2009
20090176521TEXT MESSAGING CONVERSATION USER INTERFACE FUNCTIONALITY - A computer readable medium, method and user device for a user interface functionality for SMS and SMS-like message conversations is provided. A group of individual SMS messages is treated as a single entity by the SMS conversation UI, the SMS conversation history UI saves space by including the SMS editor within the conversation history panel, and displays a pop-up display with useful information regarding the SMS message being edited.07-09-2009
20090181651METHOD OF MANAGING INBOUND COMMUNICATIONS BASED ON THE CURRENT LOCATION OF A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE - A method of managing inbound communications received by a roaming wireless communications device entails enabling a user of the roaming wireless communications device to activate an inbound communications filter having filter criteria based on a current location of the user and a current location of a sender of an inbound communication. Once the wireless device has determined whether the inbound communication satisfies the filter criteria, the wireless device notifies the user that the inbound communication has been received provided that the inbound communication satisfies the filter criteria.07-16-2009
20090221276USER INTERFACE FOR CUSTOM RECORDABLE RING TONES - An electronic device and a method implemented within the electronic device for displaying a user interface window on the electronic device for associating an audible notification with a specific event; activating a record function from the user interface window for recording an audio file; and saving the audio file as the audible notification associated with the specific event.09-03-2009
20090222482METHOD OF AUTOMATICALLY GEOTAGGING DATA - A handheld electronic device, such as a GPS-enabled wireless communications device with an embedded camera, automatically geotags a set of data, such as a digital photo, video, notes, or a blog, with a textual plain-language description of the current location. When the data is generated, the current location of the device is determined, e.g. using a GPS receiver. A textual plain-language description of the current location is then generated, e.g. by reverse geocoding the GPS position coordinates or by correlating the current time with a calendar event from which language descriptive of the event can be extracted. This textual plain-language description is automatically generated and written into a tag or metadata file associated with the photo or other set of data. By automatically geotagging data with textual plain-language descriptions that go beyond mere coordinates of latitude and longitude, data can be searched and managed more efficiently.09-03-2009
20090279392ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD PROVIDING IMPROVED INDICATION THAT AN ALARM CLOCK IS IN AN ON CONDITION - An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature having an alarm clock function that advantageously provides an indication to a user that the alarm is set, i.e., is in an ON condition, by outputting the alarm time itself.11-12-2009
20090280783SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY DRAFTING A BLOG ENTRY - There is disclosed a system and method for automatically drafting blog entries. In an embodiment, the method comprises: defining a triggering event for generating a draft blog entry; detecting the triggering event; and upon detection of the triggering event, automatically generating a draft a blog entry in a predetermined format. The triggering event may comprise, for example, capturing an image, video clip, sound clip, or a browsing a webpage having a URL on the wireless mobile device, and the method may further comprise automatically inserting the captured image, video clip, sound clip, or URL into the draft blog entry in the predetermined format together with automatically generated text. Some of the text may be generated in dependence upon the triggering event.11-12-2009
20090280843SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UPDATING PRESENCE INFORMATION IN INSTANT MESSAGING APPLICATIONS ON A MOBILE DEVICE - A system and method for controlling the presence status in an instant messaging application on a mobile device is provided. An active notification profile for the mobile device which has been selected from a plurality of existing notification profiles defined for the mobile device is determined, e.g. on a periodic or dynamic basis. A set of one or more rules is then used to compare the active notification profile to the rules and determine which one of a selected presence status for the corresponding profile is appropriate. A notification is then prepared which pertains to the corresponding presence status for the active notification profile. Using the notification, the corresponding presence status can be compared to the current presence status in the instant messaging application so that the presence can be updated automatically according to changes in notification profiles to avoid the need to change both the profiles and the presence status when the environment changes.11-12-2009
20090284389ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD PROVIDING IMPROVED ALARM CLOCK FEATURE AND FACILITATED ALARM EDITING MODE - An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature that includes an improved alarm clock function and a BEDTIME mode that is initiated by execution of a BEDTIME mode routine. The alarm clock function enables an alarm to be edited very easily.11-19-2009
20090285056ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD PROVIDING IMPROVED WORLD CLOCK FEATURE - An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature that includes an improved world clock function.11-19-2009
20090313543USER INTERFACE FOR PREVIEWING NOTIFICATIONS - An electronic device and a method implemented within the electronic device for configuring parameters of a notification setting comprising at least two of auditory, visual and tactile notifications for association with specific events on the electronic device; generating a window display having a first area thereof with multiple selectable fields depicting the aforenoted parameters, and a second area having an icon; and previewing the notification setting via at least two of said audio output, visual output and tactile output responsive to selection of the icon.12-17-2009
20090318172USER INTERFACE FOR CONFIGURING SERVICE ACCOUNT-SPECIFIC USER NOTIFICATIONS FOR INBOUND ELECTRONIC MESSAGES - To facilitate configuration of a communication device capable of receiving electronic messages via a plurality of service accounts, a user interface element is displayed. The user interface element represents an electronic message received via a service account of the plurality of service accounts or a field of the electronic message, such as a field containing a service account identifier. Upon user selection of the user interface element and one of a plurality of user notifications, the electronic device is configured to provide the selected user notification upon receipt of an electronic message via that service account.12-24-2009
20100011075DELIVERY OF EMAIL MESSAGES IN MULTIPLE PARTS - A method, server and system for managing the delivery of email messages in multiple parts is provided. A method for sending email messages in multiple parts to a mobile communication device, comprises receiving a request for additional content from a mobile communication device in respect of an email message for which a selected part of the content has been previously sent to the mobile communications device; and determining if processing technology used to provide the previously sent selected part is compatible with currently available processing technology, and if compatible then processing additional content from the email message using the currently available processing technology and sending the processed additional content to the mobile communication device.01-14-2010
20100017810APPLICATION INTEGRATION IN NETWORKED COMPUTING DEVICES - The present specification provides application integration in networked computing devices. An embodiment includes a mobile computing device having a message application that includes a programming interface. The mobile computing device also has a second message application that creates a connection with the message application through the programming interface. Messages that are associated with the second message application can be accessed through the message application, with optional invocation of the second message application via the message application.01-21-2010
20100029340METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RENDERING A REPRESENTATION OF A WEBPAGE ON A DISPLAY - A method of rendering a representation of a webpage on a display at a portable electronic device includes identifying at least one block of the webpage having a variable width, setting the variable width to an assigned width based on an available display width, laying out the webpage using the assigned width set for the block of the webpage having the variable width, and rendering the webpage on the display of the portable electronic device.02-04-2010
20100031184SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INSERTING A GRAPHIC OBJECT IN TO A TEXT BASED MESSAGE - A system and method for selecting graphic objects to insert in a text message when composed on a wireless device, each of the graphic objects representing a set of individual alphanumeric characters. The system comprises an object table for display on a user interface of the device, such that the table is configured for including a first object of the graphic objects associated with a first predefined input and a second object of the graphic objects associated with a second predefined input. The first input is different from the second input. The system also has a first input event component for coupling to the user interface such that the first input event component is configured for mapping to the first predefined input. The system also has a second input event component for coupling to the user interface such that the second input event component is configured for mapping to the second predefined input, the first input event component being different from the second input event component. A user of the device selects one of the graphic objects from the table by employing the respective one of the input event components mapped to the predefined input associated with the graphic object in the table.02-04-2010
20100053201DYNAMIC THEME COLOR PALETTE GENERATION - There is provided a method of changing a theme for a user interface of a computer system comprising receiving an identification of an image with which to define a color palette of a theme for rendering elements of a user interface on a color display of the computer system; analysing the image to determine at least one predominant color; and defining the color palette in response to the analysis. The image may comprise a background image selected by a user for display by the computer system. Dynamic generation of the color palette matches the user interface to colors to provide flexible and appealing themes. A computer readable memory having recorded thereon instructions to carry out this method is also provided, as well as a device comprising such memory.03-04-2010
20100085840ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD PROVIDING IMPROVED BEDTIME MODE OF OPERATION - An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature that includes a BEDTIME mode that is initiated by execution of a BEDTIME mode routine. The BEDTIME mode comprises a number of features that are conducive to sleep by performing operations that minimize distractions to a user, and all such operations are initiated by execution of the BEDTIME mode routine.04-08-2010
20100085841ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD PROVIDING ACTIVATION OF AN IMPROVED BEDTIME MODE OF OPERATION - An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature that includes a BEDTIME mode that is initiated by execution of a BEDTIME mode routine. The BEDTIME mode comprises a number of features that are conducive to sleep by performing operations that minimize distractions to a user, and all such operations are initiated by execution of the BEDTIME mode routine. The BEDTIME mode can be triggered in a variety of fashions, such as by setting an alarm or by docking the device with a predetermined other device such as a docking station.04-08-2010
20100085842ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND METHOD PROVIDING IMPROVED PROCESSING OF A PREDETERMINED CLOCK EVENT DURING OPERATION OF AN IMPROVED BEDTIME MODE - An improved electronic device and method provide an improved clock feature that includes a BEDTIME mode that is initiated by execution of a BEDTIME mode routine. The BEDTIME mode comprises a number of features that are conducive to sleep by performing operations that minimize distractions to a user, and all such operations are initiated by execution of the BEDTIME mode routine. The BEDTIME mode can be terminated, such as when an alarm time has been reached, thereby enabling any alarms that had been suspended, and therefore enabling the alarm clock function to output an alarm.04-08-2010
20100087172TEXT MESSAGING CONVERSATION USER INTERFACE FUNCTIONALITY - A computer readable medium, method and user device for a user interface functionality for SMS and SMS-like message conversations is provided. A group of individual SMS messages is treated as a single entity by the SMS conversation UI, the SMS conversation history UI saves space by including the SMS editor within the conversation history panel, and displays a pop-up display with useful information regarding the SMS message being edited.04-08-2010
20100161753METHOD AND COMMUNICATION DEVICE FOR PROCESSING DATA FOR TRANSMISSION FROM THE COMMUNICATION DEVICE TO A SECOND COMMUNICATION DEVICE - A method and communication device for processing data for transmission from the communication device to a second communication device is provided. It is detected that the data comprises an attachment. An address of a copy of the attachment is determined, the attachment present on a storage device external to the communication devices. An address of the copy of the attachment is substituted in the data such that the copy is retrievable at the second communication device via the address. The data is then transmitted to the second communication device.06-24-2010
20100201478MOTION-BASED DISABLING OF MESSAGING ON A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE - When a wireless communications device is traveling a speed exceeding a first predetermined threshold but less than a second predetermined threshold, the device is presumed traveling in a motor vehicle. In order to inhibit operation of the wireless communication device when traveling, access to certain device functions or applications such as e-mail, text messaging, etc. are limited by requiring the user of the device to respond correctly to a randomly generated visual challenge, such as, for example, a CAPTCHA (in which a user is prompted to recognize the characters in a visually distorted string of text). This visual challenge presents a sufficient obstacle that the user will be less likely to use the wireless communications device for e-mailing or texting while operating a motor vehicle.08-12-2010
20100205267Instant Messaging Device/Server Protocol - A generic IM device/server protocol permits a single implementation of a IM application on client devices for communicating with different enterprise IM servers types. The protocol defines a server maintained tag to identify the currency of a contact list it is managing for a client device. The client device receives and persists the tag and provides it at login. The server automatically sends a contact list update only if the tag indicates the client devices contact list instance is not current. Presence updates may also be sent automatically at login and the client device need not separately request contact list or presence updates at login. The client device may be pre-provisioned with respective graphics, text and server capabilities for multiple server types. A specific IM configuration may be selected in response to service information.08-12-2010
20100223131COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM PROVIDING MOBILE DEVICE NOTIFICATION BASED UPON CONTACT WEB PAGES AND RELATED METHODS - A communications system may include at least one mobile wireless communications device for storing an address of a contact Web page including personal interest information for a contact, and a notification server which communicates with the at least one mobile wireless communications device via a wireless communications network. The notification server may be configured to access the address from the at least one mobile wireless communications device, retrieve the personal interest information on the contact Web page based upon the address, and send notifications to the at least one mobile wireless communications device based upon the retrieved personal interest information.09-02-2010
20100223133COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM PROVIDING MOBILE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS DEVICE PREDICTED SEARCH QUERY TERMS BASED UPON GROUPS OF RELATED ADVERTISING TERMS - A communications system may include an advertising server for providing at least one group of related advertising terms, and a mobile wireless communications device comprising a display, a user input device, and a processor coupled to the display and the user input device. The processor may be configured to display a user search interface on the display, receive entry of search query characters, and match the entered search query characters to identify at least one predicted search query term. Moreover, if the at least one predicted search query term is among the at least one group of related advertising terms, then the processor may cause the display to display at least one other of the group that would otherwise not match the entered search query character data.09-02-2010
20100223135COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM PROVIDING MOBILE DEVICE ADVERTISEMENTS BASED UPON ACTIVITY HISTORY AND RELATED METHODS - A communications system may include at least one mobile wireless communications device and an advertising server cooperating with the at least one mobile wireless communications device via a wireless communications network. The advertising server may be for generating an activity history for the at least one wireless communications device including geographical positions at corresponding times of day, and selectively sending advertisements to the at least one mobile wireless communications device based upon the activity history and a given time of day.09-02-2010
20100299395METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PROPORTIONAL SETTING OF FONT ATTRIBUTES - A method and handheld electronic device for displaying text in accordance with a user-specified font attributes are provided. Where the text comprises formatted sections of varying font sizes, the font size settings are set according to a default font size specified for the device to provide a readable display of text. Text with a font size above a maximum threshold is set to a large font size appropriate for the device display. Text with a font size below a minimum threshold is set to a small font size appropriate for the device display. Text with a font size between the minimum and maximum thresholds is set to the default font size for the device. The font face of the text may be set to a user-specified font face, however, fixed-width fonts are unchanged in order to preserve spacing and formatting associated with text in fixed-width format.11-25-2010
20110041074METHOD AND DATA STRUCTURE FOR USER INTERFACE CUSTOMIZATION - A method for changing visual attributes presented by a graphical user interface of a device such as a mobile electronic device by loading onto the device a file containing information for changing selected visual attributes of the interface. A method or compiler for generating or compiling a file that contains information used by a device to change the user interface presented by the device.02-17-2011
20110047383SECURE PEER-TO-PEER MESSAGING INVITATION ARCHITECTURE - First and second communication devices respectively have first and second personal identification numbers (PINs). The first communication device transmits to the second communication device a first encryption key, and receives from the second communication device the second PIN that has been encrypted by the second communication device using the first encryption key. The first communication device receives from the second communication device a second encryption key, decrypts the encrypted second PIN, and encrypts the first PIN using the second encryption key, and transmits the encrypted first PIN to the second communication device. The first communication device conducts, with the second communication, device a peer-to-peer messaging session by transmitting to the second communication device peer-to-peer messages that contain the second PIN and receiving from the second communication device peer-to-peer messages that contain the first PIN. Each message is routed by a routing server based on the respective first and second PINs.02-24-2011
20110066369METHODS, DEVICE AND SYSTEMS FOR DETERMINING ROUTE METRICS USING STORED ROUTE INFORMATION - The disclosure is directed to a method, computer program product, mobile device or a system allowing for determining various route metrics based on stored route records associated with routes traversed by the mobile device. The determination of a route metric may utilize processing of a single route record or multiple route records. Exemplary route metrics include route timing metrics such as lap times, or route record metrics. Configurations of computer program products, mobile devices and systems for enabling the determination of various route metrics are also described.03-17-2011
20110069062VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF CONTACT LOCATION - A method for visually representing information on a display of a portable electronic device includes receiving location coordinates from at least one other portable electronic device, plotting a visual identifier on a map and displaying the map on the display of the portable electronic device. The position of the visual identifier corresponds to the location coordinates received from the at least one other portable electronic device, which correspond to an actual location of the at least one other portable electronic device. The appearance of the visual identifier is selected to depict the status of the user of the at least one other portable electronic device.03-24-2011
20110077084IM CONTACT LIST ENTRY AS A GAME IN PROGRESS DESIGNATTE - A method and apparatus for using a contact-list entry of an IM contact-list interface to designate an IM game in progress to facilitate switching between an IM conversation and an IM game.03-31-2011
20110093197Real-Time Spherical Correction of Map Data - A method of displaying a map on a wireless communications device includes steps of obtaining map data for rendering the map to be displayed on the wireless communications device, generating corrected map data by applying a spherical correction factor to the obtained map data, and rendering the corrected map data to display the map on a display of the wireless communications device. The spherical correction factor corrects for map distortions that occur at northerly (or southerly) latitudes. Since the spherical correction factor is a simple correction to a 3×3 transformation matrix, this spherical correction can be easily applied without taxing the CPU limitations of small handheld devices.04-21-2011
20110109645DYNAMIC THEME COLOR PALETTE GENERATION - There is provided a method of changing a theme for a user interface of a computer system comprising receiving an identification of an image with which to define a color palette of a theme for rendering elements of a user interface on a color display of the computer system; analysing the image to determine at least one predominant color; and defining the color palette in response to the analysis. The image may comprise a background image selected by a user for display by the computer system. Dynamic generation of the color palette matches the user interface to colors to provide flexible and appealing themes. A computer readable memory having recorded thereon instructions to carry out this method is also provided, as well as a device comprising such memory.05-12-2011
20110119599IM Conversation Management - A method and apparatus for managing IM conversations is provided. In response to idle time and, preferably, read message status, particular current conversations are removed from a list of current conversations. The removed conversations may be moved to an archive which may be automatically maintained in response to size constraints. An archive interface is facilitated to review conversations, save all or portions thereof, delete, etc. The archived conversations are preferably associated with the contact for the conversation to show a history of conversations.05-19-2011
20110159842Motion-Based Disabling of Messaging On A Wireless Communications Device By Differentiating A Driver From A Passenger - When a wireless communications device is traveling at a speed exceeding a lower threshold but less than an upper threshold, the device is presumed to be traveling in a motor vehicle. In order to inhibit operation of the wireless communication device by a driver without restricting operation by a passenger, access to certain device functions or applications such as e-mail, text messaging, etc. are limited by challenging the user of the device to respond to an ergonomic challenge that requires two-handed user input. Only if two-handed input is received will the wireless communications device grant access to e-mail or instant messaging.06-30-2011

Patent applications by Gerhard Dietrich Klassen, Waterloo CA