Emergency message alarm ringtones

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mobile communication device (100) and a method for receiving a message marked as "urgent" when a message arrives, for automatically emitting an alarm ringtone, the alarm ringtone being distinguishable from ringtones assigned for other purposes, including ringtones that can be sent and sounded by various people in the mobile communication device (100) receiving the recipient. When the ringtone changes due to the mobile communication device (100) moving from one service area to another, the updating of the alarm ringtone is facilitated by the prior knowledge of the telecommunications network with which the mobile communication device (100) is authorized to associate, by adding a new ringtone and verifying its adequacy, as necessary. The prior knowledge is obtained from the data of the subscriber identification module such as SIM, USIM, R-UIM, etc. The alarm ringtone may emit several short ringtones while ensuring a high probability of being heard and minimizes interference by activation.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a mobile communication device and a method for receiving messages and, when a message marked "urgent" (also referred to in this specification as an emergency message) arrives, emitting an alert ringtone distinguishable from ringtones assigned for other purposes, including those that various people can send and ring in the recipient's mobile communication device.

[0002] In the field of mobile communications, there are a variety of messaging services, such as SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, iMessage, Messenger, and paging services (personal radio alerts), which make it possible to send text, voice, or video messages to users equipped with appropriate receiving devices. Typically, the recipient can display or listen to the message immediately upon receipt, or, depending on their current activity, decide to consider it later. Because of this possibility, text messaging is often preferred over phone calls when a person wants to minimize disruption to the recipient and the subject of the communication is brief and non-urgent.

[0003] However, in an emergency, if the recipient does not check for any incoming communications, and in particular does not answer the phone, e.g. because he / she is in an important meeting, or is in a place where no interruptions are allowed, or is far away from his / her mobile communication device (e.g. in another room), the message may be a vital resource.

[0004] Unfortunately, however, if the recipient doesn't answer the call, he / she will most likely not even look at the normal ringtone notification of an incoming message. Therefore, it is very useful to be able to mark a message as urgent so that the recipient can be alerted to incoming urgent messages no matter the circumstances.

[0005] For emergencies caused by catastrophic events (earthquakes, tsunamis, accidents and other similar events), special communication standards have been developed to alert the relevant groups. Usually, such systems do not allow the recipient to send confirmation and are therefore not suitable for notifying relatives or friends of emergencies that require an urgent response or confirmation. Therefore, in order to meet these needs, it is necessary to adopt a different system

[0006] For example, modern smartphones are often equipped with an "SOS" function, which allows an "SOS" (a request for help or emergency communication) to be sent to one or more contacts listed in the mobile communication device's phone book. This function allows calls to be made even if the called party has muted their phone, but it does not ensure the appropriate discretion in this situation, and there is a risk that someone could illegally exploit this function to cause unnecessary disruption. Furthermore, especially if the recipient has not muted their phone, there is no guarantee that the ringtone played upon arrival of an emergency or SOS message will not be mistaken for another, preventing the recipient from sensing the emergency. While the SOS function is not difficult to use, it still requires an activation procedure and parameter settings, which should be known a priori and can be time-consuming in an emergency, especially for those less inclined towards technology. As a result, the SOS function is rarely used, and many people are even unaware of its existence.

[0007] Other methods that have been proposed for sending alert messages require complex procedures, such as managing keys, or may lead to inappropriate use, or may suggest highly disturbing use or fail to ensure identification as an emergency alert.

[0008] In fact, it must be taken into account that, in addition to the large number of ringtones commonly found in telecommunication devices and user-created ringtones, some telecommunication systems also allow senders to send one or more dedicated ringtones that will sound in the mobile communication devices of recipients (see, for example, the 3GPP TS 23.040 V15.3.0 standard on "Technical Implementation of Short Message Service," including "Enhanced Message Service"). Among these senders may be organizations of various natures, companies with commercial interests, and even network operators themselves. These ringtones may change over time and / or after the mobile communication moves from one place to another. Therefore, there is a risk that the alarm ringtone set in the mobile communication device may be mistaken for one of the other ringtones currently in use, or vice versa.

[0009] It is therefore important to consider that, when using an alert signal, it must be reliably audible and recognizable by the user of the receiving mobile communication device and that the signal should not generate excessive interference in the surrounding environment.

[0010] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a mobile communication device, and according to said mobile communication device and method, upon receiving a message marked as urgent, the recipient's mobile communication device will play an alert ringtone that will be clearly distinguishable from those ringtones that such mobile communication device can activate for other purposes.

[0011] It is also an object of the present invention to provide a mobile communication device and a method for at least partially automatically selecting an alarm ring tone that can be reliably heard by the recipient without causing much disturbance in the surrounding environment.

[0012] Furthermore, the object of the present invention is to provide a method performed by a receiving mobile communication device, wherein the method is capable of classifying an emergency text message or a video message including text sent via any of the messaging services known in the art, without the sender having to equip the mobile communication device with special functions or applications.

[0013] Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile communication device and a method for ensuring that an alarm ring tone is sounded under conditions that are comfortable and safe for the recipient.

[0014] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The features of the present invention are set forth with more particularity in the appended claims.

[0015] These features and further advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description of some embodiments thereof, provided by way of non-limiting example only, as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0016] Figure 1 Schematically illustrates the architecture of an apparatus for implementing the present invention according to certain aspects of the present invention;

[0017] Figure 2 A flow chart representing the main steps of an embodiment of the method according to the invention is shown.

[0018] In this specification, any reference to "one embodiment" will indicate that a particular hardware and / or software configuration, structure, or feature is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Therefore, expressions such as "in an embodiment" that may be found in different parts of this specification will not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, as the various hardware and / or software configurations, structures, or features described herein can be considered appropriately combined in one or more embodiments.

[0019] The following alphanumeric reference numerals are used only for the purpose of allowing better and easier understanding and shall not limit the scope or extent of protection of the claimed embodiments.

[0020] In this specification, the term "ringtone" will refer to any signal (e.g., audible signal) used as a message reception notification signal. According to technology known in the art, the ringtone can be any notification signal (e.g., audible signal) suitable for notifying a user that a message has been received.

[0021] refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2The mobile communication device 100 according to some aspects of the present invention will be described below. Its main components used in some embodiments of the present invention include the following components or parts:

[0022] a communication bus 101 for exchanging data and information between at least two elements of the mobile communication device 100;

[0023] Receiving means 102, adapted to receive messages via a telecommunications network, not shown in the drawing for simplicity;

[0024] User identification means 103 containing data identifying the user of the telecommunication service and data such as an identifier of the telecommunication network to which the mobile communication device 100 is authorized to be affiliated;

[0025] a positioning device 106 for geographically locating the mobile communication device 100; in the following description, it should be understood that such positioning devices may include satellite-based systems (GPS, Galileo), positioning systems based on Wi-Fi access points and cellular networks, and those components of the receiving device of the mobile communication device 100 that allow extracting identifiers and information about the service area and the region where the mobile communication device 100 is currently located from received signals, such as, in the case of a cellular system, MCC (Mobile Country Code), MNC (Mobile Network Code), RSZI (Regional Subscription Zone Identity), LAI (Location Area Identity), BSIC (Base Station Identity Code), etc.;

[0026] an interface device 104 (e.g., a touch screen, microphone, speaker, buttons, etc.) that allows interaction between the mobile communication device 100 and a user;

[0027] Memory device 107 (e.g., RAM, ROM, flash memory, etc.), which can store data and instruction sets implementing programs or processes;

[0028] The processing device 105 (eg, processing unit 105 ), such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), is configured to process data and execute commands and instruction programs.

[0029] In particular, the mobile communication device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is configured to receive radio signals from a telecommunications network including at least one message of a first type or a second type. The first message type (also referred to as a general message) can be used for general communications, while the second message type (also referred to as an emergency message or a message "marked" as emergency) can be used in emergency situations.

[0030] The memory device 107 can be configured to store a plurality of ringtones (also referred to as "message reception notification signals" in this specification). In particular, the memory device 107 can include a first ringtone type (also referred to as a universal ringtone) that is played when a universal message is received.

[0031] Since emergency messages are used in emergency situations, it is appropriate to inform the user that the receipt of such messages is as different from the receipt of general messages as possible. To this end, processing device 105 is configured to automatically select a second ringtone type (also defined as an alarm ringtone) that is different from the general ringtone. In particular, the acoustic characteristics of the alarm ringtone (e.g., frequency, pitch, timbre, etc.) must make the alarm ringtone as distinguishable as possible from the general ringtone. Processing device 105 is therefore configured to select the alarm ringtone based on the ringtones included in the plurality of ringtones stored in memory device 107.

[0032] After this selection process, the alarm tone can be associated with the emergency message and played whenever the emergency message is received and / or accepted by the mobile communication device 100. Alternatively or additionally, the alarm tone can be selected based on the geographic location of the mobile communication device 100 as will be further described herein.

[0033] exist Figure 1 In the embodiment of the present invention, as a non-limiting example, some modules are shown in the processing means 105 and in the memory means 107, which will be referred to later in this description to highlight the main functions of the present invention. They also include modules called "other processing activities of the mobile communication device 105e" and "other data of the mobile communication device 107g", which represent functions and data that are not directly used to implement the present invention, but are used by the mobile communication device 100 for other purposes.

[0034] Typical mobile communication devices to which the present invention can be applied are phones suitable for cellular systems (GSM, CDMA, D-AMPS, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, LTE and other systems currently under development, such as 5G or 6G). For the sake of simplicity, reference may be made to such systems in certain places in this specification, but this does not mean that the application of the present invention is limited to this. It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that the present invention is also applicable to receiver devices of professional communication systems (such as TETRA-TERrestrial TrunkedRAdio) or dedicated receiver devices, or receivers of paging devices (personal radio alarms), as well as other types of receivers or transceiver devices, such as personal computers (such as tablets or personal digital assistants) suitable for receiving messages via the telephone network. In all these types of devices, the present invention can be advantageously implemented to force a call to attention when a message marked as urgent arrives.

[0035] Information useful for implementing the invention can be obtained from messages received by the mobile communication device 100 via the receiving means 102 , from the positioning means 106 , from the user identification means 103 and from the memory means 107 .

[0036] From the received message, the mobile communication device 100 can obtain the emergency or non-emergency classification of the message itself and the sender's identifier (e.g., his / her phone number). Information about the geographic location of the message itself can be obtained from the positioning device 106, and from the user identification device 103, which can be, for example, a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module), CSIM (CDMA Subscriber Identity Module), USIM (Universal Subscriber Identity Module), R-UIM (Mobile User Identity Module), or other types of identification modules, the mobile communication device 100 can obtain data identifying the telecommunications network to which it is authorized to attach in various countries. This information allows for the foreknowledge of some of the common ringtones that can be sent to the mobile communication device 100, and thus allows for the preparation of one or more suitable alarm ringtones, from which one can select one for the current location of the mobile communication device 100. For this purpose, in the "Ringtones from Local Organizations and Operators 107e" module of the memory device 107, a table can be stored, based on the data contained in the user identification device 103, listing the ringtones that can be sent to mobile communication devices 100 within the service area of ​​the network to which the mobile communication device 100 belongs. Depending on the processing capabilities of the processing means 105 and the connection capabilities of the communication means of the mobile communication device 100, the form may be filled at least partially automatically, the ringtone and related information may be retrieved via the telecommunications network, and interaction with the user may be possible via the interface means 104. In addition to ringtones from operators and local organizations, these may also include ringtones of commercial companies and local service providers that wish to be identified as senders of their own communications by a specific ringtone.

[0037] The memory device 107 can therefore be configured to include a table storing associations between a plurality of geographical regions and a plurality of ringtones. The alarm ringtone can be selected based on the geographical region the mobile communication device is currently located in. Specifically, the processing device 105 can use the positioning device 106 to locate a first geographical region that the mobile device has left and a second geographical region that the mobile device is located in after moving, which is different from the first geographical region, and then select the alarm ringtone from the ringtones associated with the second geographical region.

[0038] Furthermore, the user identification device 103 can be configured to store a piece of information about an association of each of said geographical areas with at least one ringtone.

[0039] On the other hand, the processing means 105, and in particular the "Ringtone Management 105b" module, by analyzing the contents of the memory of the mobile communication device 100 and the applications installed therein, are able to identify and store:

[0040] In the memory module called "Manufacturer and Application Ringtones 107b", ringtones are provided by the manufacturer of the mobile communication device 100 and by applications installed therein,

[0041] A memory module called "User Defined Ringtones 107c" where ringtones are retrieved or created by the user, and

[0042] In the memory module called “Ringtones from Contacts 107 d ”, ringtones of contacts contained in its phone book may have been sent to the mobile communication device 100 .

[0043] Based on this data, the user of the mobile communication device 100 can prepare a number of alarm ringtones suitable for one or more zones of the service area in which the mobile communication device 100 may be located and store them in a table of the "available alarm ringtones 107f" module by interacting with the processing means 105 via the interface means 104. Replacing the alarm ringtone in use with another ringtone more suitable for the zone that the mobile communication device 100 has just entered can be automatically performed by the processing means 105, which can associate the zone with which the alarm ringtone has been associated with the geographical location of the mobile communication device 100 provided by the positioning means 106, and thus set as the alarm ringtone to be used, which will be different from the alarm ringtone used for other purposes in the location where the mobile communication device 100 is currently operating.

[0044] In some embodiments of the present invention, before changing one of such alarm tones, the processing device 105 notifies the user via the interface device 104 and waits for his / her consent.

[0045] To this end, before associating the alarm tone with the emergency message type, the interface means 104 may be configured to receive authorization from the user of the mobile communication device.

[0046] In some embodiments of the present invention, a message in which a sender requests activation of an alarm ringtone on a receiving mobile communication device may include a text component that allows the sender to mark the message as urgent in a simple and intuitive manner, without having to resort to a specific program or application. In some embodiments, regardless of whether uppercase or lowercase letters are used, the receiving mobile communication device may deem a message as urgent if the text portion begins with the string "URGENT." Thus, the sender can simply add the word "urgent" or "very urgent" to the beginning of the text component of the message to request activation of the alarm ringtone.

[0047] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many other character strings may also be suitable for this purpose, and that a variety of combinations or alternatives are also permitted. For example, when a message begins with the character string "urgent" and is case-insensitive, and a message begins with the character string "SOS" in uppercase letters, both messages may be considered urgent. In this case, the sender may use different tags to assign an urgent classification to the message. Outgoing messages may also be marked as urgent by using a service data string accompanying the message text, by entering a special tag that will be read and recognized by the receiving mobile communication device. The insertion of this tag may occur via the interface means of the sender's device, for example by an icon (named "urgent") to be selected before or after composing the text message.

[0048] The message can then be sent via SMS or MMS or WhatsApp or Instagram or Messenger, or other messaging system, without the sender having to use any particular application or remember any particular program.

[0049] Although the alarm ringtone, which will now be described, is minimally disruptive to the surrounding environment, any inappropriate use should be prevented. Therefore, in some embodiments of the present invention, the alarm ringtone can only be activated for messages from senders that the recipient has previously authorized. In this case, the user of the mobile communication device 100 can define a group of "authorized" senders through the "Authorization Management 105a" module, which includes contacts whose messages are marked as urgent and will be enabled to activate the alarm ringtone. As is known to those skilled in the art, the user of the mobile communication device 100 can define the group and add and remove contacts from this group at any time through a few simple steps.

[0050] A list of senders who can activate the alarm sound by sending a message marked “urgent” can be stored in the module 107 a of the memory device 107 .

[0051] In order to allow only authorized senders to play the alarm ringtone, the processing device 105 can be configured to check the sender's identification code. In fact, the identification code of the sender of the emergency message can be extracted directly from the received emergency message by the mobile communication device 100; the sender's identification code can then be compared with the list of authorized senders contained in the module 107a of the memory device 107. The alarm ringtone will then be played or not played depending on the result of this comparison. In particular, if this comparison has a positive result (i.e., if the sender of the emergency message is included in the list of authorized senders), the mobile communication device will play the alarm ringtone; on the contrary, if the sender of the emergency message is not included in the list of authorized senders, the communication device 100 can automatically ignore the message or, alternatively, notify the receipt of the message by a universal ringtone.

[0052] Alternatively, or in combination with the above-mentioned list of authorized senders, the present invention also foresees the advantageous option of automatically defining authorized senders based on the communication log of the mobile communication device. In this case, the automatic definition of authorized senders is preferably based on the number, frequency and / or duration of communications with a specific sender having the highest value or exceeding a threshold compared to other senders, and / or can be based on the presence of existing redundant data related to the specific sender in other applications of the mobile communication device (e.g., calendar, email, contacts, tasks, etc.), from which a trust level about the specific sender is derived, so that the specific sender is automatically defined as an authorized sender. As mentioned above, as an illustrative and non-limiting example, the ringtones that the mobile communication device 100 is capable of playing are grouped into steps 107b, 107c, 107d, 107e and 107f of the memory device 107; such ringtones may be modified over time, and some may be added to the existing ringtones or removed from the ringtones that remain unused. Thus, according to the present invention, the "Ringtone Management 105b" module is able to monitor the ringtones actually in use in the mobile communication device 100 and to notify the user of any changes that may be relevant to them. Based on such notifications and other changes that he / she may learn about through other channels or that he / she may make directly, the user can verify whether the alarm ringtone in use is still sufficient and decide whether to keep it or replace it.

[0053] For example, when a mobile communication device manufactured according to the present invention, particularly a mobile communication device 100 for use with a cellular network, moves from a first country to a second country, the network to which it can attach may change, and therefore, operators or other organizations of such networks may send any ringtones to the mobile communication device 100. In the user identification device 103, which in this case may be composed of a USIM or another type of module equivalent thereto, the functionality described herein can be used to find a list of networks to which the mobile communication device 100 is authorized to attach in the second country, and the mobile communication device 100 can use this information to retrieve the ringtones that can be received from such networks, either through the communication device or from a table previously stored in the memory device 107. The user of the mobile communication device 100 can then compare these new ringtones with the currently used alarm ringtones, verify the discernibility of the currently used alarm ringtones, and decide whether to replace or continue using them.

[0054] In some embodiments of the present invention, in some circumstances, the alarm ringtone can be automatically changed by the processing device 105. For example, if the mobile communication device 100 moves to the second country, the "Ringtone Management 105b" module can verify, using the positioning device 106 and the data stored in the memory device 107, that the movement has occurred toward a certain area, and therefore that a suitable alarm ringtone has been prepared and stored in the "Available Alarm Ringtones 107f" module, and verify whether the conditions associated with the alarm ringtone are still valid. If these conditions are still valid, the "Ringtone Management 105b" module can automatically set the ringtone as the alarm ringtone. In other embodiments of the present invention, in the same circumstances, the "Ringtone Management 105b" module can request user authorization for the change via the interface device 104, ensuring that the change is only made if authorized.

[0055] To this end, automatic selection of alert ringtones associated with emergency situations may begin when a user (or a carrier associated with a mobile device) updates the association between the universal ringtone and the universal message.

[0056] Likewise, the automatic selection of emergency ringtones may be updated as the mobile communication device moves between different geographic areas.

[0057] Furthermore, since adding or removing one or more ringtones to or from memory 107 may compromise the distinguishability of the alarm ringtone from the generic ringtone, the selection of alarm ringtones may be updated whenever a ringtone is added to or removed from memory 107.

[0058] To determine whether the alarm ringtone in use is still sufficient after a change in one or more ringtones that the mobile communication device 100 is capable of playing, it is sufficient to assess whether it is still sufficiently distinguishable from other such ringtones, as it can be assumed to be known and appreciated by the user. This assessment can be at least partially automated. To this end, in some embodiments of the present invention, the "Ringtone Management 105b" module can be equipped with a melody comparison algorithm, similar to the algorithms that allow songs to be identified from a few beats. Examples of such algorithms can be found on the following internet sites: "https: / / www.shazam.com / it," "https: / / www.midomi.com / ," "https: / / www.musipedia.org / melody_search.html," "http: / / audiotag.info / index.php," and so on. Therefore, in some embodiments of the present invention, at least one of these algorithms, possibly adapted to the specific application, can be used to determine whether the melody of the alarm ringtone is distinguishable from other ringtones in use or new ringtones being added. If the melody is distinguishable, the user is exempted from any verification, and the "Ringtone Management 105b" module automatically confirms the alarm ringtone in use.

[0059] In particular, to optimally select an alarm ringtone, a comparison algorithm may be used to determine at least one correlation parameter between the universal ringtone and each of the alarm ringtones stored in memory 107. For example, according to techniques known in the art, the correlation parameter may be used to represent the degree of similarity between two ringtones. The alarm ringtone associated with emergency communication can thus be selected based on this correlation parameter. In particular, the selected alarm ringtone will be one that has a low degree of similarity to the universal ringtone.

[0060] On the other hand, if the melody's distinguishability cannot be ensured, the "Ringtone Management 105b" module can notify the user with a similar ringtone, and let the user decide what action to take. Despite the similarities between the melodies, the user may actually decide to continue using the alarm ringtone because he / she can still distinguish it based on its other characteristics, such as different timbre (piano, violin, trumpet, etc.), different rhythm combination, different octave, different pitch, etc.

[0061] Automatic verification of the discernibility of the melody is also advantageous in the event that the user has to select a new alarm ringtone, as this allows the user to try and set a melody he / she likes and leave it to the processing means 105 to verify its discernibility from the multitude of ringtones already present in the mobile communication device 100.

[0062] In addition to the possible distinguishing elements mentioned above, according to the invention, the alarm ringtone can also be distinguished from other ringtone zones with respect to its activation mode.

[0063] In fact, in some embodiments of the present invention, the ringtone may consist of only a few ringtones (e.g., one or two ringtones). In this case, as a type of message reception notification signal, the several short ringtones may be short ringtones played by the mobile communication device (100) when it receives a voice call. This function may significantly help to distinguish the alarm ringtone (a ringtone activated by an unanswered call or message is unlikely to last only a few ringtones) and minimize the interference it may cause.

[0064] As a variation of this type of activation, in some embodiments of the invention, this short ringing sound can be repeated at regular time intervals, with a duration Ts sufficient to allow the user to open the message. The repetition can continue until the message is opened or until the number of repetitions of the alarm signal reaches a maximum value Ns.

[0065] To this end, a general ringtone may be played within a first predetermined time interval when a general message is received, and an alarm ringtone may be played within a second predetermined time interval when an alarm message is received; in order to allow the user to more clearly distinguish the general ringtone from the alarm ringtone, the first predetermined time interval may be different from (greater than or shorter than) the second predetermined time interval.

[0066] Similarly, a general ringtone may be played a first predetermined number of times when a general message is received, and an alarm ringtone may be played a second predetermined number of times when an emergency message is received; the first predetermined number of times may be different from (greater than or less than) the second predetermined number of times in order to allow the user to more clearly distinguish the alarm ringtone from the ordinary ringtone.

[0067] Furthermore, in order to maximize the probability that the user is actually notified of the arrival of the emergency message, the reproduction of the alarm ring tone may be repeated until the emergency message is opened by the user.

[0068] In some embodiments, the first transmission of the short ringtone may occur at a lower, but still audible, volume, while subsequent ringtones may gradually increase in volume.

[0069] The volume can be increased by constant intensity increases in a linear scale, or by constant intensity steps in a logarithmic scale (decibels), or by other types of constant or variable increments. In this way, the possible disruption of the alarm ringing can be minimized while still ensuring a high probability of it being heard.

[0070] In this and other embodiments, the ringtone volume of the alarm ringtone can be set independently of other sounds that the mobile communication device 100 can make, including muting the ringtone, which the user can choose to mute if he / she does not want to cause a disturbance.

[0071] Figure 2 The flowchart summarizes the above method for activating the alarm bell.

[0072] Once started (step 201), the method proceeds to step 202 where it waits for messages.

[0073] After receiving the message at the receiving device 102, the method proceeds to step 203, where the characteristics of the received message are checked. Processing device 105, in cooperation with receiving device 102, identifies the sender and recipient of the message. The "Urgent Identification 105c" module determines whether the received message contains an urgent flag. In the next decisive step 204, if the message is not urgent, normal message management procedures 205 are executed. After step 204, the method returns to the message waiting step 202.

[0074] If, on the other hand, the message is marked as urgent in decision step 204, the method proceeds to step 206, where a determination is made as to whether the sender of the message is authorized to cause the activation of an alarm ringtone. If the sender is not authorized, the method proceeds to normal message management procedure 204 and then waits for a new message (step 202). Otherwise, if the sender is authorized to cause the activation of an alarm ringtone, the method proceeds to step 207, where the processing means 105 initializes a counter Ni for activating an alarm signal (consisting of one or more ringtones) and initializes the ringtone volume to the level assigned to the first ringtone, thereby bypassing any other ringtone settings that may be currently activated in the receiving mobile communication device 100. A ringtone activation step 208 is then executed, where the "Alarm Ringtone Activation 105d" module commands the issuance of an alarm signal (consisting of one or more ringtones) via the interface means 104. Step 208 is followed by step 209, where the processing means 105 starts a timer Ts, as described above, of sufficient duration to allow the user of the mobile communication device 100 to open the received message.

[0075] In step 210, the method waits for the timer Ts to expire, and in the next step 211, the processing means 105 checks the status of the message. If, in the next decision step 212, it is determined that the message has been opened, the method returns to step 202 of waiting for a new message, otherwise it proceeds to decision step 213, in which the processing means 205 verifies whether the number Ni of transmissions of alert signals (consisting of one or more ringtones) issued by the number has reached the maximum number Ns.

[0076] If the maximum number Ns of alarm signals has been reached, the method returns to step 202 of waiting for a new message, otherwise proceeds to step 214, where the processing device 105 increments the alarm signal counter Ni by one unit and increases the volume of the alarm ringtone by a predefined value.

[0077] The method then returns from step 214 to step 208 where a new alarm signal (consisting of one or more ringtones) is sounded at a higher volume.

[0078] Thus, the present invention provides several advantages over the prior art.

[0079] According to the present invention, upon receiving a message marked as urgent, the recipient's mobile communication device automatically emits an alert ringtone that is clearly and reliably distinguishable from other ringtones used in such mobile communication devices, even though there are many of them and they can change over time and as the mobile communication device moves between different service areas where various entities can send proprietary ringtones to be emitted by the receiving mobile communication device.

[0080] In most cases, both when an alarm tone is initially selected and when a tone in use is changed, discriminability is automatically verified, saving the user from having to perform many tedious comparisons.

[0081] Even in the event that the recipient of an emergency message has muted the ringtone to avoid causing a disturbance, the present invention can automatically sound a specific alert ringtone that will cause minimal disturbance while still ensuring that it is likely to be heard by the recipient.

[0082] A contribution to minimizing disruptions is that the alarm ringtone can only be activated by messages marked as urgent, which come from senders that the recipient has previously authorized, and the emergency classification can be attributed to the sender in an extremely simple and intuitive way, without the sender having to use a specific mobile communication device or a specific application.

[0083] Some possible variations of the invention have been described above, but it will be clear to a person skilled in the art that other embodiments can be implemented in practice, in which several elements can be replaced by other technically equivalent elements. Therefore, the invention is not limited to the above illustrative examples, but various modifications, improvements or replacements of parts and equivalent elements can be made without departing from the basic inventive concept, as set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A mobile communication device (100), comprising: Receiving means (102) adapted to receive a radio signal from a telecommunication network, said radio signal being configured to include at least one message, said message being of a first message type or a second message type, said second message type being associated with an emergency situation; a memory device (107) configured to store at least a plurality of message reception notification signals, the plurality of message reception notification signals comprising at least one signal of a first message reception notification signal type, the at least one signal of the first message reception notification signal type being associated with the at least one message of the first message type, and at least one signal of a second message reception notification signal type being associated with the at least one message of the second message type; processing means (105) operatively connected to said receiving means (102) and said memory means (107); The processing device (105) is configured to perform the following steps: associating a first signal of the second message reception notification signal type with the at least one message of the second message type; receiving, via the receiving means (102), the at least one message of the second message type; after receiving the at least one message of the second message type, playing the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type at a first volume level, It is characterized by: The mobile communication device (100) comprises positioning means (106) adapted to determine the geographical location of the communication device and operatively connected to the processing means (105), The text component of the second message type includes a character string or a special mark for marking the emergency situation, The processing device (105) is further configured to automatically select a first signal of the second message reception notification signal type included in the plurality of message reception notification signals, the signal of the second message reception notification signal type being selected based on the signal of the first message reception notification signal type and based on the geographical location of the communication device, The step of automatically selecting the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type begins after one or more of the following events: performing or updating an association between the signal of the first message reception notification signal type and the first message type; adding or removing one or more of the signals of the first message reception notification signal type and / or the second message reception notification signal type from the plurality of message reception notification signals, The step of automatically selecting the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type includes the following steps: determining, by an algorithm for comparing message reception notification signals, at least one correlation parameter between the at least one signal of the first message reception notification signal type and each of the message reception notification signals of the second message reception notification signal type included in the plurality of message reception notification signals, wherein the correlation parameter comprises timbre, rhythmic combination, octave, or key; The first signal of the second message reception notification signal type is selected according to the correlation parameter.

2. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 1, further comprising an interface device (104) configured to: sending a piece of information related to two or more message reception notification signals among the plurality of message reception notification signals to a user of the mobile communication device (100), the two or more message reception notification signals being characterized by a correlation parameter for evaluating their discriminability; receiving a command for selecting one of the two or more message reception notification signals from a user via the interface device (104); A message reception notification signal selected by a user is associated with the message of the second message type.

3. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The memory means (107) is configured to store a plurality of geographical areas, each of the geographical areas being associated with at least one signal of the second message reception notification signal type, and wherein the processing means (105) is further configured to: identifying, by the positioning device (106), a first geographical area left by the mobile communication device (100) and a second geographical area entered by the mobile communication device (100) after movement, wherein the second geographical area is different from the first geographical area; A second signal of the second message reception notification signal type is selected and associated with the second geographical area.

4. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 3, further comprising an identification device (103), the identification device (103) comprising at least one telecommunication network identifier, the mobile communication device being authorized to be attached to the at least one telecommunication network identifier and to receive the radio signal, the network identifier being used to determine the selection of the notification signal included in the second message reception notification signal type.

5. The mobile communication device according to claim 4, wherein: The identification means is further configured to store information about an association of each of the geographical areas with at least one signal of the second message reception notification signal type.

6. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 1, wherein: The signal of the first message reception notification signal type is played for a first predetermined time interval after receiving the first message type; The first signal of the second message reception notification signal type is played for a second predetermined time interval after receiving the second message type; The first predetermined time interval is different from the second predetermined time interval.

7. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 1, wherein: the signal of the first message reception notification signal type is played a first predetermined number of times after receiving the first message type; the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type is played a second predetermined number of times after receiving the second message type; The first predetermined number of times is different from the second predetermined number of times.

8. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 6 or 7, wherein: The processing device is configured to: interrupting the reproduction of the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type at the end of the second predetermined time interval or after the second predetermined number of times; If the second message type associated with an emergency situation has not been opened during this period, the reproduction of the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type is repeated at a second volume level.

9. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 8, wherein The first volume level is lower than the second volume level.

10. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The step of automatically selecting the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type begins after the following events: The mobile communication device is moved between different geographical areas.

11. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 2, wherein The interface means (104) is configured for receiving authorization from a user of the mobile communication device (100) to associate the at least one signal of the second message reception notification signal type with the second message type if the second message type comes from a sender who is authorized to activate the at least one signal of the second message reception notification signal type.

12. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 11, wherein The interface means (104) is further configured to assign authorization to at least one contact included in a phone book of the mobile communication device (100) to associate the at least one signal of the second message reception notification signal type with the second message type.

13. The mobile communication device (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The memory device (107) is further configured to manually or automatically store a plurality of senders, the plurality of senders being authorized to cause the transmission of the at least one signal of the second message reception notification signal type; The processing device is configured to: receiving the second message type via the receiving means (102); extracting sender identification information from the second message type; comparing the sender identification information to the plurality of senders; The at least one signal of the second message reception notification signal type is reproduced according to a positive result of the comparison.

14. A method for selecting a message reception notification signal associated with an emergency situation in a mobile communication device (100), the mobile communication device (100) comprising: Receiving means (102) adapted to receive a radio signal from a telecommunication network, the radio signal being configured to include at least one message, the message being of at least a first message type or a second message type, the second message type being associated with an emergency situation; a memory device (107) configured to store at least a plurality of message reception notification signals, the plurality of message reception notification signals comprising at least one signal of a first message reception notification signal type, the at least one signal of the first message reception notification signal type being associated with the at least one message of the first message type, and at least one signal of a second message reception notification signal type being associated with the at least one message of the second message type; A processing device (105) operatively connected to the receiving device (102) and the memory device (107), wherein the processing device (105): associating a first signal of the second message reception notification signal type with the at least one message of the second message type; receiving, via the receiving means (102), the at least one message of the second message type; after receiving the at least one message of the second message type, playing the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type at a first volume level, The method is characterized in that: marking said emergency situation by means of a character string or a special mark included in a text component of said second message type, automatically selecting, by means of the processing means (105), a first signal of the second message reception notification signal type included in the plurality of message reception notification signals, the signal of the second message reception notification signal type being selected based on the signal of the first message reception notification signal type and based on the geographical location of the communication device, the geographical location of the communication device being determined by a positioning means (106) included in the mobile communication device (100), The step of automatically selecting the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type begins after one or more of the following events: performing or updating an association between the signal of the first message reception notification signal type and the first message type; adding or removing one or more of the signals of the first message reception notification signal type and / or the second message reception notification signal type from the plurality of message reception notification signals, The step of automatically selecting the first signal of the second message reception notification signal type includes the following steps: determining, by an algorithm for comparing message reception notification signals, at least one correlation parameter between the at least one signal of the first message reception notification signal type and each of the message reception notification signals of the second message reception notification signal type included in the plurality of message reception notification signals, wherein the correlation parameter comprises timbre, rhythmic combination, octave, or key; The first signal of the second message reception notification signal type is selected according to the correlation parameter.

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