Multimedia Alert Delivery System for Mobile Phones

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing mobile phone alert systems primarily deliver content as text messages, limiting users' ability to receive multimedia alerts, which is undesirable with the increasing versatility of modern mobile phones.

Innovation Solution

A system and method for transferring multimedia alerts to mobile phones, involving a subscription service, channel queue, and delivery engine that allows users to subscribe to channels, acquire multimedia messages from various sources, and deliver notifications based on user-defined options, using a pluggable service provider interface and protocols like XML, RSS, POP3, and NNTP.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If alerts are delivered as text messages (SMS), then delivery compatibility is maintained, but multimedia content capability is lost

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemultimedia content capabilityVSAvoiddelivery compatibility

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an alert service system as an intermediary between content sources and mobile phones. This system receives multimedia alerts, processes them through a delivery engine, and transforms them into formats suitable for mobile phone delivery, thereby enabling multimedia capability while maintaining delivery compatibility

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The delivery engine dynamically changes the format parameters of alerts based on the capabilities of the target device. By detecting whether a mobile phone supports multimedia formats, the system adjusts the alert format accordingly - delivering multimedia content when supported and text-only when not supported, thus resolving the contradiction between multimedia capability and delivery compatibility

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Adaptability or versatility

If a pluggable service provider interface is implemented, then system versatility is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem versatilityVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The alert service system is segmented into distinct functional components: a service provider interface layer for acquiring alerts from multiple sources, a delivery engine for processing and format transformation, and a mobile phone interface for delivery. This segmentation allows each component to be independently developed and maintained, managing complexity while maintaining versatility

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The delivery engine is designed with universal functionality to handle multiple alert formats and delivery protocols. It can process various types of content (text, images, video) and adapt to different mobile phone capabilities, making the system versatile without requiring separate specialized systems for each function

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS8023971B2Method and system to deliver multimedia alerts to a mobile phone

Publication Date: 2011.09.20 SYNIVERSE ICX CORP

AI summary

A method and system for transferring content to a communication device or other destination are described. In one embodiment, the system comprises a subscription service to create and store subscriptions to a channel; a channel queue to obtain a multimedia message associated with the channel; and a delivery engine to cause an alert notification containing the multimedia message to be delivered to an eligible subscriber's mobile phone.