Personalized Ring Tone Service via Contact Database Querying

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current telecommunication systems lack the ability to provide personalized alerts for incoming communications, limiting user experience and revenue opportunities for service providers.

Innovation Solution

A ring tone service that allows subscribers to customize alerts by querying electronic databases for contact information and associating it with specific ring tones, enabling personalized alerts based on caller identity, social relationships, and communication context.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If traditional telecommunication systems are used, then basic call alerting is provided, but personalized alerts cannot be provided

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepersonalization capabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a ring tone service provider as an intermediary between the calling party and called party. This intermediary maintains a database of ring tones and contact information, and intercepts call signaling to deliver appropriate personalized ring tones without requiring modification of the basic telecommunication infrastructure. The intermediary handles the complexity of personalization logic centrally, keeping the end-user devices simple.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the telecommunication system into distinct functional components: the basic telecommunication network for call routing, a ring tone service provider for personalization logic, a database for storing contact information and ring tone associations, and user devices for receiving alerts. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently while maintaining overall system functionality.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Ease of operation

If personalized ring tone service is implemented, then user experience is enhanced, but additional system components are required

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveuser experienceVSAvoidsystem architecture

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically queries the database for contact information associated with the calling number and retrieves the corresponding ring tone without requiring manual user intervention during the call process. The personalization occurs autonomously based on pre-configured associations between contact information and ring tones, enhancing ease of operation while the complexity is managed in the background.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

3Adaptability or versatility

If ring tone database is queried for each incoming call, then personalized alerts are provided, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepersonalization accuracyVSAvoidcall setup time

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing associations between contact information and ring tones in a database before calls occur. When a call is received, the system only needs to query this pre-organized database using the calling number as a key, rather than analyzing or selecting ring tones in real-time. This preliminary organization of data minimizes the time required during actual call processing.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS8873729B2Methods, systems, and products for providing ring tones

Publication Date: 2014.10.28 AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY I L P

AI summary

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for processing a ring tone. An electronic database is queried for a calling number, and contact information associated with the calling number is retrieved. A ring tone database is queried for the contact information, and the ring tone database stores an association between the contact information and a ring tone. The ring tone associated with the contact information is retrieved and processed to alert a called number to a communication from the calling number.