RELATED APPLICATION

Benefit is claimed to India Provisional Application No. 1214/CHE/2010, titled "METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR BLOCKING SPAM VOICE CALLS AND SPAM MESSAGES IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION" by SAVE, Yash filed on April 30, 2010, which is herein incorporated in its entirety by reference for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to telecommunication, and more particularly relates to blocking of incoming spam voice calls from user equipments.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Advancement in mobile communication so far not provided an adequate solution for avoiding unwanted call from an unfamiliar caller/unauthorized person. Caller ID feature in an user equipment (e.g., a mobile device, cordless phone, etc.) is sometimes useful for screening the incoming calls. However, it is not easy to screen all incoming calls from an unfamiliar caller to determine whether a call is related to the user of the user equipment. As the usage of mobile phones increased around the world, users began to see an increase in the number of unsolicited commercial advertisements being advertised on their mobile device through text messaging or calls. These spam calls and messages cause nuisance and consumes lot of time on a daily basis of a mobile device user.

Currently, user equipment does not have provision to block a call irrespective of whether or not the subscriber (or recipient) wants to receive it. Especially, there is no way to block spam calls which have recently gained widespread use. It is very troublesome for the terminal's subscriber to check such a call he or she received without notice to determine if it is spam call. These problems occur because, once a calling party calls to the terminal's subscriber of a user equipment, the subscriber has no choice but to receive the incoming call, irrespective of his or her desire.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a process flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of blocking an incoming spam voice call, according to one embodiment.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of a user equipment, showing various components for implementing embodiments of the present subject matter.

Figure 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary telecommunication system for blocking incoming spam voice calls from user equipments, according to one embodiment.

Figure 4 illustrates a detailed process flowchart of handling incoming voice call connection request in a telecommunication network environment, according to one embodiment.

Figure 5 is a process flowchart of an exemplary method of dynamically adding contact number associated with a friend category to a near and dear one category, according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and system for blocking incoming spam calls. In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.

Figure 1 is a process flowchart 100 illustrating an exemplary method of blocking an incoming spam voice call, according to one embodiment. At step 102, a request for voice call connection with user equipment is received from another user equipment. The request may include a contact numbers associated with the user equipment and said another user equipment respectively. At step 104, it is determined whether the request for voice call connection is associated with a spam voice call. In some embodiments, the determination is made based on spam rules. In these embodiments, the spam rules are configured based on a location of the user equipment, a time of the request, a phone address book entries, and a spam contact list.

If the request is associated with the spam voice call, then at step 106, the request for voice call connection with the user equipment is rejected. In other words, no incoming call notification is provided to the user equipment if the incoming call is a spam voice call. If the request is not associated with the spam voice call, then at step 108, an incoming call notification is provided on the display of the user equipment. The user of the user equipment may answer the incoming call or prefer to reject the incoming call.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of user equipment 200, showing various components for implementing embodiments of the present subject matter. In Figure 2, the user equipment 200 includes a processor 202, memory 204, a read only memory (ROM) 206, a transceiver 208, a bus 210, a communication interface 212, a display 214, an input device 216, and a cursor control 218.

The processor 202, as used herein, means any type of computational circuit, such as, but not limited to, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a complex instruction set computing microprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing microprocessor, a very long instruction word microprocessor, an explicitly parallel instruction computing microprocessor, a graphics processor, a digital signal processor, or any other type of processing circuit. The processor 202 may also include embedded controllers, such as generic or programmable logic devices or arrays, application specific integrated circuits, single-chip computers, smart cards, and the like.

The memory 204 and the ROM 206 may be volatile memory and non-volatile memory. The memory 204 includes a smart spam controller 220 for block incoming spam calls, according to the embodiments of the present subject matter. For example, the smart spam controller 220 may receive a request for voice call connection from another user equipment via a base station. Then, the smart spam controller 220 determines whether the request for voice call connection is associated with a spam voice call based on spam rules. If it is determined true, the smart spam controller 220 rejects the request for voice call connection received from said another user equipment. Otherwise, the smart spam controller 220 provides an incoming call notification indicating an incoming call request on the display 214 of the user equipment 200.

A variety of computer-readable storage media may be stored in and accessed from the memory elements. Memory elements may include any suitable memory device(s) for storing data and machine-readable instructions, such as read only memory, random access memory, erasable programmable read only memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory, hard drive, removable media drive for handling memory cards, Memory Sticks™, and the like.

Embodiments of the present subject matter may be implemented in conjunction with modules, including functions, procedures, data structures, and application programs, for performing tasks, or defining abstract data types or low-level hardware contexts. Machine-readable instructions stored on any of the above-mentioned storage media may be executable by the processor 202. For example, a computer program may include machine-readable instructions capable of blocking incoming spam voice calls, according to the teachings and herein described embodiments of the present subject matter. In one embodiment, the program may be included on a storage medium and loaded from the storage medium to a hard drive in the non-volatile memory. The machine-readable instructions may cause the user equipment 200 to encode according to the various embodiments of the present subject matter.

The bus 210 acts as interconnect between various components of the user equipment 102A. The components such as the transceiver 208, the communication interfaces 212, the display 214, the input device 216, and the cursor control 218 are well known to the person skilled in the art and hence the explanation is thereof omitted.

Figure 3 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary telecommunication system 300 for blocking incoming spam voice calls from user equipments 302A-N and 312A-N, according to one embodiment. In Figure 3, the telecommunication system 300 includes a first set of user equipments 302A-N, a telecommunication network 304, and a second set of user equipments 312A-N. The telecommunication network 304 includes a processor 306, and memory 308 coupled to the processor 306. The memory 308 includes a smart spam controller 310 for blocking incoming spam voice calls based on spam rules.

Consider that, the user equipment 302A wishes to connect a voice call to the user equipment 312B via the telecommunication network 304. In an exemplary operation, when the user of the user equipment 302A dials a contact number of the user equipment 312B, the telecommunication network 304 receives a request for voice call connection with the user equipment 312B. In one embodiment, the smart spam controller 310 verifies from its own database if the user equipment 312B has registered for the service of smart spam control. If so, then the smart spam controller 310 determines whether the request is received from a spam caller or unwanted caller based on the spam rules. If so, the smart spam controller 310 rejects the request for voice call connection with the user equipment 312B. Depending on the logic of the smart spam controller 310, an incoming voice call notification is provided on the display of the user equipment 312B so that the user answers the filtered incoming voice call. Exemplary process associated with the logic of the smart spam controller 310 is illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4 illustrates a detailed process flowchart 400 of handling incoming voice call connection request in a telecommunication network environment, according to one embodiment. At step 402, a request for voice call connection with the user equipment 312B is received from the user equipment 302A. For example, the request includes contact numbers associated the user equipments 302A and 312B. At step 404, it is determined whether the contact number of the user equipment 302A is present in a spam category list. If the contact number is associated with the spam category, then at step 406, the request for voice call connection with the user equipment 312B is rejected.

If the contact number is not in the spam category list, then at step 408, it is determined whether the contact number is associated with a near and dear one category. A near and dear one category may include contact numbers of close associates, relatives or friends of the user associated with the user equipment 312B. If the contact number is associated with the near and dear one category, then process directly goes to step 414.

If the contact number is not associated with the near and dear one category, then at step 410, it is determined whether the contact number is associated with a friend category. It can be noted that, the contact numbers, name and associated category (e.g., spam category, near and dear one category, and friend category) are maintained in a flat file structure. The flat file structure is updated by synchronizing with the phone address book of the user equipment 312B when there is an update to name element, contact number element and category element of the phone address book.

If the contact number is not associated with the friend category, then step 412 is performed. At step 412, it is determined whether the new contact number is to be blocked. In one embodiment, the smart spam controller 310 may be configured by the user to block any new contact number which is not present in the phone address book or not associated with any of the above categories. If the contact number is to be blocked, the request for voice call connection is rejected at step 406. Prior to rejecting the request, a pre-recorded message may be played to the user of the user equipment 302A (e.g., at step 420). For pre- recorded message may play "if you are a sales person trying to sell your product, please excuse me".

If the new contact number is not to be blocked, then step 420 is performed. Now, if the contact number is associated with the friend category, then at step 414, a location information and geographic coordinate information associated with the user equipment 312B is determined. In one exemplary implementation, the location associated with the user equipment 312B is determined based on a cell identifier of a cell associated with the user equipment 312B. To add a location to the important location category, the user is prompted to enter a cell area name/cell ID during a configuration mode. It can be noted that, the geographical coordinate information is obtained to determine whether the user is travelling. In one exemplary implementation, the geographic coordinate information of the user equipment is obtained using a global positioning system (when the smart spam controller 220 is implemented in the user equipment 312B itself) or based on triangulation method (e.g., when the smart spam controller 310 is implemented in the telecommunication network 304). One skilled in the art will appreciate that the geographic coordinate information is obtained using a well known mobile phone tracking system which may be handset based, network based, SIM based or combination of handset and network based technology.

At step 416, it is determined whether the current location of the user equipment 312B is associated with an important location category or the user is travelling based on location information and geographical coordinate information respectively. For example, the user may configure one or more locations (Business location, residence location, and so on) where the user does not want to receive unwanted voice calls. If the user is not at the important location or not travelling, then at step 418, an incoming call notification is provided on the display of the user equipment 312B.

If, at step 416, it is determined true, then at step 420, the user of the user equipment 312B is queried through playing back a pre-recorded message. It can be noted that, in case the smart spam controller 220 residing in the user equipment 200, the smart spam controller 220 may forward the request for voice call connection to a SIM card of the user equipment 200 and then step 420 is performed. At step 422, a timer is started for receiving an input request in response to the query. At step 424, it is determined whether any input request is received prior to expiry of the timer. If the input request is received, then at step 426, the input request received from the user equipment 302A is processed. If the input request is not received, then the process performs step 406. For example, a pre-recorded message saying "the user 'XYZ' is busy right now if you still want to reach him dial T else dial '2' to disconnect" may be played. If the user dials T, an input request indicating option selected by the user is received from the user equipment 302A. In such case, an incoming call notification is provided to the user equipment 312B. If the user dials '2', the request for voice call connection is rejected.

Figure 5 is a process flowchart 500 of an exemplary method of dynamically adding contact number associated with a friend category to a near and dear one category, according to one embodiment. Once the incoming call notification of an incoming voice call from the user equipment 302A is sent to the user equipment 312B and the call from the user equipment 302A is completed, the smart spam controller 310 may prompt the user whether the contact number from whom the call is received, is associated with the friend's category in order to dynamically add the contact number to the near and dear one category in a manner described below.

At step 502, it is determined whether the contact number of the user equipment 302A is associated with the friend category and not with near and dear one category. If it is determined true, then at step 504, it is determined whether the contact number is to be added to the near and dear one category, else the process is terminated. In one embodiment, the user is prompted to determine whether the user wishes to add the contact number to the near and dear one category from the friend category. If the contact number is to be added, then at step 506, the contact number is dynamically added to the near and dear one category from the friend category based on the input from the user of the user equipment 312B, else the process is terminated.

The present embodiments have been described with reference to specific example embodiments; it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the various embodiments. Furthermore, the various devices, modules, selectors, estimators, and the like described herein may be enabled and operated using hardware circuitry, for example, complementary metal oxide semiconductor based logic circuitry, firmware, software and/or any combination of hardware, firmware, and/or software embodied in a machine readable medium. For example, the various electrical structure and methods may be embodied using transistors, logic gates, and electrical circuits, such as application specific integrated circuit.

We Claim:

1. A method for blocking an incoming spam voice call from a user equipment comprising:

receiving a request for voice call connection with a first user equipment from a second user equipment;

determining whether the request for voice call connection is associated with a spam voice call based on at least one spam rule;

if so, rejecting the request for voice call connection with the first user equipment; and

if not, providing an incoming call notification on the display of the first user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one spam rule includes a location based spam rule, time based spam rule, and a phone address book based spam rule.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for voice call connection comprises a contact number of the first user equipment and a contact number of the second user equipment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the request for voice call connection is associated with the spam voice call based on at least one spam rule comprises:

determining whether the contact number is associated with a spam category;

if so, rejecting the request for voice call connection with the first user equipment; and

if not, determining whether the contact number is associated with a near and dear one category.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining whether the contact number is associated with the near and dear one category comprises:

if so, determining whether the contact number is associated with a friend category; and

if not, determining a location and geographical coordinates of the first user equipment associated with the first user equipment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining whether the contact number is associated with the friend category comprises:

if so, determining a location and geographical coordinates of the first user equipment associated with the first user equipment; and

if not, determining whether the contact number is to be blocked.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining the location and the geographical coordinates of the first user equipment further comprises:

determining whether the location of the first user equipment is associated with an important location category or the user associated with the first user equipment is travelling based on the geographical coordinates;

if so, querying the user of the second user equipment as to whether the incoming call notification is to be provided to the first user equipment through playing back a pre-recorded message; and

if not, providing an incoming call notification on the display of the first user equipment.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether the contact number is to be blocked comprises:

if so, rejecting the request for voice call connection with the first user equipment; and

if not, querying the user of the second user equipment as to whether the incoming call notification is to be provided to the first user equipment through playing back the pre-recorded message.

9. The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein querying the user of the second user equipment as to whether the incoming call notification is to be provided to the first user equipment through playing back the pre-recorded message comprises:

starting a timer value for receiving an input request from the second user equipment upon playing back the pre-recorded message;

determining whether any input request is received from the second user equipment prior to expiry of the timer value;

if so, processing the input request received from the second user equipment; and
if not, rejecting the request for voice call connection with the first user equipment.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein processing the input request received from the second user equipment comprises:

providing an incoming call notification on the display of the first user equipment.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein processing the input request received from the second user equipment comprises:

rejecting the request for voice call connection with the first user equipment.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein rejecting the request for voice call connection with the first user equipment if the contact number is not present in the phone address book further comprises:

prompting the user of the first user equipment to add the contact number in the spam category upon rejecting the request for voice call connection;

receiving an input request from the user of the first user equipment to add the contact number into spam category; and

adding the contact number in the spam category based the input request.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises a smart spam controller for:

receiving a request for voice call connection from an user equipment via a base station;

determining whether the request for voice call connection is associated with a spam voice call based on at least one spam rule;

if so, rejecting the request for voice call connection received from the user equipment; and

if not, providing an incoming call notification indicating an incoming call request from the user equipment.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one spam rule includes a location based spam rule, time based spam rule, and a phone address book based spam rule.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the request for voice call connection comprises a contact number of the user equipment and a contact number of said another user equipment.

16. A system comprising:

a first user equipment;

a second user equipment; and

a telecommunication network communicatively connected to the first user equipment and the second user equipment comprising: a processor; and memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises a smart spam controller capable of:

receiving a request for voice call connection with the first user equipment from the second user equipment;

determining whether the request for voice call connection is associated with a spam voice call based on at least one spam rule;

if so, rejecting the request for voice call connection with the first user equipment; and

if not, providing an incoming call notification indicating an incoming call connection request from the second user equipment to the first user equipment.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one spam rule includes a location based spam rule, time based spam rule, and a phone address book based spam rule.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the request for voice call connection comprises a contact number of the first user equipment and a contact number of the second user equipment.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions, that when executed by a user equipment, cause the user equipment to perform a method of blocking an incoming spam voice call from another user equipment comprising:

receiving a request for voice call connection with a user equipment from another user equipment;

determining whether the request for voice call connection is associated with a spam voice call based on at least one spam rule;

if so, rejecting the request for voice call connection with the user equipment; and

if not, providing an incoming call notification on the display of the user equipment.

20. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the at least one spam rule includes a location based spam rule, time based spam rule, and a phone address book based spam rule.

21. The storage medium of claim 19, wherein the request for voice call connection comprises a contact number of the user equipment and a contact number of said another user equipment.