FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to the field of telecommunication, more particularly, the present invention relates to enhanced text messaging system and method for communication devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Today, short message service (SMS) provided by telecommunication service providers plays a vital role in the lifestyle of any person, as the SMS allows to convey short messages to the desired person in a simpler and easier way. However, the conventional communication devices supporting SMS have a few limitations with respect to various parameters. The conventional technique is restricted to composing and displaying the short message only in two colors such as black and white as the existing telecommunication system having does not support rich text short messages.

The rich text messages include different font sizes, different styles such as bold, italics, underlined texts, and text messages with background colors. Further, the conventional telecommunication system having SMS does not support colored emoticons to express the feelings of the sender in a meaningful way. Hence, the conventional system is limiting the capabilities of existing communication devices which are capable of displaying messages in multiple colors, formatted texts and colored images if customized accordingly.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

A method and system for providing enhanced text messaging is disclosed. In one aspect, a computer implemented method includes enabling a user of a sender communication device to compose an short message in a rich text format, encoding content associated with the composed short message, and transmitting the encoded short message content along with message formatting information in a SMS packet format to a short messaging service centre using SMS protocol. The computer implemented method further includes validating whether a receiver device is registered with a broker server, and displaying the encoded short message content in the rich text format on a display of the receiver communication device upon successful validation.

In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions to provide enhanced text messaging from a sender communication device to a receiver communication device, that when executed by a telecommunication system, result in performing the method described above.

In yet another aspect, a telecommunication system for providing enhanced text messaging includes a sender communication device for enabling a user of a sender communication device to compose an short message in a rich text format, and encoding content associated with the composed short message.

The telecommunication system also includes a short messaging service centre for receiving the encoded short message content along with message formatting information in a SMS packet format from the sender communication device using SMS protocol, and a broker server for validating whether a receiver device is registered to receive the short message in the rich text format. The telecommunication device further includes at least one receiver communication device for displaying the encoded short message content in the rich text format upon successful validation.

Other features of the embodiments will be apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description that follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a telecommunication system for providing rich text SMS message from a sender communication device to a receiver communication device, in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a short message service transaction, in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic representation of a process for registration of a communication device to a SMS-XP server, in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 4 is a schematic representation of a process for un-registration of a communication device from a SMS-XP server, in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 5(a) illustrates a general format of a SMS message in the context of the invention.

Figure 5(b) illustrates an exemplary format of a SMS-XP message, in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 6 is a block diagram illustration of the flow of a short message service (SMS) transaction, in accordance with the present invention.

The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

A method and system for providing enhanced text messaging is disclosed. 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.

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a system and a method for sending and receiving rich text messages in multiple colors, multiple font sizes and varying styles such as but not limited to bold, italic and underlined texts, along with colored emoticons that express emotions of the message sender with meaningful images. In one exemplary implementation, the system utilizes the existing standard short message service (SMS) protocols and methods already available as a base for sending and receiving the rich text messages, so that better user experience can be achieved in all types of devices that support the common and widely used protocols to send SMS. It is appreciated that the present invention extends the existing messaging protocols in such a way that the basic protocol level features are not altered and there is no need to create a new standard for enhancing the user experience of text messages.

The terms 'SMS-XP message', 'rich text message' and 'short message in a rich text format' are used interchangeably through out the document. Also, the terms 'broker server' and 'SMS-XP server' are used interchangeably through out the document.

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a telecommunication system (100) for providing rich text SMS message from a sender communication device to a receiver communication device, in accordance with the present invention. Particularly, the system (100) includes at least two communication devices (sending device (102), receiving device (1021)), a short message service centre (104) and a SMS-XP server / broker server (106), which are coupled as shown in Figure 1. The communication devices can be, but not restricted to a mobile phone, PDA, pager etc. In one embodiment, a rich text editor is part of the communication device to compose the rich text message called SMS-XP message. The broker server (106) is implemented to resolve the compatibility and interoperability issues between the networks and the communication devices which do not have SMS-XP capability.

In one embodiment, the sending device (102) sends the SMS-XP message to the desired message receiver device (1021) through the appropriate network entities such as SMSC (104), wherein the SMSC (104) is connected to the SMS-XP server, that is capable of validation of registration and un-registration of the receiving device (1021), analyzing the SMS-XP messages and converting the SMS-XP messages to normal plain text SMS in case, if the target receiving device (1021) is un-registered to the SMS-XP services.

In one example embodiment, the SMS-XP messages are rich text messages sent in binary form from the sender's communication device (102) to the recipient's communication device (1021) using existing SMS protocol standards. The rich text of the SMS-XP message can include but not limited to multiple font colors, different font sizes, varying background text colors, different styles for texts and colored emotions.

In one exemplary implementation, the broker server (106) resides on the operator network or independent service provider. The broker server (106) is connected to the operator SMSC (104) as an ESME/LA, wherein the broker server (106) provides less obtrusive for the operator SMSC (104) and configures the solution. Further, the broker server (106) takes care of registration and/or un-registration of the communication devices which are illustrated in Figure 3 and Figure 4. The method of SMS-XP message transaction is described in Figure 2.

Figure 2 is a schematic representation of a short message service (SMS) transaction, in accordance with the present invention. The message sender (102) sends a SMS-XP message to the desired receiver (1021) through the network entities. The SMS-XP message sent by the message sender device (102) is received by a SMSC (104) as shown in 202. Further, the received SMS-XP message is sent to the SMS-XP server (106) for verifying the receiving device (1021) registration with the SMS-XP server (106) as shown in 204. In one embodiment, the broker server (106) is responsible to scan the message for SMS-XP information element. If the receiving device (1021) is not registered with the SMS-XP, the broker server (106) will remove the SMS-XP element and convert the message to plain text message and if the receiving communication device (1021) is registered in SMS-XP and then no action is taken as shown in 206. Further, the relevant message flows for further processing to the SMSC (104) as shown in 208, which is then transmitted to the receiving device (1021) as shown in 210.

Figure 3 is a schematic representation of a process for registration of a communication device A to a SMS-XP service, in accordance with the present invention. The communication device A sends the registration request through registration text short code to the SMSC (104) as shown in 302. Further, the SMSC (104) routes the registration text to the SMS-XP server (106) as shown in 304, wherein the communication device A is registered in the database of the SMS-XP server (106) as shown in 306. Further, the SMS-XP server (106) sends the registration status message to the SMSC (104) as shown in 308 and then the notification is routed to the communication device A by the SMSC (104) as shown in 310.

Figure 4 is a schematic representation of a process for un-registration of a communication device B from a SMS-XP server, in accordance with the present invention. The communication device B sends the request for un-registration through un-registration text short code to the SMSC (104) as shown in 402. Further, the SMSC (104) routes the un-registration text to the SMS-XP server (106>as shown in 404, wherein the communication device B is removed from the database of the SMS-XP server (106) as shown in 406. Further, the SMS-XP server (106) sends the un-registration status message to the SMSC (104) as shown in 408, and then the notification is routed to the communication 'device B by the SMSC (104) as shown in 310.

It is appreciated that the present invention includes a message exchange protocol in order to achieve user experience enhancement in text messaging, new methods are used for exchanging messages between the sender and the receiver communication device. The system uses new elements to carry the message formatting information. The system sends the formatting information as part of the information element. This method helps to signify that the message is rich text, through the use of information element, which results in allowing the users to send maximum number of characters in a single text message as defined by the SMS standard. Further, the rich text SMS application residing on the mobile device will examine the message body to identify the presence of rich text information element identifier and displays the message based on the formatting information present in the message.

Figure 5(a) illustrates a general format of a SMS message in the context of the invention, and Figure 5(b) illustrates an exemplary format of a SMS-XP message, in accordance with the present invention. The information element (IE) is part of user data (UD). These are used to carry extra information about the kind of data the message is carrying. If the UD is carrying the IE, the user data header indicator (UDHI) should be set to 1. In this case the UD is broken into following parts; in order starting at the first octet of the TP User Data field is as shown in Table 1.

Table 1

The layout of the TP-User-Data-Length and the TP-User-Data for uncompressed 8 bit data or uncompressed UCS2 data are shown in Figure 5(a). The UDHL field is the first octet of the TP-User-Data content of the short message. The SMS-XP information element contains all the necessary information for encoding and/or decoding the message and also the short message (SM) data itself. The SM data shall form part of the IE data element. Emphasis has been given to utilize the bytes as efficient as possible and also to have capacity for future enhancements. The layout of SMS-XP with the IE framework is shown in Figure 5(b). The octet 1 SMS-XP related information element formatting is shown in Table 2.

Octet 1: Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 BitO Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0

Table 2

The global formatting information element indicates global formatting to be applied to the message. The information in Table 3 captures the kind of formatting supported at global level. It is to be noted that if there is no subsequent SMS-XP IE, then the octets following the bits of Table 3 will be the message data.

Table 3

The local formatting element indicates local formatting to be applied to the message. The information in Table 4 captures the kind of formatting supported at local level. Further, the local formatting is done in blocks. A block can span from a single character to complete message.

Table 4

Further, the octet 2 formatting mode values, which specifies the remaining of the formatting values for local formatting is depicted in Table 5. It is to be noted that if there is no subsequent SMS-XP IE, then the octets following octet-3 will be the message data.

Octet 2: Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 BitO

Table 5

Furthermore, the octet 3 text formatting length gives the number of characters to which the local formatting is to be applied. The octet 3 shall be coded as an integer value in the range of minimum 1 to the maximum number of characters for formatting. A text formatting length value of 0 indicates that the global text format shall be used as a default text format for the current SM. The default text format shall be used for all text in a concatenated SM unless temporarily overridden by a local text formatting IE with a non-zero text format length field. Additionally, conflicting overlapping text formatting instructions shall be resolved by applying the formatting instructions in their sequential order. Further to octet 3, the message data will follow, until the end of data or next IE.

The emoticon information element indicates the presence of emoticon data. Five bits out of the remaining octet are used to carry the emoticon tag. Five bits can carry the identifier value of maximum value 31, having maximum of 31 emoticons. The emoticon is coded as follows:

Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Not being used
0 0 0 0 0

In addition, due to sending information elements to identify the data types and sending across formatting information, there will be a reduction on the amount of user data that can be sent in a single message. As per the existing standards, the amount of data that can be sent in UD is 140 octets. Due to the addition of extra information in UD, the amount of actual message will be reduced; this will be directly related to the amount of formatting that the user does on the message. Therefore, to give an indicative numbers on the affect of data capacity due to addition of formatting, the below mentioned examples can be followed, wherein these scenarios take into account that these will be segmented messages. In case of single message, 5 more octets will be available for message.

Example 1: The example gives a sample of how the data will look if global formatting is applied to it with red colour as a background and the text as "hello". This is a single message (non-segmented) and addresses from source port 240 and destination port 240. The sample just shows the UD section only and not the complete GSM packet.

0C 04 02 F0 F0 C8 06 20 68 65 6C 6C 6F

Example 2: The example gives a sample of how the data will look if only local formatting is applied to it with system default font, red text colour; and complete text as bold. The text is for normal size and left aligned. The text as "hello". This is a single message (non-segmented) and addresses from source port 240 and destination port 240. The sample just shows the UD section only and not the complete GSM packet.

0E 04 02 F0 F0 C8 08 21 01 05 68 65 6C 6C 6F

Example 3: The example gives a sample of how the data will look if both global and local formatting is applied to it. Addresses from source port 240 and destination port 240. The sample just shows the UD section only and not the complete GSM packet. Along with the characteristics such as:

Message Text hello world
Background colour : White
Font System Defined
Text colour Red
Alignment : Left
Font size Large
Italics On
Bold On
Alignment Centre

First segment:
15 00 03 01 02 01 04 02 F0 F0 C8 09 CO 21 53 05 68 65 6C 6C 6F

Second segment:
15 00 03 01 02 02 04 02 F0 F0 C8 09 CO 21 53 05 77 6F 72 6C 64

In general, Figure 6 is a block diagram (600) illustration the flow of a short message (SM) transaction, in accordance with the present invention. Particularly, the flow of the SM includes a sender (602), an encoder and/or decoder (604), a compressor and/or de-compressor (606), a storage unit (608), a message monitor (610), a transport layer (612) and a receiver (614), which are coupled as shown in Figure 6. The sender (602) to compose or edit the rich text short message (SM), which is sent to the encoder (604) to encode the SM and further the encoded SM is compressed in the compressor (606). The compressed SM is stored in the storage unit (608) for further processing. Further, the SM is monitored for registration and un-registration in the message monitor (610) and processed SM is transmitted to the receiver (614) through transport layer (616) of the system, by decompressing the SM by de-compressor (606), followed by decoding (604) as shown in Figure 6.

It is advantageous that the present invention is commercially applicable in all communication technologies where messages are sent using SMS. The rich text experience in short messaging will increase the usage of text messages and thus increase the revenue of the operators.

The present invention proposes an alternate method for sending the formatting information as part of the message body. In this case, the rich text SMS application residing on the mobile device will examine the message body to identify the presence of rich text information element identifier and displays the messages based on the message formatting information present.

Although 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, analyzers, generators, 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 computer implemented method of enhanced short text messaging service comprising:

enabling a user of a sender communication device to compose an short message in a rich text format;

encoding content associated with the composed short message;

transmitting the encoded short message content along with message formatting information to a short messaging service centre in a SMS packet format using SMS protocol;

validating whether a receiver device is registered with a broker server;

displaying the encoded short message content in the rich text format on a display of the receiver communication device upon successful validation.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, encoding the composed short message and the message formatting information in the SMS packet format using the SMS protocol, further comprises:

compressing the encoded short message content.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the encoded short message along with message formatting information to the short messaging service centre using the message exchange protocol, further comprises:

forwarding the encoded short message to the broker server.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein validating whether the receiver communication device is registered with the broker server, comprises:

extracting information associated with the receiver communication device from the encoded short message;

determining whether the receiver communication device is registered with the broker server;

if so, transmitting the encoded short message along with message formatting information to the receiver communication device in a binary form; and

if not, converting the encoded short message content in the rich text format to a plain text format.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein displaying the encoded short message in the rich text format on the display of the receiver device, comprises:

de-compressing the compressed short message received from the short message service centre;

decoding the de-compressed short message;

applying the message formatting information to the decoded short message content; and

displaying the decoded short message content in the rich text format on the display of the receiver communication device.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 4, wherein converting the encoded short message content in the rich text format to the plain text format, comprises:

removing the message formatting information from the SMS packet;

converting the encoded short message content in the rich text format to a plain text format; and

transmitting the encoded short message content in the plain text format to the receiver communication device.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the message formatting information comprises information associated with background colour, font type, text colour, alignment, font size, italics, bold, emoticons, and the like.

8. A telecommunication system for providing enhanced short text messaging service comprising:

a sender communication device for:

enabling a user of a sender communication device to compose an short message in a rich text format; and

encoding content associated with the composed short message; a short messaging service centre for:

receiving the encoded short message content along with the message formatting information in a SMS packet format from the sender communication device using SMS protocol; and

a broker server for validating whether a receiver device is registered to receive the short message in the rich text format;

at least one receiver communication device for displaying the encoded short message content in the rich text format upon successful validation.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the sender communication device compresses the encoded short message content.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein in validating whether the at least one receiver communication device is registered with the broker server, the broker server extracts information associated with the at least one receiver communication device from the encoded short message, determines whether the at least one receiver communication device is registered with the broker node, transmits the encoded short message along with the message formatting information to the at least one receiver communication device in a binary form if the at least one receiver communication device is registered, and converts the encoded short message content in the rich text format to a plain text format if the at least one receiver communication device is not registered.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein in displaying the encoded short message in the rich text format on the display of the at least one receiver communication device, the at least one receiver communication device de-compresses the compressed short message, decodes the de-compressed short message, applies the message formatting information to the decoded short message content, and displays tine decoded short message content in the rich text format.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein in converting the encoded short message content in the rich text format to the plain text format, the broker server removes the message formatting information from the encoded short message, converts the encoded short message content in the rich text format to a plain text format, and transmits the encoded short message content in the plain text format to the at least one receiver communication device.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the message formatting information comprises information associated with background colour, font type, text colour, alignment, font size, italics, bold, emoticons, and the like.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions for providing enhanced text messaging, that when executed by a telecommunication system, result in performing a method comprising:

enabling a user of a sender communication device to compose an short message in a rich text format;

encoding content associated with the composed short message;

transmitting the encoded short message content along with message formatting information to a short messaging service centre in a SMS packet format using SMS protocol;

validating whether a receiver device is registered with a broker server;

displaying the encoded Short message content in the rich text format on a display of the receiver communication device upon successful validation.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further comprises compressing the encoded short message content.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further comprises forwarding the encoded short message to the broker server.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions to validate whether the receiver communication device is registered with the broker server comprises:

extracting information associated with the receiver communication device from the encoded short message;

determining whether the receiver communication device is registered with the broker node;

if so, transmitting the encoded short message along with message formatting information to the receiver communication device in a binary form; and

if not, converting the encoded short message content in the rich text format to a plain text format.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions to display the encoded short message in the rich text format on the display of the receiver device comprises:

de-compressing the compressed short message;

decoding the de-compressed short message;

applying the message formatting information to the decoded short message content; and

displaying the decoded short message content in the rich text format on the display of the receiver communication device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions to convert the encoded short message content in the rich text format to the plain text format comprises:

removing message formatting information from the encoded short message;

converting the encoded short message content in the rich text format to a plain text format; and

transmitting the encoded short message content in the plain text format to the receiver communication device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the message formatting information comprises information associated with background colour, font type, text colour, alignment, font size, italics, bold, emoticons, and the like.

21. The method, system and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium such as herein described with reference to the foregoing description and drawings.