BACKGROUND

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a contact book application, which gives an expiry time to contacts. The tiny contacts are also known as guest contacts and temporary contacts.

DISCUSSION OF PRIOR ART

US Patent 20100030788 titled 'Automatic Temporary Address Book'' describes an apparatus to store the contact information in a temporary contact entry of an address book for a determined period of time. The apparatus consists of a memory, a processor, in which a computer code is also configured to receive the meeting information from a meeting database. The temporary contacts are removed from the address book at some point after the temporary contact entry was added. This operation may also include transmitting the contact information in a standard format to the address book.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention describes the contact book application that is installed in any device that has access to the internet. The contacts added to an address book remain even after the real need of the contact have expired. The present invention is used to store these temporary contacts termed as 'tiny contacts'. Tiny contacts will attach a shelf life for the contact in the address book. The use of this system will limit the lifetime of the contact so that the contacts will be deleted after the real need time. When a user wants to save a number or email or contact details to the address book, the system will ask whether the new contact need to be saved as a regular permanent contact or as a tiny contact. If the user chooses to opt to save the contact as a tiny contact, the system will ask for the amount of time the contact details need to be saved in the address book. Furthermore, the user will be notified upon the expiry of the time period specified prior to deleting the contact from the address book. The user is also provided with an option of extending the lifetime of the contact at the time of the notification. The contact book application can be implemented on different platforms including Android, iPhone Operating System (iOS), Blackberry, Windows etc., typically for use in a smart device. This will assist the user to maintain a cleaner address book with only featured contact details thus avoiding a lot of clutter or spam in the contact book. On an average, benchmarks reveal that about 40% of contact additions are as tiny contacts and the rest are saved as normal, permanent contacts. The memory usage varies with respect to the device. It depends on the display resolution, graphic performance etc of the device. On an average the memory footprint for the core process occupies about 2 MB.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Figure 1 illustrates the flowchart describing the interaction between the user, local database, and server database

Figure 2 illustrates the flowchart describing the steps involved in storing the tiny contact.

Figure 3 illustrates the tiny contact application implemented in the smart device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING EMBODIMENTS

Figure 1 illustrates a flowchart describing the interaction between a user 1, a notification 2, a user interface 3, a logical unit 4, a local database 5, a default contact database (DCDB) 6, a synchronization manager 7 and a server database 8. The user 1 interacts with the user interface 3 and shares the contact name, phone number, and the expiry time. The user interface 3 is the graphical representation, which accepts input data from the user 1. The user 1 also interacts with the notification 2, which is the user interface with specific purpose like providing warning to the user 1 on contact expiry. This module will accept users input. Once the user 1 shares inputs with the user interface 3, the tiny contact data is maintained by the application in a local database 5. The data in the local database 5 is maintained by a logical unit 4. The logical unit 4 performs different functions like inserting a new tiny contact data in the local database 5, storing the copy of contact along with a flag in a default contact database 6, updating the existing tiny contact values like expiry time, name etc., deleting the tiny contact after expiry time in the local database 5 and in the default contact database 6, reflecting the changes in the default contact database 6 into the local database 5 and vice versa, generating notification when the tiny contact is about to expire and getting user input on deleting, making it permanent or extending the expiry date.

The default contact database 6 is a contact database maintained by the smart device, which is used by default application to store the contact data. The backup of the local database 5 is maintained in a database of the server called as a server database 8. The server database 8 contains all the information in the local database 5. The synchronization manager 7 reflects changes in the local database 5 into the server database 8 and vice versa. This module makes net calls to the server when the conditions of the smart device like the battery charge of device is above 80%, the device is connected to the charger, Wi-Fi or combination of one or more of these conditions based on the user preference. Figure 2 illustrates the flowchart describing the steps involved in storing a tiny contact. When the user intends to create the contact 9, the system will ask for the choice 10 of storing the contact whether to save the contact permanently to the address book 11 or as a tiny contact with a name or an identifier 12. If the user selects the tiny contact, the expiry time for the contact is assigned and the user is asked for confirmation of auto-deletion 13. The contact is saved in the normal address book and a copy of the contact is saved in the server 14 and the server will wait for the expiry time 15. Once the expiry date has arrived and if the auto deletion option is enabled 16, the system will automatically delete the contact from normal address book and the server 17. If the auto-deletion option is not enabled, the user decides what to do with the contact 18.

The user can ask for extended time interval 19 and wait for the extended time interval 20 or the user can save the contact permanently and remove the reference from the server if available 21 or the user can delete the contact from the normal address book and the server. The contact is stored in application memory and the user is given an option to backup the contact to the server. If the contact is stored on the server, it ensures that the contact data is not removed even if the application is removed and reinstalled. Figure 3 illustrates the tiny contact application implemented in the smart device. The contact is saved as one or more temporary contacts 23 and 24 in a smart device 22. The user determines the amount of time the contact details need to be saved on the address book. The user would be notified upon the expiry of the time period specified prior to deleting the contact from the address book. The user is also provided with an option of extending the lifetime of the contact at the time of the notification.

WE CLAIM:

1. A system for storing one or more temporary contacts referred as tiny contact including a number, an electronic mail (email) or a contact detail to an address book to limit a lifetime of the contact such that the contact will be deleted after the real need time in a smart device 22 having (a) a notification module

2, (b) a user interface 3, (c) a logical unit 4, (d) a local database 5, (e) a default contact database 6, (f) a synchronization manager 7 and (g) a server database 8 wherein:

a. The user interface 3 accepts the input data from a user 1;

b. The notification module 2 provides warning to the user 1 on the contact expiry;

c. The logical unit 4 performs one or more functions to maintain the tiny contact data in the local database 5 and in the default contact database 6;

d. The local database 5 stores one or more tiny contact data by an application;

e. The default contact database 6 stores one or more contact data in the smart device 22; and

f. The synchronization manager 7 reflects changes in the local database 5 into the server database 8 and changes in the server database 8 into the local database 5.

2. The system for storing one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 1 wherein one or more smart device 22 platforms including Android, iPhone Operating System (iOS), Blackberry and Windows are used to implement the tiny contact.

3. The system for storing one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 1 wherein an application memory stores the tiny contact.

4. The system for storing one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the tiny contact avoids a clutter or spam in the contact book.

5. The system for storing one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the smart device 22 stores one or more temporary contacts 23 and 24 with the expiry date of the contact.

6. A method to store one or more temporary contacts referred as tiny contact including the number, the electronic mail (email) or the contact detail to the address book to limit the lifetime of the contact such that the contact will be deleted after the real need time in the smart device 22, comprising the steps of:

a) Interaction between the user 1, the local database 5 and the server database 8;

b) Creating the contact 9 by the user;

c) Asking for a choice 10 to save the contact with an identifier 12 by the system;

d) Assigning an expiry date to the contact and asking for confirmation of auto-deletion 13 if the user identifies the contact to be the temporary one by the system;

e) Saving the contact in the address book and a reference in a server 14;

f) Waiting for the expiry date of the contact 15 by the user;

g) Deleting the contact from the address book and the server 17 once the expiry date is arrived and when the auto-deletion is enabled;

h) Deciding the status of the contact when the auto-deletion option is not enabled 18 by the user;

i) Extending the time interval 19 of the contact and waiting for the extended time interval 20 by the user; and j) Saving the contact permanently and removing the reference from the server if available 21.

7. The method to store one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 6 wherein the interaction between the user 1, the local database 5 and the server database 8 further comprises the steps of:

a) The user 1 entering the contact name, the phone number and the expiry time in the user interface 3;

b) Storing the data in the local database 5 by the logical unit 4;

c) Synchronizing the local database 5 with the server database 8;

d) Managing the synchronization between the local database 5 and the server database 8 by the synchronization manager 7; and

e) Transferring the data from the local database 5 to the server database 8.

8. The method to store one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 6 wherein the tiny contact is implemented in one or more smart device 22 platforms including Android, iPhone Operating System (iOS), Blackberry and Windows.

9. The method to store one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 6 wherein the tiny contact is stored in an application memory.

10. The method to store one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 6 wherein the clutter or spam is avoided in the contact book by the tiny contact.

11. The method to store one or more temporary contacts as claimed in Claim 6 wherein one or more temporary contacts 23 and 24 are stored with the expiry date of the contact by the smart device 22.