U.S. patent application number 12/250669 was filed with the patent office on 2009-08-06 for kid's cell phone button that calls the closest parent or relative.
This patent application is currently assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Susann M. Keohane, Gerald F. McBrearty, Shawn P. Mullen, Jessica C. Murillo, Johnny M. Shieh.
Application Number | 20090197636 12/250669 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 40073839 |
Filed Date | 2009-08-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20090197636 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
McBrearty; Gerald F. ; et
al. |
August 6, 2009 |
KID'S CELL PHONE BUTTON THAT CALLS THE CLOSEST PARENT OR
RELATIVE
Abstract
A cellular telephone system, including: a first cellular
telephone for a child; a second cellular telephone for a first
relative of the child; and at least a third cellular telephone for
at least a second relative of the child; the first cellular
telephone including a single button that, when the single button is
pushed, automatically activates only one call to a closest one of
either (a) the second cellular telephone or (b) a closest one of
the at least a third cellular telephone; where closest is measured
by at least one of closest geographically, closest by driving time,
and closest by driving distance.
Inventors: |
McBrearty; Gerald F.;
(Austin, TX) ; Shieh; Johnny M.; (Austin, TX)
; Keohane; Susann M.; (Austin, TX) ; Murillo;
Jessica C.; (Round Rock, TX) ; Mullen; Shawn P.;
(Buda, TX) |
Correspondence
Address: |
CARPENTER & ASSOCIATES
5 PIPESTEM COURT
ROCKVILLE
MD
20854
US
|
Assignee: |
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
CORPORATION
Armonk
NY
|
Family ID: |
40073839 |
Appl. No.: |
12/250669 |
Filed: |
October 14, 2008 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
12025035 |
Feb 3, 2008 |
7460883 |
|
|
12250669 |
|
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|
Current U.S.
Class: |
455/550.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M 1/72457 20210101;
H04M 2250/10 20130101; H04M 1/72475 20210101; H04M 1/6775
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
455/550.1 |
International
Class: |
H04M 1/00 20060101
H04M001/00 |
Claims
1. A cellular telephone for a child, comprising: a first button for
activating a call to a second cellular telephone and at least a
second button for activating a call to at least a third cellular
telephone, the first button having a first indicator that indicates
a first parent's cellular telephone and the second button having a
second indicator that indicates a second parent's cellular
telephone; the first and second indicators having color coding such
that a closest parent's cellular telephone is indicated as green
and a further away parent's cellular telephone is indicated as red;
wherein the child cellular telephone can query the call network for
the location of said closest cellular telephone, and closest is
measured by at least one of closest geographically, closest by
driving time, and closest by driving distance.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 12/025,035, filed Feb. 3, 2008, entitled
"KlD'S CELL PHONE BUTTON THAT CALLS THE CLOSEST PARENT OR
RELATIVE," which is assigned to the same assignee as this
application, and which is hereby incorporated herein by reference
in its entirety.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
[0002] (Not Applicable)
THE NAMES OF THE PARTY TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT
[0003] (Not Applicable)
INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT
DISC
[0004] (Not Applicable)
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0005] 1. Field of the Invention
[0006] This disclosure is directed to a cellular telephone for a
child that includes a button, that when pushed, calls the cellular
telephone of only the parent (or other relative) closest to the
child.
[0007] 2. Description of Related Art Including Information
Submitted under 37 CFR 197 and 1.98
[0008] Nowlan (U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20060208878)
discloses, in paragraphs [0012] and [0013] that "[i]n a typical
scenario, a child wears a small pendant or bracelet that includes
location capabilities, such as a GPS system. This device has been
entrained to wireless devices owned by both parents in a secure
fashion. Either parent can send a wireless message to the device,
and the device will return its current location in the form of GPS
coordinates, which would be displayed as a map, address, or
navigational information on the parent's wireless device. In
addition, the device would have a dedicated activation button or
switch. When pressed, this button would send a request for a
pre-defined service for the child, such as to be picked up (i.e.
from a play date, soccer practice, school event, etc.). This
request would be received by all enabled wireless devices in the
secure domain, and would be time stamped and also contain current
location information. Either parent could acknowledge the request.
If the request was acknowledged by one device, all other devices
would automatically be sent a notice indicating the request had
been serviced. If multiple acknowledgements are received, the
closest one would be confirmed as the acknowledger, and all other
devices would again be sent a notice indicating the request had
been serviced. The acknowledging device would then compute a route
to the child devices location using either a device based or
network based navigation application. Finally, when the parent
arrives at the location (or a close enough proximity), the child's
device would be sent a simple signal that the pickup had arrived
(this could be a visual, auditory, or tactile alert for
example)."
[0009] Other communications devices for children are known. See for
examples, Decker et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,826,120) and Azzaro (US
Published Patent Application No. 20060135087).
[0010] Simplified cellular telephones are also known. See for
examples, U.S. Patents and Published Patent Applications to
Aisenberg (US 20070265032), Zirul et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,912,399),
Albrecht et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,785,387), Lien (US 20050026644),
and Parker et al. (U.S. 20040132480).
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] Aspects of this disclosure are directed to a cellular
telephone system, including: a first cellular telephone for a
child; a second cellular telephone for a first relative of the
child; and at least a third cellular telephone for at least a
second relative of the child; the first cellular telephone
including a single button that, when the single button is pushed,
automatically activates only one call to a closest one of either
(a) the second cellular telephone or (b) a closest one of the at
least a third cellular telephone; where closest is measured by at
least one of closest geographically, closest by driving time, and
closest by driving distance.
[0012] Additional aspects of this disclosure are directed to a
cellular telephone system, including: a first cellular telephone
for a child; a second cellular telephone for the child's mother;
and a third cellular telephone for the child's father; the first
cellular telephone including a single button that, when pushed or
otherwise activated, automatically activates a call only to the
geographically closer of the second cellular telephone and the
third cellular telephone.
[0013] Aspects of this disclosure are also directed to a method of
operating a child's telephone that includes a single button that,
when pushed or otherwise activated, automatically activates a call
only to the geographically closer of the child's mother's cellular
telephone and the child's father's cellular telephone.
[0014] Aspects of this disclosure are also directed to a child's
cellular telephone that includes a single button that, when pushed
or otherwise activated, automatically activates a call only to the
geographically closer of the child's mother's cellular telephone
and the child's father's cellular telephone.
[0015] Other aspects of this disclosure can be directed to systems,
methods, and apparatuses that, in addition to (or instead of one or
both of) the mother's and father's cellular phones, can telephone
only the closest of any selected relatives' cellular telephones.
For example, the child's cellular telephone can have a button that,
when pushed or otherwise activated, automatically activates a call
only to the geographically closer of the child's mother's,
father's, brothers' or sisters' cellular telephones Additionally,
the closest parent or other relative that is called can be the
closest geographically (straight line from cellular telephone to
cellular telephone), or alternatively the closest by driving time
or alternatively closest by driving distance. In some embodiments,
the child's cellular telephone could be programmed to automatically
utilize one of the closest geographically, closest by driving
distance, or closest by driving time. In other embodiments, the
child's phone could have a different button, or other activator,
for each of closest geographically, closest by driving time and
closest by driving distance.
[0016] Other exemplary embodiments and advantages of this
disclosure can be ascertained by reviewing the present disclosure
and the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)
[0017] This disclosure is further described in the detailed
description that follows, with reference to the drawings, in
which:
[0018] FIG. 1 shows a cellular telephone for a child in according
to at least some aspects of this disclosure; and
[0019] FIG. 2 shows a cellular telephone system including the
cellular telephone of FIG. 1 according to at least some aspects of
this disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0020] Exemplary embodiments of this disclosure are described
herein by way of example.
[0021] In particular, this disclosure is directed to a cellular
telephone system including a cellular telephone for a child, such
as for example child's cellular telephone 10 of FIG. 1. In addition
to speaker 12 and microphone 14, the child's cellular telephone
includes a "CALL CLOSEST PARENT" button (or other activation
device) 18. While FIG. 1 shows an embodiment only having the "CALL
CLOSEST PARENT" button (or other activation device) 18, other
embodiments can include other buttons (or other activation devices)
on the telephone 10, such as regular numbers for dialing or "CALL
MOM" or "CALL DAD" or "CALL 911" and the like.
[0022] While there are a number of cellular telephones intended for
children, these cellular telephones have several buttons, such as
Emergency to dial 911, Parent1, Parent2, However a child must then
select a parent to call in order to determine who is the nearest
parent or the parents must then call each other to determine who is
nearest to the child in order to pick the child up.
[0023] This disclosure is directed to a single button 18 on the
cellular telephone that will, when pressed, call only the parent
whose telephone is nearest the child's telephone (or,
alternatively, as discussed above closest by driving distance or
driving time). The global positioning satellite (GPS) location of
the child's telephone is utilized to determine the closest GPS
location of one of the parents telephones and then the closest
parent's telephone is automatically called via the button for
calling the closest parent. In at least one embodiment, the
cellular telephone provider tracks all three telephones (Child's
telephone 30, Parent1 or Mother's telephone 20, and Parent2 or
Father's telephone 30, as illustrated in FIG. 2) and, when the
child presses the "CALL NEAREST PARENT" button, the child's
telephone would be connected to the geographically nearest of the
Mother's telephone 20 and the Father's telephone 30.
[0024] In some embodiments, the child's telephone would be provided
with the information as to who is the nearest parent or, in other
embodiments the cell phone provider would determine the closest
parent's telephone at a ground station after the "CALL NEAREST
PARENT" button 18 is pressed.
[0025] In another embodiment the child's cellular telephone 10 can
query the cell network for the information and the telephone 10
would pick the nearest parent's telephone. Another alternate
embodiment might include color coding the nearest parent's
telephone on the "PARENT1" and "PARENT2" buttons as green and the
further away parent as red.
[0026] Thus, the GPS location of the child's telephone and the GPS
location of cellular telephones of the parents or other relatives
are utilized to automatically dial the nearest parent's (or other
relative's) cellular telephone.
[0027] The foregoing exemplary embodiments have been provided for
the purpose of explanation and are in no way to be construed as
limiting this disclosure. This disclosure is not limited to the
particulars disclosed herein, but extends to all embodiments within
the scope of the appended claims, and any equivalents thereof.
* * * * *