Method for a Location Enforced Ringer Setting (19-May-2008)

Method for a Location Enforced Ringer Setting

In some locations, the use of mobile communications devices, such as cell or mobile phones is governed by expected environmental norms. For example, during a concert, it is expected that the mobile phone's "ringer" be silenced, during a presentation or during an examination, it is expected that a pager's "ringer" be silenced. The following invention improves the current method of manually setting the notification configuration by the following steps.

For those locations in which the communication device's configuration may be desired to be changed:

1. Each location is classified with the desired attributes of that location, e.g., the ring is set to silent and/or vibrate. In some cases this designation may be time dependent, for example during a concert the desired ring attribute is silent, but during periods in which a concert is not underway, the ring attribute can be at the discretion of the user.

2. At the discretion of the user of the mobile device, rule(s) may be established within the mobile device which interpret the received desired ring attribute and apply the user's desired settings. For example, the location may be indicated that the ring volume level be set to "low". The user may describe a rule which, when the mobile device receives the request to configure the ring attribute to a "low" volume, interprets the request into a mobile device configuration that sets the ring volume to "off" and sets the vibrate to "maximum".

3. Each location broadcasts its desired mobile configurations to the mobile devices. This can be accomplished in a multitude of met...