User interface and method of viewing unified communications events on a mobile device

Abstract

A method for viewing communications events on a mobile device which includes a user interface, a communications event handler, and a communications event database is disclosed herein. The communications event handler interfaces with the database and the user interface to provide a user of the mobile device with a communications event history associated with the correspondent of an incoming communications event. Additionally the communications event handler interfaces with the database and the user interface to provide a user of the mobile device with a communications event history for a specified correspondent. When a communication event is received, the communication events history associated with the correspondent is presented on the user interface. This gives the advantage that the user of the mobile device is, able to determine the context of the communicaion event.

1 . A method of processing a communications event in a mobile device having a user interface, the method comprising: 
 identifying a correspondent associated with the communications event;    retrieving, from a communications event database, a communications event history associated with the identified correspondent, the communications event history including a plurality of prior communications events with the identified correspondent, the prior communications events including a plurality of event types; and    displaying the retrieved communications event history of the identified correspondent using the user interface of the mobile device.    
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying is preceded by the step of determining a communications event type for the communications event.  
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the determined communications event type of the communications event is selected from a list including telephony based voice communications events, e-mail communications events, short messaging service communications event and wireless applications protocol communications event.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the communications event is an incoming communications event, and further including the step of receiving the incoming communications event prior to identifying the correspondent.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of event types include at least two of a telephony based voice communications event type, an e-mail communication event type, a short messaging service communications event type and a wireless applications protocol communications event type.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 4 , further including the step of adding the incoming communications event to the communications event history in the communications event database.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the step of receiving an incoming communications event includes one of: 
 receiving a telephony based phone call;    receiving an incoming email message; and    receiving an incoming short messaging service (SMS) message.    
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of identifying the correspondent includes one of: 
 extracting a phone number from call display information;    extracting an email address from the header of an email message; and    extracting an originating address from a SMS message.    
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the step of identifying further includes cross referencing one of the extracted phone number, the extracted email address and the extracted originating address, with entries in an address book accessible to the mobile device.  
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 7 , further including a step of controlling the user interface to provide the user with communications event handling options.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the step of controlling the user interface includes providing the user an option to either ignore or answer an incoming telephony based call.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11 , further including the step of updating the communications event database to reflect a status of the incoming call.  
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the step of displaying communications event handling options includes displaying the option to either read or ignore one of the incoming email message and the incoming SMS message.  
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 13 , further including the step of updating the communications event database to reflect the status of one of the incoming email message and the incoming SMS message.  
   
   
       15 . A mobile device, comprising: 
 a transceiver for transmitting and receiving communications events;    a communications event database for storing a plurality of communications event histories, each of the plurality of communications event histories being associated with one of a plurality of correspondents;    a communications event handler for identifying a correspondent in response to a communications event and for retrieving the associated communications event history for the identified correspondent; and    a user interface for displaying the communications event history of the identified correspondent.    
   
   
       16 . The mobile device of  claim 15 , wherein the communications event handler includes a communications event type identifier for identifying the type of the communications event from a list including telephony based voice communications events, e-mail communications events, short messaging service communications event and wireless applications protocol communications event.  
   
   
       17 . The mobile device of  claim 15 , wherein the user interface is a display, and the communications event handler includes a display controller for controlling the display to display the retrieved communications event history.  
   
   
       18 . The mobile device of  claim 15 , wherein the communications event handler includes a correspondent identifier for identifying the correspondent of an incoming communications event.  
   
   
       19 . The mobile device of  claim 18 , wherein the correspondent identifier is connected to the transceiver for receiving call display information, and includes means for identifying the correspondent of an incoming communications event based on the received call display information.  
   
   
       20 . The mobile device of  claim 19 , wherein the correspondent identifier includes an address book interface for cross-referencing the received call display information with entries in an address book accessible to the mobile device to identify the correspondent.  
   
   
       21 . The mobile device of  claim 18 , wherein the correspondent identifier includes header parsing means for parsing the header of one of a received email message and a received SMS message to extract an originating address, and includes means for identifying the correspondent of an incoming communications event based on the extracted originating address.  
   
   
       22 . The mobile device of  claim 21 , wherein the correspondent identifier includes an address book interface for cross referencing the extracted originating address with entries in an address book accessible to the mobile device to identify the correspondent.  
   
   
       23 . The mobile device of  claim 15 , wherein the communications event handler includes a user interface controller for controlling the user interface to provide a user with communications event handling options.  
   
   
       24 . The mobile device of  claim 23 , wherein the communications event handler includes means for updating the communications event database to reflect the status of an incoming call.