Alert signal control using message priority

Abstract

An electronic communication system provides text or voice messages to remote receiving devices, such as cell phones or PDA's. The receiving devices include a function for determining a message priority, prior to providing any audible alert signal indicating that the message is received. If an incoming message has a priority that is lower than a necessary threshold, the function prevents the audible alert signal from being generated at the time the message is received.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A portable messaging device, comprising:
 a wireless receiver;   a processor coupled to the wireless receiver;   an audio transducer coupled to the processor, for providing audible alert signaling in response to incoming messages;   a light sensor coupled to the processor;   a memory coupled to the processor, the memory holding program instructions that when operated by the processor, cause the portable messaging device to measure ambient light and control an audible feature of the audible alert signaling based at least in part on the level of ambient light.   
     
     
         2 . A portable messaging device, comprising:
 a wireless receiver;   a processor coupled to the wireless receiver;   an audio transducer coupled to the processor, for providing audible alert signaling in response to incoming messages;   an audio sensor coupled to the processor;   a memory coupled to the processor, the memory holding program instructions that when operated by the processor, cause the portable messaging device to measure ambient sound levels and control an audible feature of the audible alert signaling based at least in part on the level of ambient sound.   
     
     
         3 . A portable messaging device, comprising:
 a wireless receiver;   a processor coupled to the wireless receiver;   an audio transducer coupled to the processor, for providing audible alert signaling in response to incoming messages;   a near field signal receiver coupled to the processor;   a memory coupled to the processor, the memory holding program instructions that when operated by the processor, cause the portable messaging device to receive data about a vehicle the receiver is located in.   
     
     
         4 . The device of  claim 3 , wherein a signal received from the near field signal receiver is a Bluetooth signal. 
     
     
         5 . The device of  claim 4 , wherein the data is speed. 
     
     
         6 . The device of  claim 4 , wherein the data is GPS data.