Method and radio communication device for the transmission-efficent editing of multimedia news

Abstract

In order to edit, in a transmission-efficient manner, multimedia news before sending or receiving such news, the existing user data volume (VOL) of a piece of multimedia news (MM) is determined prior to, during, and after putting together such piece of multimedia news (MM). At least one application reducing the original user data volume (VOL) of such piece of multimedia news (MM) is supplied and run in case a predefined user data volume threshold (SGx) or an upper price limit (SPx) is exceeded.

1 . A method for the transmission-efficient editing of multi-media messages before they are sent or received, wherein before, after and/or during the composition of the respective multimedia message (MM) the present, used user data volume (VOL) of the multimedia message (MM) is determined, and wherein if a predefinable price and/or user data volume upper limit (SPx, SGx) is exceeded, at least one reduction application is provided for reducing the originally present, used user data volume (VOL) of the multimedia message (MM) to be sent or received in a particular case.  
   
   
       2 . The method as claimed in  claim 1 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the still available user data volume (FVOL) for the respective multimedia message (MM) is determined compared to the selected user data volume upper limit (SGx) in a particular case.  
 
   
   
       3 . The method as claimed in  claim 2 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the still available user data volume (FVOL) is partially or completely filled by user data in the form of at least one additional multimedia message element, message sub-element or other additional information.  
 
   
   
       4 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims,  
     characterized in that 
 the originally present, used user data volume (VOL) of a price class (Px) is assigned to a tariffing system (GTM) graded according to user data volume.  
 
   
   
       5 . The method as claimed in  claim 4 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the still available user data volume (FVOL) of the respective multimedia message (MM) is determined for its currently assigned price class (Px).  
 
   
   
       6 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims,  
     characterized in that 
 in the event of the chosen price upper limit (SPx) or chosen user data volume upper limit (SGx) being exceeded, at least one reduction application is provided to reduce the existing user data volume (VOL) of the multimedia message (MM) to be sent or received in a particular case, and that this reduction application is applied to the respective multimedia message (MM).  
 
   
   
       7 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims,  
     characterized in that 
 attention is drawn to possible overshoots of previously defined price and/or user data volume upper limits (SPx, SGx).  
 
   
   
       8 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims,  
     characterized in that 
 the price and/or user data volume upper limits (SPx, SGx) are defined either by the respective user and/or MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) service provider (PA, PB).  
 
   
   
       9 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims,  
     characterized in that 
 a) the currently present user data volume (VOL) of the multimedia message (MM) to be sent or received is determined,  
 b) the determined user data volume (VOL) is assigned to a price class (P 1 -P 5 ),  
 c) the user data volume (FVOL) still available for the price class (Px) corresponding to the determined user data volume (VOL) is determined,  
 d) possible overshoots of defined price and/or user data volume upper limits (SPx, SGx) are determined and attention is drawn to the fact that  
 e) the results of the determining step a) and/or of the assignment step b) and/or of the calculation step c) and/or of the possible upper limit overshoot according to step d) are indicated to a user in acoustic, tactile or graphical form,  
 f) the user is presented with at least one suggestion for reducing the present user data volume, primarily with the aim of making the multimedia message (MM) belong to a lower price class (Px) than the originally assigned price class, and  
 g) a reduction of the originally used user data volume is carried out in such a way that the edited multimedia message (MM) is made to belong to a lower price class than its originally assigned price class.  
 
   
   
       10 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that its method steps or a subset thereof are performed directly in an MMS user agent.  
   
   
       11 . The method as claimed in one of the  claims 1  to  9 , characterized in that its method steps or a subset thereof are performed in at least one autonomous functional unit that is independent of an MMS user agent.  
   
   
       12 . The method as claimed in  claim 11 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the autonomous functional unit is provided by the MMS user agent with the user data volume (VOL) of the multimedia message (MM) to be sent or received in a particular case, said user data volume being determined by said MMS user agent, or with the fully or partially composed multimedia message itself.  
 
   
   
       13 . The method as claimed in one of the  claims 10  to  12 , characterized in that 
 either the respective MMS user agent and/or the at least one autonomous functional unit has access to information, in particular to data in tabular form, for assigning the determined user data volume (VOL) of the respective multimedia message (MM) to a price class (Px) and/or access to the price and/or user data volume upper limits (SPx, SGx) set by the respective user or MMS service provider in order to draw attention to possible overshoots.    
   
   
       14 . The method as claimed in  claim 13 ,  
     characterized in that 
 information of said kind is stored in one or more internal memory areas of a terminal device, in particular a radio communication device.  
 
   
   
       15 . The method as claimed in  claim 13 , characterized in that information of said kind is stored in one or more external memory units which can be connected to the respective terminal device via cable and/or wirelessly.  
   
   
       16 . The method as claimed in  claim 15 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the external memory unit is a SIM card or a UICC with (U) SIM which can be inserted into a mobile terminal device.  
 
   
   
       17 . The method as claimed in one of the  claims 14  to  16 ,  
     characterized in that 
 memory areas of the respective memory unit which can be written or, as the case may be, updated solely by the network carrier are used for the storing and subsequent OTA updating of individual items of MMS tariff information.  
 
   
   
       18 . The method as claimed in  claim 17 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the MMS tariff information of the respective network carrier is referred to in order to set the price and/or user data volume upper limits (SPx, SGx).  
 
   
   
       19 . The method as claimed in one of the  claims 14  to  16 , characterized in that 
 memory areas of the respective memory unit for which the respective user also possesses read and write permissions are used for storing the user-defined price and/or user data volume upper limits (SPx, SGx).    
   
   
       20 . The method as claimed in  claim 11 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the method steps or a subset thereof are performed by at least one reduction application on a SIM card (SAT application) or on a UICC with (U)SIM (CAT or (U)SAT application).  
 
   
   
       21 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that 
 an output message for indicating a possible overshoot of a user data volume upper limit (SGx) and/or price class upper limit (SPx) is communicated to a user via at least one HMI (Human Machine Interface) unit in acoustic, tactile and/or graphical form.    
   
   
       22 . The method as claimed in  claim 21 ,  
     characterized in that 
 a bar chart (BK) is used for the optical output.  
 
   
   
       23 . The method as claimed in  claim 22 ,  
     characterized in that 
 the currently present user data volume (VOL) of the respective multimedia message (MM) is indicated in relation to assigned price classes (P 1 -P 5 ) with the aid of the bar chart (BK).  
 
   
   
       24 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that 
 in order to reduce the present user data volume of a multimedia message element of the respective multimedia message (MM), a file type conversion, a file format conversion, a compression technique (=subset of the file format conversion), and/or, in the case of still images, a reduction of the color depth and/or the size can be used.    
   
   
       25 . The method as claimed in  claim 24 ,  
     characterized in that 
 at least two ways of reducing the user data volume of a multimedia message element are performed in combination with each other, in particular sequentially.  
 
   
   
       26 . The method as claimed in one of the preceding claims, characterized in that 
 the present user data volume (VOL) of the respective multimedia message (MM) is determined by the totaling of all data volumes of the individual multimedia message elements of said multimedia message.    
   
   
       27 . The method as claimed in  claim 26 ,  
     characterized in that 
 in addition, at least one or more header fields possibly present in the header part of the respective multimedia message, in particular the sizes of the header fields “Subject” for the subject of the multimedia message, as well as “Cc” and “Bcc” for the addressing of the multimedia message, are partially or completely included in the calculation of the user data volume of said multimedia message.  
 
   
   
       28 . The method as claimed in one of the  claim 26  or  27 , characterized in that 
 in addition, presentation descriptions contained in the respective multimedia message (MM) are also included partially or completely in the calculation of the user data volume.    
   
   
       29 . A radio communication device, in particular a mobile radio device, which is embodied for performing the method as claimed in one of the preceding claims.