Scalable message fidelity

Abstract

Message content is scaled to support rich messaging. Devices and associated messaging systems can support various levels of content richness or fidelity. Message content scaling is employed to ensure sharing of content in as rich a manner as possible given limitations associated with various messaging systems, among other things. Messages can be scaled down or degraded, for instance where communicating devices do not support high fidelity content being transmitted. Alternatively, messages can be scaled up or enriched in cases, where low fidelity content is transmitted to a device supporting richer content, for example.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A message process system, comprising:
 a component that identifies a level of message content richness supported by a receiver mobile communication device; and   a scale component that scales fidelity of message content to the identified level.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a component that notifies a sender and/or receiver that the message content was scaled. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a compression component that compresses the content. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a link component that replaces the content with a link to the content. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , the content is one of a web page or a map. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a data component that extracts metadata associated with content and replaces the content with a description thereof. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a component that transforms video content into plurality of still images. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a component that converts audio content into text. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a component that transforms graphical emoticons to ASCII representations. 
     
     
         10 . A method of message scaling, comprising:
 receiving a message generated by a mobile communication device; and   scaling content of the message to a maximum level of fidelity supported by a target mobile communication device.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , comprising degrading message content to facilitate communication with legacy devices. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising compressing message media content. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising replacing media content with a textual description thereof or a uniform resource locator (URL). 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising converting video into a plurality of still frame images. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , comprising transforming audio into a text representation. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising providing notification to a sender and/or receiver of the scaling. 
     
     
         17 . A mobile communication apparatus, comprising:
 a message component that enables messages to be sent and received; and   a scale component that enhances or degrades message content fidelity.   
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , further comprising a notification component that notifies a message sender and/or receiver when message content fidelity is degraded. 
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , further comprising an analysis component that determines supported message content fidelity to enable content to be scaled thereto. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 17 , the message component enables rich message content that combines SMS, MMS, IM, and e-mail type features.