Apple helps to Prevent Misdirected Messages/Emails

A recent report published reveals an Apple invention which illustrates an effective and simple way to remind users of who is on the other end of a text message of a group chat, a problem faced by people who seem to be juggling over multiple conversations at the same time. As reported by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent application of Apple for Generation of a user interface based on contacts will now enable users of apps like iMessage to be more conscious of who they are talking to at any point of time thus preventing any embarrassing and misdirected messages.

Background Image during Messaging Session 

Several IM clients including Apple’s iMessage app displays just the first name or the phone number of the chat friend and at first, one may not even know who is at the other end and if engaged in a group chat with multiple individuals, one could easily lose track of who one is trying to text the message. This new invention has a contact’s image or photo which would be corresponding to the contact as a background image during a messaging session. In the case of group chats, the text is overlaid on one or more images corresponding to the contacts that are involved during the conversation.

System capable of recognizing contacts

Generally the system tends to recognize that a user has received or is probably about to send an iMessage email, MMS chat or any similar correspondence and then identifies contacts which are associated with that particular message. The background image which relates to the contact or contacts is then used to create a background on which the whole conversation tends to take place and when a contact does not have any assigned photo, a female or a male avatar could be used since the system then selects gender based on stored contact information. When the appropriate image is selected, the background can then be generated by enlarging or stretching, cropping, tiling or even adjusting the image to fit into the messaging screen’s space.
Alpha Blending and Desaturation
Additional modification such as alpha blending and desaturation can blend the image in the background enabling the user to concentrate on the active conversation text that may include the time stamps, usual names along with other familiar UI assets.The capabilities to dynamically modify imagery background is useful and helpful in group chats for instance a slot can highlight the image which may be associated with the user who has sent the most recent response. Alternative, a colour image selected could be displayed while the other participants could be displayed in grey scale thus differentiating the last sent message. The idea behind a updated published Apple patent filing would be appreciated by anyone who has ever sent text messages to the wrong person
Animated Transition
Severalvariations on group messaging comprises of image thumbnails which are arranged in a Cover Flow style with rotating carousel or contact cards that have animated transitions. The remainder of Apple’s filing goes deep in the system implementation which includes discussions of API which would open the door for third party apps in order to access the technology. The UI patent application of Apple’s image based messaging was first filed in 2012 with credits to Enrique E. Rodriguez as its inventor.