Video relay service, communication system, and related methods for connecting users with N11 services in a video relay service environment

• US 10,084,910 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2017
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sorenson Ip Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sorenson Ip Holdings, LLC
• Inventors: Montero, Adam, Esposito, Janet Lynn, Brooksby, Scot L., Beckmann, Grant A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Creighton
• Application Number:
  US15/488,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20180013885A1
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/50 Telephonic communication in combination with video communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42306 Number translation services, e.g. premium-rate, freephone or vanity number services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42391 where the subscribers are hearing-impaired persons, e.g. telephone devices for the deaf
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

Video relay services, communication systems, and methods are disclosed connecting users with N11 services in a video relay service environment. A video relay service may comprise at least one server configured to manage a customer database including customer records for audibly-impaired users of the video relay service, manage an N11 database including alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for a plurality of different locations defined by political boundaries, receive incoming video calls including an N11 code from a calling party, resolve the N11 code to an appropriate alternate number for an N11 service based on a political boundary for the calling party responsive to a query of the N11 database, establish a first connection between a video communication device associated with the calling party and a call assistant station associated with a sign language interpreter, and establish a second connection between the call assistant station and the N11 service.

Claims

1. A video relay service comprising:

at least one server configured to;

manage a customer database including customer records for audibly-impaired users of the video relay service;

manage an N11 database including alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for N11 services over a plurality of defined regions, wherein the N11 services are different than the video relay service;

receive an incoming call from a video communication device associated with a calling party placed to an N11 code selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, and 811; and

facilitate communication between the video communication device and a call assistant station associated with a sign language interpreter over a first connection, and between the call assistant station and an N11 service by resolving an N11 code from the incoming call to a corresponding alternate number from the N11 database for a region based on a determined location of the video communication device.

2. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein the at least one server is configured to facilitate the communication by:

establishing a first connection between the video communication device and the call assistant station; and

establish a second connection between the call assistant station and the N11 service corresponding to the N11 code of the incoming call and the customer record for the calling party.

3. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein the at least one server further includes an N11 database server that stores the N11 database;

and

a profile server that stores the customer database.

4. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein the customer database includes including address information including at least one of a street address, a city, a state, a county, a zip code, or any combination thereof for each customer of the video relay service.

5. The video relay service of claim 4, wherein the at least one server is further configured to:

manage an additional address database that is separate from the customer database;

correlate the address information from the customer database to county information stored in the additional address database.

8. The video relay service of claim 3, wherein the at least one server is configured to resolve the N11 code to the corresponding alternate number by applying one or more priority filters during a search of the N11 database.

9. The video relay service of claim 8, wherein two or more of the N11 codes have different rules that define the order of a priority of the one or more priority filters applied.

10. The video relay service of claim 8, wherein the one or more priority filters include at least one of a state filter, a city filter, a county filter, or a zip code filter.

11. The video relay service of claim 4, wherein the at least one server is configured to resolve the N11 code from the incoming call to the corresponding alternate number from the N11 database by retrieving the caller'"'"'s address information stored in the customer database, and querying the N11 database to find a matching record based on the caller'"'"'s address information.

12. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein the at least one server is configured to inform the video communication device that the N11 service is not supported by the video relay service by causing a video to play on the video communication device.

6. A video relay service at least one server configured to:

manage a customer database including customer records for audibly-impaired users of the video relay service, wherein the customer database includes including address information including at least one of a street address, a city, a state, a county, a zip code, or any combination thereof for each customer of the video relay service;

manage an N11 database including alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for a plurality of defined regions;

facilitate communication between a video communication device associated with a calling party of an incoming call, a call assistant station associated with a sign language interpreter, and an N11 service by resolving an N11 code from the incoming call to a corresponding alternate number from the N11 database, the N11 code selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, and 811;

manage an additional address database that is separate from the customer database;

correlate the address information from the customer database to county information stored in the additional address database; and

retrieve the county information stored in the additional address database a third party entity that is different than the video relay service.

7. The video relay service of claim 6, wherein the third party entity is the United States Postal Service.

13. A method of routing an N11 call received at a video relay service configured to provide sign language interpretive services during the N11 call, the method comprising:

receiving a call including an N11 code at a video relay service from a video communication device associated with a registered customer of the video relay service;

establishing a first connection between the video relay service and the video communication device;

resolving the N11 code to an alternate number corresponding to an N11 service based, at least in part, on the N11 code and a determination of at least one region associated with a location of the video communication device, wherein the N11 code is selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, and 811; and

establishing a second connection between the video relay service and the corresponding N11 service responsive to successfully resolving the N11 code to the alternate number such that a call assistant at the video relay service is connected to both the video communication device via the first connection and the N11 service via the second connection.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting a set of filter priority rules from among a plurality of different sets of filter priority rules depending on which N11 code is included with the call.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein resolving the N11 code is performed by at least one of the video relay service or the video communication device.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining the at least one region by receiving geolocational information from a user profile server during the call and comparing the geolocational information to a map having defined political boundaries for the N11 code.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising selecting the map from among a plurality of different maps depending on which N11 code is included with the call.

15. A method of routing an N11 call received at a video relay service configured to provide sign language interpretive services during the N11 call, the method comprising:

receiving a call including an N11 code at a video relay service from a video communication device associated with a registered customer of the video relay service;

establishing a first connection between the video relay service and the video communication device;

resolving the N11 code to an alternate number corresponding to an N11 service based, at least in part, on the N11 code and a determination of at least one region associated with a location of the video communication device, wherein the N11 code is selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, and 811;

establishing a second connection between the video relay service and the corresponding N11 service responsive to successfully resolving the N11 code to the alternate number such that a call assistant at the video relay service is connected to both the video communication device via the first connection and the N11 service via the second connection; and

generating a report to a technical support team responsive to determining that the N11 code included with the call is not supported by the video relay service for the location of the video communication device.

19. A video communication system comprising:

a video communication device configured for an audibly-impaired user to engage in a communication session with a far-end user; and

a video relay service configured to;

receive an N11 call from the video communication device responsive to an N11 code being dialed, wherein the N11 code is selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 411, 511, 611, 711, and 811;

establish a first connection with the video communication device; and

establish a second connection with an N11 service corresponding to an alternate number resolved from the N11 code based on at least one defined region for the location of the video communication device, wherein resolving the N11 code to the corresponding alternate number is performed by either the video relay service or the video communication device.

20. The video communication system of claim 19, wherein the N11 code is resolved to the corresponding alternate number for the location of the video communication device by applying one or more priority filters during a search of an N11 database including a plurality of different alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for a plurality of different locations.