Remote media control for voice over internet telephony and related applications

• US 20020101854A1
• Filed: 01/30/2001
• Published: 08/01/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Estara Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Siegrist, Joseph, Zwa, Amen
• Granted Patent: US 7,075,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1295 Details of dual tone multiple frequency signalling

Abstract

A person receiving a Voice over IP call, such as a call center agent, remotely controls media settings on a caller'"'"'s multimedia terminal device functioning as a telephone terminal device. In some embodiments, the call center agent may remotely control media settings by entering a DTMF (dual tone multi-frequency) sequence from the telephone keypad. The DTMF sequence may be recognized by a gateway through which an Internet-to-PSTN call is made, stripped out of the audio stream and sent to the caller'"'"'s multimedia terminal device in a separate command message through the Internet, or the DTMF sequence may be encoded into packets along with the voice information for detection and translation into a command message by software at the caller'"'"'s terminal device. In pure VoIP applications, command packets may be sent directly. When a command message is received at the caller'"'"'s terminal device, software on the end user computer makes the corresponding media setting changes without requiring any intervention on the part of the caller.

Claims

1. A method for remotely controlling a media setting comprising the steps of:

establishing a telephone call from an end user computer connected to a packet network to a telephone connected to a public switched telephone network, the telephone call being routed through a gateway connected to the packet network and the public switched telephone network, the gateway being operable to convert digital voice data packets received from the end user computer on the packet network to analog form for transmission over the public switched telephone network and to convert analog signals received from the telephone to digital voice data packets for transmission to the end user computer;

generating a dual tone multi-frequency signal at the telephone;

receiving the signal at the gateway;

transmitting a command message from the gateway to the end user computer; and

changing a media setting at the end user computer in response to the command message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media setting is changed to a predefined value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the command message is included in a voice data packet sent from the gateway to the end user computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the command message is included in a packet that does not include any voice data.

5. A method for remotely controlling media settings comprising the steps of:

establishing a telephone call from an end user computer connected to a packet network to a telephone connected to a public switched telephone network, the telephone call being routed through a gateway connected to the packet network and the public switched telephone network, the gateway being operable to convert digital voice data packets received from the end user computer on the packet network to analog form for transmission over the public switched telephone network and to convert analog signals received from the telephone to digital voice data packets for transmission to the end user computer;

generating a dual tone multi-frequency signal at the telephone;

receiving the signal at the gateway;

encoding the signal in a digital voice data packet;

transmitting the digital voice data packet to the end user computer; and

changing a media setting at the end user computer in response to the digital voice data packet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is microphone volume.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is speaker volume.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is echo suppression.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is echo cancellation.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is speaker balance.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is speaker bass.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is speaker treble.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the media setting is microphone mute.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the parameter is a time delay between the audible tone and the sound detected by the microphone.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the parameter is an amplitude of the sound detected by the microphone.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the media setting is echo suppression.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the media setting is echo cancellation.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the media setting is microphone volume.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the media setting is speaker volume.

14. A method for configuring a remote computer for a voice over data packet network call comprising the steps of:

downloading an applet to an end user computer;

executing the applet at the end user computer, the applet being operable to cause an audible tone at a predetermined volume to be produced by a speaker connected to the end user computer and adjust a media setting in accordance with a parameter of a sound corresponding to the audible tone detected by a microphone connected to the end user computer.