System and method for communicating with instant messaging clients using a telephone

• US 20040186909A1
• Filed: 03/22/2004
• Published: 09/23/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gateway Incorporated (Acer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Gateway Incorporated (Acer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Greenwood, Jon Michel
• Granted Patent: US 7,512,217 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0045 where the text-based messaging service is an instant messaging service
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4753 for user identification, e.g. by entering a PIN or password cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Systems and methods allow a user at a telephone to communicate with an instant messaging client. The instant messaging client may be identified by a PIN that is entered on the telephone. Input from the telephone, include keypad and voice input may be converted to text that is displayed to the IM client. Text data received from the IM client may be converted to speech that is output to the telephone. A proximity detector may be used to determine the presence of an IM client user.

Claims

1. A computerized method comprising:

initiating a telephone session, said telephone session operable to receive input signals and send output voice signals;

providing a personal identification number (PIN), said personal identification number identifying one or more user identifications for one or more instant messaging (IM) clients; and

converting text data from the one or more instant messaging clients to output voice signals.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, further comprising providing an online status for the one or more instant messaging clients to the telephone session.

3. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the input signals are voice signals;

4. The computerized method of claim 3, further comprising converting the voice signals to text data and sending the text data to the one or more instant messaging clients.

5. The computerized method of claim 3, further comprising recognizing the voice signals as instant messaging commands;

6. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein the input signals comprise keypad strokes.

7. The computerized method of claim 6, further comprising converting the keypad strokes signals to alphanumeric data and transmitting the alphanumeric data to the one or more instant messaging clients.

8. The computerized method of claim 6, further comprising converting the keypad strokes to instant messaging commands.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more instant messaging clients includes instant messaging clients selected from the group comprising AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messaging, ICQ, and MSN instant messaging.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an instant messaging server is operable to receive said input signals and send said output voice signals.

11. A system for providing instant messaging, the system comprising:

an input module operable to receive input from a telephone;

a PIN management module operable to receive PIN data, said PIN data identifying an IM user;

an IM client module operable to establish an IM session with an IM client identified by the IM user; and

a text to speech module operable to convert text data to speech data for output to the telephone.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the input module includes a keypad input module for receiving keypad data from the telephone.

13. The system of claim 11 wherein the input module includes a speech to text module for receiving voice data from the telephone and converts the voice data to text data for output through the IM client module.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising a PIN database operable to maintain data mapping a PIN to an IM user identification.

15. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising:

initiating a telephone session, said telephone session operable to receive input signals and send output voice signals;

providing a personal identification number (PIN), said personal identification number identifying one or more user identifications for one or more instant messaging (IM) clients; and

converting text data from the one or more instant messaging clients to output voice signals.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises providing an online status for the one or more instant messaging clients to the telephone session.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the input signals are voice signals;

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises converting the voice signals to text data and sending the text data to the one or more instant messaging clients.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises recognizing the voice signals as instant messaging commands;

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the input signals comprise keypad strokes.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises converting the keypad strokes signals to alphanumeric data and transmitting the alphanumeric data to the one or more instant messaging clients.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises converting the keypad strokes to instant messaging commands.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the one or more instant messaging clients includes instant messaging clients selected from the group comprising AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messaging, ICQ, and MSN instant messaging.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein an instant messaging server is operable to receive said input signals and send said output voice signals.

25. An instant messaging client system comprising:

an instant message (IM) client module; and

a proximity detector communicably coupled to the IM client module and operable to;

detect a change in the presence of an IM client user;

update an IM client status in accordance with the change in presence.

26. The instant message client system of claim 25, wherein the proximity detector includes and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) detector.

27. The instant message client system of claim 25, wherein the proximity detector includes an ultrasonic detector.

28. The instant message client system of claim 25, wherein the proximity detector includes an infrared detector.

29. The instant message client system of claim 25, wherein the IM client module is selected from the group consisting of selected from the group comprising AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messaging, ICQ, and MSN instant messaging.

30. A method for maintaining an IM client status, the method comprising:

detecting a change in proximity of a user of an IM client; and

updating an IM client status in accordance with the change in proximity.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein detecting the change in proximity includes detecting that the user has come within a range of a proximity detector.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein detecting the change in proximity includes detecting that the user as exited a range of a proximity detector.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein detecting the change in proximity includes determining a lack of activity on an input device.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein determining a lack of activity includes determining a lack of activity for a predetermined timeout period.

35. The method of claim 30, wherein detecting the change in proximity includes determining the resumption of activity on an input device.