Method for providing concurrent audio-video and audio instant messaging sessions
First Claim
1. A method for allowing a plurality of users who communicate with one another in groups of two or more in multiple, concurrent conversation sessions that include sending and receiving streaming messages, comprising:
- a. providing one or more terminal devices for creating, sending, and receiving streaming messages, b. providing one or more storage devices which are able to store a group of streaming messages for a recipient, the group of streaming messages containing one or more streaming messages, c. creating and sending independent and concurrent streaming messages from the one or more terminal devices to the one or more storage devices, and d. allowing the recipient to use at least one of the terminal devices to access the one or more storage devices and to independently and selectively play back and act upon a received streaming message selected from the group of streaming messages, whereby multiple, concurrent streaming messages from different users can be separately played back and acted upon by each recipient, whereby each user can simultaneously participate in and alternate among separate, concurrent streaming conversations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods and systems for allowing users to participate in concurrent real-time audio or audio-video communication sessions over the Internet, the public telephone networks, and other networks. A user may switch among two or more conversations, and upon doing so, can play back the conversational content that was created while the user was engaged in other conversations or other tasks. After playing back part or all of the new conversational content, the user can reply with an audio or audio-video instant message that can then be played by the other conversation participants. Temporary storage of the conversation content (the instant messages) can occur on network servers, on the sender'"'"'s terminal or on the recipient'"'"'s terminal, depending upon preferences and the capacity of the terminal devices.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for allowing a plurality of users who communicate with one another in groups of two or more in multiple, concurrent conversation sessions that include sending and receiving streaming messages, comprising:
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a. providing one or more terminal devices for creating, sending, and receiving streaming messages, b. providing one or more storage devices which are able to store a group of streaming messages for a recipient, the group of streaming messages containing one or more streaming messages, c. creating and sending independent and concurrent streaming messages from the one or more terminal devices to the one or more storage devices, and d. allowing the recipient to use at least one of the terminal devices to access the one or more storage devices and to independently and selectively play back and act upon a received streaming message selected from the group of streaming messages, whereby multiple, concurrent streaming messages from different users can be separately played back and acted upon by each recipient, whereby each user can simultaneously participate in and alternate among separate, concurrent streaming conversations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19)
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8. A method for establishing and maintaining concurrent audio-visual messaging sessions among a plurality of users who communicate with one another in groups of two or more individuals, said method allowing each user to concurrently receive and individually respond to separate audio-visual messages from said plurality of users, the method comprising the steps of:
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a. concurrently receiving and storing said separate audio-visual messages from at least two members of the plurality of users, b. indicating that a plurality of said separate audio-visual messages were received from each of the at least two users, and c. selecting one of said separate audio-visual messages for playback and response.
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11. A system for controlling concurrent, streaming conversation sessions among a plurality of users who communicate with one another in groups of two or more users, each streaming conversation session consisting of one or more streaming messages, and each streaming message have a creator and one or more intended recipients selected from the plurality of users, said system allowing each user to concurrently receive and individually respond to a plurality of streaming messages from said plurality of users, comprising:
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a. a plurality of storage devices for storing, receiving and transmitting one or more streaming messages from said plurality of messages, b. a group of memory addresses that identify the streaming messages that can be received by a user, c. a plurality of terminal devices, each terminal device capable of;
(1) recording one or more streaming messages, (2) receiving messages from one or more storage devices, (3) sending messages to one or more storage devices, (4) playing back one or more streaming messages, (5) allowing a human operator to control the recording and sending of one or more streaming messages to one or more intended recipients, (6) selecting an address in the group of memory addresses and requesting the associated streaming message for play back, and (7) allowing a human operator to create a new streaming message as a reply to a received streaming message, d. a communication network for routing said plurality of streaming messages e. a means for identifying terminal devices associated with the intended recipients of each of the streaming messages, f. a means for determining the delivery method for each streaming message, and g. a networking means for delivering each streaming message to the terminal devices associated with the intended recipients, whereby a user can consecutively listen to and reply to streaming messages from different users, whereby each user can simultaneously participate-in and alternate among separate, concurrent conversations.
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17. The method of claim 17, wherein the software used to specify recipients in the destination list can utilize speech recognition means to identify keywords, thereby causing the streaming message to be sent to one or more users who are interested in messages containing the keyword.
Specification