Portable telephone for conveying real time walkie-talkie streaming audio-video

• US 20060073795A1
• Filed: 10/06/2004
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mavenir Ltd. (Mavenir Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Comverse Limited (Mavenir Group Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Mayblum, Amir, Steinmetz, Daphna
• Granted Patent: US 7,668,515 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/90.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/145 Handheld terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A communications device having a display and an integral camera and being provided with a walkie-talkie mode for conveying real time streaming audio-video to one or more receiving devices.

Claims

1. A communications device comprising:

a display; and

an integral camera,

wherein the communications device is provided with a walkie-talkie mode operable for conveying real time streaming audio-video to at least one receiving device.

2. The communications device according to claim 1, wherein the communications device is a cellular telephone.

3. The communications device according to claim 1, wherein the communications device is compatible with the PoC (Push-to-Talk over Cellular) Standard.

4. The communications device according to claim 2, wherein the communications device is compatible with the PoC (Push-to-Talk over Cellular) Standard.

5. The communications device according to claim 3, wherein the communications device is adapted to transmit streaming video to a non-PoC compatible receiving device.

6. The communications device according to claim 3, further comprising:

a memory for storing a buddy list of members possessing enhanced communications devices having video receive capability,

a user interface coupled to the memory, the user interface allows user selection of a member from the buddy list, and

a user status interface coupled to the memory and to the user interface, the user status interface operable for determining an availability status of the member selected by the user interface and operable for causing an indication of said status to be displayed on the display of the communications device.

7. A communications device comprising:

a receiver adapted to receive real time streaming audio from a sending party; and

a display adapted to display an animated avatar indicative of a voice of the sending party.

8. A server for use in a telephone communications system, said server comprising:

a first interface adapted for coupling to a first communications device, the first communications device comprises a display and an integral camera and is provided with a walkie-talkie mode for conveying real time streaming video to the server, and

a second interface adapted to convey said real time streaming video and audio to a second communications device coupled to the second interface, the second communications device comprises a display adapted to display the conveyed real time streaming video.

9. The server according to claim 8, further comprising a third interface coupled to a presence server, for receiving data therefrom indicative of an availability status of a selected party and for conveying representative data to the first communications device.

10. The server according to claim 8, further comprising a fourth interface coupled to a group level management server, for receiving therefrom group level management data indicative of predefined groups of members, wherein the server is responsive to said group level management data for conveying real time streaming video to a respective second communications device of each member in the selected group.

11. The server according to claim 8, further comprising:

an animation processor adapted to receive an audio stream from a communications device having a walkie-talkie mode for conveying an audio stream only to the server, said animation processor being responsive to the audio stream for producing an avatar;

wherein the second interface coupled to the animation processor for allowing said avatar to be conveyed as real time streaming video to a receiving device having video streaming receiving capability.

12. The server according to claim 11, wherein the animation processor is adapted to access a photograph of a sender of an audio-only message for producing an avatar representative of the sender.

13. The server according to claim 8, wherein the server is PoC compatible.

14. A real-time audio-video communications system comprising:

a source client;

a target client;

a protocol converter coupled to the source client and to the target client via an access network; and

a server coupled to the protocol converter and via the access network to the source client and to the target client,

wherein the source client and the target client are provided with a display and a walkie-talkie actuator,

wherein at least one of the source client and the target client is provided with an integral camera,

wherein the server is adapted to convey real time streaming audio-video to the source client and the target client, and

wherein the server is adapted to receive real time streaming video from the at least one of the source client and the target client, wherein a client providing the real time streaming video includes an integral camera.

15. The real-time audio-video system according to claim 14, further comprising:

respective AB presence units in the source client and the target client being coupled to a presence server for maintaining status information relating to the source client and to the target client; and

a Group Management Server coupled to the AB presence units via the access network,

wherein said presence server is coupled to the protocol converter and to the server and the Group Management Server for communicating with the respective AB presence units in the source client and the target client.

16. The real-time audio-video system according to claim 14, wherein the source client, the target client and the server are PoC compatible.

17. A communications device comprising:

receiving means for receiving real time streaming audio from a sending party; and

displaying means for displaying an animated avatar indicative of a voice of the sending party.

18. A server for use in a telephone communications system, the server comprising:

a first interface means for coupling to a first communications device, the first communications device comprises a display and an integral camera and is provided with a walkie-talkie mode for conveying real time streaming video to the server, and

a second interface means for conveying said real time streaming video and audio to a second communications device coupled to the second interface, the second communications device comprises a display adapted to display the conveyed real time streaming video and audio.

19. A method for conveying real time streaming audio-video in a communications network, the method comprising:

converting speech and video image of a source communications device using audio codec and video codec into the real time streaming audio-video;

selecting by a source communications device at least one target communications device;

transmitting via a server the real time streaming audio-video to the at least one selected target communications device,

wherein the source and target communications devices support a walkie-talkie mode, and wherein the real time streaming audio-video is transmitted in the walkie-talkie mode.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the source and target communications devices are PoC compatible.