Systems and methods for advanced communications and control

• US 20060190543A1
• Filed: 10/13/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pulver.com
• Original Assignee: Pulver.com
• Inventors: Ford, Carl S., Toga, James E., Guy, Edward T. III, Pulver, Jeffrey L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,412,527 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0045 where the text-based messaging service is an instant messaging service

Abstract

Methods and systems for telecommunications operations and controls include (1) an enhanced text message process or methodology that allows a remote user who does not have, already installed, a specialized voice telephony program to nevertheless place and participate in a voice call, (2) call admission control using a “degrees of separation” metric, (3) real time controlled sharing of contact (buddy) lists, (4) multi-service instance messaging conferences, and (5) “meta buddies” or buddy lists that can be automatically imported and made part of a user'"'"'s own buddy list.

Claims

1. A method for initiating a voice connection from a text-only internet communication session, comprising:

initiating an Instant Message (IM) session from a calling party to a called party;

sending a hyperlink to the called party as part of an IM message, wherein the hyperlink is associated with an internet voice application;

receiving, via the internet voice application subsequently launched by the called party to whom the hyperlink was sent, a request to initiate a voice connection; and

accepting the request and establishing a voice call between the calling party and the called party.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining an IM session between the calling and called parties simultaneously with the voice call.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising requesting prior approval of an owner of the first one of the plurality of buddy lists before adding the any new contacts to the second one of the plurality of buddy lists.

3. A method for call/session admittance control, comprising:

establishing, for a first party, a degree of separation metric;

receiving a call request from a second party;

calculating the number of paths traversed from the second party to the first party; and

rejecting the call request if the number of paths traversed is greater that the established degree of separation metric.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein degree of separation is calculated by:

degree of separation=SUM<sub>i=(0 . . . n-1) nodes in shortest—

path</sub> (Weight_i).

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the call/session comprises at least one of voice, video, and text or any combination thereof that can be used to exchange message between parties.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the first party and the second party are registered with different service providers.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the degree of separation is different for each or some users.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

setting up a black list including at least one party, wherein the black list defines that messages sent from the at least one party are rejected.

9. A method for sharing buddy lists between instant messaging (IM) system users, comprising:

providing an internet server that has access to a plurality of buddy lists belonging to respective users;

upon request to the internet server, determining whether a first one of the plurality of buddy lists permits sharing its associated contacts;

updating a second one of the plurality of buddy lists with contacts from the first one of the plurality of buddy lists if the first one of the plurality of buddy lists permits sharing.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising requesting prior approval of an owner of the first one of the plurality of buddy lists before adding contacts to the second one of the plurality of buddy lists.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

scanning the first one of the plurality of buddy lists for any new contacts since the updating step, and further updating the second one of the plurality of buddy lists with the any new contacts from the first one of the plurality of buddy lists.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the internet server is located remotely.

14. A method for providing a telecommunications service, comprising:

providing an internet server that can establish communications with a first instant messaging (IM) network and a second, different, IM network;

receiving, at the internet server, a request from a first party to contact a second party and a third party via an IM session;

accessing a database belonging to the first party to identifying to which IM networks the second and third parties subscribe; and

establishing independent IM sessions between the first party and the second party on the first IM network via the internet server, and the first party and the third party on the second IM network via the internet server, such that any messages sent by any of the first, second or third parties can be received and seen by each of the first, second and third parties.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising controlling the format of the any messages seen by the first, second and third parties.

16. A method for combining contacts from disparate messaging networks, comprising:

receiving a log-in from a user to an internet server that operates a first internet service;

retrieving from the user by the internet server a buddy list of the user for a second internet service;

determining whether at least one contact in the buddy list of the user for the second internet service is also a subscriber to the first internet service; and

automatically adding the at least one contact into a second buddy list of the user that is operable with the first internet service.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the internet service is an instant messaging (IM) service.

18. A system for providing telecommunications services, comprising:

an internet server that is in communication with a plurality of users, the internet server having an internet telephone web application that can be launched by a request received from a first user and subsequently to connect a second user to the first user with a voice connection, the internet server further comprising Instant Messaging (IM) conference functionality to conference IM users who subscribe to different IM networks, and the internet server further including buddy list management capable of retrieving contacts associated with a buddy list of one user and importing the contacts to a buddy list of another user.