TELECOMMUNICATION AND MULTIMEDIA MANAGEMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS

• US 20090003544A1
• Filed: 03/05/2008
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rebelvox LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Katis, Thomas E., Panttaja, Mary G., Ranney, Matthew J., Panttaja, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,149 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.130
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 3/126 Foldable, retractable or tiltable tribunes E04H3/123 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2503 Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/64 Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations centralised dictation systems H04M11/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/00 Telephonic communication systems specially adapted for combination with other electrical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 : Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 : Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A telecommunication and multimedia management apparatus and method that supports voice and other media communications and that enables users to: (i) participate in multiple conversation modes, including live phone calls, conference calls, instant voice messaging or tactical communications; (ii) review the messages of conversations in either a live mode or a time-shifted mode and to seamlessly transition back and forth between the two modes; (iii) participate in multiple conversations either concurrently or simultaneously; (iv) archive the messages of conversations for later review or processing; and (v) persistently store media either created or received on the communication devices of users. The latter feature enables users to generate or review media when either disconnected from the network or network conditions are poor and to optimize the delivery of media over the network based on network conditions and the intention of the users participating in conversations.

Claims

1. A method for constituting and conducting a conversation, comprising:

receiving at a first communication device media of a conversation with one or more participants over a network;

storing on the first communication device the received media as the media is received over the network;

rendering on the first communication device the received media of the conversation in either a near real-time mode or a time-shifted mode;

creating media on the first communication device associated with the conversation;

storing the created media on the first communication device;

transmitting over the network the media created on the first communication device to the one or more participants of the conversation;

associating the created and received media; and

constituting the conversation from the associated created and received media.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the conversation further comprises an exchange of the received and transmitted media among the participants.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the conversation is characterized by one or more contextual attributes.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving media further comprises receiving media segmented into messages.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising segmenting the created media into messages.

6. The communication method of claim 1, wherein rendering on the first communication device the received media of the conversation in the near real-time mode further comprises progressively rendering the received media as the received media is received over the network.

7. The communication method of claim 1, wherein rendering on the first communication device the received media of the conversation in the time-shifted mode further comprises retrieving and progressively rendering the received media from storage or memory.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the ability to transition the rendering of the received media back and forth between the near real-time and the time-shifted modes on the first communication device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the ability to select on the first communication device a delay for rendering the received media of the conversation when in the time-shifted mode, wherein the delay has a duration that is defined by a user of the first communication device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a plurality of rendering options for rendering the media of the conversation, the rendering options including one or more of the following:

pause, replay, play faster, play slower, jump backward, jump forward, catch up to the most recently received media, or jump to the most recently received media.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the ability to review in the time-shifted mode the received and created media of the conversation on the first communication device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the ability to review in the time-shifted mode the received and created media of the conversation further comprises:

selecting one participant of the conversation;

retrieving the media associated with the selected participant from storage; and

separately rendering the media associated with the selected participant.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein providing the ability to review in the time-shifted mode the received and created media of the conversation further comprises:

selecting two or more participants of the conversation;

retrieving the media associated with the selected two or more participants from storage or memory; and

mixing the rendering of the media associated with the selected two or more participants.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising progressively storing the media as the media is being created before transmitting the media.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising progressively transmitting the media as the media is being created before the media is stored.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising concurrently and progressively transmitting and storing the media as the media is being created.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising progressively storing the received media as the media is being received before rendering the received media in the near real-time mode.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising progressively rendering the received media as the media is being received before the received media is stored.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising concurrently and progressively rendering and storing the received media as the media is being received.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting over the network the media created on the first communication device further comprises:

ascertaining if the first communication device is connected to the network when the media is created; and

progressively transmitting the media if the first communication device is connected to the network,

wherein connected to the network is defined as the ability to transfer data between the first communication device and the network.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising;

ascertaining the bandwidth rate of the connection between the network and the first communication device when the media is being created; and

progressively transmitting the created media at the ascertained bandwidth rate.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting over the network the media created on the first communication device further comprises:

ascertaining if the first communication device is disconnected from the network when the media is created;

detecting when the first communication device reconnects to the network; and

transmitting the created media from storage after the first communication device reconnects to the network,

wherein connected and disconnected to the network is defined as the ability to transfer or not transfer data between the first communication device and the network respectively.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting over the network the media created on the first communication device further comprises:

ascertaining if network conditions are sufficiently poor to prevent transmission when the media is created;

detecting when network conditions sufficiently improve to enable the transmission; and

transmitting the created media from storage after detecting when the network conditions sufficiently improve.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the media further comprises one or more of the following types of media:

voice, video, text, sensor data, radio signals, position or GPS information, or a combination thereof.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication device comprises one of the following:

a land-line phone, a wireless phone, a cellular phone, a mobile phone, a computer, a radio, a satellite phone, a satellite radio, a tactical radio, or a tactical phone.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a packet-based network, a circuit-based network, a cellular network, a wireless network, a radio based network, a telephone network, or a combination thereof.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the media received at and transmitted by the first communication device further comprise time indexed media payloads.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the time indexed media payloads are streamed.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein rendering the media of the conversation in the time-shifted mode further comprises:

selecting a rendering point to begin the rendering of the media of the conversation, wherein the rendering point corresponds to a previous point in time of the conversation; and

rendering the time indexed media payloads of the conversation starting with the time indexed media payload coinciding with the selected rendering point.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering on the first communication device the received media of the conversation further comprises:

receiving multiple media streams at the first communication device from multiple participants associated with the conversation, each of the multiple media streams including time indexed media payloads; and

rendering the multiple media streams by overlapping the indexed media payloads per participant by time.

31. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more contextual attributes characterizing the conversation comprise one or more of the following:

a conversation topic, a conversation name, a name of one or more of the participants in the conversation, or a designated time.

32. The method of claim 1, further comprising transitioning the rendering of the received media of the conversation from the time-shifted mode to the near real-time mode by:

retrieving the stored media from storage or memory;

rendering the retrieved media from storage at an increased rendering rate;

ascertaining a catch-up point when the rendering of the retrieved media at the increased rate has caught up and is substantially concurrent with the media of the conversation as it is being received over the network; and

rendering the media of the conversation in the near real-time mode as it is being received over the network after the catch-up point.