TELECOMMUNICATION AND MULTIMEDIA MANAGEMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS

• US 20090003559A1
• Filed: 02/26/2008
• 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 8,243,894 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/93.10
• 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 communication method for communication on a first communication device, comprising:

receiving at the 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; and

transitioning the rendering of the media of the conversation on the first communication device from the time-shifted mode to the near real-time mode by;

retrieving the stored media;

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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the stored media further comprises retrieving the stored media from a selected previous point in time in the conversation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein rendering the retrieved media from storage further comprises rendering the stored media from the selected previous point in time in the conversation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the retrieved media from storage at the increased rendering rate further comprises rendering the retrieved media at a rendering rate faster than the media was originally encoded.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the rendering rate is variable.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the variable rendering rate is selected at the first communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the media of the conversation in the near real-time mode as it is being received over the network further comprises progressively rendering the received media as the media arrives over the network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the received media of the conversation in the time-shifted mode further comprises:

retrieving the retrieved media from storage or memory after a delay; and

rendering the media retrieved from storage or memory after the delay.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering on the first communication device may be selectively transitioned between the near real-time mode and the time-shifted mode.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a plurality of rendering options for rendering the media, 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:

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

storing the created media; and

transmitting the created media to the one or more participants of the conversation over the network.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising segmenting the created and the received media into messages.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising associating the messages with the conversation.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising mixing the media from the one or more participants of the conversation when rendering in the near real-time mode.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising mixing the media from the one or more participants of the conversation when rendering in the time-delayed mode.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising separating the media from the one or more participants of the conversation when rendering in the time-delayed mode so that the media from each participant of the conversation is independently rendered.

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

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

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

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.

19. 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.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the media comprises one or more indexed media payloads each having a time stamp and sequence number.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein rendering the retrieved media from storage at the increased rendering rate further comprises rendering the retrieved media by performing one or more of the following:

skipping silence in the media, skipping hesitation particles in the media, speeding up the audio content in the media, or pitch shifting.

22. The method of claim 8, wherein the delay has a duration, the duration being determined by a user of the first communication device.