Internet based data, voice and video alert notification communications system

• US 20100122334A1
• Filed: 10/13/2006
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kaydon A. Stanzione, Kaydon Stanzione
• Original Assignee: Kaydon Stanzione
• Inventors: Oliver, Lendell L., Stanzione, Kaydon A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,849,908 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0637 Strategic management or analysis, e.g. setting a goal or target of an organisation; Planning actions based on goals; Analysis or evaluation of effectiveness of goals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication

Abstract

A real-time integrated information sharing and telecommunications collaboration system is disclosed. The system includes at least one central server to create, store, display, edit, distribute, share, control and archive voice, data, video and images with a plurality of simultaneous wireless and wireline remote display devices. The system includes at least one central server monitors, controls and protects voice, data, video and image communications to, from and between display devices through encrypted token based security identifiers. The sharing of information and communication data packets between the display devices is contingent upon permissions assigned to individual human or machine end users. All data and communications, including the encrypted token based security identifiers may be stored simultaneously or individually within the central server, display device, or a third-party remote storage device whereby each or all may reside behind additional security systems and firewalls at a plurality of locations. All voice, data, video and images are seamlessly integrated through either one or in combination of communications paths to include, but not limited to, the Public Switched Telephone Network, World Wide Web, Internet, Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Local Area Network (LAN), satellite, land mobile radio, WiFi, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), broadband over powerlines and other wireline and wireless networks.

Claims

1. A real-time converged communications and information system, said system comprising:

a central computer server, said central computer server having data storage;

a plurality of remote user devices each having communications access to the central computer server, and said plurality of remote user devices also having communications access to each of the other plurality of remote user devices;

encryption means to ensure that communications from any of the plurality of remote user devices is transmitted only to the central server or to one or more of the plurality of other remote user devices;

a remote machine server, said remote machine server having communications access to each of the plurality of remote user devices; and

a central communications server, said central communications server having communications access to each of the plurality of remote users devices, said central communications server also having communications access to both public and private communication networks.

2. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 1, wherein the communications link is through the internet.

3. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 1, wherein the communications link is through at least one of the following communications paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the internet, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

4. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 1, wherein the central computer server data storage is protected by at least one firewall.

5. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of remote user devices transmit one or more of the following:

voice, text, video or image data.

6. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of remote user devices transmitting voice communications are one or more of the following:

telephone, cell phone, land mobile radio, videophone, video camera, VoIP phone, or satellite phone.

7. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of remote user devices transmitting data communications are one or more of the following:

telephone, cell phone, land mobile radio, videophone, video camera, VoIP phone, satellite phone, pagers, sensors, facsimile devices, computers, personal digital assistants, or “

Blackberry”

-type devices.

55. The method according to claim 53, whereby notification message is comprised of voice-based message format, and creates a communications campaign, wherein said communications campaign method is comprised of:

creating a plurality of voice messages via agents within the system of claim 1 or by external equipment using at least one communication path under claim 3, said voice messages stored on central server;

selecting at least one of said voice messages to be distributed via said communication path;

delivering said voice messages in accordance with said communications plans wherein said communications plan can include concatenating multiple voice messages resulting in a single unified message.

8. A real-time virtual workplace collaborative communications system, said system comprising:

at least one central server, said each at least one central server each having data storage;

a plurality of remote user devices having communications access to the central server, and said plurality of remote user devices also having direct communications access to each of the other plurality of remote user devices;

encryption means to ensure that communication from any of the plurality of remote user devices is transmitted only to the central server or to one of the plurality of other remote user devices;

a content management computer server, said content management computer server having communications access to the central computer server, said content management server also managing the creation, storage, display and receipt of electronic data;

a remote machine server, said remote machine server having communications access to each of the plurality of remote user devices; and

a central communications server, said central communications server having communications access to each of the plurality of remote users devices, said central communications server also having communications access to both public and private communication networks.

9. The real-time virtual workplace collaborative communications system, according to claim 8, wherein the devices communications access is through the internet.

10. The real-time virtual workplace collaborative communications system, according to claim 8, wherein the devices communications access is through at least one of the following communications paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the internet, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

11. The real-time virtual workplace collaborative communications, according to claim 8, wherein the central computer server data storage is protected by at least one firewall.

12. The real-time virtual workplace collaborative communications, according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of remote user devices transmit one or more of the following:

voice, text, video or image data.

13. A real-time converged communications and information system, said system comprising:

a central server for communicating with a plurality of remote users, said central server having data storage memory;

a plurality of remote user devices having communications access to the central server and having communication access to other remote user devices;

encryption security means to ensure communication from a remote user device is transmitted only to the central server or to selected other remote user devices;

a content management server for communicating with a plurality of remote users, said content management server permitting the creation, management, display and receipt of data;

a remote machine server for communicating with a plurality of remote machine devices, said remote machine server having communications access to other remote machine devices; and

a central communications server for communicating with a plurality of remote users and devices, said central communications server also having communication access to both public and private communication networks.

14. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 13, wherein the communications link is through the internet.

15. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 13, wherein the data storage is protected by at least one firewall.

16. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of remote user devices transmits one or more of the following:

voice, text, video and image communications.

17. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of remote user devices transmitting voice communications may be one or more of the following:

telephone, cell phone, land mobile radio, videophone, video camera, VoIP phone, satellite phone.

18. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 13, wherein the plurality of remote user devices transmitting data communications may be one or more of the following:

telephone, cell phone, land mobile radio, videophone, video camera, VoIP phone, satellite phone, pagers, sensors, facsimiles, computers, personal digital assistants, or “

Blackberry”

-type devices.

19. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 16, wherein said voice communications are pre-recorded sounds, real-time sounds, or machine-generated sounds, wherein said text communications are data and non-voice, non-sound, non-video and non-image information, and wherein said video and images are non-voice or non-text communications.

20. The real-time converged communications and information system, according to claim 13, wherein the method of communications are individually or simultaneously dispatched to a plurality of remote user devices at one or more geographic locations and whereby the recipient of communications can acknowledge receipt of said communications, retrieve information and respond to the central server or other remote devices.

21. A method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device, wherein said notifications are of an occurrence of a previously identified or calculated event which are maintained within a plurality of remote devices, the method comprising the steps of:

after the detection of an occurrence of a previously identified or calculated event, transmitting an identifier through a communications link to a centralized server that stores the event and provides event definition; and

receiving and processing the identifier by the centralized server over the communications link, wherein said centralized server includes a knowledge manager that identifies notification tasks, further wherein said tasks are performed automatically without human intervention, and said set of tasks are selected from at least one of a plurality of remote devices coupled to the centralized server, where the centralized server provides a task sequence, a sender-specific task and a receiver-specific task, and where a task manager automatically transmits the results of the tasks to a plurality of remote devices.

22. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 21, wherein the previously identified or calculated event relates to a condition defined by a user.

23. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 21, wherein the remote user devices are selected from the group consisting of at least one of the following:

telephone, cell phone, land mobile radio, videophone, video camera, VoIP phone, satellite phone, pagers, sensors, facsimiles, computers, personal digital assistants, or “

Blackberry”

-type devices.

24. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 21, wherein tasks are automatically executed upon the detection of the event in accordance with rules defined by the knowledge manager.

25. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 21, wherein tasks are manually executed by authorized users.

26. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 21, wherein the notifications and notification tasks associated with said event are grouped to form a project, said project defined by task properties, and said task properties include at least:

project creator name, project name, creation date, status, start date and time, target completion date and time, actual start and completion dates and times, target and actual budget, description, charge number, percentage completion, one or more assigned contacts, a plurality of notes, a plurality of tasks and sub-tasks, individual tasks and overall project status, and notification information.

27. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 26, wherein the tasks and the projects are copied and assigned to contacts.

28. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 26, wherein the tasks and the projects are assigned to a template for use in other tasks and projects.

30. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 26, wherein the projects can be edited, deleted and appended by individual users.

31. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 26, wherein the tasks and projects are automatically communicated in whole, or part, to a plurality of remote users and remote devices.

32. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 26, wherein the tasks and projects are integrated with a real-time converged communications and information system.

33. The method for managing communication notifications transmitted to a remote device according to claim 26, wherein individual tasks are independently represented as individual todo lists, and said todo lists retain all prior task properties.

29. (canceled)

34. A system for remotely monitoring a plurality of machine and ambient conditions, said system comprising:

at least one monitoring device including input means for receiving machine and ambient condition inputs,

a centralized server in communication with the at least one monitoring device, said centralized server containing a knowledge manager;

whereby said monitoring device transmits machine and ambient condition inputs via at least one wireless or wireline communications link to a centralized server that stores the inputs;

further whereby the monitoring device transmits an identifier that represents the specific monitoring device via the at least one wireless or wireline communication link to the centralized server that stores the identifier;

further whereby the centralized server receives and processes the machine and ambient condition and the identifier inputs, and performs transformations on said inputs, wherein said transformations apply a mathematical operation or a logical operation on said identifier inputs to generate outputs;

further whereby said centralized server knowledge manager identifies outputs from the at least one monitoring device, the outputs constituting notification and instruction tasks, and said outputs are performed automatically without human intervention.

35. The system according to claim 34, wherein ambient conditions signify physical, chemical, organic, inorganic and environmental properties.

36. The system according to claim 34, further wherein a plurality of centralized servers connect to the system over said communications network, said centralized servers processing the identifier inputs and generating a user interface comprising a list of the at least one monitoring devices and inputs and permitting a user to select reports from one or more of the at least one monitoring devices for viewing from a plurality of remote user devices.

37. The system of claim 34, further wherein information transmitted from the monitoring devices can be automatically communicated in whole, in part, or edited by an authorized user, to a plurality of remote users devices via any of the following communication paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the internet, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

38. A method of managing how electronic files are created, stored, viewed, edited, distributed, shared, controlled and archived by a plurality of users from a plurality of remote devices, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a virtual space on a central server;

transmitting at least one electronic file via wireless or wireline communication link to said centralized server that stores the file and file properties;

receiving and processing said virtual space, file and file properties on said centralized server over said communication link, wherein said centralized server contains a user rights manager that identifies access control capabilities for a plurality of individuals and groups to act upon said file; and

assigning said file by an automated method to a plurality of authorized individuals and groups wherein said assigning step is performed automatically without human intervention.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein said electronic files are subjected to a configuration control system whereby each occurrence that said files or file properties are edited, the file is automatically indexed and archived, for later recall to determine the change made.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein said electronic files and file properties are managed through a central user interface.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein said electronic files and file properties can be moved from said virtual space on central server to a different virtual space in the central server or another central server.

42. The method of claim 38, wherein said notifications and instruction tasks associated with said event are integrated with a real-time converged communications and information system.

43. The method of claim 38, wherein said electronic files and file properties can be automatically communicated in whole, in part, or edited by an authorized user, to a plurality of remote users devices via any of the following communication paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the internet, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

44. A method for providing electronic calendar events that are created, stored, viewed, edited, distributed, shared, controlled and archived by a plurality of users from a plurality of remote devices, the method comprising the steps of:

creating an event that contains calendar properties, said properties to include event description, modify existing events, check events sent, check events received, assign zero or more attendees, check attendee availability, identify for public or restricted viewing, set periodic reminders and communication methods, assign event manager, identify start and finish date and time, and assign notifications;

transmitting said calendar properties via wireless or wireline communication link to a centralized server for storage;

receiving and processing calendar properties on said centralized server over said communication link, wherein the centralized server containing a user rights manager that identifies access control capabilities for a plurality of individuals and groups to act upon said calendar event, and the centralized server further containing an automated method for notifying said attendees and event manager about said calendar properties automatically without human intervention.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein said calendar properties are managed through a central user interface.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein said electronic calendar event properties are integrated with a real-time converged communications and information system.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein said electronic calendar event properties can be automatically communicated in whole, in part, or edited by an authorized user, to a plurality of remote users devices via any of the following communication paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the internet, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

48. A method of providing electronic contact directories and contact properties that are created, stored, viewed, edited, distributed, shared, controlled and archived by a plurality of users from a plurality of remote devices, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a contact that contains contact properties, said properties to include contact name, a plurality of communication addresses, said addresses representing physical locations and voice, data and video locators unique to a given contact (e.g., email, facsimile, telephone, cell phone, VoIP, pager, text message, instant messenger, URL social security number, driver'"'"'s license number, employee badge number, federal or state identification number), assignment to one or more individuals or groups of individuals, identification of contact manager, alternate contact information, notification information, a plurality of activities, and a plurality of notes;

transmitting said contact properties via wireless or wireline communication link to a centralized server for storage;

receiving and processing contact properties on said centralized server over the communication link, wherein the centralized server contains a user rights manager that identifies access control capabilities for a plurality of individuals and groups to act upon said contact properties, and the centralized server further containing an automated method for notifying said contacts automatically without human intervention.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein said contact properties are managed through a central user interface.

50. The method of claim 48, wherein said contact properties can be copied and assigned to a new contact name.

51. The method of claim 48, wherein said contact properties are integrated with a real-time converged communications and information system.

52. The method of claim 48, wherein said contact properties can be automatically communicated in whole, in part, or edited by an authorized user, to a plurality of remote users devices via any of the following communication paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the interne, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

53. A method of providing voice, data, and video communications that are created, stored, viewed, edited, distributed, shared, controlled and archived by a plurality of users from a plurality of remote devices, whereas data and video communications are referred to as non-voice communications, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a communications plan with plan properties, said communication plan properties including plan name, description, creator, type, identification, activation and deactivation dates, and notification methods;

creating a plurality of notification messages; and

identifying a plurality of message recipients from a list of contacts and contact groups.

54. The method according to claim 53, whereby notification message is comprised of non-voice text-based message format, and creates a default textual description or override of said default textual description with a customized textual description unique to individual contacts, groups and/or remote devices.

56. The system of claim 53, wherein said communication plans are managed through a central user interface.

57. The method of claim 53, wherein said communication plans are integrated with a real-time converged communications and information system.

58. The method of claim 53, wherein said communication plans can be automatically communicated in whole, in part, or edited by an authorized user, to a plurality of remote users devices via any of the following communication paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the interne, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

59. A method of providing electronic forms that are created, stored, displayed, edited, distributed, shared, controlled and archived by a plurality of users from a plurality of remote devices, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a form that contains form properties, said form properties comprising label name, form field name, unique identification number, element, cell, table, data binding, database definition, display parameters, assignment to one or more individuals or groups of individuals, security role, state, form manager, workflow manager, and publication manager;

transmitting said form properties via wireless or wireline communication link to a centralized server for storage; and

receiving and processing form properties on said centralized server over said communication link, wherein said centralized server contains a user rights manager that identifies access control capabilities for a plurality of individuals and groups to act upon said form properties, and said centralized server further containing an automated method for broadcasting notification of said form properties to a plurality of individuals and groups automatically without human intervention.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein said form and form properties are managed through the form manager via a central user interface.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein said workflow manager contains manual and automated processes to facilitate form creation, automatically bind said form properties to a centralized server database for distribution to a plurality of remote devices, and manage the form process through publication, data collection and reporting.

62. The method of claim 59, wherein said publication manager controls posting forms to a specific URL address, forms management, forms archive and restore, and user rights management.

63. The method of claim 59, wherein said form properties can be assigned to a template manager for reuse in whole or in part by a plurality of users.

64. The method of claim 59, wherein said contact properties are integrated with a real-time converged communications and information system.

65. The method of claim 59, wherein said form and form properties can be automatically communicated in whole, in part, or edited by an authorized user, to a plurality of remote users devices via any of the following communication paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the internet, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.

66. A method of providing electronic financial accounts that are created, stored, displayed, edited, distributed, shared, controlled and archived by a plurality of users from a plurality of remote devices, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a financial account that contains financial account properties, said financial account properties comprising accounting classification and transaction controls for funds, payments, receivables, costs, and reporting;

transmitting said financial account properties via wireless or wireline communication link to a centralized server for storage;

receiving and financial account properties on said centralized server over said communication link, wherein said centralized server contains a user rights manager that identifies access control capabilities for a plurality of individuals and groups to act upon said form properties, and said centralized server contains an automated method for broadcasting notification of said financial account properties to a plurality of individuals and groups automatically without human intervention.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein said financial account properties are managed through a central user interface.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein said financial account properties are integrated with a real-time converged communications and information system.

69. The method of claim 67, wherein said financial account properties can be automatically communicated in whole, in part, or edited by an authorized user, to a plurality of remote users devices via any of the following communication paths:

PSTN, wide area networks, local area networks, the interne, satellite network, broadband over powerlines.