MULTIMEDIA PROVIDING SERVICE

• US 20100205278A1
• Filed: 06/19/2008
• Published: 08/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rakuten Group, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Rakuten, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ozawa, Kazunori, Koyama, Kazuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,491,301 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/02 Calling substations, e.g. by ringing selective calling H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42017 Customized ring-back tones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0036 where the data service is an information service

Abstract

At one of the timings: during a period between the moment when one of terminals which performs transmission calls out a communication partner and the moment of response and at the timing after the communication between the terminals is complete; a server reads out content data from a database and transmits the read out content data to the terminal. At this timing, the terminal reproduces the content data transmitted from the server.

Claims

1. A method of providing a multimedia service in a multimedia communication system that is made up from a plurality of terminals and a server, said server being connected to said plurality of terminals, said server processing call process signals of said plurality of terminals, and having a database in which are stored content data;

said method comprising steps wherein;

said server reads said content data from said database at either the timings of;

(a) the interval from the time a call is made by a terminal, that performs call origination among said plurality of terminals, to a terminal among said plurality of terminals that is the communication partner of said terminal that performs call origination, until the terminal responds;

or

(b) after communication between said terminals is completed;

at said timing, said server transmits said content data that were read to said terminals; and

at said timing, said terminals reproduce content data that were transmitted from said server.

2. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 1, further comprising steps wherein:

at said timings, said server transmits said content data that were read to the termination-side terminal that is the terminal that is the communication partner of said terminal that performs call origination; and

during the time interval until said termination-side terminal responds, said termination-side terminal reproduces content data that were transmitted from said server.

3. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 2, further comprising a step wherein after said termination-side terminal responds, said server transmits data, that were transmitted from the origination-side terminal that is said terminal that performs call origination, to said termination-side terminal.

4. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 1, further comprising steps wherein:

at said timing, said server reads said content data from said database and reproduction environment information indicating the reproduction environment of the content data that are stored together with said content data in said database;

at said timing, said server transmits said content data and reproduction environment information that were read to the origination-side terminal that is said terminal that performs call origination; and

at said timing, said origination-side terminal reproduces content data that were transmitted from said server based on said reproduction environment information.

5. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 4, said method further comprising a step wherein said server transmits to said origination-side terminal reproduction environment information of data that are transmitted from said termination-side terminal that is the terminal that is the communication partner of said origination-side terminal.

6. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 4, further comprising a step wherein, after the termination-side terminal that is the terminal that is the communication partner of said origination-side terminal responds, said server transmits to said origination-side terminal data that were transmitted from said termination-side terminal.

7. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 1, further comprising a step wherein said server uses SIP to process said call process signals.

8. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 4, further comprising steps wherein said server uses SDP to process said reproduction environment information.

18. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 1 or claim 12, further comprising steps wherein:

said server records in a preferential treatment information database the frequency of transmission of said content data to the origination-side terminal that is said terminal that performs call origination; and

said server reads from said preferential treatment information database preferential treatment information that accords with said frequency.

21. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 1, further comprising steps wherein:

said server records in a preferential treatment information database the frequency of transmission of said content data to a termination-side terminal that is the terminal that is the communication partner of said terminal that performs call origination; and

said server reads from said preferential treatment information database preferential treatment information that accords with said frequency.

9. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

12. A method of providing a multimedia service in a multimedia communication system made up from a plurality of terminals and a server, said server being connected to said plurality of terminals, processing call process signals of said plurality of terminals, and having a database that stored content data;

said method comprising steps wherein;

said server reads said content data from said database in accordance with either;

(a) a read signal that corresponds to a key that is entered, when said read signal is transmitted to said server by an origination-side terminal that is a terminal that performs call origination among said plurality of terminals;

or

(b) a read signal that corresponds to a key that is entered, when said read signal is transmitted to said server by a termination-side terminal that is a terminal that is the communication partner of said origination-side terminal among said plurality of terminals;

said server transmits to at least one terminal from among said origination-side terminal and said termination-side terminal said content data that were read; and

said terminals reproduce content data that were transmitted from said server.

30. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 12, further comprising steps wherein:

said server records in a preferential treatment information database the frequency of transmission of said content data to the origination-side terminal that is said terminal that performs call origination; and

said server reads from said preferential treatment information database preferential treatment information that accords with said frequency.

31. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 12, further comprising steps wherein:

said server records in a preferential treatment information database the frequency of transmission of said content data to a termination-side terminal that is the terminal that is the communication partner of said terminal that performs call origination; and

said server reads from said preferential treatment information database preferential treatment information that accords with said frequency.

13. A method of providing a multimedia service in a multimedia communication system that is made up from a plurality of terminals and a server, said server being connected to said plurality of terminals, said server processing call process signals of said plurality of terminals, and having a database in which are stored character strings that can be displayed on said terminals;

said method comprising steps wherein;

said server reads said character string from said database in accordance with either;

(a) a read signal transmitted from the origination-side terminal that is the terminal that performs call origination among said plurality of terminals;

or

(b) a read signal transmitted from the termination-side terminal that is the terminal that is the communication partner of said origination-side terminal among said plurality of terminals;

said server inserts said character string that was read into image data that are transmitted and received between said origination-side terminal and said termination-side terminal;

said server transmits to said terminals image data into which said character string is inserted; and

said terminals reproduce image data into which said character string was inserted and that were transmitted from said server.

14. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 13, further comprising steps wherein:

said server inserts said character string that was read into image data that are transmitted to said origination-side terminal from said termination-side terminal;

said server transmits image data into which said character string was inserted to said origination-side terminal; and

said origination-side terminal reproduces image data into which said character string was inserted and that were transmitted from said server.

15. The method of providing a multimedia service according to claim 13, further comprising steps wherein:

said server inserts said character string that was read into image data that are transmitted from said origination-side terminal to said termination-side terminal;

said server transmits image data into which said character string was inserted to said termination-side terminal; and

said termination-side terminal reproduces image data into which said character string was inserted and that were transmitted from said server.

16. The method of providing multimedia service according to claim 13, further comprising steps wherein:

said origination-side terminal transmits a DTMF signal as a read signal to said server; and

said server reads said character string from said database in accordance with a DTMF signal transmitted from said origination-side terminal.

17. The method of providing multimedia service according to claim 13, further comprising steps wherein:

said termination-side terminal transmits a DTMF signal as a read signal to said server; and

said server reads said character string from said database in accordance with a DTMF signal transmitted from said termination-side terminal.

24. The method of providing multimedia service according to claim 14, further comprising steps wherein:

said server records in a preferential treatment information database the frequency of transmission to said origination-side terminal of image data into which said character string has been inserted; and

said server reads from said preferential treatment information database preferential treatment information that accords with said frequency.

27. The method of providing multimedia service according to claim 15, further comprising steps wherein:

said server records in a preferential treatment information database the frequency of transmission to said termination-side terminal of image data into which said character string has been inserted; and

said server reads from said preferential treatment information database preferential treatment information that accords with said frequency.

19. (canceled)

20. (canceled)

22. (canceled)

23. (canceled)

25. (canceled)

26. (canceled)

28. (canceled)

29. (canceled)