TRANSFERRING MULTIPLE COMMUNICATION MODALITIES DURING A CONVERSATION

• US 20110119389A1
• Filed: 11/19/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Taine, Stephane L., Cavin, Stéphane
• Application Number:
  US12/622,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20110119389A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/103 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• 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 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions

Abstract

A conversation may be established using any supported type of communication modalities, including voice, video, desktop sharing, IM, application sharing , and the like. During the conversation, a user may transfer all or part of the modalities of the conversation at the same time to one or more destinations. The transfer may specify mandatory and non-mandatory modalities and may occur supervised or in a blind manner. In addition to transferring the modality, a conversation payload (e.g. IM history) may also be transferred to a destination.

Claims

1. A method for transferring modalities of a conversation over an Internet Protocol (IP) network, comprising:

establishing a conversation over the IP network including different modalities between a transferee and a transferor;

using a processor to determine when to transfer the different modalities used in the conversation;

determining at least one transfer target to transfer the different modalities of the conversation; and

transferring each of the different modalities to the determined transfer target.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the different modalities of communication comprise at least two of the following modalities:

a voice modality;

an Instant Messaging modality;

a video modality;

an application sharing modality, and a desktop sharing session.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein transferring the different modalities to the transfer target comprises performing a supervised transfer of at least one of the different modalities transferred.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring a conversation payload for a modality that is transferred, wherein the conversation payload is data used during the established conversation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the conversation payload transferred is an IM history when an IM modality is transferred.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising terminating each of the transferred modalities within the established conversation after the modality is transferred.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein terminating each of the transferred modalities within the established conversation after the modality is transferred comprises terminating only successfully transferred modalities.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising specifying a modality of the conversation to be a mandatory modality and transferring the mandatory modality before attempting to transfer the other modalities of the conversation.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising receiving selections of the transfer target and the different modalities of the conversation to transfer through a user interface.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions for transferring modalities of a conversation over an Internet Protocol (IP) network, comprising:

establishing a conversation over the IP network including at least two different modalities between a transferee and a transferor;

determining when the to transfer the different modalities of the conversation to one or more transfer targets;

transferring the different modalities from the transferor to the determined transfer target;

receiving at the transferor a notification indicating a result of the transfers of the modalities; and

terminating the modalities upon receiving the notification indicating the result of the transfers is successful.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the different modalities of communication comprise at least two of the following modalities:

an Instant Messaging modality;

a video modality;

a desktop sharing modality, and an application sharing modality.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein transferring the different modalities from the transferor to the transfer target comprises supervising the transfer.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising transferring a conversation payload for at least one of the modalities that is transferred;

wherein the conversation payload includes data saved during the established conversation between the transferor and the transferee.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising specifying a modality of the conversation to be a mandatory modality and when the transfer of the mandatory modality is unsuccessful returning the conversation to a state of the conversation before the transfer attempt.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising receiving selections of the transfer target and the different modalities of the conversation through a user interface.

16. A system for transferring modalities of a conversation over an Internet Protocol (IP) network, comprising:

a network connection that is configured to connect to the IP network;

a processor and a computer-readable medium;

an operating environment stored on the computer-readable medium and executing on the processor; and

a transfer manager operating under the control of the operating environment and operative to;

determining when the to transfer different modalities of an established conversation on the IP network to one or more transfer targets;

transferring the different modalities to the transfer target;

receiving for each transferred notification a result indicating a success or a failure of the transfer for each of the modalities; and

terminating the modalities for each transferred modality within the established conversation.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the different modalities of communication comprise at least two of the following modalities:

an Instant Messaging modality;

a video modality; and

an application sharing modality.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein transferring the different modalities from the transferor to the transfer target comprises supervising at least one transfer of the different modalities.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising transferring a conversation payload for at least one of the modalities that is transferred;

wherein the conversation payload includes data saved during the established conversation between the transferor and the transferee.

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising a display that is configured to display a user interface that receives selections to determine the transfer target and the different modalities of the conversation to transfer.