Push to talk system

• US 7,283,833 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2005
• Issued: 10/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Fukui, Yujiro, Ueda, Hiroyuki, Kakimoto, Yoichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Perez-Gutierrez; Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KHAI MINH
• Application Number:
  US11/168,177
• Publication Number:
  US 20060003783A1
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• Field of Search: 455/517, 455/518, 455/519, 455/520, 455/516, 455/414.3, 455/414.1, 455/500, 455/39, 455/456.5, 370259-271
• US Class Current: 455/517
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/27475 using interactive graphical means or pictorial representations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services

Abstract

To provide a PTT system that includes a plurality of PTT-capable mobile phones each including a display unit, and a server which mediates a PTT call between mobile phones out of the plurality of mobile phones. The server includes a storage unit, a retrieval unit, and a sending unit. The storage unit stores images of users of the plurality of mobile phones and phone identifiers of the plurality of mobile phones in correspondence with each other. The retrieval unit retrieves, from the storage unit, an image corresponding to a phone identifier of a mobile phone involved in the PTT call. The sending unit sends the retrieved image to at least one other mobile phone involved in the PTT call. A display unit in the at least one other mobile phone displays the image sent from the server.

Claims

1. A PTT (push to talk) system that includes a plurality of mobile phones including PTT capability and a display unit, and a server which mediates a PTT call between mobile phones,

the server comprising:

a storage unit stores a phone identifier of a mobile phone and an image related to the phone identifier;

a retrieval unit retrieves the image from the storage unit; and

a sending unit sends the image retrieved by the retrieval unit to at least one mobile phone,

wherein the display unit of the mobile phone displays the image sent from the server,

wherein the PTT call is a group call between the plurality of mobile phones that belong to the group,

the storage unit stores a group identifier of the group, the phone identifier and the image related to the group identifier, and

the retrieval unit retrieves the image related to the phone identifier that belong to the group from the storage unit,

wherein the server further comprising,

a PTT mediation unit determines one of the mobile phones as a transmitting mobile phone,

wherein the sending unit sends a phone identifier of the transmitting mobile phone to the at least one other mobile phone if the PTT mediation unit changes the transmitting mobile phone, and

in the at least one other mobile phone, the display unit displays the image related to the phone identifier and makes a different display style from the mobile phone other than the transmitting mobile phone when the phone identifier is sent from the server.

2. The PTT system according to claim 1, wherein

the display unit displays the image related to the phone identifier of the transmitting mobile phone larger than the other image of the mobile phone.

3. The PTT system according to claim 1, wherein

the mobile phone, further comprising a request sending unit operable to send a request to register the phone identifier and image from the mobile phone to the server.

4. A PTT-capable mobile phone comprising

a display unit displays any of an image related to a phone identifier of the mobile phone and an image related to a phone identifier of another mobile phone in the PTT call,

a reception unit receives any of an image related to a phone identifier of the mobile phone and an image related to a phone identifier of another mobile phone stored in a server mediating a PTT call from the server,

wherein the display unit displays the image received from the server,

the PTT call is a group call between a plurality of the mobile phones,

the reception unit receives a phone identifier of a transmitting mobile phone from the server, and

the display unit displays an image related to the phone identifier and makes a different display style from the mobile phones other than the transmitting mobile phone.

5. The mobile phone according to claim 4 further comprising

a request sending unit sends a request to register a phone identifier of the mobile phone and the image of the mobile phone to the server.

6. A PTT (push to talk) system comprising;

a plurality of PTT mobile phones each including PTT capability, a display unit for displaying images, means for storing image data of a user in the PTT mobile phone and means for transmitting the image data of the user with an ID (phone identification) of the mobile phone; and

a server for mediating a PTT call between PTT mobile phones including

a storage unit storing image data of the users and the related IDs of the plurality of PTT mobile phones transmitted from each of the plurality of PTT mobile phones,

a retrieval unit retrieves, from the storage unit, the related image data of the user of the ID of a PTT mobile phone involved in the PTT call, and

a sending unit sending the retrieved image data of the user to at least one other mobile phone connected by the server in the PTT call,

wherein the display in the at least one other PTT mobile phone displays the image of the user sent from the server and each of the plurality of PTT mobile phones includes means for altering an image of the user upon receipt of an ID from the server to indicate a receipt of voice communications from that PTT mobile phone ID.

7. The PTT system of claim 6 wherein each of the plurality of PTT mobile phones includes means for checking the image size of the stored image data of the user and means for displaying an error message to the user if a displayed image from the stored image data is not within a predetermined limit prior to transmitting the image data of the user.

8. The PTT system of claim 6 wherein the server can provide a group call between PTT mobile phones that belong to one group and provide image data of users within the group and IDs to each PTT mobile phone in the group and the altering of the image of the user sending the voice communication is made larger than the user receiving the voice communication.