Manipulating a telephony media stream

• US 7,356,409 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2005
• Issued: 04/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Quinton, Mary Michelle
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, RAYMOND NGAN
• Application Number:
  US11/055,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20050246468A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: 710300-309, 710313-315, 710 8- 14, 710 63- 64, 709326-329, 709313-317
• US Class Current: 701/301
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2473 Telephone terminals interfacing a personal computer, e.g. using an API (Application Programming Interface) details of API H04M7/0021
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42323 PBX's with CTI arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0021 Details of Application Programming Interfaces

Abstract

Systems, methods, and data structures for pluggable terminals are provided. Pluggable terminals are part of client and server TAPI communications systems. Pluggable terminal allow third parties to provide their own media processing devices and implement control methods for those devices. Methods for plugging in a pluggable terminal and conducting a communications session using the new pluggable terminal are described. A data structure for a pluggable terminal type has a wrapper around a media processing device control method. A data structure for registering a pluggable terminal has a terminal class name, a unique identifier, and a set of media types supported by the pluggable terminal. A data structure for a terminal base class has an interface for plugging in a pluggable terminal and another interface for a TAPI application component.

Claims

1. A method of manipulating a telephony media stream comprising:

selecting a media processing device to use with a media stream associated with a telephony call; and

invoking a terminal object that provides a uniform interface to a telephony application for manipulating the media stream, wherein the terminal object maps requests to the uniform interface to requests to a device-specific interface for the selected media processing device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the media processing device is a virtual device.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the media processing device is a modular media filter not specifically for telephony applications.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the terminal object is created automatically by enumerating available devices and instantiating a terminal object for each enumerated device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the terminal object is a sink object.

6. The method of claim 1 including registering the terminal object and providing the terminal object in a list of available terminal objects.

7. The method of claim 1 including coordinating manipulation of the media stream with control of the call.

8. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for performing a method of manipulating a telephony media stream, the method comprising:

enumerating a list of available media processing devices;

selecting a media processing device from the list of available media processing devices to use with a media stream associated with a telephony call; and

invoking a terminal object that provides a uniform interface to a telephony application for manipulating the media stream, wherein the terminal object maps requests to the uniform interface to requests to a device-specific interface for the selected media processing device.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the media processing device is a physical device.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the media processing device is a virtual device.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the media processing device is a modular media filter not specifically for telephony applications.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the media processing device is legacy application code using direct media stream manipulation.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the terminal object signals events to the telephony application.

14. The method of claim 8 wherein the terminal object is a sink object.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein the terminal object is a source object.

16. The method of claim 8 wherein the terminal object is provided separate from the telephony application.

17. The method of claim 8 wherein the terminal object derives from a terminal base class.

18. The method of claim 8 including coordinating manipulation of the media stream with control of the call.

19. The method of claim 8 wherein the device is at least one of a microphone, speaker, camera, monitor, video window, speech recognition engine, interactive voice response system, or file.

20. A method of exposing a media processing device comprising:

providing a terminal object that provides a uniform interface to a telephony application for manipulating a media stream associated with a telephony call, wherein the terminal object maps requests to the uniform interface to requests to a device-specific interface for the media processing device; and

registering the terminal object with a terminal manager which provides a list of available terminal objects.