System and method for providing services access through a family home page

• US 7,584,263 B1
• Filed: 09/25/2002
• Issued: 09/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Zimler, Randy S., Hicks, John Alson III
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh; Khanh Q
• Application Number:
  US10/254,183
• Time in Patent Office: 2,533 Days
• Field of Search: 709/248, 709/249, 709/225, 709/227, 709/228, 709/224, 709/217, 709/220, 707/4, 707/1, 705/35, 705/34, 705/26, 434/350, 726/16
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2821 Avoiding conflicts related to the use of home appliances cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; protocols for network security H04L63/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2836 Protocol conversion between an external network and a home network controlling appliance services of a home automation network from a device located outside the home and the home network H04L12/2818; protocol conversion H04L69/08; adaptation of digital video signals for transport over a specific home network H04N7/24

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing computerized services access through a family home page are described. A family home page in a service provider network provides a mechanism for accessing a variety of services, executing on computers that form part of a home network and on computers in the service provider network. A subscriber registers for a particular service and is then provided access by a link being automatically placed on the user'"'"'s family home page. The actual physical location of the service and the manner in which it operates are transparent to the subscriber. The subscriber may perform functions to control access to the services based on which member of the household logs onto the service.

Claims

1. A method for providing network-based access to computer applications, the method comprising:

communicating with a residential communications gateway executed from a family home page;

including in the family home page a link to a first application on a residential network and another link to a single second application on a service provider network;

receiving a request for service from a residential user;

searching a services database by a processor for services that the residential user is authorized to access;

differentiating service offerings for the residential user from other users in the services database;

when the residential user is not authorized to access the requested service, retrieving a destination web page from memory and redirecting the request for service to the destination web page to deny the requested service;

when the residential user is authorized to access the requested service, creating an entry by the processor in the service database that links the requested service to the residential user and creating a website link on the family home page associated with the residential user, the website link accessing the first application that provides the requested service;

associating the first application with the residential user;

associating the second application with the residential user;

determining a first address of the first application;

determining a second address of the second application; and

providing access to the residential user to the second address by providing a second link to the second address on the family home page.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the first application on the family home page.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying that the first application executes on the gateway.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying an application selected from a group consisting of home security, HVAC control, lighting control, audio distribution, and multimedia-on-demand.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying that the second application executes on a web server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying an application selected from a group consisting of a calendar, a bulletin board, a to-do list, unified messaging, and a directory.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a username and password.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving the family home page from a network access device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving the family home page from a network access device selected from a list comprising a personal computer, a telephone, and a wireless access device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a registration user interface for adding available applications from the family home page.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing electronic storage on a data store.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having computer program code stored thereon for providing network-based access to computer applications, the computer-readable storage medium comprising:

program code for communicating with a residential communications gateway executed from a family home page;

program code for including in the family home page a link to a first application on a residential network and another link to a single second application on a service provider network;

program code for receiving a request for service from a residential user;

program code for searching a services database by a processor for services that the residential user is authorized to access;

program code for differentiating service offerings for the residential user from other users in the services database;

when the residential user is not authorized to access the requested service, program code for retrieving a destination web page from memory and for redirecting the request for service to the destination web page to deny the requested service;

when the residential user is authorized to access the requested service, program code for creating an entry by the processor in the service database that links the requested service to the residential user and for creating a website link on the family home page associated with the residential user, the website link accessing the first application that provides the requested service;

program code for associating the first application with the residential user;

program code for associating the second application with the residential user;

program code for determining a first address of the first application;

program code for searching for a record containing service information;

program code for retrieving the service information including data elements configured to identify a subscriber, a service type, and a location of a service execution

program code for determining a second address of the second application; and

program code for providing access to the residential user to the second address by providing a second link to the second address on the family home page that is associated with the service type.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the family home page comprises extensible markup language (XML) pages.

14. A system, comprising:

a processor communicating with memory storing code, the code causing the processor to;

communicate with a residential communications gateway executed from a family home page;

include in the family home page a link to a first application on a residential network and another link to a single second application on a service provider network;

receive a request for service from a residential user;

search a services database by a processor for services that the residential user is authorized to access;

differentiate service offerings for the residential user from other users in the services database;

when the residential user is not authorized to access the requested service, retrieve a destination web page from memory and redirect the request for service to the destination web page to deny the requested service;

when the residential user is authorized to access the requested service, create an entry by the processor in the service database that links the requested service to the residential user and create a website link on the family home page associated with the residential user, the website link accessing the first application that provides the requested service;

associate the first application with the residential user;

associate the second application with the residential user;

determine a first address of the first application;

determine a second address of the second application; and

provide access to the residential user to the second address by providing a second link to the second address on the family home page.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first network comprises a data store.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the second network comprises an application services gateway.

17. The system of claim 14, further comprising code for establishing access rights to the family home page.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising code for restricting access to an application.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the first application comprises an application selected from a group consisting of a calendar, a bulletin board, a to-do list, unified messaging, and a directory.

20. The system of claim 14, further comprising code for displaying the family home page.

21. The system of claim 14, wherein the second application comprises an application selected from the group consisting of home security, HVAC control, lighting control, audio distribution, and multimedia-on-demand.

22. The system of claim 14, wherein the family home page comprises extensible markup language (XML) pages.