Pervasive, personal data interactivity over voice-grade circuit-switched cellular networks

• US 7,899,912 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2001
• Issued: 03/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bisdikian, Chatschik, Jerome, William F., Naghshineh, Mahmoud
• Primary Examiner(s): Bayard; Djenane M
• Application Number:
  US09/933,625
• Publication Number:
  US 20030041119A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,479 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/208, 709/212, 709/230, 709/203, 709/217, 709/213, 709/226, 709/227, 370/329, 455/414.1, 455/432
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

Provides methods and apparatus for accessing and controlling services, such as home automation services, visually employing established wireless, cellular telecommunication technologies for voice communications. In example embodiments, users of personal portable devices connect to services over dial-up, wireless, cellular, circuit-switched voice telephone networks, receive and display listings of available services and use these listings to access and manipulate the services.

Claims

1. A service interaction method comprising a user interacting with at least one remote service accessible through a home data distribution network, said home data distribution network comprising an aggregation of at least one communications media and at least one communications protocol used to access said at least one remote service from a serving entity, the step of interacting comprising:

enabling remote control of services at a residential network without the necessity of a service provider;

employing only a circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network one of a cellular voice network and a PSTN, said user connecting to a telephone modem in a serving entity, the serving entity attached to said home data distribution network only using a cellular phone attached to the circuit switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network a wireless, circuit switched, voice telephony network, enabling remote control of services at the home data distribution network only by the circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular circuit switched network;

obtaining and viewing a list of at least one remote service from accessible remote services from said serving entity accessible remotely via said home network from said serving entity using at least one of said communications media and one of said communications protocols;

selecting said at least one remote service from said list;

selecting said at least one communications media and at least one communications protocol that said at least one remote service uses; and

accessing and viewing said at least one remote service in obtaining desired results.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of connecting includes dialing-up directly to the serving entity.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein the step of dialing-up directly to the service entity further includes passing dialing signaling and control data to the serving entity through an intermediary data network.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of viewing is performed employing a viewing device collocated with said cellular phone.

5. A method as recited in claim 4, wherein the step of viewing is performed employing a web-browser and the serving entity is a web-server.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the viewing device depicts information in a form including at least one of:

text, graphics, images, light display, voice or any combination of these.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of selecting includes employing a menu.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of connecting includes dialing-up to the serving entity through a data network to which the serving entity is connected.

9. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the data network is the Intranet controlled by an Internet Service Provider.

10. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the data network uses the TCP/IP protocol suite for transporting information.

11. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the step of dialing-up to the serving entity through a data network, further includes dialing-up to the serving entity through a sequence of at least one data network, the last one of which the serving entity is attached to.

12. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising said serving entity employing attributes of said circuit switch network in authenticating said user.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein said attributes include a telephone number of said cellular phone.

14. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein said attributes include a telephone number of said serving entity.

15. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising establishing credentials so that said at least one remote service can be manipulated in a secure manner on the serving entity.

16. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of viewing views the list on a viewing device in a manner that depends on the user'"'"'s access privileges to said at least one remote service.

17. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the serving entity providing access to at least one service agent used to access and control said at least one remote service.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein at least one of said at least one service agent is a computer software module executable on a computer.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, further comprising activating said software module prior to invoking a particular remote service.

20. A method as recited in claim 18, further comprising activating said software module on demand after a particular remote service has been invoked.

21. A method as recited in claim 18, further comprising storing said software module at a data repository.

22. A method as recited in claim 21, further comprising dynamically retrieving and activating said software module from the data repository after invoking a particular remote service.

23. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network is a first generation, analog, cellular network.

24. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said cellular wireless, circuit-switched, voice telephony network is a second generation, digital, cellular network.

25. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for causing a user to interact with at least one remote service, said method steps comprising the steps of claim 1.

26. The service interaction method of claim 1 wherein the circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network consists only of the cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network.

27. The service interaction method of claim 1 wherein the circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network consists only of one each of a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network and a PSTN.

28. An apparatus for a user to interact with at least one remote service, comprising:

user connecting means for said user connecting to a serving entity using only a cellular phone attached to a circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network, said user connecting means employing only a circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network, and enabling remote control of services at a residential network only by the cellular phone through the circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network;

user viewing means for obtaining and viewing a list of accessible remote services from said serving entity;

second connecting means for attaching said apparatus to a communications medium and using a communications protocols, taken from an aggregation of communication media and protocols, through which said at least one remote service can be accessed;

user selecting means for selecting said at least one remote service from said list;

second selecting means for selecting the communications medium and protocol to access said selected at least one service; and

user access means for accessing and viewing said at least one remote service in obtaining desired results.

29. An apparatus for a user using a cellular phone attached to a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network, to interact with at least one service on said home network, comprising:

a home network and a system;

the system comprising;

a telephone modem to directly receive an incoming call from the cellular phone over a circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network, and also to receive and transmit data over the circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network said telephone modem having a client port through which the system attaches to the circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network and a service port through which the system attaches to the home network, said system being a single system through which a user with the cellular phone can establish communication in one step directly through the cellular phone and the circuit-switched, voice telephony network comprising a cellular, circuit-switched, voice telephony network, a dial-in server module to implement dial-in logic for the cellular phone;

a browser server module for managing data for remote display; and

a protocol transport module to implement protocols needed to transport data back and forth between a browser application in the cellular phone and said browser server module, wherein interaction with at least one service on said home network by said cellular phone occurs through said apparatus.

30. An apparatus as recited in claim 29, wherein said browser server is used to obtain, organize, and manipulate data received from and data sent to the cellular phone through the protocol transport module.

31. An apparatus as recited in claim 30, wherein said data sent to the cellular phone are displayed and viewed by the browser application in the cellular phone.

32. An apparatus as recited in claim 30, wherein said data sent includes a list of services that are accessible by the cellular phone.

33. An apparatus as recited in claim 29, wherein said data received by the browser application in the cellular phone include a selection of at least one service the user of the cellular phone controls and an action to be taken for a selected service, and upon receipt of the action the browser server interacts with a particular service agent to implement the control logic for controlling the selected service, wherein a control signal generated by the service agent exits the apparatus through attachment of the home network.

34. An apparatus as recited in claim 29, wherein said dial-in server module triggers at least one particular module in the apparatus to process any incoming calls and requests from the cellular phone.

35. An apparatus as recited in claim 29, wherein said dial-in server module performs user authentication.

36. An apparatus as recited in claim 29, wherein the apparatus further comprises selective implementation capability of limiting the apparatus capability to any combination of the following limitations:

said browser server is used to obtain, organize, and manipulate data received from and data sent to the cellular phone through the protocol transport module;

said data sent to the cellular phone client device are displayed and viewed by the browser application in the cellular phone;

said data sent includes a list of services that are accessible by the cellular phone;

said data received by the browser application in the cellular phone include a selection of at least one service the user of the cellular phone controls and an action to be taken for a selected service, and upon receipt of the action the browser server interacts with a particular service agent to

implement the control logic for controlling the selected service, wherein a control signal generated by the service agent exits the apparatus through attachment of the home network;

said dial-in server module triggers at least one particular module in the apparatus to process any incoming calls and requests from the cellular phone; and

said dial-in server module performs user authentication.