Telecommunication and multimedia management method and apparatus

• US 8,175,234 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2008
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Katis, Thomas E., Panttaja, James T., Panttaja, Mary G., Ranney, Matthew J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah, Melur
• Application Number:
  US12/115,216
• Publication Number:
  US 20090003546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,464 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.01, 379/90.01, 379/88.04, 379 8806- 8808, 379 8822- 8828, 379/93.24, 709204-206
• US Class Current: 379/93.01
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 3/126 Foldable, retractable or tiltable tribunes E04H3/123 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2503 Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• 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 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/64 Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations centralised dictation systems H04M11/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/00 Telephonic communication systems specially adapted for combination with other electrical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 : Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 : Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a method for simultaneously rendering one or more conversations on a communication device. The method includes receiving at the first communication device media associated with the one or more conversations over a network and defining a set of conversations among the one or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered. The received media associated with the one or more conversations is simultaneously rendered regardless if the received media overlaps or not.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving at a communication device media associated with two or more conversations over a network;

simultaneously rendering the received media associated with the two or more conversations as the media is received over the network;

creating media on the communication device for the two or more conversations respectively;

transmitting over the network the created media for the two or more conversations, the created media transmitted to one or more participants of the two or more conversations respectively;

storing the received and/or created media associated with the two or more conversations;

selecting for review one of the two or more conversations simultaneously rendered, the review of the selected one conversation including the rendering of the received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation starting from a selected point in time;

continuously storing, without interruption, the media received over the network and associated with the other non-selected conversation(s) while the selected one conversation is reviewed;

pausing the simultaneous rendering of the media received over the network associated with the other non-selected conversations while the one conversation is selected for review; and

resuming the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations as the received media is received over the network after the review of the selected one conversation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting for review the selected one conversation further comprises:

reviewing on the communication device the selected one conversation by retrieving from storage and rendering the retrieved received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation;

pausing the simultaneous rendering of the media received over the network associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation; and

continuously storing, without interruption, the media received over the network and associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein reviewing on the communication device the selected one conversation further comprises:

selecting a starting point for reviewing the stored received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation, the selected starting point corresponding to a previous point in time in the selected conversation;

retrieving the stored received and/or created media from storage or memory coinciding with the selected starting point; and

rendering the retrieved media on the communication device starting at the selected point.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein reviewing on the communication device the selected one conversation further comprises:

rendering on the communication device the retrieved received and/or created media at a rate faster than the media was originally encoded; and

ascertaining a catch-up point when the rendering of the retrieved media at the faster rate has caught up to and is substantially concurrent with the media of the selected one conversation as the media of the selected one conversation is received over the network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the two or more conversations further comprise an exchange of the received and transmitted media among participants of each of the two or more conversations respectively.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the received and created media associated with each of the two or more conversations is segmented into messages respectively.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the received and created media associated with each of the two or more conversations further comprise a plurality of media payloads, each of the plurality of media payloads having time-index data associated therewith.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the simultaneous rendering further comprises:

ascertaining the time-index of the received media payloads associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered; and

simultaneously rendering overlapping time-indexed media of the media payloads according to the time-indexed order.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein simultaneously rendering further comprises:

mixing the received media associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered; and

rendering the mixed media.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered further comprises allowing a user of the communication device to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered further comprises using a predefined configuration to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered further comprises allowing a participant of one of the two or more conversations to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein creating media on the communication device associated with the two or more conversations further comprises:

selecting one conversation among the two or more conversations for the transmission of media;

creating media associated with the selected one conversation using the communication device; and

transmitting over the network the created media from the communication device to the one or more participants of the selected one conversation.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein simultaneously rendering the received media associated with the two or more conversations as the media is received over the network further comprises:

ascertaining at the communication device if the media is received over the network from just one source or two or more sources at the same time; and

either;

overlapping the rendering of the received media when the received media is received from the two or more sources at the same time;

or

rendering only the received media from the one source when the media is received only from the one source.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a plurality of rendering options for rendering the media of the simultaneously rendered conversations, the rendering options including one or more of the following:

pause, play, replay, play faster, play slower, jump backward, jump forward, skip silence, catch up to the most recently received media, or jump to the most recently received media.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting over the network the created media associated with the two or more conversations further comprises progressively transmitting the created media if the communication device is connected to the network at or below the bit rate available on a connection between the communication device and the network.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising;

ascertaining the available bandwidth rate on the connection between the network and the communication device when the media is created; and

progressively transmitting the created media as fast as the ascertained bandwidth rate permits.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting over the network the created media associated with the two or more conversations further comprises:

ascertaining if the communication device is disconnected from the network when the media is created;

detecting when the communication device reconnects to the network; and

transmitting the media created when the communication device was disconnected from the network from storage or memory after the communication device reconnects to the network.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting over the network the created media associated with the two or more conversations further comprises:

ascertaining if network conditions are sufficiently poor to prevent transmission when the media is created;

detecting when network conditions sufficiently improve to enable the transmission; and

transmitting the media created when network conditions were sufficiently poor from storage or memory after detecting when the network conditions sufficiently improve.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the received and locally created media comprises one or more of the following types of media:

voice, video, text, sensor data, radio signals, position or GPS information, or a combination thereof.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication device comprises one of the following:

a land-line phone, a wireless phone, cellular phone, a mobile phone, a computer, a radio, a satellite phone, a satellite radio, a tactical radio, a tactical phone, or any other type of communication device.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a packet-based network, a circuit-based network, a cellular network, a wireless network, a radio based network, a telephone network, a satellite network, or a combination thereof.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving urgent media at the communication device; and

rendering the urgent media before rendering the media associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein resuming the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations further comprises rendering the received media associated with the two or more conversations as the received media is received over the network without first reviewing the stored media received during the pause.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein resuming the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations further comprises rendering from storage the received media associated with the two or more conversations starting at the point the simultaneous rendering of the media associated with the two or more conversations was paused.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein resuming the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations further comprises rendering from storage the received media associated with the two or more conversations starting at a selected previous point in time.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein resuming the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations further comprises resuming the rendering of the media received for the two or more conversations as the media of the two or more conversations is received over the network.

28. A non-transitory computer readable medium configured to run on a communication device and including computer readable code configured to:

receive at the communication device media associated with two or more conversations over a network;

simultaneously render the received media associated with the two or more conversations on the communication device as the media is received over the network;

create media on the communication device for the two or more conversations respectively;

transmit over the network, from the communication device, the created media for the two or more conversations, the created media transmitted to one or more participants of the two or more conversations respectively;

store on the communication device the received and/or created media associated with the two or more conversations;

select for review one of the two or more conversations simultaneously rendered, the review of the selected one conversation including the rendering of the received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation on the communication device starting from a selected point in time;

continuously store on the communication device, without interruption, the media received over the network and associated with the other non-selected conversation(s) while the selected one conversation is reviewed;

pause the simultaneous rendering of the media received over the network associated with the non-selected conversations while the one conversation is selected for review; and

resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations on the communication device as the received media is received over the network after the review of the selected one conversation.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer readable code is further configured to:

review on the communication device the selected one conversation by retrieving from storage and rendering the retrieved received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation;

pause the simultaneous rendering of the media received over the network associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation; and

continuously store on the communication device, without interruption, the media received over the network and associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation.

30. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the computer readable code is further configured to:

receive an input for selecting a starting point for reviewing the stored received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation, the selected starting point corresponding to a previous point in time in the selected conversation;

retrieve the stored received and/or created media from storage or memory coinciding with the selected starting point; and

render the retrieved media on the communication device starting at the selected point.

31. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the computer readable code is further configured to:

render on the communication device the retrieved received and/or created media at a rate faster than the media was originally encoded; and

ascertain a catch-up point when the rendering of the retrieved media at the faster rate has caught up to and is substantially concurrent with the media of the selected one conversation as the media of the selected one conversation is received over the network.

32. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein each of the two or more conversations further comprise an exchange of the received and transmitted media among participants of each of the two or more conversations respectively.

33. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the received and created media associated with each of the two or more conversations is segmented into messages respectively.

34. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the received and created media associated with each of the two or more conversations further comprise a plurality of media payloads, each of the plurality of media payloads having time-index data associated therewith.

35. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein the computer code is further configured to:

ascertain the time-index of the received media payloads associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered; and

simultaneously render on the communication device overlapping time-indexed media of the media payloads according to the time-indexed order.

36. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to:

mix the received media associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered; and

render the mixed media on the communication device.

37. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to allow a user of the communication device to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

38. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to use a predefined configuration to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

39. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to allow a participant of one of the two or more conversations to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

40. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to:

receive input to select one conversation among the two or more conversations for the transmission of media;

create media associated with the selected one conversation using the communication device; and

transmit over the network the created media from the communication device to the one or more participants of the selected one conversation.

41. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to:

ascertain at the communication device if the media is received over the network from just one source or two or more sources at the same time; and

either;

overlap the rendering of the received media when the received media is received from the two or more sources at the same time;

or

render only the received media from the one source when the media is received only from the one source.

42. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to provide a plurality of rendering options for rendering the media of the simultaneously rendered conversations, the rendering options including one or more of the following:

pause, play, replay, play faster, play slower, jump backward, jump forward, skip silence, catch up to the most recently received media, or jump to the most recently received media.

43. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to progressively transmit the created media if the communication device is connected to the network at or below the bit rate available on a connection between the communication device and the network.

44. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 43 wherein the computer code is further configured to:

ascertain the available bandwidth rate on the connection between the network and the communication device when the media is created; and

progressively transmit the created media as fast as the ascertained bandwidth rate permits.

45. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to:

ascertain if the communication device is disconnected from the network when the media is created;

detect when the communication device reconnects to the network; and

transmit the media created when the communication device was disconnected from the network from storage or memory after the communication device reconnects to the network.

46. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to:

ascertain if network conditions are sufficiently poor to prevent transmission when the media is created;

detect when network conditions sufficiently improve to enable the transmission; and

transmit the media created when network conditions were sufficiently poor from storage or memory after detecting when the network conditions sufficiently improve.

47. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the received and locally created media comprises one or more of the following types of media:

voice, video, text, sensor data, radio signals, position or GPS information, or a combination thereof.

48. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the communication device configured to run the computer code comprises one of the following:

a land-line phone, a wireless phone, cellular phone, a mobile phone, a computer, a radio, a satellite phone, a satellite radio, a tactical radio, a tactical phone, or any other type of communication device.

49. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to render urgent media received at the communication device before rendering the media associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

50. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations by rendering the received media associated with the two or more conversations as the received media is received over the network without first reviewing the stored media received during the pause.

51. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations by rendering from storage the received media associated with the two or more conversations starting at the point the simultaneous rendering of the media associated with the two or more conversations was paused.

52. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations by rendering from storage the received media associated with the two or more conversations starting at a selected previous point in time.

53. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer code is further configured to resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations by resuming the rendering of the media received for the two or more conversations as the media of the two or more conversations is received over the network.

55. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the computer readable code is further configured to:

review on the communication device the selected one conversation by retrieving from storage and rendering the retrieved received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation;

pause the simultaneous rendering of the media received over the network associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation; and

continuously store on the communication device, without interruption, the media received over the network and associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation.

54. A communication device, the communication device configured to:

receive media associated with two or more conversations over a network;

simultaneously render the received media associated with the two or more conversations as the media is received over the network;

create media for the two or more conversations respectively;

transmit over the network the created media for the two or more conversations, the created media transmitted to one or more participants of the two or more conversations respectively;

store on the communication device the received and/or created media associated with the two or more conversations;

select for review one of the two or more conversations simultaneously rendered, the review of the selected one conversation including the rendering of the received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation on the communication device starting from a selected point in time;

continuously store on the communication device, without interruption, the media received over the network and associated with the other non-selected conversation(s) while the selected one conversation is reviewed;

pause the simultaneous rendering of the media received over the network associated with the non-selected conversations while the one conversation is selected for review; and

resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations on the communication device as the received media is received over the network after the review of the selected one conversation.

56. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to:

review on the communication device the selected one conversation by retrieving from storage and rendering the retrieved received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation;

pause the simultaneous rendering of the media received over the network associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation; and

continuously store on the communication device, without interruption, the media received over the network and associated with the non-selected conversation(s) while reviewing the media associated with the selected one conversation.

57. The communication device of claim 56, further configured to:

receive an input for selecting a starting point for reviewing the stored received and/or created media associated with the selected one conversation, the selected starting point corresponding to a previous point in time in the selected conversation;

retrieve the stored received and/or created media from storage or memory coinciding with the selected starting point; and

render the retrieved media on the communication device starting at the selected point.

58. The communication device of claim 56, further configured to:

render on the communication device the retrieved received and/or created media at a rate faster than the media was originally encoded; and

ascertain a catch-up point when the rendering of the retrieved media at the faster rate has caught up to and is substantially concurrent with the media of the selected one conversation as the media of the selected one conversation is received over the network.

59. The communication device of claim 54, wherein each of the two or more conversations further comprise an exchange of the received and transmitted media among participants of each of the two or more conversations respectively.

60. The communication device of claim 54, wherein the received and created media associated with each of the two or more conversations is segmented into messages respectively.

61. The communication device of claim 54, wherein the received and created media associated with each of the two or more conversations further comprise a plurality of media payloads, each of the plurality of media payloads having time-index data associated therewith.

62. The communication device of claim 61, further configured to:

ascertain the time-index of the received media payloads associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered; and

simultaneously render on the communication device overlapping time-indexed media of the media payloads according to the time-indexed order.

63. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to:

mix the received media associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered; and

render the mixed media on the communication device.

64. The communication device of claim 54, wherein the computer code is further configured to allow a user of the communication device to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

65. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to use a predefined configuration to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

66. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to allow a participant of one of the two or more conversations to define the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

67. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to:

receive input to select one conversation among the two or more conversations for the transmission of media;

create media associated with the selected one conversation using the communication device; and

transmit over the network the created media from the communication device to the one or more participants of the selected one conversation.

68. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to:

ascertain at the communication device if the media is received over the network from just one source or two or more sources at the same time; and

either;

overlap the rendering of the received media when the received media is received from the two or more sources at the same time;

or

render only the received media from the one source when the media is received only from the one source.

69. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to provide a plurality of rendering options for rendering the media of the simultaneously rendered conversations, the rendering options including one or more of the following:

pause, play, replay, play faster, play slower, jump backward, jump forward, skip silence, catch up to the most recently received media, or jump to the most recently received media.

70. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to progressively transmit the created media if the communication device is connected to the network at or below the bit rate available on a connection between the communication device and the network.

71. The communication device of claim 70, further configured to:

ascertain the available bandwidth rate on the connection between the network and the communication device when the media is created; and

progressively transmit the created media as fast as the ascertained bandwidth rate permits.

72. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to:

ascertain if the communication device is disconnected from the network when the media is created;

detect when the communication device reconnects to the network; and

transmit the media created when the communication device was disconnected from the network from storage or memory after the communication device reconnects to the network.

73. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to:

ascertain if network conditions are sufficiently poor to prevent transmission when the media is created;

detect when network conditions sufficiently improve to enable the transmission; and

transmit the media created when network conditions were sufficiently poor from storage or memory after detecting when the network conditions sufficiently improve.

74. The communication device of claim 54, wherein the received and locally created media comprises one or more of the following types of media:

voice, video, text, sensor data, radio signals, position or GPS information, or a combination thereof.

75. The communication device of claim 54, wherein the communication device comprises one of the following:

a land-line phone, a wireless phone, cellular phone, a mobile phone, a computer, a radio, a satellite phone, a satellite radio, a tactical radio, a tactical phone, or any other type of communication device.

76. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to render urgent media received at the communication device before rendering the media associated with the two or more conversations to be simultaneously rendered.

77. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations by rendering the received media associated with the two or more conversations as the received media is received over the network without first reviewing the stored media received during the pause.

78. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations by rendering from storage the received media associated with the two or more conversations starting at the point the simultaneous rendering of the media associated with the two or more conversations was paused.

79. The communication device of claim 54, further configured to resume the simultaneous rendering of the received media associated with the two or more conversations by rendering from storage the received media associated with the two or more conversations starting at a selected previous point in time.