Multimodal telephone calls

• US 8,559,606 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2010
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Varkey, Mini M., Sana, Bernardo S. P., Carlomagno, Diego H.
• Primary Examiner(s): WOO, STELLA L
• Application Number:
  US12/962,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20120140908A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,043 Days
• Field of Search: 379/93.01, 379/90.01, 379/93.08, 379/93.17, 379/93.21, 455/414.1, 455/416, 370/352
• US Class Current: 379/90.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4025 where none of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. downloading a file in a parallel FTP session, initiating an email or combinational services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0057 Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network

Abstract

A method for establishing a multimodal telephone call is provided. On a first computing device, a telephone call is received from a second computing device. On the first computing device, a response is sent to the second computing device that a telephony session is established between the first computing device and the second computing device. On the first computing device, a request message is sent to register the first computing device for a data session at an online registry service. On the first computing device, a response message is received indicating that the first computing device is registered at the online registry service. The response message includes a key that uniquely identifies the data session. On the first computing device, the key is used to establish the data session with the second computing device.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a first computing device for establishing a multimodal telephone call, the method comprising:

on the first computing device, receiving a telephone call from a second computing device;

on the first computing device, sending a response to the second computing device that a telephony session is established between the first computing device and the second computing device;

on the first computing device, sending a request message to register the first computing device for a data session at an online registry service, the request message to register including a telephone number associated with the first computing device and a telephone number associated with the second computing device, the telephone numbers associated with the first and second computing devices being utilized by the online registry service in an attempt to match the telephone numbers associated with the first and second computing devices with telephone numbers included in other request messages to register, received at the online registry service;

on the first computing device, receiving a response message indicating that the first computing device is registered at the online registry service, the response message including a key that uniquely identifies the data session; and

on the first computing device, using the key to establish the data session with the second computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computing device is a client computer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computing device is a server computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second computing device is a mobile telephone or a server computer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the request message to register the first computing device for the data session at the online registry service further comprises including a first telephone number and a second telephone number in the request message, the first telephone number being a telephone number of the second computing device and the second telephone number being a telephone number of the first computing device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first telephone number and the second telephone number are included as concatenated strings in the request message.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the request message further includes a fully qualified domain name for the online registry service.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the key comprises one or more numbers or alphabetic characters.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein using the key to establish the data session with the second computing device further comprises including the key in one or more data messages sent from the first computing device to the second computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising ending the telephony session with the second computing device and sending a message to the online registry service to end the data session.

11. A method implemented on a first computing device for establishing a multimodal telephone call, the method comprising:

on the first computing device, receiving a first request message from a second computing device to register a data session for the second computing device, the first request message including a first telephone number and a second telephone number;

on the first computing device, receiving a second request message to register the data session for a third computing device, the second request message including a third telephone number and a fourth telephone number;

on the first computing device, determining whether the first and second telephone numbers in the first request message match telephone numbers in other received request messages;

on the first computing device, when it is determined that the telephone numbers from the second computing device and the third computing device match, creating a key for the data session between the second computing device and the third computing device, the key providing a unique identifier for the data session.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising on the first computing device, sending a first response message to the second computing device, the first response message including the key.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising on the first computing device, sending a second response message to the third computing device, the second response message including the key.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the first telephone number is a telephone number associated with the second computing device and the second telephone number is a telephone number associated with the third computing device.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the third telephone number is a telephone number associated with the third computing device and the fourth telephone number is a telephone number associated with the second computing device.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein determining whether the telephone numbers from the second computing device and the third computing device match further comprises determining whether the first telephone number matches the fourth telephone number and determining whether the second telephone number matches the third telephone number.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a message from the second computing device to invalidate the identifier.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving a message from the third computing device to invalidate the identifier.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising unregistering the second computing device and the third computing device.

20. A computer-readable storage medium wherein the computer-readable storage medium does not include a transmission signal comprising instructions that, when executed by a client computer, cause the client computer to:

receive a telephone call from a second computing device;

send a response to the second computing device that a telephony session is established between the client computer and the second computing device;

send a first request message to register the client computer for a data session at an online registry service, the first request message to register including a first telephone number associated with the client computer and a second telephone number associated with the second computing device, the first and second telephone numbers being utilized by the online registry service in an attempt to match the first and second telephone numbers with telephone numbers received from other request messages to register, received at the online registry service;

receive a response message indicating that the client computer is registered at the online registry service, the response message including a key that uniquely identifies the data session; and

initiate a second request message to send data to the second computing device, the second request message including the key.