Telecommunication and multimedia management method and apparatus

• US 8,744,050 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2008
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• 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:
  US12/127,594
• Publication Number:
  US 20090003536A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,198 Days
• Field of Search: 379/68, 379/93.01, 379/90.01, 379/88.04, 379 8806- 8808, 379 8822- 8828, 379/93.24, 709204-206
• US Class Current: 379/68
• 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

A communication device for rendering one or more conversations. The communication device includes a receiver configured to receive media over a network and an encoder configured to encode media created using the communication device, where the received and encoded media are associated with the one or more conversations. A storage or memory element stores on the device both the received media and the encoded media. A conversation control element is provided for selecting one of the one or more conversations as current and for controlling the rendering of the media of the selected conversation. A rendering element, controlled by the conversation control element, is provided to render the media associated with the selected current conversation on the communication device in either (a) a near real-time mode where the received media associated with the selected current conversation is progressively rendered as it is received or (b) a time shifted mode where the received and encoded media associated with the selected current conversion is rendered at a time after it was encoded or received. The device further includes a transmitter configured to transmit the encoded media associated with the selected current conversation over the network to one or more remote communication devices.

Claims

1. Computer code embedded in a non-transient computer readable medium and configured to be executed on a communication device couple to a network, the computer code configured to:

progressively receive over the network at the communication device voice media associated with one or more conversations;

progressively encode voice media created using the communication device, the encoded voice media associated with the one or more conversations;

progressively store on the communication device the received voice media associated with the one or more conversations as the voice media is received over the network and as the created voice media associated with the one or more conversations is encoded;

select on the communication device one of the one or more conversations as current;

selectively render the voice media associated with the selected current conversation for the first time on the communication device in both;

(a) a near real-time mode where the received voice media associated with the selected current conversation is progressively rendered as it is received;

or (b) a time shifted mode where the received voice media associated with the selected current conversion is rendered from storage at a time after it was received; and

progressively transmit the encoded voice media associated with the selected current conversation over the network to one or more remote communication devices as the voice media is created.

2. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to:

optionally shift the selected current conversation among the one or more conversations; and

selectively render the received voice media of the shifted current conversation in the near real-time mode or the time-shifted mode.

3. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to selectively transition the rendering of the voice media associated with the selected current conversation between the near real-time and the time-shifted modes.

4. The computer code of claim 1, wherein the selected current conversation further comprises an exchange of the received and encoded voice media among the participants of the selected current conversation.

5. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to progressively render the voice media of the selected current conversation from storage when rendering in the time-shifted mode.

6. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to provide on the communication device the ability to selectively pause and then resume the rendering of the currently selected conversation while continually storing the received voice media associated with the one or more conversations during the pause.

7. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to render the voice media of the selected current conversation from storage in the time-shifted mode starting at a previous point in time of the selected current conversation.

8. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to provide the ability to review in the time-shifted mode the received voice media of the selected current conversation from a selected one participant by retrieving and rendering the received voice media from the selected one participant from storage.

9. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to provide the ability to review in the time-shifted mode the received voice media of the selected current conversation from two or more participants by retrieving and rendering the received voice media from the two or more participants from storage.

10. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to receive a rendering point input which defines a previous point in time of the selected current conversation to begin the rendering of the selected current conversation in the time-shifted mode.

11. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to render multiple voice media streams on the communication device from multiple participants associated with the selected current conversation.

12. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to transition the rendering of the received voice media of the selected current conversation from the time- shifted mode to the near real-time mode by:

rendering the retrieved voice media at an increased rendering rate from storage until the retrieved voice media has caught up to and is substantially concurrent with the voice media of the selected conversation as received over the network; and

then

rendering the voice media of the selected current conversation in the near real-time mode as it is received over the network after the catch-up point.

13. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to receive a conversation selection input and a rendering point input defining a point in the selected conversation to start rendering the voice media.

14. The computer code of claim 1, wherein the voice media associated with the one or more conversations is segmented into messages.

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

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

16. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to:

ascertain if the communication device is connected to the network when the voice media is created; and

progressively transmit the created voice media if the communication device is connected to the network,

wherein connected to the network is defined as the ability to transfer data between the communication device and the network.

17. The computer code of claim 16, further configured to;

ascertain the bandwidth rate of the connection between the network and the communication device when the voice media is created; and

progressively transmit the created voice media within the ascertained bandwidth rate.

18. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to:

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

detect when the communication device reconnects to the network; and

transmit the created voice media from storage after the communication device reconnects to the network,

wherein connected and disconnected to the network is defined as the ability to transfer or not transfer data between the communication device and the network respectively.

19. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to:

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

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

transmit the created voice media from storage after detecting when the network conditions sufficiently improve.

20. The computer code of claim 1, wherein the conversation further comprises, in addition to the voice media, one or more of the following types of media that changes over time:

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

21. The computer code of claim 1, wherein the communication device configured to execute the code comprises one of the following:

a, land-line phone, a wireless or cellular phone, a computer or a radio, a satellite phone or radio, or a tactical radio or phone.

22. The computer code 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, a wired network, a fiber optic network, or a combination thereof.

23. The computer code of claim 1, further configured to:

receive urgent media at the communication device; and

render the urgent media before rendering other media associated with the one or more conversations.

24. The computer code of claim 1, wherein the selected one conversation further comprises one or more of the following types of media:

(i) audio;

(ii) video;

(iii) text; and

(iv) photos.

25. Computer code embedded in a non-transient computer readable medium and configured to be executed on a communication device couple to a network, the computer code configured to:

progressively receive over the network at the communication device voice media associated with one or more conversations;

progressively encode voice media created using the communication device, the encoded voice media associated with the one or more conversations;

progressively store on the communication device the received voice media associated with the one or more conversations as the voice media is received over the network and as the created voice media associated with the one or more conversations is encoded;

select on the communication device a current conversation among the one or more conversations;

selectively render the voice media associated with the selected current conversation for the first time on the communication device in both;

(a) a near real-time mode where the received voice media associated with the selected current conversation is progressively rendered as it is received; and

(b) a time shifted mode where the received voice media associated with the selected current conversion is rendered from storage at a time after it was received; and

progressively transmit the encoded voice media associated with the selected current conversation over the network to one or more remote communication devices associated with one or more participants of the select conversation as the voice media is created, the code relying on a transmission protocol that;

(i) supports near-real-time communication so that the created voice media is delivered in near real-time to the one or more remote communication devices when connected to and available on network; and

(ii) guarantees delivery of the created voice media to the one or more remote communication devices.

26. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the transmission protocol is further configured to guarantee the delivery of the created voice media during a first transmission session without the need for a second transmission session.

27. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the transmission protocol is further configured to guarantee delivery of a complete copy of the created voice media by retransmitting the created voice media designated as missing and/or defective so that the communication device and the one or more remote communication devices have identical stored copies of the created voice media respectively.

28. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the code is further configured to note missing and/or defective received voice media and to generate requests for retransmission of the noted voice media so that complete copies of the received voice media, as transmitted, is stored on the communication device when the retransmission requests are satisfied.

29. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the transmission protocol is further configured to transmit the voice media of the outgoing message as fast as conditions on the network permit.

30. The computer code of claim 25, further configured to transmit the created voice media out of storage when:

(i) the communication device is disconnected from the network when the voice media is created; and

(ii) the communication device reconnects to the network.

31. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the code is further configured to transmit the created voice media out of storage when conditions on the network are not adequate for progressively transmitting the voice media as the voice media is created.

32. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the code is further configured to render the received voice media associated with any of the one or more conversations from storage when the communication device is disconnected from the network.

33. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the received voice media and the created voice media further comprise asynchronous messages transmitted over the network.

34. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the code supports full-duplex communication on the communication device.

35. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the code supports asynchronous messaging communication on the communication device.

36. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the code is further configured to provide a synchronous communication experience between a user of the communication device and the one or more participants in the selected current conversation when the received and the created voice media of the currently selected conversation exchanged over the network are both rendered at approximately the same time.

37. The computer code of claim 25, further configured to progressively transmit to a node on the network the created voice media with one or more identifier(s) associated with each of the one or more participants of the selected current conversation, the node using the one or more identifier(s) to locate on the network the one or more remote communication devices associated with the one or more participant and to deliver the created voice media to the one or more remote communication devices respectively.

38. The computer code of claim 37, wherein the one or more identifier(s) are each non-IP address identifier(s).

39. The computer code of claim 25, wherein each of the one or more conversations share a common attribute respectively, the common attribute for each of the one or more conversations comprising one of the following:

(i) a conversation name;

(ii) a conversation subject;

(iii) a name of a participant of the conversation;

or

(iv) a name of a converasation group.

40. The computer code of claim 25, wherein each of the one or more conversations comprises a conversation thread capable of including, in addition to the voice media, one or more of the following:

(i) audio media;

(ii) text;

(iii) photos;

(iv) video media;

(v) sensor data;

(vi) radio signals;

(vii) positional or GPS information.

41. The computer code of claim 25, wherein the encoded voice media of the selected current conversation is progressively transmitted using one or more identifiers associated with the one or more participants of the selected current conversation respectively.

42. The computer code of claim 41, wherein the one or more identifiers is/are a human-readable identifiers.

43. The computer code of claim 41, wherein the one or more identifiers is/are a non-IP address identifiers that is/are resolved into one or more IP-addresses that correspond to the one or more remote communication devices associated with one or more participants of the selected current conversation respectively.

44. The computer code of claim 43, wherein the one or more IP-addresses is/are resolved into one or more physical addresses on the network for the one or more remote communication devices respectively.