System and method for real time video streaming from a mobile device or other sources through a server to a designated group and to enable responses from those recipients

• US 9,154,740 B2
• Filed: 04/19/2012
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zap Systems LLC
• Original Assignee: Zap Group LLC
• Inventors: Levinson, Lawrence, Singh, Deepinder
• Primary Examiner(s): Goodarzi, Nasser
• Assistant Examiner(s): Peng, Fred
• Application Number:
  US13/451,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007788A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,265 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A system and method for real time video streaming from a device through a website to a designated group for security, personal, entertainment or commercial applications and to enable responses from those recipients comprises a server operable to bi-directionally communicate with the device and other devices, which are operable to bi-directionally communicate with the server and a module on the server operable to receive notice of an upstream from the device and authenticate a log-in of the device, e.g., a user, transmit content of the upstream to the website, transmit the notice of the upstream to either Designated Recipient Groups or pre-determined recipients, display the content of the upstream on the website, in response to requests, enable placement of information such as advertising and publicity in the content, and enable responses to the content, such as communicating with the user, posting comments, conducting electronic commerce, making appointments and making reservations.

Claims

1. A system for real time video streaming from a device through a website, comprising:

a server having a CPU, the server operable to bi-directionally communicate with a sender device and with one or more recipient devices, the sender device and the one or more recipient devices having an application operable to bi-directionally communicate with the server, the bi-directional communication comprising real time video being streamed at the same time as the video is being captured by the sender device;

a module on the server operable to;

receive notice of an upstream comprising streaming real time video from the sender device, the notice being synchronized with the start of the video capture,

authenticate a log-in of the sender device,

transmit the upstream to a website,

transmit the notice of the upstream to one or more pre-selected recipients, the pre-selected recipients comprising;

one or more Designated Recipient Groups selected in accordance with the log-in of the sender device, and pre-determined recipients in accordance with the log-in of the sender device,

display the upstream on the website,

stream the real time video to the recipient device associated with each of the one or more pre-selected recipients at the same time as the video is being captured in response to a request from the one or more pre-selected recipients, and

route responses from the pre-selected recipient to the website and display the responses on the displayed upstream.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the module is further operable to route bi-directional communication between the sender device and the one or more recipient devices and record, at the server, the bi-directional communication between the sender device to the one or more recipient devices.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sender device is a mobile device having characteristics comprising at least a geographic location and the server further operable to prepare and maintain a map of the geographic location of the sender device.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the bi-communication between the server and the sender device is performed using one or more of an internet and a cellular network, the bi-communication between the server and the one or more recipient devices is performed using one or more of an internet and a cellular network.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the bi-directional communication comprises one or more of live audio, images, text, data in encrypted form and data in unencrypted form.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the server is further operable to place information into the displayed upstream on the website in real time at the same time as the video is being captured, the information comprising at least one of advertising, publicity, emergency, security, traffic, weather, educational and entertainment information.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the one or more recipient devices comprise one or more of a mobile device, a personal computer, a laptop, a tablet and an interne television, and at least one of the one or more recipient devices and a log-in of one of the one or more recipient devices is registered with the system.

8. The system according to claim 1, the module further operable to:

manage data describing the log-in of the sender device, the data comprising one or more of name, address and emergency contacts of a particular sender associated with the sender device, and pre-selected recipient names and telephone numbers.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the responses to the displayed content comprise at least communicating with the log-in of the device, posting comments, conducting electronic commerce, making appointments and making reservations.

10. The system according to claim 1, further including a real time streaming video channel associated with a particular sender which contains live video imagery and other information uploaded by the particular sender to the website and which can be accessed by the one or more pre-selected recipients or by the general public on the website.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the video channel includes the ability of the pre-selected recipients or general public to take actions on the website in response to the information on the video channel, the actions comprising conducting electronic commerce transactions, making appointments, making reservations, entering text and data.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the module is further operable to enable searching for video imagery, audio, text and data on the website with respect to particular channels and particular senders.

13. The system according to claim 3, wherein the module is further operable to determine the geo-location of the sender device, send an alert to a dispatcher nearest to the geo-location of the sender device and stream the real time video to the nearest dispatcher.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the module is further operable to forward the real time video from the dispatcher to responders selected by the dispatcher based on the geo-location of the sender device.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein the module is further operable to send an alert to one or more pre-selected recipients, stream the real time video to the one or more pre-selected recipients and forward the real time video from the one or more pre-selected recipients to the nearest dispatcher based on the geo-location of the sender device.

16. The system according to claim 1, wherein the module is further operable to obtain a login ID and geo-location of the sender device, create a folder for storing the upstream and sends folder identifying information back to the sender device thereby creating a video session between the sender device and the server.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the module is further operable to store the upstream, including one or more of video, audio, text and data files in the folder relating to the video session.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the module is further operable to store in the folder one or more of video, audio, text and data files of bi-directional communications related to the video session.

19. A method for real time video streaming from a device through a website, comprising steps of:

receiving notice of an upstream comprising streaming real time video from a sender device, the video being streamed at the same time as the video is being captured by the sender device, the notice being synchronized with the start of the video capture;

authenticating a log-in of the sender device;

transmitting the notice of the upstream to one or more pre-selected recipients, the pre-selected recipients comprising;

one or more designated recipient groups selected in accordance with the log-in of the sender device, and

pre-determined recipients in accordance with the log-in of the sender device;

transmitting the upstream to a website;

displaying the upstream on the website,

streaming the real time video to a recipient device associated with each of the one or more pre-selected recipients at the same time as the video is being captured in response to a request from the one or more pre-selected recipients; and

routing responses from the pre-selected recipient to the website and display the responses on the displayed upstream.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising steps of:

routing bi-directional communication between the sender device and the one ore more recipient devices; and

recording, at the server, the bi-directional communication between the sender device to the one or more recipient devices.

21. The method according to claim 19, further comprising a step of preparing and maintaining a map of a geographic location of the sender device.

22. The method according to claim 20, wherein the step of bi-directionally communicating between the server and the sender device is performed using one or more of an internet and a cellular network and the step of bi-directionally communication between the server and the one or more recipient devices is performed using one or more of an internet and a cellular network.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein bi-directionally communicating is performed using one or more of live audio, images, text, data in encrypted form and data in unencrypted form.

24. The method according to claim 19, further including placing information into the displayed upstream on the website in real time at the same time as the video is being captured, the information comprising at least one of advertising, publicity, emergency, security, traffic, weather, educational and entertainment information.

25. The method according to claim 19, further comprising a step of registering at least one of the one or more recipient devices and a log-in of one of the one or more recipient devices, wherein the recipient devices comprise one or more of a mobile device, a personal computer, a laptop, a tablet and an internet television.

26. The method according to claim 19, further comprising steps of:

managing data describing the log-in of the sender device, the data comprising one or more of name, address and emergency contacts of a particular sender associated with the sender device, and pre-selected recipient names and telephone numbers.

27. The method according to claim 19, wherein the responses to the displayed content comprise at least communicating with the log-in of the device, posting comments, conducting electronic commerce, making appointments and making reservations.

managing data describing the log-in of the sender device, the data comprising one or more of name, address and emergency contacts of a particular sender associated with the sender device, and pre-selected recipient, names and telephone numbers

28. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method for real time video streaming from a device through a website, comprising:

receiving notice of an upstream comprising streaming real time video from a sender device, the video being streamed at the same time as the video is being captured by the sender device, the notice being synchronized with the start of the video capture;

authenticating a log-in of the sender device;

transmitting the notice of the upstream to one or more pre-selected recipients, the pre-selected recipients comprising;

one or more designated recipient groups selected in accordance with the log-in of the sender device, and

pre-determined recipients in accordance with the log-in of the sender device;

transmitting the upstream to a website;

displaying the upstream on the website,

streaming the real time video to a recipient device associated with each of the one or more pre-selected recipients at the same time as the video is being captured in response to a request from the one or more pre-selected recipients; and

routing responses from the pre-selected recipient to the website and display the responses on the displayed upstream.

29. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, further comprising steps of:

routing bi-directional communication between the sender device and the one or more recipient devices; and

recording, at the server, the bi-directional communication between the sender device to the one or more recipient devices.

30. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, further comprising a step of preparing and maintaining a map of a geographic location of the sender device.

31. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 29, wherein the step of bi-directionally communicating between the server and the sender device is performed using one or more of an internet and a cellular network and the step of bi-directionally communication between the server and the one or more recipient devices is performed using one or more of an internet and a cellular network.

32. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 29, wherein bi-directionally communicating is performed using one or more of live audio, images, text, data in encrypted form and data in unencrypted form.

33. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, further including placing information into the displayed upstream on the website in real time at the same time as the video is being captured, the information comprising at least one of advertising, publicity, emergency, security, traffic, weather, educational and entertainment information.

34. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, further comprising a step of registering at least one of the one or more recipient devices and a log-in of one of the one or more recipient devices, wherein the recipient devices comprise one or more of a mobile device, a personal computer, a laptop, a tablet and an internet television.

35. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, further comprising steps of:

managing data describing the log-in of the sender device, the data comprising one or more of name, address and emergency contacts of a particular sender associated with the sender device, and pre-selected recipient, names and telephone numbers.

36. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 28, wherein the responses to the displayed content comprise at least communicating with the log-in of the device, posting comments, conducting electronic commerce, making appointments and making reservations.