Systems and methods for implementing instant social image cobrowsing through the cloud

• US 9,185,342 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Isaacs, Charles Hart
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Joseph J
• Application Number:
  US14/039,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20140098176A1
• Time in Patent Office: 774 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/3065 for real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• 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 65/4025 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: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/141 between two video terminals, e.g. videophone telephonic communication systems combined with television receiver for reception of entertainment or information matter H04M11/085
• 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 7/155 involving storage of or access to video conference sessions tracking arrangements for later retrieval of a computer conference content or participants activities H04L12/1831
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

In accordance with disclosed embodiments, there are provided methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementing instant social image cobrowsing through the cloud, including, for example, means for loading an application at the client device, the application displaying a graphical interface at the client device; receiving input at the graphical interface of the client device to initiate an instant share session; generating an action at the client device to request an instant share session; communicating the action from the client device to a remote host organization via a public Internet; receiving, at the client device, a pointer to a dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization responsive to communicating the action from the client device to the remote host organization; following the pointer to the dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization communicably linking the client device with the host organization; and exchanging a video telephony stream between the client device and a remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site. Other related embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method at a client device having at least a processor and a memory therein, wherein the method comprises:

loading an application at the client device, the application displaying a graphical interface at the client device;

receiving input at the graphical interface of the client device to initiate an instant share session;

generating an action at the client device to request an instant share session;

communicating the action from the client device to a remote host organization via a public Internet;

receiving, at the client device, a pointer to a dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization responsive to communicating the action from the client device to the remote host organization;

following the pointer to the dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization communicably linking the client device with the host organization;

exchanging a video telephony stream between the client device and a remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site; and

wherein the action generated at the client device and communicated to the remote host organization is;

(i) passed to a routing system to determine a priority for escalating the instant share session, (ii) passed to an escalation system to apply the priority determined by expediting the request for an instant share session out of turn based on the priority determined, and (iii) passed to an expert locator to identify one or more experts to participate as the remote party in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device having at least the memory and the processor therein is embodied within one of:

a tablet computing device;

a hand-held smartphone; and

a mobile computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein loading an application at the client device, comprises one of:

loading an android platform compatible mobile application at the client device;

loading an iOS platform compatible mobile application at the client device;

loading a Windows mobile platform compatible mobile application at the client device; and

loading an HTML5 compliant website within a web-browser at the executing at the client device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein loading an application at the client device, comprises:

loading a mobile application provided by a third party separate from the remote host organization;

wherein the mobile application is branded by the third party; and

wherein the mobile application is configured to interface with the remote host organization upon receiving the input at the graphical interface to initiate the instant share session.

5. The method of claim 1:

wherein the action generated at the client device and communicated to the remote host organization is routed through an escalation path according to routing rules;

wherein the routing rules determine a priority for escalating the instant share session to a live expert to participate as the remote party in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site.

6. The method of claim 5:

wherein the live expert renders a satisfactory solution to a user of the client device via the video telephony stream exchanged between the client device and the remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site; and

wherein the video telephony stream is recorded by the host organization for later playback.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the recorded video telephony stream is published to a community forum for reference as a solution to a specified problem.

8. The method of claim 1:

wherein the experts send an optional invitation to other experts to participate as optional invitees in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site; and

wherein the optional invitees accept the optional invitation by following a pointer to the dynamically created co-browse site.

9. The method of claim 1:

wherein a user of the client device sends an optional invitation to other users to participate as optional invitees in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site; and

wherein the optional invitees accept the optional invitation by following a pointer to the dynamically created co-browse site.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the optional invitation to the other users to participate as optional invitees comprise at least one of:

friends from a social networking site;

professional colleagues from a business social networking site;

other users from a support forum or web community; and

co-workers from an enterprise networking site.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving input at the graphical interface of the client device to initiate an instant share session comprises:

receiving a user input at an instant share icon displayed upon the graphical interface of the client device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein exchanging a video telephony stream between the client device and a remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site comprises exchanging one or more of:

audio captured at the client device;

a user'"'"'s voice and speech captured at the client device;

video captured at the client device;

audio communicated from the remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site to the client device;

video communicated from the remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site to the client device; and

still images or documents communicated from the remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site to the client device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein an intelligence module applies video parsing and analysis to the video telephony stream exchanged between the client device and the remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site.

14. The method of claim 13:

wherein the intelligence module identifies a recommended solution based on the video parsing and analysis applied to the video telephony stream; and

wherein the intelligence module pushes the recommended solution to a user of the client device or publishes the recommended solution to a community forum for reference as a solution to a specified problem, or both.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating a user of the client device with the host organization as a known subscriber; and

determining the priority for escalating the instant share session to a live expert to participate as the remote party in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site based on one of;

a UserID of the authenticated user;

a product affiliation of the authenticated user;

an OrgID to which the authenticated user belongs;

a Service Level Agreement contracted with the authenticated user;

a paid subscription plan as purchased by the authenticated user; and

a calculated customer value score determined by the host organization and correlated to the authenticated user.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending an optional invitation to a second client computing device;

accepting the optional invitation at the second client computing device to join the second client computing device into the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site;

displaying video originated by the remote party at a display of the second client device; and

displaying video originated by the client device upon the graphical interface displayed to the client device.

17. A method in a host organization, wherein the method comprises:

receiving an action generated by a client device remote from the host organization, the action requesting an instant share session pursuant to an instant share icon selection at the client device;

dynamically creating a co-browse site at the host organization responsive to receiving the action requesting the instant share session from the client device;

determining a priority for escalating the action requesting the instant share session from the client device according to routing rules;

escalating the action requesting the instant share session from the client device according to the priority determined;

locating one or more experts to participate in a video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site;

communicably linking the client device and the one or more experts to the dynamically created co-browse site to exchange the video telephony stream; and

wherein the action generated by the client device and received by the host organization is;

(i) passed to a routing system to determine a priority for escalating the instant share session, (ii) passed to an escalation system to apply the priority determined by expediting the request for an instant share session out of turn based on the priority determined, and (iii) passed to an expert locator to identify the one or more experts to participate as the remote party in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

applying video parsing and analysis to the video telephony stream exchanged between the client device and the remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site to identify a recommended solution;

pushing the recommended solution to the client device or publishing the recommended solution to a community forum for reference as a solution to a specified problem, or both.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

recording the video telephony stream between the client device and the remote party as the video telephony stream progresses between the client device and the remote party;

storing the recorded video telephony stream within a multi-tenant database system of the host organization as the video telephony stream progresses; and

sharing the recorded video telephony stream with a community forum as a solution to a problem.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the recorded video telephony stream is controllable by a viewer of a second client device remote from the host organization while the video telephony stream progresses between the first client device and the remote party, wherein controlling the video telephony stream by the viewer of the second client device includes one or more of:

(i) pausing the video telephony stream at the second client device as it progresses between the first client device and the remote party;

(ii) playing forward the video telephony stream at the second client device as it progresses between the first client device and the remote party;

(iii) rewinding the video telephony stream at the second client device for review as the video telephony stream progresses between the first client device and the remote party; and

(iv) fast forwarding the video telephony stream at the second client device as it progresses between the first client device and the remote party up to a the video telephony stream at the second client having a concurrent position with the video telephony stream at the first client device.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the priority for escalating the action requesting the instant share session from the client device according to routing rules comprises determining the priority for escalating the action based on one or more of:

a UserID of the of a user associated with the client device;

a product determined from a user associated with the client device;

an OrgID to which a user associated with the client device belongs;

a Service Level Agreement contracted with a user associated with the client device;

a paid subscription plan as purchased by a user associated with the client device; and

a calculated customer value score for a user associated with the client device as determined by the host organization.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein communicably linking the client device and the one or more experts to the dynamically created co-browse site to exchange the video telephony stream, comprises:

sending a pointer to each of the client device and the one or more experts, the pointer pointing to the dynamically created co-browse site; and

receiving incoming connections at the dynamically created co-browse site responsive to the pointer sent to each of the client device and the one or more experts.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the client device is embodied within one of:

a tablet computing device;

a hand-held smartphone; and

a mobile computing device.

24. The method of claim 17,

wherein the host organization implements the method via computing architecture of the host organization including at least a processor and a memory;

wherein the host organization operates as a cloud based service provider to the client device; and

wherein the host organization provides a multi-tenant database system via the databases and the computing architecture of the host organization, the multi-tenant database system having elements of hardware and software that are shared by a plurality of separate and distinct customer organizations, each of the separate and distinct customer organizations being remotely located from the host organization.

25. Non-transitory computer readable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor of a client device, the instructions cause the client device to perform operations comprising:

loading an application at the client device, the application displaying a graphical interface at the client device;

receiving input at the graphical interface of the client device to initiate an instant share session;

generating an action at the client device to request an instant share session;

communicating the action from the client device to a remote host organization via a public Internet;

receiving, at the client device, a pointer to a dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization responsive to communicating the action from the client device to the remote host organization;

following the pointer to the dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization communicably linking the client device with the host organization;

exchanging a video telephony stream between the client device and a remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site; and

wherein the action generated at the client device and communicated to the remote host organization is;

(i) passed to a routing system to determine a priority for escalating the instant share session, (ii) passed to an escalation system to apply the priority determined by expediting the request for an instant share session out of turn based on the priority determined, and (iii) passed to an expert locator to identify one or more experts to participate as the remote party in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site.

27. The mobile computing device of claim 25, wherein the mobile computing device is embodied within one of

a tablet computing device;

and

a hand-held smartphone.

28. The mobile computing device of claim 25, wherein the processor to load the application at the mobile computing device comprises the processor to perform one of the following operations at the client device:

loading an android platform compatible mobile application at the mobile computing device;

loading an iOS platform compatible mobile application at the mobile computing device;

loading a Windows mobile platform compatible mobile application at the mobile computing device; and

loading an HTML5 compliant website within a web-browser at the executing at the mobile computing device.

26. A mobile computing device comprising:

a processor and a memory to execute instructions at the mobile computing device;

a touchscreen to display a graphical interface at the mobile computing device;

the processor to load an application at the mobile computing device, the application displaying a graphical interface at the mobile computing device;

the touchscreen of the mobile computing device to receive input to initiate an instant share session;

the application to generate an action at the mobile computing device to request an instant share session;

a network interface to communicate the action from the mobile computing device to a remote host organization via a public Internet;

the network interface to receive a pointer to a dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization responsive to communicating the action from the client device to the remote host organization;

the application to follow the pointer to the dynamically created co-browse site at the host organization communicably linking the client device with the host organization via the network interface;

the application to exchange a video telephony stream between the client device and a remote party through the dynamically created co-browse site; and

wherein the action generated at the client device and communicated to the remote host organization is;

(i) passed to a routing system to determine a priority for escalating the instant share session, (ii) passed to an escalation system to apply the priority determined by expediting the request for an instant share session out of turn based on the priority determined, and (iii) passed to an expert locator to identify one or more experts to participate as the remote party in exchanging the video telephony stream with the client device through the dynamically created co-browse site.