Video relay service, communication system, and related methods for connecting users with N11 services in a video relay service environment

• US 9,635,174 B1
• Filed: 07/06/2016
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sorenson Ip Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sorenson Ip Holdings, LLC
• Inventors: Esposito, Janet Lynn, Montero, Adam, Brooksby, Scot L., Beckmann, Grant A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Creighton
• Application Number:
  US15/203,705
• Time in Patent Office: 293 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/50 Telephonic communication in combination with video communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42306 Number translation services, e.g. premium-rate, freephone or vanity number services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42391 where the subscribers are hearing-impaired persons, e.g. telephone devices for the deaf
• 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

Abstract

Video relay services, communication systems, and methods are disclosed connecting users with N11 services in a video relay service environment. A video relay service may comprise at least one server configured to manage a customer database including customer records for audibly-impaired users of the video relay service, manage an N11 database including alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for a plurality of different locations defined by political boundaries, receive incoming video calls including an N11 code from a calling party, resolve the N11 code to an appropriate alternate number for an N11 service based on a political boundary for the calling party responsive to a query of the N11 database, establish a first connection between a video communication device associated with the calling party and a call assistant station associated with a sign language interpreter, and establish a second connection between the call assistant station and the N11 service.

Claims

1. A video relay service comprising:

at least one server configured to;

manage a customer database including customer records for audibly-impaired users of the video relay service;

manage an N11 database including alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for a plurality of different locations defined by political boundaries;

receive incoming video calls including an N11 code from a calling party, the N11 code selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 511, 711, and 811;

resolve the N11 code to an appropriate alternate number for an N11 service based on a political boundary for the calling party responsive to a query of the N11 database;

establish a first connection between a video communication device associated with the calling party and a call assistant station associated with a sign language interpreter; and

establish a second connection between the call assistant station and the N11 service, wherein the at least one server is configured to resolve the N11 code to the appropriate alternate number by applying one or more priority filters during a search of the N11 database.

2. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein the at least one server includes:

a video server configured to initially receive the incoming video call; and

an application server configured to receive a call request from the video server and query the N11 database to initiate resolving the N11 code to an appropriate alternate number.

3. The video relay service of claim 2, wherein the at least one server further includes an N11 database server that stores the N11 database.

4. The video relay service of claim 3, wherein the at least one server further includes a profile server that stores the customer database.

5. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein two or more of the N11 codes have different rules that define the order of a priority of the one or more priority filters applied.

6. The video relay service of claim 5, wherein the one or more priority filters include at least one of a state filter, a city filter, a county filter, or a zip code filter.

7. The video relay service of claim 6, wherein the county filter applies county information retrieved from a separate county database.

8. The video relay service of claim 7, wherein the county database is populated with post office data that is correlated with information from the customer database.

10. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein the at least one server is configured to inform the video communication device that the N11 service is not supported by the video relay service by causing a video to play on the video communication device.

19. The video relay service of claim 1, wherein the at least one server is further configured to manage an additional address database and correlate customer records from the customer database to a region identified by the additional address database.

20. The video relay service of claim 19, wherein the additional address database is a separate database having address information received by the relay service from a third party entity that is different from the relay service.

9. A video relay service comprising:

at least one server configured to;

manage a customer database including customer records for audibly-impaired users of the video relay service;

manage an N11 database including alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for a plurality of different locations defined by political boundaries;

receive incoming video calls including an N11 code from a calling party, the N11 code selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 511, 711, and 811;

resolve the N11 code to an appropriate alternate number for an N11 service based on a political boundary for the calling party responsive to a query of the N11 database;

establish a first connection between a video communication device associated with the calling party and a call assistant station associated with a sign language interpreter;

establish a second connection between the call assistant station and the N11; and

inform the video communication device that the N11 service is not supported by the video relay service responsive to no appropriate alternate calling numbers being retrieved.

11. A method of routing an N11 call received at a video relay service configured to provide sign language interpretive services during the N11 call, the method comprising:

receiving a call including an N11 code at a video relay service from a video communication device associated with a registered customer of the video relay service;

establishing a first connection between the video relay service and the video communication device;

resolving the N11 code to an alternate number corresponding to an appropriate N11 service based, at least in part, on the N11 code and a determination of at least one political boundary associated with a location of the video communication device, wherein the N11 code is selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 511, 711, and 811;

establishing a second connection between the video relay service and the appropriate N11 service responsive to resolving the N11 code to the alternate number such that a call assistant at the video relay service is connected to both the video communication device via the first connection and the N11 service via the second connection;

retrieving a first set of filter priority rules corresponding to first N11 code while resolving the first N11 code during a first call; and

retrieving a second set of filter priority rules corresponding to a second N11 code while resolving the second N11 code during a second call.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining the at least one political boundary by querying at least one of a city, a state, a county, or a zip code corresponding to a customer record of the registered customer stored in a customer database.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising using the at least one political boundary to query an N11 database including a plurality of alternate numbers for various political boundaries for the N11 code.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining the at least one political boundary by receiving geolocational information from a user profile server during the call and comparing the geolocational information to a map having defined political boundaries for the N11 code.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein resolving the N11 code is performed by the video relay service.

16. A video communication system comprising:

a video communication device having a camera and a display screen configured for an audibly-impaired user to engage in a communication session with a far-end user; and

a video relay service configured to;

receive an N11 call from the video communication device responsive to an N11 code being dialed, wherein the N11 code is selected from the group consisting of 211, 311, 511, 711, and 811;

establish a first connection with the video communication device; and

establish a second connection with an N11 service corresponding to the N11 code and an appropriate alternate number resolved from the N11 code based on at least one political boundary designated for the video communication device, wherein the N11 code is resolved to the appropriate alternate number by applying one or more priority filters during a search of an N11 database including alternate numbers corresponding to N11 codes for a plurality of different locations defined by political boundaries.

17. The video communication system of claim 16, wherein the video communication device is configured to resolve the N11 code to the appropriate alternate number prior to sending the call request to the video relay service.

18. The video communication system of claim 16, wherein the video relay service is configured to resolve the N11 code to the appropriate alternate number responsive to receiving the call request with the N11 code from the video communication device.