Providing notifications of call-related services

• US 9,717,090 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2013
• Issued: 07/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gillett, Mark Alastair, Brenes, Manrique, Short, Theo
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Chirag
• Assistant Examiner(s): Reddivalam, Srinivasa
• Application Number:
  US13/752,298
• Publication Number:
  US 20130136089A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,639 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/222 using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1093 by adding participants; by removing participants
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties

Abstract

A first near-end terminal is able to conduct voice or video calls with at least one far-end terminal via a packet-based communication system, the first near-end terminal being a mobile user terminal of a near-end user. The first near-end terminal is enabled to discover proximity of at least one second near-end terminal available to provide a resource for use by the near-end user in conjunction with the first near-end terminal when conducting one of said calls, the resource being for use in conducting at least part of the call or in conjunction with the call. The first near-end terminal is also arranged, based on discovering said proximity, to present the near-end user with a message indicating the availability of the second near-end terminal to provide the resource when conducting the call.

Claims

1. A method of conducting voice or video calls over a network between a first near-end device and at least one far-end device, using a client application of a packet-based communication system, the method comprising:

discovering a proximity, to the first near-end device, of at least one second near-end device that is available to provide a resource for use by a near-end user in conjunction with the first near-end device when conducting one of said calls, the proximity discovered by detection of a sound in an environment common to the first near-end device and the second near-end device, the detection of the sound based on one or more of a correlation or pattern matching of a sound detected by the first near-end device and the second near-end device, the resource being for use in conducting at least part of the call or in conjunction with the call, and the first near-end device being a mobile user terminal of the near-end user;

based on the discovering said proximity, presenting the near-end user with a message indicating the availability of the second near-end device to provide said resource when conducting said call;

prompting the near-end user for a user selection as to whether to accept the second near-end device for use as said resource; and

responsive to the near-end user accepting to use the second near-end device, using the second near-end device to play out or generate at least one audio or video stream of the call, while the first near-end device controls the call.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovering said proximity is further based on the first near-end device and the second near-end device being connected to a same local network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovering said proximity is further based on one or more of:

the first and second near-end devices sharing an address space being a subset of addresses of a packet-based network,

the first and second near-end devices both connecting to a same network interface address of an intermediate network equipment,

the first and second near-end devices being separated by no more than a threshold number of network hops,

a transmission time of a packet travelling between the first and second near-end devices,

a type of access technology currently available for communicating between the first and second near-end devices, or

using a geographic localization technology to detect that a geographic location of the first near-end device is within a proximity of a geographic location of the second near-end device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second near-end device is a user terminal having at least one audio and/or video transducer, and the method further comprises providing the resource to enable the voice or video call to be conducted using the second near-end device to consume or generate the at least one audio or video stream of the call, whilst the first near-end device concurrently generates or consumes at least another audio or video stream of the call, or controls the call.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the presenting the near end-user with said message is performed at the time the proximity is discovered.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is presented in response to the near-end user initiating an outgoing call from the first near-end device, or receiving or accepting an incoming call.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the discovering said proximity uses a server-assisted discovery process.

8. Equipment for use in a first near-end device being a mobile user terminal of a near-end user, the equipment comprising:

a transceiver operable to conduct voice or video calls with at least one far-end device via a network; and

a notification module configured to;

discover proximity of at least one second near-end device that is available to provide a call-related service in relation to one of said voice or video calls, the proximity discovered by detection of a sound in an environment common to the first near-end device and the second near-end device, the detection of the sound based on one or more of a correlation or pattern matching of a sound detected by the first near-end device and the second near-end device;

based on discovering said proximity, output a notification notifying the near-end user of said call-related service;

prompt the near-end user for a user selection as to whether to accept the second near-end device to provide the call-related service in relation to one of said voice or video calls; and

responsive to the near-end user accepting to use the second near-end device, use the second near-end device to play out or generate at least one audio or video stream of the call, while the first near-end device controls the call.

9. The equipment of claim 8, wherein the notification module is further configured to detect said proximity based on the first near-end device and the second near-end device being connected to a same local network.

10. The equipment of claim 8, wherein the notification module is further configured to detect said proximity based on one or more of:

the first and second near-end devices sharing an address space being a subset of addresses of a packet-based network,

the first and second near-end devices both connecting to a same network interface address of an intermediate network equipment,

the first and second near-end devices being separated by no more than a threshold number of network hops,

a transmission time of a packet travelling between the first and second near-end devices,

a type of access technology currently available for communicating between the first and second near-end devices, or

using a geographic localization technology to detect that a geographic location of the first near-end devices is within a proximity of a geographic location of the second near-end device.

11. The equipment of claim 8, wherein the second near-end device is a user terminal having at least one audio and/or video transducer, and the call-related service comprises enabling the voice or video call to be conducted using the second near-end device to consume or generate the at least one audio or video stream of the call, whilst the first near-end device concurrently generates or consumes at least another audio or video stream of the call, or controls the call.

12. The equipment of claim 9, wherein the notification module is configured to output said notification at the time the proximity is discovered.

13. The equipment of claim 12, wherein the notification comprises a graphical icon displayed on a screen of the first near-end device.

14. The equipment of claim 13, wherein the notification enables the user to use of the call related-service with a single click on the icon.

15. The equipment of claim 8, wherein the notification module is configured to present the near-end user with said message in response to the near-end user initiating an outgoing call from the first near-end device, or receiving or accepting an incoming call.

16. The equipment of claim 8, wherein the notification module is configured to discover said proximity using a server-assisted discovery process.

17. The equipment of claim 8, wherein the notification comprises a user-defined message.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more memory devices comprising instructions executable, by the one or more processors, to configure a first near-end terminal, the first near-end terminal being a mobile terminal operable to establish packet-based voice or video calls with at least one far-end terminal over a network, to;

discover the first near-end terminal is within a relative proximity of a second near-end terminal that is available to act as an audio or video end-point for one of said voice or video calls, the relative proximity discovered by detection of a sound in an environment common to the first near-end terminal and the second near-end terminal, the detection of the sound based on one or more of a correlation or pattern matching of a sound detected by the first near-end terminal and the second near-end terminal;

responsive to said discovery of the relative proximity, output a notification to a user of the first near-end terminal, the notification notifying the user of the availability of the second near-end user terminal to act as the audio or video endpoint for the one of the calls;

prompt the user for a user selection as to whether to accept the second near-end terminal for use as said audio or video end-point; and

responsive to the user accepting to use the second near-end terminal, use the second near-end terminal to play out or generate at least one voice or video stream of the call, while the first near-end terminal controls the call.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the discovery of said proximity is further based on the first near-end terminal and the second near-end terminal being connected to a same local network.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the discovery of said proximity is further based on one or more of:

the first and second near-end terminals sharing an address space being a subset of addresses of a packet-based network,

the first and second near-end terminals both connecting to a same network interface address of an intermediate network equipment,

the first and second near-end terminals being separated by no more than a threshold number of network hops,

a transmission time of a packet travelling between the first and second near-end terminals,

a type of access technology currently available for communicating between the first and second near-end terminals, or

using a geographic localization technology to detect that a geographic location of the first near-end terminal is within a proximity of a geographic location of the second near-end terminal.