Devices with calling apps for inmate calls, information sharing, monitoring, and other functions

• US 9,826,003 B1
• Filed: 05/23/2017
• Issued: 11/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Confinement Telephony Technology, LLC
• Original Assignee: Confinement Telephony Technology, LLC
• Inventors: Thomasson, Todd Russell, Pabon, Timothy Edwin, Way, Zachary Alan, Tayloe, Johnnie Richard, Haffner, Margaret Suzanne
• Primary Examiner(s): Mew, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US15/602,658
• Time in Patent Office: 182 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1046 Call controllers; Call servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1076 Screening of IP real time communications, e.g. spam over Internet telephony [SPIT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/38 Graded-service arrangements, i.e. some subscribers prevented from establishing certain connections queuing arrangements H04Q3/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

Systems and techniques for permitting, establishing, monitoring and controlling VOIP calls based on messages from outside parties, outside party availability information, institution'"'"'s call restriction information, and/or account holder preferences. In one example, a message from an outside party app on an outside party computing device is receive by an inmate app on an inmate device. The inmate device displays the message at the inmate calling app including a request for the inmate to call the outside party device during a time period. When the inmate initiates a call to the outside party the call is permitted or not permitted based on determining whether the call is within the specified time period.

Claims

1. A method, performed by an inmate computing device, for establishing a call between the inmate computing device used by an inmate and an outside party computing device used by an outside party, the method comprising:

receiving, at an inmate calling app on the inmate computing device, a message from an outside party app on the outside party computing device;

displaying the message at the inmate calling app, wherein displaying the message comprises displaying a request for the inmate to call the outside party device during a time period;

receiving input to initiate a voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) call between the inmate app on the inmate device and the outside party app on the outside party device;

determining that the VOIP call is permitted based on determining that the VOIP call is within the time period; and

based on determining that the VOIP call is permitted, establishing the VOIP call between the inmate app on the inmate device and the outside party app on the outside party device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises determining the time period based on the message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the time period based on the message comprises determining that the time period is now based on the message, wherein displaying the message displays text or a graphic indicating that the inmate should call the outside party now.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the time period is now and determining that the VOIP call is permitted comprises determining whether the input to initiate the VOIP call is received within a predetermined length of time after receiving the message from the outside party app.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the time period based on the message comprises determining that the time period is today based on the message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the time period based on the message comprises determining the time period based on a starting time and an ending time for the time period included in the message.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a notification at the start of the time period indicating that the inmate is permitted to call the outside party during the time period.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a notification in the inmate calling app at the start of the time period indicating that the inmate is permitted to call the outside party during the time period.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the notification identifies the end of the time period during which the inmate is permitted to call the outside party.

10. A method, performed by an inmate computing device, for establishing a call between the inmate computing device used by an inmate and an outside party computing device used by an outside party based on outside party availability information, the method comprising:

receiving, at an inmate calling app on the inmate computing device, the outside party availability information from an outside party app on the outside party computing device;

displaying, at the inmate calling app, an availability schedule identifying time periods for calling the outside party device based on the outside party availability information;

receiving input to initiate a voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) call between the inmate app on the inmate device and the outside party app on the outside party device;

determining that the VOIP call is permitted based on determining that the VOIP call is within one of the time periods; and

based on determining that the VOIP call is permitted, establishing the VOIP call between the inmate app on the inmate device and the outside party app on the outside party device.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising providing notifications at the inmate calling app at the start of the time periods indicating that the inmate is permitted to call the outside party.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein each of the notifications identifies the end time of a current time period during which the inmate is currently permitted to call the outside party.

13. A method for establishing a call between the inmate computing device used by an inmate and an outside party computing device used by an outside party, the method comprising:

receiving institution call restriction information at a calling app on the inmate computing device or the outside party computing device;

displaying, at the calling app, a call schedule identifying time periods during which a call involving the inmate is permitted based on the institution call restriction information;

receiving input to initiate a voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) call between the inmate computing device and the outside party computing device;

determining that the VOIP call is permitted based on determining that the VOIP call is within one of the time periods; and

based on determining that the VOIP call is permitted, establishing the VOIP call between inmate computing device and the outside party computing device.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising providing notifications in the inmate calling app at the start of the time periods indicating that the inmate is permitted to call the outside party.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the notifications identifies the end time of a current time period during which the inmate is currently permitted to call the outside party.