Multimodal conversation

• US 20070033249A1
• Filed: 08/02/2005
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Raghav, Amritansh, Levin, Danny, Shtiegman, Eran, Samdadiya, Parag, Bobde, Nikhil
• Granted Patent: US 7,769,809 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• 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 65/4053 without floor control

Abstract

Techniques for associating one or more real-time sessions, which are each signaled separately, into one logical conversation without a centralized control, are provided. Some techniques share a conversation identifier that uniquely identifies a logical conversation across the real-time sessions that belong to the logical conversation. The conversation identifier is generated before the first real-time session belonging to the logical conversation is signaled, and distributed to the other participants in the logical conversation via the signaling channel. A called participant can use the conversation identifier for associating the previous real-time sessions belonging to the logical conversation, and for making new invitations for other real-time sessions that are associated with the same logical conversation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing multimodal conversation without a centralized control, the method comprising:

receiving at a client a request to establish a real-time session and a conversation identifier for the real-time session, the conversation identifier uniquely identifying a logical conversation;

determining whether the conversation identifier identifies an existing logical conversation on the client;

responsive to determining that the conversation identifier identifies an existing logical conversation on the client, associating the received request to establish the real-time session to the existing logical conversation identified by the conversation identifier; and

responsive to determining that the conversation identifier does not identify an existing logical conversation on the client, creating a new logical conversation on the client and associating the received request to establish the real-time session with the newly created logical conversation, the newly created logical conversation being identified by the conversation identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is sent by a remote client.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is signal via a SIP message.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the conversation identifier is included as part of the SIP message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is for a first mode, and further wherein associating the created real-time session to the existing logical conversation associates the first mode to the logical conversation.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the existing logical conversation comprises at least one real-time session in a second mode.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is a request to establish an instant messaging session.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is a request to establish an application sharing session.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to establish the real-time session is a request to establish an audio/video session.

10. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a client computing system to associate multiple real-time sessions into a single logical conversation without a centralized control by a method comprising:

determining at the client that it is an initiator of a logical conversation; and

after determining that it is the initiator of the logical conversation, generating a unique identifier that identifies the logical conversation;

sending the unique identifier in a request to establish a first real-time session in the logical conversation; and

after establishing the first real-time session, associating, at the client, the established real-time session with the logical conversation,

wherein the determining that the client is an initiator of the logical conversation is performed in response to receiving from a user the request to establish the first real-time session.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the request to establish the first real-time session is a request to establish a real-time session with a remote client.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the request to establish the first real-time session is signaled using a SIP message, and further wherein the unique identifier is included in the header of the SIP message.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the request to establish the first real-time session is a request to establish a teleconferencing session.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the request to establish the first real-time session is a request to establish a videoconferencing session.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 further comprising:

after determining that it is not the initiator of the logical conversation,

determining an existing logical conversation and an existing conversation identifier that uniquely identifies the existing logical conversation, the existing logical conversation associated with at least one existing real-time session;

sending the existing conversation identifier in a request to establish a subsequent real-time session in the existing logical conversation; and

after establishing the subsequent real-time session, associating the established subsequent real-time session with the existing logical conversation.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one existing real-time session and the subsequent real-time session are with different clients.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one existing real-time session and the subsequent real-time session are with the same client.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the at least one existing real-time session is in a first mode, and further wherein the subsequent real-time session is in a second mode different from the first mode.

19. One or more data signals that collectively convey a data structure, the data structure comprising information identifying a request form an initiating client to establish a real-time session with a receiving client, the data structure further comprising information identifying a logical conversation to which the real-time session belongs,

such that the receiving client may use the contents of the data structure to associate the real-time session to the identified logical conversation on the receiving client.

20. The data signals of claim 19, wherein the receiving client may use the contents of the data structure to associate the real-time session to at least one other real-time session belonging to the identified logical conversation.