COMMUNICATION APPLICATION FOR CONDUCTING CONVERSATIONS INCLUDING MULTIPLE MEDIA TYPES IN EITHER A REAL-TIME MODE OR A TIME-SHIFTED MODE

• US 20090327422A1
• Filed: 09/02/2009
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rebelvox LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Inventors: RANNEY, Matthew J., PANTTAJA, James T., PANTTAJA, Mary G., KATIS, Thomas E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,582 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/56 Unified messaging, e.g. interactions between e-mail, instant messaging or converged IP messaging [CPM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communication real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] H04L51/04; selective video distribution H04N21/00
• 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 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355

Abstract

A communication application configured to support a conversation among participants over a communication network. The communication application is configured to (i) support one or more media types within the context of the conversation, (ii) interleave the one or more media types in a time-indexed order within the context of the conversation, (iii) enable the participants to render the conversation including the interleaved one or more media types in either a real-time rendering mode or time-shifted rendering mode, and (iv) seamlessly transition the conversation between the two modes so that the conversation may take place substantially live when in the real-time rendering mode or asynchronously when in the time-shifted rendering mode.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a communication application configured to support a conversation among participants over a communication network, the communication application configured to;

(i) support one or more media types within the context of the conversation;

(ii) interleave the one or more media types in a time-indexed order within the context of the conversation;

(iii) enable the participants to render the conversation including the interleaved one or more media types in either a real-time rendering mode or time-shifted rendering mode; and

(iv) seamlessly transition the conversation between the two modes so that the conversation may take place substantially live when in the real-time rendering mode or asynchronously when in the time-shifted rendering mode.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication application relies on a packet protocol that defines a media packet format, the media packet format defining the format for media packets used to transport the one or more media types between the participants during the conversation, the media packet format defining one or more of the following fields per media packet:

(i) a payload field capable of carrying a media payload of the one or more media types; and

(ii) a time stamp index indicating the time when the media carried in the media payload is created.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the media packet format further optionally comprises one or more of the following fields per media packet:

(iii) a length field for storing information indicative of the length of the media packet;

(iv) a message ID field for storing a message identifier associated with the media packet;

(v) a sequence ID field for storing a sequence identifier for identifying the sequence of a selected media packet in relationship to one or more other media packets;

or

(vi) a media sub-type field containing media related information including Codec information.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication application relies on a packet protocol that defines a signaling packet format, the signaling packet format defining the format of signaling packets used for signaling between the participants during the set up of the conversation, the signaling packets carrying one or more of the following types of signals:

(i) registration signals;

(ii) authentication signals;

(iii) routing signals;

(iv) set-up signals;

or

(v) network management signals.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication application relies on a packet protocol that defines a packet format for packets that transport signals and the one or more media types required to set up and conduct the conversation between the participants, the packet format configured to define the packets to be embedded into payloads of transport packets used on the network.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the one or more transport packets comprise one or more of the following types of transport packets:

Ethernet packets, UPD packets, or the Internet protocol (IP) packets.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conversation is conducted over a communication network, the communication network comprises one of the following:

(i) the Internet;

(ii) the PSTN;

(iii) a circuit-based network;

(iv) a mobile communication network’

(v) a cellular network;

(vi) a wired network;

(vii) a wireless network;

(viii) a satellite network;

or

(iix) any combination of (i) through (viii).

8. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the communication application is further configured to assemble of the media packets into messages.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the communication application is further configured to assemble the media packets into messages using a message attribute, the message attribute including one of the following:

(i) a time-stamp;

(ii) an index;

(iii) a message identifier;

(iv) a sequence identifier, or

(v) any combination of (i) through (iv).

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the communication application is further configured to define the conversation by associating the messages.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the messages of the conversation are associated by an attribute, the attribute being selected from one of the following:

(i) a name of a participant of the conversation;

(ii) a topic of the conversation;

(iii) a subject defining the conversation;

or

(iv) a group identifier identifying group of participants in the conversation.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the communication application further defines a persistent storage element for persistently storing the one or more media types created by the participants during the conversation in a time-indexed order.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the communication application is embedded in and running on a communication device, the communication device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication application and the communication device cooperate to render the one or more media types of the conversation either:

(i) synchronously when the conversation is in the real-time rendering mode;

or

(ii) asynchronously by rendering the one or more media types when the conversation is in the time-shifting mode.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication device is one of the following:

(i) a land-line phone;

(ii) a wireless phone;

(iii) a cellular phone;

(iv) a mobile phone;

(v) a satellite phone;

(vi) a computer;

(vii) a radio;

(viii) a server;

(ix) a tactical radio;

(x) a satellite radio;

or

(xi) a tactical radio.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more media types comprise:

(i) voice;

(ii) video;

(iii) text;

(iv) GPS data;

(v) pictures; and

(vi) sensor data.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication application and the communication device cooperate to display to a user of the communication device a list of active conversations.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the communication application and the communication device cooperate to enable the user of the communication device to select one of the conversations among the list of active conversations for participation.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication application and the communication device cooperate to display to the user of the communication device a message history of the conversation, the message history including one or more messages.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the cooperation to display the history of the conversation further comprises displaying one or more media bubbles, each of the one or more media bubbles representative of the one or more messages respectively.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein each of the one or more media bubbles is displayed in the time-indexed order in which the one or more messages were created respectively.

22. The apparatus if claim 20, wherein each of the one or more media bubbles includes one or more of the following:

(i) a media type indicator which indicates which of the one or more media types is associated with each of the media bubbles respectively;

(ii) a date and time indicator indicative of the date and the time each of the messages represented by each of the media bubbles was created respectively; and

(iii) a name indicator indicative of the name of the participant of the conversation that created each of the messages represented by each of the media bubbles respectively.

23. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication application and the communication device cooperate to enable a user of the communication device to create each of the one or more media types.

24. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication application and the communication device cooperate to enable a user to generate a first media type in response to receiving a second media type from another participant of the conversation, wherein the first media type and the second media type are different media types among the one or more media types supported by the communication application.

25. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication application and the communication device cooperate to render the one or more media types of the conversation in accordance with one or more of the following rendering options:

(i) play;

(ii) pause;

(iii) jump forward;

(iv) jump backward; and

(v) Catch-up-To-Live (CTL).

26. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conversation including the interleaved one or more media types may optionally be rendered in the time-indexed order in which the media was created.

27. A communication application configured to enable the participants of a conversation conducted over a communication network to exchange “

live”

voice messages in a near real-time mode and voice or text messages in a time shifted mode and to seamlessly transition the conversation between the two modes.

28. The communication application of claim 27, further configured to store in a storage element the voice and text messages of the conversation in a manner so that the media of the messages may be retrieved from the storage element in the time-indexed order in which the messages were created.

29. The communication application of claim 27, further configured to display the voice and text messages of the conversation in the time-indexed order in which the messages were created.

30. The communication application of claim 28, further configured to enable a participant of the conversation to (i) generate a text message in response to receiving a voice message and (ii) generate a voice message in response to receiving a text message.

31. The communication application of claim 28, further configured to enable the conversation to transition (i) from the near real-time mode to the time-shifted mode and (ii) from the time-shifted mode to the near real-time mode.