SOURCE AUDIO IDENTIFIERS FOR DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20100104080A1
• Filed: 01/04/2010
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL LLC (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Appelman, Barry, Murphy, Stephen Vaughan
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,397 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/142.40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2011 Service processing based on information specified by a party before or during a call, e.g. information, tone or routing selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6009 Personal information, e.g. profiles or personal directories being only provided to authorised persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/02 Calling substations, e.g. by ringing selective calling H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42017 Customized ring-back tones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4211 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• 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 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53383 Message registering commands or announcements; Greetings

Abstract

Audibly informing a recipient of an arrival of a digital communication from a sender includes receiving a digital communication from a sender directed to a recipient and determining whether the digital communication is associated with an audio identifier that identifies the sender of the digital communication and that is designated by the sender of the digital communication. Perception by the recipient of the audio identifier is conditioned on whether the digital communication is determined to be associated with the audio identifier. The audio identifier is perceived prior to or concurrent with perception of the digital communication by the recipient.

Claims

1. A method for audibly informing a call recipient of a phone call from a caller, the method comprising:

receiving a phone call from a caller directed to a recipient;

determining whether the phone call is associated with an audio identifier that identifies the caller and that is designated by the caller; and

conditioning rendering of the audio identifier on whether the phone call is determined to be associated with the audio identifier, the audio identifier being rendered multiple times in repetition so as to be made perceivable as a ring tone for the phone call.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio identifier is a spoken version of a user identifier of the caller.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio identifier includes a first sound designated by the caller concatenated with a second sound not designated by the caller.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second sound is designated by the recipient.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio identifier includes a first sound designated by the caller concatenated with a second sound that identifies a group to which the caller belongs.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the group to which the caller belongs is a job group, an organization to which the caller belongs or works, or a buddy group in an instant messaging buddy list of the recipient.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio identifier includes a first sound designated by the caller concatenated with a second sound that identifies a location from which the caller is calling.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio identifier includes a first sound designated by the caller concatenated with a second sound that identifies an urgency or importance of the call.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio identifier includes a first sound designated by the caller concatenated with a second sound that indicates whether the caller is currently online.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the phone call is associated with an audio identifier comprises determining whether an audio identifier has been received from the caller.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining whether the audio identifier has been received from the caller comprises determining whether the audio identifier has been received in an MMS or SMS message prior to or concurrent to receiving the phone call.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein determining whether an audio identifier has been received from the caller includes determining whether the audio identifier has been received with the phone call.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering of the audio identifier is allowed when communication exchange preferences of the recipient explicitly include a setting indicating that the recipient is allowed to perceive the audio identifier.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the setting is set by the recipient in response to a query.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering of the audio identifier is not allowed when the communication exchange preferences explicitly include a setting indicating that the recipient is not allowed to perceive the audio identifier.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the setting is set by the recipient in response to a query.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing communication exchange preferences associated with the recipient;

determining whether the communication exchange preferences have been setup to handle audio identifiers for calls from the caller;

if the communication exchange preferences have been setup to handle audio identifiers for calls from the caller, further conditioning the rendering of the audio identifier on whether the communication exchange preferences indicate that the audio identifier is permitted to be rendered; and

if the communication exchange preferences have not been setup to handle audio identifiers for calls from the caller;

playing, in response to the call, a special ring tone indicating to the recipient that the call is associated with an audio identifier designated by the caller and that no communication exchange preferences have been setup for calls from the caller,

rendering a call notification user interface for perception by the recipient in response to the call, and

further conditioning rendering of the audio identifier on whether the user, through interactions with the call notification user interface, indicates that an audio identifier designated by the caller should be rendered for calls from the caller.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the rendering of the audio identifier also is conditioned on whether the recipient is available to receive the phone call.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering for perception by the recipient a caller profile.

20. A computer system for audibly informing a recipient of an arrival of a phone call from a caller, the computer system comprising:

a data store configured to store audio identifiers; and

a digital communication processor configured to;

receive a phone call from a caller directed to a recipient,

determine whether the phone call is associated with an audio identifier that identifies the caller and that is designated by the caller, and

access the audio identifier from the data store and condition rendering of the audio identifier on whether the phone call is determined to be associated with the audio identifier, the audio identifier being rendered multiple times in repetition so as to be made perceivable as a ring tone for the phone call.

21. An apparatus for audibly informing a call recipient of a phone call from a caller, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a phone call from a caller directed to a recipient;

means for determining whether the phone call is associated with an audio identifier that identifies the caller and that is designated by the caller; and

means for conditioning rendering of the audio identifier on whether the phone call is determined to be associated with the audio identifier, the audio identifier being rendered multiple times in repetition so as to be made perceivable as a ring tone for the phone call.