TELECOMMUNICATION AND MULTIMEDIA MANAGEMENT METHOD AND APPARATUS

• US 20100215158A1
• Filed: 05/06/2010
• Published: 08/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rebelvox LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Katis, Thomas E., Panttaja, Mary G., Ranney, Matthew J., Panttaja, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,687,779 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/93.10
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 3/126 Foldable, retractable or tiltable tribunes E04H3/123 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• 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 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2503 Translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• 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 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/64 Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations centralised dictation systems H04M11/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/00 Telephonic communication systems specially adapted for combination with other electrical systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53 Centralised arrangements for recording incoming messages , i.e. mailbox systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5307 for recording messages comprising any combination of audio and non-audio components
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 : Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 : Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

A telecommunication and multimedia management apparatus and method that supports voice and other media communications and that enables users to: (i) participate in multiple conversation modes, including live phone calls, conference calls, instant voice messaging or tactical communications; (ii) review the messages of conversations in either a live mode or a time-shifted mode and to seamlessly transition back and forth between the two modes; (iii) participate in multiple conversations either concurrently or simultaneously; (iv) archive the messages of conversations for later review or processing; and (v) persistently store media either created or received on the communication devices of users. The latter feature enables users to generate or review media when either disconnected from the network or network conditions are poor and to optimize the delivery of media over the network based on network conditions and the intention of the users participating in conversations.

Claims

1. A communication method for communicating on a first communication device over a communication system in a real-time mode or a time-shifted mode, comprising:

encoding media on the first communication device created at the first communication device as the media is created;

storing the encoded media on the first communication device as the media is encoded;

progressively transmitting the encoded media over a network as the encoded media is available and as the media is encoded and stored;

receiving media over the network at the first communication device;

storing the received media on the first communication device as the received media is available and received at the first communication device over the network;

providing one or more rendering options on the communication device, the one or more rendering options selectively causing;

(i) progressive rendering of the received media as the media is available and received over the network, wherein the combination of the progressive rendering of the received media as the media is received over the network and the progressive transmission of media over the network as the media is created, encoded, and stored on the first communication device supports communication in the real-time mode;

or

(ii) rendering of the media from storage, the ability to selectively render the received media from storage supporting communication on the first communication device in the time-shifted mode; and

(iii) seamlessly transitioning on the first communication device the rendering of the received media between the real-time mode and the time-shifted mode by either rendering the received media (a) progressively as the received media is received over the network in the real-time mode or (b) from storage in the time-shifted mode respectively,

wherein the transition seamlessly occurs depending on a selected rendering option among the one or more rendering options.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted and received media further comprise streams of media segmented into time-indexed messages respectively.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising sequentially threading the messages into a conversation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising persistently storing the encoded media and the received media on the first communication device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically transmitting the stored encoded and received media from the first communication device to a remote device on the network for persistent storage.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising rendering the persistently stored received media in the time-shifted mode on the first communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more rendering options includes one or more of the following:

play, pause, replay, play faster, play slower, jump backward, jump forward, catch up to the most recently received media, or jump to the most recently received media.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising archiving the stored encoded and received media.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the ability to perform one or more of the following functions on the stored encoded and received media:

indexing;

searching;

transcribing;

or translating.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the media comprises one or more of the following types of media:

voice, video, text, sensor data, radio signals, position or GPS information, or a combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the media comprises one or more indexed media payloads each having a time stamp and unique sequence number.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the received media is received from one or more remote sources over the network.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein progressively transmitting the encoded media over the network further comprises progressively transmitting the encoded media to one or more recipients over the network.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving media over the network further comprises receiving media from a plurality of remote communication devices.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication device comprises one of the following:

a land-line phone, a wireless phone, a cellular phone, a satellite phone or mobile phone, a computer, a radio, a tactical radio, or a tactical phone.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a packet-based network, a circuit-based network, a cellular network, a wireless network, a wired network, a radio network, a satellite network, or a combination thereof.

17. A programmable communication device having a client application stored thereon which is executable by the device to carry out the method claim 1.