METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ESTABLISHING DATA LINK BASED ON AUDIO CONNECTION

• US 20150092618A1
• Filed: 12/09/2014
• Published: 04/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Applied Invention, LLC
• Original Assignee: Applied Invention, LLC
• Inventors: HILLIS, W. Daniel, KUMAR, Dev
• Granted Patent: US 10,165,021 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/261
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1053 IP private branch exchange [PBX] functionality entities or arrangements circuit switched PBXs H04M3/00
• 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: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16

Abstract

In a communications system, after parties form a voice telephone connection, the parties respective communications devices automatically create or leverage machine readable features or content of the telephone connection to identify the parties to each other or to a rendezvous server, and thereafter the communications devices and/or the rendezvous server automatically establishes a data link between the parties.

Claims

1. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a microphone;

at least one data interface; and

coupled to the data interface, a digital data processing device programmed to perform machine-implemented operations comprising;

capturing data relating to acoustic signals via the microphone;

analyzing the data captured by the microphone; and

submitting the result of the analysis of the data captured by the microphone to a rendezvous server over the data interface.

2. The communications apparatus of claim 1, wherein analyzing the data captured by the microphone comprises:

performing a computational analysis of data captured by the microphone to form one or more soundprints.

3. The communications apparatus of claim 2, wherein the operations performed by the digital data processing device further comprise:

receiving an IP address from the rendezvous server; and

employing the data interface to establish a digital data link with a remote party using the IP address received from the rendezvous server.

4. The communications apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

Exchanging multimedia content representing human-readable communications between the parties over the digital data link.

5. The communications apparatus of claim 2, wherein the operations performed by the digital data processing device further comprise:

employing the data interface to establish a digital data link with the rendezvous server;

sending data destined for a remote party to the rendezvous server over the digital data link; and

receiving data from the remote party via the rendezvous server over the digital data link.

6. The communications apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:

exchanging multimedia content representing human-readable communications between the parties over the digital data link.

7. The communications apparatus of claim 1, wherein analyzing the data captured by the microphone comprises:

performing a computational analysis of data captured by the microphone to identify the phone number dialed.

8. The communications apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving an IP address from the rendezvous server; and

employing the data interface to establish a digital data link with a remote party using the IP address received from the rendezvous server.

9. The communications apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

exchanging multimedia content representing human-readable communications between the parties over the digital data link.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 7, further comprising:

employing the established data link to exchange multimedia content representing human readable communications between the parties.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 8, wherein the step of employing the established data link to exchange multimedia content further comprises:

exchanging items including word processor documents, slideshow presentations, video presentation, spreadsheets, or images of scanned paper documents.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

permitting the parties to collaboratively edit the exchanged items.

15. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein the authentication of the identity of the parties further comprises:

exchanging audible, machine-readable acoustic signals between the parties over the telephone connection.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein the authentication of the identity of the parties further comprises:

conducting a prescribed computational analysis of content conducted over the telephone connection to form one or more soundprints of each of the parties and submitting the soundprints to each of the other parties over the data link.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein the authentication of the identity of the parties further comprises:

generating and transmitting a human audible prompt upon establishing the telephone connection; and

as a condition to admitting a given party to the data link, requiring the given party to operate the party'"'"'s computer to enter a prescribed response to said prompt.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 11, wherein establishing a data link between the computers via the prescribed packet data network further comprises:

establishing a data link to a rendezvous server.

19. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the authentication of the identity of the parties further comprises:

conducting a prescribed computational analysis of content conducted over the telephone connection to form one or more soundprints and submitting the soundprints to the rendezvous server.

20. The computer implemented method of claim 16, wherein the authentication of the identity of the parties further comprises:

informing the computers that submitted the soundprints of a match as determined by the rendezvous server by comparing soundprints received from the computers.

10. A computer implemented method to establish a data link between parties, each party having a computer and a telephone, the method comprising operations of:

establishing a telephone connection between the parties over a public telephone network either directly or via a conference calling bridge;

connecting the computers to a prescribed packet data network and automatically acquiring addresses on said prescribed packet data network;

identifying the parties to any of the computers or a rendezvous server, the identifying operation carried out automatically by employing computational analysis of acoustical content of the telephone connection;

using said identification of the parties to automatically establish a data link between the computers via the prescribed packet data network and said addresses on the prescribed packet data network;

providing a respective user image for capture or receipt at each party'"'"'s computer; and

after the data link is established, exchanging user images over the data link with others of the computers participating in the data link.

14. A computer implemented method to authenticate a data link between parties, each party having a computer and a telephone, the method comprising operations of:

establishing a telephone connection between the parties over a public telephone network either directly or via a conference calling bridge;

connecting the computers to a prescribed packet data network;

establishing a data link between the computers via the prescribed packet data network;

using the telephone connection to authenticate the identity of the parties, the authentication operation carried out automatically by employing computational analysis of acoustical content of the telephone connection; and

employing the established data link to exchange multimedia content representing human-readable communications between the parties.