Conversation capture

• US 9,501,802 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2010
• Issued: 11/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: van der Flier, Astrid, Oberwelz, Elger, Mehin, Afshin Frederick, Riering-Czekalla, Peter, Stillion, Daniel, Gibson, Michael, Cerami, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Kujundzic, Dino
• Application Number:
  US12/981,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20110276895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,154 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/752, 715/753, 715/756, 715/758, 715/864, 715/810
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Solutions for capturing and displaying conversation history for providing conversation capture functionality. Some such solutions use a user supersystem as a communications hub to capture and/or generate relevant information for enhancing conversations with contacts, including address book information, contact notes, conversation history information, and/or conversation anchors. The information may then be processed for display to the user via a graphical interface.

Claims

1. A communication system for facilitating enhanced communications, the system comprising:

a computing device, comprising at least one processor, a data store in communication with the at least one processor, and at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium in communication with the at least one processor, the at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium having encoded thereon a set of instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the computing device to perform one or more operations, the set of instructions comprising;

instructions for storing, in the data store, contact data about a plurality of contacts, each of the contacts being an entity with whom a user of the communication system may engage in communications;

instructions for identifying a contact of interest;

instructions for obtaining, from the data store, a first set of contact information pertaining to the contact of interest;

instructions for generating one or more conversation anchors pertaining to the contact of interest, the one or more conversation anchors comprising information associated with the contact of interest comprising at least one of names of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, ages of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, circumstances of meeting the contact of interest, interesting facts about the contact of interest, referral source for the contact of interest, birthday of the contact of interest, names of famous historical figures sharing the same birthday as the contact of interest, anniversaries for the contact of interest, lifecycle events, regional sporting events, weather events, or current events near the contact of interest;

instructions for providing communication between the user and the contact of interest, the communication between the user and the contact of interest including voice communication between the user and the contact of interest;

instructions for collecting conversation history, the collected conversation history comprising information collected from a voice communication, wherein the information collected from the voice communication includes an automatically generated record of conversation content;

instructions for generating additional conversation information from the collected conversation history comprising information collected from the voice communication, wherein the information collected from the voice communication includes an automatically generated record of conversation content;

instructions for displaying at least one of the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors, in conjunction with the voice communication between the user and the contact of interest, the one or more conversation anchors comprising information associated with the contact of interest comprising at least one of names of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, ages of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, circumstances of meeting the contact of interest, interesting facts about the contact of interest, referral source for the contact of interest, birthday of the contact of interest, names of famous historical figures sharing the same birthday as the contact of interest, anniversaries for the contact of interest, lifecycle events, regional sporting events, weather events, or current events near the contact of interest; and

instructions for sending, from the collected conversation history comprising information collected from the voice communication, one or more mutual conversation information selected from the at least one of the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors that are related to the contact of interest to one or more mutual contacts, each of the one or more mutual contacts being known to both the user and the contact of interest, wherein the one or more mutual contacts are known to both the user and the contact of interest when the one or more mutual contacts are in a same contact group as the contact of interest and the user, the one or more mutual conversation information being determined to be information that is related to the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors that the one or more mutual contacts can use as conversation anchors with the contact of interest.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is part of a supersystem for providing interactive communications services within a local network, the supersystem comprising:

a tablet system, comprising a first client subsystem of the local network and a first user interface module configured to provide interactivity with first communications services provided by the first client subsystem;

a handset system, comprising a second client subsystem of the local network and a second user interface module configured to provide interactivity with second communications services provided by the second client subsystem; and

a base station system, comprising;

a first interface subsystem configured to communicatively and removably couple the base station with the tablet system;

a second interface subsystem configured to communicatively and removably couple the base station with the handset system; and

a communications subsystem configured to communicatively couple the base station with the local area network such that at least a portion of the first and second communications services are provided via the base station.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the base station system comprises the computing device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the tablet system comprises the computing device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer readable storage medium comprises the data store.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions for generating one or more conversation anchors comprise:

instructions for searching a second data store using at least a portion of the first set of contact information as a search criteria; and

instructions for generating one or more conversation anchors comprising information returned from a search of the second data store.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the second data store comprises public information relating to the at least a portion of the first set of contact information.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the second data store comprises geographical information relating to an address of the contact of interest.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions for searching the second data store comprise instructions for searching at least one data store over the Internet.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions for identifying a contact of interest comprise instructions for receiving, through a user interface, a selection of the contact of interest from an address book application.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions for displaying at least one of the one or more conversation anchors in conjunction with the communication between the user and the contact of interest comprise:

instructions for displaying the at least one of the one or more conversation anchors on a display screen of the computing device during the voice communication.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the voice communication comprises video communication.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein:

the instructions for providing communication comprise instructions for displaying the video communication in a first region of the display screen; and

the instructions for displaying the at least one of the one or more conversation anchors comprise instructions for displaying the at least one of the one or more conversation anchors in a second region of the display screen.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions for providing voice communication comprise instructions for receiving a telephone call originated by the contact of interest.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructions for identifying a contact of interest comprise instructions for identifying the contact of interest based at least in part on caller identification information associated with the telephone call.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions for providing voice communication comprise instructions for placing a telephone call to the contact of interest.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions for displaying at least one of the one or more conversation anchors in conjunction with the communication between the user and the contact of interest comprise:

instructions for displaying the at least one of the one or more conversation anchors on a display screen of the computing device prior to placing the telephone call.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions for providing communication comprise instructions for originating textual communication with the contact of interest.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the textual communication is selected from the group consisting of an electronic mail message, a chat message, a text message, a short messaging service (“

SMS”

) message, and a multimedia messaging service (“

MMS”

) message.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact information comprises a conversation history comprising data about one or more previous communications involving the contact of interest.

21. An apparatus, comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium having encoded thereon a set of instructions executable by one or more computers to perform one or more operations for facilitating enhanced communications, the set of instructions comprising;

instructions for storing, in a data store, contact data about a plurality of contacts, each of the contacts being an entity with whom a user of the communication system may engage in communications;

instructions for identifying a contact of interest;

instructions for obtaining, from the data store, a first set of contact information pertaining to the contact of interest;

instructions for generating one or more conversation anchors pertaining to the contact of interest, the one or more conversation anchors comprising information associated with the contact of interest comprising at least one of names of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, ages of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, circumstances of meeting the contact of interest, interesting facts about the contact of interest, referral source for the contact of interest, birthday of the contact of interest, names of famous historical figures sharing the same birthday as the contact of interest, anniversaries for the contact of interest, lifecycle events, regional sporting events, weather events, or current events near the contact of interest;

instructions for providing communication between the user and the contact of interest, the communication between the user and the contact of interest including voice communication between the user and the contact of interest;

instructions for collecting conversation history, the collected conversation history comprising information collected from a voice communication, wherein the information collected from the voice communication includes an automatically generated record of conversation content;

instructions for generating additional conversation information from the collected conversation history comprising information collected from the voice communication, wherein the information collected from the voice communication includes an automatically generated record of conversation content;

instructions for displaying at least one of the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors, in conjunction with the voice communication between the user and the contact of interest, the one or more conversation anchors comprising information associated with the contact of interest comprising at least one of names of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, ages of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, circumstances of meeting the contact of interest, interesting facts about the contact of interest, referral source for the contact of interest, birthday of the contact of interest, names of famous historical figures sharing the same birthday as the contact of interest, anniversaries for the contact of interest, lifecycle events, regional sporting events, weather events, or current events near the contact of interest, in conjunction with the voice communication between the user and the contact of interest; and

instructions for sending, from the collected conversation history comprising information collected from the voice communication, one or more mutual conversation information selected from the at least one of the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors that are related to the contact of interest to one or more mutual contacts, each of the one or more mutual contacts being known to both the user and the contact of interest, wherein the one or more mutual contacts are known to both the user and the contact of interest when the one or more mutual contacts are in a same contact group as the contact of interest and the user, the one or more mutual conversation information being determined to be information that is related to the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors that the one or more mutual contacts can use as conversation anchors with the contact of interest.

22. A method of facilitating enhanced communications, the method comprising:

storing, in a data store, contact data about a plurality of contacts, each of the contacts being an entity with whom a user of the communication system may engage in communications;

identifying, with a computer system, a contact of interest;

obtaining, from the data store, a first set of contact information pertaining to the contact of interest;

generating, at the computer system, one or more conversation anchors pertaining to the contact of interest, the one or more conversation anchors comprising information associated with the contact of interest comprising at least one of names of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, ages of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, circumstances of meeting the contact of interest, interesting facts about the contact of interest, referral source for the contact of interest, birthday of the contact of interest, names of famous historical figures sharing the same birthday as the contact of interest, anniversaries for the contact of interest, lifecycle events, regional sporting events, weather events, or current events near the contact of interest;

providing communication between the user and the contact of interest, the communication between the user and the contact of interest including voice communication between the user and the contact of interest;

collecting conversation history, the collected conversation history comprising information collected from a voice communication, wherein the information collected from the voice communication includes an automatically generated record of conversation content;

instructions for generating additional conversation information from the collected conversation history comprising information collected from the voice communication, wherein the information collected from the voice communication includes an automatically generated record of conversation content;

displaying, on a display device of the computer system, at least one of the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors, in conjunction with the voice communication between the user and the contact of interest, the one or more conversation anchors comprising information associated with the contact of interest comprising at least one of names of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, ages of the contact of interest'"'"'s children, circumstances of meeting the contact of interest, interesting facts about the contact of interest, referral source for the contact of interest, birthday of the contact of interest, names of famous historical figures sharing the same birthday as the contact of interest, anniversaries for the contact of interest, lifecycle events, regional sporting events, weather events, or current events near the contact of interest, in conjunction with the voice communication between the user and the contact of interest; and

sending, from the collected conversation history comprising information collected from the voice communication, one or more mutual conversation information selected from the at least one of the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors that are related to the contact of interest to one or more mutual contacts, each of the one or more mutual contacts being known to both the user and the contact of interest, wherein the one or more mutual contacts are known to both the user and the contact of interest when the one or more mutual contacts are in a same contact group as the contact of interest and the user, the one or more mutual conversation information being determined to be information that is related to the additional conversation information or at least one of the one or more conversation anchors that the one or more mutual contacts can use as conversation anchors with the contact of interest.