Video presence sharing

• US 9,706,047 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2015
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Lau, Kevin, Obaidi, Ahmad Arash
• Primary Examiner(s): El-Zoobi, Maria
• Application Number:
  US14/813,946
• Publication Number:
  US 20150341491A1
• Time in Patent Office: 712 Days
• Field of Search: 37920201, 348 1401- 1414
• 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: H04N 7/14 Systems for two-way working H04N7/12, H04N7/173 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/141 between two video terminals, e.g. videophone telephonic communication systems combined with television receiver for reception of entertainment or information matter H04M11/085
• 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 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN

Abstract

Video calling devices are described herein that are configured to exchange video presence statuses with each other. Each of these video calling devices determines its presence status based at least on its network connection type, its login status for a video calling service, and its camera status and provides the presence status to the video calling service. Each video calling device also receives presence statuses of other video calling devices. This exchange of presence statuses enables initiation of video calls between the video calling devices.

Claims

1. A video calling device comprising:

a processor;

a front-facing camera coupled to the processor; and

executable instructions configured to be operated by the processor to perform operations including;

determining a presence status for the video calling device based at least on;

a network connection type of a network that the video calling device is connected to, and

a login status that indicates that the video calling device is logged into a video calling service; and

exchanging presence status information with one or more other video calling devices to enable initiation of video calls between the video calling device and the one or more other video calling devices, the exchanging including at least;

providing the presence status of the video calling device to the video calling service, and

receiving one or more other presence statuses associated with the one or more other video calling devices from the video calling service.

2. The video calling device of claim 1, wherein the presence status indicates that the video calling device is able to engage in video calls when:

the network connection type indicates that the network is a 3G, 4G, or WiFi network, and

a camera status indicates that the video calling device has the front-facing camera.

3. The video calling device of claim 1, wherein the video calling device is registered with multiple video calling services.

4. The video calling device of claim 3, wherein the video calling device is logged into a first video calling service of the multiple video calling services and logged out of a second video calling service of the multiple video calling services, and the operations include:

determining a first presence status for the first video calling service indicating that the video calling device is able to engage in video calls, and

determining a second presence status for the second video calling service indicating that the video calling device is not able to engage in video calls.

5. The video calling device of claim 3, wherein the operations further include providing an enhanced phonebook user interface that includes visual indicators of presence statuses of the other video calling devices, wherein the presence statuses are received from multiple ones of the video calling services.

6. The video calling device of claim 1, wherein the operations include monitoring the network connection type, updating the presence status based on the monitoring, and providing the updated presence status to the video calling service.

7. The video calling device of claim 1, wherein the operations include displaying, within a user interface of an enhanced phonebook application that is installed on the video calling device and that accesses a contacts list of the video calling device, visual indicators of the one or more other presence statuses associated with the one or more other video calling devices.

8. The video calling device of claim 7, wherein the operations include initiating a video call with a particular video calling device of the one or more other video calling devices responsive to interaction with a particular visual indicator, of the visual indicators, that is associated with that the particular video calling device.

9. The video calling device of claim 1, wherein the one or more other video calling devices are contacts of the video calling device.

10. The video calling device of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving presence statuses for other video calling devices that the video calling device has called or has received a call from, emailed or received an email from, or messaged or received a message from.

11. The video calling device of claim 1, wherein the operations include providing the video calling service with a list of other video calling devices permitted to receive the presence status of the video calling device.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, by a video calling server, presence statuses from a plurality of video calling devices; and

conditionally providing, by the video calling server, a first presence status of a first video calling device to one or more others of the video calling devices based at least on whether the first video calling device and the one or more other video calling devices have communicated with each other,

wherein the presence statuses are determined based at least on network connection types of networks that the video calling devices are connected to or network connection details associated with connections to those networks, login statuses of the video calling devices, and camera statuses of the video calling devices.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining, by video calling server, the presence statuses.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the presence statuses indicate that the video calling devices are able to engage in video calls when:

the network connection types indicate that the networks are 3G, 4G, or WiFi networks,

the login statuses indicate that the video calling devices are logged into a video calling service of the video calling server, and

the camera statuses indicate that the video calling devices have front-facing cameras.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving updated presence statuses based on monitoring of network connection types and conditionally providing the updated presence statuses.

16. One or more computer storage devices comprising a plurality of computer-executable instructions stored thereon and configured to program a video calling service to perform operations including:

receiving information associated with at least one of network connection types of networks that a plurality of video calling devices are connected to, network connection details associated with connections to the networks, or camera statuses of the video calling devices;

determining login statuses that indicate whether individual ones of the video calling devices are currently logged into the video calling service;

determining presence statuses for the video calling devices based at least on the login statuses and the received information; and

providing a first presence status of a first video calling device to one or more other ones of the video calling devices based at least on an association between the first video calling device and the one or more other ones of the video calling devices.

17. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 16, wherein the operations include receiving a registration from one of the video calling devices, the registration specifying a camera status of that video calling device.

18. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 17, wherein the receiving of the information comprises retrieving the network connection types, the network connection details, the login statuses, or the camera statuses for the video calling devices from storage of the video calling service.

19. The one or more computer storage devices of claim 16, wherein the association between the first video calling device and the one or more other ones of the video calling devices is that:

the first video calling device initiated a call to or received a call from the one or more other ones of the video calling devices,

the first video calling device emailed or received an email from the one or more other ones of the video calling devices,

the first video calling device messaged or received a message from the one or more other ones of the video calling devices, or

the one or more other ones of the video calling devices are contacts of the video calling device.