Television – Two-way video and voice communication
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-25
2004-01-06
Ramakrishnaiah, Melur (Department: 2643)
Television
Two-way video and voice communication
C348S014120, C379S093020
Reexamination Certificate
active
06674457
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for communicating one or more video frames from a source having a video input means to a destination having a visual display unit during the course of a telephone conversation.
2. Related Art
Known multimedia communication terminals are integrated devices, that is, they contain both audio and video communication portions linked together with internal circuitry and/or software which synchronize audio and video digital data or analogue signals (herein referred to collectively as “signals”), and hence corresponding audible and visible output from the integrated terminal. Such synchronization is particularly desirable in order to achieve so-called “lip-synch” in audio-video telephony. In practice, for the signals to be effectively synchronized, it has been found in the broadcast industry that the visible output should lead the audible output by no more than about 20 ms, and should lag the audio signal by no more than about 40 ms.
Examples of known integrated terminals operating according to the ITU-T Recommendation H. 320 “Narrow-band Visual Telephone Systems and Terminal Equipment” include those sold by PictureTel Corporation under the trade mark the Venue-2000 and those sold by VTEL Corporation under the trade mark Enterprise Series Room System TC1000. Intel Corporation sells a business video conferencing system under the product code PCVD1013ST that operates according to the H. 320 and H. 323 standards. An example of a known integrated terminal operating according to the H. 324 standard is those sold by 8×8 Inc. under. the trademark ViaTV Phone.
Such known terminals are designed to function in an audio-only mode, so that these can function as a simple telephone when communicating with anther telephony terminal.
Such integrated devices have yet to become widely adopted, and one reason for this is that whilst such devices may function as a telephone, users still need a conventional telephone for communication, for example with other telephones on the same PBX exchange, or with external telephones. Many PBX manufacturers now support ISDN lines to the desktop for the provision of multimedia communication terminals, according to the H. 320 standard. Unfortunately, different manufacturers provide different levels of functionality (for example, features such as call hold, call transfer and call forward), not all of which are supported by multimedia terminals. Again, the result is the need to have more than one telephony device on a desktop.
Most users therefore end up with two telephony devices on their desktop. This is inconvenient, owing to the extra desktop space normally required, as well as the need to have a different telephone number for each device. Callers must therefore keep track of two numbers, and decide in advance which type of call. they intend to place.
The recent emergence of the H. 323 standard for multimedia communications over packet networks, for example local area networks (LANs) using the Internet Protocol over Ethernet, has added further complications for the user, because the multimedia terminal must then in most cases connect to the data network, rather than the telephony network. It is well known that the typical data network is not as resilient or reliable as the telephony network. Many H. 323 multimedia terminals are PC based, the user rightly fears losing his telephony facility when the LAN or his PC crashes or fails. Therefore, the user still needs more than one telephony device.
Furthermore, a critical mass of audio-video equipment does not yet exist. Users and potential users of audio-video telephony are therefore unable to communicate using audio-video telephony with a large number of people whom they may call. This further inhibits the adoption of audio-video telephony.
Another problem concerns security arrangements such as firewalls for computers on data networks, for example LAN's and Intranets, in order to prevent unauthorized data from entering or leaving the network. Although firewalls generally permit activities such as the receipt and sending of e-mail messages or the browsing of web pages, these firewalls are not normally compatible with packet-based audio-video communication using the data network such as those conforming to H. 323 or SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). Therefore, even if two users had the requisite audio-video terminals, they would not be able to communicate if on opposite sides of the firewall. Although special firewalls (e.g. H. 323) can in principle be used to allow such communication, network managers may be unwilling to invest in such special equipment simply because the demand for audio-video communication is too low.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a more convenient audio and video communication method and system in cases where it is not necessary for video to be synchronised with the audio in the course of an audio-video telephone call so that both parties need not be equipped with fully capable multimedia terminals.
According to the invention, there is provided a method of making an audio-video telephone call using an audio and video communication system that comprises: a first telephony device and a second telephony device that may communicate with each other over a telephony communications network; an audio-video service provider that may communicate over said telephony communications network with both the first and second telephony devices respectively along a first communication path and a second communication path; a first computer and a second computer, said computers being in proximity with respectively the first telephony device and the second telephony device, at least one of the computers having a video input means and the first computer and second computer each having a data input means, a visual display unit, and communication, means by which the first computer and second computer may make a connection to the service provider respectively along a third communication path and a fourth communication path; in which the first telephony device and first computer are operable by a first user and the second telephony device and second computer are operable by a second user, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
a) using the first computer communication means to make a first connection to the service provider;
b) initiating an audio telephone call between the first telephony device and the second telephony device via the service provider and the first and second communication paths;
c) communicating caller-id data between the first user and the service provider along the first communication path and/or the third communication path so that the service provider can correlate both the call and the first connection with each other;
d) using the second computer communication means to make a second connection to the service provider;
e) communicating an access code from the service provider to the first user, and then communicating in the audio telephone call said access code from the first user to the second user;
f) communicating said access code between the second user and the service provider along at least the fourth communication path so that the service provider can correlate both the call and the second connection with each other;
g) uploading at least one video image from the video input means to the service provider;
h) downloading said video image(s) from the service provider to the first computer and/or second computer to be displayed on the respective video display unit(s) when the second user has answered said telephone call and when both the first and second connections are correlated with the call.
The video image(s) may be uploaded and/or downloaded via the third communication path and/or the fourth communication path. If the communication means includes means by which the first computer and second computer may make a connection to the service provider respectively along a fifth communication path and a sixth communication path, the
Davies Steven Gareth
Roe Stephen John
Bourque & Associates P.A.
Ramakrishnaiah Melur
LandOfFree
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