U.S. patent application number 09/907582 was filed with the patent office on 2002-02-28 for video phone multimedia announcement message toolkit.
Invention is credited to Gerszberg, Irwin, Martin, Jeffrey S., Walker, Hopeton S..
Application Number | 20020025026 09/907582 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 21695570 |
Filed Date | 2002-02-28 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020025026 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Gerszberg, Irwin ; et
al. |
February 28, 2002 |
Video phone multimedia announcement message toolkit
Abstract
A toolkit for creating customized video announcement messages on
video-enabled answering machine. The video-enabled answering
machine may have many new features including customized video
announcement messages, caller ID based video announcement messages,
and time based video announcement messages.
Inventors: |
Gerszberg, Irwin; (Kendall
Park, NJ) ; Martin, Jeffrey S.; (Dover, NJ) ;
Walker, Hopeton S.; (Haledon, NJ) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BANNER & WITCOFF LTD.
ATTORNEYS FOR AT & T CORP
ELEVENTH FLOOR
1001 G STREET, N.W.
WASHINGTON
DC
20001-4597
US
|
Family ID: |
21695570 |
Appl. No.: |
09/907582 |
Filed: |
July 19, 2001 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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09907582 |
Jul 19, 2001 |
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09001345 |
Dec 31, 1997 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
379/67.1 ;
348/E7.081 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M 1/6505 20130101;
H04N 7/147 20130101; H04M 3/5307 20130101; H04M 1/2478 20130101;
H04M 1/57 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
379/67.1 |
International
Class: |
H04M 001/64 |
Claims
We claim:
1. In a video phone answering machine, a toolkit application for
creating a video announcement message.
2. The toolkit of claim 1 wherein the the toolkit is capable of
creating the announcement message such that the announcement
message appears to a caller based on an identification of the
caller.
3. The toolkit of claim 1 wherein the the toolkit is capable of
creating the announcement message such that the announcement
message automatically changes based on a comparison of pre-stored
criteria with a current date.
4. The toolkit of claim 1 wherein an object may be created and
manipulated in the announcement message.
5. The toolkit of claim 4 wherein the object is capable of being
configured to appear in the announcement message to a caller based
on a comparison of pre-stored criteria with a current date.
6. The toolkit of claim 4 wherein the object may be configured to
appear in the announcement message to a caller based on a
comparison of pre-stored criteria with an identification of the
caller.
7. The toolkit of claim 4 wherein the object is a video window.
8. The toolkit of claim 4 wherein the object is a button.
9. The toolkit of claim 1 wherein the toolkit includes a toolbar,
the toolbar having a plurality of tools for creating objects.
10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable
instructions for performing steps comprising: allowing a user to
create at least one of a plurality of objects, the objects defining
a video announcement message, the announcement message appearing to
a caller; and allowing the user to manipulate at least one of the
objects.
11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the
instructions for allowing the user to create includes allowing the
user to create a button.
12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the
instructions for allowing the user to create includes allowing the
user to create a video window.
13. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the
computer-readable medium is used to program a video phone answering
machine.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention is directed generally to telephone
answering machines, and more particularly to a toolkit for creating
announcements for a multimedia answering machine.
BACKGROUND
[0002] As deregulation of the telephone industry continues and as
companies prepare to enter the local telephone access market, there
is a need to offer new and innovative services that distinguish
common carriers from their competitors. This cannot be accomplished
without introducing new local access network architectures that
will be able to support these new and innovative services.
[0003] Conventionally, customer premises telephone and/or data
connections contain splitters for separating analog voice calls
from other data services such as Ethernet transported over digital
subscriber line (DSL) modems. Voice band data and voice signals are
sent through a communications switch in a central or local office
to an interexchange carrier or Internet service provider. DSL data
is sent through a digital subscriber loop asynchronous mode (DSLAM)
switch which may include a router. The DSLAM switch connects many
lines and routes the digital data to a telephone company's digital
switch.
[0004] A major problem with this configuration is that
interexchange carriers attempting to penetrate the local telephone
company's territory must lease trunk lines from the local telephone
company switch to the interexchange company's network for digital
traffic. Furthermore, the Internet service provider must lease a
modem from the local phone company in the DSLAM switch and route
its data through the local phone company's digital switch. Thus,
the local phone company leases and/or provides a significant amount
of equipment, driving up the cost of entry for any other company
trying to provide local telephone services and making it difficult
for the interexchange companies to differentiate their services.
Furthermore, since DSL modem technology is not standardized, in
order to ensure compatibility, the DSL modem provided by the local
telephone company must also be provided to the end user in the
customer premises equipment (CPE). Additionally, since the network
is not completely controlled by the interexchange companies, it is
difficult for the interexchange companies to provide data at
committed delivery rates. Any performance improvements implemented
by the interexchange companies may not be realized by their
customers, because the capabilities of the local telephone company
equipment may or may not meet their performance needs. Thus, it is
difficult for the interexchange companies to convince potential
customers to switch to their equipment or to use their services.
These factors ensure the continued market presence of the local
telephone company.
[0005] As part of this system, there is a need for improved
architectures, services and equipment utilized to distinguish the
interexchange companies' products and services.
[0006] A problem that has plagued many telephone users is the
endless phone hierarchies where a customer calls a company or
government office and becomes mired in an endless array of menu
choices--none of which seem to guide the individual to where he or
she would like to go. Often the answering machine will simply
hang-up on the individual at the end of one menus without ever
providing the individual the information requested. Users often
become frustrated at not being able to speak with a human
being.
[0007] Another problem for many users of telephone answering
machines is that it is very difficult to customize a telephone
answering machine to reflect the personality of the owner of the
machine. We customize our business cards, holiday cards, and letter
head, employ different advertising, and decorate our offices to
reflect our own personalities, to draw attention to ourselves, and
to differentiate our services. However, heretofore, it has been
difficult to customize our voice announcement messages. Although
some users have added music through the use of a tape recorder
playing while the user is recording an announcement, these attempts
at customizing a voice greeting are crude and at best cumbersome to
use.
[0008] As a further problem, users which are placed on-hold are
either provided comfort noise, music, and/or advertisements from
the company to which they called. Time on hold often passes very
slowly and many users may hang-up. Home users without sophisticated
PABX (Private Automatic Branch Exchange) machines are even more
disadvantages since these users usually only can provide comfort
noise to their customers which are place on-hold.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] In order to provide an improved network, it is desirable for
the interexchange companies to have access to at least one of the
twisted-pair lines or alternate wireless facility connecting each
of the individual users to the local telephone network before the
lines are routed through the conventional local telephone network
equipment. It is preferable to have access to these lines prior to
the splitter and modem technology offered by the local service
providers. By having access to the twisted-pair wires entering the
customer's premises, interexchange companies can differentiate
their services by providing higher bandwidth, improving the
capabilities of the customer premises equipment, and lowering
overall system costs to the customer by providing competitive
service alternatives.
[0010] The new architecture may utilize a video phone and/or other
devices to provide new services to an end user; an intelligent
services director (ISD) disposed at or near the customer's premises
for multiplexing and coordinating many digital services onto a
single twisted-pair line; a facilities management platform (FMP)
disposed in the local telephone network's central office for
routing data to an appropriate interexchange company network; and a
network server platform (NSP) coupled to the FMP for providing new
and innovative services to the customer and for distinguishing
services provided by the interexchange companies from those
services provided by the local telephone network.
[0011] As part of this system, one aspect of the invention provides
a toolkit for creating announcements for a multimedia announcement
answering machine. The users may record video greetings for their
answering machine. The video greetings may include animations and
other suitable audio/video clips. Still images may also be
presented.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] The foregoing summary of the invention, as well as the
following detailed description of preferred embodiments, is better
understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings,
which are included by way of example, and not by way of limitation
with regard to the claimed invention.
[0013] FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a hybrid fiber twisted
pair local loop architecture.
[0014] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an intelligent
services director consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.
1.
[0015] FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate an embodiment of a video phone
consistent with the architecture shown in FIG. 1.
[0016] FIG. 4A is a block diagram of an embodiment of a facilities
management platform consistent with the architecture shown in FIG.
1.
[0017] FIG. 4B illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of a
network server platform consistent with the architecture shown in
FIG. 1.
[0018] FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a display on the
videophone shown in FIG. 3a.
[0019] FIGS. 6-9 illustrate various exemplary multimedia
announcement messages that may be generated by the video phone upon
receiving a call.
[0020] FIGS. 10-12 illustrate various embodiments of a display on
the videophone shown in FIG. 3a.
[0021] FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary multimedia announcement
message that may be generated by the video phone upon receiving a
call.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0022] Referring to FIG. 1, a first exemplary communication network
architecture employing a hybrid fiber, twisted-pair (HFTP) local
loop 1 architecture is shown. An intelligent services director
(ISD) 22 may be coupled to a central office 34 via a twisted-pair
wire, hybrid fiber interconnection, wireless and/or other customer
connection 30, a connector block 26, and/or a main distribution
frame (MDF) 28. The ISD 22 and the central or local office 34 may
communicate with each other using, for example, framed, time
division, frequency-division, synchronous, asynchronous and/or
spread spectrum formats, but in exemplary embodiments uses DSL
modem technology. The central office 34 preferably includes a
facilities management platform (FMP) 32 for processing data
exchanged across the customer connection 30. The FMP 32 may be
configured to separate the plain old telephone service (POTS) from
the remainder of the data on the customer connection 30 using, for
example, a tethered virtual radio channel (TVRC) modem (shown in
FIG. 4A). The remaining data may be output to a high speed backbone
network (e.g., a fiber-optic network) such as an asynchronous
transfer mode (ATM) switching network. The analog POTS data may be
output directly to a public switch telephone network (PSTN) 46,
and/or it may be digitized, routed through the high speed backbone
network, and then output to the PSTN 46.
[0023] The FMP 32 may process data and/or analog/digitized voice
between customer premise equipment (CPE) 10 and any number of
networks. For example, the FMP 32 may be interconnected with a
synchronous optical network (SONET) 42 for interconnection to any
number of additional networks such as an InterSpan backbone 48, the
PSTN 46, a public switch switching network (e.g. call setup
SS7-type network 44), and/or a network server platform (NSP) 36.
Alternatively, the FMP 32 may be directly connected to any of these
networks. One or more FMPs 32 may be connected directly to the high
speed backbone network (e.g., direct fiber connection with the
SONET network 42) or they may be linked via a trunk line (e.g.,
trunks 40 or 42) to one or more additional networks.
[0024] The NSP 36 may provide a massive cache storage for various
information that may be provided across the SONET net 42 to the FMP
32 and out to the ISD 22. The NSP 36 and the FMP 32 may
collectively define an access network server complex 38. The NSP 36
may be interconnected with multiple FMPs 32. Furthermore, each FMP
32 may interconnect with one or more ISDs 22. The NSP 36 may be
located anywhere but is preferably located in a point-of-presence
(POP) facility. The NSP 36 may further act as a gateway to, for
example, any number of additional services.
[0025] The ISD 22 may be interconnected to various devices such as
a videophone 130, other digital phones 18, set-top devices,
computers, and/or other devices comprising the customer premise
equipment 10. The customer premise equipment may individually or
collectively serve as a local network computer at the customer
site. Application applets may be downloaded from the NSP 36 into
some or all of the individual devices within the customer premise
equipment 10. Where applets are provided by the NSP 36, the
programming of the applets may be updated such that the applets are
continually configured to the latest software version by the
interexchange carrier. In this way, the CPE 10 may be kept up to
date by simply re-loading updated applets. In addition, certain
applets may be resident on any of the CPE 10. These resident
applets may be periodically reinitialized by simply sending a
request from, for example, a digital phone 18 and/or a videophone
130 to the FMP 32 and thereafter to the NSP 36 for reinitialization
and downloading of new applets. To ensure widespread availability
of the new features made possible by the present architecture, the
customer premise equipment may be provided to end users either at a
subsidized cost or given away for free, with the cost of the
equipment being amortized over the services sold to the user
through the equipment.
[0026] Referring to FIG. 2, the ISD 22 may connect with a variety
of devices including analog and digital voice telephones 15, 18;
digital videophones 130, devices for monitoring home security,
meter reading devices (not shown), utilities devices/energy
management facilities (not shown), facsimile devices 16, personal
computers 14, and/or other digital or analog devices. Some or all
of these devices may be connected with the ISD 22 via any suitable
mechanism such as a single and/or multiple twisted-pair wires
and/or a wireless connection. For example, a number of digital
devices may be multi-dropped on a single twisted-pair connection.
Similarly, analog phones and other analog devices may be
multi-dropped using conventional techniques.
[0027] The ISD 22 may be located within the home/business or
mounted exterior to the home/business. The ISD 22 may operate from
electrical power supplied by the local or central office 34 and/or
from the customer's power supplied by the customer's power company.
Where the ISD 22 includes a modem, it may be desirable to power the
ISD 22 with supplemental power from the home in order to provide
sufficient power to enable the optimal operation of the modem.
[0028] As shown in FIG. 2, in some embodiments the ISD 22 may
include a controller 100 which may have any of a variety of
elements such as a central processing unit 102, a DRAM 103, an SRAM
104, a ROM 105 and/or an internet protocol (IP) bridge router 106
connecting the controller 100 to a system bus 111. The system bus
111 may be connected with a variety of network interface devices
110. The network interface devices 110 may be variously configured
to include one or more of an integrated services digital network
(ISDN) interface 113, an Ethernet interface 119 (e.g., for 28.8 kbs
data, 56 kbs data, or ISDN), an IEEE 1394 "fire wire" interface 112
(e.g., for a digital videodisc device (DVD)), for a digital
subscriber line (DSL) modem (e.g., a TVRC modem interface), a
residential interface 114, (e.g., standard POTS phone systems such
as tip ring), a business interface 116 (e.g., a T1 line and/or PABX
interface), a radio frequency (RF) audio/video interface 120 (e.g.,
a cable television connection), and/or a cordless phone interface
123 (e.g., a 900 MHZ transceiver). Connected to one of the network
interfaces and/or the system bus 111 may be any number of devices
such as an audio interface 122 (e.g., for digital audio, digital
telephones, digital audio tape (DAT) recorders/players, music for
restaurants, MIDI interface, DVD, etc.), a digital phone 121, a
videophone/user interface 130, a television set-top device 131
and/or other devices. Where the network interface is utilized, it
may be desirable to use, for example, the IEEE 1394 interface 112
and/or the Ethernet interface 119.
[0029] A lifeline 126 may be provided for continuous telephone
service in the event of a power failure at the CPE 10. The lifeline
126 may be utilized to connect the ISD 22 to the local
telecommunications company's central office 34 and, in particular,
to the FMP 32 located in the central office 34.
[0030] The ISD may be variously configured to provide any number of
suitable services. For example, the ISD 22 may offer high fidelity
radio channels by allowing the user to select a particular channel
and obtaining a digitized radio channel from a remote location and
outputting the digital audio, for example, on audio interface 122,
video phone 130, and/or digital phones 121. A digital telephone may
be connected to the audio interface 122 such that a user may select
any one of a number of digital audio service channels by simply
having the user push a digital audio service channel button on the
telephone and have the speaker phone output particular channels.
The telephone may be preprogramed to provide the digital audio
channels at a particular time, such as a wake up call for bedroom
mounted telephone, or elsewhere in the house. The user may select
any number of services on the video phone and/or other user
interface such as a cable set-top device. These services may
include any number of suitable services such as weather, headlines
in the news, stock quotes, neighborhood community services
information, ticket information, restaurant information, service
directories (e.g., yellow pages), call conferencing, billing
systems, mailing systems, coupons, advertisements, maps, classes,
Internet, pay-per-view (PPV), and/or other services using any
suitable user interface such as the audio interface 122, the video
phone/user interface 130, digital phones, 121 and/or another
suitable device such as a settop device 131.
[0031] In further embodiments, the ISD 22 may be configured as an
IP proxy server such that each of the devices connected to the
server utilizes transmission control protocol/internet protocol
(TCP/IP) protocol. This configuration allows any device associated
with the ISD to access the Internet via an IP connection through
the FMP 32. Where the ISD 22 is configured as an IP proxy server,
it may accommodate additional devices that do not support the
TCP/IP protocol. In this embodiment, the ISD 22 may have a
proprietary or conventional interface connecting the ISD 22 to any
associated device such as to the set top box 131, the personal
computer 14, the video telephone 130, the digital telephone 18,
and/or some other end user device.
[0032] In still further embodiments, the ISD 22 may be compatible
with multicast broadcast services where multicast information is
broadcast by a central location and/or other server on one of the
networks connected to the FMP 32, e.g., an ATM-switched network.
The ISD 22 may download the multicast information via the FMP 32 to
any of the devices connected to the ISD 22. The ISD 22 and/or CPE
10 devices may selectively filter the information in accordance
with a specific customer user's preferences. For example, one user
may select all country music broadcasts on a particular day while
another user may select financial information. The ISD 22 and/or
any of the CPE 10 devices may also be programmed to store
information representing users' preferences and/or the received
uni-cast or multicast information in memory or other storage media
for later replay. Thus, for example, video clips or movies may be
multicast to all customers in the community with certain users
being preconfigured to select the desired video clip/movie in real
time for immediate viewing and/or into storage for later
viewing.
[0033] Referring to FIG. 3A, a videophone 130 may include a touch
screen display 141 and soft keys 142 around the perimeter of the
display 141. The display may be responsive to touch, pressure,
and/or light input. Some or all of the soft keys 142 may be
programmable and may vary in function depending upon, for example,
the applet being run by the videophone 130. The function of each
soft key may be displayed next to the key on the display 141. The
functions of the soft keys 142 may also be manually changed by the
user by pressing scroll buttons 143. The videophone 140 may also
include a handset 144 (which may be connected via a cord or
wireless connection to the rest of the videophone and/or directly
to the ISD), a keypad 150, a video camera 145, a credit card reader
146, a smart card slot 147, a microphone 149, a motion and/or light
detector 148, built-in speaker(s) 155, a printer/scanner/facsimile
152, and/or external speakers 154 (e.g., stereo speakers). A
keyboard 153 and/or a postage scale 151 may also be connected to
the videophone 130. Any or all of the above-mentioned items may be
integrated with the videophone unit itself or may be physically
separate from the videophone unit. A block diagram of the video
phone unit is shown in FIG. 3B. Referring to FIG. 3B, in addition
to the items above, the video phone 130 may also include a signal
processor 171, high speed interface circuitry 172, memory 173,
power supply 174, all interconnected via a controller 170.
[0034] When the videophone 130 is used as a video telephone, the
display 141 may include one or more video window(s) 160 for viewing
a person to whom a user is speaking and/or showing the picture seen
by the person on the other end of the video phone. The display may
also include a dialed-telephone-number window 161 for displaying
the phone number dialed, a virtual keypad 162, virtual buttons 163
for performing various telephone functions, service directory icons
165, a mail icon 164, and/or various other service icons 166 which
may be used, for example, for obtaining coupons or connecting with
an operator. Any or all of these items may be displayed as virtual
buttons and/or graphic icons and may be arranged in any
combination. Additionally, any number of other display features may
be shown on the video phone in accordance with one or more of the
applications incorporated by reference below.
[0035] Referring to FIG. 4A, the FMP 32 may coordinate the flow of
data packets, separate voice signals from other signals, perform
line monitoring and switching functions, and/or convert between
analog and digital signals. The FMP 32 may process data sent from
the CPE 10 to the central or local office 34 by separating and
reconstructing analog voice signals, data, and control frames. The
FMP 32 may process data sent from the central or local office 34 to
the CPE 10 by separating control messages from user information,
and configure this information into segments that for transport
across the digital subscriber loop. The FMP 32 may also terminate
the link layer associated with the digital subscriber loop.
[0036] In some embodiments, the FMP 32 may include an access module
70 and a digital loop carrier 87. The access module 70 may include
a line protector 71, a cross-connector 73, a plurality of TVRC
modems 80, a plurality of digital filters 82, a controller
multiplexer 84, and/or a router and facilities interface 86. The
digital loop carrier 87 may include a plurality of line cards 96, a
time domain multiplexing (TDM) multiplexor (MUX) 88, a TDM bus 90,
a controller 92, and/or a facilities interface 94.
[0037] During normal operations, digital signals on the customer
connection 30 (e.g., twisted-pair lines) containing both voice and
data may be received by the TVRC modems 80 via the line protector
71 and the cross-connector 73. Preferably, the line protector 71
includes lightning blocks for grounding power surges due to
lightning or other stray voltage surges. The TVRC modems 80 may
send the digital voice and/or data signals to the controller
multiplexor 84 and the digital filters 82. The digital filters 82
may separate the voice signals from the digital data signals, and
the controller multiplexor 84 may then multiplex the voice signals
and/or data signals received from the digital filters 82. The
controller multiplexor 84 may then send multiplexed voice signals
to the TDM MUX 88 and the data signals to the router and facilities
interface 86 for transmission to one or more external networks. The
TDM MUX 88 may multiplex the voice signals from the controller
multiplexor 84 and/or send the voice signals to the TDM bus 90,
which may then send the digital voice signals to the controller 92
and then to the facilities interface 94 for transmission to one or
more external networks. Both the router and facilities interface 86
and the facilities interface 94 may convert between electrical
signals and optical signals when a fiber optic link is
utilized.
[0038] When there is a failure of the digital data link (e.g., if
there is a failure of the TVRC modems 80 at the FMP 32 or the TVRC
modem 114 at the ISD 22), only analog voice signals might be sent
over the subscriber lines 30. In such a case, the analog voice
signals may be directly routed to the line cards 96, bypassing the
TVRC modems 80, the digital filters 82, the controller multiplexor
84, and the TDM MUX 88. Thus, voice communication via PDTS is
ensured despite a failure of the digital data link. The line cards
96 may convert the analog voice signals into digital format (e.g.,
TDM format) and send the digitized voice data onto the TDM bus 90
and eventually through the controller 92 and the facilities
interface 94 for transmission to one or more external networks.
[0039] Referring to FIG. 4B, the NSP 36 may be variously configured
to provide any number of services provided by a server such as
information services, Internet services, pay-per-view movie
services, data-base services, commercial services, and/or other
suitable services. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4B, the NSP 36
includes a router 185 having a backbone 180 (e.g., a fiber
distributed data interface (FDDI) backbone) that interconnects a
management server 182, an information/database server 183, and/or
one or more application server clusters 184. The NSP 36 may be
connected via the router 185 by a link 181 to one or more external
networks, NSPs 36, and/or an FMPs 32. The information/database
server 183 may perform storage and/or database functions. The
application server cluster 184 may maintain and control the
downloading of applets to the ISD 22. The NSP 36 may also include a
voice/call processor 186 configured to handle call and data routing
functions, set-up functions, distributed operating system
functions, voice recognition functions for spoken commands input
from any of the ISD connected devices as well as other
functions.
[0040] The NSP 36, FMP 32, ISD 22, and/or videophone 130 may host a
multimedia announcement answering machine which may be either a
standard format and/or customized by individual users. FIGS. 6-9
provide various examples of multimedia announcement messages that
may appear on videophone-enabled telephones.
[0041] Referring to FIG. 5, a user of the videophone 130 may record
standard and/or customized multimedia greetings for the answering
machine. The user may create a greeting by using, for example, a
toolkit application. The toolkit application may be resident as
hardware, software, and/or firmware on the videophone 130, the NSP
36, the FMP 32, the ISD 22, and/or any other network server. The
toolkit application may be a downloadable applet and/or may be
updated in the same manner as the other applets mentioned above.
The toolkit application may include a variety of tool buttons
201-216 on a toolbar 241 and/or pull-down menus 217-223 to aid the
user in customizing a greeting. Examples of tools that may be
provided via tool buttons include a selection tool 201 for
selecting, dragging, and/or dropping objects, a line tool 202 for
drawing lines, an oval tool 203 for drawing circles and/or ovals, a
box tool 204 for drawings squares, rectangles, and/or other
polygons, a freehand drawing tool 205, a rotate/flip tool 206 for
rotating and flipping objects, a fill tool 207 for filling enclosed
objects with a color and/or pattern, a time/date tool 208 for
applying time and/or date dependencies to objects, a text
input/editing tool 209, a button creation tool 210, a checkbox
creation tool 211, a drop-down list creation tool 212, a password
protection tool 213, a video window creation tool 214, a border
creation tool 215, and/or a caller identification tool 216 for
applying caller identification dependencies to objects.
[0042] Drop-down menus may also be available to the user. When
selected, a drop-down menu may present a list of drop-down
functions. For instance, an announcement drop-down menu 217 may
present drop-down functions such as new announcement, edit
announcement, erase announcement, and/or assign an announcement
with a particular user. A record drop-down menu 218 may present
drop-down functions such as record audio/video, record video only,
and/or record audio only. A styles drop-down menu 219 may present
drop-down functions such as text style, line style, button style,
and/or border style. A colors drop-down menu 220 may present
drop-down functions such as color and/or pattern. A special effects
drop-down menu 221 may include drop-down functions such as
slow-motion video, freeze-frame, object shadow, video contrast,
video hue, video brightness, video colors, video filters, audio
filters, echo, and/or animation. An advanced options drop-down menu
222 may present drop-down functions such as time, date, security,
and/or caller identification dependencies with regard to an entire
message, as well as special mail boxes for different users. A
library drop-down menu 223 may present functions such as retrieve
standard and/or saved objects, and/or download objects from a
central database. Such saved and/or downloadable objects may be
stored in the customer premise equipment 10 such as the videophone
itself, the ISD 22, the FMP 32, the NSP 36, and/or other
networks.
[0043] Objects that may be manipulated, configured, created,
erased, and/or otherwise modified by these tools and drop-down
functions include shapes/figures/drawings (e.g., drawing 224),
dependency icons (e.g., dependency icons 225-227), windows (e.g.,
video windows 228, 233), buttons (e.g., buttons 301-306, 310-315,
320, 321, 331, 350, 353, 354, shown in FIGS. 5-10), checkboxes
(e.g., checkbox 229), drop-down lists (e.g., drop-down list 230),
borders (e.g., border 231), text (e.g., text 232, 234), background
images, and/or any other graphic representation.
[0044] Some or all of the objects may be configured by, for
example, single or double-tapping on the objects (if the videophone
is equipped with a touch-screen display) or selecting them by
single or double-licking a mouse button (if the videophone is
attached to a mouse input device). Password dependency icons 227
may be configured with one or more passwords. Caller identification
dependency icons 225 may be configured with one or more callers'
identifications. Time/date dependency icons 226 may be configured
with one or more dates and/or times. Buttons may be configured with
button size and/or button labels (i.e., the text printed on a
button, such as button label 240) and/or functions. Drop-down lists
230 may be configured with text listings.
[0045] Dependencies may be applied to various objects. Any object
may be configured to appear in the announcement only if certain
conditions are met, such as a certain time, date, and/or caller,
and/or if a password is entered. Thus, a user that wants to display
the text 232 "Happy birthday, Lara!!" only when Lara calls and only
on a certain date (e.g., Lara's birthday) may, using the caller
identification tool 216 drag and drop a caller identification
dependency icon 225 at the text 232. The user may, using the
time/date tool 208, drag and drop a time/date dependency icon 226
at the text 232. The time/date dependency icon 226 may then be
configured by the user to allow the text 232 to appear in the
announcement on the date of Lara's birthday. Also, the caller
identification dependency icon 225 may be configured to allow the
text 232 to appear in the announcement if the caller is Lara.
[0046] Referring to FIG. 6, announcement messages 300 may be
variously configured to include one or more of the following either
alone or in any combination: a video greeting 316 recorded via the
camera 145; a video greeting downloaded from a video playing device
such as a digital video camera; a stock video greeting obtained
from a compact disc (not shown), a stock video greeting/image
obtained from the NSP 36 via the ISD 22 and FMP 32 (e.g., a holiday
or seasonal greeting--Christmas, Thanksgiving, winter, summer,
fall, movie star greeting a well known movie star, etc.); a still
image or photograph scanned in via the scanner 152; an audio only
greeting; stock greeting layouts obtained either locally (via a
storage medium, RAM card inserted via smart reader 147, locally
attached CD ROM (not shown)) and/or remotely from the NSP;
greetings generated locally by the user; greetings which include
one or more of the following control buttons and/or announcements:
the video greeting 316 to answer the incoming call, leave voice
mail 310 to allow an incoming caller to leave a voice mail message,
leave video mail 311 to allow an incoming caller to leave a video
mail message, leave E-mail 312 to allow an incoming caller to leave
an E-mail message, please call 313 to allow a caller to simply push
a button on the video phone to leave a stock message to the
receiving party using either a caller identification number or a
number entered by the calling party; will call again 314 to allow a
caller to simply push a button on his or her video phone to leave a
stock message identified using a caller identification and a name
spoken and/or typed by the user; secondary user buttons 320, 321 to
provide one touch direct access to an individual mail box and/or
secondary greeting of another resident of the called location;
and/or a plurality of alternate contact buttons 317 to provide
direct access via pressing one of the buttons to alternate contact
information for the called party such as an E-mail interface button
301, and/or a plurality of speed dial buttons for automatically
dialing various devices such as a pager 302 (including sending of
the calling parties number), cellular phone 303, work phone 304,
vacation home 305, and/or facsimile machine 306; and/or a password
protected access button 318 to provide the owner of the video phone
access to various control features of the answering machine.
[0047] Referring to FIG. 7, is can be seen that the greeting 316
may be any suitable size. For example, the greeting 316 may form a
background over either all or substantially all of the screen 141.
The greeting 316 may have one or more keys 326 overlayed over the
greeting and/or disposed about the border of the greeting 316. The
announcement message may include a toggle button 351 for switching
between a standard display format and a user-customized display
format, as will be described below.
[0048] Referring to FIG. 8, the greeting may be customized for a
particular caller identification. For example, where the calling
location of the users girl friend is known, the user may customize
his screen to play a special message to the calling party.
Different screens may be shown to the called parties parents,
friends, girl friend, siblings, boss, and people unknown to the
called party. In the example illustrated in FIG. 8, the calling
party is someone named LARA. In the exemplary embodiment shown in
FIG. 8, the greeting 316 occupies substantially all of the video
screen 141. Various items may be overlayed on the screen including
the ability to leave video mail 311, voice mail 310, and/or enter
password protected areas such as messages 331 and/or photos etc.,
332. The password protected access nomenclature may or may not
appear on the screen depending on the called parties preference.
Where password protection access is used, the called party may give
the calling party access to private numbers, pictures, video clips,
and/or messages, etc.
[0049] A further exemplary embodiment is shown in FIG. 9. In this
embodiment, the called party may use seasonal and/or special
occasion greetings which are either programmed into the video phone
at the time or pre-stored to prevent forgetting an occasion. For
example, the called party can program his video phone to read an
internal or remote clock (not shown) and obtain data about the
current date and time. Further, in a programming screen, the called
party may specify certain greetings to be displayed during certain
times, during certain days, during certain ranges of days, and/or
for certain caller IDs based on certain times, certain days, and/or
certain ranges of days. For example, the embodiment illustrated in
FIG. 9 shows a seasonal announcement message such as a Christmas
tree as the video greeting 316. The seasonal announcement message
may be programmed to appear during certain days such as between
November 29 and December 31. Thereafter, a new-years greeting could
be scheduled to appear during the first month of the year.
Different seasonal greetings and/or random greetings selected from
a NSP and/or other database could be selected to be displayed on
the screen. In this manner, more creative individuals could both
customize their greeting with minimal effort and give the
appearance of having a completely up-to-date greeting. As an
example, where an individual knows that he or she goes home at 5:00
pm each day, the individual can leave after hours contact
information and/or other customized announcement message which
automatically appears between 5:00 pm and 8:00 am each day.
[0050] In addition to the above, the greeting may be customized for
a combination of a particular caller identification and date. For
example, a called party may set his office answering machine to
detect his wife's caller identification and display a happy
anniversary message when his wife called the office. Similarly, an
individual may use a separate message when he is working at home
than when he is in the office. Further, the video phone may be
programmed to call an individual on a specified date and time to
send a reminder message and/or anniversary greeting to that
person.
[0051] To add an object, a user may select any of the tools on the
toolbar 241. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 10, a
user may select the button tool 210 (e.g., by tapping on the
button). A menu 242 of the available buttons may appear, which may
include various selections 400-415 for selecting various buttons
301-306, 310-315, 320, 321, 331, 350, 353, 354, as well as other
user-definable buttons. FIG. 10 shows a user selecting the leave
video mail selection 407 and dragging across the screen to an area
450 of the user's choice. FIG. 10 also shows a video window 460
associated with a caller identification dependency icon 461. Some
or all of the objects may be added to the announcement message in a
similar way.
[0052] Once an object is added, the user may configure the object.
In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 11, the user has
added the leave video mail button 311, the video window 460, and
the caller identification dependency icon 461 associated with the
video window 460. The user may select an object (e.g., by tapping
the object) and a dialog box may appear. FIG. 11 shows a dialog box
470 appearing for the caller identification dependency icon 461, a
dialog box 471 appearing for the leave video mail button 311, and a
dialog box appearing for the video window 460. One or more dialog
boxes may appear for any given selected object. Some dialog boxes
may include checkboxes 473 and/or text input areas 474. For
example, when configuring the caller identification dependency icon
461, the user might enter one or more caller identifications into
the text input area 474 of the dialog box 470. An alternate method
of creating a dependency, for instance, for the video window 460
may be to check the I.D. checkbox 473 in its dialog box 472 and
enter caller identification information into its associated text
input area 474. Some or all of the objects may be configured in
similar ways.
[0053] Referring to FIG. 12, one or more drop down function sets
may appear when a dropdown menu is selected (e.g., by tapping on
the drop-down menu box). For example, when the user selects the
drop-down announcement menu 217, a function set 500 may appear. The
function set 500 may offer functions such as creating a new
announcement message, editing an existing announcement message,
erasing an existing announcement message, assigning an announcement
message to a particular user, viewing an announcement message using
an outgoing view, and viewing an announcement message using an
incoming view. If the user selects the library drop-down menu 223,
a function set 501 may appear offering functions such as retrieving
objects and/or announcement messages from local storage (e.g.,
stored within the CPE 10 and/or the IDS 22), downloading objects
and/or announcement messages from a server (e.g., the FMP 32 and/or
the ISD 36), and/or retrieving and/or downloading special occasion
announcement messages and/or templates (e.g., for Chanukah,
Christmas, New Year's Day, etc.).
[0054] As a further embodiment of the invention, because the
announcement messages may be customized, it is often difficult for
a receiving party to find the particular buttons in order to
formulate a response. Accordingly, the processor or controller 170
in the video phone 130 may be configured to reformat the incoming
message to a consistent format regardless of the announcement
message sent by the called party. In this manner, the calling party
may program his video phone to always display announcement messages
in the same format. The video greeting is always the same size and
displayed on the video phone in the same location. Similarly, the
response buttons are always the same size and/or located in the
same location so that the calling party does not have to search
through a new display each time that he calls a different party.
For example, the announcement message sent by the called party may
appear as that shown in FIG. 13. However, the calling party may
program the processor 170 in the video phone 130 to reformat the
display to a consistent display format as shown in FIG. 6. Of
course, the consistent display format is optional and the calling
party may toggle back and forth In the embodiment shown in FIG. 13,
the video phone screen may include a toggle button 350, 351 which
allows the calling party to toggle back and forth between the
original display format of the announcement message and the
consistent display format which the user is used to seeing.
[0055] A user may view, create, and/or edit a user-customized
display format by selecting, for example, the announcement
drop-down menu 217 and the incoming function of the associated
function set 500. Furthermore, the toggle button 350, 351 may be
created by selecting, for example, the button tool 210 and the
toggle display format selection 414.
[0056] The following applications, filed concurrently herewith, are
hereby incorporated by reference:
[0057] 1. A Hybrid Fiber Twisted-pair Local Loop Network Service
Architecture (Gerszberg 41-3-13);
[0058] 2. Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation for use in the Hybrid Fiber
Twisted-pair Local Loop Network Service Architecture (Gerszberg
42-4-14);
[0059] 3. The VideoPhone (Gerszberg 43-9-2);
[0060] 4. VideoPhone Privacy Activator (Gerszberg 44-10-3);
[0061] 5. VideoPhone Form Factor (Gerszberg 45-11-4);
[0062] 6. VideoPhone Centrally Controlled User Interface With User
Selectable Options (Gerszberg 46-12-5);
[0063] 7. VideoPhone User Interface Having Multiple Menu
Hierarchies (Gerszberg 47-13-6);
[0064] 8. VideoPhone Blocker (Gerszberg 79-38-26);
[0065] 9. VideoPhone Inter-com For Extension Phones (Gerszberg
48-14-7);
[0066] 10. Advertising Screen Saver (53-17);
[0067] 11. VideoPhone FlexiView Advertising (Gerszberg
49-15-8);
[0068] 12. VideoPhone Multimedia Announcement Answering Machine
(Gerszberg 73-32-20);
[0069] 13. VideoPhone Multimedia Announcement Message Toolkit
(Gerszberg 74-33-21);
[0070] 14. VideoPhone Multimedia Video Message Reception (Gerszberg
75-34-22);
[0071] 15. VideoPhone Multimedia Interactive Corporate Menu
Answering Machine Announcement (Gerszberg 76-35-23);
[0072] 16. VideoPhone Multimedia Interactive On-Hold Information
Menus (Gerszberg 77-36-24);
[0073] 17. VideoPhone Advertisement When Calling Video Non-enabled
VideoPhone Users (Gerszberg 78-37-25);
[0074] 18. Motion Detection Advertising (Gerszberg 54-18-10);
[0075] 19. Interactive Commercials (Gerszberg 55-19);
[0076] 20. VideoPhone Electronic Catalogue Service (Gerszberg
50-16-9);
[0077] 21. A Facilities Management Platform For Hybrid Fiber
Twisted-pair Local Loop Network, Service Architecture (Barzegar
18-56-17);
[0078] 22. Multiple Service Access on Single Twisted-pair (Barzegar
(16-51-15);
[0079] 23. Life Line Support for Multiple Service Access on Single
Twisted-pair (Barzegar 17-52-16);
[0080] 24. A Network Server Platform (NSP) For a Hybrid Fiber
Twisted-pair (HFTP) Local Loop Network Service Architecture
(Gerszberg 57-4-2-2-4);
[0081] 25. A Communication Server Apparatus For Interactive
Commercial Service (Gerszberg 58-20-11);
[0082] 26. NSP Multicast, PPV Server (Gerszberg 59-21-12);
[0083] 27. NSP Internet, JAVA Server and VideoPhone Application
Server (Gerszberg 60-5-3-22-18);
[0084] 28. NSP WAN Interconnectivity Services for Corporate
Telecommuters (Gerszberg 71-97-4-21-6);
[0085] 29. NSP Telephone Directory White-Yellow Page Services
(Gerszberg 61-6-4-23-19);
[0086] 30. NSP Integrated Billing System For NSP services and
Telephone services (Gerszberg 62-7-5-24-20);
[0087] 31. Network Server Platform/Facility Management Platform
Caching Server (Gerszberg 63-8-6-3-5);
[0088] 32. An Integrated Services Director (ISD) For HFTP Local
Loop Network Service Architecture (Gerszberg 72-36-22-12);
[0089] 33. ISD and VideoPhone Customer Premise Network (Gerszberg
64-25-34-13-5);
[0090] 34. ISD Wireless Network (Gerszberg 65-26-35-14-6);
[0091] 35. ISD Controlled Set-Top Box (Gerszberg 66-27-15-7);
[0092] 36. Integrated Remote Control and Phone (Gerszberg
67-28-16-8);
[0093] 37. Integrated Remote Control and Phone User Interface
(Gerszberg 68-29-17-9);
[0094] 38. Integrated Remote Control and Phone Form Factor
(Gerszberg 69-30-18-10);
[0095] 39. VideoPhone Mail Machine (Attorney Docket No.
3493.73170);
[0096] 40. Restaurant Ordering Via VideoPhone (Attorney Docket No.
3493.73171);
[0097] 41. Ticket Ordering Via VideoPhone (Attorney Docket No.
3493.73712);
[0098] 42. Multi-Channel Parallel/Serial Concatenated Convolutional
Codes And Trellis Coded Modulation Encode/Decoder (Gelblum
4-3);
[0099] 43. Spread Spectrum Bit Allocation Algorithm (Shively
19-2);
[0100] 44. Digital Channelizer With Arbitrary Output Frequency
(Helms 5-3);
[0101] 45. Method And Apparatus For Allocating Data Via Discrete
Multiple Tones (filed Dec. 12, 1997, Attorney Docket No.
3493.20096--Sankaranaraya- nan 1-1);
[0102] 46. Method And Apparatus For Reducing Near-End Cross Talk In
Discrete Multi-Tone Modulators/Demodulators (filed Dec. 22, 1997,
Attorney Docket No. 3493.37219--Helms 4-32-18).
[0103] In addition, the following two patent applications are
hereby incorporated by reference:
[0104] 1. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/943,312 filed Oct.
14, 1997 entitled Wideband Communication System for the Home, to
Robert R. Miller, II and Jesse E. Russell, and
[0105] 2. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/858,170, filed May
14, 1997, entitled Wide Band Transmission Through Wire, to Robert
R. Miller, II, Jesse E. Russell and Richard R. Shively.
[0106] While exemplary systems and methods embodying the present
invention are shown by way of example, it will be understood, of
course, that the invention is not limited to these embodiments.
Modifications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly
in light of the foregoing teachings. For example, each of the
elements of the aforementioned embodiments may be utilized alone or
in combination with elements of the other embodiments.
* * * * *