U.S. patent application number 12/140828 was filed with the patent office on 2008-10-09 for multiple virtual telephones sharing a single physical address.
Invention is credited to Dong Liu, Wei Lu, Qing Bo Wang, Bo Yang, Chun Ying.
Application Number | 20080247523 12/140828 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35050297 |
Filed Date | 2008-10-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080247523 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ying; Chun ; et al. |
October 9, 2008 |
Multiple virtual telephones sharing a single physical address
Abstract
A shared multi-user IP telephone device for receiving, based on
SIP, calls transmitted over VoIP network, a system using such a
device and method thereof. The shared multi-user IP telephone
device includes a storage device for storing user profiles, an ID
extraction portion for receiving from the VoIP network a SIP packet
including at least the callee's ID, and extracting the ID contained
in the SIP packet, and a personalized feature presentation portion
for searching in the storage device for the user profile
corresponding to the ID according to the extracted ID for
presenting the corresponding personalized feature according to the
search result. Thus it is possible for everyone using such a phone
to receive directly the call for him/herself without anyone else or
other device forwarding the call.
Inventors: |
Ying; Chun; (Beijing,
CN) ; Lu; Wei; (Beijing, CN) ; Liu; Dong;
(Beijing, CN) ; Wang; Qing Bo; (Beijing, CN)
; Yang; Bo; (Beijing, CN) |
Correspondence
Address: |
LOUIS PAUL HERZBERG
3 CLOVERDALE LANE
MONSEY
NY
10952
US
|
Family ID: |
35050297 |
Appl. No.: |
12/140828 |
Filed: |
June 17, 2008 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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11088351 |
Mar 24, 2005 |
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12140828 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
379/93.02 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 65/1006 20130101;
H04M 3/42238 20130101; H04L 65/1096 20130101; H04L 65/80 20130101;
H04L 65/1069 20130101; H04M 3/42042 20130101; H04L 29/06027
20130101; H04L 67/306 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
379/93.02 |
International
Class: |
H04M 11/00 20060101
H04M011/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Mar 31, 2004 |
CN |
200410032004.4 |
Claims
1. A shared multi-user IP telephone device which receives, based on
SIP a call transmitted over a VoIP network, with the shared
multi-user IP telephone device serving as a SIP user agent, and
creating and managing a session between a caller and a callee
according to SIP, wherein the shared multi-user IP telephone device
comprises: a storage device for storing associatively in the form
of a database a user profile including a user ID and a personalized
feature descriptor corresponding to the user ID; an ID extraction
portion for receiving from the VoIP network a SIP packet including
at least the callee's ID, and extracting the ID contained in the
SIP packet, wherein the ID is unique for every user on the VoIP
network; and a personalized feature presentation portion for
searching in the storage device for the user profile corresponding
to the ID according to the ID extracted by the ID extraction
portion, for presenting the personalized feature according to the
search result.
2. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 1,
wherein the user profile stored in the database includes the user
profile of a caller who may call the users of the shared multi-user
IP telephone device.
3. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 1,
wherein the SIP packet is the packet transmitted by the caller's
calling device to the VoIP network following the manner: the
calling device receives the callee's ID input by the caller,
encapsulates at least the callee's ID in the SIP packet, and send
the SIP packet to the VoIP network.
4. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 3,
wherein the SIP packet includes both the caller's and the callee's
IDs, the ID extraction portion extracts both the caller's and the
callee's IDs in the SIP packet, and the personalized feature
presentation portion searches in the storage device for the user
profile corresponding to both the caller's and the callee's IDs
according to both the caller's and the callee's IDs extracted by
the ID extraction portion, and presents the personalized feature
according to the search result.
5. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 1,
wherein the ID extraction portion includes: a receiving device for
receiving from the VoIP network the SIP packet including at least
the callee's ID; and an incoming call parsing device for extracting
at least the callee's ID from the SIP packet output from the
receiving device.
6. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 5,
wherein the personalized feature presentation portion includes: a
user profile mapping device for searching, according to the ID
extracted by the ID extraction portion, for the user profile
corresponding to the IDs in the storage device; a personalized
feature preparation device for preparing presentation data of the
personalized feature according to a personalized feature descriptor
in the user profile searched by the user profile mapping device;
and a personalized feature presentation device for presenting on
the shared multi-user IP telephone device the presentation data of
personalized feature prepared by the personalized feature
preparation device.
7. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 1,
wherein the personalized feature presentation portion includes a
display screen for showing the personalized feature in a video form
to the call answerer.
8. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 1,
wherein the storage device keeps user profiles for at least two
users.
9. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim 1,
further including a user registration portion for receiving the
user ID, receiving, deleting, or retrieving corresponding user
profile over the VoIP network according to a user instruction, and
storing the corresponding user profile in the storage device.
10. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim
9, wherein the user registration portion includes: an access right
configuration device used by a special user to configure access
right for common users to the storage device; and a verification
device for storing the received or retrieved user profile in the
storage device, or verifying the user's access right to the storage
device before deleting the user profile from the storage device,
and denying this registration operation if the user has no access
right to the storage device.
11. The shared multi-user IP telephone device as recited in claim
9, wherein the user registration portion operates to receive the
user ID and the user profile through a method for registering a
user in a shared multi-user IP telephone device which includes a
storage device, the method comprising: determining the method for
receiving user data; receiving an ID and an instruction of the user
with the determined receiving method; and receiving or retrieving
an user profile and storing the user profile in the storage device,
or deleting an user profile in the storage device, according to the
user instruction.
12. A method for registering a user in a shared multi-user IP
telephone device which includes a storage device, comprising:
determining the method for receiving user data; receiving an ID and
an instruction of the user with the determined receiving method;
and receiving or retrieving an user profile and storing the user
profile in the storage device, or deleting an user profile in the
storage device, according to the user instruction.
13. The method for registering a user as recited in claim 12,
wherein the storage device is configured with access right, and the
method further includes: storing the received user profile in the
storage device, or verifying the user's access right to the storage
device before deleting the user profile from the storage device,
and denying this registration operation if the user has no access
right to the storage device.
14. The method for registering a user as recited in claim 12,
wherein the receiving method is at least one of following methods:
short-range wireless communication, plug-and-play USB, ID card,
biotech and network login.
15. An IP telephone system that enables a shared multi-user IP
telephone device to share a single physical IP address on a VoIP
network, with every user on the VoIP network having a unique ID,
comprising: a calling device for receiving at least the callee's ID
and encapsulating it in a SIP packet, and transmitting the SIP
packet to the VoIP network so that the SIP packet is routed through
the VoIP network based on a SIP routing mechanism; and a shared
multi-user IP telephone device for serving as a SIP user agent,
creating and managing a session between the caller and the callee
according to SIP, comprising: a storage device for storing
associatively in the form of a database a user profile including a
user ID and a personalized feature descriptor corresponding to the
user ID, an ID extraction portion for receiving from the VoIP
network the SIP packet, and extracting the ID contained in the SIP
packet from the received SIP packet, and a personalized feature
presentation portion for searching in the storage device for the
user profile corresponding to the ID according to the ID extracted
by the ID extraction portion, for presenting the personalized
feature according to the search result.
16. The IP telephone system as recited in claim 15, wherein the
calling device receives both the caller's and the callee's IDs, and
encapsulates them in the SIP packet.
17. The IP telephone system as recited in claim 15, wherein the
user profile stored in the database includes the user profile of a
caller who may call the users of the shared multi-user IP telephone
device.
18. The IP telephone system as recited in claim 16, wherein the SIP
packet includes both the caller's and the callee's IDs, the ID
extraction portion extracts both the caller's and the callee's IDs
in the SIP packet, and the personalized feature presentation
portion searches in the storage device for the user profile
corresponding to both the caller's and the callee's IDs according
to both the caller's and the callee's IDs extracted by the ID
extraction portion, and presents the personalized feature according
to the search result.
19. The IP telephone system as recited in claim 15, wherein user
profiles for at least two users are registered in the shared
multi-user IP telephone device.
20. The IP telephone system as recited in claim 15, wherein at
least two shared multi-user IP telephone devices are included and
the user profile of one user is registered into the at least two
shared multi-user IP telephone devices.
21. A method for a shared multi-user IP telephone device to share a
single physical IP address on a VoIP network, with every user on
the VoIP network having a unique ID, comprising: receiving at least
the callee's ID and encapsulating it in a SIP packet, and
transmitting the SIP packet to the VoIP network so that the SIP
packet is routed through the VoIP network based on a SIP routing
mechanism; extracting the ID contained in the SIP packet from the
SIP packet received over the VoIP network; and searching for the
user profile corresponding to the ID according to the extracted ID,
and producing and presenting a personalized feature according to
the search result, wherein the user profile is stored in a storage
device in the form of database.
22. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the step of
receiving ID includes receiving both the caller's and the callee's
IDs, and encapsulating them in the SIP packet.
23. The method as recited in claim 21, wherein the user profile
stored in the database includes the user profile of a caller who
may call the users of the shared multi-user IP telephone
device.
24. An article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium
having computer readable program code means embodied therein for
causing registration of a user in a shared multi-user IP telephone
device, the computer readable program code means in said article of
manufacture comprising computer readable program code means for
causing a computer to effect the steps of claim 13.
25. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium
having computer readable program code means embodied therein for
causing functions of a shared multi-user IP telephone device, the
computer readable program code means in said computer program
product comprising computer readable program code means for causing
a computer to effect the functions of claim 1.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to a IP telephone device, a IP
telephone system and method thereof, and more specifically to a
telephone device that enables several virtual telephones to share a
single physical IP address on a VoIP network, a telephone system
that enables several virtual telephones to share a single physical
IP address on a VoIP network, and a method for several virtual
telephones to share a single physical IP address on a VoIP
network.
BACKGROUND TECHNOLOGY
[0002] The telephone plays a very important role in our lives.
According to its mode of usage, the telephone can be classified
into two rough categories. One is the category of telephones that
are used in an exclusive single-user mode, whereby the callee of
incoming call is often the user of the telephone himself. The other
is the category of telephones that are used in a shared multi-user
mode, whereby the callee of incoming call is someone in the group
of user sharing the telephone. One problem with a telephone of the
shared multi-user mode lies in the fact that it can tell who is the
callee from an incoming call, because most signal systems (e.g.
H323 telephone system) adopt particular name spaces, which are
related to the device used instead of human names.
[0003] FIGS. 1A-1C illustrate respective examples of telephone of
shared multi-user mode. FIG. 1A illustrates an example of shared
multi-user telephone installed in a small office. In the small
office shown in FIG. 1A, for some reason (e.g. to save budget), is
installed only one telephone 110, for example, shared by Anders,
Harris and Bob. In such case, everyone in the small office will
print the number of this telephone on his/her business card. Since
the answerer (e.g. Anders) of a call may not be the callee (e.g.
Harris), the answerer will always ask the caller whom is to be
called. This is inconvenient and so annoying to the call's answerer
that no one is willing to take up the call, thereby causing many
unfavorable consequences. One such consequence is that the
telephone will ring for a long time, affecting everyone working in
the office, or even will never be taken up until hung up. However,
such a call may be important business call, and no one taking it up
until hung up may result in lost opportunities. As for the caller
as business partner, he/she may be unsatisfied with someone else
forwarding the call to the caller and/or the inconvenience caused
by having to wait for a long time. Obviously, this will bring
negative impact to the business image of the small office.
[0004] To such a problem, the conventional solution is to assign
someone to taking up calls, who is responsible to answer all
incoming calls. Although this solution can avoid the situation
where business opportunities be lost because no one answers the
phone, it sill cannot overcome the aforementioned problems due to
manual answering. Besides, the solution will increase the cost of
running a small office.
[0005] FIG. 1B illustrates an example of shared multi-user
telephone installed in a conference room. In the conference room
shown in FIG. 1B, is installed only one telephone 120, which can be
used by every participant of the conference. FIG. 1B shows that
Joe, Steve and Lisa participate in the conference. In some
corporations, a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) system provides
call-forwarding function. Staff members can use this function to
forward his/her office call to the telephone in the conference room
before the conference starts, so that he/she can receive the
incoming call to his/her office telephone in a timely manner. In
such a case, there also occurs the same problem as with the shared
telephone in a small office.
[0006] To such a problem, the conventional solution is to show the
caller's name. By displaying the caller's name on the telephone,
someone near the telephone will know who the callee is for the
call. The caller's name is the identifier of the callee's office
telephone. However, this solution depends on the available
functions provided by office PBX and telephone system. To see
clearly the caller's name displayed on the telephone, the telephone
is often placed near the conference participants, thereby resulting
into noise.
[0007] FIG. 1C illustrates an example of shared multi-user
telephone installed in a home. In the home shown in FIG. 1C, is
installed one telephone 130, which is shared by family members
(e.g. Joe, Mary and Mike). The answerer of a call always asks who
it is. Obviously this will bring about inconvenience to the family
members. For instance, my brother has an American friend, who
sometimes calls my brother to chat. Sometimes when the American
friend calls, my brother is far away from the telephone and my
father takes up the phone. However, since my father does not
understand the American's language, it takes a long time to
understand whom the caller wants to talk to.
[0008] To such a problem, the conventional solution is to show the
caller's name. By displaying the caller's name on the telephone,
someone near the telephone will know who the callee is for the
call, thereby choosing who is answering the call. However, when the
caller places a call from nonfamiliar telephone number, the
answerer has no way to tell who the callee is.
[0009] Therefore, there is a need to provide a novel telephone
device of shared multi-user mode, capable of providing a virtual
telephone for every user such that every answerer of a call will
feel that the telephone is exclusively for him/her, with virtual
telephones sharing a single physical IP address.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
[0010] Therefore, the present invention provides a shared
multi-user IP telephone device for receiving, based on SIP, calls
transmitted over VoIP network, and an IP telephone system that
enables a shared multi-user IP telephone device to share single
physical IP address on a VoIP network. The shared multi-user IP
telephone device receives via the VoIP network the SIP packet which
comes from a calling device and includes a user ID, parses the
received SIP packet to determine and extract the ID, and presents a
personalized feature associated with the extracted ID.
[0011] To achieve this and other objects, there is provided a
shared multi-user IP telephone device which receives, based on SIP,
a call transmitted over a VoIP network, with the shared multi-user
IP telephone device serving as a SIP user agent, and creating and
managing a session between a caller and a callee according to SIP,
wherein the shared multi-user IP telephone device includes: a
storage device for storing associatively in the form of a database
a user profile including a user ID and a personalized feature
descriptor corresponding to the user ID; an ID extraction portion
for receiving from the VoIP network a SIP packet including at least
the callee's ID, and extracting the ID contained in the SIP packet,
wherein the ID is unique for every user on the VoIP network; and a
personalized feature presentation portion for searching in the
storage device for the user profile corresponding to the ID
according to the ID extracted by the ID extraction portion, for
presenting the personalized feature according to the search
result.
[0012] According to one embodiment of present invention, the ID
extraction portion of the shared multi-user IP telephone device
includes: a receiving device for receiving from the VoIP network
the SIP packet including at least the callee's ID; and an incoming
call parsing device for extracting at least the callee's ID from
the SIP packet output from the receiving device.
[0013] To achieve the above and other objects, there is also
provided a method for registering a user in a shared multi-user IP
telephone device which includes a storage device, including:
determining the method to receive user data; receiving an ID and an
instruction of the user with the determined receiving method; and
receiving or retrieving an user profile and storing the user
profile in the storage device, or deleting an user profile in the
storage device, according to the user instruction.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] For a more complete understanding of the present invention
and the advantage thereof, reference is now made to the following
description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in
which:
[0015] FIG. 1A illustrates an example of telephone in shared
multi-user mode installed in a small office;
[0016] FIG. 1B illustrates an example of telephone in shared
multi-user mode installed in conference room;
[0017] FIG. 1C illustrates an example of telephone in shared
multi-user mode installed in a home;
[0018] FIG. 2 illustrates the mapping relationship between user IDs
and user agents;
[0019] FIG. 3 illustrates an IP telephone system with several
virtual telephones sharing a single IP address over VoIP network
according to one embodiment of present invention;
[0020] FIG. 4 illustrates the flowchart for registering user
ID;
[0021] FIG. 5 illustrates the flowchart for handling incoming
calls; and
[0022] FIG. 6 illustrates the operation flow of an IP telephone
system with several virtual telephones sharing a single IP address
over VoIP network according to one embodiment of present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0023] The present invention provides systems, apparatus and
methods to provide a shared multi-user IP telephone device for
receiving, based on SIP, calls transmitted over VoIP network, and
an IP telephone system that enables a shared multi-user IP
telephone device to share single physical IP address on a VoIP
network. The shared multi-user IP telephone device receives via the
VoIP network the SIP packet which comes from a calling device and
includes a user ID, parses the received SIP packet to determine and
extract the ID, and presents a personalized feature associated with
the extracted ID.
[0024] There is provided a shared multi-user IP telephone device
which receives, based on SIP, a call transmitted over a VoIP
network, with the shared multi-user IP telephone device serving as
a SIP user agent, and creating and managing a session between a
caller and a callee according to SIP, wherein the shared multi-user
IP telephone device includes: a storage device for storing
associatively in the form of a database a user profile including a
user ID and a personalized feature descriptor corresponding to the
user ID; an ID extraction portion for receiving from the VoIP
network a SIP packet including at least the callee's ID, and
extracting the ID contained in the SIP packet, wherein the ID is
unique for every user on the VoIP network; and a personalized
feature presentation portion for searching in the storage device
for the user profile corresponding to the ID according to the ID
extracted by the ID extraction portion, for presenting the
personalized feature according to the search result.
[0025] According to one embodiment of present invention, the ID
extraction portion of the shared multi-user IP telephone device
includes: a receiving device for receiving from the VoIP network
the SIP packet including at least the callee's ID; and an incoming
call parsing device for extracting at least the callee's ID from
the SIP packet output from the receiving device.
[0026] According to another embodiment of present invention, the
personalized feature presentation portion of the shared multi-user
IP telephone device includes: a user profile mapping device for
searching, according to the ID extracted by the ID extraction
portion, for the user profile corresponding to the IDs in the
storage device; a personalized feature preparation device for
preparing presentation data of the personalized feature according
to a personalized feature descriptor in the user profile searched
by the user profile mapping device; and a personalized feature
presentation device for presenting on the shared multi-user IP
telephone device the presentation data of personalized feature
prepared by the personalized feature preparation device.
[0027] According to another embodiment of present invention, the
shared multi-user IP telephone device further includes a user
registration portion for receiving the user ID, receiving,
deleting, or retrieving corresponding user profile over the VoIP
network according to a user instruction, and storing the
corresponding user profile in the storage device.
[0028] There is also provided a method for registering a user in a
shared multi-user IP telephone device which includes a storage
device, including: determining the method to receive user data;
receiving an ID and an instruction of the user with the determined
receiving method; and receiving or retrieving an user profile and
storing the user profile in the storage device, or deleting an user
profile in the storage device, according to the user
instruction.
[0029] The shared multi-user IP telephone device, by the means of a
personalized feature presented and associated with ID, enables
every user of the shared multi-user IP telephone device to know
whether the incoming call is for him/her before answering the phone
and to know the personalized feature of the caller's profile and so
on. Thus, there are virtualized telephones one for each user, thus
making every user fell that the telephone is exclusive for him/her,
while these virtualized telephones share a single physical IP
address.
[0030] There is also provided an IP telephone system that enables a
shared multi-user IP telephone device to share a single physical IP
address on a VoIP network, with every user on the VoIP network
having a unique ID, including: a calling device for receiving at
least the callee's ID and encapsulating it in a SIP packet, and
transmitting the SIP packet to the VoIP network so that the SIP
packet is routed through the VoIP network based on a SIP routing
mechanism; and a shared multi-user IP telephone device for serving
as a SIP user agent, creating and managing a session between the
caller and the callee according to SIP, including: a storage device
for storing associatively in the form of a database a user profile
including a user ID and a personalized feature descriptor
corresponding to the user ID, an ID extraction portion for
receiving from the VoIP network the SIP packet, and extracting the
ID contained in the SIP packet from the received SIP packet, and a
personalized feature presentation portion for searching in the
storage device for the user profile corresponding to the ID
according to the ID extracted by the ID extraction portion, for
presenting the personalized feature according to the search
result.
[0031] There is also provided a method for a shared multi-user IP
telephone device to share a single physical IP address on a VoIP
network, with every user on the VoIP network having a unique ID,
including: receiving at least the callee's ID and encapsulating it
in a SIP packet, and transmitting the SIP packet to the VoIP
network so that the SIP packet is routed through the VoIP network
based on a SIP routing mechanism; extracting the ID contained in
the SIP packet from the SIP packet received over the VoIP network;
and searching for the user profile corresponding to the ID
according to the extracted ID, and producing and presenting a
personalized feature according to the search result, wherein the
user profile is stored in a storage device in the form of
database.
[0032] In the aforementioned IP telephone system, each user is
assigned a unique ID, which can be considered to be name for the
user ID. In the shared multi-user telephone, the device maintains
user IDs and their associated user profiles for several registered
users. By the means of transmitting the callee's ID to the
inventive shared multi-user IP telephone device, the shared
multi-user IP telephone device retrieves the ID and its
corresponding user profile, and presents the callee's personalized
feature so that the user can tell whether the call is for him/her.
Thus, the problem is overcome in contrast to the traditional
telephone whereby the call's answerer is not the callee of the
incoming call but someone else sharing the telephone.
[0033] The following is a detailed description of advantageous
embodiments of present invention in conjunction with the drawings.
Throughout the drawings, the same reference number refers to the
same parts. For the sake of clarity in the following description,
some technical terms used herein are first defined.
[0034] SIP Session
[0035] An SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) session generally
involves a SIP user agent, a SIP registration server, a SIP agent
server and a SIP redirection server. The SIP session is performed
by transmitting messages including those based on SIP. The setup
procedure for a SIP session is as follows: A caller SIP user agent
sends messages to the SIP agent server to request establishing a
session with a callee user agent. Upon receipt of the request of
caller user agent for session setup, the SIP agent server sends
request to a SIP registration server and asks for the information
on callee user agent's address and so on, where the SIP
registration server is a database comprising of information about
all the user agents in the domain. Next, if the obtained address is
located within the same domain as that of the caller user agent,
the SIP agent server will forward the session invitation
information directly to the callee user agent. If the obtained
address is located within the same domain as that of the caller
user agent, the SIP agent server will forward the session
invitation information to a SIP redirection server. The SIP
redirection server will redirect the SIP session invitation
information toward an external domain. Thus, a SIP session will be
established between the caller SIP user agent and the caller user
agent.
[0036] Identification (ID)
[0037] The user ID is used for uniquely identifying an user in the
VoIP network. The user ID is assigned by the VoIP network to its
user. The user ID may be stored in the SIP registration server so
that the network may use it as user SIP address to search for a
user. In the present invention, the user ID is also a part of the
same user profile content. In the following description, the user
ID is considered as user SIP address.
[0038] FIG. 2 illustrates the mapping relationship between user IDs
and user agents. In reference to FIG. 2, the ID is a unique
identifier for an entity such as a person. IDs are assigned by the
VoIP network to entities. The key characteristic of an entity is
its ID (name of the entity). IDs of many entities make up a name
space. Such a name space is independent from specific device names.
FIG. 2 shows IDs of Steve, Lisa, Harris, Joe, Mike and Mary.
[0039] A user agent may be software or hardware device. The key
characteristic of user agent is the name existing in the context of
namespace. In a namespace, the name is unique. For instance,
86-10-62789890 is the name for a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)
phone, and 13678987766 is the name for a GSM (Global Systems for
Mobile communications) mobile phone. For example, as shown in FIG.
2, with telephones 210, 220 and 230 serving as user agents, IDs of
Steve and Harris are associated with phone 210, IDs of Lisa and Joe
with phone 220, and IDs of Joe, Mike and Mary with phone 230. As
shown in FIG. 2, an ID may be associated with different user agents
at different location and time. For instance, the ID of Joe is
associated with phone 220 and phone 230 respectively. In the
telephone system of present invention, every user is assigned a
unique user ID, which may be deemed as user's SIP address.
[0040] In the present invention, the term "entity" is substituted
by the term "user" sometimes.
[0041] Personalization
[0042] A user's personalized feature represents the audio or video
data preferred by the user. It is used for distinguishing the user
form other users of the shared multi-user telephone. In the present
invention, personalized feature is used as the content of incoming
call notification, such as phone ring. Here, the audio data may be
music data or the data of voice announcement of user's name while
the video data may be a user's picture, a scene picture, or a movie
clip.
[0043] Personalization Descriptor
[0044] A personalized feature descriptor is a script to implement
personalized feature. According to the personalized feature
descriptor, the shared multi-user telephone of present invention
may produce the presentation data of personalized feature presented
by the telephone to users. For instance, the personalized feature
descriptor may be such data as follows: the call for Joe is
notified with the voice announcement of "Joe", the call for Mary
with the music note of "Post Carriage" and the call for Mike with
his facial picture plus regular phone ring. The telephone device
will produce respectively the voice announcement of "Joe" , the
music note of "Post Carriage", and Mike's facial picture plus
regular phone ring as corresponding personalized feature
presentation data in accordance with the aforementioned
personalized feature descriptors.
[0045] User Profile
[0046] Hereafter, the term "user profile" refers to data including
user's personal information. The user profile of a user may include
ID, name, title, preference, personalized feature descriptor and so
on of the user. The user profile of a user is typically stored in a
database in the form of a data record. In the user profile, the
user ID and personalized feature descriptor may be stored as a data
record in the database in one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-one
association. For instance, the relationship between user ID and
personalized feature descriptor may be stored as a field in the
user profile.
[0047] In the shared multi-user IP telephone device of the present
invent, there are maintained server registered user profiles,
including the profile of the entity that may call the shared
multi-user IP telephone device (for the sake of convenience, it is
also referred as user profile of the shared multi-user IP telephone
device).
[0048] Hereafter are explained an example of the IP telephone
system where many virtual telephones share a single physical IP
address over VoIP network according to the present invention.
[0049] FIG. 3 illustrates the architecture of an IP telephone
system with several virtual telephones sharing a single IP address
over VoIP network according to one embodiment of present invention.
In reference to FIG. 3, the system includes calling device 31, VoIP
network infrastructure 33 and shared multi-user IP telephone device
35. The calling device 31 has an IP address assigned by VoIP
network and it may initiate a call through the callee's ID (e.g.
the callee's SIP address). Before the call is initiated, the
calling device 31 encapsulates the call message of the caller
through VoIP software (SIP user agent), so that the callee's SIP
(the callee's SIP address) is encapsulated in the SIP packet. The
calling device 31 then send the encapsulated SIP packet to the VoIP
network infrastructure 33 to request the VoIP network to establish
SIP session.
[0050] The VoIP network infrastructure 33 is a network based on
SIP, on which a device is uniquely identified with the IP address
assigned by the network. The VoIP network infrastructure 33
includes a SIP user agent, a SIP registration server, a SIP agent
server, a SIP redirection server (not shown) and so on, which are
basic means to establish the SIP session. The encapsulated SIP
packet, which is sent by the calling device 31 to the VoIP network
infrastructure 22, is routed to the shared multi-user IP telephone
device 35 according to the SIP routing mechanism, to set up the SIP
session between the caller and the callee.
[0051] Notably, since callees are respectively assigned unique IDs
in VoIP network and these IDs are the callees' addresses, the SIP
packet encapsulating the callee's SIP address corresponds to a
unique callee.
[0052] The shared multi-user IP telephone device 35 of the IP
telephone system of present invention includes an ID extraction
portion 310, a personalized feature presentation portion 320 and a
storage device 340.
[0053] The storage device 340 stores user profiles. As stated
before, the user profile (and user ID in turn) comprises the
personalized feature descriptor and user ID of the user. Therefore,
the corresponding personalized feature descriptor may be located
through the user ID. User profiles, which are stored in the storage
device 40, may be stocked therein in advance by the manufacturer of
the shared multi-user IP telephone device 35 as requested by the
customer, or may be stored therein when the user utilizes the
shared multi-user IP telephone device 35. In the latter case, the
shared multi-user IP telephone device 35 will further include a
registration portion 330, which will be further described
latter.
[0054] Notably, in one user profile, there are typically one ID and
one personalized feature descriptor. If required, there may be two
or more IDs and one personalized feature descriptor, or may be one
ID and two or more personalized feature descriptors corresponding
to the ID. In respect to the user profile with two or more IDs and
one personalized feature descriptor, it is allowed to retrieve or
search both with one of the IDs as the keyword and with two or more
IDs as the keyword.
[0055] The ID extraction portion 310 extracts the callee's ID from
the SIP packet which are sent by the calling device 31 through VoIP
network. The ID extraction portion 310 then parses the call of the
caller to determine and extract the callee's ID.
[0056] Specifically, the ID extraction portion 310 includes
receiving device 311 and incoming call parsing device 313. The
receiving device receives from VoIP network the SIP packet sent by
the calling device 31, and performs the conventional treatment. The
incoming call parsing device 313 parses out the callee's ID from
the data input from the receiving device 311.
[0057] The personalized feature presentation portion 320 includes a
user profile mapping device 321, a personalized feature data
preparation device 323 and a personalized feature presentation
device 325. According to the ID extracted by the ID extraction
portion 310, the personalized feature presentation portion 320
searches for the user profile that corresponds to the ID in the
storage device 340, and according to the result of the search,
presents the corresponding personalized feature.
[0058] Specifically, according to the callee's ID parsed out by the
incoming call parsing device 313, the user profile mapping device
321 searches for the corresponding data record (a user profile) in
stored in the storage device 340. As stated above, in the data
record, the ID and the personalized feature descriptor are
associated. Therefore, with the above manners, the user profile
mapping device 321 correlates the ID to the personalized feature
descriptor.
[0059] Next, according to the obtained personalized feature
descriptor, the personalized feature data preparation device 323
produces the presentation data that the IP telephone system may
present to the user. For instance, the personalized feature
descriptor may be as follows: the call for Joe is notified with the
voice announcement of "Joe", the call for Mary with the music note
of "Post Carriage" and the call for Mike with his facial picture
plus regular phone ring. For this example, the presentation data,
which are produced or obtained by the personalized feature data
preparation device 323, are respectively the audio data of voice
announcement of "Joe", the audio data of the music note of "Post
Carriage", and Mike's facial picture data plus regular phone ring
audio data. Music data such as the music note of "Post Carriage"
and image data such as Mike's facial picture may be stored in the
storage device 340.
[0060] The personalized feature presentation device 325 presents to
the call's answerer the personalized feature which is prepared by
the personalized feature data preparation device 323, so that the
call's answerer can tell whether he/she is the callee of the call
according to the presented personalized feature. The personalized
feature presentation portion 320 may include a display screen such
as LCD (not shown), which is used for showing to the user the
personalized feature in the video form. The personalized feature
presentation portion 320 may further include a speaker to play a
phone ring as the personalized feature.
[0061] According to one embodiment of present invention, data in
the user profile may correspond to more than one personalized
features, therefore, in such as case, what the personalized feature
presentation device 325 presents is the combination of these
personalized features. For instance, on its display device, the
personalized feature presentation device 325 may display at the
same time two pictures which serves as personalized features
respectively, or displays on its display device one picture as a
personalized feature while playing on its speaker a phone ring as
another personalized feature.
[0062] In one embodiment of present invention, the shared
multi-user IP telephone device 35 may further includes a user
registration portion 330. The user registration portion 330
receives user IDs and user instructions. According to the user
instructions, it retrieves on the VoIP network or receives through
the user registration portion 330 the user profile, and stores the
user profile as data structure in the storage device 340. The user
may also instruct the user registration portion 330 to delete from
the storage device the registered user profile.
[0063] Specifically, the user registration portion 330 receives
user ID and user instructions by one of the following means:
short-range wireless communication (e.g. infrared, Bluetooth),
plug-and-play USB (Universal Serial Bus), ID card, biotech and
network log-in. If the user instructs the user registration portion
330 to receive the user profile by one the above means, the user
registration portion 330 will continue to receive the user profile
and send the user profile to the storage device 340 to be stored
therein. If the user instructs the user registration portion 330 to
retrieve or search for the corresponding user profile over the VoIP
network, the user registration portion 330 will retrieve or search
for the user profile over the VoIP network. For instance, the user
profile may be retrieved from the SIP registration server. Then the
retrieved or received user profile is sent to the storage device
340 to be stored therein.
[0064] In one embodiment, the user registration portion 330 further
includes an access right configuration device 331 and verification
device 333. Through the access right configuration device 331,
special users may configure the access right of common users to the
storage device. The verification device 333 is used for verifying
the registering user's access right to the storage device when
receiving user ID or before putting user profiles into the storage
device. Only when the user has the right to access the storage
device 340 will the user's registration request be accepted. If the
user does not have the right to access the storage device 340, the
registration will be denied.
[0065] Notably, the calling device 31 and the shared multi-user IP
telephone device 35 may be independent from each other or be
assembled together. The calling device 31 and the shared multi-user
IP telephone device 35 may also be implemented in multimedia
computers.
[0066] Again in reference to FIG. 3, according to one preferred
embodiment of present invention, before the calling device 31 of
the inventive IP telephone system initiates a call, the caller's
and the callee's SIP addresses may be encapsulated in SIP packets
through VoIP software. The ID extraction portion 310 extracts both
the caller's and the callee's SIP addresses from the SIP packets
encapsulating both the caller's and the callee's SIP addresses.
Besides, according to both the caller's and the callee's SIP
addresses, the personalized feature presentation portion 320
searches for the corresponding data record in the database stored
in the storage device 340. The personalized feature presentation
device 325 presents to the call's answerer the personalized
features registered in the data record which is retrieved by the
user profile mapping device 321 from the storage device 340, so
that the call's answerer may determine whether he/she is the callee
of the incoming call based on the presented personalized
features.
[0067] FIG. 4 illustrates the flowchart for registering user ID. In
reference to FIG. 4, at S440, it is determined which method the
user adopts to register (i.e. the manner to send data such as
profiles to the storage device 340). The procedure proceeds to
S440, where according to the determination result of S410, the user
first sends a user ID to the storage device 340 through, for
example, Bluetooth communication module, infrared communication
module or other special communication module.
[0068] Next at S430, the user's right to access the device is
verified based on the sent user ID. If the verification at S430
fails, i.e. the user has no right to access the device or the user
does not have enough access right to support the required
operation, the procedure will proceed to S460, where the
registration is denied and the registration process ends.
[0069] If the verification at S430 passes, the procedure proceeds
to S440, where the user's purpose for the access is determined as
whether the user is ready to store user profiles (i.e. to register
users) or delete user profiles which have been registered in the
storage device 340. If the user wants to register user profiles in
the storage device, the procedure proceeds to S450, where the
device receives or retrieves user profiles. Here, the user profiles
may be sent by the user's registering telephone, or obtained from
the SIP registration server. In the latter case, the URL (Uniform
Resource Locator) of the SIP registration server may be obtained
from the user's registration information. Next at S470, the user
profiles received or obtained at S450 are saved. At S480 is updated
the user registration information in the VoIP network
infrastructure. Then the procedure ends.
[0070] If the access purpose determined at S440 is to delete user
profiles which have been registered in the storage device 340, the
procedure proceeds to S490, where the user profiles already
registered are deleted from the storage device. Then the procedure
ends.
[0071] FIG. 5 illustrates the flowchart for handling incoming
calls. In reference to FIG. 5, at S510, the caller' call is
received. At S520, conventional procedures are performed on the
VoIP packets of incoming call received at S510. At S530 are
obtained IDs contained in the VoIP packets processed at S520. Next
at S540, the user profile is retrieved through the storage device
340.
[0072] At S550, the personalized handling is chosen according to
the user profile. The handling may be playing a notification or
personalized phone ring. Finally at S560 is performed the
personalized handling chosen at S550. Then the incoming calls
handling ends.
[0073] FIG. 6 illustrates the operation flow of an IP telephone
system with several virtual telephones sharing a single IP address
over VoIP network according to one embodiment of present invention.
In reference to FIG. 6, at S610, the callee's ID is received so as
to initiate a call through the calling device 31.
[0074] Next at S620, the caller's call is encapsulated by VoIP
software at the calling device 31. In the SIP packets are
encapsulated the callee's SIP address.
[0075] Next at S630, the SIP packets encapsulating the callee's SIP
address are transmitted via the VoIP network infrastructure 33 to
the shared multi-user IP telephone device 35 where the callee has
been registered.
[0076] At S640, the shared multi-user IP telephone device 35
receives the SIP packets encapsulating the callee's SIP address,
and performs conventional processes on the input packets to output
data containing the callee's ID.
[0077] At S650, the callee's ID is extracted from the data output
by the receiving device 311. Next at S660, according to the
callee's ID parsed out by the incoming call parsing device 313, the
corresponding data record is retrieved from the storage device
340.
[0078] Finally at S670, the personalized feature presentation
portion 320 presents to the call's answerer the personalized
features searched, so that the answerer may determine whom the call
is for.
[0079] Again in reference to FIG. 6, in one preferred embodiment of
present invention, at S620, the calling device 31 encapsulates both
the caller's and the callee's SIP addresses into SIP packets with
VoIP software. At S650, both the caller's and the callee's IDs are
extracted. Next at S660, the corresponding data record is retrieved
from the storage device 340 according to both the caller's and the
callee's IDs.
[0080] In comparison to the prior art, in the present invention, by
way of one preferred embodiment, the callee's SIP address is
associated with his/her personalized features and the caller sends
the callee's SIP address to the shared muti-user telephone device
35, thus enabling the callee to determine whether the call is for
him/her according to the personalized features presented upon
incoming calls at the shared muti-user telephone device 35.
Therefore, the technical solution of present invention overcome the
problems with the traditional shared multi-user telephone system,
such as assigning someone to receive calls, causing noise and so
on, thus reducing the operation cost for one telephone shared by
several users and installed in a small office and so on.
[0081] The description herein are just illustrative and not
exhaustive, and the present invention is not limited to the
embodiment shown herein. Many modifications and alterations are
obvious to a person of the art. The embodiment is chosen to
illustrate the spirit and application of present invention so that
a person of the art may understand the present invention, thus
enabled to implement various embodiments with various adaptation to
other applications speculated.
[0082] Variations described for the present invention can be
realized in any combination desirable for each particular
application. Thus particular limitations, and/or embodiment
enhancements described herein, which may have particular advantages
to a particular application need not be used for all applications.
Also, not all limitations need be implemented in methods, systems
and/or apparatus including one or more concepts of the present
invention.
[0083] The present invention can be realized in hardware, software,
or a combination of hardware and software. A visualization tool
according to the present invention can be realized in a centralized
fashion in one computer system, or in a distributed fashion where
different elements are spread across several interconnected
computer systems. Any kind of computer system--or other apparatus
adapted for carrying out the methods and/or functions described
herein--is suitable. A typical combination of hardware and software
could be a general purpose computer system with a computer program
that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system
such that it carries out the methods described herein. The present
invention can also be embedded in a computer program product, which
comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the
methods described herein, and which--when loaded in a computer
system--is able to carry out these methods.
[0084] Computer program means or computer program in the present
context include any expression, in any language, code or notation,
of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an
information processing capability to perform a particular function
either directly or after conversion to another language, code or
notation, and/or reproduction in a different material form.
[0085] Thus the invention includes an article of manufacture which
comprises a computer usable medium having computer readable program
code means embodied therein for causing a function described above.
The computer readable program code means in the article of
manufacture comprises computer readable program code means for
causing a computer to effect the steps of a method of this
invention. Similarly, the present invention may be implemented as a
computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having
computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a
function described above. The computer readable program code means
in the computer program product comprising computer readable
program code means for causing a computer to effect one or more
fictions of this invention. Furthermore, the present invention may
be implemented as a program storage device readable by machine,
tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the
machine to perform method steps for causing one or more fictions of
this invention.
[0086] It is noted that the foregoing has outlined some of the more
pertinent objects and embodiments of the present invention. This
invention may be used for many applications. Thus, although the
description is made for particular arrangements and methods, the
intent and concept of the invention is suitable and applicable to
other arrangements and applications. It will be clear to those
skilled in the art that modifications to the disclosed embodiments
can be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention. The described embodiments ought to be construed to be
merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and
applications of the invention. Other beneficial results can be
realized by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner
or modifying the invention in ways known to those familiar with the
art.
* * * * *