Providing notifications of call-related services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9717090-B2
Application number	US-201313752298-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2013
Priority date	Dec 31, 2010
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

A first near-end terminal is able to conduct voice or video calls with at least one far-end terminal via a packet-based communication system, the first near-end terminal being a mobile user terminal of a near-end user. The first near-end terminal is enabled to discover proximity of at least one second near-end terminal available to provide a resource for use by the near-end user in conjunction with the first near-end terminal when conducting one of said calls, the resource being for use in conducting at least part of the call or in conjunction with the call. The first near-end terminal is also arranged, based on discovering said proximity, to present the near-end user with a message indicating the availability of the second near-end terminal to provide the resource when conducting the call.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of conducting voice or video calls over a network between a first near-end device and at least one far-end device, using a client application of a packet-based communication system, the method comprising:
discovering a proximity, to the first near-end device, of at least one second near-end device that is available to provide a resource for use by a near-end user in conjunction with the first near-end device when conducting one of said calls, the proximity discovered by detection of a sound in an environment common to the first near-end device and the second near-end device, the detection of the sound based on one or more of a correlation or pattern matching of a sound detected by the first near-end device and the second near-end device, the resource being for use in conducting at least part of the call or in conjunction with the call, and the first near-end device being a mobile user terminal of the near-end user;
based on the discovering said proximity, presenting the near-end user with a message indicating the availability of the second near-end device to provide said resource when conducting said call;
prompting the near-end user for a user selection as to whether to accept the second near-end device for use as said resource; and
responsive to the near-end user accepting to use the second near-end device, using the second near-end device to play out or generate at least one audio or video stream of the call, while the first near-end device controls the call.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovering said proximity is further based on the first near-end device and the second near-end device being connected to a same local network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovering said proximity is further based on one or more of:
the first and second near-end devices sharing an address space being a subset of addresses of a packet-based network,
the first and second near-end devices both connecting to a same network interface address of an intermediate network equipment,
the first and second near-end devices being separated by no more than a threshold number of network hops,
a transmission time of a packet travelling between the first and second near-end devices,
a type of access technology currently available for communicating between the first and second near-end devices, or
using a geographic localization technology to detect that a geographic location of the first near-end device is within a proximity of a geographic location of the second near-end device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second near-end device is a user terminal having at least one audio and/or video transducer, and the method further comprises providing the resource to enable the voice or video call to be conducted using the second near-end device to consume or generate the at least one audio or video stream of the call, whilst the first near-end device concurrently generates or consumes at least another audio or video stream of the call, or controls the call.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presenting the near end-user with said message is performed at the time the proximity is discovered.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message is presented in response to the near-end user initiating an outgoing call from the first near-end device, or receiving or accepting an incoming call.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovering said proximity uses a server-assisted discovery process.

8. Equipment for use in a first near-end device being a mobile user terminal of a near-end user, the equipment comprising:
a transceiver operable to conduct voice or video calls with at least one far-end device via a network; and
a notification module configured to:
discover proximity of at least one second near-end device that is available to provide a call-related service in relation to one of said voice or video calls, the proximity discovered by detection of a sound in an environment common to the first near-end device and the second near-end device, the detection of the sound based on one or more of a correlation or pattern matching of a sound detected by the first near-end device and the second near-end device;
based on discovering said proximity, output a notification notifying the near-end user of said call-related service;
prompt the near-end user for a user selection as to whether to accept the second near-end device to provide the call-related service in relation to one of said voice or video calls; and
responsive to the near-end user accepting to use the second near-end device, use the second near-end device to play out or generate at least one audio or video stream of the call, while the first near-end device controls the call.

9. The equipment of claim 8 , wherein the notification module is further configured to detect said proximity based on the first near-end device and the second near-end device being connected to a same local network.

10. The equipment of claim 8 , wherein the notification module is further configured to detect said proximity based on one or more of:
the first and second near-end devices sharing an address space being a subset of addresses of a packet-based network,
the first and second near-end devices both connecting to a same network interface address of an intermediate network equipment,
the first and second near-end devices being separated by no more than a threshold number of network hops,
a transmission time of a packet travelling between the first and second near-end devices,
a type of access technology currently available for communicating between the first and second near-end devices, or
using a geographic localization technology to detect that a geographic location of the first near-end devices is within a proximity of a geographic location of the second near-end device.

11. The equipment of claim 8 , wherein the second near-end device is a user terminal having at least one audio and/or video transducer, and the call-related service comprises enabling the voice or video call to be conducted using the second near-end device to consume or generate the at least one audio or video stream of the call, whilst the first near-end device concurrently generates or consumes at least another audio or video stream of the call, or controls the call.

12. The equipment of claim 9 , wherein the notification module is configured to output said notification at the time the proximity is discovered.

13. The equipment of claim 12 , wherein the notification comprises a graphical icon displayed on a screen of the first near-end device.

14. The equipment of claim 13 , wherein the notification enables the user to use of the call related-service with a single click on the icon.

15. The equipment of claim 8 , wherein the notification module is configured to present the near-end user with said message in response to the near-end user initiating an outgoing call from the first near-end device, or receiving or accepting an incoming call.

16. The equipment of claim 8 , wherein the notification module is configured to discover said proximity using a server-assisted discovery process.

17. The equipment of claim 8 , wherein the notification comprises a user-defined message.

18. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more memory devices comprising instructions executable, by the one or more processors, to configure a first near-end terminal, the first near-end terminal being a mobile terminal operable to establish packet-based voice or video calls with at least one far-end terminal over a

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Gillett Mark Alastair
• Brenes Manrique
• Short Theo

Classifications

• H04W72/51 Primary

  based on terminal or device properties · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L51/04

  Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM] · CPC title

• H04L67/16

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/023

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title