Caller preview for video calls

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9762729-B1
Application number	US-201615153684-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 12, 2016
Priority date	May 12, 2016
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

Implementations of the present application relate to caller previews for video calls. In some implementations, a method includes sending, by a caller device, a call request to a callee device and determining an identifier associated with the callee device. The method determines whether the identifier is associated with an address book of the caller device, and/or is in an outgoing call record of the caller device. An acknowledgment is received from callee device, and, upon receipt of the acknowledgment, a connection is established with the callee device. Based on determining that the identifier is associated with the address book and/or in the outgoing call record, at least a portion of a caller video is transmitted over the connection with the callee device. The caller video is transmitted prior to receipt of an acceptance of the call request from the callee device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
sending, by a caller device, a call request to one or more callee devices;
establishing a connection with at least one callee device of the one or more callee devices prior to receiving an acceptance of the call request from the at least one callee device;
determining a caller context, wherein determining the caller context includes capturing multiple videos from a plurality of cameras of the caller device, wherein a first camera of the plurality of cameras captures a first video that is different than a second video captured by a second camera of the plurality of cameras;
based on the caller context, selecting a caller video from the multiple videos available for transmission by the caller device, wherein selecting the caller video includes selecting a particular video of the multiple videos captured from the plurality of cameras based on visual content of frames captured in the particular video; and
transmitting at least a portion of the caller video over the connection with the at least one callee device prior to receiving the acceptance of the call request by the at least one callee device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the caller context comprises determining a current time.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the caller video includes selecting an application video from an application under execution on the caller device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one camera of the plurality of cameras is associated with one or more particular locations, wherein selecting the caller video from the multiple videos comprises selecting at least one video being captured by the at least one camera in response to a geographic location of the caller device matching at least one of the one or more particular locations.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting the caller video comprises:
determining a respective selection score for the plurality of videos based on the caller context;
comparing the respective selection score of each of the multiple videos with a threshold to identify one or more of the multiple videos as one or more identified videos that meet the threshold; and
based on the comparing, selecting at least one of the one or more identified videos as the caller video.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein selecting at least one of the one or more identified videos as the caller video comprises selecting a particular video that has a highest selection score.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein selecting at least one of the one or more identified videos as the caller video comprises:
selecting two or more videos of the identified videos that meet the threshold; and
generating the caller video that combines the two or more videos.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an acknowledgment from the at least one callee device after sending the call request, wherein the connection is established upon receipt of the acknowledgment.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving user input effective to select the caller video.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple videos include live captured video from the plurality of cameras of the caller device, and wherein selecting the caller video includes:
determining a respective selection score for each of the multiple videos based on the caller context, wherein the respective selection score for the live captured video is assigned a higher value in response to a geographic location of the caller device having an association with sightseeing; and
based on the respective selection scores, selecting at least one of the multiple videos as the caller video.

11. A device comprising:
a storage device;
one or more cameras; and
at least one processor configured to access the storage device and the one or more cameras, the at least one processor configured to perform operations comprising:
sending a call request to one or more callee devices;
receiving an acknowledgment from at least one callee device of the one or more callee devices prior to receiving an acceptance of the call request from the at least one callee device;
upon receipt of the acknowledgment, establishing a connection with the at least one of the one or more callee devices;
determining a caller context, wherein determining the caller context includes capturing one or more videos from the one or more cameras;
based on the caller context, selecting a caller video, wherein selecting the caller video includes selecting one of the one or more videos captured from the one or more cameras based on visual content of frames captured in the one or more videos; and
transmitting the caller video over the connection with the at least one callee device prior to receiving the acceptance of the call request by the at least one callee device.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein the operation of determining the caller context includes determining a geographic location of the device.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the one or more cameras include a first camera and a second camera, wherein the first camera is associated with a first set of one or more locations and the second camera is associated with a second set of one or more locations, wherein at least one of the one or more locations in the second set is different than the one or more locations in the first set, wherein selecting the caller video comprises:
selecting a first video captured by the first camera based on a match between the geographic location of the device and at least one of the one or more locations in the first set; and
selecting a second video captured by the first camera based on a match between the geographic location of the device and at least one of the one or more locations in the second set.

14. The device of claim 11 wherein the one or more cameras are a plurality of cameras and the one or more videos are a plurality of videos, wherein the plurality of cameras include:
a first camera configured to capture a first video of the plurality of videos; and
a second camera configured to capture a second video of the plurality of videos,
wherein the caller video is selected from the first video and the second video based on the caller context.

15. The device of claim 11 wherein the visual content of the frames captured in the one or more videos includes video characteristics of the visual content, wherein the video characteristics include at least one of color noise, blurriness, and luminance.

16. The device of claim 11 wherein selecting the caller video comprises:
determining a respective selection score for the one or more videos based on the caller context;
comparing the respective selection score of each of the one or more videos with a threshold to identify a plurality of the one or more videos as identified videos that meet the threshold;
based on the comparing, selecting two or more videos of the identified videos that meet the threshold; and
generating a combination of the two or more videos as the caller video.

17. The device of claim 11 wherein the caller context additionally includes stored preferences of a callee associated with the at least one callee device.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon software instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations including:
sending, by a caller device, a call request to one or more callee devices;
establishing a connection with at least one callee device of the one or more callee devices prior to receiving an acceptance

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Sales Heidi Rafael
• Michael Rebecca
• Metter Koa
• Cornwell Jason
• Rogers Alan Lee
• Lo Richard Yuan-Ching
• Jansson Anna Maria
• Austin Matthew Thomas
• Bahl Tyler
• Lee Minjae
• Uberti Justin
• Fulay Amit

Classifications

• H04W4/02 Primary

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04M3/42042 Primary

  Notifying the called party of information on the calling party (details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72) · CPC title

• H04L65/1069

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04L61/1594

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N7/15

  Conference systems · CPC title