3093 results about "Real-time communication" patented technology

A television chat system is provided that allows television viewers to engage in real-time communications in chat groups with other television viewers while watching television. Users of the television chat system may engage in real-time communications with other users who are currently watching the same television program or channel. The system allows real-time communications in a chat group to be transmitted between users at user television equipment devices via a television distribution facility. The television chat system of the present invention permits users to join chat groups related to television programs, channels, or categories of programs that the user may be interested in. Real-time communications may be textual messages, audio communications, or video communications. The television chat system may also allow users to send chat requests to ask other users to enter a chat group. The system also permits users to establish chat groups that television viewers are permitted to join. The television chat system may be based on an interactive television program guide or set-top box application implemented on a set-top box.

The system, method, and program of the invention captures actual physical gestures made by a participant during a chat room or instant messaging session or other real time communication session between participants over a network and automatically transmits a representation of the gestures to the other participants. Image processing software analyzes successive video images, received as input from a video camera, for an actual physical gesture made by a participant. When a physical gesture is analyzed as being made, the state of the gesture is also determined. The state of the gesture identifies whether it is a first occurrence of the gesture or a subsequent occurrence. An action, and a parameter for the action, is determined for the gesture and the particular state of the gesture. A command to the API of the communication software, such as chat room software, is automatically generated which transmits a representation of the gesture to the participants through the communication software.

Apparatus and accompanying methods for use therein for implementing an integrated, virtual office user environment, through an office server(s), through which a remotely stationed user can access typical office network-based applications, including e-mail, file sharing and hosted thin-client programs, through a remotely located network, e.g., WAN, connected web browser. Specifically, a front end, namely a service enablement platform (SEP), to one or more office servers on a LAN is connected to both the WAN and LAN and acts both as a bridge between the user and his(her) office applications and as a protocol translator to enable bi-directional, web-based, real-time communication to occur between the browser and each such application. During initial operation, the SEP, operating under a default profile, establishes, over an analog connection to the WAN, a management session with the site to obtain customer WAN access information, then tears down the analog connection and establishes a broadband WAN connection through which the SEP re-establishes its prior session and obtains a client certificate and its customized profile. The SEP then re-initializes itself to that particular profile.

The present solution includes a real-time automated communication method. In the method, a real-time communication session can be established between a text exchange client and a speech application. A translation table can be identified that includes multiple entries, each entry including a text exchange item and a corresponding conversational translation item. A text exchange message can be received that was entered into a text exchange client. Content in the text exchange message that matches a text exchange item in the translation table can be substituted with a corresponding conversational item. The translated text exchange message can be sent as input to a voice server. Output from the voice server can be used by the speech application, which performs an automatic programmatic action based upon the output.

Methods and apparatuses to present audio advertisements and deliver communication leads. One embodiment includes: providing an advertisement, on behalf of a party, to a customer over a real time communication channel that is capable of audio transmission; connecting the customer to the party according to a response to the advertisement; and charging for the advertisement according to a count of communication leads connected to the party.

An emergency vehicle traffic light preemption system for preemption of traffic lights at an intersection to allow safe passage of emergency vehicles. The system includes a real-time status monitor of an intersection which is relayed to a control module for transmission to emergency vehicles as well as to a central dispatch office. The system also provides for audio warnings at an intersection to protect pedestrians who may not be in a position to see visual warnings or for various reasons cannot hear the approach of emergency vehicles. A transponder mounted on an emergency vehicle provides autonomous control so the vehicle operator can attend to getting to an emergency and not be concerned with the operation of the system. Activation of a priority-code (i.e. Code-3) situation provides communications with each intersection being approached by an emergency vehicle and indicates whether the intersection is preempted or if there is any conflict with other approaching emergency vehicles. On-board diagnostics handle various information including heading, speed, and acceleration sent to a control module which is transmitted to an intersection and which also simultaneously receives information regarding the status of an intersection. Real-time communications and operations software allow central and remote monitoring, logging, and command of intersections and vehicles.

An Internet on-line insurance policy service system that facilitates real-time automated communication of policy information, adjustment of policy parameters, calculation and communication of resulting policy quotes, and implementation of policy changes, while obviating insurer personnel involvement and supervision of the communication. The system comprises a plurality of software modules relating to on-line real-time communication of existing policy information, testing of a wide range of variations in policy parameters, computing and communicating changes in policy premiums that would result from such variations, communicating desired changes in policy parameters and implementing desired policy changes. Other modules relate to communication of claims information and the providing of on-line forms.

A system for personal medical care, intelligent analysis and diagnosis may include: at least one source of medical information; at least one source of personal medical data for at least one patient; and one or more servers, where the medical information and the personal medical data are accessible to the server(s). The server(s) may include: an artificial intelligence (AI) component for analyzing the personal medical data with the medical information and identifying at least one issue requiring follow-up by the patient or by at least one external authorized entity; and at least one real-time communication link for bi-directional communication with at least one external authorized entity.

Systems and methods to provide a reference for communication with a business is disclosed here. One embodiment includes providing a reference for real-time communication with a business to be placed in a representation of a geographical region at a location within the representation corresponding to a location of the business, tracking usage of the reference, and billing the business for providing the reference for real-time communication based on quantitative usage of the reference.

Methods, systems, and computer program products for tracking real-time communication data within a single contact tracking application for diverse communication providers and applications. A global data store is synchronized with real-time communication data, such as presence, status, unread messages, and unread notifications, from each application/provider. Real-time communication data for contacts dynamically determined to be recent contacts is retrieved from the data store, based on properties such as a most recent communication time, a communication count, and the like. Real-time communication data corresponding to contacts identified as pinned contacts for which display of real-time communication data is preferred, also may be retrieved. A user interface is generated for displaying the one or more recent and/or pinned contacts, which may vary in size based on the number of contacts identified as pinned contacts, from which a contact may be selected for real-time conversation or e-mail.

At least one embodiment of this invention pertains to an abstraction layer that provides a consistent interface, with client-side and server-side implementations, to allow web client to interact with other web clients (that are connected to a common interactive event) in real-time over standard web ports without the web clients being tied to a specific real-time communications platform. At least some embodiments described herein contemplate methods and systems for establishing web communication among multiple web clients by providing a layer of abstraction between the web clients and the interactive session using interfaces to an Open Real-Time Connectivity (ORTC) layer. The system may use authentication methods to validate the web communications. The system may be implemented on a scalable, load-balanced, and fault-tolerant network.

A realtime kernel supports realtime communications between communicants operating on respective network nodes. The realtime kernel handles the complex tasks of connecting to communicants, virtual areas, and other network resources, switching those connections in response to user inputs, and mixing realtime data streams. The realtime kernel enables developers to focus on developing high-level communications functionality instead of low-level plumbing code. The realtime kernel imposes relatively low computational resource requirements so that realtime communications performance can be achieved using a wide range of computing devices and network connections that currently are available.

A system and method for accessing a storage or computing device via the Internet using a Domain Name System (DNS)-based infrastructure is disclosed. One aspect of the methodology pertains to registering a storage device with a SIP registration server and associating it with an E.164 phone number. In one embodiment, a media device uses an ENUM engine to translate an E.164 number associated with a target storage device into a routable Internet address by using a Domain Name System (DNS)-based infrastructure. The routable Internet address is further used to establish real-time communication between the media device and the target device.

A system and method to facilitate real-time communications and content sharing among users over a network are described. In one preferred embodiment, multiple links to content information are dynamically generated for a sender user. Responsive to selection of a link by the sender user, the link and associated metadata information are communicated to at least one recipient user engaged in the real-time communications session with the sender user.

A “communications rate controller” provides various techniques for maximizing a quality of real-time communications (RTC) (including audio and/or video broadcasts and conferencing) over multi-hop networks such as, for example, the Internet. Endpoints in such networks generally communicate via a segmented path that extends through one or more routers between each endpoint. Maximization of conferencing quality is generally accomplished by providing in-session bandwidth estimation across segments of the network path between endpoints (i.e., communication/conference participants) in combination with a robust non-oscillating dynamic rate control strategy for maximizing usage of available bandwidth between RTC endpoints. Further, the dynamic rate control techniques provided by the communications rate controller are designed to prevent degradation in end-to-end delay, jitter, and packet loss characteristics of the RTC.

In order to provide a single common cost-efficient architecture for real time communication services for audio, video, and data over internet protocol, a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) system and architecture is provided by placing border elements (BEs) at the interface boundaries between the access network the user devices use and the VoIP infrastructure. The BEs use SIP protocol as the access call control protocol over any access networking technologies, for example, IP, Ethernet, ATM, and FR, and provides all services transparently to the end users that use SIP-enabled devices. To enable a scalable system, the SIP BEs are decomposed into separate communicating entities that make the SIP BE scalable and provide new capabilities not previously available by a self-contained SIP BE. Further, multiple levels of decomposition of a SIP BE can be provided by the present invention supporting a flexible and scalable SIP BE design that further improves system efficiencies and cost advantages as compared to use of single integrated border or edge elements. Further, a scalable SIP BE, made up of a plurality of physical entities for optimization of a large scale design, acts as a single integrated functional entity to logically execute a set of functions at the border of a VoIP infrastructure.