Patent Publication Number: US-2006002373-A1

Title: Terminals, methods, systems, and computer program products for providing video communications over a broadband connection based on a call via a PSTN

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      The invention relates to communications in general, and more particularly, video communications over broadband networks.  
     BACKGROUND  
      Video conferencing can be provided by communications terminals sometimes referred to as videophones. Typically, videophones have been designed to be compatible with a particular type of transport. For example, it is known to provide videophones that are dedicated for use over Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). As such, any party wishing to participate in a video conference needed access to the same type of transport (i.e., ISDN) used by the other participants.  
      These types of limitations have been addressed by providing videophones that support multiple types of transports. For example, one type of videophone marketed by Motion Media (motion.-media.com), supports telephony via a Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) as well as Internet Protocol (IP) telephony. Also, published U.S. patent application Ser. No. 20030214573, discusses a videophone that supports Internet and PSTN in a single unit to provide a video communications capability over these types of transports. Notwithstanding the advancements made in the area of videophones, there is an outstanding need for further improvement in this area.  
     SUMMARY  
      Embodiments according to the invention can provide terminals, methods, systems, and computer program products for providing video communications over a broadband connection based on a call via a PSTN. Pursuant to these embodiments, a video capable communications terminal can include a public switched telephone network (PSTN) interface circuit that can be configured to interface the video capable communications terminal to a PSTN for a call from a source to a destination. An out-of-band circuit can be configured to provide information related to video capability of a device included in the call via the PSTN. A broadband network interface circuit can be configured to interface the video capable communications terminal to a broadband network for video communications with the device over the broadband network.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit is further configured to provide the information to a device associated with the source. In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit is further configured to provide the information to a device associated with the destination.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit is further configured to provide the information related to video capability via a communications channel outside a PSTN audio channel used by the PSTN to provide audio information during the call. In some embodiments according to the invention, the communications channel can be provided via an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN). In some embodiments according to the invention, the communications channel can be provided via a network that is separate from the PSTN.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the PSTN interface circuit can be further configured to provide audio information to/from the video capable communications terminal associated with the video communications over the broadband network. In some embodiments according to the invention, the broadband network interface circuit can be further configured to provide audio information to/from the video capable communications terminal associated with the video communications over the broadband network.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the video capable communications terminal can further include a processor circuit that can be configured to enable the broadband network interface circuit to provide video communications over the broadband network based on the information related to video capability associated with the destination. In some embodiments according to the invention, the processor circuit can be further configured to enable the broadband network interface circuit based on an input to use the video capability associated with the destination.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the video capable communications terminal can further include a keypad that can be configured to provide input to the processor circuit based on a user selection to use the video capability associated with the destination. In some embodiments according to the invention, the video capable communications terminal can include a wireless video capable communications terminal.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the broadband network interface circuit can be a DSL network interface circuit, a cable network interface circuit, an ISDN interface circuit, and/or a wideband wireless interface circuit. In some embodiments according to the invention, the broadband network interface circuit can be further configured to receive address information for the device having the video capability associated with the destination. In some embodiments according to the invention, the address information can be an Internet Protocol address for the device associated with the destination.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, methods of providing for video communications between communications terminals can include: routing a call from a source to a destination via a public switched telephone network (PSTN), wherein the source and destination are each associated with respective video capable communications terminals, receiving a request for video communications between the source and a destination via an out-of-band communications channel outside a PSTN audio channel used by the PSTN to provide audio information during the call, providing information to the source and the destination for establishment of a broadband network connection between respective video capable communications terminals for video communications therebetween, and establishing the broadband connection between the respective video capable communications terminals based on respective address information associated therewith.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, methods of providing for video communications between communications terminals can include: receiving a request for video communications between a source and a destination based on a call via a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and providing information to the source and the destination for establishment of a broadband network connection between devices associated with the source and destination for video communications therebetween.  
      Other systems, methods, and/or computer program products according to embodiments will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art upon review of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, and/or computer program products be included within this description, be within the scope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram that illustrates video communications terminals according to some embodiments of the invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a video capable communications terminal (terminal) according to some embodiments of the invention connected to a PSTN and a broadband network.  
       FIG. 3  is a schematic illustration of video capable communications terminal connected via a broadband connection according to some embodiments of the invention.  
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart that illustrates the operation of video capable communications terminals according to some embodiments of the invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS ACCORDING TO THE INVENTION  
      The invention is described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.  
      It will be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “coupled to” another element, it can be directly coupled to the other element or intervening elements. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly coupled to” another element, there are no intervening elements present. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.  
      It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Thus, a first element could be termed a second element without departing from the teachings of the present invention.  
      Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.  
      The invention may be embodied as terminals, methods, and/or systems. Accordingly, the invention may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.). The invention may also be embodied as a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.  
      The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a nonexhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.  
      Some embodiments according to the invention are described herein in the context of a broadband network and a broadband network connection. As used herein, the term “broadband network” can include any network that can provide bandwidth to video capable communications terminals according to the invention to enable adequate video communications therebetween. For example, video communications may be enabled by providing enough network bandwidth for about one video frame per second to be transmitted/received by the participating video capable terminals. In general, the invention is not limited to any communication technology and/or network configuration, but is intended to encompass any technology and/or network configuration capable of carrying out operations described herein. For example, in some embodiments according to the invention, the “broadband network” may be provided by digital subscriber line (DSL), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), frame relay, hybrid fiber coax (HFC), wireless broadband, Ethernet, cable network over, for example, the Internet and/or a private network.  
      Embodiments of the invention are disclosed herein with reference to video capable communications terminals, such as videophones. However, it will be understood that the invention can be practiced with any type of electronic device that has video capability for purposes of providing video communications over a broadband network. For example, the invention can be practiced with, among other things, a landline videophone; a cellular radiotelephone; a Personal Communications System (PCS) terminal that may combine a cellular radiotelephone with data processing, facsimile and data communications capabilities; a Personal Data Assistant (PDA) that can include a radiotelephone, pager, Internet/intranet access, Web browser, etc.; and a laptop and/or palmtop computer or other appliance which includes a telephone transceiver any of which include the video capabilities described herein. It will be understood that the term “video capable” or “video capability” can include audio capability and/or information as well as strictly video capability and/or information.  
      Embodiments according to the invention can provide video capable communications terminals that include a public switched telephone network (PSTN) interface circuit that is configured to interface the video capable communications terminal to a PSTN for a call therefrom to a destination. An out-of-band circuit also included in the video capable communications terminal is configured to provide information related to the video capability of a device that is associated with the call via the PSTN. The video capable communications terminal also can include a broadband network interface circuit that is configured to interface the terminal to a broadband network for video communication with the device over the broadband network.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit is configured to provide video information that is related to the video capability of a device associated with the source (to the destination) of the call made by the PSTN. In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit is configured to provide information (to the source of the call) that is related to the video capability of a device associated with the destination of the call.  
      Therefore, video capable communications terminals according to some embodiments of the invention can be used to exchange information related to the video capability of the device associated with the source/destination of the call made by the PSTN. For example, in some embodiments according to the invention, a call made from a source video capable communications terminal to a destination video capable communications terminal can exchange information related to the video capability of respective devices associated with the source and destination. Furthermore, the devices associated with the source and destination need not be the devices that originate and/or receive the call via the PSTN. For example, the devices can be separate camera and displays that are associated with, for example, the source of the call. Also, in some embodiments according to the invention, the device associated with the source (or destination) can be different than the device associated with the destination (or source). Moreover, the source (or destination) may have multiple devices associated therewith whereas the destination (or source) may have a single device associated therewith.  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram that illustrates video capable communications terminals according to some embodiments of the invention. In particular, a terminal  100  according to embodiments of the invention can include a user interface having a variety of components, such as a display  125  capable of displaying video images as part of a video conference, a speaker  130 , a microphone  131 , and a keypad  126 , operations of which are known to those skilled in the art. It will be understood that the display  125  can be used to provide video that is associated with a call between the terminal  100  and another terminal to which a call is placed. Furthermore, audio associated with the video can be provided by the speaker  130  and microphone  131 .  
      A Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) interface circuit  105  is configured to interface the terminal  100  to a PSTN (not shown). It will be understood that in operation, the terminal  100  can initiate and receive calls made via the PSTN to/from the terminal  100 . For example, the terminal  100  may be the source of a call made via the PSTN (over the PSTN interface circuit  105 ) to a destination which may be another terminal  100 . Also, the terminal  100  can receive calls via the PSTN and thereby act as the destination called by another terminal  100  (which acts as the source of the call).  
      The terminal  100  also includes a broadband network interface circuit  115  that is configured to interface the terminal  100  to a broadband network (not shown) for video communications over the broadband network. It will be understood that the broadband network interface circuit can be configured to interface to any type of network that can provide adequate bandwidth for the transmission of video information for the purposes of conducting a videoconference. In some embodiments according to the invention, the broadband network interface circuit  115  can be configured to interface to a DSL network, a cable network, an integrated services digital network, a wireless network (such as a wideband CDMA 2000) which may be coupled to the Internet or a private network over which video communications may flow to/from other terminals  100 .  
      The terminal  100  also includes an out-of-band circuit  110  that is configured to provide information related to the video capability of a device that is included in the call that is made via the PSTN and a processor circuit  120  that is configured to coordinate overall operations of the elements of the terminal  100 . For example, in some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit  110  is configured to provide information related to the video capability of the terminal  100  (such as the fact that the terminal  100  includes the video display  125 , the speaker  130 , and the microphone  131 ). In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit is configured to provide information related to the video capability of a device that is associated with the destination called via the PSTN. For example, the out-of-band circuit  110  may provide information related to the video capability of another terminal  100  that is the destination called via the PSTN. In particular, the video information provided by the out-of-band circuit  110  from the destination terminal  100  can indicate whether the destination terminal  100  includes a video display, a speaker, and a microphone.  
      It will be understood that the out-of-band circuit  110  can be configured to interact with what is commonly referred to as out-of-band signaling, such as signaling used between central offices to provide information that can be typically sent to the terminal  100  by one of the offices with the audio. Accordingly, the out-of-band circuit  110  has the capability to extract the embedded out-of-band signaling information transmitted from the central office. Such out-of-band signaling is commonly provided by the SS 7  signaling network known to those skilled in the art.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the video information provided by the out-of-band circuit  100  can include address information that can be used to establish a connection between the devices associated with the source and destinations via the broadband network interface circuit  115  over the broadband network. In some embodiments according to the invention, the communications channel used by the out-of-band circuit  110  is provided by a network that is separate from the PSTN, such as a local wireless network, for example, an IEEE 802.11(g) compliant network.  
      It will be further understood that the out-of-band circuit  110  may be included (wholly or in-part) in the other components shown in  FIG. 1 . For example, the functionality of the out-of-band circuit  110  may be included in a separate circuit that interfaces to the PSTN interface circuit  105 . In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit  110  may interface to the PSTN directly or interfaces via the PSTN interface circuit  105 .  
      It will be further understood that the terminal  100  can include a network interface (not shown) that allows the terminal  100  to interact with other devices that may have capabilities that may be used during a video conference. Accordingly, the terminal  100  shown in  FIG. 1  may represent a source that is coupled to other devices associated therewith over a local network  107 . For example, the display  125 , speaker  130 , and microphone  131  may all be associated with the source that is identified by a telephone number associated with the terminal  100 . It will further be understood that the devices located on the local network coupled to the terminal  100  may also be associated with the source and may be separately controlled using address information for each of the associated devices having different video capabilities. For example, one of the devices associated with the source may be a large format display that has a separate Internet protocol (IP) address associated therewith such that the large format display may receive the same video received by the display  125  (referred to herein as a “multicast”).  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the out-of-band circuit  110  is configured to provide the information related to the video capability using a communications channel that is outside a PSTN audio channel that is used during the call. For example, the communications channel can be provided via an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN), such as the Telecordia/Bellcore version of an “intelligent network” which is commonly referred to as the public switched telephone network. As is known to those skilled in the art, the AIN (between central offices) provides enhanced voice, video/data services, and dynamic writing capabilities by using two different networks. In particular, audio information associated with a call over the PSTN is transmitted via a circuit-switched network, whereas the signaling is done on a separate packet-switched network known as signaling system seven (SS 7 ).  
      The AIN may be thought of as interoffice signaling that uses Advanced Intelligent Network messages known as triggers to be generated and to provide the appropriate responses. A trigger is a particular event that generates a new AIN message sequence. Customers of the local exchange carriers can pay a tariff for having triggers provided to the AIN in connection with particular trigger events. For example, specialized services that relate to inbound calls to a number normally require the customer for that directory number to subscribe to a termination attempt trigger. This generates an AIN message whenever the network detects that some party has attempted to place a call to that particular directory number. Service control points can then access their respective databases to determine what non-standard response may be appropriate for the handling of the call given that a trigger was received.  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram that illustrates operations of terminals according to some embodiments of the invention. In particular, a terminal  200 A according to embodiments of the invention is located at a source  245  of a call. The terminal  200 A is coupled to a local area network (LAN) having devices thereon which have video capabilities that may be used during video communications with other terminals according to embodiments of the invention. The terminal  200 A is coupled to a PSTN  235  over which calls may be placed to destinations. The terminal  200 A is also coupled to a broadband network  240  over which video communications may occur between the terminal  200 A associated with the source  245  and a remote destination. It will be understood that the terminals  200 A and  200 B can each include audio capabilities. In particular, the terminals  200 A and  200 B can each support video communications therebetween as well as audio information therebetween and comprise what is commonly referred to as a videophone.  
      A destination  250  includes a terminal  200 B that is coupled to a respective local area network having devices coupled thereto that may be associated with the destination  250 . The terminal  200 B is also coupled to the PSTN  235  and to the broadband network  240 . It will be understood that the terminals  220 A and  200 B can be a terminal according to some embodiments of the invention described, for example, in reference to  FIG. 1 , having video capabilities.  
      In operation, a call can be placed from the source  245  to the destination  250  via the PSTN  235 . The call can connect the terminal  200 A that is associated with the source  245  with the terminal  200 B associated with the destination  250 . For example, the call from the source  245  to the destination  250  may be accomplished by placing a phone call to a telephone number that identifies the destination  250 . Upon establishment of a call between the source  245  and the destination  250 , the terminals  200 A and  200 B each provide information related to respective video capabilities to one another. In particular, the terminal  200 A provides information related to its video capability to the terminal  200 B, whereas the terminal  200 B provides respective information related to its video capability to the terminal  200 A.  
      It will be understood that the video capabilities of the terminals  200 A and  200 B can be provided using the out-of-band circuit  110  described above. In some embodiments according to the invention, the information related to video capabilities in the devices can be provided via an AIN or another network that is separate from the channel used by the PSTN for audio information during the call.  
      The information related to the video capability of the devices can include addressability information indicating how many pixels are accommodated by the display (e.g., 1024×768), maximum sustainable frame rate, audio characteristics (such as mono/stereo), compression/decompression hardware capabilities, network address information, which standards are supported by the device, such as H.323, and the like. In some embodiments according to the invention where the broadband connection is established via the Internet, the terminals  200 A and  200 B each provide an IP address that can be used to establish the broadband connection with each other over the broadband network  240 . In some embodiments according to the invention, the broadband network  240  is provided by a DSL or cable connection to the Internet or a private network that can be used to couple the terminal  200 A to the terminal  200 B.  
      Upon establishment of the call between the terminals  200 A and  200 B, each of the users of the terminals  200 A and  200 B may be queried as to whether the video capability of the terminals  200 A and  200 B associated with the source  245  and destination  250 , respectively, should be utilized during the call. Further, if the users elect to utilize the video capabilities of each of the terminals  200 A and  200 B, the processor circuit  120 , described in reference to  FIG. 1 , is configured to enable the broadband network interface circuit  115  so that the broadband connection between the terminal  200 A and the terminal  200 B can be established.  
       FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram that illustrates operation of video capable communications terminals according to some embodiments of the invention. According to  FIG. 3 , a call can be placed from a source  345  to a destination  350  via a PSTN  335 . For example, the call can be placed over a PSTN  335  from the source  345  by dialing the telephone number of the destination  350 . The source and destination can have multiple devices having video capabilities associated therewith. For example, the source  345  can have a number of devices associated therewith (via for example, a local area network) each of which can have different video capabilities. Similarly, the destination  350  can have a number of devices associated therewith (via for example, a local area network) each of which can have different video capabilities.  
      Upon establishment of the call between the terminal  301 A and the terminal  301 B, each of the respective terminals,  301 A,  301 B provides information related to the video capability of devices associated with the source  345  and the destination  350 . In particular, the terminal  301 A can provide information related to the video capability of another device associated with the source  345 , such as a computer having videophone hardware and software thereon that is coupled to the terminal  301  via a local area network at the source  345 . Furthermore, the terminal  301 A can also provide information related to the video capability of other devices associated with the destination  350  to the computer  302 A.  
      The terminal  301 B provides the information related to the video capability of a local computer  302 B having video hardware and software thereon coupled to the terminal  301 B via a local area network. Furthermore, the terminal  301 B provides the information related to the video capability of the computer  302 A associated with the source  345  to the computer  302 B. In some embodiments according to the invention, the information related to the video capability of the respective devices associated with the source  345  and the destination  350  can include address information that can be used to establish a broadband connection between the computer  302 A and the computer  302 B over a broadband network  340 .  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the broadband connection is established between the computer  302 A and the computer  302 B by an application server  341  that is coupled to the broadband network  340 . In some embodiments according to the invention, the information related to the video capability of the computer  302 A and the computer  302 B is provided to the application server  341  via an out-of-band circuit that couples the PSTN  335  to the broadband network  340 . The application server can represent a video communication service that establishes the broadband connection between subscribers associated with the computer  302 A and the computer  302 B.  
      In particular, the application server  341  can receive a request for video communication between the source  345  and the destination  350  based on the call established therebetween. In response, the application server  341  can provide information to the source  345  and destination  350  for establishment of the broadband connection between devices that are associated with the source  345  and destination  350  for video communications therebetween. For example, in some embodiments according to the invention, the application server  341  receives a request for video communications between the source  345  and destination  350  via an AIN that is coupled to the broadband network  340 . Accordingly, the application server  341  provides the information to the source  345  and destination  350  for the establishment of the broadband network connection between the computer  302 A and the computer  302 B.  
      It will be understood that in some embodiments according to the invention, the request for video communications between the source and destination can include information related to the video capability of the devices associated with that source and destination for which the broadband connection is to be established. For example, the information provided by the AIN can include an IP address for the computer  302 A and an IP address for the computer  302 B. Furthermore, the information provided by the AIN can also include address information for multiple devices such as when one device associated with the source  345  has video capability whereas a second device associated with the source  345  has audio capabilities associated therewith.  
      In some embodiments according to the invention, the audio and video information may be provided in separate streams over the broadband network  340 . In some embodiments according to the invention, the audio information may be provided via the PSTN  335  separate from the video information provided by the broadband network  340 . For example, the audio information may be provided by the PSTN  335  as an ongoing portion of a call established between the terminals  301 A and  301 B, whereas the video communication is provided via the broadband network  340  to devices that are separate from the terminals  301 A and  301 B. For example, in some embodiments according to the invention, the audio information may be provided to the terminals  301 A and  301 B whereas the video information is provided to the computers  302 A,  302 B.  
      In still other embodiments according to the invention, only one of the source  345  and destination  350  is equipped with a video capable communications terminal according to embodiments of the invention, whereas the other location is equipped, for example, with a PSTN telephone as described above. Accordingly, in operation, the audio and video communications may be provided to a single device at one location and provided to separate devices at the other location. Furthermore, in some embodiments according to the invention, the same video information may be provided to more than one device at the source  345  or destination  350 . For example, the video information may be provided to multiple display devices as a part of a multicast at either the source or the destination. In some embodiments according to the invention, therefore, the application server  341  or resources associated with the source or destination can maintain a database that associates devices for video communications at that location. For example, in some embodiments according to the invention, the application server  341  may store IP addresses for each of the devices associated with the source  345  and the destination  350  that has video capability. Furthermore, selective ones of the devices may be associated with one another. For example, certain displays located at the source  345  may be grouped together for purposes of multicast whereas other devices at the source  345  may be addressed separately. It will further be understood that although only two locations are shown in the figures herein, more than two locations may be interfaced to one another according to embodiments of the invention.  
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart that illustrates operation of embodiments of terminals and services according to the invention. In particular, a call is routed from a source to a destination via a public switched telephone network wherein the source and destination are each associated with respective video capable terminals (block  405 ). It will be understood that the call can be routed from the source to the destination by dialing a telephone number at the source that is associated with the destination. It will further be understood that the source and destination each include at least one device that has video capability for the purposes of videoconferencing therebetween.  
      A request for video communications between the source and destination is received via an out-of-band communications channel that is outside the PSTN audio channel used by the PSTN to provide audio information during the call (block  410 ). It will be understood that the request for video communication can be received at both the source and destination or, alternatively, at a service that provides for video communication between devices associated with the source and destination. In some embodiments according to the invention, the request is provided via an Advanced Intelligent Network as described above.  
      Information is provided to the source and destination for the establishment of a broadband network connection between the respective video capable communications terminals (block  415 ). It will be understood that the information can be provided to each of the devices associated with the source and destination, or alternatively, to the application server that establishes the broadband connection therebetween. It will further be understood that the information can include address information that can be used to establish the broadband connection between the devices associated with the source and destination. A broadband connection is established between the respective video capable communications terminals based on the address information (block  420 ).  
      Accordingly to some embodiments of the invention can provide video capable communications terminals that include a public switched telephone network (PSTN) interface circuit that is configured to interface the video capable communications terminal to a PSTN for a call therefrom to a destination. An out-of-band circuit also included in the video capable communications terminal is configured to provide information related to the video capability of a device that is associated with the call via the PSTN. The video capable communications terminal also can include a broadband network interface circuit that is configured to interface the terminal to a broadband network for video communication with the device over the broadband network.  
      Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art, given the benefit of present disclosure, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiments have been set forth only for the purposes of example, and that it should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following claims. The following claims are, therefore, to be read to include not only the combination of elements which are literally set forth but all equivalent elements for performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. The claims are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above and what is equivalent thereto.