Patent ID: 7567269

Claim:
A television phone adapter which permits an analog telephone to operate as a television phone using an IP network, comprising: an IP telephone processing unit, which automatically connects and disconnects a voice communication connection using the IP network, sends voice received from the analog telephone to a communication partner and outputs voice received from said communication partner to said analog telephone through said voice communication connection in a connected state; a dial operation detection unit which detects dial operation of said analog telephone; and a video adapter unit which connects and disconnects a video communication connection using the IP network, sends a video received from a video input unit to a communication partner and outputs a video received from said communication partner to a video output unit through said video communication connection in a connected state; wherein: said video adapter unit sends a video communication connection request whose destination number is a telephone number detected by said dial operation detection unit, to a certain server existing on the IP network, and wherein said video adapter unit converts the telephone number detected by said dial operation detection unit into a domain name in which a character string indicating a video communication channel is added to information obtained from the telephone number, inquires of a DNS existing on the IP network about a URI corresponding to said domain name, and sends a video communication connection request designating said URI obtained from the DNS to said certain server.