Patent Document

FIELD OF INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to IP telephony services. More specifically, the present invention relates to a service for providing visual caricatures in a voice over IP (VoIP) environment. 
   DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND ART 
   Under current Internet protocol (IP) telephony network environments, service providers offer Caller ID and Caller Name services. With these services, a called party is notified of the telephone number or uniform resource locator (URL) of the calling party and the name/user name of the calling party. Such information is stored in a central database owned and maintained by a telephone company. The Caller ID and Caller Name information is sent to the called party prior to the called party answering the call. 
   The main purpose of this information is to allow the called party to screen the incoming call and decide if the called party wants to answer the call, terminate the call, or send the call to a voice mail system. The called party must subscribe to the service and have special equipment on the premise to receive and display such information. Although these services are popular, they have many limitations and drawbacks. 
   For example, the amount of information about the caller is limited to the name/user name and calling number/URL. The service only identifies the caller&#39;s name if the call originates from a residence or single line business. If the call originates from a PBX or a Centrex group, the only information provided to the called party is the name of the company providing the PBX or Centrex service. 
   An additional drawback is that the telephone company maintains subscriber data such that a caller who is a subscriber cannot update or edit the information, and/or may not want their name and number displayed to everyone they call. Further, in instances where a caller is traveling and using a different line, the Caller ID and Caller Name that is displayed identifies the premises, (or name/user name of the owner of the line) but not the actual caller. Other limitations include delivery of the same information every call even though the caller may be calling for various business, social or personal reasons; the service is fixed to letters and numerical characters; and there is a lack of flexibility to address visual presence capabilities. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   The disadvantages heretofore associated with the prior art, are overcome by the present invention of a telecommunications service application. The application includes associating, each of a plurality of subscribers with at least one respective avatar, where the at least one avatar includes at least one of a visual avatar and an audible avatar. In response to a first subscriber attempting to establish a communications link to a second subscriber, at least one avatar associated with the first subscriber is transmitted to the second subscriber. 
   The apparatus comprises a calling party subscriber device coupled to the IP network for initiating an incoming call, and a called party subscriber device coupled to the IP network for receiving the incoming call. At least one softswitch having a subscriber database is coupled to the IP network, and at least one application server having a profile database is also coupled to the IP network. The profile database stores visual caricatures and audible messages that serve as a call alert for an incoming message sent to the called party subscriber device, where the called party subscriber device presents the call alert to a called party. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The teachings of the present invention can be readily understood by considering the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
       FIG. 1  depicts an exemplary IP telephony communications network environment in which the present invention may be employed; 
       FIG. 2  depicts a flow diagram of a method for creating a caricature enhanced alert message for an interactive voice session service; 
       FIGS. 3A and 3B  together depict a flow diagram of a method for providing the caricature during an interactive voice session; and 
       FIG. 4  depicts a flow diagram of a method for providing the caricature during an interactive voice session from a non-subscriber line. 
   

   To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. 
   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention provides a user defined calling caricature or avatar (i.e., visual display) that is associated with a provisioned voice announcement, which together, may be used to alert a called party of an incoming call being placed over an IP network. In one embodiment, the calling party accesses a web-based provisioning tool to select the attributes of the caricatures along with voice announcements (e.g., pre-recorded or user recorded) to accompany the visual caricature during the alert. The visual caricatures may take the form of a digital image, such as a digital picture of the calling party, or an animated image representing some character, interest, location, or other visual indicia (e.g., company trademark, hobby, and the like) the caller desires to be displayed to others. It is noted that other still and/or moving imagery may also be used. 
   A party being called (i.e., a called party who is also a subscriber of the service) is alerted of an incoming call by the digital caricature and voice announcement sent by the calling party during an alerting phase of the call. The called party may view the personalized caricature, as well as listen to the voice announcement, thereby enabling the called party to screen such incoming call. That is, the called party is provided additional call related information, beyond the basic caller name/user-name and number/URL information, to assist in deciding whether to answer, terminate, or send the call to a voice-mail system. In another aspect of the invention, the caricature may be utilized or modified to another caricature during the voice sessions between the parties. 
     FIG. 1  depicts an exemplary IP telephony communications network environment  100  in which the present invention may be employed. The exemplary IP telephony communications network environment  100  comprises a plurality of subscriber devices  120   1 , through  120   n  (collectively, subscriber devices  120 ), an IP telephony communications service provider (SP)  110 , and at least one IP network  102 . The IP network  102  may include private IP networks, as well as public IP networks, such as the Internet  104 . 
   The IP telephony service provider  110  is any service provider having access to resources capable of providing the various voice over IP (VoIP) services described herein, such as a telephone company, a cable television company, a wireless communications provider, among others. The service provider  110  provides IP telephony services, which include animated/digitally depicted interactive voice session (ADDIVS) services of the present invention. 
   The exemplary service provider  110  comprises a softswitch  114  including a subscriber database  116 , a subscriber server  112 , an application server  140  including a profile database  142 , and a media server  114 . The subscriber server  112  is coupled to the application server  140 , while the softswitch  114 , application server  140 , and media server  114  are coupled to each other through the IP network  102  or an auxiliary communications network (not shown) such as an X.25 network. The subscriber server  112 , application server  140 , and media server  144  comprise at least one processor, memory, support circuits, I/O circuitry, and the like that is conventionally known in the art. 
   The softswitch  114  comprises, illustratively, an open application program interface (API) used to bridge a public switched telephone network (PSTN)  106  and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) system by separating the call control functions of a phone call from the those of the media gateway (i.e., transport layer). The softswitch  114  provides mediation between packet and circuit protocols and interfaces to PSTN  106  and SS 7  (signaling system  7 ) networks on a programmable platform. One exemplary softswitch is a LUCENT® SoftSwitch (LSS), provided by Lucent Technologies, Inc., of Murray Hill, N.J., which provides a central point of management for distributed gateways and IP endpoints. The softswitch  114  is capable of providing signaling and control protocols between circuit-switched PSTNs  106  and VoIP networks  104 , under the H 248 , H 323 , SIP (session initiation protocol) signaling and/or other standards. In one embodiment, the softswitch  114  includes internal memory for facilitating the subscriber database  116 . However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that other types of softswitch devices  114  may utilize a separate storage device (not shown) for facilitating the subscriber database  116 . 
   The subscriber database  116  comprises a list of the subscribers of the IP telephony services, and includes indicia of whether the user is registered as a subscriber for the animated/digitally depicted interactive voice session (ADDIVS) service, as well as whether the user is available to take calls. Specifically, the subscriber database  116  is used to indicate the status of the user, such as being idle, busy, not registered for specific services, and the like. 
   The softswitch  114  facilitates routing calls between the subscriber device endpoints  120  based on the status (e.g., idle registered, busy, not registered) and subscribers profile information (subscriber to the interactive voice session service/non-subscriber). It is noted that the application server  140  maintains a subscriber profile database  142  (locally or remotely) with the subscriber&#39;s pre-provisioned profile. The softswitch  114  utilizes the subscriber database  116  to determine, via the status and profile information, whether to forward the registered subscriber calling/called party information to the application servers  140  for processing (call treatment), or hand the call off to establish a “traditional” voice session between calling party and called party, such as over the PSTN  106 . 
   The subscriber server  112  is coupled to the application server  140 . The subscriber server  112  facilitates a user profile administration system (UPAS)  118 . In one embodiment, the UPAS  118  is a web-based application program (tool) that allows a subscriber of the VoIP services to create a personal profile, as well as define parameters and criteria regarding when particular subject matter of the subscriber profile should be implemented during a call. For example, a subscriber may create a business profile that comprises a caricature and/or digital picture of the subscriber, as well as a particular voice message, as discussed below in further detail. 
   The application server  140  manages a user profile created by the users subscribing to the ADDIVS services. In one embodiment, the application server  140  comprises a profile database  142 , which stores the user-defined profiles that include the caricatures and/or other imagery or audio information. The media server  144  stores provisioned audible messages defined by the users. In one embodiment, the user records an announcement for each profile created. Alternatively, the ADDIVS service may provide a pre-recorded announcement that the user may simply select for use. The application server  140  associates and coordinates the visual display (caricature) with the selected announcement for delivery to the called party. 
   It is noted that the decomposed architecture i.e., the dual server approach comprising the application and media servers  140  and  144 , allows vendors and service providers greater flexibility to work in a multi-vendor environment, as well as the flexibility for vendors to define network architecture based on cost of goods sold (COGs) goals and/or service provider network expectations. However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that a single server device may also be implemented to provide the functionality of both the application server  140  and media server  144 . 
   The subscriber devices  120  (illustratively shown as subscriber devices  120   1  through  120   n ) may be any device capable of accessing the IP network  102 , such as a laptop computer, PDA, wireless handheld device, and the like. That is, the subscriber devices  120  may be any devices having a digital signal processor therein to process the digital and audio information. 
   For example, the first subscriber device  120   1  illustratively comprises a digital signal processor (DSP)  122 , support circuitry  124 , memory  126 , and a display  134 . The processor  122  cooperates with conventional support circuitry  124 , such as power supplies, clock circuits, cache memory and the like, as well as circuits that assist in executing the software routines stored in the memory  126 . As such, it is contemplated that some of the process steps discussed herein as software processes may be implemented within hardware, for example as circuitry that cooperates with the processor  122  to perform various steps. The subscriber device  120  also contains input/output (I/O) circuitry that forms an interface between the various functional elements communicating with the IP network  102 . For example, in the embodiment of  FIG. 1 , the subscriber device  120  communicates with the IP network  102  via an asynchronous digital subscribe line (ADSL), cable connection  132  (e.g., modem). However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that any other broadband connection such as wireless communications is also contemplated as providing connectivity between the IP network  102  and the wireless subscriber devices (e.g., cellular phones and PDAs). 
   The subscriber devices  120  serve as endpoints in the network environment  100 , and preferably utilize session initiation protocol (SIP) signaling for establishment, modification, and termination of conferencing and telephony sessions over the IP network  102 . SIP signaling utilizes text-based messages and has addressing based on either a telephone number or a Web host name. For example, the SIP address for a web host name may illustratively be SIP:Jane_Doe@Lucent.com. The URL is translated into an IP address through a domain name server (DNS) and the SIP negotiates the features and capabilities of the session at the time the session is established. For example, codecs may be provided at each of the endpoints to negotiate a common set of voice and video compression algorithms prior to establishing the session. Once the session is established, the designated capabilities can be modified during the course of the call. For example, whiteboarding may be added in instances where both endpoints have whiteboard capabilities and are able to negotiate a common compression algorithm. Although the implementation of the ADDIVS service is described as utilizing SIP, a person skill in the art will appreciate that other IP based network communication standards, such as H.323, may be utilized as well. 
   As discussed above, one inventive feature is the implementation of the caricatures or digital video that supplement the audio messages used to alert a called party of an incoming call. Another inventive feature is the ability of the subscribers to the service (i.e., users) to define their own caricatures/digital video and audible responses.  FIGS. 2-4  illustrate various methods for implementing these inventive features. 
     FIG. 2  depicts a flow chart of a method  200  for creating a caricature enhanced alert message for an interactive voice session service. For purposes of better understanding the invention, the term “caricature” is defined as digital images such as still pictures, animated images, or any other video representation. The method  200  starts at step  202  and proceeds to step  204 , where the service provider  106  registers a subscriber for services. In particular, the subscriber registers for services (e.g., VoIP services) with a service provider over the IP network  104  via their subscriber device  120 . The service provider  106  stores a basic subscriber profile in the local subscriber database  116  associated with the softswitch  114 , as well as profile information in the profile database  142  of the application server  140  to define service attributes (caricature related information). It is noted that the basic subscriber profile includes information such as name, phone number, billing information, and the like. In one embodiment, the subscribers may register directly with the softswitch  114 . 
   Registering a subscriber directly at the softswitch  114  provides various benefits, such as allowing the subscriber database  116  to generate call detail records (CDRs) for billing purposes, as well as managing the subscribed services of the individual callers. It is desirable that the softswitch maintain control of the subscriber services. In particular, the softswitch  114  is able to rout calls to the appropriate application servers  140 , proxy servers/location server (not shown), and the like for completing the calls, since the softswitch  116  is able to monitor the state of each call from the subscriber database. Further, the softswitch  116  may utilizes various routing techniques to rout calls based on calling and/or called party information, least cost routing, day of week, time of day, and the like to minimize the processing impact on the softswitch  114 . It is noted that in an alternative embodiment, the subscriber may register with an application server  140 , where the information is subsequently forwarded to the softswitch  114  via the IP network  102 . 
   At step  206 , the subscriber logs into the user profile administration system (UPAS)  118  and establishes a user ID and password. In one embodiment, the UPAS is a web-based application program that allows the user to create their personalized profile information. At optional step  208 , the user records one or more alerting announcements. For example, the user may record a business type audible greeting such as “Hello, this is Jane Doe of Lucent Technologies calling”. Other alerting announcements may be personalized for family and friends, among other types of greetings. Alternatively, the user may decide not to record a personalized message, but rather, select a prerecorded message that is provided by the service provider. The audio message is then stored on the media server  144  as discussed above. 
   At step  210 , the user creates one or more user profiles with caller profile information. The user may upload one or more caricatures or other visual or audible information (e.g., personal digital images) that a called party may view while listening to the alert message. The caricatures may be any image (e.g., JPEG, GIF, vector graphics, a streaming video format (Flash format), among others) that the subscriber would like the called party to view during the alert and optionally during the session itself. Further, the audible information may be any digital representation of actual or synthesized sound waves (e.g., wav, AIFF, SDII, among others). 
   Alternatively, the service provider  110  may provide a list of caricatures (e.g., animated attributes) that the user may select as a visual alert. For example, a business profile may include an animated picture of an office, a person in a business suit, among others. The caricatures may include hobby related images (e.g., golfing, sailing, and the like), home images (e.g., pictures of family members, home, pets, and the like), images representing mobile usage (e.g., airplane and the like), among other images. Other user profile information includes user name, user location, and pre-recorded announcements, among others. 
   The user may also provide caller profile information. Caller profile information includes attributes regarding when to send the user defined profile caricatures. Such caller profile options include always sending the profile, prompting the caller about sending a profile, prompting the caller about which profile to send, restricted use (e.g., parental control over time of day, content, and the like), sending a profile based on the telephone number of the called party, and the like. In this latter instance, the caller may associate a particular caricature for a particular telephone line number of a called party. For example, a caller may send a digital business picture of him/herself to selected client numbers. Alternatively, the caller may send a caricature of a hobby to members in a club (e.g., animated or still picture caricature depicting old coins to members of a coin club). 
   Once the user has reviewed and selected the user profile attributes, at step  212 , the user profile administration system  118  saves the user profile and caller profile information, which is stored at the profile database  142  of the application server  140 . Further, recall, that the recorded announcements may be pre-recorded announcements selected from a list provided by the service provider  110 , or announcements actually recorded by the user. At step  214 , the recorded announcements are stored at the media server  144 . The UPAS  118  also instructs the softswitch  114  that serves the user&#39;s line to identify the subscriber&#39;s line as a participant of the animated/digitally depicted interactive voice session (ADDIVS). It is noted that a user may create or modify their profile at any time based on the user&#39;s requirements. At step  216 , the method  200  ends. 
     FIGS. 3A and 3B  together depict a flow chart of a method  300  for providing the caricature during an interactive voice session. The method  300  starts at step  302 , where a calling party has already created a caricature profile with the service provider  110  as described by method  200  of  FIG. 2 . Recall, the term “caricature” is defined to include either digital images or animated images uploaded to the service provider  110  by the user, or video images provided by the service provider  110  and selected by the user to create their calling profile. 
   At step  304 , the calling party (e.g., subscriber device  120   1  of  FIG. 1 ) initiates a call over the IP network  102  to another subscriber to the service provider  110  (e.g., subscriber device  120   2 ). The call is initiated from the subscribers SIP based softclient loaded on their subscriber device  120 . The call is routed to a softswitch  114  serving such calling party, and at step  306 , the softswitch  114  checks the calling line to confirm that the caller subscribes to the ADDIVS services. If at step  306 , the calling party is not a subscriber to the ADDIVS services, then at step  308 , the call proceeds as a normal VoIP service without any personalized caricatures or announcements. If at step  306  the calling party is a subscriber to the ADDIVS services, then the method  300  proceeds to step  310 . 
   At step  310 , the softswitch  114  sends a SIP/API message to the application server  140 . In particular, the call is sent to either a SIP based application server, or an internal API message sent to a server with third party call control using a SIP interface. At step  312 , the application server  140  checks the profile database  142  for pre-provisioned service settings. That is, the application server  140  identifies the level of service of the calling party. Different service levels may be provided for various calling parties. For example, a service provider  110  may implement a default caricature that is sent to various types of called parties when the calling party initiates a call. For example, subscribers from a corporate environment may have a corporate logo (e.g., a telephone company logo) and message pre-selected as a blanket default caricature and message provided by the service provider  110 . Alternatively, where there is no default caricature/message implemented by a service provider  110 , a user-defined caricature such as the caricatures discussed above, may be implemented when the calling party initiates a call. Such levels of service are indicated in the subscriber profile database  142  for each subscriber. 
   At step  314 , a determination is made by the application server  140  to identify which service level applies to the calling and called party. If at step  314 , the calling party has a service level that provides attributes defined by the subscriber (i.e., caricatures and voice messages), then the method  300  proceeds to step  316 . 
   At step  316 , a determination is made whether to prompt the calling party for options. Recall, that in step  210  of method  200 , the user may create more than one caricature and announcement for their profile. If the caller does not initially associate a particular caricature and announcement with a called number, then the calling party is prompted to provide provisioning options for the alert in real time (i.e., “on-the-fly”). 
   At step  318 , the caller is provided an option to select a particular caricature and announcement with service attributes before proceeding with the alert and call session. Specifically, at step  318 , the calling party is prompted (e.g., pop-up window) to select service options regarding the alert and session, and at step  320 , the caller selects the desired caricature and announcement. The method  300  then proceeds to step  322 . However, if at step  316  the caller has previously associated a caricature and announcement with the called party&#39;s number (or SIP URL), then steps  318  and  320  are omitted, and the method  300  proceeds to step  322 . 
   Moreover, if at step  314 , the query is answered negatively, where the service provider  110  chooses to select service attributes for these call scenarios, the default is provisioned by the application server  140 , thus eliminating the pop-up prompt to the calling party. As such, steps  316  through  320  are omitted and the method proceeds to step  322 . 
   Thus, the implementation of handing the call off to the application server  140  is to establish a SIP session between the calling party and the application server  140 . The application server  140  retrieves the pre-provisioned profile information on the calling party and called party to determine service attributes in order to initiate an “invitation” to the called party for the interactive voice session. 
   At step  322 , the application server associates the announcement with the caricature. In particular, the application server  140  retrieves the specific caricature assigned for the present call, as well as instructs the media server  144  to coordinate the playing of the announcement with the caricature. In particular, the application server  140  notifies the media server  144  to retrieve the audio file pre-selected by the subscriber or service provider  110  for alerting the called party. 
   At step  324 , the call alert, which includes the personalized caricature and recorded announcement is sent to the called party, and at step  326 , the called party is alerted of the incoming call. In particular, the application server  140  establishes a separate session (e.g., SIP session) with the called party&#39;s subscriber device  120 , where a data stream is sent from the application server  140  to the called party&#39;s subscriber device  120  via the IP network  102 . 
   Once the caricature and recorded message is received by the called party&#39;s subscriber device  120 , the subscriber device  120  processes the packetized video and audio information in a conventional manner as is known in the art to displays the caricature on the called party&#39;s display, and play the recorded message over the sound system. For example, in one embodiment, the data stream may comprise the caricature and voice messaging data packets only, where an executable application program previously loaded on the subscriber device  120  is executed upon receiving such packet stream. When executed, the application program provides, illustratively, a “pop-up” window displaying the caricature while playing the audio to thereby alert the called party of an incoming call. In a second embodiment, an executable file containing the animated caricature information and voice messaging is sent to the subscriber device  120  for execution and generation of the exemplary pop-up window on their subscriber device  120 . 
   At step  328 , the called party may either accept or reject the call. If at step  328 , the called party rejects the incoming call, then the called party may, at step  330 , terminate the call at step  330  and proceed to step  399  where the method  300  ends. Alternatively, at step  332 , the called party may send the incoming call to voice mail for future review, and at step  399 , the method  300  ends. 
   At step  328 , if the called party accepts the incoming call, and at step  334 , the called party desires a voice only session, then at step  338 , a voice only session is established between the caller and called party. It is noted that if the called party is also a subscriber to the ADDIVS services, then the called party has the additional option, at step  336 , to establish the ADDIVS between the caller and called party. In this case, the caller and called party a may view the caricature sent by the caller. Once the call is sent to voice mail at step  332 , or the voice session is terminated by the parties at step  338 , or the caricature session is terminated by the parties at step  336 , the method  300  proceeds to step  399 , where the method  300  ends. It is noted that if the called party is not a subscriber of the service provider  110 , then the softswitch  114  utilizes its routing tables to process the call as a voice session only, and thereby bypasses the application server  140  altogether. However, one skilled in the art will appreciate that a service provider service level agreement (SLA) may allow the service provider  110  to enable such ADDIVS services of the present invention in some form to called parties who are not subscribers, as long as such non-subscribers have the necessary equipment (subscriber device and software) to participate in such service. For example, a service provider  110  may wish to provide such ADDIVS services during a service promotion for some limited time to users in a particular geographic area. 
   The ADDIVS services also allow a calling party to place calls to users who are mobile. Specifically, the subscriber server  112  also function as a location server to monitor the location of the subscribers. In particular, the location server  112  tracks the subscriber&#39;s location by utilizing a specific prefix (e.g., IP address) assigned each time a caller registers or logs on for services. That is, each time a calling party initiates a call the IP address is shared with the proxy servers/location servers in the network  100 . The incoming registration messages are routed to the softswitch  114 , where the subscriber database  116  is updated with the current IP address of the caller. Once the called party is located via the IP address, the ADDIVS automatically knows which profile to send based on the called number registered in the caller profile. As discussed above, the ADDIVS service allows the caller to associate a particular profile with one or more numbers of called parties the caller desires to contact. 
     FIG. 4  depicts a flow diagram of a method  400  for providing the alerting services during an interactive voice session from a non-subscriber line. In particular, a calling subscriber may not have access to their normal subscriber line and may be using a third party line. Thus, method  400  provides a technique for accessing the ADDIVS from such a third party line. 
   Specifically, method  400  starts at step  401  and proceeds to step  402 , where the caller calls a remote activation telephone number. The remote access telephone number may be one of a plurality of remote access telephone numbers provided to the subscribers. At step  404 , a switch that serves the remote telephone line receives the call on an interactive voice response system (IVRS), and at step  406 , the IVRS prompts the caller to enter their caller profile service ID and passwords. It is noted that IVRS receives the IP address of the called party from the register SIP message. At step  408 , the IVRS forwards the SIP registration message to the softswitch  114 , where the caller is verified as being a subscriber. At step  410 , the subscriber database  116  is updated with the new IP address of the calling party. The IVRS then generates a confirmation announcement to the caller. At step  412 , the caller terminates the remote call to the IVRS. 
   The method  400  then proceeds to step  304  of method  300 , where the calling party initiates a call from the remote line to the called party. Specifically, the remote call is first routed via proxy/location servers to the softswitch  114 , and subsequently routed to either a non-subscriber via the PSTN  106 , or to the application server  140 , as discussed above with regard to method  300  of  FIG. 3 . Thus, the animated/digital depicted interactive voice session services allows the users to flexibly control the information that they want to be presented, as well as providing an amenable call alert system. 
   Although various embodiments that incorporate the teachings of the present invention have been shown and described in detail herein, those skilled in the art can readily devise many other varied embodiments that still incorporate these teachings.

Technology Category: 5