# US 10,873,723 B2 · System and method for facilitating consumer engagement through a video communication network > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,873,723 B2 - Document ID: US10873723B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/496,310 - Filed: 2018-03-22 - Published: 2020-08-27 - Granted: 2020-12-22 - Earliest claimed: 2017-03-23 - Applicants: Adam Gottlieb - Inventors: Adam Gottlieb - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10873723B2 ## CPC - H04N 7/147: {Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals (selecting H04Q)} - G06F 1/3209: Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections - G06F 1/3265: {Power saving in display device} - G06F 3/0482: Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus - G06F 3/04842: Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements (G06F3/0482 takes precedence) - G06F 3/0488: using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures - G06F 3/04886: by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus - G06F 3/147: using display panels - G06Q 20/18: involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals - G06Q 30/016: After-sales - G06Q 30/0281: {Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting} - G06V 40/161: {Detection; Localisation; Normalisation} - H04L 61/50: Address allocation - H04N 7/0806: {the signals being two or more video signals (H04N7/0803, H04N7/081 take precedence)} - H04N 7/141: {between two video terminals, e.g. videophone (telephonic communication systems combined with television receiver for reception of entertainment or information matter H04M11/085)} - H04N 21/41407: {embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop (constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57)} - H04N 21/4223: Cameras (H04N23/00 takes precedence) - H04N 21/44: Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs - H04N 21/4788: communicating with other users, e.g. chatting {(arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104)} - H04N 21/4882: {for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders (arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895)} - H04L 2101/622: Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses - H04N 7/15: Conference systems - H04N 2007/145: {Handheld terminals} - H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract A computer network for facilitating engagement between consumers present at a premises and agents is disclosed. The network comprises touchscreen computers with cameras and configured to communicate with an agent computer and send a continuous uplink video stream to the agent computer. Activation of a button sends a notification to the agent computer comprising a camera and configured to continuously and simultaneously display multiple uplink video streams from the touchscreen computers and receive the notification of activation. The agent computer displays a graphical indication of the notification of activation associated with the video stream received from that touchscreen computer and detection of a selection captures a video stream by the camera of the agent computer and establishes a video channel with the touchscreen computer to send the captured video stream as a downlink video stream from the agent computer to that selected touchscreen computer. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer network for facilitating engagement between consumers present at a premises and agents, the computer network comprising: a plurality of touchscreen computers installed on the premises comprising cameras, wherein the touchscreen computers are configured to: communicate with an agent computer and send a continuous uplink video stream to the agent computer; display a button on an idle screen; detect an activation of the button by one or more consumers; in response to detecting the activation of the button, send a notification to the agent computer; wherein the agent computer comprising a camera is configured to: continuously and simultaneously display multiple uplink video streams from the touchscreen computers; receive the notification of activation generated by the touchscreen computers; display a graphical indication of the notification of activation from one of the touchscreen computers, the graphical indication being associated with the video stream received from said one of the touchscreen computers; detect selection of one of the video streams on the agent computer by the agent, in response to detection of the selection, capture a video stream by the camera of the agent computer and establish a video channel with said one of the touchscreen computers to send the captured video stream as a downlink video stream from the agent computer to said one of the touchscreen computers; wherein said one of the touchscreen computers is configured to switch from the idle screen to a video display mode to display the downlink video stream received from the agent computer; and wherein the agent computer is further configured to: detect selection of a further one of the video streams on the agent computer by the agent, in response to detection of the selection, terminate the video channel and establish a further video channel with said further one of the touchscreen computers to send the captured video stream as a downlink video stream from the agent computer to said further one of the touchscreen computers; and wherein the touchscreen computer is configured to switch from the video display mode to the idle screen and the further touchscreen computer is configured switch from the idle screen to a video display mode to display the downlink video stream received from the agent computer. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein multiple agents are associated with multiple agent computers and each video uplink from the touchscreen computers devices is directed to one of the multiple agent computers. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the uplink video stream from a touchscreen computer is directed to the agent computer based on a proximity of the touchscreen computer to the agent computer. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the computer network is installed at a premises having multiple departments and wherein the network is configured to stream continuous uplink video streams from the touchscreen computers of a department to an agent computer of said department. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the agent computer is configured to detect a movement of the consumer from one touchscreen computer to another touchscreen computer and accordingly terminates a current downlink stream and starts a new downlink stream to the touchscreen computer to which the consumer has moved. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The computer network of claim 5, wherein the agent computer is configured to detect the movement of the consumer from one touchscreen computer to another by at least one of, analysing the continuous uplink data streams from the touchscreen computers, using at least one face detection algorithms and using at least one motion detection algorithm. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the agent computer is configured to use at least one face detection algorithm to notify the agent that the face of the consumer which was appearing in the uplink stream of the touchscreen computer has appeared in the uplink video stream of another touchscreen computer; the agent computer further redirects the downlink video stream to the other touchscreen computer to which the consumer has moved. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the agent computer is further configured to: route the uplink video channels to at least one remote device, based on at least one of a location of the consumer interaction device, type of the consumer interaction device and Media Access Control MAC address of the consumer interaction device. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the agent computer is configured to host a database for routing the uplink video channel to at least one remote device, based on at least one of a location of said one of the touchscreen computers, type of said one of the touchscreen computers said one of and MAC address of said one of the touchscreen computers. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the agent computer is configured to terminate the downlink video channels based on a termination input received at the touchscreen computers. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The computer network of claim 10, wherein the agent computer continues to receive the continuous uplink video from the touchscreen computers after the termination of the downlink video channel. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the server, the touchscreen computers and the agent computer are configured to communicate with one another using a wireless communication channel. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the touchscreen computers and the agent computer share at least one of a Wi-Fi network, a hotspot and a subnet for communicating with each other. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The computer network of claim 1, wherein the computer network comprises a Wi-Fi router configured to host routing tables to route the continuous uplink video streams from the touchscreen computers to one or more agent computers across a premises. ### Claim 15 A method for facilitating engagement between consumers and agents, the method comprising: sending a continuous uplink video stream from a plurality of touchscreen computers to one or more agent computers; displaying a button on an idle screen of one of the plurality of the touchscreen computers; continuously display multiple uplink video streams from the touchscreen computers at the agent computers; detecting an activation of the button displayed on the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers by a consumer; sending a notification to the agent computer that a the button on the touchscreen computer is activated by the consumer; receiving the notification of activation generated by the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers; displaying an indication of the notification of activation from the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers associated with the video stream received from that touchscreen computer; detecting selection of one of the video streams on the agent computer by the agent; capturing a video stream and establishing a video channel with the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers, in response to detection of notification of activation, and sending the captured video stream as a downlink video stream from the agent computer to the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers; displaying the downlink video stream at the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers by changing the mode of the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers from idle to active; detecting selection of a further one of the video streams on the agent computer by the agent, in response to detection of the selection, terminating the video channel and establishing a further video channel with a further touchscreen computer to send the captured video stream as a downlink video stream from the agent computer to that further touchscreen computer; switching the one of the plurality of touchscreen computers from the video display mode to the idle screen; switching the further touchscreen computer from the idle screen to the video display mode to display the downlink video stream received from the agent computer. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein the step of sending continuous stream of uplink video streams further comprises: streaming the uplink video from the touchscreen computer to the agent computer based on a proximity of the touchscreen computer to the agent computer; streaming the uplink video from the touchscreen computer to the agent computer based on at least one of a location of the consumer interaction device, type of the consumer interaction device and MAC address of the consumer interaction device. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The method of claim 15, wherein the step of sending the captured video stream as the downlink video stream from the agent computer to that selected touchscreen computer further comprises: detecting a movement of the consumer from one touchscreen computer to another touchscreen computer and accordingly terminating a current downlink stream and starting a new downlink stream to the touchscreen computer to which the consumer has selected. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The method of any one of claim 17, wherein the step of detecting a movement of the consumer from the one touchscreen computer to the another touchscreen computer comprises at least one of: analysing the continuous uplink data streams from the touchscreen computers, using face detection algorithms and using a motion detection algorithm. ### Claim 19 An agent computer for facilitating engagement between consumers and agents, the agent computer comprising: a camera; a processor, a memory coupled with the processor, wherein the memory comprises processor executable instructions for: continuously displaying multiple uplink video streams from the touchscreen computers; receiving the notification of activation generated by the touchscreen computers; displaying a graphical indication of the notification of activation from one of the touchscreen computers, the graphical indication being associated with the video stream received from that touchscreen computer; detecting selection of one of the video streams on the agent computer by the agent; in response to detection of notification of activation, capturing a video stream by the camera of the agent computer and establishing a video channel with the touchscreen computer to send the captured video stream as a downlink video stream from the agent computer to that selected touchscreen computer; detecting selection of a further one of the video streams on the agent computer by the agent, in response to detection of the selection, terminate the video channel and establish a further video channel with a further touchscreen computer to send the captured video stream as a downlink video stream from the agent computer to that further touchscreen computer; switching the touch screen computer from the video display mode to the idle screen; and switching the further touchscreen computer from the idle screen to the video display mode to display the downlink video stream received from the agent computer.