Integrated telephony and video system
AssigneeGateway, Inc.
InventorKenneth J. Cool
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An integrated telephony and video system allows a viewer of a program to selectively accept a telephone call based on caller identification information and automatically buffer the program upon acceptance of the call. When the call is terminated, the buffered program is played from the point of interruption until the buffered program is the same as the real-time program. The system may store data about the call, such as the caller identification information and length of the call. Such data may be used to determine a compression format for the buffered program. Such data may also be used to generate a list of callers for whom the user desires to be interrupted while viewing the program.
Claims30
A system for providing uninterrupted viewing of a real-time program during a telephone call from a caller to a user, the system comprising:
- a display capable of displaying caller identification information upon receipt of the call;
- a controller capable of detecting acceptance and termination of the call by the user;
- and
- a buffer coupled to the controller, wherein the buffer is capable of buffering the real-time program from the acceptance of the call and providing the buffered program to the user upon the termination of the call until the buffered program coincides with the real-time program.
A system for providing uninterrupted viewing of a real-time program during a telephone call from a caller to a user, the system comprising:
- means for displaying caller identification information upon receipt of the call;
- means for detecting acceptance and termination of the call by the user, and
- means for buffering the real-time program from the acceptance of the call and providing the buffered program to the user upon the termination of the call until the buffered program coincides with the real-time program.
A method of providing uninterrupted viewing of a real-time program during a telephone call from a caller to a user, the method comprising:
- displaying caller identification information upon receipt of the call;
- detecting acceptance of the call by the user;
- buffering the real-time program from the acceptance of the call;
- and
- displaying the buffered program to the user upon the termination of the call until the buffered program coincides with the real-time program.
A computer readable medium having instructions for causing a computer to execute a method of providing uninterrupted viewing of a real-time program during a telephone call from a caller to a user, the method comprising the steps of:
- displaying caller identification information upon receipt of the call;
- detecting acceptance of the call by the user;
- buffering the real-time program from the acceptance of the call;
- and
- displaying the buffered program to the user upon the termination of the call until the buffered program coincides with the real-time program.
An integrated system for providing uninterrupted viewing of a real-time program during a telephone call from a caller to a user, the system comprising:
- a display capable of displaying the program and caller identification information upon receipt of the call;
- a speaker capable of providing audio output for the program and the call;
- a microphone capable of accepting audio input for the call;
- a user input device for controlling viewing of the program and for accepting and terminating the call by the user;
- a controller capable of detecting acceptance and termination of the call by the user;
- and
- a buffer coupled to the controller, wherein the buffer is capable of buffering the real-time program from the acceptance of the call and providing the buffered program to the display upon the termination of the call until the buffered program coincides with the real-time program.
An apparatus, comprising:
- means for displaying a video input signal;
- means for recording the video input signal;
- and
- means for detecting an incoming phone call;
- in the event said detecting means detects an incoming phone call, said recording means being capable of recording the video input signal during the phone call, and said displaying means being capable of displaying the recorded video input signal to a user upon termination of the phone call.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.