Seamlessly conferencing a previously-connected telephone call
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorBouna Sall
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An already-connected telephone call is conferenced in a seamless manner that is transparent to the call participants, after which one or more additional participants may join the conference. The existing call is preferably moved to a conference bridge responsive to an existing call participant either logging on to a network-accessible user interface (such as a web page or portal-type page) or entering some special key or key combination using the participant's phone (which may be a software application that provides phone-like services). The participant requesting the move may be authenticated, and the authorization of the participant to request the move may be verified, before moving the call.
Claims16
A computer-implemented method of seamlessly conferencing a telephone call, comprising:
- receiving a request to conference an existing connected telephone call;
- responsive to receiving the request, retrieving stored session information of an existing session for a calling party of the existing connected telephone call and an existing session for a called party of the existing connected telephone call;
- non-disruptively establishing a conference between the calling party and the called party, using the retrieved session information;
- and
- moving the existing session for the calling party and the existing session for the called party to the conference.
A system for seamlessly conferencing a telephone call, comprising:
- a computer comprising a processor;
- and
- instructions which are executable, using the processor, to implement functions comprising:
- receiving a request to conference an existing connected telephone call;
- responsive to receiving the request, retrieving stored session information of an existing session for a calling party of the existing connected telephone call and an existing session for a called party of the existing connected telephone call;
- non-disruptively establishing a conference between the calling party and the called party, using the retrieved session information;
- and
- moving the existing session for the calling party and the existing session for the called party to the conference.
A computer program product for seamlessly conferencing a telephone call, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code configured for:
- receiving a request to conference an existing connected telephone call;
- responsive to receiving the request, retrieving stored session information of an existing session for a calling party of the existing connected telephone call and an existing session for a called party of the existing connected telephone call;
- non-disruptively establishing a conference between the calling party and the called party, using the retrieved session information;
- and
- moving the existing session for the calling party and the existing session for the called party to the conference.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.