System and method for providing selected video images to local telephone stations

A system for providing subscriber selected video images to a local telephone station comprising

• a telephone network including a telephone line system and switch means for forwarding a call made by a caller from the local telephone station through the telephone line system and switch means to a desired respective destination point,
• said local telephone station interfaced to said network, said local telephone station including a display monitor for receiving and displaying video images originating from a subscriber,
• an image database contained within the telephone network in which data information corresponding to the video images are stored,
• control means for selecting desired video images from said image database,
• means for compressing the data corresponding to said video images into data packets of lesser bandwidth for transmission from said database,
• decompression means at said local telephone station for decompressing said compressed data corresponding to said video images,
• means for displaying the video images on said display monitor and,
• network control means in said telephone network and associated with said switch means for controlling and routing the call made from the local telephone station through said switch means,
• a call routing manager located at a premises location of a network subscriber, said network subscriber being located at the premises location separate from the telephone network, wherein said call routing manager is operatively connected to said network control means for determining routing logic of the call through the switch means as a function of different calling parameters,
• and wherein said network control means includes means for interacting with the caller and responding to a selected touch tone sequence at said local telephone station for prompting said image database to transmit a preselected video image to said local telephone station based on the caller's selection.

A system for providing subscriber selected video images to a plurality of local telephone stations comprising

• a telephone network including a telephone line system and switch means contained within said line system for forwarding a call made by a caller from one of the local telephone stations through the telephone line system and switch means to a desired respective destination point,
• said plurality of local telephone stations grouped in proximal vicinity to each other to form a local cluster, wherein each station is interfaced to said network, each station also including a display monitor for receiving and displaying video images of a subscriber,
• an image database contained within the telephone network in which data information corresponding to the video images is stored,
• control means for selecting desired video images from said database,
• means for compressing the data corresponding to said video images into data packets of lesser bandwidth for transmission from said database,
• means for multiplexing said packets for multiplexed transmission through said network,
• means for demultiplexing said multiplexed packets into individual packets for transmission to respective said local telephone stations situated within said cluster,
• decompression means at each local telephone station for decompressing the respective compressed data corresponding to said video images,
• means for displaying said video images on said display monitor and,
• network control means in said telephone network and associated with said switch means for controlling and routing the call made from said one of the local telephone stations through said switch means,
• a call routing manager located at a premises location of a network subscriber, said network subscriber being located at the premises location separate from the telephone network, wherein said call routing manager is operatively connected to said network control means for determining routing logic of the call through the switch means as a function of different calling parameters,
• and wherein said network control means includes means for interacting with the caller and responding to a selected touch tone sequence at said one of the local telephone stations for prompting said image database to transmit a preselected video image to said one of the local telephone stations based on the caller's selection.

A method for providing subscriber selected video images to a plurality of telephone stations comprising

• selecting data corresponding to a plurality of video images from an image database contained within a telephone network,
• compressing the data corresponding to the video images while also packetizing the data into data packets of lesser bandwidth,
• multiplexing the packets,
• transmitting the compressed and multiplexed data packets through the telephone network,
• switching the data packets through the telephone network to a destination switch and then demultiplexing the packets,
• transmitting the data packets to respective said local telephone stations,
• arranging the data packets in order while decompressing the data corresponding to the respective video images at each local telephone station,
• while also determining routing logic of a call through the telephone network as a function of a different calling parameters from a call routing manager located at a premises location separate from the telephone network and operatively connected thereto,
• controlling the routing of the call made from one of the local telephone stations through the telephone network by querying a network control database, and interacting with a caller and responding to a selected touch tone sequence made by the caller for routing the call to the image database for selecting and transmitting to said one of the local telephone stations preselected video images, and
• displaying the video images on a video display monitor.

A system for providing subscriber selected video images to a local telephone station comprising

• a telephone network including a telephone line system and switch means contained with said line system for forwarding a call made by a caller from the local telephone station through the telephone line system and switch means to a desired respective destination point,
• said local telephone station interfaced to said network, said local telephone station including a display monitor for receiving and displaying video images originating from a subscriber,
• an image database in which data information corresponding to video images are stored,
• control means for selecting desired video images from said database,
• means for interfacing with said image database and said telephone network for allowing transmission of data corresponding to said video images from said database into said network,
• means for compressing the data corresponding to said video images into data packets of lesser bandwidth for transmission from said database, through said interface means and telephone line system into said local telephone station,
• decompression means at said local telephone station for decompressing said compressed data corresponding to said video images,
• means for displaying the video images on said display monitor and,
• network control means,in said telephone network and associated with said switch means for controlling and routing the call made from the local telephone station through said switch means,
• a call routing manager located at a premises location of a network subscriber, said network subscriber being located at the premises location separate from the telephone network, wherein said call routing manager is operatively connected to said network control means for determining routing logic of the call through the switch means as a function of different calling parameters and, wherein said network control means includes means for interacting with the caller and responding to a selected touch tone sequence at said local telephone station for prompting said image database to transmit a preselected video image to said local telephone station based on the caller's selection.

A system for providing subscriber selected video images to a plurality of local telephone stations comprising

• a telephone network including a telephone line system and switch means contained within said line system for forwarding a call made by a caller from one of the local telephone stations through the telephone line system and switch means to a desired respective destination point,
• said plurality of local telephone stations grouped in proximal vicinity to each other to form a local cluster, wherein each station is interfaced to said network, each station also including a display monitor for receiving and displaying video images of a subscriber,
• an image database in which data information corresponding to the video images is stored,
• control means for selecting desired video images from said database,
• means interfacing with said image database and said telephone network for allowing transmission of data corresponding to said video images from said database into said network,
• means for compressing the data corresponding to said video images into data packets of lesser bandwidth for transmission from said database, through said interface means and telephone line system,
• means for multiplexing said packets for multiplexed transmission through said network
• means for demultiplexing said multiplexed packets into individual packets for transmission to respective said local telephone stations situated within said cluster,
• decompression means at each local telephone station for decompressing the respective compressed data corresponding to said video images,
• means for displaying said video images on said display monitor and,
• network control means in said telephone network and associated with said network switch means for controlling and routing the call made from the one of the local telephones stations through said switch means,
• a call routing manager located at a premises location of a network subscriber, said network subscriber being located at the premises location separate from the telephone network, wherein the call routing manager is operatively connected to said network control means for determining routing logic of the call through the switch means as a function of different calling parameters, and wherein said network control means includes means for interacting with the caller and responding to a selected touch tone sequence at said one of the local telephone stations for prompting said image database to transmit a preselected video image to said one of the telephone stations based on the caller's selection.