US 8,121,270 B2 · Telecommunication and multimedia management method and apparatus

Abstract

The present invention is directed to an improved media communication device for communicating over a communication network. The communication device includes an encoder, a time-shifting buffer and a transmitter to progressively encode, store in a time-based format, and transmit over the network locally created media created using the communication device. The communication device also includes a receiver and a rendering element to receive and progressively render media received over the network from a remote source. The received media is also stored in the time-based format in the time-shifting buffer. By storing media in the time-based format in the time-shifting buffer, the received media may be rendered in a near real-time mode and the received and locally created media may be rendered in a time-shifted mode. In various embodiments, the locally created and received media may be streaming media. In yet other embodiments, the media may be segmented into messages that are transmitted to and from the communication device over the network.

Claims42

Dependent claims

A communication application embedded in a non-transitory computer readable medium and intended to run on a communication device configured to be connected to a network, the application comprising:

(i) a transmission module configured to progressively transmit media of an outgoing message over the network as the media of the outgoing message is created using a transmission protocol that supports near real-time communication;
(ii) a storage module configured to (a) progressively store the media of the outgoing message as the media of the outgoing message is created and (b) progressively store the media of an incoming message as the media of the incoming messages is progressively received over the network;
and
(iii) a render module configured to selectively render the media of the incoming message (a) progressively as the media of the incoming message is received over the network in a near real-time mode and (b) progressively in a time-shifted mode by retrieving and rendering the media of the incoming message from storage some time after the media of the incoming message was received and stored.

1 more element

A communication application embedded in a non-transitory computer readable medium and intended to run on a communication device configured to be connected to a network, the application comprising:

a bi-directional, store and forward, messaging module configured to:
(i) progressively transmit streaming media of an outgoing message over the network as the streaming media is created using a transmission protocol that supports near real-time communication;
(ii) progressively store (a) the streaming media of the outgoing message as the streaming media of the outgoing message is created and transmitted and (b) streaming media of a received message as the streaming media of the received message is progressively received over the network;
and
(iii) selectively render the streaming media of the received message using one of a number of rendering options including (c) progressively as the streaming media of the received message is progressively received in a near real-time mode and (d) from storage in a time-shifted mode by retrieving and progressively rendering the streaming media of the received message from storage some time after the streaming media was received and stored.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Telecommunication and multimedia management method and apparatus

Life of this patent

Telecommunication and multimedia management method and apparatus

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims42