US 9,525,561 B2Granted

System and method for sharing information

AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.

InventorsAndrea Basso, Steven Lloyd Greenspan, David M. Weimer

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Abstract

A novel mechanism is disclosed by which a sender can direct information such as an audiovisual signal to a particular recipient's audiovisual display device, such as a cable television set and, thereby, share information between the sender and the recipient. In one embodiment, a calling party originates a telephone call and associates that telephone call with audio-visual information that exists on the caller's personal computer or on an Internet server. The called party answers the call, and can tune an associated cable television to the appropriate channel in order to view the audio-visual information. In another embodiment, the caller is a hotel guest and the called party is a hotel concierge and vice versa. The concierge provides information to the hotel guest such that the hotel guest can tune in to a channel on their hotel television set and access the information.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A method, comprising:

processing, by a server, a call via a voice channel from a calling party associated with a calling address to a called device associated with a called address;
receiving, by the server, electronic content associated with the calling address and with a uniform resource locator;
associating, by the server, the call to the electronic content associated with the uniform resource locator;
broadcasting, by the server during the call, the electronic content associated with the uniform resource locator to a network address for display;
determining, by the server, a duration associated with the call via the voice channel;
granting, by the server, permission to receive the electronic content based on the duration associated with the call;
sending, by the server, a default image to the network address for the display;
forwarding, from the server, control information via the telephone network during the call to the called device associated with the called address, the control information instructing the called device to restrict the electronic content associated with the uniform resource locator to retransmission from the called device after a termination of the call;
and
automatically clearing, by the server, the default image from the display after a predetermined time.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/553,478Filed 19 Jul 2012 · continuation
Priority: 30 Dec 1998
Published: US 2013/0019274 A117 Jan 2013
Granted: 20 Dec 2016
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification15 codes

H04L 12/2801
Characterised by path configuration, e.g. LAN [Local Area Networks] or WAN [Wide Area Networks]: broadband local area networks
H04M 7/003
Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services: click to dial services
H04M 7/0036
Services and arrangements where telephone services are combined with data services: where the data service is an information service
H04M 7/1215
Details of network access arrangements or protocols: where a cable TV network is used as an access to the PSTN/ISDN

Family

Application09/223,161Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 30 Dec 1998
Application09/955,369Parent of this continuation · filed 18 Sep 2001
US 6,425,131 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 23 Jul 2002
US 2013/0019274 A1Pre-grant publication · published 17 Jan 2013
US 8,250,620 B1Parent of this continuation
Application09/955,369Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2001/0003523 A1Published application
US 9,525,561 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.