SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRESENTING INFORMATION ASSOCIATED WITH A CONTACT FOR VIDEO CALLING

1 . A method for presenting information associated with a contact for video calling, the method comprising:

storing a list of favorite contacts of a user;

in an electronic program guide (EPG) user interface, displaying a plurality of contact identifiers corresponding to the list of favorite contacts, together with program information;

receiving an input from the user to highlight a selected one of the contact identifiers;

in the EPG user interface, displaying a status video associated with a contact associated with the selected one of the contact identifiers.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

in the EPG user interface, displaying presence information associated with the contact associated with the selected one of the contact identifiers.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

receiving the presence information from a consumer portal server.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the status video from a consumer portal server.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving the list of favorite contacts from a consumer portal server.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a second input from the user to initiate a video call to the contact associated with the selected one of the contact identifiers;

sending a request to a call control server for initiating the video call.

7 . A method for presenting information associated with a contact for video calling, the method comprising:

in a consumer portal server, storing a status video associated with a user and a list of favorite contacts for video calling associated with the user; and

sending the status video to one or more contacts selected from the list of favorite contacts for video calling.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

in a smart camera device, recording the status video; and

sending the status video to the consumer portal server.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the sending is responsive to an authenticated request received from the one or more contacts.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the sending comprises pushing the status video to the one or more contacts, using a functionality selected from the group consisting of Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) notify, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server push, and Comet.

11 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

in the consumer portal server, storing presence information associated with the user; and

sending the presence information to one or more contacts selected from the list of favorite contacts for video calling.

12 . A system for presenting information associated with a contact for video calling, comprising:

a set-top box (STB) configured to output video to a display,

the STB communicatively coupled to an access network for accessing a consumer portal server and a call control server;

the STB comprising a processor configured to execute an electronic program guide (EPG) application;

wherein a user interface of the EPG application is configured to display together on the display:

program schedule information,

a plurality of contact identifiers corresponding to a list of favorite contacts for video calling associated with a user of the set-top box, and

a status video associated with a selected contact of the list of favorite contacts.

13 . The system of claim 12 , further comprising a smart phone device configured to send a status video associated with a user of the set-top box to the consumer portal server.

14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the status video associated with the selected contact is received from the consumer portal server.

15 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the consumer portal server stores a status video associated with a user of the set-top box.

16 . The system of claim 12 wherein the list of favorite contacts is received from the consumer portal server.

17 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising stored instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement a method for video calling, the instructions comprising:

instructions for retrieving a list of favorite contacts of a user;

instructions for displaying, in an electronic program guide (EPG) user interface, a plurality of contact identifiers corresponding to the list of favorite contacts, together with program information;

instructions for receiving an input from the user to highlight a selected one of the contact identifiers;

instructions for displaying, in the EPG user interface, a status video associated with a contact associated with the selected one of the contact identifiers.