IP Library Granted Patent US 9,276,971
Granted Patent B1
US 9,276,971 · App. 14/540,961 · Granted Mar 1, 2016

Methods and apparatuses for video and text in communication greetings for the audibly-impaired

Inventors: Merle L. Walker (Salt Lake City, UT); Tara Lalor (Salt Lake City, UT); David Frye (Salt Lake City, UT); Kevin Selman (Salt Lake City, UT); Cameron Dadgari (Salt Lake City, UT); Lane Walters (Salt Lake City, UT)
Assignee: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
H04L65/1089G09B21/009H04L65/1059H04N7/147
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,276,971
App. No.
14/540,961
Granted
Mar 1, 2016
Kind
B1
Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for enabling electronic communication with an audibly-impaired user are disclosed. A communication device receives a call from a video endpoint associated with a calling party, wherein the call is intended for the audibly-impaired user. If the audibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the call, information is selected from a database with one or more entries associated with the audibly-impaired user. The one or more entries include a video greeting previously recorded by the audibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by the audibly-impaired user. The video greeting and the text greeting are combined as a merged video stream. The merged video stream is then presented on the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

Claims (69)

1. A method for enabling electronic communication with an audibly-impaired user, comprising:

receiving a call on a communication device from a video endpoint associated with a calling party, the call intended for the audibly-impaired user;

determining that the audibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the call;

responsive to the determining, selecting information from a database with one or more entries associated with the audibly-impaired user, wherein the one or more entries include a video greeting previously recorded by the audibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by the audibly-impaired user;

combining the video greeting and the text greeting as a merged video stream; and

presenting the merged video stream on the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving, determining, selecting, and combining are performed by the communication device configured as a server at a relay service associated with the audibly-impaired user.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving, determining, selecting, and combining are performed by a video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

sending the video greeting from a relay service to the video endpoint associated with the calling party; and

sending the text greeting separately from the video greeting from the relay service to the video endpoint associated with the calling party;

wherein:

the receiving, the determining, and the selecting are performed by the relay service associated with the audibly-impaired user; and

the combining and the presenting are performed by the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

sending the video greeting from a video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user to the video endpoint associated with the calling party; and

sending the text greeting separately from the video greeting from the video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user to the video endpoint associated with the calling party;

wherein:

the receiving, the determining, and the selecting are performed by the video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user; and

the combining and the presenting are performed by the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the merged video stream to the video endpoint associated with the calling party; and

wherein:

the receiving, the determining, the selecting, the combining, and the sending are performed by a relay service associated with the audibly-impaired user; and

the presenting is performed by the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the merged video stream to the video endpoint associated with the calling party; and

wherein:

the receiving, the determining, the selecting the combining, and the sending are performed by a video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user; and

the presenting is performed by the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein an association is defined by the audibly-impaired user between the video greeting and the text greeting and the association is used to select the video greeting and the text greeting from the database.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein combining the video greeting and the text greeting as the merged video stream comprises overlaying the text greeting on the video greeting.

10. A sever at a relay service associated with an audibly-impaired user, the server comprising:

processing circuitry configured to:

receive a call from a video endpoint associated with a calling party, the call intended for the audibly-impaired user;

determine that the audibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the call;

select information from a database with one or more entries associated with the audibly-impaired user, wherein the one or more entries include a video greeting previously recorded by the audibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by the audibly-impaired user;

send the video greeting to the video endpoint associated with the calling party; and

send the text greeting to the video endpoint associated with the calling party separately from the video greeting.

11. The server of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry comprises memory configured for storing computing instructions and one or more processors configured for executing the computing instructions.

12. The server of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receive the video greeting from a video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user;

receive the text greeting from the video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user;

add the video greeting to the database; and

add the text greeting to the database.

13. The server of claim 12 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

receive an association indicator from the video endpoint associated with the audibly-impaired user;

associate the video greeting with the text greeting in the database such that the when selecting the information the association indicator is used as part of the selecting of the video greeting and the text greeting.

14. A video endpoint associated with an audibly-impaired user, the video endpoint comprising:

processing circuitry configured to:

receive a call from another video endpoint associated with a calling party;

determine that the audibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the call;

select information from a database with one or more entries associated with the audibly-impaired user, wherein the one or more entries include a video greeting previously recorded by the audibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by the audibly-impaired user;

send the video greeting to the video endpoint associated with the calling party; and

send the text greeting to the video endpoint associated with the calling party separately from the video greeting.

15. The video endpoint of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry comprises memory configured for storing computing instructions and one or more processors configured for executing the computing instructions.

16. The video endpoint of claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

record an input video greeting including gestures from the audibly-impaired user;

enable the audibly-impaired user to enter an input text greeting; and

send the input video greeting to a relay service associated with the audibly-impaired user separately from sending the input text greeting to the relay service.

17. The video endpoint of claim 16 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

enable the audibly-impaired user to define an association indicator between the input video greeting and the input text greeting; and

send the association indicator to the relay service.

18. A video endpoint associated with an audibly-impaired user, the video endpoint comprising:

processing circuitry configured to:

record an input video greeting including gestures from the audibly-impaired user;

enable the audibly-impaired user to enter an input text greeting;

send the input video greeting to a relay service associated with the audibly-impaired user separately from sending the input text greeting to the relay service;

enable the audibly-impaired user to define an association indicator between the input video greeting and the input text greeting; and

send the association indicator to the relay service.

19. The video endpoint of claim 18 , wherein the processing circuitry comprises memory configured for storing computing instructions and one or more processors configured for executing the computing instructions.

Assignments (17)
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE RECEIVING PARTY DATA THE NAME OF THE LAST RECEIVING PARTY SHOULD BE CAPTIONCALL, LLC PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON REEL 67190 FRAME 517. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST. Recorded May 31, 2024
From: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: SORENSON IP HOLDINGS, LLC; SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC
Reel/Frame 067591/0675 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Apr 23, 2024
From: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
To: SORENSON IP HOLDINGS, LLC; SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; CAPTIONALCALL, LLC
Reel/Frame 067190/0517 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Apr 23, 2024
From: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; INTERACTIVECARE, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC
To: OAKTREE FUND ADMINISTRATION, LLC, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 067573/0201 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Dec 16, 2021
From: CORTLAND CAPITAL MARKET SERVICES LLC
To: CAPTIONCALL, LLC; SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
Reel/Frame 058533/0467 →
JOINDER NO. 1 TO THE FIRST LIEN PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 22, 2021
From: SORENSON IP HOLDINGS, LLC
To: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH
Reel/Frame 056019/0204 →
LIEN Recorded Feb 11, 2020
From: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC
To: CORTLAND CAPITAL MARKET SERVICES LLC
Reel/Frame 051894/0665 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 8, 2019
From: U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
To: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; SORENSON IP HOLDINGS, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC; INTERACTIVECARE, LLC
Reel/Frame 049115/0468 →
RELEASE OF SECURITY INTEREST Recorded May 7, 2019
From: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
To: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; SORENSON IP HOLDINGS, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC; INTERACTIVECARE, LLC
Reel/Frame 049109/0752 →
PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 29, 2019
From: SORENSEN COMMUNICATIONS, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC
To: CREDIT SUISSE AG, CAYMAN ISLANDS BRANCH, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 050084/0793 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Apr 12, 2017
From: SORENSON IP HOLDINGS, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC
To: U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Reel/Frame 042242/0001 →
SECURITY INTEREST Recorded Apr 9, 2017
From: SORENSON IP HOLDINGS, LLC; CAPTIONCALL, LLC
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 042229/0120 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 27, 2017
From: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS INC.
To: SORENSON IP HOLDINGS LLC
Reel/Frame 041521/0614 →
SECOND LIEN PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Mar 28, 2016
From: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
To: U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 038274/0654 →
SENIOR FIRST LIEN PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Mar 28, 2016
From: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 038274/0606 →
SECOND LIEN PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 13, 2015
From: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
To: U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 035421/0393 →
SENIOR FIRST LIEN PATENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 10, 2015
From: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 035409/0712 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 18, 2014
From: WALKER, MERLE L.; LALOR, TARA; FRYE, DAVID; SELMAN, KEVIN; DADGARI, CAMERON; WALTERS, LANE
To: SORENSON COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Reel/Frame 034196/0835 →