Personal identification and interactive device for internet-based text and video communication services
The present invention is directed to a method and device for assigning a telephone number to a browsing session and for providing physical location information to a public safety answering point in association with a web-based chat or relay session.
1. A method, comprising:
(a) receiving, via an address assignment module of a contactee and by a call over a telephone network, at least one of a Universal Resource Locator (“URL”) and a data network address of a computational device of a contactor;
(b) in response to the call over the telephone network, initiating, using the at least one of the URL and data network address and by a computational device of the contactee, at least one of a text- and video-based session with the contactor;
wherein step (a) comprises the sub-steps:
(A1) determining, by the telephone network, that the contactee has a communication disability or impairment;
(A2) in response, directing the call to a relay service; and
(A3) forwarding, by the relay service, the URL to the contactee's computational device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a telephone number is associated with the address assignment module of the contactee, wherein the address assignment module is a portable device comprising a Subscriber Identity Module (“SIM”) card, wherein the computational device of the contactee is at least one of physically engaged and wirelessly in communication with the address assignment module, wherein the contactee is at least one of hearing-impaired, deaf, speech-impaired, and mute, and wherein the communication is at least one of text chat and live video.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the URL and data network address is the URL.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the URL and data network address is the data network address.
5. A tangible, non-transitory computer readable medium comprising processor executable instructions to perform the steps of claim 1 .
6. A communication node, comprising:
(a) a computational device having a network address on a data network; and
(b) a portable address assignment module having a telephone number on a telephone network, the portable address assignment module being at least one of engaged physically and in communication wirelessly with the computational device and including:
i. a subscriber identity agent comprising a unique service-subscriber key to identify a corresponding subscriber and
ii. an assistive communication application to enable a user having a communication impairment to communicate, over the data network comprising the network address of the computational device being at least one of engaged physically and in communication wirelessly with the portable address assignment module, with another party.
7. The communication node of claim 6 , wherein the portable address assignment module further includes a satellite-based location agent to determine a physical location of the portable address assignment module relative to a global navigation satellite system.
8. The communication node of claim 6 , wherein the portable address assignment module further includes a data repository comprising at least one of an identifier of a relay service, a type of physical impairment of the user, a severity of physical impairment of the user, and healthcare information associated with the user.
9. The communication node of claim 6 , wherein the communication impairment is one of hearing-impaired, speech-impaired, deaf, and mute and wherein the portable address assignment module is engaged with an externally accessible port of the computational device.
10. The communication node of claim 6 , wherein the address assignment module comprises a controller and wherein the controller is operable, upon detection of a selected stimulus, to initiate a telephone call with a selected telephone number associated with a feature server and to provide to the feature server at least the network address and a current physical location of at least one of the address assignment module and computational device.
11. The communication node of claim 6 , wherein the address assignment module receives, from a relay service and over the telephone network, a Universal Resource Locator (“URL”) associated with a web page, wherein the address assignment module provides the URL to the computational device, and wherein a web browser of the computational device, using the URL, accesses the web page.
12. The communication node of claim 11 , wherein the URL corresponds to a text chat session and wherein the relay service receives text from the user and reads the text to a party over a telephone call and wherein the relay service receives voiced words and phrases from the party and types the text equivalent in the text chat session with the user.
13. The communication node of claim 11 , wherein the URL corresponds to a live video session.