Patent Application
20080037514
The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.
In accordance with exemplary embodiments, communication session control processes are provided. The communication session control processes are implemented by a communications tool that allows blended synchrony in voice conversations by enabling interactive control over the communications session.
Turning now to
The communications device 102 includes, or is communicatively coupled to, Voice over IP components 108 for communicating with third party devices over network 106. For example, Voice over IP components 108 may include a standard analog telephone that is coupled to a router/adapter, which in turn is in communication with, e.g., a hub/switch and the communications device, as well as a digital subscriber line (DSL) or broadband modem. The modem links the aforementioned elements to the Internet or other IP-based network, e.g., network 106.
In alternative embodiments, the VoIP components 108 may include a soft phone (e.g., communications software installed on the communications device 102) and a headset that plugs into a port of the communications device 102. In further embodiments, the VoIP components 108 may include a wireless fidelity (WiFi) SIP phone. Other input/output elements that may be included in the communications device 102 are speakers, microphone, sound card, display monitor, etc. One or more of the VoIP components 108 receive analog voice signals from a user of the communications device 102 during a communications session and convert the analog voice signals into digital signals (packets) for transmission over an IP-based network, such as network 106. Likewise, incoming digital packets received by the VoIP components 108 from network 106 are converted into analog voice signals for presentation to the user of the communications device 102. All or a portion of these VoIP components 108 may comprise proprietary products or may be commercial tools.
Thus, implementation of a live VoIP communications session is facilitated by the VoIP components 108, which transmit converted analog-to-digital signals over the network 106 and also present converted digital-to-analog signals received from the network 106 to a user of the communications device 102.
VoIP components and communications may be enabled using a variety of communications protocols, e.g., Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Inter-Asterisk exchange (LAX), H.323, etc., depending upon the particular type of VoIP components utilized.
In exemplary embodiments, communications device 102 also includes memory (internal or external) for storing information, such as user settings and communications session recordings as described further herein.
The communication session control processes are implemented via a control system application and user interface 112 executing on the communications device 102. The control system application and user interface 112 monitors communications sessions between two or more parties, creates a timeline recording of the sessions, executes user settings, generates alerts, and presents modified communications sessions to the user of the communications device 102.
In accordance with exemplary embodiments, the user settings are established via the user interface of the control system application 112 and are executed by the control system application 112. The user interface of the control system application 112 also enables the user to select one or more controls for modifying the presentation of the communications session. These, and other features are described further herein.
Turning now to
The individual preferences include triggers that define events, the occurrence of which during the communications session will cause an alert to be generated by the control system application 112. The alerts are presented to the user at communications device 102. These triggers may be established on a session-by-session basis or may be applied globally to all sessions as desired. For example, an event may be an extended or elapsed period of silence during the communications session (i.e., no one speaking). The user may define what is to be considered ‘extended’ via the user preferences, e.g., one, five, ten minutes, etc. In another example, an event may be a change in speaker, a particular sound (e.g., bell tone), etc. that may serve as a trigger for an alert. This type of event may be determined using a key sound identification component of the control system application 112 that implements one or more functions, such as automated speech recognition, audio feature detection, audio indexing, keyword spotting, speaker and language identification, etc. The key sound identification component of the control system application 112 monitors the communications session and detects any changes or events using one or more of the aforementioned functions. The above are provided as non-limiting examples of trigger events and are not to be construed as limiting in scope.
At step 204, a live VoIP communications session between the user of communications device 102 and another device (not shown) over network 106 is initiated (e.g., a first audio stream). As described above in
At step 206, the control system application 112 accesses the user settings defined in step 202. The communications session is recorded by the control system application 112 at step 208 to produce a second audio stream. A timeline of the communications session is generated by the control system application 112 that captures the live/recorded communications session at step 210. This timeline may be represented as a graphical or pictorial timeline of the session, which may be stored in memory 110 of the communications device 102 and presented via, e.g., a user interface, such as the user interface screen 300 of
The live communications session is monitored by the control system application 112 at step 212. The control system application 112 monitors the live audio stream for trigger events (e.g., extended periods of silence, key sound indicators, etc.). At step 214, it is determined whether a trigger event has occurred. If not, the monitoring continues at step 212. Otherwise, if a trigger event has occurred, the control system application 112 tags the timeline with an indicator that corresponds to the nature of the event. As shown in
The occurrence of these trigger events causes the control system application 112 to generate and transmit an alert to the user of the communications device 102 at step 218. This alert may be useful in suggesting that the user, e.g., refocus attention on the session (for extended silence events) or to identify specific locations of the session timeline for use in implementing selectable control features of the communication session control processes.
As shown in the user interface screen 300 of
At step 220, it is determined whether the control system application 112 has received a control selection from the user. The control features available via the communications session control processes include skipping forward or backward from one silence indicator on the timeline to the next, speeding up playback of a portion of a buffered (i.e., recorded) communications session, and skipping to the end of a recorded communications session in order to rejoin the live communications session. As shown in the user interface screen 300 of
If no control selection has been received at step 220, the process returns to step 212 whereby the live session continues to be monitored. If, however, a control selection has been received, the control system application 112 modifies the presentation of the communications session for the user based upon the control (e.g., 310-316) selected at step 222.
For example, as shown in a user interface screen 400 of
In alternative embodiments, the control system application 112 includes an automated feature whereby a user instructs the application 112 to automatically jump back to the time of a key sound indicator (e.g., 404) when a trigger established for an extended period of silence (e.g., 406) has been detected. This feature may include returning to a portion of the session preceding the key sound indicator.
The control system application 112 accesses the corresponding location in the communications session (or a determined offset thereof) and enters playback mode. The playback mode may be presented at a faster speed than that of the original session. A default playback speed may be determined by the control system application 112 if the user does not select a speed. This allows the user to listen to the conversation in less time.
Once the playback mode has been selected, two audio streams are played at the communications device (i.e., the first, or live, audio stream of the communications session; and the second, or recorded, audio stream). As shown in the user interface screen 400 of
The capabilities of the present invention can be implemented in software, firmware, hardware or some combination thereof.
As one example, one or more aspects of the present invention can be included in an article of manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance, computer usable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance, computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating the capabilities of the present invention. The article of manufacture can be included as a part of a computer system or sold separately.
Additionally, at least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided.
The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered a part of the claimed invention.
While the preferred embodiment to the invention has been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.
