Patent Application
20160142889
This invention relates to communications and more particularly to short multimedia message/multimedia message services and short multimedia message/multimedia message communications.
Communication is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, written, or behavior. Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiver does not have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of initiating communication and hence communications can occur across vast distances in time and space. The communication process is complete once the receiver understands the sender's message.
Communicating with others involves three primary steps. First, thought, wherein information exists in the mind of the sender. Secondly, encoding, wherein a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols. Thirdly, decoding, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that a person can understand. Telecommunications is communication at a distance by technological means, particularly through electrical signals or electromagnetic waves. Today electrical and electromagnetic telecommunication technologies include telephony, computer networks, radio and wireless transmission, microwave transmission, fiber optic networks, communications satellites and the Internet. These provide the encoding and decoding of information generated by a sender so that it can be presented to the recipient.
For the past 140 years, since its invention, the telephone formed the primary basis for personal telecommunications until the advent of the Internet whilst businesses exploited fax as well as telephony. With the advent of integrated microelectronics, high volume low cost manufacturing, and deployments of wireless infrastructure telephony evolved into mobile telephony where in the past 25 years worldwide mobile telephone subscriptions grew from approximately 12 million to over 6 billion, penetrating about 87% of the global population.
In addition to wireless based telephony, modern mobile telephones also support a wide variety of other services such as text messaging based upon Short Message Service (SMS) protocols, electronic mail (email), Internet access, short-range wireless communication protocols such as infrared and Bluetooth, business applications, photography, gaming, audio streaming, video streaming, and accessing/providing Internet content. Mobile phones that offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones.
However, despite these technological developments primarily the means of communication between individuals are the same as when the telephone was invented. Telephony provides audio communication whilst email, SMS, etc. provide written communications and could be viewed simply as evolutions of the telegraph into a wireless and/or computer based telecommunications infrastructure. However, man has a very highly evolved visual processing system that was developed and exploited before organized verbal communications. Even today, multimedia messaging services (MMS) merely refers to the ability to attach a photograph, for example, to a SMS message.
However, it would be beneficial to provide users with a communications format that leverages their visual sense as well as auditory sense when receiving a message from another user or to allow a user to combine with ease visual and oral content when generating a message for another user. As the adage goes “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Moreover, it would be beneficial to achieve visual communication and receive an honest response or genuine interaction between two or more people without the sender and recipient having to be online at the same time.
The evolution in telecommunications whilst providing email, MMS, SMS, texting etc. still means that telephony is the only telecommunications format providing immediacy in respect of a recipient responding to a message from a sender. Within these other formats the recipient may view the message and elect when to respond thereby allowing them time to compose, consider, etc. rather than garnering their immediate reaction. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to add a level of immediacy to telecommunication messaging.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
It is an object of the present invention to address limitations within the prior art relating to communications and more particularly to short multimedia message services and short multimedia message communications.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:
The present invention is directed to communications and more particularly to short multimedia message services and short multimedia message communications.
The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the exemplary embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an exemplary embodiment. It being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope as set forth in the appended claims.
A “portable electronic device” (PED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless device used for communications and other applications that requires a battery or other independent form of energy for power. This includes devices, but is not limited to, such as a cellular telephone, smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computer, pager, portable multimedia player, portable gaming console, laptop computer, tablet computer, and an electronic reader.
A “fixed electronic device” (FED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless and/or wired device used for communications and other applications that requires connection to a fixed interface to obtain power. This includes, but is not limited to, a laptop computer, a personal computer, a computer server, a kiosk, a gaming console, a digital set-top box, an analog set-top box, an Internet enabled appliance, an Internet enabled television, and a multimedia player.
An “application” (commonly referred to as an “app”) as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a “software application”, an element of a “software suite”, a computer program designed to allow an individual to perform an activity, a computer program designed to allow an electronic device to perform an activity, and a computer program designed to communicate with local and/or remote electronic devices. An application thus differs from an operating system (which runs a computer), a utility (which performs maintenance or general-purpose chores), and a programming tools (with which computer programs are created). Generally, within the following description with respect to embodiments of the invention an application is generally presented in respect of software permanently and/or temporarily installed upon a PED and/or FED.
A “social network” or “social networking service” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who may, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. This includes, but is not limited to, social networks such as U.S. based services such as Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and Twitter; as well as Nexopia, Badoo, Bebo, VKontakte, Delphi, Hi5, Hyves, iWiW, Nasza-Klasa, Soup, Glocals, Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ, Tagged, Tuenti, XING, Orkut, Mxit, Cyworld, Mixi, renren, weibo and Wretch.
“Social media” or “social media services” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a means of interaction among people in which they create, share, and/or exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. This includes, but is not limited to, social media services relating to magazines, Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, social networks, podcasts, photographs or pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking as well as those exploiting blogging, picture-sharing, video logs, wall-posting, music-sharing, crowdsourcing and voice over IP, to name a few. Social media services may be classified, for example, as collaborative projects (for example, Wikipedia); blogs and microblogs (for example, Twitter™); content communities (for example, YouTube and DailyMotion); social networking sites (for example, Facebook™); virtual game-worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft™); and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life™).
An “enterprise” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a provider of a service and/or a product to a user, customer, or consumer. This includes, but is not limited to, a retail outlet, a store, a market, an online marketplace, a manufacturer, an online retailer, a charity, a utility, and a service provider. Such enterprises may be directly owned and controlled by a company or may be owned and operated by a franchisee under the direction and management of a franchiser.
A “service provider” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a third party provider of a service and/or a product to an enterprise and/or individual and/or group of individuals and/or a device comprising a microprocessor. This includes, but is not limited to, a retail outlet, a store, a market, an online marketplace, a manufacturer, an online retailer, a utility, an own brand provider, and a service provider wherein the service and/or product is at least one of marketed, sold, offered, and distributed by the enterprise solely or in addition to the service provider.
A ‘third party’ or “third party provider” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a so-called “arm's length” provider of a service and/or a product to an enterprise and/or individual and/or group of individuals and/or a device comprising a microprocessor wherein the consumer and/or customer engages the third party but the actual service and/or product that they are interested in and/or purchase and/or receive is provided through an enterprise and/or service provider.
A “user” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, an individual or group of individuals who exploit embodiments of the invention. This includes, but is not limited to, private individuals, employees of organizations and/or enterprises, members of community organizations, members of charity organizations, men, women, children, and teenagers. In its broadest sense the user may further include, but not be limited to, robotic systems, android systems, etc. that may by receipt of an electronic message provide a reply in a format consistent with one provided by a human
“Electronic content” (also referred to as “content” or “digital content”) as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, any type of content that exists in the form of digital data as stored, transmitted, received and/or converted wherein one or more of these steps may be analog although generally these steps will be digital. Forms of digital content include, but are not limited to, information that is digitally broadcast, streamed or contained in discrete files. Viewed narrowly, types of digital content include popular media types such as MP3, JPG, AVI, TIFF, AAC, TXT, RTF, HTML, XHTML, PDF, XLS, SVG, WMA, MP4, FLV, and PPT, for example, as well as others, see for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_formats. Within a broader approach digital content mat include any type of digital information, e.g. digitally updated weather forecast, a GPS map, an eBook, a photograph, a video, a Vine™, a blog posting, a Facebook™ posting, a Twitter™ tweet, online TV, etc. The digital content may be any digital data that is at least one of generated, selected, created, modified, and transmitted in response to a user request, said request may be a query, a search, a trigger, an alarm, and a message for example.
Referring to
Within the cell associated with first AP 110A the first group of users 100A may employ a variety of PEDs including for example, laptop computer 155, portable gaming console 135, tablet computer 140, smartphone 150, cellular telephone 145 as well as portable multimedia player 130. Within the cell associated with second AP 110B are the second group of users 100B which may employ a variety of FEDs including for example gaming console 125, personal computer 115 and wireless/Internet enabled television 120 as well as cable modem 105. First and second cellular APs 195A and 195B respectively provide, for example, cellular GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) telephony services as well as 3G and 4G evolved services with enhanced data transport support. Second cellular AP 195B provides coverage in the exemplary embodiment to first and second user groups 100A and 100B. Alternatively the first and second user groups 100A and 100B may be geographically disparate and access the network 100 through multiple APs, not shown for clarity, distributed geographically by the network operator or operators. First cellular AP 195A as show provides coverage to first user group 100A and environment 170, which comprises second user group 100B as well as first user group 100A. Accordingly, the first and second user groups 100A and 100B may according to their particular communications interfaces communicate to the network 100 through one or more wireless communications standards such as, for example, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, and IMT-1000. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that many portable and fixed electronic devices may support multiple wireless protocols simultaneously, such that for example a user may employ GSM services such as telephony and SMS and Wi-Fi/WiMAX data transmission, VOIP and Internet access. Accordingly portable electronic devices within first user group 100A may form associations either through standards such as IEEE 802.15 and Bluetooth as well in an ad-hoc manner.
Also connected to the network 100 are Social Networks (SOCNETS) 165, first and second business networks 170A and 170B respectively, e.g. LinkedIn™ and Viadeo™, adult dating website 170C, e.g. AdultFriendFinder™, and first to second online gaming communities 175A and 175B respectively, e.g. Call of Duty™ Ghosts and World of Warcraft™, as well as first and second servers 190A and 190B which together with others, not shown for clarity. First and second servers 190A and 190B may host according to embodiments of the inventions multiple services associated with a provider of short multimedia message applications/software/platforms (SMMASPs); a provider of a SOCNET or Social Media (SOME) exploiting SMMASP features; a provider of a SOCNET and/or SOME not exploiting SMMASP features; a provider of services to PEDS and/or FEDS; a provider of one or more aspects of wired and/or wireless communications; an Enterprise 160 exploiting SMMASPs; license databases; content databases; image databases; content libraries; customer databases; websites; and software applications for download to or access by FEDs and/or PEDs exploiting and/or hosting SMMASP features. First and second primary content servers 190A and 190B may also host for example other Internet services such as a search engine, financial services, third party applications and other Internet based services.
Accordingly, a user may exploit a PED and/or FED within an Enterprise 160, for example, and access one of the first or second primary content servers 190A and 190B respectively to perform an operation such as accessing/downloading an application which provides SMMASP features according to embodiments of the invention; execute an application already installed providing SMMASP features; execute a web based application providing SMMASP features; or access content. Similarly, a user may undertake such actions or others exploiting embodiments of the invention exploiting a PED or FED within first and second user groups 100A and 100B respectively via one of first and second cellular APs 195A and 195B respectively and first Wi-Fi nodes 110A. Accordingly, a user exploiting a PED or FED may, via an SMMASP, generate a Short Multimedia Message (SMM) which is transmitted via a SMM Service (SMMS) supported by SMMASPs over one or more networks 100 via one or more wired and/or wireless interfaces to another user exploiting a PED or FED. Within the specification the originating of a SMM or SMMS communication is referred to as the “sender” whilst the receiving user of the sender's SMM or SMMS communication is referred to as the “recipient.” Upon receipt and opening of the SMM or SMMS communication the recipient generates a response to the sender. These exchanges may terminate at this point or they may continue between the sender and recipient. Alternatively, multiple participants may be part of the SMM or SMMS communications.
The sender and recipient may, for example, be members of the same Social Network (SOCNET) or associated Social Networks (SOCNETS) 165 wherein their communications via SMM or SMMS communications may be hosted through the SOCNET/SOCNETs. Within other environments the sender and recipient may be members of a business network, such as first and second business networks 170A and 170B respectively, e.g. LinkedIn™ and Viadeo™, members of an adult dating website 170C, e.g. AdultFriendFinder™, or member of gaming communities such as first to second online gaming communities 175A and 175B respectively for example, e.g. Call of Duty™ Ghosts and World of Warcraft™.
Now referring to
The electronic device 204 includes one or more processors 210 and a memory 212 coupled to processor(s) 210. AP 206 also includes one or more processors 211 and a memory 213 coupled to processor(s) 210. A non-exhaustive list of examples for any of processors 210 and 211 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a reduced instruction set computer (RISC), a complex instruction set computer (CISC) and the like. Furthermore, any of processors 210 and 211 may be part of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or may be a part of application specific standard products (ASSPs). A non-exhaustive list of examples for memories 212 and 213 includes any combination of the following semiconductor devices such as registers, latches, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory devices, nonvolatile random access memory devices (NVRAM), SDRAM, DRAM, double data rate (DDR) memory devices, SRAM, universal serial bus (USB) removable memory, and the like.
Electronic device 204 may include an audio input element 214, for example a microphone, and an audio output element 216, for example, a speaker, coupled to any of processors 210. Electronic device 204 may include a video input element 218, for example, a video camera or camera, and a video output element 220, for example an LCD display, coupled to any of processors 210. Electronic device 204 also includes a keyboard 215 and touchpad 217 which may for example be a physical keyboard and touchpad allowing the user to enter content or select functions within one of more applications 222. Alternatively the keyboard 215 and touchpad 217 may be predetermined regions of a touch sensitive element forming part of the display within the electronic device 204. The one or more applications 222 that are typically stored in memory 212 and are executable by any combination of processors 210. Electronic device 204 also includes accelerometer 260 providing three-dimensional motion input to the process 210 and GPS 262 which provides geographical location information to processor 210.
Electronic device 204 includes a protocol stack 224 and AP 206 includes a communication stack 225. Within system 200 protocol stack 224 is shown as IEEE 802.11 protocol stack but alternatively may exploit other protocol stacks such as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) multimedia protocol stack for example. Likewise AP stack 225 exploits a protocol stack but is not expanded for clarity. Elements of protocol stack 224 and AP stack 225 may be implemented in any combination of software, firmware and/or hardware. Protocol stack 224 includes an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module 226 that is coupled to one or more Front-End Tx/Rx & Antenna 228, an IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC module 230 coupled to an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module 232. Protocol stack 224 includes a network layer IP module 234, a transport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module 236 and a transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) module 238.
Protocol stack 224 also includes a session layer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) module 240, a Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) module 242, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module 244 and a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) module 246. Protocol stack 224 includes a presentation layer media negotiation module 248, a call control module 250, one or more audio codecs 252 and one or more video codecs 254. Applications 222 may be able to create maintain and/or terminate communication sessions with any of devices 207 by way of AP 206. Typically, applications 222 may activate any of the SAP, SIP, RTSP, media negotiation and call control modules for that purpose. Typically, information may propagate from the SAP, SIP, RTSP, media negotiation and call control modules to PHY module 226 through TCP module 238, IP module 234, LLC module 232 and MAC module 230.
It would be apparent to one skilled in the art that elements of the electronic device 204 may also be implemented within the AP 206 including but not limited to one or more elements of the protocol stack 224, including for example an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module, an IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC module, and an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module 232. The AP 206 may additionally include a network layer IP module, a transport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module and a transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) module as well as a session layer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) module, a Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) module, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module and a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) module, media negotiation module, and a call control module. Portable and fixed electronic devices represented by electronic device 204 may include one or more additional wireless or wired interfaces in addition to the depicted IEEE 802.11 interface which may be selected from the group comprising IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, IMT-1000, DSL, Dial-Up, DOCSIS, Ethernet, G.hn, ISDN, MoCA, PON, and Power line communication (PLC).
Now referring to
Referring to
A “DIVE Site” as discussed further in respect of
Now referring to
Accordingly referring to
Within embodiments of the invention the response from the user may be sent based upon a trigger event within the SMMASP associated with the SMMS. For example, the trigger may be the user completes recording the response(s) to the message(s)/comment(s) from the sender within SMMS. Optionally, the trigger may be that the user has not completed within a predetermined time, that the user quits the SMMASP, exits the current SMMS, etc.
When the recipient receives the SMMS and open it the user is initially presented with launch screen 610 as depicted in
Upon receipt and opening by the sender they are presented, as depicted in
Now referring to
Referring to
Within other embodiments of the invention features comparable to the carbon copy (cc) and blind carbon copy (bcc) may be supported in addition to the direct message (e.g. those within the “to” list of contacts to whom the SMMS is distributed). Optionally, the functionality of the SMMASP provided to a recipient may vary according to whether the recipient was on the “to” list or upon either of the “cc” and “bcc” lists in conjunction with another recipient's response being “reply all” or simply “reply.” In the “reply” and “reply all” scenarios then for users on the original “to” list then they receive a copy of the responses from all recipients when the other recipients replies irrespective of whether recipient selected “reply” or “reply all” whilst those on the original “cc” list only see responses for “reply all.” Those on the “bcc” list only see the original message or the original message and all replies with “reply all.”
Optionally, in order to avoid a sender becoming overloaded with responses where the number of recipients is large then as depicted in
It would be evident that an SMMASP may form part of another messaging application or an application consolidating multiple messaging systems to provide a coherent interface for the user. Such an example is depicted in
Now referring to
If the user selects third option 1420 then they are presented with second user interface screen 1450 which presents a usage indicator 1430 allowing the user to quickly visualize their usage and statistics list 1440 comprising, for example, a list of DIVE's sent, received, taken, completed, shared, and saved. Optionally, other options may be presented, such as filtering by recipient, enterprise, project etc. or accessing directories which are associated with specific recipients, enterprises, projects etc. as established by the user.
Referring to
The process depicted in first to fifth user interface screens 1500A to 1500E respectively represents an example of a SMMS message generation sequence within an SMMASP with video based messages rather than a text based message as depicted and described in first to fourth screens 500 to 530 respectively in
Now referring to
Menu bar 1610 allows the user to view a top level dashboard, access DIVEs (SMMSs), create a new mission, view drafted missions prior to publication, view active missions, view closed missions, view archived missions, and edit missions. Within a context of the SMMASP a mission is an SMMS issued to a plurality of recipients. Examples of such missions may be customer surveys, sales pitches, etc. Within the interface screen 1600 the user has selected to create a new mission within the menu bar 1610 such that now the displayed windows provide the following features:
Mission details 1620 which comprises fields relating to the mission. These may include, for example:
User permissions window 1630 which comprises fields relating to user permissions and overall message structure. These may include, for example:
Accordingly, with the user permissions window 1630 a user, e.g. a salesperson, may generate their own SMMS which forms part of an overall enterprise based communications mission. For example, a special invitation by Honda™ may include a corporately prepared introduction and closing but has a section created by each consumer's sales contact, i.e. a personal message from a face they recognise.
DIVE window 1640 which allows the SMMS to be configured, including for example:
Mission content window 1650, which provides the user with the ability to add/amend configurations of the SMMS as part of the mission, including for example:
Accordingly, a user of an SMMASP within an enterprise version may create and manage a plurality of missions associated with a single channel site or with multiple channel sites. As depicted in
Once a mission such as described supra in respect of
Whilst the user interface screen depicted in
Within
Optionally, a SMMS to a recipient may be geo-tagged or geo-fenced such that it is only provided if they are within a predetermined geographical location or boundary.
Optionally, a SMMS to a recipient may include a trigger to download and install an SMMASP onto the user's PED, for example, upon their initial acceptance of receiving the SMMS, for example.
Accordingly, it can be seen from the descriptions of the embodiments of the invention described supra in respect of
Within the embodiments of the invention described supra in respect of
Within the embodiments of the invention described supra in respect of
Within the embodiments of the invention described supra in respect of
Whilst embodiments of the invention have been described with respect to what the inventors have referred to a short multimedia messaging services (SMMS) it would be evident that whilst in, for example, a social version the messages between sender and recipient may be short the overall message may become long as the conversation develops in some embodiments of the invention. This extension into longer messages will occur also more rapidly with the collation and merging of conversation threads such as described supra in respect of embodiments of the invention. It would also be evident that embodiments of the invention may extend the maximum duration available for replying to a senders message or response. Such an extension may, for example, be provided for subscribers at a premium level or perhaps within a commercial/business network. Accordingly, the use of the term “short” within the context of the invention should not be construed as limiting the duration of at least one of the initial message, combined messages of senders and recipients, combined messages of collated conversations, individual messages, and individual responses.
Specific details are given in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.
Implementation of the techniques, blocks, steps and means described above may be done in various ways. For example, these techniques, blocks, steps and means may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing units may be implemented within one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described above and/or a combination thereof.
Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.
Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages and/or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, scripting language and/or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium, such as a storage medium. A code segment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures and/or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters and/or memory content. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.
For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing the methodologies described herein. For example, software codes may be stored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor and may vary in implementation where the memory is employed in storing software codes for subsequent execution to that when the memory is employed in executing the software codes. As used herein the term “memory” refers to any type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or other storage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.
Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may represent one or more devices for storing data, including read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/or other machine readable mediums for storing information. The term “machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and/or various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.
The methodologies described herein are, in one or more embodiments, performable by a machine which includes one or more processors that accept code segments containing instructions. For any of the methods described herein, when the instructions are executed by the machine, the machine performs the method. Any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine are included. Thus, a typical machine may be exemplified by a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. Each processor may include one or more of a CPU, a graphics-processing unit, and a programmable DSP unit. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM. A bus subsystem may be included for communicating between the components. If the processing system requires a display, such a display may be included, e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD). If manual data entry is required, the processing system also includes an input device such as one or more of an alphanumeric input unit such as a keyboard, a pointing control device such as a mouse, and so forth.
The memory includes machine-readable code segments (e.g. software or software code) including instructions for performing, when executed by the processing system, one of more of the methods described herein. The software may reside entirely in the memory, or may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the RAM and/or within the processor during execution thereof by the computer system. Thus, the memory and the processor also constitute a system comprising machine-readable code.
In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other machines, in a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. The machine may be, for example, a computer, a server, a cluster of servers, a cluster of computers, a web appliance, a distributed computing environment, a cloud computing environment, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. The term “machine” may also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.
Further, in describing representative embodiments of the present invention, the specification may have presented the method and/or process of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth in the specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of the present invention should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
This patent application claims the benefit of World Patent Application PCT/2015/000261 filed Apr. 22, 2015 entitled “Methods and Systems Relating to Visual Communications”, which itself claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application 61/982,462 filed Apr. 22, 2014 entitled “Methods and Systems relating to Visual Communications”, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CA2015/000261 | 4/22/2015 | WO | 00 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61982462 | Apr 2014 | US |
