CA2175263A1

CA2175263A1 - Automatic still image transmission upon call connection

Info

Publication number: CA2175263A1
Application number: CA002175263A
Authority: CA
Inventors: B. Waring Partridge, Iii
Original assignee: AT&T IPM Corp
Current assignee: AT&T Corp
Priority date: 1995-05-03
Filing date: 1996-04-29
Publication date: 1996-11-04
Also published as: EP0741484A2; JPH08336121A; USH1714H

Abstract

The present disclosure describes a system and method for selecting and transmitting a still image in a telephone network. A series of images is stored in at least one storage unit coupled to the network, each image associated with a particular customer in the network. Upon the placement of a call, the system will automatically select and transmit the calling party's image to the called party's video telephone or terminal prior to or during the ringing sequence, or after the calling party has answered.

Description

217~263 Automatic Still Image Transmission Upon Call Connection B~rl~ground Of the Invention This invention relates to image tr~nemie.sion in a telecommunications network, and more particularly to automatic still image selection and tr~nemieeion upon the placement of a call to a video telephone or t.?rmin~1 Various forms of video telephones, multimedia tçrmin~1e and related image tr~nemieeion systems have been introduced in recent years and are in use today using standard telephone networks. Customers with the right equipment (voice/ camera/ screen 0 units) can collllllullicate by image as well as by voice, although often with some comp~ nise in picture resolution or image tr~nemieeion speed due to bandwidth limitations in some areas of the network. A video telephone system is disclosed, by way of example, in Komatsu et al. U.S. Patent No. 4,962,521.
To partially compensate for limitations in network bandwidth, various data colllpres~ion and other schPmee have been proposed. Nevertheless, image "jerkinPss"
and some delay are still the characteristics of today's video telephones. In addition, the called party normally is not able to view the image of the calling party before the call is answt;l~;d, which means that calls cannot be screened on the basis of incoming visual information. Brandon et al. U.S. Patent No. 4,924,303 discloses a system for interactive retrieval of still frame video images, but the system ~.luiles the use of a separate television tr~n.emiesion system and standard television receivers to view the image, and is not designed to display the image immediately upon telephone call connection.

Summary of the Invention Although "caller ID" equipment now permits call screening based on the calling party's number, a useful extension of this concept would be a system that permitted call screening based upon the calling party's image, whether it be the image of a person, a col~ ldle logo or other image preselected by the calling party as a type of telephonic "calling card".
A further useful extension of caller ID and related fedlules would be a system located within a telephone n~lwolk (either in a central office or elsewhere) that stored and m~int~ined for immediate tr~nemieeion a large data base of images preselected by all users in the network, which system would automatically select and ~ slllil to the called party an appropliate image (such as of the calling party) as soon as an initial connection 3s has been established.

217526~

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In accordance with the present disclosure, customers with telecommunication equipment that can receive images are provisioned to receive an image in association with a call. The image is delivered from an image node within a telecommunication network. Each image is associated with the telephone number of a customer in thes network.
In one embodiment, upon detection of an initiated call, the telecommunication system accesses the image node, selects an image associated with the calling party, and transmits the selected image to the called party, as appropl;ate. The tr~n~mis~ion occurs before, during or after the called party's terminal has begun to ring. In this way, the lo image appears (or at least begins to appear) at the called party's terrnin~l even before the called party has taken the receiver off-hook or otherwise answered the call. After the called party has answered, the calling party's image may continue to be ~ sllliUed, if necessary, until m~llulll resolution at the called party's termin~l has been reached.
If the calling party's equipment has image tr~n~mi~sion capability, as the call continlles, the image may be periodically or contin--~lly refreshed with "live" image data received from the calling party's ter nin~l.

Brief Descr~ption of the DraW~
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the invention.

Detailed D~ Y il,lion FIG. 1 shows a simplified version of a conventional telephone network including central office switches 20 and 25. Termin~l~ 10 and 80, which may be equipped with a 25 screen and which may also include a camera 12, 82, respectively, and a local image memory unit 14, 84, respectively, for storing still frame images captured by the camera, are connected to switches 20 and 25 respectively. None of the elements 12, 14, 82 or 84 iS required.
As used in this disclosure, "image" means any visual material capable of being 30 depicted on a screen.
Once switching and other Cil~iUill~/ within a central office has identified the calling termin~l and called termin~l, an available path then is located and a connection is established between both termin~l~, which may then be followed by the generation and tr~n~mi~.~ion of a ring signal to the called termin~l. If both t~rmin~l.c are capable of image 35 communication, a direct image connection will then normally be established as soon as the called party answers. It is important, however, to note that the present disclosure does 3 2175~63 .
not require the establishment of a direct visual communication link between the two terminals; only the establishment of a visual link to the called terminal.
In accordance with the present disclosure, at least one image processor 60 is included within the network of FIG. 1. The location within the network is not critical;
processor 60 could be located almost anywhere, either as a stand-alone unit or within one of the central offices, as long as a visual communication link can be established between the processor that services the calling tçrmin~1 and the called terminal 80. Processor 60 is described in more detail below.
Also, in accordance with the present disclosure, coupled to processor 60 is an 0 image storage unit 50 for storing a ~t~b~ce of preselected, digitized images. Storage unit 50 may be any conventional mass storage memory device such as a disk drive or server, and the images may be any still (video or otherwise) images.
In normal operation, it is anticipated that image storage unit 50 will contain a~t~b~ce of images preselected by the customers served by processor 60. For example, each customer may preselect an image that he, she or it wishes to be stored in the-d~t~b~ce as a "telephone calling card" or greeting card that may be used to identify the caller. In addition, a corporate customer may desire to store a corporate logo or other image to identify the COl~Oldl~ entity upon the placement of a call. More than one image, such as a corporate presentation slide show, may, of course, be selected by each customer and stored in the ~t~b~ce depending on the capabilities of the image storage unit 50 and processor 60. It is anticipated that images typically will be stored in the database at the customer's direction either prior to the placement of a call or perhaps at an "off peak"
time when no particular call is being placed but the customer desires to update his, her or its image for future use.
The image tr~n~mi~sion system (processor 60 with image storage 50 or otherwise) would, most likely, be closely tied to the manner of generating the electronic signals that represent the image in an electronic image file. One readily available mech~ni~m (and associated coding and protocol) is f~ccimile (fax). Either black-and-white or color fax can be used to create the electronic image file. Another meçh~ni~m is electronic mail for sending a file previously created by a document/ image scanner. For example, a conventional photograph of a customer could be scanned by the customer (either personally or by a third party) and then sent to the image tr~n~mi.csion system, or the customer could make other arrangements for a digitized image (perhaps generated by an electronic camera) to be sent.

4 21~5263 Of course, any conventional f~csimile or electronic mail format can be employed to transmit the image data to the image tr~n~mi~sion system, and such data can be kept in the image storage 50 either in the transmitted format or in some other preselected format.
Also, just as image sequences can be stored, as indicated above, to provide a slide s show, a selectable plurality of images can be stored which allows each user to customize his, her or its image(s) to the called party. Selection of images is achieved by the calling party sending a control signal, for example at the end of the called number sequence. The sequence may be, for in.~t~nce, "#9" for business attire and "#8" for beach attire. With another controlled sequence, such as "#99", the customer can cause processor 60 to block 0 tr~n~mi~sion of all images.
The data contained within database 50 need not be only image data. For example, associated with each image could be text characters such as the name of the person associated with the image, the telephone number or other identifying information, or a visual or voice greeting. In addition, associated with a corporate logo image could be an 5 advertising message or some other corporate "calling card" type message that would appear on the screen of the called party upon call connection. Such a message could also be aural.
Returning to processor 60 (FIG. 1), this element, in a prcf~.lcd embodiment, comprises a general purpose digital computer, a microprocessor or digital signal20 processor that performs several functions. First, processor 60 generates a unique signal immediately upon detection of an incoming call from central office 20 that identifies the particular calling termin~l (in this case tçrmin~l 10). The processor could either make such dett;,.~ ;on directly using automatic number identification (ANI) or "caller ID"
means, or processor 60 could generate a signal in response to a number-identification 2s signal generated elsewhere in the network, such as by an ANI unit in central office 20. In either case, the signal generated by processor 60 is used to locate the address of the customer image data, stored in image storage unit 50, that is associated with the particular calling tern in~l Such image data could be unique to that particular terrnin~l~ or could be shared among several t~rrnin~lc Once located, the data is read out of the image storage 30 unit by processor 60 and automatically sent through the network to the called terrnin~l 80 immediately upon the establishment of an available path (network link) to called tt?nnin~l 80 by switching circuits in central office 20 or 25. Data may be read out directly, or encoded in some fashion, depending upon the capabilities of the receiving terminal and of the network. Processor 60 could be programmed to begin tr~n~mi~ion of the image data 3s at any of several times in the calling sequence, such as (1) immediately upon the establi~hment of an available path to the called tç~rnin~l (even prior to first ring); (2) s 217S~3 .
simultaneously with the tr~n~mi~sion of the first ring signal; (3) some period of time before or after the tr~n~mi~sion of the first ring; (4) immediately upon detection of an off-hook condition at the receiving terminal (i.e., upon answer); or (5) some period of time after off-hook has been detected.
Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, a central office 20 of a conventional telephone network contains conventional telephone switching circuits 35 for voice and data tr~ncmi~ion over the network. A plurality of individual customer video telephones, personal computers or other conventional voice/ imageterminals 10, 80 are connected to the central office. As in FIG. 1, it is assumed that 0 termin~l 10 is a calling party's termin~l and termin~l 80 is a called party's tçrtnin~l A voice/ data switching circuit 35 for establishing a connection between the calling terrnin~l and the called terminal, and an automatic number identification (ANI) unit 30, for identifying the particular phone number of an incoming call to the central office, are typically found within the central office 20. In addition, a ring generator 40 typically will be coupled to the switching circuit to generate a conventional ringing signal-as soon as the switching circuit has established a connection to a called party's t~rrnin~l 80.
In accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 2, there is also located within the central office an image storage unit 50 for storing a tl~t~b~e of digitized images. Each customer or terrnin~l may be ~c~ign~(l at least one image. Such images could either be preselected by customers, or could be selected from a set of acceptable or pre-approved alternatives. It should also be understood, that storage unit 50 need not be physically located within the central office but may be elsewhere in the network, as in FIG. 1.
Coupled to storage unit 50 and to ANI 30 is an image select and refresh unit 55.Image select and refresh unit 55 may be a conventional table look-up or other addressing device under haldw~e or software control, the primary function of which is to address the storage unit 50, upon receipt of a signal from ANI 30 and under control of at least one processor 60, to select a particular portion of image data that is associated with the telephone number identified by ANI 30.
A secondary function of image select and refresh unit 55 is to cause current or "live" image data to be written into storage unit 50 upon receipt of a signal from the calling party at tçrmin~l 10. Such data could, for example, represent a recent still frame image captured by camera 12 during a conversation, or could represent a different image in a series of preselected images, such as in a slide show during a corporate presentation.
As shown in FIG. 2, coupled to the input of image select and refresh unit 55 is an optional image encoder 65. The function of image encoder 65 is to encode or convert the customer images into compact or co111p1cssed digital data sets that are better suited to tr~n.emie.eion over a telephone network of limited bandwidth. Image encoder 65 may, for example, be comprised of a system such as that shown in Bheda et al. U.S. Patent No.
4,943,855, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Decoding of the data stream may s be accomplished at the called party's terminal 80 to reconstruct the image. Image encoder 65 is not, of course, required if network bandwidth and terminal capacity are such that image tr~nemi.eeion can take place without co~np1cssion.
Further elements of FIG. 2 include a multiplexer 70 coupled to image encoder 65 and switching circuits 35, and a processor 60 coupled to the image encoder, to image o select and refresh unit 55, to ANI 30, to switching circuits 35 and to ring generator 40.
The function of processor 60 is to control the sequence and timing of image dataaddressing, refreshing, encoding, and tr~nemie.eion, as will be described in more detail below. The function of multiplexer 70 is to enable the multiplexed tr~n.emi.eeion of image data with the ring and voice signals, as will be described in more detail below.The operation of the present disclosure will now be described, with particular attention to FIG. 2. First, a calling party at terminal 10 places a call in an attempt to reach a party at tçrmin~1 80. In conventional fashion, incoming dialed digits are received within the central office 20. Upon completion of the dial sequence, the incoming number is identified by ANI unit 30, the dialed tçrmin~1 80 is identified by ~wilching circuits 35, and the switching circuits attempt to locate an available path and establish a network link to the dialed tçrmin~1 Upon locating an available path and dcLc~ ing that the dialed terminal is connected and in an on-hook condition, the switching circuits initiate a ring sequence through ring generator 40, which sequence continues until the called party answers.
In accordance with FIG. 2, as soon as the number of the calling tt?rmin~1 has been identified by ANI unit 30, a signal is sent to image select and refresh unit 55 that initiates an addressing sequence to locate within image storage unit 50 the approp1;ate portion of image data (whether one frame or a series of frames) that is associated with the calling number. This addressing sequence may take place simn1t~neously with, before or after the network link has been established and the ringing sequence has begun. In a p1cre,1cd embodiment, the addressing sequence is begun immediately upon identification of the calling terminal's number, so that the processing of image data may begin as quickly as possible.
Upon locating the image data associated with the calling t~rmin~1, image select 3s and refresh unit 55, under the control of processor 60, reads the data out of storage unit 50 for sending over the network.

7 ~1752S3 ..
As soon as an available path has been located and a connection to the called terminal has been established by switching circuit 35, a ring sequence is normally initiated by ring generator 40. In accordance with the present disclosure, as soon as processor 60 detects that switching circuits 35 have established a link between the calling 5 and called termin~l.c, processor 60 begins to transmit, or to prepare the image data for tr~n~mi~ion, over the link. This tr~n.cmi~ion could begin even before ring generator 40 transmits the first ring signal to called terminal 80, or it could be done simultaneously with the first ring or after a preselected number of rings. In one embodiment, image tr~n~mi~ion is begun prior to the first ring, to enable an image to be forrned at the called 0 terminal as quickly as possible. In another embodiment, processor 60 multiplexes the image data with the ring signal through multiplexer 70 over the connected line to terminal 80, be~imling with the first ring. After the called party has answered, and if the image data has not yet been completely transmitted, the image data will be multiplexed with voice signals, and will continue to be transmitted, under the control of processor 60.
At or prior to the beginning of the ringing sequence, processor 60 begins tr~n~mitting data in conjunction with the ring signal generated at ring generator 40 through multiplexer 70 to the called party at tçrmin~l 80. Depending upon available bandwidth in the network, the received image initially may have a course resolution, and then later become finer and finer. Alternatively, a fine-resolution image may appear at the called tçrmin~l at a speed compatible with the available bandwidth. As the ringing continues, the image received at termin~l 80 may be updated with refreshed image data, if such data has been received into image storage unit 50 from the calling tetmin~l or another source in the interim. This refreshed image may, unless blocked by the calling party, be a series of still images continuously or periodically transmitted from the calling party's termin~l 10 to database 50. The refresh rate is, of course, dependent upon the bandwidth of the network as well as the speed of the processor 60 and image encoder 65.
In another embodiment of the invention, an image post-processor (not shown) may be coupled between processor 60 and an optional multiplexer 70 in FIG. 2 to add additional image processing functions prior to tr~n.~mi~ion over the network. For example, the image may be tr~n~l~ted or reform~tted so as to be compatible with the particular tr~n~mi.~sion media being employed at the time. In addition, data may be added to or subtracted from the image under the control of processor 60, such as a voice greeting, a name, phone number or a visual greeting. Also, the image may or may not be sent in conjunction with a ring signal.
One of the advantages of the present disclosure is the ability of the system to alert the called party to the image of the calling party very early in the calling sequence. The 8 217~263 ..
image could be displayed at the calling party's terminal even before the first ring is sounded at the calling party's terminal. Alternatively, the image could appear on the screen simultaneously with the first ring or with some subsequent ring, at some predetermined interval after the ringing has begun, or after the called party has answered.
5 This allows the called party to screen the call depending upon the particular image, which advantageously permits the called party to dispense with the need to memorize the telephone numbers of calling individuals. In addition, by starting image tr~n~mi.~sion prior to or during ringing, it is likely that, by the time the called party has answered the call, enough time will have elapsed to permit the system to transmit and reconstruct a o relatively high-resolution image at the called terminal, even if network bandwidth is limited.
Thus, there is disclosed a system for selecting and transmitting a still image in response to an incoming call from a t~rmin~l or video phone and lldllslllillillg such image to the called party immediately upon the establishment of a network link bt;lwt;en the 5 calling party to the called party. It should, of course, be understood that while the present disclosure has been described in reference to illustrative embodiments, other arrangements may be apl)arelll to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example, image storage unit 50 could be located anywhere in the network or even within the called terminal 80 or the calling terminal 10, depending upon the amount of memory available.
20 Such local storage could store a subset of images customized for that particular tçrmin~l, such as images of frequent callers.

Claims

1. An image transmission system CHARACTERIZED BY:
memory for storing image data;
at least one processor coupled to said memory; and connection means interposed between said processor and a telecommunications network to which a called party and a calling party are coupled, that is adapted to transmit signals from said memory to said called party, where said processor, in response to signals received from said calling party that request connection to said called party, retrieves image data from said memory and forwards said image data to said connection means.

2. The system of claim 1 in which said called terminal comprises a video telephone.

3. The system of claim 1 in which said network comprises a telephone network.

4. The system of claim 1 in which said image data comprises preselected portionsof data, each portion associated with a calling terminal.

5. The system of claim 4 in which each said portion is transmitted to said memory via facsimile.

6. The system of claim 4 in which each said portion is transmitted to said memory via electronic mail.

7. The system of claim 1 in which said transmission of said image data occurs simultaneously with a ring signal.

8. The system of claim 1 in which said transmission of said image data occurs prior to a first ring signal.

9. The system of claim 1 in which said image data is selected by said calling party prior to transmission to said called party.

10. The system of claim 9 in which said image data is selected by the calling party using a predetermined code.

11. An image selection and transmission system CHARACTERIZED BY:
identifying means coupled to a telephone network for identifying a calling terminal and a called terminal;
switch means coupled to said network for establishing a ring connection to said called terminal and a visual communication connection between said calling terminal and said called terminal;
storage means coupled to said network for storing preselected portions of image data, each portion associated with one said calling terminal;
selector means coupled to said identifying means and to said storage means for selecting a portion of said image data associated with said calling terminal upon receipt of a signal from said identifying means; and processor means coupled to said coding means, to said identifying means and to said switch means for automatically initiating a flow of said data stream to said called terminal upon the establishment of said ring connection, and for continuing the flow of said data stream upon the establishment of said communication connection.

12. The system of claim 11 in which said flow of said data stream is initiated prior to the generation of a first ring signal during said ring connection.

13. The system of claim 11 in which said flow of said data stream is completed prior to the generation of a first ring signal during said ring connection.

14. The system of claim 11 further including coding means coupled to an input ofsaid selector means for encoding said image data prior to storage in said storage means.

15. The system of claim 11 in which said calling terminal is arranged to permit a calling party to block transmission of said data stream.

16. A method of selecting and transmitting an image to a terminal over a telephone network, CHARACTERIZED BY the steps of:
storing images in a database, each image associated with a terminal in said network;
identifying a terminal that is attempting to establish a connection to another terminal in said network;
selecting the image that is associated with said calling terminal;
establishing a connection between said calling terminal and said called terminal;
and initiating transmission of said data stream to said called terminal over said network upon the establishment of said connection.

17. The method of claim 16, in which said transmission of said data stream precedes the transmission of a ringing signal.

18. The method of claim 16 further including the step of encoding said images prior to storing said images in said database.

19. The system of claim 1 in which said image data is stored in said memory in a preselected facsimile format.

20. The system of claim 1 in which said image data is stored in said memory in a preselected electronic mail format.