David G Weimer

US Patent:

7908630, Mar 15, 2011

Filed:

Jan 23, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/061064

Inventors:

Evan Stephen Crandall - Morris NJ, US
Anders Fernstedt - Santa Clara CA, US
Steven Lloyd Greenspan - Union NJ, US
David M Weimer - Aberdeen NJ, US

Assignee:

AT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P. - Reno NV

International Classification:

H04N 7/173
H04N 7/14

US Classification:

725105, 725106, 725109, 725110, 348 1401, 348 1404

Abstract:

A novel mechanism is disclosed by which a sender can direct information such as an audiovisual signal to a particular recipient's audiovisual display device, such as a cable television set and, thereby, share information between the sender and the recipient. In one embodiment of the invention, a calling party originates a telephone call and associates that telephone call with audio-visual information that exists on the caller's personal computer or on an Internet server. The called party answers the call, and can tune an associated cable television to the appropriate channel in order to view the audio-visual information. The caller can modify the audio-visual information during the call. Accordingly, the current invention ties together the telephone, cable, and IP networks in a manner that does not require large investments from cable or telephone service providers. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, a called party, such as a representative at a customer service center or an interactive voice response unit, can associate audio-visual information with the call such that the calling party can see the data on the appropriate television channel. In another embodiment, the telephone keypad can be used to move forwards and backwards through a series of audio-visual screens.