WO2014078916A1

WO2014078916A1 - Method and device for integration of communication and television multimedia services

Info

Publication number: WO2014078916A1
Application number: PCT/BG2013/000014
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ventzislav Stoyanov Ivanov
Original assignee: Ventzislav Stoyanov Ivanov
Priority date: 2012-11-23
Filing date: 2013-04-08
Publication date: 2014-05-30

Abstract

The invention concerns a method and device for integration providing communication and television multimedia services, in which with the use of a single technical device both a communication and a television signal is provided, which expands the possibilities for interactive communication. The method characterized with the fact that voice and multimedia signals are sent simultaneously to the client device, with the multimedia signal, depending on the characteristics of the transmission medium and provided services, being converted to a format, suitable for receiving and use on client devices. The enclosed method implementation with device, including communication (201) and multimedia (209) modules, connected by a control and management module (212), with each of the above mentioned modules respectively containing audio (203) and video (211) converter, characterized by the communication (201) and multimedia (209) modules are connected by a audio mixer module (208) and the multimedia module having an additional overlay module (206).

Description

METHOD AND DEVICE FOR INTEGRATION OF

COMMUNICATION AND TELEVISION MULTIMEDIA SERVICES

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention concerns a method and device for integrate providing communication and television multimedia services, in which with the use of a single technical device both a communication and a television signal is provided, which expands the possibilities for interactive communication. The invention enables the possibility for quick and easy access to telecommunication as well as television multimedia services and mostly the combination of both. The invention has a wide area of application, which is determined by the everyday telecom needs as well as the need for information and entertainment.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Telephony and television are telecommunication services. They are two separate tracks in the development of telecommunication technology but are very close technologically. The combination of the telephone with television in a single system is a logical a logical consequence not only from the technological development but from the dynamic lifestyle and the natural needs of the users. This natural combination of television and telephone can be built at different levels and using different approaches, for example by having a hardware television receiver with a telephone or by having an integrated software solution or a combination of both. Apart from that, contemporary dynamic lifestyle seeks ever faster and unrestricted access to information and communication and one of the ways to implement it is through mobile technology, which in itself is another possibility of integrating television and telephony at the mobile communication level. The multitude of technological solutions for providing telephony and television services, give a number of possible solutions for their integrated unification.

A large number of separate software, hardware and hybrid solutions for telecommunication services as well as television have been known.

Apart from the standard technical features such as audio and video telephone calls, sending and receiving text and multimedia messages, a number of additional services are provided such as call transfer, call waiting, call hold conference call, DTMF and others., as well as services that are not directly connected to the telephony - sending and receiving of files such as pictures, video clips, etc. The development of the telecommunication services has reached the stage of completely software implementations. One such solution, gathering ever growing popularity lately is based on the technology for data transfer over a local area network and even the global Internet network. The method of transmitting telephony over Internet/Intranet is well known. When initiating audio/video call the signal is compressed in the form of standard data blocks, which are sent to the receiving party through the Internet/Intranet. When the packets are received, they are converted to audio/video signal. The big advantage of this technology is the low cost of the telecommunication service. In practice the cost is reduced to the use of Internet connectivity, and in the case of local area network the additional cost is reduced to zero.

In its essence television is a telecommunication technology for sending and receiving a moving picture over distance, accompanied by synchronized sound. There are forms of television with a limited scope of transmission, such a CCTV, industrial control or traffic monitoring systems. By far the most popular application of television is the distribution of television programs over large distances, which makes it one of the mass-medias.

The distribution of the television signal is often referred to as "television broadcast". In order to have a television broadcast, a video source must be produced, which in its turn is obtained by conversion of light, emitted or reflected from objects into an electrical signal, sending or transmission of the electrical signal trough a transport medium and their receiving and conversion and reverse transformation into light, constructing the optical representation of the objects. This system of distributing television signal is called terrestrial broadcast television and is created based on the existing models of radio broadcast. At the end of the 20^th century other transmission mediums began to be used, for example satellite television by use of man-made satellites in earth orbit or cable television by using a specially built, dedicated cable network to the subscribers. Gradually television broadcast started converting from using an analogue signal to digital one, which led to ever-wider use of digital television, which allows the transmission of more television signals in a given frequency spectrum, as well as providing additional services, such as subtitles, electronic program guides (EPG), additional audio tracks, video-on-demand (VoD) and pay-per-view (PPV).

The technological development led to the modern television services, such as Internet television, distributed through the global Internet network; convergent service for provision of multimedia content to end-users by platforms, based on the internet protocol (IP) with quality of service, known as IPTV; 3D television - a technological innovation giving the viewed picture a depth and volume of the image, etc.

A patent is known EP1995939A1, which describes a mobile telephone with the capability of displaying broadcast television. The claims, describe that the mobile phone must have two screens: front and rear, with the front display, dedicated to showing information regarding the telephone service, and the rear display dedicated to watching television. The patent also describes the possibility of easy switching between phone call and watching television. The principal differences between patent EP1995939A1 and our described integrated solution are: -EP1995939A1, claims a mobile telephone with the ability to watch broadcast television and easy switching between the two, while our solution claims a method for a telecommunication device, which allows the simultaneous making of telephone or video call and watching multimedia content. In our solution the user does not need to switch between the two activities. -Unlike the aforementioned patent, our solution is not restricted to watching broadcast television, and the user is given the capability to use multimedia information: television programs, music, photos, etc.

-Our described solution does not use the television broadcast as transport of the television signal, but instead uses the transport medium of the telephone network: GSM, GPRS, UMTS, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Internet and others.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION.

Taking into consideration the described state of the art in the respective field, the aim of this invention is to apply a method for management of telecommunication services, combined into a unified logical system with online interactive television. Another goal of the integration method is the lowering of the cost of telecommunication services, as well as the provision of fast, mobile access to interactive television.

The problem is solved by a method for integration of a communication and multimedia signal, including receiving of audio and video signal and their transfer to a user device for making voice communication between users, with provided user identification

According to the invention the client device is sent simultaneously voice and multimedia signal, with the multimedia signal converted to a format suitable for receiving and display on client devices depending on the characteristics of the transport medium , with the incoming information is separated by modules into audio and video channels, after which the video signal is mixed with a signal from a camera and the resulting image is displayed on the display of the client device, and the audio information from the telephone line is mixed with the audio information , received from the television converter, with a simultaneous transfer of data taking place between the client device and the operator of the service.

The parameters for converting the audio and video signals are set through a module for management and control, located in the user device.

The task of the invention is solved through a device for implementing the method, including a communication and multimedia modules, connected through a management and control module, with each of the mentioned modules containing audio and video converter respectively.

According to the invention the communication and multimedia modules are connected by a mixing audio module, and the multimedia module has an additional overlay module provided. The implementation of a unified integrated system between telephony and television enables the creation of a multitude of additional services, as well as the transition of the television from a service for distributing information into a service for generating information, or in other words the passive use of television information, can be replaced with active generation of information from the users and the one-way television information model can be replaced by a two-way or more precisely multipoint. The client is the one, who can choose and decide how to make use of the capabilities, which are provided by such an invention and he is the one who will determine the future information models

The integrated solution gives the possibility for watching television while using basic telecommunication services, like making a phone call, sending messages and others. The main advantage of such an invention is the possibility to use simultaneously two services with one device, without the need to change devices or to use several software solutions as well as a combination of the two. The invention is aimed to an unlimited number of users, who wish to use a unified integrated system for telecommunications and television. The method according to the invention allows for great mobility while using it, including while in movement.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

Further in the description a presentation is made of a preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention, whose detailed description is aided by the accompanying drawings as follows:

- Fig.1 - Schematic of the topology of one preferred embodiment of the method

- Fig.2 - Schematic of one preferred embodiment of the client device PREFFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF INVENTION

In general there is a relation between the operator, supporting/providing services and user, using the client device. In order to grant access of the user to the services of the operator, logic might be implemented for identification of the client device and respectively the user. The operator as a general rule provides the full spectrum of voice telecommunication services, which are provided by the module "soft switch". The telecommunication part is organized in such a way that the users can be identified with a unique number, from which they can initiate and receive calls, and also send and receive messages. Additional telecommunication services are implementable, such as call transfer, call wait, call hold, conference call, DTMF and others. In order to provide voice communication the ability to identify each of the users unambiguously is needed.

At the same time the operator of the service, depending of the characteristics of the transport medium, converts the signal from the available multimedia sources to electronic signals, more specifically to a format suitable for the client devices.

The method according to the invention I characterized by the fact, that in the client device a VoIP & TV application for mobile devices is provided/installed, which allows each user to access preferred multimedia sources, such as television signal, broadcast by cable, satellite, global telecommunication network. The application provides the capability for directly receiving the signal from the multimedia sources, for example directly watching television - live television, time-shifted, etc. as well as the ability to switch between the IPTV mode and VoIP telephony and back.

According one preferred embodiment of the invention the method can be implemented also by means of a web interface, allowing access to a web site and/or user application intended for installation on a computer.

The described preferred embodiments - of the invention are not limited to employing other interface solutions, with each preferred embodiment needing the provision of a link to the server, which can be located in a local and/or global communication network.

The method for integrating communication and multimedia signal / telephone and television is implemented in the following way: According to Fig.l the operator of the service (106) has the technical capability to receive and convert available multimedia sources (107) to electronic signals, depending on the characteristics of the transport medium (102) and the additional services provided to a format, appropriate for the client devices (101). The information coming from the multimedia sources (107) is converted from the module TV Converter (105) to a format, suitable for the client devices (101), which is transferred through the transport medium (102) to the client device (101), more specifically to the module communication converter Fig.2 (215).

At the same time the operator provides also a whole spectrum of voice telecommunication services by the module soft switch (104). In order to authorize the right of access to the described services a logic must be implemented for identification of the client device and/or user. For the purposes of providing voice communication a unambiguous identification of every user must be provided.

The communication converter (215) located in the client device splits the incoming voice and video information. After separating the channels, the video information is transferred to the module "video signal converter" (211), the audio information is transferred to the module "audio input converter" (202), and the control information is transferred to the module "Management and control module" (212). The management and control module allows the user to control the parameters of the converters and respectively to control the volume of the sound, the brightness and contrast of the video, etc. After that the video signal is mixed with the signal from the "video camera" (207) using the module "Overlay" (210) and the resulting video is visualized on the "display" (206) of the client device. By using the module "overlay" (210) the user gets visual information about the video, which is viewed by the other user, with which he is in communication. On the other side the module "input audio converter" (202) transfers the audio information from the telephone line to the module "audio mixer" (208), where it is mixed with the audio information, received from the "TV module" (209), and as a result of this mixing the users has the possibility to simultaneously receive sound from the television broadcast and audio information received through the telephone line. Simultaneously with the above described process, illustrating the transfer of information to the client device, there is also a parallel process, which takes care of the transfer of the data from the client device. By way of the "microphone" (204), the audio signal received from the user is transferred to the module "audio input converter" (203). This signal is together with the video signal received from the "camera" (207), through the module "video signal converter" (211) and the control signals generated from the "management and control module" (212) are transferred to the module "communication converter" (215), and from there to the "operator" (106).„Control and synch channel" module (213) is responsible for generating and processing the signaling packets of information exchanged between the client and the operator. According to this information the operator can determine the client state and capabilities and to make a decision how to provide media data to him. This module is also responsible for synchronization of audio and media data. The "Input converter" module (214) is responsible for transcoding the input and output video data according to the information received from module (213), which has been negotiated between client and operator already (106). The processing and retransmission of the input and output streams of data is done by the operator of the service. The method according to the invention allows the user at any given moment, using the client device, to watch simultaneously one or more multimedia sources, as well as transferring audio/video information to one or more users. The method also allows the implementation of a large number of additional services such as for example: users talking between themselves, while watching television, exchanging text and multimedia messages while watching television, and initiating video call between the users, with the video of the other party being overlaid over the television image of the television program watched at the moment, as well as one of the users sending video information to another users, while in the process of exchanging voice information between the users.

Claims

1 Method for integration of communication and multimedia signal and in particular for integration of voice communication and television service, comprising of receiving of audio and video signal and their sending to a client device for provision of voice communication between the users, with provided identification of the user, characterized by the fact that voice and multimedia signals are sent simultaneously to the client device, with the multimedia signal, depending on the characteristics of the transmission medium and provided services, being converted to a format , suitable for receiving and use on client devices, with the incoming information split by the use of modules into a voice and video channels, after which the video channels is mixed with the signal from the camera and the resulting image is visualized on the display of the client device, and the audio information from the telephone line is mixed with the audio information, received from the television converter, while at the same time a data transfer takes place between the client device and the operator of the service.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized by the parameters for conversion of the audio and video signals being set by way of a management and control module, located in the client device.

3. The device for implementing the method, including communication (201) and multimedia (209) modules, connected by a control and management module (212), with each of the abovementioned modules respectively containing audio (203) and video (211) converter, characterized by the communication (201) and multimedia (209) modules are connected by a audio mixer module (208) and the multimedia module having an additional overlay module (206).