WO2008082204A1

WO2008082204A1 - Method of distributing picture url's to poc clients for talker identification

Info

Publication number: WO2008082204A1
Application number: PCT/KR2007/006970
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sang-Kyung Sung; Nambiar Simith
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2006-12-29
Filing date: 2007-12-28
Publication date: 2008-07-10

Abstract

The present invention proposes a method to distribute picture URLs to PoC clients for talker identification in PoC sessions, by displaying the PoC address, nickname, and the talker's image in a Graphical User Interface in order to identify the user who has taken the floor.

Description

[DESCRIPTION] [Invention Title]

METHOD OF DISTRIBUTING PICTURE URL'S TO POC CLIENTS FOR TALKER IDENTIFICATION

[Technical Field]

The present invention in general relates to Push to Talk over Cellular (PoC) applications. Particularly, the present invention relates to distributing picture URL'S to PoC clients for talker identification. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method to distribute picture url's to poc clients for talker identification.

[Background Art]

In PoC scenarios, Talker identification is intepreted from the TBCP (Taken Message) which is shown below. [Table 1 ]

.0 1 2 3

0 1 23 4 5 6 78 90 1 234 5 6 7 8 9 O f 2 34 5 678 9 0 1

|V=2|P| subtype,! PT=APP=2G4 | length |

I SSpjC of PoC Serve r perforrni ng the Control Ii ng PoC Fu nction j

I ^* name=PpC1 |

I SSRC of PoC Client graritecTa permission to send.aΥalk Burst |

^' SDES item CNAME followed by SDES item NAME | i

P-count = 10Of P-count- | |

I length = 2 | Participants |

Talk Burst Taken Message

From the above Talk Burst Taken Message, the receiving user can display the SDES item onto the Graphical User Interface, i.e CNAME for the E-mail Like Id, and the NAME SDES item for the Display name. There was an Internet Draft in the following link which proposed new SDES items, which also included a SDES Item named Personal lmage , http://www.cdt.luth.se/~peppar/docs/itp-sdes/draft-parnes-rtp-sdes-00.txt . However the Internet draft has expired in May' 99, and it has not got RFC status.

Instead of creating a new SDES item (Personal lmage) for distributing the Picture URL as suggested by the above Internet draft, Sec 6.5.8 of RFC 3550, RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications, defines an SDES item called PRIV for experimental or application-specific SDES extensions. This can be used for sending the personal image of the Talking PoC user, in the Talk Burst Taken Message by the PoC Server.

The pre-conditions for this to work:

The PoC Server:

(a)It should have access to the User Profile Picture URL of the PoC users.

(b)It should have access to the Privacy settings of the PoC users.

(c)None.

In the prior art, the patent titled 'caller identification using push-to-talk protocol for wireless communications devices' (Patent No. WO2006011902A1) describes a system and method that permits users to create, store, and manage customized caller ID files. The caller ID files may be image files and may be associated with one or more intended recipients in a user's address book. When the user, as a calling party, calls an intended recipient, the customized caller ID files may be included in the signaling message during call set up or as a URL. A server in a core network forwards the signaling message and the customized caller ID files to the recipient via a Base Station System (BSS). This permits the recipient to identify the calling party before accepting or declining an invitation to converse with the calling party. However, the patent publication does not mention the concept of distributing picture URLs as part of the conference event notification message.

In another state of the art literature titled 'Transmission of image date during communication sessions' (Patent No. EP1575316A2), it describes a method and system for transmitting image data automatically during Push-to-Talk over Cellular (PoC) communication session. A PoC server controls the sending of image data to the users. The image data associated with the users is stored in an image server. A SIP INVITE is sent that provides the name of the user and a SIP RE-INVITE (effectively a SIP INVITE message) is sent that provides the image that has to be displayed. The image data is stored in the image server even after termination of communication session for subsequent sessions. In yet another patent, titled 'Transmission of image date during communication sessions' (Patent No. WO2006062561A1), it describes a method for exchanging images in wireless communications devices capable of push-to- talk service. The invention provides a more visually-oriented interface to indicate control of floor and status of users. However, a memory on the communication device itself is used to store the image of the individuals to be displayed on a graphical interface. According to the method, a controller alters the images to show status information. A GLMS server manages the contact list and access lists. The contact list comprises of images or other graphical identifier associated with a group. A user sends the request to the GLMS server, which returns the participants' image to the requesting user terminal.

In another prior art literature (Patent No. US20060040686A1), it talks about a method for displaying image of a push-to-talk (PTT) communication service subscriber having the right to speak in a portable terminal capable of using a PTT communication service. Information related to the PTT communication service subscriber having the speaking right is received. The image of the PTT communication service subscriber is then extracted from this received information. The image information is used to differentiate a service subscriber having a speaking right from a subscriber not having a speaking right. [Disclosure] [Technical Problem]

From the foregoing, it is obvious that, even though the prior art documents does talks about the concept of distributing Picture of participants in a PoC session, and the idea of sending picture URLs in the call setup messages for retrieving the images from the server, none actually mentions the concept of distributing these Picture URLs as part of the conference event notification message specifically.

[Technical Solution]

Accordingly, The present invention tries to solve this shortcoming in the prior art literature by suggesting a method to show the PoC address, nick name, and the talker's image in a Graphical User Interface so as to identify the user who has taken the floor.

It is therefore the primary object of the invention to propose a method to distribute picture URLs to PoC clients for talker identification in a PoC session.

It is another object of the invention to show the PoC address, nick name, A-

and the talker's image in a Graphical User Interface to identify the user who has taken the floor.

It is yet another object of the invention to display the dynamic picture of the user who has taken the Floor.

It is a further object of the invention to distribute the picture URL to all the users in the PoC call to enhance user experience.

It is another object of the invention to let users control the access to their images by varying their privacy settings.

It is another object of the invention to let the PoC users decide whether to download images or not based on its size.

Accordingly, the present invention proposes a method to distribute picture URLs to PoC clients for talker identification in PoC sessions, by displaying the PoC address, nickname, and the talker's image in a Graphical User Interface in order to identify the user who has taken the floor, the method comprising,

(a)Initiating the call by UE and establishing the session.

(b)Subscribing for the conference event package by the UE.

(c)Distributing the Picture URL to the PoC Clients by Control Plane Signalling or User Plane Signalling.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the ensuing detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. [Advantageous Effects]

A PoC Client would display a picture of the Talker, the Nick Name (if available) and the PoC Address of the Talker, in the Graphical User Interface. [Description of Drawings]

Figure 1 illustrates A PoC session where a user has taken the floor, as displayed in the receiver's Graphical User Interface.

Figure 2 illustrates A PoC session where a user has taken the floor, as displayed in the Graphical User Interface, with the Image of the person who has taken the Floor.

Figure 3 illustrates Distributing the Picture URL in the Conference event NOTIFY message.

Figure 4 illustrates Distributing the Picture URL in the Conference event NOTIFY message, collected through the initial signaling in the Image-Url header. Figure 5 illustrates Picture URL of all the users in the PoC Session distributed through a new TBCP message. [Best Mode]

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following description and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail.

Talker Identification in PoC Sessions is provided by a Nick Name and the PoC Address of the user, received in the TBCP Taken message. A PoC Client would display the Nick Name (if available) and the PoC Address of the Talker, in the Graphical User Interface. Figure 1 shows how a PoC Client would display the received Talker identification information, when a PoC user has taken the floor.

Note: This is only a static image that is displayed for any user who takes the floor.

From the above figure, apart from the Nick Name and the PoC Address, there is no indication of the Talker's age, sex, color etc. A Picture of the Talker could be a very nice way of getting a feel of how the Talker looks, Talker's age, sex etc., thus enhancing the user experience. Figure 2 depicts how the Graphical User Interface could show the Floor taken user along with the PoC Address, Nick Name and Image.

Note: In this case, the Image displayed is dynamic, based on the user who has taken the Floor.

Now, distributing the Picture URL to the PoC Clients could be achieved in 2 different ways:

(a)Control Plane Signaling.

(b)User Plane Signaling.

Control Plane Signaling

Distributing the Picture URL to the PoC Clients through the Control Plane can be achieved in the following ways:

Method 1

As the OMA Specifications suggest that the PoC Clients SUBSCRIBE to the conference event package (RFC 4575 - A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Event Package for Conference State), the Picture URL's can be a part of the Conference Event Notification messages delivered to the PoC Clients, by extending the <user> element of the <conference-info> document , with the new <picture-url> element.

Privacy Settings of the user should be taken into account before distributing their Picture URL's to other users.

An example Conference event notification with the Picture URL element added would look as shown below. [Table 2]

The call flow for Figure 3:

1.A UE initiates a Call, SIP Call setup for a PoC Session, and the session is established successfully.

2. The UE Subscribes for the conference event package.

3.PoC Server fetches the Picture URL's of the participants from the Profile database.

4. Sends notifications to all the UE and the other participants (not shown).

5. The UE retrieves the Images from the URL pointed to by the Picture URL.

One way the PoC Server can fetch the picture URL's of PoC Users is by accessing the User Profile of the PoC User. In OMA specifications, the Shared User Profile XDMS (XML Document Management Server) is used to hold User Profile Information. The PoC Server can access the information on the Shared User Profile XDMS by launching an Xquery to retrieve the picture URL. When the PoC User in a PoC Session happens to be from another domain than the domain hosting the Conference the PoC Server can route the Xquery to the other domain through the appropriate routing entity in the network.

The PoC Server will not fetch and distribute the picture URL's of PoC Users who have requested Privacy. Privacy is generally requested using Control Plane signalling messages which are accessible to the PoC Server.

Furthermore, the <picture-url> element MAY have the following optional attributes: size: The size attribute indicates the size in bytes of the Image pointed to by the Picture url element. type: The type of image, currently proposed formats are: jpg - For a JPEG image, gif - For a GIF image, png - for a PNG image. These attributes if present can give more information to the PoC Clients, about the image, and the PoC Clients could base the decision to download the Image pointed to by the <picture-url> element.

For e.g.:

(a) A PoC client might not know how to render PNG format images.

(b)A PoC client might not want to download images greater that 6000 bytes.

An example <picture-url> element having the image format JPEG and of size 8KB, would be represented as follows:

<picture-url size="8192" type="jpg">http://www.pocnetwork.net/profiles/users/jon_postel/pic.jpg</picture -url>

Pre-conditions for this to work are:

PoC Server:

(a)It should have access to the User Profile Picture URL of the PoC users.

(b)It should have access to the Privacy settings of the PoC users.

Method 2

A new SIP header called Image-Url, could be used by the Caller in his INVITE/REFER SIP Message, Callee's Image-Url can be collected when the Final response is received (which will have the Image-Url header with the HTTP/HTTPS URL of the responding User Agent Server). Propagating the received information will be through a SIP NOTIFY for the Conference Event package.

E g: Image-Url: http://www.profiles.yahoo.com/Ernesto/defaultpic.jpg

It is desirable (not mandatory) that the User Agent Server (i.e. endpoints) responds with its Image-Url in the response, when there is an Image-Url header in the INVITE request. The Server can collect the Image-URL's and pass them in the NOTIFY for the conference event package subscription. The Image-Url header can be a part of any final response, and does not need to be a 2XX, as it can be helpful to show the images of people who have declined, not answered, Busy, unreachable etc.

The Call flow for Figure 4:

1.User A sends an INVITE with the Image URL header, the PoC Server stores the Image URL, and forwards the INVITE including the header.

2.PoC Server forwards the INVITE to User B. 3.PoC Server forwards the INVITE to user C.

4.User B sends a 200 OK with the Image-Url header and the PoC Server returns an ACK. PoC Server stores User B's Image UrI.

5. User C sends a 200 OK with the Image-Url header and the PoC Server returns an ACK. PoC Server stores User Cs Image UrI.

6.200 OK and ACK exchange between User A and the PoC server.

7.User A subscribes to the conference event package.

8. User B subscribes to the conference event package.

9.User C subscribes to the conference event package.

10.PoC Server sends NOTIFY with Picture Element to User B.

11.PoC Server sends NOTIFY with Picture Element to User C.

12.PoC Server sends a NOTIFY with Picture Element to A.

13. User B retrieves the Images from the Picture URL received in the NOTIFY.

H.User C retrieves the Images from the Picture URL received in the NOTIFY.

15. User A retrieves the Images from the Picture URL received in the NOTIFY.

16.PoC Server sends a Talk Burst Grant to User A.

17.PoC Server sends a Talk Burst Taken to User B.

18.PoC Server sends a Talk Burst Taken to User C.

Pre-conditions for this to work is:

PoC Server:

(a)It should have access to the Privacy settings of the PoC users.

The disadvantage of this method is that this method will not work with terminating PoC Clients which have a Pre-established session with the Participating PoC Server, as the SIP Signaling messages do not reach them.

User Plane Signaling

Method 3

A New TBCP Message can be used to convey User Profile Information separately. A new TBCP UserProfilelnfo Message can be introduced, which will contain the CNAME and the Picture URL SDES item of the user. The SDES item for Picture URL could be a Private Extension to SDES items as mentioned in RFC 3550, RTP: A Transport Protocol for Real-Time Applications. This new TBCP UserProfilelnfo Message should also support combining many users information in one message.

In this method as well, the Privacy Settings of the user should be taken into account before distributing their Picture URL's to other users.

The call flow for Figure 5:

A PoC Session is established between A, B and C.

LPoC Server gets the Picture URL of all the members.

2.PoC Server sends a TBCP UserProfilelnfo Message with the Picture URL of all the users to user B.

3.PoC Server sends a TBCP UserProfilelnfo Message with the Picture URL of all the users to user A.

4.PoC Server sends a TBCP UserProfilelnfo Message with the Picture URL of all the users to user C.

5. User A retrieves the Picture URL's from the Image Server. ό.User B retrieves the Picture URL's from the Image Server.

7.User C retrieves the Picture URL's from the Image Server.

8.PoC Server sends a Talk Burst Grant to User A.

9.PoC Server sends a Talk Burst Taken to User B.

10.PoC Server sends a Talk Burst Taken to User C.

Pre-conditions for this to work are:

PoC Server:

(a)It should have access to the User Profile Picture URL of the PoC users.

(b)It should have access to the Privacy settings of the PoC users.

Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they_depart there from.

Claims

[CLAIMS] [Claim 1 ]

A method to distribute picture URLs to PoC clients for talker identification in PoC sessions, by displaying the PoC address, nick name, and the talker's image in a Graphical User Interface to identify the user who has taken the floor, the method comprising,

Initiating the call by UE and establishing the session;

Subscribing for the conference event package by the UE; and

Distributing the Picture URL to the PoC Clients through Control Plane Signalling or User Plane Signalling.

[Claim 2]

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the picture URL is delivered to the PoC users as part of the Conference Event Notification messages, by extending the <user> element of the <conference-info> document , with the new <picture-url> element.

[Claim 3]

The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the <picture-url> element may contain the attributes(size and type) that indicates the size in bytes of the image and the format of the image respectively.

[Claim 4]

The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the image types in the currently proposed format are jpg, gif or png.

[Claim 5]

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the picture URLs is distributed to those PoC users only whose privacy settings where the PoC server has access to.

[Claim 6]

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a SIP header called Image URL is used by the caller in his invitation for which the callee's Image URL will be received in response(not necessarily though) which is then propagated in a SIP NOTIFY for the Conference Event package by the server.

[Claim 7]

The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the Image URL can be part of any final response and not necessarily be a 2xx.

[Claim 8]

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the TBCP UserProfilelnfo Message, which contains the CNAME and the Picture URL SDES item of the user, is used to convey User Profile Information to PoC users separately.

[Claim 9]

The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the User Profile Information supports combining many users information in one message.

[Claim 10]

The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the PoC server has access to the User Profile Picture URL of the PoC users.

[Claim 11 ]

A method to distribute picture URLs to PoC clients for talker identification in PoC sessions, by displaying the PoC address, nick name, and the talker's image in a Graphical User Interface to identify the user who has taken the floor, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.