Visual Calling Person Display

This invention relates to communication networks such as telephone public switching networks and to systems and/or methods of displaying graphics such as the facial representation of a calling party.

Subscribers to Custom Local Area Signaling Services (CLASS) features can select as an option, a caller line identification (CLID) service wherein the telephone number of the calling party is displayed at the time an incoming telephone call is received. The subscriber must of course have a display terminal with the capacity to receive and display the telephone number of a calling party. The terminal may also display other digits such as data and/or time of day. It is also within the capability of such telephony terminals to display alpha-numeric information such as the name of the calling party.

In such networks, the calling party identification data is stored at either the calling party's central office or at some service control point (SCP). Upon receipt of an identifier that a subscriber of the caller ID service is being called the stored data is retrieved from the memory at the calling party's central office or appropriate SCP. The information is transmitted via SS7 trunks between central offices using low bit rate modem technology over existing analog lines to the called subscriber. Conventionally, the data is transmitted during the time interval between the first and second ringing bursts. Using simple modems and allowing for sufficient guard time to permit ringing transients to dissipate it is possible to convey up to 100 bytes of data during the time interval between ringing bursts. Display phones such as Nortel's VISTA series are representative of terminals capable of providing caller ID. VISTA is a trademark of Northern Telecom Limited.

The amount of information that can be conveyed in he aforementioned 100 bytes of data will depend on the nature and compression of the data. U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,487, which issued Jun. 28, 1988 to Newmuis, discloses a processing technique for digitizing and storing information indicative of the major recognizable features of an object such as the face of a person. The patent describes a compression scheme which concentrates on the portion of the person's face containing unique identification features. This critical area in the subject patent is identified as the critical identification area (CIA) and represents a T-shaped zone covering the eyes, nose and mouth of the person being identified. Other regions of the person's face such as forehead, hair line, etc., contain fewer uniquely identifiable features and can be captured in lesser detail. Using this compression technique, a representation of a person's face can be digitized and stored on, for example, the magnetic stripe on a credit card which makes it possible for the bearer of the card to be identified upon presentation of the card in connection with a financial transaction. In this patent approximately 1K bytes of data are used. The party making the identification must, of course, have the necessary equipment to convert and display the digitized data.

U.S. Pat. No.5,268,963, which issued Dec.7, 1993 to Monroe et al, also describes a system and method for encoding personalized identification for storage on memory storage devices. The '963 patent relates to the acquisition, digitization and compression of a photographic-type image on a memory device wherein the data contains randomly distributed unique serialized information used for verifying authenticity.

The present invention seeks to combine the digitization/compression process and the caller identification feature to provide a system wherein the facial likeness of the originator of a communications connection is displayed at the terminal of the communications recipient. In a preferred embodiment the invention relates to the provision of a facial image of a calling party on the display of a called party's display telephone.

Therefore in accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for providing graphics to a user of a telecommunications network. The system has a communications terminal with display means for presenting the graphics. A control centre has communications switching equipment to route communications from a communications originator to the user of the communications terminal. The control centre also has memory means to store the graphics in a digitized format and to retrieve the digitized data from the memory in response to a request from the communications originator. Transmission means link the control centre to the communications terminal, the terminal having means to convert the digitized data and to display the same to a user of the terminal.

In a preferred embodiment, the telecommunications network is a telephone system utilizing a display telephone in which the graphics is a facial representation of the calling party. In a further embodiment the graphics is a logo or other distinguishing information which identifies the caller or a caller's product or service.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of displaying graphics to the user of a communications network. The method comprises the steps of (a) digitizing the graphics to be displayed, (b) storing the digitized data in memory at a control centre, (c) retrieving the digitized data from the memory in response to a command from an originator of a communication, (d) downloading the digitized data to a terminal at the premise of a recipient cf the communications, and (e) displaying the graphics on a display on the terminal.

The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a basic system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the system applicable to the public switched telephone network;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an alternative to the system of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a program sequence; and

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of al alternative program sequence.

As shown in FIG. 1, the system includes terminals 12,20 such as telephones having a display 14. The display in a preferred embodiment is a high resolution LCD having backlighting. The exact format of the display is not critical as long as the area and resolution is sufficient to display the key elements of a facial representation. The type of displays used on present display phones may be adequate or it may be necessary to provide a display with more capabilities, if greater detail is required.

Although a display phone is contemplated in FIG. 1, it is to be understood that other display means such as a computer monitor may be incorporated in the system, particularly if the form of communications involved is electronic mail.

The system as illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a control centre 16 which includes switching equipment necessary to connect telecommunication from an originating party to a receiving party via lines 22. Switching equipment designed to perform this function is well known and is not described in detail herein. Such equipment might be, for example, a PBX for strictly local communications.

The switching equipment of the present invention also has provision for storing a digitized representation of the facial features of a subscriber to the service. The subscriber makes available to the service provider a photograph or other graphic representation which is to be displayed. The service provider digitizes the photograph utilizing compression techniques such as those described in the aforementioned U.S. patents. By these techniques, in which only the critical identification areas are recorded in detail, a recognizable representation of a subscriber's face can be produced utilizing approximately 40 bytes. This data is stored in a memory store 18 at the control centre 16 for access by the switching network in the same way as a calling party's number or name is accessed by a CLID feature.

A preferred embodiment of the invention pertains to the public switched telephone network wherein the terminals are display telephones and the control centres are comprised of central offices associated with the public network. FIG. 2 is a block diagram representing such a system. In FIG. 2, the calling party's telephone 30 is connected to the local central office 32 via line 31. Central office 32 has, in addition to a switch 34, memory means 36 in which is stored digitized data representing the facial representation of all the subscribers to the service which are connected to the local office 32. Central office 32 is connected via CCS-7 trunks such as trunk 38 to a plurality of other central offices as is known in the art. In FIG. 2 one of these other offices is the local or central office 40 to which the called party's terminal 42 is connected. Thus, the calling party initiates a call via terminal 30 to the called party on terminal 42. The call is routed via switching means 34 in central office 32 to central office 40 whereat it is determined that called party's terminal 42 has means to display the facial representation of the calling party. The facial representation in digitized form is retrieved from memory means 36 and routed via trunk 38 to central office 40 and terminal 42. At terminal 42 the digitized data is processed and displayed on the display 43 as a facial representation of the calling party. Preferably this data is presented with other calling line identification information such as telephone number and/or calling party's name between the first and second ringing bursts.

FIG. 3 shows a variation on the system illustrated in FIG. 2. In this embodiment the calling party's local office 32 is connected via trunk 44 to service control point 46 which includes digitized data storage means 48. The digitized data is retrieved from storage as required in response to a call from the calling party's terminal 30.

It is to be understood that the calling party can, via terminal 30, signal the switching network not to transmit the facial representation to the called party if it is deemed inappropriate to do so when completing the telephone connection. Terminal 30 will also preferably be a display telephone although other terminals such as a computer are anticipated by this invention.

It is also to be understood that a subscriber number may have more than one individual placing calls to a called number. In this case, the subscriber could store in the memory at the Central Office a digitized facial representation of each of the members using the calling party number. Each member then would have a code or indicator to select which of the facial representations in memory was to be downloaded to the called party's terminal.

A flow chart of a processing sequence is shown in FIG. 4. As illustrated, a call initiated from the calling party's terminal is received at the calling party's central office by dialing or voice activation. It is to be assumed that the calling party is a subscriber to the CLASS service and the caller line identification feature. The calling party's central office retrieves at least digitized data of the calling party's facial representation and transmits this data together with the call via the trunk line to the called party's central office. At the called party's central office it is determined as to whether the called party is also a subscriber to the CLID function. If not, the call is connected to the called party's terminal without CLID. If the called party is a subscriber the first ringing burst is sent to the called party's terminal, followed immediately by the digitized data representing the calling party's face. The digitized and compressed data is transmitted using a low bit rate modem technology over the existing analog line. At the terminal the digitized data is decoded and displayed on the called party's display terminal. As shown in FIG. 4, the calling party's telephone number and name is optionally sent to the called party's terminal together with the facial representation. As previously indicated, the facial representation of a person can be digitized by compression techniques utilizing approximately 40 bytes. This leaves approximately 60 bytes of the potentially 100 bytes for name and number data to be transmitted between first and second ringing bursts.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the sequences required to carry out the more complex function of determining which of the features, i.e., name, number and/or face, are to be displayed at the called party's terminal.

Thus, the invention takes the current practice of displaying a calling party's name and phone number to the next step of displaying the calling party's face as well.

Although an examplary embodiment of this invention has been described, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternatives are possible. The actual scope of the invention, however, is to be limited only by the claims appended hereto.