Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

Verizon Services Corporation

George Louis Hughes, Jr

Bhaskar R Gudlavenkatasiva

Umashankar Velusamy

Nityanand Sharma

Craig L Reding

Ming Chen

Devin C Moore

Wade Peebles Thompson

Jonathan Lyle Spieker

Premanand Sivakkolundhu

Chris L Helbling

Srinivas Soma

Michael L Turok

Tahir G Mulla

An approach is provided for enabling advertisers to correlate a communication session with an amount of consumption of the advertisement by a viewer. A correlation platform tracks an amount of consumption of an advertisement presented via a set-top box associated with a user. The amount of consumption of the advertisement is then correlated to a communication session initiated by the user in response to the presentation of the advertisement.

Method and apparatus for providing advertisement correlation

A network device receives a message that identifies a relationship between a first user device and a second user device, the relationship permitting status information of the first user device to be sent to the second user device when the first user device is communicating with a third user device. The network device receives the status information relating to a communication involving the first user device. The network device determines to send the status information to the second user device, based on the information identifying the relationship stored by the network device; and the network device sends the status information for presentation on the second user device.

Sending user device status information

An approach for configuring a mobile device to enable accident detection and notification functionality for use within a vehicle is described. An emergency notification platform receives position information and acceleration information associated with a mobile device. The emergency notification platform applies a rule to the position information and the acceleration information to determine an alert condition. A notification message is then generated for presentation on the mobile device based on the application of the rule, wherein the notification message specifies information relating to the alert condition.

Method and apparatus for configuring a mobile device to provide emergency notification

Group based multicast streaming systems and methods are disclosed. An exemplary method includes a group based multicast streaming system defines a media multicast streaming event, determines that a group of users satisfies a minimum participation level associated with the media multicast streaming event, and executes, based on the determined satisfaction of the minimum participation level by the group of users, the media multicast streaming event by multicast streaming a media program to the group of users during a timeslot, and provides an incentive to the group of users for participation in the multicast streaming of the media program during the timeslot. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.

Group based multicast streaming systems and methods

Methods, devices, and storage media for tracking communications between a user and a user-selected party; obtaining communication tracking information based on the tracking, wherein the communication tracking information includes a time associated with each communication; calculating a communication gap pertaining to the user-selected party based on the communication tracking information, wherein the communication gap is a period of time that elapsed from a last communication with the other party to a current time; and providing the user with communication gap information in response to receiving a user request.

Contact communication tracking system

A content processing device is configured to receive a media stream via a network. The media stream may be analyzed to detect whether an anomaly is present in the media stream indicative of a potential quality defect in playback of the media stream. Data relating to a detected anomaly may be provided to a destination via the network.

Media quality monitoring

A method may include enrolling a subscriber device in an adaptive pricing service plan for providing telecommunication service to the subscriber device; associating, with the telecommunication service, a first pricing scheme including a first number of allotted minutes within a current billing cycle; tracking, for the subscriber device within the current billing cycle, cumulative used minutes of the telecommunication service; determining, using a forecasting model and the cumulative used minutes, prospective minutes usage with respect to the first number of allotted minutes for an entirety of the current billing cycle; generating, based on the prospective minutes usage, a recommendation related to a second pricing scheme including a second number of allotted minutes; and sending, within the current billing cycle, the recommendation to the subscriber device.

Adaptive pricing service plan

A system for and method of for detecting a non-functional battery back-up unit (BBU) of an optical network terminal is presented. The system and method may include receiving power outage data associated with a plurality of customer sites, receiving, from each of the plurality of customer sites, discharge time data associated with a battery via a network, calculating a mean discharge time based on the discharge time data, comparing the discharge time data associated with each battery to the mean discharge time, determining that each battery that is associated with discharge time data that indicates a discharge time value that is less than the mean discharge time is faulty, and outputting a data signal that indicates that a battery is faulty.

System for and method of detecting a non-functional battery back-up unit (BBU) of an optical network terminal

Disclosed is an apparatus for customizing messages. The apparatus includes a communications unit and a processing unit. The communications unit can be configured to receive a message from a sender and intended for one or more target recipients. The communications unit can also be configured to receive one or more message customization indicators that are from either or both of the sender and respective ones of the target recipients. The message customization indicators are respectively related to identifying characteristics of the respective target recipients and the sender when provided by the sender and respective ones of the target recipients. The processing unit can be configured to cause respective output versions of the message to be outputted to the target recipients, each respective output version being output in a format consistent with the message customization indicators and at least one of the respective output versions being different from another of the respective output versions. Also disclosed are corresponding methods and computer program products.

Method and apparatus for message customization

An approach is provided for monitoring utility usage and generating notifications. A platform collects utility data from a utility meter of a subscriber and determines whether the utility data satisfies a usage threshold. The platform generates a notification based on the determination and presents the notification.

Method and apparatus for utility usage monitoring

Problems in a network may be diagnosed based on alarm messages received from devices in the network and based on logical circuit path information of the network. In one implementation, a device may log alarm messages, in which each of the logged alarm messages may identify a network device that generated the alarm message and each of the alarm messages are associated with a time value. The device may group the alarm messages in the log of alarm messages based on the time values of the alarm messages to obtain one or more alarm message clusters and analyze the alarm message clusters to locate potential causes of the logged alarm messages.

Correlation of network alarm messages based on alarm time

A receiving module selectively receives a stream of digital data from a recording device via a network. A data store selectively stores the digital data. A streaming module that selectively streams the stored digital data to a network device via the network.

Networked media recording

Embodiments of a system and method for distributing network data to multiple nodes in a data communications network is described. Two data communication channels are provided for each node in the network. While one of the communication channels carries routing and flow control protocol messages, as well as data, in both directions between network nodes, the other communication channel is configured to transmit data traffic&#x2014;and only data traffic&#x2014;in a single direction from the network data server toward all of the other nodes in the network. By using 100% of the available bandwidth for data traffic only, the speed at which data may be distributed throughout the network is maximized and the performance degradation caused by the congestion, collisions or packet loss that typically occurs in two-way data communication channels is avoided.

Growing community of inventors

Wesley Chapel, FL, United States of America

George Louis Hughes, Jr