| 摘要 |
<p>A communication services network is described that enables client communication devices to synchronously or asynchronously communicate with one another or with legacy communication devices through a gateway in either (i) a real-time mode or (ii) a time-shifted mode and (iii) to seamlessly transition between the two modes. As the media of a message is either created or retrieved from memory, the sending client device progressively transmits the media over the network. The network progressively routes the media as it is transmitted to the recipient client device or gateway, which progressively stores the media as it is received. With progressive storage, the recipient has the option of rendering the media as it is received in the real-time mode, rendering the media out of storage in the time-shifted mode, or seamlessly transitioning between the two modes. In addition, users may communicate with each other "live", similar to a conventional full duplex telephone call, when messages are synchronously transmitted and rendered in real-time with respect to one another. Alternatively, users may communicate with each other asynchronously by sending messages back and forth at discrete times, or by time-shifting the review of received messages.</p> |
