An enhanced communication and voicemail solution for mobile phones is
described where still images and/or video clips are injected into the
voice stream creating a "video-voice" call. When a receiving party is not
available to take a video-voice call, this combined stream of voice and
image information is stored at the mobile service provider in a manner
similar to voice mail today. Then, stored video-voicemails may be
retrieved at a later time by the receiving party. Also, realtime
video-voice conversations may be recorded for later retrieval in order to
document the conversation or because a party in the conversation is not
able to view the images realtime.While the sending party may use a normal
size mobile phone containing a miniature digital camera, the receiving
party may view video-voicemail images on a variety of devices including a
wireless mobile phone or PDA, or alternately a conventional PC connected
to the World Wide Web.