Telephonic communications – Special services – Reserved call
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-11
2001-02-06
Hudspeth, David R. (Department: 2741)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Reserved call
C379S359000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06185286
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunication systems, and in particular, to a communications system employing DTMF and pulse dialing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern interactive voice response (IVR) and voice mail systems, the preferred mechanism for user interaction from remote and sometimes local systems is via dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) recognition. However, in many parts of the world and even in North America, there remains a significant rotary or pulse dial base.
In order to accommodate both the installed DTMF and rotary dial bases, IVR systems provide an option for callers to either stay on the line (“if you have a rotary phone”) or to “press
1
now” (“if you have a Touch Tone phone”). Thus, current systems require the user to identify themselves, thereby tying up system resources while the system waits for the time-out that sends the rotary caller to a human operator. Touch tone callers must therefore go through a time-wasting step of listening to a message and pressing a digit just to identify themselves as touch tone callers. Rotary callers must often wait through an entire touch tone menu just to get service. Moreover, customer service companies often put elaborate menus in place to ensure that callers have tried an automated service before going to the more costly human service. Often, callers skip these menus by pretending to have rotary phones. While this is an advantage to the caller, the companies find that they have invested in a system but are receiving no benefits.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system for automatically identifying whether a caller has rotary or DTMF capabilities. There is a still further need for a system whereby line utilization is improved by removing a time-out condition from rotary callers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other drawbacks in the prior art are overcome in large part by a system and method according to the present invention. More particularly, the present invention provides a system whereby automatic type recognition is employed to reduce the wait time for callers and prevent false identification of touch tone versus dial tone service. A system according to the present invention includes a control unit located in a PBX or other switch which detects whether a caller is placing a call using pulse or DTMF dialing. The control in the PBX generates a message during call setup which it provides to a remote system, such as an interactive voice response system.
More particularly, a control unit according to the present invention monitors whether a call request is received at a central switch using DTMF dialing or pulse dialing. Based on this determination, the control unit causes, for example, an ISDN controller to pack its setup word with the corresponding information.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4827500 (1989-05-01), Binkerd et al.
patent: 5388150 (1995-02-01), Schneyer et al.
Beyda William Joseph
Shaffer Shmuel
Hudspeth David R.
Lerner Martin
Siemens Information and Communication Networks Inc.
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