Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Special service
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-17
2003-07-15
Nguyen, Duc (Department: 2682)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Special service
C455S413000, C455S566000, C379S067100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06594484
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile devices and, more particularly, to voice activation support for mobile devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because customers of financial institutions demand easy access to their account information, financial institutions set-up customer service centers to provide account information. Customer service representatives originally staffed these customer service centers, but as the demand for this service grew, so did the costs for running them. In response to the growing costs, the financial institutions turned to the customer service technology industry for a solution. In 1988, Chase Manhattan bank became one of the first to install an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system which allowed customers to access their information by navigating a voice menu and make selections using dial tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signals from any phone. Today almost every major financial institution offers this service to its customers.
To access the system, customers dial a number and then enter their account number and password to gain access to a variety of information. Bank customers can find out amount due on a loan, date and amount last deposited, and current interest rates on loans. Stock market investors can similarly call computerized telephony systems managed by their brokerage firms to obtain the latest information relating to the status of their portfolio. Credit card customers can also access their accounts to determine their current balance, the available credit remaining, and the date of the last received payment. City, state and federal revenue departments have also begun to provide taxpayers with the current status of their accounts through computerized telephony systems.
With the growing popularity of mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular phones, customers can access their information from any location having cellular service availability. A problem arises, however, because the average customer has so many accounts (e.g., the average American has between 4 and 5 credit cards—National Network for Family Resiliency) that they can't keep track of the information required to gain access to the information available on voice menu information services. Additionally, the phone number is 10 characters, the average length of an account number is 16 characters, passwords generally have between 4 and 12 characters, and inputting 38 characters, without mistake, on a mobile device can prove to be a challenge.
There is, therefore, a great need for a method and system which will allow mobile service subscribers to gain access to their financial accounts in an efficient manner using an input interface of a mobile device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above described problems and needs and has particular application to a system which allows mobile service subscribers to access information from automated telephone information services in an efficient manner using two-way interactive communication devices capable of communicating with a server device over a wireless data network.
The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a method, an apparatus, a computer readable medium, and a computer system. Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below.
As a graphical user interface for facilitating automated access by a wireless two-way communication device to automated telephone information services, one embodiment of the invention includes a script selection menu and a selection device. The script selection menu is presented on a display device of the wireless two-way communication device. The script selection menu also includes a plurality of script identifiers, and each of the script identifiers pertains to a script, with each of the scripts including a sequence of previously saved user input interactions associated with accessing a particular service provided by the automated telephone information services. The selection device that enables selection of one of the script identifiers being presented in the script selection menu.
As a method for providing a list of scripts that reproduce a time ordered sequence of user input interactions with a voice menu information system on a display screen of a wireless client device that includes an input interface, one embodiment of the invention includes the acts of: storing in a service server device a plurality of scripts received from a user; wherein the service server device comprises: a voice menu server for managing a plurality of scripts for a plurality of users, a storage device for storing the plurality of scripts for the plurality of users, wherein the plurality of scripts are grouped according to the user account numbers for the plurality of users; and a memory device for storing code used to generate lists corresponding to the plurality of stored scripts for the plurality of users; generating a list corresponding to the plurality of scripts received from the user; forwarding the list corresponding to the plurality of scripts received from the user to the wireless client device utilizing a proxy server device connected to the server device through a landnet operating in a first communications protocol and connected to the wireless client device through an airnet operating in a second communications protocol, wherein the link server device comprises an account manager for managing a plurality of user accounts each corresponding to a plurality of wireless client devices, a server module for converting from the first communications protocol to the second communications protocol, and a memory for storing the list corresponding to the plurality of scripts received from the user, wherein the list is forwarded to the wireless client device when a communications session is established between the proxy server device and the wireless client device.
As a method for obtaining a script on a display screen of a wireless client device that includes an input interface, each of the scripts reproducing a time ordered sequence of user input interactions with an automated telephone-based information access system, one embodiment of the invention includes the acts of: displaying a list of script identifiers that correspond to a plurality of scripts for use by the wireless client device; generating and forwarding a request to a remote server device to obtain at least one of the scripts associated with the script identifiers; receiving the at least one script at the wireless client device from the remote server device in response to the request; and storing at the wireless client device the at least one script that has been received.
As a method for providing a list of scripts on a display screen of a wireless client device that includes an input interface, each of the scripts reproducing a time ordered sequence of user input interactions with an automated telephone-based information access system, one embodiment of the invention includes the acts of displaying a list of script identifiers that correspond to a plurality of scripts on the display screen of the wireless client device; receiving a selection of one of the script identifiers being displayed on the display screen, the selected script identifier corresponds to a selected one of the scripts; and forwarding a request to a remote server device to execute the selected one of the scripts to access the automated telephone-based information access system in an automated manner.
As a method for providing a list of scripts that reproduce a time ordered sequence of user input interactions with a voice menu information system on a display screen of a wireless client device that includes an input interface, one embodiment of the invention includes the acts of: storing in a memory in the wireless client device a plurality of scripts corresponding to previous input interaction with the voice menu information system; producing a list of scripts corresponding to the plurality of scripts stored in the memory i
Beyer Weaver & Thomas LLP
Nguyen Duc
Openwave Systems Inc.
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