Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing – Combined circuit switching and packet switching
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-10
2002-01-08
Yao, Kwang B. (Department: 2664)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Combined circuit switching and packet switching
C370S410000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06337858
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to voice communications and, in particular, to providing voice communications between two parties using computer controlled telephony hardware which is outside the Public Switched Telephone Network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The importance of effective communication tools for use by business in advertising, product support, promotion and sales has long been recognized. Much inventive ingenuity has been invested in the development of tools for facilitating and improving business communications. A prime example is modern toll free calling services, commonly referred to as 800 calling services, which were enabled by an invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,860 to Weber. 800 calling services have since been vastly improved and made increasingly available as a business tool. In particular, sophisticated call centers have been developed to permit persons generally described as agents to field calls from the public for the purposes of disseminating information, supporting products and selling products.
In recent years, the Internet has also become an important and increasingly accepted tool for disseminating business information and promoting products as well as providing support to business customers. Use of the Internet and, in particular, the Worldwide Web has become pervasive in the industrialized world. Consequently, the importance of the Worldwide Web as a business communications tool has been recognized. While its importance is recognized, the electronic information provided by many companies on the Worldwide Web is static and designed to appeal to the widest audience. It is therefore neither adequate nor designed to respond to the specific needs of individuals. In order to obtain the breadth of information most individuals require, it is generally necessary to call the business and verbally request specific information. This process is inefficient because the caller must explain to the business contact what information was viewed, as well as what further particulars are required. This inefficiency has been recognized as a drawback for some time. Consequently, facilities have been developed to permit individuals browsing the Worldwide Web to place voice calls from Web pages. Such facilities are commonly called “voice buttons”. One such facility is described, for example, in applicant's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/652,659 filed on May 28, 1996 and entitled METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ORIGINATING VOICE CALLS. That application describes methods and apparatus for originating voice calls between voice terminals using a data terminal and a data service node without requiring interaction with human attendants or interactive voice response systems to complete the call. In accordance with the method, an apparatus connected with a data network is used to send commands to a PSTN switching node to initiate a call between the voice terminals to permit the person browsing the Web to readily communicate with the business which owns the Web page, assuming that the user has a voice terminal available for accepting the call.
Other apparatus have also been developed, for example, Lucent Technologies® have developed methods and apparatus for integrating Worldwide Web pages and 800 call centers to permit browsers of a Worldwide Web page to launch a Voice over IP or a voice terminal connection to an 800 call center while providing an agent at the call center receiving the call with a data terminal screen “pop” of the same page the browser is observing. The agent is therefore visually attuned to the browser's position and enabled to quickly and efficiently answer questions or close transactions.
While such facilities greatly enhance a business' ability to respond to public need, they do not provide a viable solution for all businesses or provide a full range of potential services that can be developed through the inventive use of computer telephony integration. It is widely recognized that in the information age, small business is the driving force of the economy. While telecommunications service providers have recognized the need of small business to have access to such communications services as 800 call service and have lowered entry barriers to such services, 800 service is not necessarily well adapted to meet the needs of small business. This is particularly true where a small business derives most or all of its clientele from a local area. In that case, 800 service is of substantially no value. Even if a small business' clientele extends well beyond a local calling area, because of the inherent limitations in current 800 service offerings, many small businesses find it uneconomical or impractical to subscribe to an 800 service for a variety of reasons, including the general inflexibility of 800 call terminations which substantially require at least one full time person dedicated to servicing 800 inquiries.
Consequently, there is a recognized need for a more flexible yet cost effective method of providing voice services to medium and small sized businesses and, in particular, to providing voice services to medium and small sized businesses having a presence on the Worldwide Web.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus to permit voice communications, between a consumer browsing the Internet and a business having an interactive information page on the Internet, independent of whether the user is within a toll free calling area of the business.
It is a further object to the invention to provide an apparatus and method to permit voice communications between the consumer and the business which is particularly adapted to serve small and medium sized businesses.
It is yet a further object to the invention to provide a method and apparatus for voice communications between the consumer and the business which employs a rule base to adapt the service to the resources of the business in order to permit maximum flexibility and ensure optimum service.
It is a further object to the invention to provide an apparatus and method adapted to offer call center functionality without call center infrastructure.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method adapted to permit the rapid development of new call handling features for business subscribers having a presence on the Internet.
These and other objects are realized in a method of providing voice communications between two parties using computer controlled telephony hardware which is separate from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), at least one of the parties having access to a data network, comprising:
originating a first voice connection from the computer controlled telephony hardware in response to a call request received from the data network;
originating a second voice connection from the computer controlled telephony hardware in response to the call request received from the data network; and
bridging together the first and second voice connections at the computer controlled telephony hardware to permit voice communications between the two parties.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention there is provided a method of providing voice communication between a service subscriber and a user of a data network accessing an interactive information page available on the network using a data terminal, the information page including a voice communication request button relating to the service subscriber, comprising the steps of:
a) accepting a voice communication request from the user;
b) analyzing the voice communication request or a preference file stored on the user's data terminal to determine a voice connection medium preferred by the user;
c) consulting a rule base using a code that identifies the subscriber to locate at least one rule which determines how a voice connection is to be established with the subscriber;
d) operating computer telephony hardware to place a first call to the user by the preferred voice connection medium;
e) operating the computer teleph
Frank Alan Stuart
Kapil Vivek
Mistry Dhansukh
Petras Michael William
Petty Douglas
Nortel Networks Limited
Renault Swabey Ogilvy
Wood Max R.
Yao Kwang B.
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