Telephonic communications – Special services – Service profile
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-05
2002-11-19
Matar, Ahmad F. (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Service profile
C379S201010, C379S201020, C379S201040, C379S201050
Reexamination Certificate
active
06483911
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent & Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to systems, such as voice messaging systems, in which call flows of a network application are executed to provide telephony-related services, such as Call Answer, Call Forward, Voice Store and Forward, Voice Mail, Bank By Phone, Emergency Number Facilities, Directory Assistance, Operator Assistance, Call Screening, Automatic Wake-up Services, and the like. More particularly, the present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for providing external program access to the executable call flows of a network application.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,004, issued Jul. 21, 1992 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describes a Network Applications Platform commercially available from UNISYS Corporation (“the NAP system”). The NAP system is a configuration of hardware and software that provides data and voice processing capabilities through applications running on an enterprise server. The NAP system provides the interface between these applications, called network applications, and a telephone network. Network applications running on the NAP system can provide enhanced services for telephone networks, such as Call Answer, Call Forward, Voice Store and Forward, Voice Mail, Bank By Phone, Emergency Number Facilities, Directory Assistance, Operator Assistance, Call Screening, Automatic Wake-up Services, and the like. The NAP can be implemented on UNISYS A Series and ClearPath HMP computer systems running the MCP operating system. Further details of the structure and function of the NAP are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,004, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
A network application is an application program that executes on a telephony-based system, such as the NAP system, to provide telephony-related services, such as Call Answer, Call Forward, Voice Store and Forward, Voice Mail, Bank By Phone, Emergency Number Facilities, Directory Assistance, Operator Assistance, Call Screening, Automatic Wake-up Services, and the like. A network application comprises one or more call flows which determine the functionality of the application. A call flow defines how a call is processed from the time it is connected until it is disconnected. It determines how a network application will react to various telephony-related events. In particular, a call flow specifies each function or processing step to be executed during a telephone call, the possible results for each function, the decision path to be followed based on the result, and each prompt or voice message to be played during the course of the telephone call. A call flow is comprised of a sequence of call states. As used herein, the phrase “to play a prompt” and variations thereof means to output the digitized voice of a prompt over a telephone connection or the like so that it can be heard by a caller. A call state is one state, or point, in a call flow. At any given time, each call coming into a network application has a finite call state. At a given call state, a given function is performed and the results of the function point either to a next state, or to an exit state. The function can lead to one or many results.
FIG. 1
illustrates the call flows of an exemplary network application that can be executed on the UNISYS NAP system. In the example shown, the network application comprises two call flows—CALLFLOW
1
and CALLFLOW
2
. CALLFLOW
1
might, for example, provide voice mail services, while CALLFLOW
2
might provide automated call answering services. Each box
10
-
26
in
FIG. 1
represents one call state.
On the NAP system, a network application developer can specify different call types to be handled by a network application. Each call type can be serviced by a different call flow and has a unique identifier associated with it. An Incoming Call (INCMG) state
12
is the first call state in every network application. The INCMG call state
12
identifies the type of call received by the NAP system and routes that call to the appropriate call flow of the application. In the example of
FIG. 1
, a first call type is routed to the voice mail call flow which has a call flow identifier of “001,” whereas a second call type is routed to the call answering call flow which has a call flow identifier of “002.” The different call types must be specified in the network application, and they must also be defined to the NAP system when the network application is installed and initialized on the system. Once the different call types have been defined, the NAP system is able to identify the different call types and to return the appropriate call flow identifier in the INCMG call state
12
when a call is received, so that the call can be processed by the appropriate call flow. Each call processed by the NAP system is referred to as a dialog.
At each subsequent call state in a call flow, some function is performed. On the NAP system, a call flow can execute two kinds of function—core functions and custom functions. Core functions are pre-coded functions provided with the NAP system. These functions provide basic telephony services such as initiating a call, playing a voice prompt, collecting digits, and the like. Custom functions are application-specific functions that the application developer creates to perform functions not available using the core functions. For example, the application may require the retrieval of information from an application-specific database. Custom functions can be written in any programming language that the underlying computer system (e.g. UNISYS A Series or ClearPath HMP) on which the NAP system is implemented can execute, such as, for example, LINC, ALGOL, COBOL, C or the like.
Referring to the example of
FIG. 1
, the voice mail call flow (CALLFLOW
1
) proceeds to call state
14
, at which the Play Prompt (PROMPT) core function is executed to play prompt number “P1000” to the caller. This prompt might, for example, play the following voice: “You have <number> new messages—Press
1
to review, Press
2
for other options.” Based on the user's selection, the call flow will then pass to a next state at which another function will be performed. Ultimately, the dialog established for this call will end at call state
16
which performs the Terminate Dialog core function.
When a call of type “002” is received, the call will be routed to CALLFLOW
2
. At call state
18
, this call flow might prompt the caller to “Press 1 to hear prompts in English, Press 2 to hear prompts in Spanish, or Press 3 to hear prompts in French.” This time the Play Prompt core function (PROMPT) is combined with a Collect Digits function so that the NAP system will accept a caller's response. If the caller presses “1”, the call flow will move to call state
20
where a Set Language core function is performed to set the active language to American English. If the caller presses “2,” the call flow moves to call state
22
where the Set Language core function is performed to set the active language to American English. If no key is pressed, or an invalid key is pressed, the call flow defaults to step
24
which establishes the American English language as the default. The remainder of the call flow then proceeds until the dialog established for the call terminates at call state
26
. As the foregoing illustrates, the INCMG call state, in combination with defined call types, can be used to handle different types of calls within a single network application.
On the NAP system, network applications are created using two personal computer (PC) based applications—PC SPIN and PC NAPTool. PC SPIN is a modified form of th
Bui Bing
Matar Ahmad F.
Rode Lise A.
Starr Mark T.
Unisys Corporation
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