Method and system for communication between users and computer systems

• US 10,271,183 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2015
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sita Information Networking Computing Ireland Limited (Société Internationale de Télécom Aeronautiques (Switzerland))
• Original Assignee: Sita Information Networking Computing Ireland Limited (Société Internationale de Télécom Aeronautiques (Switzerland))
• Inventors: Findlay, Denise
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Michael T
• Application Number:
  US15/578,969
• Publication Number:
  US 20180288578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,217 Days
• Field of Search: 455466
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

In an interactive on-line system such as an airline reservation system, users communicate with the system via smart devices. Communication between the device and the system is via asynchronous TCP/IP messaging or SMS text message. The user can input text messages which include metadata to assist in message recognition. A translator parses the message and converts the message into an industry standard format which is then sent to a relevant system for processing. The translator may form a part of an application on the device, be located at the system or at an intermediate point. A response from the system is converted from industry standard format to a human readable form and sent as asynchronous message or SMS/MMS text message back to the user where it may be displayed as text of converted into speech.

Claims

1. A method of communicating between a telecommunications device and a computer system comprising:

receiving an input from the user to a messaging application on the device, the input including metadata and natural language;

communicating the user input to a translator;

at the translator mapping the message to convert the message into a standardised message format at least in part based on the metadata;

sending the standardised message format to a computer system of the receiving party;

wherein at least one of the communicating the user input and sending the standardised message format is performed using an asynchronous message or text message;

receiving a response from the computer system at the translator, the response being in a standardised format;

the translator mapping the response into a human readable form;

communicating the human readable response to the user device;

wherein at least one of the receiving a response from the computer system and the communicating the human readable response is performed using an asynchronous message or text message; and

providing the response to the user at the user device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the messaging application is specific to a given service provider or group of providers.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the messaging application includes the address of the computer system and identification of the user of the device.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the messaging application is common to a plurality of service providers and the user input includes a telephone number or short code of a selected service provider.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the text message is transmitted via a mobile telephone network.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the asynchronous message is transmitted over the internet using TCP/IP addressing.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the input from the user is speech and the device includes a speech recognition application to convert the speech into natural language.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the conversion of speech includes identifying at least one keyword in the speech input by the user and converting the keyword into a metadata symbol.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the input from the user is text.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the response is provided to the user either for display to the user on the telecommunications device or for presentation to the user as speech.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the translator is resident on the telecommunications device.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metadata includes at least one emoticon or at least one emoji.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the text message is an SMS or MMS text message.

14. The method according to claim 1, comprising adding a header to the translated standardised message, the header including one or more of security information and routing information.

15. A telecommunications device having stored thereon a messaging application, which when run on the device causes the device to receive an input from a user to the messaging application, the input including metadata and natural language;

communicate the user input as an asynchronous message or SMS text message to a translator;

at the translator, map the message to convert the message into a standardised message format at least in part based on the metadata;

send the standardised message format to a computer system of a receiving party;

receive a response from the computer system at the translator, the response being in a standardised format, the translator mapping the response into a human readable form;

communicate the human readable response to the user device as an asynchronous message or SMS text message; and

provide the response to the user at the user device.

16. The device according to claim 15, further comprising a communicator arranged to receive the translated standardised message output from the translator and for adding to the output of the translator a header including one or more of security information and routing information.

17. The device according to claim 15, wherein the messaging application is specific to a given service provider or group of providers.

18. The device according to claim 15, wherein the messaging application includes the address of the computer system and identification of the user of the device.

19. The device according to claim 15, wherein the messaging application is common to a plurality of service providers and the user input includes a telephone number or short code of a selected service provider.

20. The device according to claim 15, wherein the text message is transmitted via a mobile telephone network.

21. The device according to claim 15, wherein the asynchronous message is transmitted over the internet using TCP/IP addressing.

22. The device according to claim 15, wherein the input from the user is speech and the device includes a speech recognition application to convert the speech into natural language.

23. The device according to claim 22, wherein the speech recognition application is arranged to identify at least one keyword in the speech input by the user and to convert the keyword into a metadata symbol.

24. The device according claim 15, wherein the metadata includes at least one emoticon or at least one emoji.

25. The device according to claim 15, wherein the text message is an SMS or MMS text message.

26. A method of communicating between a telecommunications device and a computer system comprising:

receiving an input from the user to a messaging application on the device, the input including metadata and natural language;

communicating the user input to a translator;

at the translator mapping the message to convert the message into a standardised message format at least in part based on the metadata;

sending the standardised message format to a computer system of the receiving party;

wherein at least one of the communicating the user input and sending the standardised message format is performed using an IoT messaging protocol;

receiving a response from the computer system at the translator, the response being in a standardised format;

the translator mapping the response into a human readable form;

communicating the human readable response to the user device;

wherein at least one of the receiving a response from the computer system and the communicating the human readable response is performed using an IoT messaging protocol; and

providing the response to the user at the user device.