Internet telephony for ecommerce

• US 20010038624A1
• Filed: 01/30/2001
• Published: 11/08/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle OTC Subsidiary LLC (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Estara Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Greenberg, Jeffrey Douglas, Siegrist, Joseph, Zwa, Amen
• Granted Patent: US 6,707,811 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42178 by downloading data to substation equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/003 Click to dial services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1205 where the types of switching equipement comprises PSTN/ISDN equipment and switching equipment of networks other than PSTN/ISDN, e.g. Internet Protocol networks

Abstract

The universal Internet based telephony system is implemented as a process that is accessible via an Internet web page and executes on the web server that hosts the web page and/ora back-end Internet telephony server which is accessed and controlled by the web server. The customer accesses the universal Internet based telephony system via any existing Java Enabled Internet Browser software resident on the customer'"'"'s personal computer, either as an adjunct process thereon, or as a dedicated Internet telephony process. When a customer accesses the Internet web page and clicks on the universal Internet based telephony system icon, the web server on which the web page resides executes the resident universal Internet based telephony system hyperlink script and transfers a newly opened browser session to the universal Internet based telephony system web site. The web server uploads an applet to the customer'"'"'s personal computer to run on the client machine without disturbing the customer'"'"'s existing web page access, by opening up a separate window on the customer'"'"'s personal computer for the universal Internet based telephony system, to be seen and operated by the user. The universal Internet based telephony system web site then implements the Internet telephony communication connection between the customer'"'"'s personal computer and the designated destination.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a phone call between an end user using a computer connected to a data packet network and a called party connected to a public switched telephone network, the method comprising the steps of:

downloading a call web page to the computer, the call web page including an identifier of a called party and an address that may be used to obtain software required to complete a phone call to the called party;

transmitting a message to the address upon an indication by the end user that the phone call to the called party is desired;

receiving the software at the computer;

exchanging, under the control of the software, voice packets over the data packet network with a gateway connected through the public switched telephone network to the called party.

2. The method of

claim 1

, wherein the called party is a call center.

3. The method of

claim 2

, wherein a plurality of web pages are downloaded and the call web page is downloaded prior to the indication by the end user that the phone call to the call center is desired.

4. The method of

claim 2

, wherein the call web page further includes a merchant identifier.

5. The method of

claim 2

, wherein the call web page further includes an end user identifier that identifies the end user to the call center.

6. The method of

claim 5

, further comprising the step of sending the end user identifier to the call center.

7. The method of

claim 6

, wherein the end user identifier is sent to the call center in-band.

8. The method of

claim 6

, wherein the end user identifier is sent to the call center out-of-band.

9. The method of

claim 6

, further comprising the step of displaying information corresponding to the end user identifier on a display at the call center.

10. The method of

claim 1

, further comprising the step of storing a portion of the software on a permanent storage device in the computer.

11. The method of

claim 1

, further comprising the step of examining a permanent storage device on the computer to determine whether a portion of the software is present, wherein the receiving step is not performed for any portion of the software that is present on the permanent storage device.

12. The method of

claim 2

, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a web page identifier from the call center;

transmitting the web page identifier to a web server from which the web page was downloaded; and

downloading a new web page corresponding to the web page identifier to the computer.

13. The method of

claim 12

, wherein the new web page corresponds to a web page displayed at the call center on a computer display associated with a representative at the call center.

14. A method for facilitating a phone call between an end user using a computer connected to a data packet network and a call center connected to a public switched telephone network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a message from the computer indicating a desire to make a phone call;

receiving a message from the computer including an identifier of a merchant having a call center to which a phone call is desired;

sending software required to make the phone call to the computer over the data packet network after the message indicating a desire to make a phone call has been received;

instructing a gateway connected to the public switched telephone network and the data packet network to establish a connection to the call center over the public switched telephone network;

receiving end user packets comprising voice data at the gateway;

transforming the information in the end user packets to a form corresponding to voice communications over the public switched telephone network;

transmitting the transformed information to the call center over the public switched telephone network;

receiving voice information from the call center over the public switched telephone network;

transforming the voice information into call center packets at the gateway; and

transmitting the call center packets to the computer.

15. The method of

claim 14

, wherein the message indicating a desire to make a phone call and the message including a merchant identifier are part of the same message.

16. The method of

claim 14

, wherein the call center packets are transmitted directly from the gateway to the computer.

17. The method of

claim 14

, wherein the call center packets are sent from the gateway to a server, are combined at the server to form combined packets, and the combined packets are sent from the server to the computer.

18. The method of

claim 14

, further comprising the steps of selecting the call center from a plurality of call centers associated with the merchant.

19. The method of

claim 18

, wherein the call center is selected based on a time of day.

20. The method of

claim 18

, wherein the call center is selected in order to balance load among the plurality of call centers.

21. The method of

claim 18

, wherein the call center is selected based on geography.

22. The method of

claim 18

, wherein the call center nearest to the computer is selected.

23. The method of

claim 14

, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a message from a call center computer, the message including a phone line identifier of a particular phone line at the gateway over which the phone call is connected;

retrieving context information using the phone line identifier; and

transmitting the context information to a computer associated with the call center through the data packet network.

24. The method of

claim 23

, wherein the context information includes a customer identification.

25. The method of

claim 23

, wherein the context information includes a session identification.

26. The method of

claim 23

, wherein the context information includes an identification of a web page being viewed at the computer.

27. The method of

claim 23

, wherein the phone line identifier is an automatic number identification (ANI).

28. The method of

claim 23

, wherein the phone line identifier is a caller ID.

29. The method of

claim 14

, further comprising the step of:

obtaining context information from the computer; and

transmitting the context information to the call center.

30. The method of

claim 29

, wherein the context information is transmitted in-band to call center.

31. The method of

claim 29

, wherein the context information is transmitted out-of-band to a computer associated with the call center.

32. The method of

claim 14

, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a web page identifier from the call center;

transmitting the web page identifier to the computer for use by the computer to download a web page corresponding to the web page identifier.

33. The method of

claim 32

, wherein the web page identifier comprises a dual tone multi-frequency signal received over the public switched telephone network.

34. A method for establishing a phone call comprising the steps of:

downloading a web page over a data packet network to a computer being used by an end user, the computer including a web browser for viewing the web page, a microphone, and at least one device for converting electrical signals to sound waves, the web page including including a called party identifier and an address that may be used to obtain software required to complete the phone call;

sending a message from the computer to the address indicating a desire to make the phone call;

transmitting software to the computer in response to the message from the computer indicating a desire to make the phone call, the software operable for configuring the computer to digitize voice information received from the microphone, form outbound packets from the digitized voice information, transmit outbound packets over a data packet network, receive inbound packets, convert information in the inbound packets to analog form and send the converted information to the device;

sending the called party identifier to a server;

receiving from the server an address of a gateway connected to the data packet network and a public switched telephone network;

configuring the gateway to place a phone call to the called party corresponding to the called party identifier;

sending outbound packets containing digitized voice information from the computer to the gateway;

decoding the digitized voice information in the outbound packets and transmitting it to the called party over the public switched telephone network;

receiving called party voice information over the public switched telephone network;

encoding the called party voice information and placing it into inbound packets; and

transmitting the inbound packets to the computer.

35. A system for establishing a phone call from an end user viewing a merchant web site and a merchant call center, the system comprising:

a web server, the web server including a web page, the web page including an address to which a message may be sent to receive software to enable a phone call to a merchant call center and an identifier of a merchant associated with the web page;

an application server, the application server being responsive to a message received at the address to transmit the software to an end user computer;

a gateway connected to a data packet network and a public switched telephone network;

a call server, the call server being responsive to a message including a merchant identifier from the end user computer to configure the gateway to exchange packets comprising digitized voice information with the end user computer over the data packet network and exchange voice information corresponding to the digitized voice information with a merchant call center associated with the merchant over the public switched telephone network.

36. A method for configuring a computer to make an internet telephony phone call comprising the steps of:

sending a first portion of software to a computer upon an indication from the computer that an internet telephony phone call is desired;

executing the first portion at the computer, the first portion being operable to determine whether a second portion of software necessary for completion of the internet telephony call is present on a permanent storage device at the second computer;

sending the second portion to the computer if the second portion is not present on the permanent storage device.

37. The method of

claim 36

, wherein the second portion includes a codec.

38. The method of

claim 36

, wherein the second portion includes echo suppression software.