CONTENT SWITCH FOR ENHANCING DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE

• US 20080084987A1
• Filed: 09/22/2006
• Published: 04/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG), Microsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Paczkowski, Lyle, Mauer, Brian D., Sankaranaraynan, Pallavur, Schlesener, Matthew C., Klesper, Stevan A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,588,394 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/218.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

A method, medium, and content switch device are provided for enhanced directory assistance. A GPS-enabled wireless phone generates directory assistance requests that are monitored and processed by the content switch and a directory assistance platform to generate results that satisfy the directory assistance requests. The content switch intelligently monitors the directory assistance sessions and dynamically invokes value-adding services that delivers rich content in addition to the results to the GPS-enable wireless phone or other registered client devices based on the directory assistance requests or results. The value-adding services may include pushing driving directions to the GPS-enable wireless phone, providing training video content corresponding to vendors associated with the directory assistance requests, or connecting the GPS-enabled wireless phone to a live video-conferencing session.

Claims

1. One or more tangible computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon for performing a method to manage directory assistance requests, the method comprising:

receiving a user request for directory information;

establishing a session between a content switch and directory assistance platform;

communicating the user requests to the directory assistance platform;

selecting a delivery location and format for results associated with the user request;

generating results for the user request; and

transferring the session to the content switch to initiate an enhanced-directory-assistance service associated with the user request.

2. The media of claim 1, further comprising executing an interactive voice recognition component to refine the user request.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the results corresponding to the user request includes multimedia.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the session between the content switch and directory assistance platform utilize SIP messages to transmit data between the content switch and directory platform.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service transmits driving directions to a location specified in the user request.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service connects a client device that generated the user request to an instant messaging session.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service connects a client device that generated the user request to a telephone-conferencing session.

8. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service connects a client device that generated the user request to a video-conferencing session.

9. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service completes a purchase request for content generated by a content provider.

10. A computer-implemented method to deliver content in response to directory assistance requests, the method comprising:

registering one or more client devices;

receiving a directory assistance request from one or more of the registered client devices;

generating results for the directory assistance request;

delivering the results to one or more registered client devices; and

executing enhanced-directory-assistance services based on a format of the directory assistance request.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising executing additional enhanced-directory-assistance services based on the results generated in response to the directory assistance request.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the one or more registered client devices includes at least one of a set-top box, a wireless device, and a GPS-enabled device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the one or more registered client devices includes a profile that stores delivery preferences for the one or more registered client devices.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein one or more of the registered client devices that generated the directory assistance requests are wireless devices.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the wireless devices are wireless phones.

16. A content switch to manage communication sessions, the content switch comprising:

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that manage communication sessions associated with directory assistance requests generated by a client device;

one or more processors that execute the instructions, to generate communication sessions, and to invoke enhanced-directory-assistance services associated with the directory assistance requests;

a first communication interface connected to an IP network, wherein the IP network comprises

(1) a media gateway controller that routes the directory assistance request to the content switch and

(2) a directory assistance platform that generates results based on the directory assistance requests received from the content switch; and

a second communication interface connected to a SMS center that generates SMS messages when the client device specifies a SMS as a delivery format.

17. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance services include at least one of content delivery, online shopping, telephone-conferencing, video-conferencing, instant messaging, and route navigation.

18. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the IP network further comprises a content provider configured to transmit multimedia content associated with the user request.

19. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the IP network further comprises a call center configured to establish video-conferencing sessions.

20. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the IP network further comprises a broadband client device that is configured to receive results associated with the user request.