Methods And Systems For Selecting A Buddy From A Buddy List And For Placing Call To A Buddy

• US 20120170723A1
• Filed: 03/12/2012
• Published: 07/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eric Reiher
• Original Assignee: Eric Reiher
• Inventors: Reiher, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 9,036,798 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.17
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

There is described a provides a method for selecting a buddy with which a user wants to connect. The buddy having a buddy identification being listed in a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations. The user using a user telephone means to which is associated identification information. The method comprises: initiating a call from the user telephone means to an Internet-enabled computing device, the call having associated thereto calling line identification (CLID) information; comparing the CLID information to the user telephone means identification information; validating the CLID information using the comparison upon positive validation, the user providing the buddy identification; consulting the pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations for a match between the buddy identification and one of the Internet-accessible destinations; and advising the user of a successful or unsuccessful match. Alternatively, a call is placed to a party which does not necessarily belong to a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations.

Claims

1. A method for determining contact information of a buddy of a user of a user telephone means having associated identification information, the method comprising:

receiving, at an Internet-enabled computing device, an incoming call with calling line identification (CLID) information from the user telephone means;

if the CLID matches the associated identification information of the user;

receiving buddy identification of the buddy from the user;

searching for the buddy identification within a group of pre-defined Internet-accessible destinations to identify a match result; and

sending the match result to the user telephone means.

2. The method of claim 1, the step of sending comprising a voice playback of the match result to the user telephone means.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

placing an outgoing call to a buddy telephone means associated with the buddy; and

connecting the incoming call to the outgoing call to form a three-way call between the Internet connected computing device, the user, and the buddy.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein once the buddy telephone means answers the outgoing call, the Internet-enabled computing device drops out of the three-way call, thereby leaving a two-way connection between the user telephone means and the buddy telephone means.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein placing the three-way conference call comprises calling back one of:

the user telephone means and another telephone means.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising prompting the user to provide the buddy identification if the CLID matches the user telephone means identification information.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the Internet-enabled computing device to advise the user of a code to provide to identify the buddy.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to receiving the incoming call, the user registering information identifying the user telephone means in a database accessible to the Internet-enabled computing device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the registering further comprises registering an association between the user and one or more specific telephone numbers that the user expects to use.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the registering further comprises registering authentication credentials.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising, prior to the validation, performing an authentication using the authentication credentials to confirm the identity of the user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the buddy identification comprises at least one of:

letters entered by the user using a keypad on the user telephone means;

DTMF tones entered by the user using the keypad on the user telephone means;

numbers entered by the user using the keypad on the user telephone means;

a short-message-service-type message entered by the user using a keypad on the user telephone means; and

speech entered by the user using the user telephone means.

13. A buddy selection system for determining contact information of a buddy of a user of the buddy selection system, the system comprising:

a database for storing a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations; and

an Internet-enabled computing device communicatively coupled with the database and comprising;

an Internet telephony application for receiving a call from a user telephone means of the user, the call having calling line identification (CLID) information;

a specialized software application for intervening in the call when the CLID information indicates that the call is from the user telephone means, and for receiving buddy identification from the user via the user telephone means; and

a communication software application for searching for the buddy identification within the pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations to determine a search result;

wherein the specialized software application cooperates with the Internet telephone software to create an outgoing call to an Internet-accessible destination based upon a match between the buddy identification and one of the Internet-accessible destinations.

14. The system of claim 13, the Internet-enabled computing device further comprising a prompting device for prompting the user to provide the buddy identification upon positive validation.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising an output device for advising the user of a code to provide to identify the buddy.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the Internet-enabled computing device comprises an input for receiving user registration information prior to receiving the call, the user registration information identifying the user telephone means in the database.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the registration information comprises an association between the user and one or more specific telephone numbers that the user expects to use.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the registration information further comprises authentication credentials.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising an authenticating device for performing an authentication using the authentication credentials to confirm an identity of the user prior to the validation.