Multi-modal communications method

• US 6,704,396 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2002
• Issued: 03/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Labs Incorporated (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Technology Resources, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Parolkar, Satish, Bhavsar, Vikram
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoosain, Allan
• Application Number:
  US10/083,472
• Publication Number:
  US 20030161448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 741 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/88.13, 379/88.17, 379/88.18, 379/265.01, 379/265.02, 379/265.09, 379/900, 379/908, 370/312, 370/352, 370/353, 370/354, 709/200, 709/218, 709/227
• US Class Current: 379/88.17
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/053 remote terminal provisioning, e.g. of applets
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/1016 Telecontrol
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/553 Data upload
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42 Systems providing special services or facilities to subscribers specially adapted for wireless communication networks H04W4/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5191 interacting with the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/58 Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party substation line holding circuits H04M1/80

Abstract

Communications between an agent and a party using a communications device involve sending an interactive script using session initiation protocol (SIP) to the communications device. The interactive script gathers information from the communications device or a user of the communications device and the requested information is then forwarded to an agent terminal using SIP. The interactive script is written in a high-level language and securely stored, such that an authorized party can easily access and alter the script to suit a need for particular information.

Claims

1. A method of collecting information from a communications device of a user for use by a recipient device, the method comprising:

establishing a communications connection between the communications device and the recipient device;

sending an interactive text markup programming language script to the communications device using a session initiation protocol (SIP) message, the script comprising at least one query; and

receiving an answer from the communications device in response to the at least one query, the answer being automatically generated by the communications device.

2. The method of collecting information of claim 1, further comprising:

sending a message to one of a proxy server and a redirect server to establish the communications connection between the communications device and the recipient.

3. The method of collecting information of claim 1, wherein the received answer comprises information of at least one of a location of the communications device, a type of the communications device, a communications format used by the communications device, a communications mode desired by the user of the communications device, a personal identification of a user of the communications device, an account number of a user of the communications device, a password of a user of the communications device, billing information of a user of the communications device, the intent of the user of the communications device, a preferred language of a user of the communications device, and a question from the user of the communications device.

4. The method of collecting information of claim 1, wherein the received answer is a textual representation of one of a DTMF tone, VoiceXML and HTML speech tags.

5. The method of collecting information of claim 1, further comprising providing the answer to a user of the recipient device.

6. The method of collecting information of claim 1, the at least one query of the interactive script comprising a first query and a second query that depends on the answer to the first query.

7. The method of collecting information of claim 1, further comprising translating the answer to the interactive script into text.

8. A method of determining a final call destination for a caller using a communications device, the method comprising:

sending an interactive text markup programming language script, including at least one query, from a call queue to the communications device using a session initiation protocol (SIP) message;

attempting to receive an answer to each query from the communications device without requiring an action by the user of the communications device;

for each query that is not answered by the communications device, presenting the query to the caller via a user interface associated with the communications device;

when an answer to the at least one query has been received from one of the communications device and the caller, returning the script and the answers to the call queue; and

determining the call destination based on the answers to the at least one query.

9. The method of determining the final call destination of claim 8, further comprising sending a message to one of a proxy server and a redirect server.

10. The method of determining the final call destination of claim 8, wherein the received answer comprises information of at least one of a location of the communications device, a type of the communications device, a communications format used by the communications device, a communications mode desired by the user of the communications device, a personal identification of a user of the communications device, an account number of a user of the communications device, a password of a user of the communications device, billing information of a user of the communications device, the intent of the user of the communications device, a preferred language of a user of the communications device, and a question from the user of the communications device.

11. The method of determining the final call destination of claim 8, wherein the received answer is a textual representation of one of a DTMF tone, VoiceXML and HTML speech tags.

12. The method of determining the final call destination of claim 8, further comprising providing the answers to an agent at the final call destination.

13. The method of determining the final call destination of claim 8, the at least one query of the interactive script comprising a first query and a second query that depends on the answer to the first query.

14. The method of determining the final call destination of claim 8, further comprising translating the answers to the interactive script into text.

15. A method of interactively pre-screening caller information of a caller using a communications device, the method comprising:

establishing a communications connection between an information service and the communications device;

sending an interactive text markup programming language script, including at least one query, from the information service to the communications device used by the caller, using a session initiation protocol (SIP) message;

integrating into the interactive script at least one answer to the query, the answer being automatically generated by the communications device;

receiving the script, including the at least one answer, at the information service.

16. The method of interactively pre-screening caller information of claim 15, further comprising establishing a second connection between the communications device and one of a plurality of agent devices using SIP, the one of the plurality of agent devices being determined based on the at least one answer.

17. The method of interactively pre-screening caller information of claim 15, wherein the establishing a communications connection further comprises sending a message to one of a proxy server and a redirect server.

18. The method of interactively pre-screening caller information of claim 15, wherein the received answer comprises information of at least one of a location of the communications device, a type of the communications device, a communications format used by the communications device, a communications mode desired by the user of the communications device, a personal identification of a user of the communications device, an account number of a user of the communications device, a password of a user of the communications device, billing information of a user of the communications device, the intent of the user of the communications device, a preferred language of a user of the communications device, and a question from the user of the communications device.

19. The method of interactively pre-screening caller information of claim 15, wherein the received answer is a textual representation of one of a DTMF tone, VoiceXML and HTML speech tags.

20. The method of interactively pre-screening caller information of claim 15, further comprising providing the answer to an agent of the information service at an agent terminal.

21. The method of interactively pre-screening caller information of claim 15, the at least one query of the interactive script comprising a first query and a second query that is based upon a first answer to the first query.

22. The method of interactively pre-screening caller information of claim 15, further comprising translating the answers to the interactive script into text.

23. A computer readable medium for storing a computer program that controls collection of information from a communications device of a user for receipt at a recipient device, the computer readable medium comprising:

a session initiation protocol (SIP) segment that creates a session initiation protocol message that is sent to the communications device, the SIP message comprising an interactive text markup programming language script that comprises at least one query;

a data processing segment that receives and analyzes an answer from the communications device in response to the at least one query, the answer being automatically generated by the communications device.

24. An data reception system that receives collected data from a communications device of a caller, comprising:

an automated call distributor that receives a call from a user device over an IP network;

a call queue that receives the call from the automated call distributor and sends an interactive text markup programming language script, including at least one query, to the communications device of the caller using a session initiation protocol (SIP) message;

a media gateway that translates the script into a format compatible with the communications device of the caller when the communications device of the caller does not support the modality of the script as sent by the call queue;

wherein when an answer to the at least one query, automatically generated by the communications device, has been received from the communications device, the answers are processed at the call queue.