Telephone caller location data retrieval

• US 6,721,406 B1
• Filed: 11/28/2001
• Issued: 04/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2001
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: ThinkLogix, LLC (Ascend Innovation Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Contractor, Sunil H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz, Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, QUOC DUC
• Application Number:
  US09/996,080
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 379/142.01, 379/142.04, 379/142.06, 379/142.1, 379/142.15, 379/142.17, 379/88.11, 379/88.19, 379/88.2, 379/88.21, 379/207.02, 379/207.15, 379/221.14, 379/220.01, 379/245, 379/201.06, 379/201.07, 379/201.08, 455/414, 455/415
• US Class Current: 379/142.06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/575 Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/06 Recording class or number of calling , i.e. A-party or called party , i.e. B-party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/62 based on trigger specification
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8033 location-dependent, e.g. business or home
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/7435 Location dependent, e.g. Bussiness or home
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 Provisions for intelligent networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/74 Identification of subscriber calling from a party-line

Abstract

A system for obtaining location data of calling parties for telephone calls provides location data for display by a called device. Through reception of the name, telephone number, or other calling party identifier as is done through the conventional caller ID service, the called device formulates a query to a database containing location data for calling parties. Existing advanced intelligent network infrastructure may be used to provide caller ID data to the called device, and the called device uses this caller ID data to formulate the query to the database. Additionally, the called device may have access to multiple databases containing location data and may detect an appropriate database to query based upon analysis of the caller ID data that has been received.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring location data about a calling party at a called device, comprising:

receiving, at the called device, an identifier of the calling party through signals from a connection to a signal switching point;

detecting, at the called device, a particular database to query based on the received identifier from amongst a plurality of databases containing location data about calling parties that are indexed by identifiers; and

querying, from the called device, the particular database that is detected to obtain the location data by looking-up the identifier received from the signal switching point to find the associated location data of the calling party.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the calling party identifier is a telephone number of the calling party.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a call trigger into an originating signal switching point, the call trigger containing the telephone number;

transferring the telephone number from the originating signal switching point to the signal switching point; and

forwarding the telephone number from the signal switching point to the called device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the call trigger includes the telephone number of the called device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein querying the particular database comprises sending from the called device a query across the Internet to a server in communication with the particular database.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting a particular database to query comprises determining, by the called party device, a category representing the calling party from the identifier wherein the particular database that is detected contains information for the determined category.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier is a name of the calling party, the method further comprising:

sending a query to a signal transfer point from the signal switching point, the query containing a telephone number of the calling party;

transferring the query from the signal transfer point to an appropriate signal control point;

looking-up the telephone number in a database accessible by the signal control point to find the name of the calling party;

transferring the name of the calling party to the signal transfer point from the signal control point;

sending the name of the calling party to the signal switching point from the signal transfer point; and

forwarding the name of the calling party from the signal switching point.

20. The method of claim 3, wherein the call trigger includes the telephone number of the called device, the method further comprising:

prior to forwarding the identifier contained within the call trigger to the called device, detecting whether the call trigger includes a privacy indicator, and if a privacy indicator is detected, the signal switching point connects to the called device without sending the identifier;

subsequent to detecting the absence of a privacy indicator within the call trigger, detecting whether the called device subscribes to a caller identification service providing a number as the identifier, and if such caller identification service subscription is not detected, the signal switching point connects to the called device without sending the identifier; and

subsequent to detecting that the called device subscribes to a caller identification service providing a number as the identifier, further detecting whether the called device also subscribes to a calling name caller identification service providing a name as the identifier, and if such calling name caller identification subscription is detected, the signal switching point connects to the called device and sends both the number and the name.

8. A system for acquiring location data of a calling party, comprising:

a called device that displays the location data;

a signal switching point configured to forward an identifier of a calling party to the called device;

a category list maintained by the called device and referenced when detecting an appropriate electronic database to query for location data, wherein the calling party identifier forwarded to the called device falls into a particular category within the list that identifies the particular database to query; and

a plurality of electronic databases in communication with the called device, each containing location data indexed by identifiers of calling parties, wherein the called device sends a query to the particular electronic database upon receiving the identifier, the query containing the identifier, and wherein the electronic database looks up the identifier to access the location data provided to the called device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein prior to querying the electronic database, the called device detects a particular electronic database to query based on the received identifier and wherein the called device queries the particular electronic database that is detected.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the calling party identifier is a telephone number of the calling party.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising an originating signal switching point that receives a call trigger from the calling device and forwards the telephone number to the signal switching point.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the originating signal switching point forwards a telephone number of the called party to the signal switching point.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the called device sends the query to the particular electronic database across the Internet to a server in communication with the particular electronic database.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the called device detects the particular electronic database by determining a category representing the calling party from the identifier and wherein the particular electronic database that is detected contains location data for the determined category.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the identifier is a name of the calling party, the system further comprising:

a signal transfer point in communication with the signal switching point, wherein the signal switching point sends an identifier query to the signal transfer point that contains a telephone number of the calling party, and wherein the signal transfer point receives the name of the calling party and forwards it to the signal switching point; and

a signal control point in communication with the signal transfer point, wherein the signal transfer point forwards the identifier query to the signal control point and the signal control point looks up the telephone number to find the name of the calling party, and sends the name of the calling party to the signal transfer point.

16. A system for acquiring location data of a calling party, comprising:

a telephone network;

a computing device interfaced with the telephone network, the computing device being configured to receive an identifier of the calling party, detect an electronic database containing location data associated with the identifier, send a query containing the identifier to the detected database in response to receiving the identifier, and display the location data; and

a plurality of electronic databases in communication with the computing device, the plurality of electronic databases containing location data for calling parties, the plurality of electronic databases being configured so that the detected electronic database from the plurality of electronic databases receives the query and looks up the identifier to obtain the location data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the identifier is the telephone number of the calling party.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the computing device detects an electronic database by determining a category representing the calling party and selecting an electronic database that contains location data for the category.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein one or more of the electronic databases of the plurality are in communication with the computing device through the Internet.