Call center with location queuing and dispatching

• US 6,754,335 B1
• Filed: 09/27/2001
• Issued: 06/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Khouri, Joseph F., Shaffer, Shmuel
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, CREIGHTON H
• Application Number:
  US09/967,591
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 379/266.01, 379/266.02, 379/266.03, 379/309, 379/45
• US Class Current: 379/266.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/06 Lines and connections with preferential service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/523 with call distribution or queueing

Abstract

A system and method to queue, dispatch, send announcements to incoming calls to an emergency response center (ERC) is disclosed. The present invention employs location-based queuing and dispatching to prioritize callers such that callers reporting known occurrence are removed from the queue of the ERC and sent appropriate announcements, thus increasing response time of unique non-reported occurrences at the ERC.

Claims

1. A system for queuing and dispatching incoming calls to an operator device based upon the location of a reporting device, said system comprising:

an automatic call distributor, said automatic call distributor dispatching and prioritizing incoming calls originating from a reporting device to an operator device based upon the location of said reporting device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatic call distributor comprises a location-based queue, said location-based queue providing a waiting mechanism for incoming calls from said reporting device when said reporting device is within a determined distance from a location of a pre-existing incoming call, said pre-existing incoming call received within a pre-determined period of time.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatic call distributor comprises a location-based queue, said location-based queue providing a low priority for incoming calls from said reporting device when said reporting device is within a determined distance from a location of a pre-existing incoming call, said pre-existing incoming call received within a pre-determined period of time.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatic call distributor comprises at least two location-based queues, said at least two location-based queues providing a waiting mechanism for incoming calls from said reporting device when said reporting is within a determined distance from a location of a pre-existing incoming call, said pre-existing incoming call received within a pre-determined period of time, wherein incoming calls from said reporting device within a determined distance from a location of a pre-existing incoming call are placed in said first of said at least two queues and incoming calls from said reporting device outside of said determined distance are placed in a second of said at least two queues.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said reporting device comprises one of a wireless telephone, a wireline telephone, a general purpose computer, personal digital assistant, two way paging device, Internet Protocol device, and voice over Internet Protocol telephone.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said operator device comprises one of a wireless telephone, a wireline telephone, a general purpose computer, personal digital assistant, two way paging device, Internet Protocol device, and voice over Internet Protocol telephone.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said automatic call distributor comprises a computer server.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said queue comprises one of a computer server, a general purpose computer, a private branch exchange device, a random access memory, a dynamic random access memory, EEPROM, and flash memory.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising a wireless device locator, said wireless device locator supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising a wireline device locator, said wireline device locator supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device.

11. The system of claim 1 further comprising an Internet Protocol device locator, said Internet Protocol device locator supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising a wireline database, said wireline database supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device based upon the caller identification of said reporting device.

13. The system of claim 1 further comprising a global positioning satellite system, said global positioning satellite system supplying said reporting device with a physical location of said reporting device.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said reporting device comprises an Internet Protocol device, said Internet Protocol device receiving location information of said reporting device based on an Internet Protocol address.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said reporting device comprises an Internet Protocol device, said Internet Protocol device receiving location information of said reporting device based on a switch port to which said Internet Protocol device is connected.

16. The system of claim 1 further comprising a call processing device, said call processing device connecting said reporting device to said automatic call distributor.

17. The system of claim 1 further comprising a speech to text device, said speech to text device converting speech to text to obtain the type of occurrence from said reporting device.

18. The system of claim 2, wherein said location-based queue plays announcements containing information about occurrences that have occurrence within a pre-defined proximity of said reporting device.

19. The system of claim 1 further comprising a text to speech device, said text to speech device converting text to speech to construct an announcement which prompts said reporting device to indicate whether an occurrence to be reported by said reporting device has already been reported.

20. The system of claim 1 further comprising a text to speech device, said text to speech device converting text to speech to construct an announcement to be sent to said reporting device indicating that an occurrence near the physical location of said reporting device has already been reported.

21. An emergency response system for queuing and dispatching incoming calls, said system comprising:

an automatic call distributor, said automatic call distributor dispatching incoming calls originating from a reporting device to an operator device for reporting an emergency, said automatic call distributor comprising a location-based queue, said location-based queue prioritizing said incoming calls based upon the location of said reporting device, wherein if said reporting device is physically within a determined distance from an emergency already known said incoming call from said reporting device is given a selective priority.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein said automatic call distributor comprises at least two location-based queues, said at least two location-based queues providing a waiting mechanism for incoming calls from said reporting device when said reporting is within a determined distance from a location of a pre-existing incoming call, said pre-existing incoming call received within a pre-determined period of time, wherein incoming calls from said reporting device within a determined distance from a location of a pre-existing incoming call are placed in said first of said at least two queues and incoming calls from said reporting device outside of said determined distance are placed in a second of said at least two queues.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein said reporting device comprises one of a wireless telephone, a wireline telephone, a general purpose computer, personal digital assistant, two way paging device, Internet Protocol device, and voice over Internet Protocol telephone.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein said operator device comprises one of a wireless telephone, a wireline telephone, a general purpose computer, personal digital assistant, two way paging device, Internet Protocol device, and voice over Internet Protocol telephone.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein said automatic call distributor comprises a computer server.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein said queue comprises one of a computer server, a general purpose computer, a private branch exchange device, a random access memory, a dynamic random access memory, EEPROM, and flash memory.

27. The system of claim 21 further comprising a wireless device locator, said wireless device locator supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device.

28. The system of claim 21 further comprising a wireline device locator, said wireline device locator supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device.

29. The system of claim 21 further comprising an Internet Protocol device locator, said Internet Protocol device locator supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device.

30. The system of claim 21 further comprising a wireline database, said wireline database supplying said automatic call distributor with a physical location of said reporting device based upon the caller identification of said reporting device.

31. The system of claim 21 further comprising a global positioning satellite system, said global positioning satellite system supplying said reporting device with a physical location of said reporting device.

32. The system of claim 21, wherein said reporting device comprises an Internet Protocol device, said Internet Protocol device receiving location information of said reporting device based on an Internet Protocol address.

33. The system of claim 21, wherein said reporting device comprises an Internet Protocol device, said Internet Protocol device receiving location information of said reporting device based on a switch port to which said Internet Protocol device is connected.

34. The system of claim 21 further comprising a call processing device, said call processing device connecting said reporting device to said automatic call distributor.

35. The system of claim 21 further comprising a speech to text device, said speech to text device converting speech to text to obtain the type of occurrence from said reporting device.

36. The system of claim 22, wherein at least one of said at least two location-based queues plays announcements containing information about occurrences that have occurrence within a pre-defined proximity of said reporting device.

37. The system of claim 21 further comprising a text to speech device, said text to speech device converting text to speech to construct an announcement which prompts said reporting device to indicate whether an occurrence to be reported by said reporting device has already been reported.

38. The system of claim 21 further comprising a text to speech device, said text to speech device converting text to speech to construct an announcement to be sent to said reporting device indicating that an occurrence near the physical location of said reporting device has already been reported.

42. The method of claim 29 further comprising sending an announcement to said reporting device if said reporting device is within a determined distance from a location of a pre-existing reported occurrence, said pre-existing reported occurrence being received within a predetermined time period.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein said announcement conditionally instructs said reporting device to disconnect.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein said announcement comprises a list of previous reported occurrences which may be the same as that of said reporting device.

45. The method of claim 44 further comprising receiving input from said reporting device indicating if an occurrence to be reported by said reporting device is the same as an already known occurrence indicated by said announcement.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein if said occurrence to be reported is the same as an already reported known occurrence, as determined by said input, said call is removed from said queue.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein if said occurrence to be reported is not same as an already reported known occurrence, as determined by said input, said call is prioritized within said queue.

39. A method for queuing and dispatching incoming calls based upon the location of a caller, said method comprising:

determining a location of a reporting device attempting to connect to an operator device; and

routing a call from said reporting device to a queue based on the location of said reporting device.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein said routing said call from said reporting device to a queue comprises routing said call to one of a plurality of queues based upon the distance said reporting device is from a location of a pre-existing incoming call, said pre-existing incoming call being received within a predetermined time period, and placing said call from said reporting device in one of said plurality of queues containing said pre-existing incoming call which is within a determined distance from said reporting device.

41. The method of claim 40 further comprising prioritizing said call within one of said plurality of queues in which it resides, said prioritization based upon the distance said reporting device is from a location of a pre-existing incoming call, said pre-existing incoming call being received within a predetermined time period.

48. The method of claim 39 further comprising determining a location of reporting device, wherein said determining a location of reporting device comprises using a global positioning satellite system to determine said location of said reporting device.

49. The method of claim 39, further comprising determining a location of reporting device, wherein said determining a location of device reporting device comprises using a caller identification look-up table to obtain a physical location of said reporting device based upon a caller identification of said reporting device.

50. The method of claim 39 further comprising determining a location of reporting device, wherein said determining a location of device reporting device comprises using an Internet Protocol address of said reporting device to obtain a physical location of said reporting device.

51. The method of claim 39 further comprising determining a location of reporting device, wherein said determining a location of device reporting device comprises using a port of an Internet Protocol switch port connected to said reporting device to obtain a physical location of said reporting device.

52. The method of claim 39 further comprising converting speech to text to obtain the type of occurrence from said reporting device.

53. The method of claim 39, further comprising sending an announcement to said reporting device containing information about occurrences that have occurred within a pre-defined proximity of said reporting device.

54. The method of claim 39 further comprising converting text to speech to construct an announcement which prompts said reporting device to indicate whether an occurrence to be reported by said reporting device has already been reported.

55. The method of claim 39 further comprising converting text to speech to construct an announcement to be sent to said reporting device indicating that an occurrence near the physical location of said reporting device has already been reported.

56. Logic encoded in a memory device comprising the logic operable to at least:

determine a location of a reporting device attempting to connect to an operator device; and

route a call from said reporting device to a queue based on the location of said reporting device.

57. A system for queuing and dispatching incoming calls to an operator device based upon the location of a reporting device, said system comprising:

means for dispatching incoming calls originating from a reporting device to an operator device; and

means for prioritizing said incoming calls based upon the location of said reporting device.