Streaming content over a telephone interface

• US 6,970,915 B1
• Filed: 11/01/1999
• Issued: 11/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Tellme Networks Incorporated ([24]7.ai, Inc.)
• Inventors: Plitkins, Michael M., Accardi, Anthony, McCue, Michael S., Davis, Angus Macdonald, Partovi, Hadi
• Primary Examiner(s): Thompson, Marc D.
• Application Number:
  US09/431,002
• Time in Patent Office: 2,220 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/231, 709/227, 709/217, 709/219, 709/218, 704/270, 704/270.1, 704/275
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0036 where the data service is an information service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/128 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/129 Details of providing call progress tones or announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1295 Details of dual tone multiple frequency signalling

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing streaming content over telephones is described. The creation of a voice portal is supported by the invention. Embodiments of the invention use allows users to place a telephone call to access the voice portal. The user can access many different types of content. This content can include text based content which is read to the user by a text to speech system (e.g., news reports, stock prices, text content of Internet sites), audio content which can be played to the user (e.g., voicemail messages, music), and streaming audio content (e.g., Internet broadcast radio shows, streaming news reports, and streaming live broadcasts). This content can be accessed from many different places. For example, the content can be retrieved from a news feed, a local streaming content server, an audio repository, and/or an Internet based streaming content server. The streaming content allows the user to access live web broadcasts even though the user may not have access to a computer. The system allows audio signals from multiple sources to be combined to enhance the user experience. Additionally, the user can control many aspects of the delivery of the streaming content. Personalization features of the voice portal allow for an improved user experience during streaming content delivery.

Claims

1. A method of providing streaming content from the Internet to a telephone using a computer system, the computer system including a telephone interface system coupled in communications with an Internet access system, the telephone interface system being coupled in communications with the telephone, the method comprising:

receiving an Internet access request at an execution engine of the computer system, the Internet access request based at least in part on an implicit preference of a user profile and corresponding to streaming content of an Internet site outside of the computer system, wherein the user profile is automatically modified to include the implicit preference in response to a user repeatedly accessing streaming content associated with the Internet site and without the user explicitly directing the computer system to add the implicit preference to the user profile;

receiving the streaming content from the Internet site at a streaming engine of the computer system, the streaming content including an audio portion; and

sending at least the audio portion of the streaming content from a telephone gateway over the telephone interface system to send an audio signal, corresponding to the audio portion, to the telephone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the Internet access request comprises receiving a verbal request to access the Internet site and performing voice recognition on the verbal request to determine the Internet access request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the Internet access request comprises receiving a series of one or more touch tone signals and decoding the series of one or more touch tone signals to determine the Internet access request.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a menu corresponding to accessible Internet sites, and wherein the receiving the Internet access request corresponds to a selection from the menu.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the type of streaming content and converting the corresponding type of streaming content into an audio portion.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the Internet access system includes a web server, wherein the web server connects to the Internet site to receive the streaming content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the streaming content is received as packet data from a packet switched network and wherein the telephone interface system communicates the audio signal to the Public Switched Telephone Network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the Internet access request is translated into a URI.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system includes personalized content information and wherein the Internet access request is generated from the personalized content information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system further comprises a local streaming content system, the local streaming content system including a second streaming content, the second streaming content including at least a second audio portion, and wherein the method further comprises accessing the local streaming content system to provide a second audio signal corresponding to the second audio portion to the telephone.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

mixing the audio portion with the second audio portion and wherein the audio signal corresponds to the mixed audio signal; and

sending the mixed audio signal over the telephone interface system to the telephone.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the computer system further comprises an audio repository, wherein the method further comprises accessing the audio content from the audio repository to provide to the telephone, and mixing the audio portion with the second audio portion into a mixed signal such that the mixed signal is provided over the telephone.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system further comprises an audio repository and wherein the method further comprises accessing the audio content from the repository to provide to the telephone.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a command, the command corresponding to a request by the telephone user to adjust the sending of the audio portion, and adjusting the sending of the audio portion.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the command corresponds to a pause command, and wherein the sending the audio portion is paused and wherein a pause command is sent out to the Internet site.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the command corresponds to a pause command, and wherein the sending the audio portion is paused and wherein at least the audio portion of the streaming content is cached during the pause.

26. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising accessing said user profile based on telephone identifying information associated with the telephone.

27. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the user profile is modified to include the implicit preference in response to a user confirming modification of the user profile to include the implicit preference.

28. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the Internet access request is for a default message.

17. A computer system to deliver streaming content from the Internet to a telephone, the computer system comprising:

an Internet interface including at least one program to receive the streaming content in response to an implicit request based at least in part on an implicit preference of a user profile from the Internet and extract a streaming audio signal from the streaming content, wherein the user profile is automatically modified to include the implicit preference in response to a user repeatedly accessing the streaming content and without the user explicitly directing the computer system to add the implicit preference to the user profile;

a telephone interface to send an audio signal to the telephone, the audio signal corresponding to the streaming audio signal; and

a control subsystem to control the Internet interface and the telephone interface.

18. The computer system of claim 17, further comprising an audio repository storing audio storing sounds, and the computer system includes a second program to cause at least some sounds to be mixed with the streaming audio signal for generating a mixed signal such that mixed signal is provided over the telephone.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the second program mixes by adding the at least some sounds to the streaming audio signal.

20. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the second program mixes by inserting the at least some sounds into the streaming audio signal.

21. The computer system of claim 18, wherein at least one sound is an advertisement.

22. The computer system of claim 21, wherein the computer system includes personal preference information and wherein the advertisement is chosen based at least partially upon the personal preference information.

23. The computer system of claim 18, wherein at least one sound is a system prompt.

24. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the telephone interface subsystem includes a call manager, the call manager supporting multiple simultaneous telephone calls over the telephone interface, at least one of the simultaneous telephone calls receiving the streaming audio signal.

25. A computer system delivering streaming content to a telephone, the streaming content being received from a Internet streaming content server, the computer system comprising:

means for receiving an Internet access request, the Internet access request based at least in part on an implicit preference of a user profile and corresponding to an Internet site outside of the computer system, wherein the user profile is automatically modified to include the implicit preference in response to a user repeatedly accessing streaming content associated with said Internet site and without the user explicitly directing the computer system to add the implicit preference to the user profile;

means for receiving the streaming content from the Internet streaming content server, the streaming content including an audio portion; and

means for sending at least the audio portion of the streaming content to the telephone.