Web based personal directory

• US 7,020,262 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2004
• Issued: 03/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Knight, Stephen, Kredo, Thomas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoosain, Allan
• Application Number:
  US10/777,696
• Publication Number:
  US 20040161095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 775 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.11, 379/88.12, 379/88.19, 379/218.01, 379/142.04, 379/142.15, 379/88.17, 379/88.18, 379/265.09, 379/67.1, 379/72, 379/76
• US Class Current: 379/218.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4557 Directories for hybrid networks, e.g. including telephone numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• 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 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42153 by subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML

Abstract

A personal directory system 10 has a translation server 40 for verifying the identity of a subscriber and recognizing the name of one or more subscribers that are stored on a personal directory of another subscriber. A caller is connected by a public telephone switch to the server 40 that accesses a personal directory computer 60 located on the World Wide Web 50. The requested number and/or speed dial number are converted from text to speech and the public telephone switch automatically dials the requested number.

Claims

1. A method for providing a telephone number on a public telephone network from a personal directory stored on a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing a voice connection from a personal directory subscriber to a translation server that holds a computer network address for a personal directory of the subscriber, the personal directory of the subscriber containing a plurality of pairs of names and corresponding telephone numbers, at least one of the plurality of pairs being populated by the caller;

connecting the translation server to a computer network address of the personal directory of the subscriber;

retrieving information from the personal directory at the computer network address, the retrieved information comprising at least one of a telephone number and one of the plurality of pairs of names and corresponding telephone numbers; and

confirming by the caller at least one aspect of the retrieved information in response to a voice prompt from the translation server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of searching a memory in the translation server for the computer network address of the personal directory of the subscriber.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of confirming comprises confirming, by the caller, the telephone number associated with the retrieved information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of confirming comprises confirming, by the caller, the name associated with the retrieved information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of automatically dialing the retrieved number after the step of confirming.

6. A personal directory system accessible by a voice caller, comprising:

a translation server, responsive to the voice caller, for searching a plurality of stored computer addresses for a computer address corresponding to the caller and establishing a connection, via a computer network, with the corresponding address, said translation server being further configured to receive voice commands from the caller and to issue voice prompts to the caller; and

a personal directory server, associated with the corresponding address and responsive to the translation server, for storing a plurality of personal directories, each personal directory comprising personal directory entries, at least one of the personal directory entries being populated by the voice caller, and for accessing a personal directory corresponding to the voice caller, whereby information associated with a selected personal directory entry may be provided from the personal directory corresponding to the voice caller and confirmed by the voice caller in response to a voice prompt from the translation server.

7. The personal directory system of claim 6, wherein the translation server is adapted to be connected to a public telephone network switch and to a computer network.

8. The personal directory system of claim 7, wherein the translation server is further configured to transmit a telephone number associated with the directory entry to the telephone switch to complete a connection on the telephone network.

9. The personal directory system of claim 7, wherein the translation server is further configured to receive a call from the switch requesting access to the caller'"'"'s personal directory.

10. The system of claim 6, further comprising a text-to-speech module, responsive to the personal directory server, for converting the selected personal directory entry to at least one of a name or telephone number.

11. The system of claim 6, further comprising a voice recognition module responsive to the voice caller, for recognizing the selected a personal directory entry spoken by the voice caller.

12. The system of claim 6, further comprising a caller identification module, responsive to the voice caller, for identifying the voice caller to the translation server, to associate the voice caller with one of the stored computer addresses.

13. The system of claim 6, wherein the translation server is further configured to be responsive to the personal directory server to automatically dial the selected personal directory entry.

14. A personal directory server accessible by a voice caller, comprising:

means for storing a plurality of personal directories, each personal directory including a plurality of personal directory entries, wherein at least one of the personal directory entries includes a telephone number provided by a subscriber associated with the personal directory;

means for associating the voice caller with one of the personal directories;

means for corresponding one of the personal directory entries with a selected personal directory entry provided by the voice caller; and

means for confirming by the voice caller, in response to a voice prompt, the corresponding one of the personal directory entries with the selected personal directory entry provided by the voice caller.

15. The personal directory server of claim 14, wherein the means for storing a plurality of personal directories is configured to store the personal directories at different network addresses.

16. The personal directory server of claim 14, wherein each personal directory comprises a plurality of pairs of names of telephony subscribers and their corresponding telephone numbers.

17. The personal directory server of claim 14, wherein the personal directory server further comprises means for searching the stored telephone numbers in the personal directory of the subscriber for a desired telephone number.

18. The personal directory server of claim 14, wherein the personal directory server further comprises means for transmitting a selected stored number in response to a request for the number.