Communications system that provides user-selectable data when user is on-hold

• US 8,412,164 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2011
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Michael M.
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, MAHENDRA R
• Application Number:
  US13/297,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20120064867A1
• Time in Patent Office: 503 Days
• Field of Search: 370/216, 370/401, 370/410, 370/396, 370/352, 704/200, 704/E17.003, 704/E19.008, 715/716, 715/234, 715/207, 715/257, 715/700, 993/28, 379/283, 379/361, 379/88.02, 379/67.1, 379/88.13, 280/37, 455/414.1, 455/558
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42102 Making use of the called party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4285 Notifying, informing or entertaining a held party while on hold, e.g. Music On Hold

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing user-selectable data when a user is on hold are provided. A communications system can automatically detect when a user is placed on hold. Additionally, a user can indicate when he/she has been placed on hold. After it has been determined that a user is placed on hold, the system can select adaptive information according to predetermined selection criteria and present that adaptive information to the user. A system can also generate contextual data which is related to the content of a current communication and use that contextual data (in addition to any predetermined selection criteria) to select adaptive information that is relevant to a user'"'"'s communications. Contextual data can be generated before a user is placed on hold by analyzing a communications signal in order to identify keywords that are based on the content of that communication.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising

an article of manufacture having a non-transitory machine readable storage medium in which are stored executable program instructions that program a telephone device, which has one of a mobile telephone, a cellular telephone, and a VOIP telephone, of a user to:

determine that the user of the telephone device has been placed on-hold;

identify a party that put the user on-hold;

select user-specific adaptive information from a data storage in the user'"'"'s telephone device based on identification of the party, wherein the adaptive information includes at least one of personal information about the party, information in the user'"'"'s calendar about the party, and information about a previous communication between the user and the party; and

present the adaptive information to the user in response to determining that the user is on-hold.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium has further stored instructions which program the telephone device to further

determine that the user is no longer on-hold;

and

terminate presentation of the information in response to determining that the user is no longer on-hold.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage medium has further stored instructions which program the telephone device to determine that the user is on-hold while connected to a node and the telephone device is to further:

prevent the node from ending the on-hold status until the information has been presented.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the telephone device determining that the user is on-hold further comprises the telephone device monitoring received audio from the party for sound which indicates that the user has been placed on-hold.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the telephone device determining that the user is on-hold comprises the telephone device monitoring received audio from the party for a frequency component which indicates when the user is on-hold.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information is music.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information is presented audibly.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the information is presented graphically.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the telephone device determining that the user is no longer on-hold further comprises the telephone device monitoring received audio from the party for sound which indicates that the party has taken the user off-hold.

10. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the telephone device determining that the user is no longer on-hold further comprises the telephone device monitoring received audio from the party for a frequency component which indicates when the user is no longer on-hold.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein prior to the telephone device determining that the user has been placed on-hold, the telephone device is to further store the user'"'"'s configuration of the telephone device that includes when and how the telephone device changes from presenting information to an active connection.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein prior to the telephone device determining that the user has been placed on-hold, the telephone device is to further store a user'"'"'s configuration of the telephone device that includes a configuration that the information be presented audibly.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein prior to the telephone device determining that the user has been placed on-hold, the telephone device is to further store a user'"'"'s configuration of the telephone device that includes a configuration that the information be presented graphically.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein prior to the telephone device determining that the user has been placed on-hold, the telephone device is to further store a user'"'"'s configuration of the telephone device that includes a configuration that the information presented comprise at least one of the personal information about the party, the information in the user'"'"'s calendar about the party, and the information about a previous communication between the user and the party.

15. An apparatus comprising

an article of manufacture having a non-transitory machine readable storage medium in which are stored executable program instructions that program a data processing system being one of a mobile telephone, a cellular telephone, and a VOIP telephone of a user to:

analyze received audio to generate contextual data;

determine that a user of the system has been placed on-hold;

identify a party that put the user on-hold; and

present user-specific adaptive information from a data storage in the user'"'"'s data processing system to the user in response to determining that the user is on-hold, wherein the adaptive information is based on the contextual data and on identification of the party, and includes at least one of personal information about the party, information in the user'"'"'s calendar about the party, and information about a previous communication between the user and the party.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the storage medium has further instructions that program the system to

determine that the user is no longer on-hold, and

terminate presentation of the information in response to determining that the user is no longer on-hold.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions program the system to analyze the received audio by identifying keywords.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the contextual data comprises:

keywords;

number of occurrences of each keyword; and

the most recent time that each keyword was identified in the received audio.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein prior to the system determining that the user of the system has been placed on-hold, the system further stores a user'"'"'s configuration of the system that includes a configuration that the information presented is based on the contextual data.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein prior to the system determining that the user of the system has been placed on-hold, the system further stores a user'"'"'s configuration of the system that includes a configuration that the information presented comprise at least one of the personal information about the party, the information in the user'"'"'s calendar about the party, and the information about a previous communication between the user and the party.