Content switch for enhancing directory assistance

• US 8,588,394 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2006
• Issued: 11/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG), Microsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Schlesener, Matthew C., Sankaranaraynan, Pallavur, Mauer, Brian D., Klesper, Stevan A., Paczkowski, Lyle
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pope, Kharye
• Application Number:
  US11/534,606
• Publication Number:
  US 20080084987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,615 Days
• Field of Search: 379/218.01, 379/218.02, 379/218, 455/414, 455/403, 455/456.6, 455/457, 455/456.3, 455/414.2, 455/414.3, 455/404.2, 455/414.4, 455/433, 455/456, 455/556, 709/229, 709/225, 370/352, 370/353, 370/354, 370/355, 370/356, 370/357
• US Class Current: 379/218.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

A method, medium, and content switch device are provided for enhanced directory assistance. A GPS-enabled wireless phone generates directory assistance requests that are monitored and processed by the content switch and a directory assistance platform to generate results that satisfy the directory assistance requests. The content switch intelligently monitors the directory assistance sessions and dynamically invokes value-adding services that delivers rich content in addition to the results to the GPS-enable wireless phone or other registered client devices based on the directory assistance requests or results. The value-adding services may include pushing driving directions to the GPS-enable wireless phone, providing training video content corresponding to vendors associated with the directory assistance requests, or connecting the GPS-enabled wireless phone to a live video-conferencing session.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-useable instructions embodied thereon, that, when executed by a computing device, perform a method to manage directory assistance requests, the method comprising:

receiving a user directory assistance request for directory information included in directory listings of one or more public directories, the directory assistance request initiated by a user calling an established directory assistance phone number;

establishing a session between a content switch and a directory assistance platform,

A) wherein the directory assistance platform processes user directory assistance requests for directory information and identifies one or more directory listings included in the one or more public directories that correspond to the user directory assistance request,

B) wherein the content switch identifies, based on at least one of the user directory assistance request for directory information or identified directory listings corresponding to the user directory assistance request, appropriate enhanced-directory-assistance services for the user that supplement the identified directory listings;

communicating the received user directory assistance request for directory information to the directory assistance platform;

selecting a delivery location and format for results to the user directory assistance request for directory information, the results comprising one or more directory listings identified by the directory assistance platform;

generating the one or more directory listings for the user directory assistance request for directory-information; and

after generating the one or more directory listings, transferring the session to the content switch, wherein the one or more directory listings are provided to the content switch, wherein the content switch initiates an enhanced-directory-assistance service to provide multimedia content based on at least one of the user directory assistance request or the one or more directory listings, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service supplements the one or more directory listings with the multimedia content.

2. The media of claim 1, further comprising executing an interactive voice recognition component to refine the user directory assistance request.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the results corresponding to the user directory assistance request include multimedia.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the session between the content switch and directory assistance platform utilize SIP messages to transmit data between the content switch and directory platform.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service transmits driving directions to a location specified in the user directory assistance request.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service connects a client device that generated the user directory assistance request to an instant messaging session.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service connects a client device that generated the user directory assistance request to a telephone-conferencing session.

8. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service connects a client device that generated the user directory assistance request to a videoconferencing session.

9. The media of claim 1, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance service completes a purchase request for content generated by a content provider.

10. A computer-implemented method to deliver content in response to directory assistance requests, the method comprising:

registering one or more client devices;

receiving a directory assistance request from one or more of the registered client devices,

A) wherein the directory assistance request specifies an entity for which a directory listing is requested, and

B) wherein the directory assistance request is initiated by a user calling an established directory assistance phone number;

generating results for the directory assistance request, the results identifying one or more directory listings corresponding to the received directory assistance request;

providing the request and the results to a content switch that includes a registration database that stores registered client devices;

delivering the results to the one or more registered client devices; and

at the content switch, executing one or more enhanced-directory-assistance services that supplement the one or more identified directory listings in the results, the one or more enhanced-directory-assistance services based on a format of the directory assistance request, wherein executing the one or more enhanced-directory-assistance services includes

A) determining, at the content switch, whether the one or more clients devices are stored in the registration database, and

B) when the one or more devices are registered, then sending from the content switch an invoke message to a content provider associated with the entity for which the directory listing was requested, wherein the invoke message instructs the content provider to provide the enhanced directory-assistance services.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising executing additional enhanced-directory-assistance services based on the results generated in response to the directory assistance request.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the one or more registered client devices includes at least one of a set-top box, a wireless device, and a GPS-enabled device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the one or more registered client devices includes a profile that stores delivery preferences for the one or more registered client devices.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein one or more of the registered client devices that generated the directory assistance requests are wireless devices.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the wireless devices are wireless phones.

16. A content switch to manage communication sessions, the content switch comprising:

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that manage communication sessions associated with directory assistance requests initiated by users calling an established directory assistance phone number from a client device;

one or more processors that execute the instructions to generate communication sessions and to invoke enhanced-directory-assistance services corresponding to the directory assistance requests, the enhanced-directory-assistance services supplementing one or more directory listings identified in response to the directory assistance requests, wherein the one or more directory listings are received at the content switch from a directory assistance platform via an IP network, and wherein invoking the enhanced-directory-assistance services includes determining, at the content switch, a content provider based on the one or more directory listings received at the content switch, and sending, via the IP network, a message from the content switch to the content provider instructing the content provider to communicate the enhanced directory-assistance services to the client device;

a first communication interface connected to the IP network, wherein the IP network comprises;

(A) a media gateway controller that routes the directory assistance requests to the content switch, and

(B) the directory assistance platform that generates results based on the directory assistance requests received from the content switch, the results identifying one or more directory listings corresponding to the received directory assistance requests; and

a second communication interface connected to a SMS center that generates SMS messages when the client device specifies a SMS as a delivery format.

17. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the enhanced-directory-assistance services include at least one of content delivery, online shopping, telephone-conferencing, videoconferencing, instant messaging, and route navigation.

18. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the IP network further comprises the content provider configured to transmit multimedia content associated with the user request.

19. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the IP network further comprises a call center configured to establish video-conferencing sessions.

20. The content switch of claim 16, wherein the IP network further comprises a broadband client device that is configured to receive results associated with the user request.