Contextualized telephony message management

• US 8,750,468 B2
• Filed: 10/05/2010
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Callspace, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Callspace, Inc.
• Inventors: Manley, Richard J., Lee, Michael, Simon, Carmichael J., Archibald, William C., Fryar, Craig
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, CREIGHTON H
• Application Number:
  US12/898,606
• Publication Number:
  US 20110123011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,344 Days
• Field of Search: 379/201.01, 379/88.19, 379/88.23, 455/414.3
• US Class Current: 379/88.19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4509 Unified messaging with single point of access to voicemail and other mail or messaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42382 Text-based messaging services in telephone networks such as PSTN/ISDN, e.g. User-to-User Signalling or Short Message Service for fixed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4285 Notifying, informing or entertaining a held party while on hold, e.g. Music On Hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages

Abstract

In one or more embodiments, one or more methods and/or systems described can transform an inbound call into one or more call streams and/or call states that can include at least one of a contextualized or personalized message, a promotion, a coupon, an offer, a voucher, an advertisement, and an opt-in program, among others. For example, the one or more methods and/or systems described can perform: receiving identification information associated with a telephony device; determining, based on the identification information, a message for the user; and sending the message to the telephony device. For instance, the message can include a coupon or discount for a good or service. In one example, the coupon or discount can be sent via a short message service text message. In another example, the coupon or discount can include a computer-readable image that can be sent via a multimedia messaging service message.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving information from a telephony device operated by a user that indicates a department of an entity;

determining a message for the user based on at least a current call state associated with the telephony device from among a plurality of call states, wherein determining the message for the user based on the at least the current call state associated with the telephony device from among the plurality of call states is further based on the information from the telephony device that indicates the department of the entity; and

sending the determined message to the telephony device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying, based on the identification information associated with the telephony device, a database for profile information of the user;

wherein determining the message for the user based on the identification information associated with the telephony device is further based on the profile information of the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the profile information includes one or more of a time zone, a country, a state, a city, a zip code, a telephony device type, a telephony device operating system, a telephony device phone number, a distance from an entity location, at least one movie rented, at least one television show watched, a number of children, at least one investment, at least one product purchase, a marital status, an age, at least one interest, at least one hobby, a gender, a birthday, an income, at least one past transaction, a content rating, a membership status, and at least one past department of an entity called.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying, based one the identification information associated with the telephony device, a database for profile information of the user;

building a menu that includes a plurality of menu options and a plurality of cross faded media, wherein the menu is based on the identification information associated with the telephony device and the profile information;

providing the menu to the telephony device; and

receiving, from the telephony device, user input information indicating a menu option from the plurality of menu options;

wherein determining the message for the user based on the at least one of the identification information associated with the telephony device and the current call state associated with the telephony device from among the plurality of call states is further based on the user input information indicating the menu option from the plurality of menu options; and

wherein the profile information includes one or more of a time zone, a country, a state, a city, a zip code, a telephony device type, a telephony device operating system, a telephony device phone number, a distance from an entity location, at least one movie rented, at least one television show watched, a number of children, at least one investment, at least one product purchase, a marital status, an age, at least one interest, at least one hobby, a gender, a birthday, an income, at least one past transaction, a content rating, a membership status, and at least one past department of an entity called.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein building the menu includes:

selecting a sequence of media files; and

combining the sequence of media files to produce the plurality of cross faded media.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending, via the message, the message to the telephony device includes using at least one of a short message service (SMS) and a multimedia messaging service (MMS) to send the message to the telephony device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the message to the telephony device includes sending the message via a data network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is associated with an entity associated with a telephone number dialed from the telephony device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is associated with an entity associated with the telephony network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes one or more images.

11. The method of claim 10,

wherein at least one of the one or more images is configured to convey computer-readable information via a display of the telephony device;

and

wherein computer-readable information is usable to identify one or more of the message, the telephony device, and the user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable information includes a barcode that includes the information usable to identify one or more of the message, the telephony device, and the user.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes information usable to identify one or more of the telephony device and the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes one or more of textual information, image information, video information, and audio information.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the telephony device is a mobile telephony device or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an identification of the user based on the identification information associated with the telephony device;

wherein determining the message for the user based on the at least one of the identification information associated with the telephony device and the current call state associated with the telephony device from among the plurality of call states is further based on the identification of the user.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input information indicating the request for or the acceptance of the message includes one or more of dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling information, voice information, gestural information from the user that indicates the request for or the acceptance of the message.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the telephony device is a mobile telephony device or a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein determining that the telephony device is the mobile telephony device or the VoIP telephony device is based on the identification information associated with the telephony device.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein determining that the telephony device is the mobile telephony device or the VoIP telephony device is based on information received from the telephony device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the information received from the telephony device includes one or more of dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling information and voice information from the user.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a geographic location of the telephony device;

wherein determining the message for the user based on the at least one of the identification information associated with the telephony device and the current call state associated with the telephony device from among the plurality of call states is further based on the geographic location of the telephony device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein determining the geographic location of the telephony device is based on the identification information associated with the telephony device.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein determining the geographic location of the telephony device includes receiving the geographic location of the telephony device from the telephony device.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein determining the geographic location of the telephony device includes receiving the geographic location of the telephony device from a cellular telephony system.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein determining the geographic location of the telephony device includes receiving the geographic location of the telephony device from a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephony system.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the message for the user based on the at least one of the identification information associated with the telephony device and the current call state associated with the telephony device from among the plurality of call states is further based on a plurality of user selected menu options.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the message is associated with one or more of an entity, a location of the entity, an item for sale by the entity, a service for sale by the entity, and a brand of at least one item for sale by the entity.

29. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory medium coupled to the processor;

wherein the memory medium includes instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform;

receiving information from a telephony device operated by a user that indicates a department of an entity;

determining a message for the user based on at least a current call state associated with the telephony device from among a plurality of call states, wherein determining the message for the user based on the at least the current call state associated with the telephony device from among the plurality of call states is further based on the information from the telephony device that indicates the department of the entity; and

sending the determined message to the telephony device.

30. A non-transitory computer readable memory medium comprising instructions, which when executed on a processing system, cause the processing system to perform:

receiving identification information associated with a telephony device operated by a user;

receiving information from the telephony device that indicates a department of an entity;

querying, based on the identification information associated with the telephony device, a database for profile information of the user;

building a menu that includes a plurality of menu options and a plurality of cross faded media, wherein at least one of the plurality of cross faded media includes at least one of the plurality of menu options, and wherein the plurality of menu options are based on the identification information associated with the telephony device and the profile information;

providing the menu to the telephony device;

receiving, from the telephony device, user input information indicating one or more selections from the plurality of menu options;

determining a message for the user based on the user input information indicating the one or more selections from the plurality of menu options, wherein determining the message for the user based on the user input information indicating the one or more selections from the plurality of menu options is further based on the information from the telephony device that indicates the department of the entity; and

sending the determined message to the telephony device.

31. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 30, wherein the memory medium further includes instructions, which when executed on the processing system, cause the processing system to perform:

sending a proffer for the message to the telephony device; and

receiving, from the telephony device, user input information indicating a request for or an acceptance of the message;

wherein sending the message to the telephony device is performed in response to receiving, from the telephony device, the user input information indicating the request for or the acceptance of the message.