Call urgency screening

• US 20070172042A1
• Filed: 09/14/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Tiruthani, Saravanakumar, Scheinhart, Wolfgang, Winikoff, Dave
• Granted Patent: US 8,189,755 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/142.50
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2011 Service processing based on information specified by a party before or during a call, e.g. information, tone or routing selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2072 Schedules, e.g. personal calendars
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/527 Centralised call answering arrangements not requiring operator intervention

Abstract

In some embodiments, a call urgency screening system may include one or more of the following features: (a) a data storage device comprising, (i) a call urgency screening program that allows a recipient to choose whether to accept a call from a caller or offer to the caller other alternate call handling of the call based on interaction with the caller and a dialog engine, and (b) a processor coupled to the data storage device that executes the call urgency screening program.

Claims

1. A call urgency screening system comprising:

a data storage device comprising;

a call urgency screening program that allows a recipient to choose whether to accept a call from a caller based on interaction with the caller and a dialog engine; and

a processor coupled to the data storage device that executes the call urgency screening program.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the call urgency screening program provides information about the call via interaction with the recipient.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the interaction is via any one of instant messaging, text, speech, or visual indication to determine importance of the call.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the recipient can interact with the caller via any one of instant messaging, text, speech, or visual indication to determine importance of the call.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the dialog engine answers the call from the caller.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the dialog engine prompts the caller to specify the importance of the call.

7. The system of claim 6. wherein the dialog engine performs a search based upon specific keywords, rules, and real-time presence based conditions specified by the recipient.

8. A method for call urgency screening, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting a call placed to a recipient;

ascertaining the importance of the call; and

determining if a caller should be routed to the recipient based upon importance of the call.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of receiving call urgency rule data and call handling options offered by the virtual assistant.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of determining the importance of the call.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of transferring the call to the recipient if it is determined that the call should be routed to the recipient or offer alternate call handling options to the caller in case the user decides not to receive the call.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of transferring the call to voicemail if it is determined that the call should not be routed to the recipient.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of transferring the call to voicemail if the caller does not met initial rule criteria or offer alternate call handling methods to the caller in case the user decides not to receive the call.

14. A machine readable medium comprising machine executable instructions, including:

rule instructions that set caller urgency parameters for an incoming call;

dialog instructions that obtain call importance information from a caller; and

delivery instructions that route the incoming call based upon recipient instructions.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the rule instructions are set by a recipient.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the dialog instructions can interact with the recipient.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein the dialog instructions and recipient interaction is via instant messaging.

18. The medium of claim 17, wherein the dialog instructions informs the recipient of caller information including the call importance information.

19. The medium of claim 18, wherein the recipient can interact with the caller through the dialog instructions.

20. The medium of claim 19, wherein the recipient can interact with the caller via instant messaging.