Outgoing call classification and disposition

• US 20080247530A1
• Filed: 04/03/2007
• Published: 10/09/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ramakrishna, Anand, Saraf, Tal, Galanes, Francisco M., Barton, William F., Ranjan, Vishwa
• Granted Patent: US 8,983,051 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/216.01
• 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 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42102 Making use of the called party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• 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

Abstract

An automated intelligent component (the Personal Virtual Assistant or PVA) is located between a caller and a callee. A caller calls the PVA and directs the PVA to make one or more calls to one or more call recipients. Based on the information obtained from a voice or text dialog with the caller and a combination of other available informational sources, the disposition of an outgoing call is determined and acted upon by PVA. During the call the PVA remains available to take further actions at the request of the call participants.

Claims

1. A system for making outgoing calls comprising:

an intelligent component between a caller and at least one callee, wherein the caller invokes and directs the intelligent component using voice commands or text commands, wherein the caller identifies the at least one callee to be called and wherein the intelligent component determines based on a plurality of data sources a telephone number at which the at least one callee can be reached and conditions under which a call to the at least one callee is to be made and automatically initiates the call to the at least one callee; and

the plurality of data sources comprising a rules datastore and a contact list associated with the caller, wherein the intelligent component retrieves the telephone number for the at least one callee from the caller'"'"'s contact list and wherein the rules datastore comprises information on which the conditions for making the call is determined by the intelligent component.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data sources further comprises a data source external to the intelligent component comprising a presence server which indicates a location or status of the at least one callee.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the rules datastore comprises organizational-level rules concerning the conditions under which the call is to be made.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the rules datastore comprises user-level rules concerning the conditions under which the call is to be made.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data sources further comprises a data source external to the intelligent component comprising a scheduling or calendar application.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the intelligent component remains available to the caller after the call is made.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the intelligent component in response to additional directions received from the caller during the call, initiates a call to a second callee, wherein the at least one callee is a first callee, and wherein the first callee is not informed of the additional directions.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the intelligent component comprises a text to speech module.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the intelligent component comprises a speech recognition module.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the text commands are received by the intelligent component in an instant text messaging session between the caller and the intelligent component.

11. A method for making outgoing calls comprising:

receiving a voice command invoking an intelligent component to make an outgoing telephone call from a caller comprising an intelligent component user to at least one callee;

receiving information concerning the outgoing telephone call from a speech recognition module of the intelligent component that processes the received voice command;

determining additional information necessary to make the outgoing call and retrieving that information automatically without further caller instructions; and

making the call.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional information necessary to make the outgoing call comprises presence information from a presence server data source external to the intelligent component, wherein the presence information comprises a location or status of the at least one callee.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional information necessary to make the outgoing call comprises contact information from a contact list associated with the caller, wherein the caller'"'"'s contact list comprises a telephone number at which the at least one callee can be reached.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional information necessary to make the outgoing call comprises organizational-level information in an administrator-defined rules datastore comprising conditions under which the at least one callee can be reached.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the additional information necessary to make the outgoing call comprises user-level information in an user-defined rules datastore associated with the caller comprising conditions under which the at least one callee can be reached.

16. A computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions that when executed cause a computing environment to:

receive a first text command from a caller from an interactive text messaging session between a caller and an intelligent component, the first text command comprising a request directed to the intelligent component to make an outgoing telephone call from the caller comprising an intelligent component user to at least one callee;

receive a second text command from the caller, wherein the second text command comprises a message to be translated to voice and delivered to the at least one callee via the outgoing telephone call;

determine additional information necessary to make the outgoing telephone call and retrieving that information from at least one of a plurality of sources, automatically without further caller instructions; and

make the outgoing telephone call to the at least one callee.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, comprising further computer-readable instructions that when executed cause the computing environment to:

translate the second text command to voice via an text-to-speech component of the intelligent component.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, comprising further computer-readable instructions that when executed cause the computing environment to:

deliver the translated second text command to the at least one caller.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, comprising further computer-readable instructions that when executed cause the computing environment to:

receive a second invocation of the intelligent component wherein the intelligent component performs call related functions in response to the second invocation without notifying the at least one caller.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, comprising further computer-readable instructions that when executed cause the computing environment to:

add a second callee to the outgoing telephone call, mute a call participant, or end the call for a call participant.