Automatic Dialing

• US 20130191363A1
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Published: 07/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Michael J. Lebeau
• Inventors: LeBeau, Michael J., Jitkoff, John Nicholas, Byrne, William J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/25 using position of the lips, movement of the lips or face analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4935 Connection initiated by DAS system

Abstract

In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for providing search results automatically to a user of a computing device. A spoken input provided by a user to a computing device is received. The spoken input is transmitted to a computer server system that is remote from the computing device. Search result information that is responsive to the spoken input is receiving by the computing device and in response to the transmitted spoken input. An alert is provided to the user that the device will connect the user to a target of the search result information if the user does not intervene to stop the connecting of the user. The user is connected to the target of the search result information based on a determination that the user has not intervened to stop the connecting of the user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for automatic telephone calling, the method comprising:

receiving a query at a computing system and from a computing device that is remote from the computing system;

determining whether the query is for causing the remote computing device to call a telephone number automatically;

providing the query to a particular search engine system;

receiving, from the particular search engine system, one or more search results that are responsive to the received query; and

providing, to the remote computing device, a particular telephone number that corresponds to a most-prominently ranked of the one or more search results that are from the search engine system, so as to cause the remote computing device to call the particular telephone number automatically without the remote computing device having received user input subsequent to the computing device transmitting the query to the computing system.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1:

wherein the received query includes recorded voice information; and

further comprising converting, by the computing system, the voice information into textual form, such that the query that is provided to the particular search engine system is in textual form.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the particular search engine system is a geographical search engine system that receives (i) the query, and (ii) a location, and returns a geographically-constrained listing of search results that correspond to venues that are responsive to the query and that are geographically near the location.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the location is an estimated geographical location of the remote computing device as determined using information encoded in wireless signals that were received by the remote computing device and that identify one or more remote transmitting devices.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the query is for causing the remote computing device to call a telephone number automatically includes determining whether the query includes a predefined carrier phrase, and providing the query to the particular search engine system is performed in response to a determination that the query includes the predefined carrier phrase.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the computing system is configured to provide the query to a different search engine system if the query is determined to not include the predefined carrier phrase.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein calling the particular telephone number automatically includes presenting, by the remote computing device, an animated timing display and calling, by the remote computing device, the particular telephone number at substantially a termination of the animated timing display.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the query is received by the computing system in response to a user-selection of a query button at the computing device, the selection of the query button causing the computing device to transmit the query to the computing system.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication of a geographical location of the remote computing device;

and

wherein the one or more search results correspond to venues that are responsive to the query and that are determined by the search engine system to be geographically near the geographical location.

9. A computer-implemented method for automatic telephone calling, the method comprising:

providing, by a computing device and to a computing system that is remote from the computing device, a query so as to cause a search engine system to identify one or more search results that are responsive to the received query;

receiving, by the computing device and in response to providing the query to the computing system, a telephone number that corresponds to a particular one of the one or more search results; and

in response to receiving the telephone number, automatically calling, by the computing device, the telephone number without the computing device having received user input subsequent to providing the query.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein automatically calling the telephone number includes presenting, by the computing device, an animated timing display and dialing, by the computing device, the particular telephone number at an expiration of the animated timing display.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein during the presentation of the animated timing display, the computing device does not present descriptions of the one or more search results.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein automatically calling the telephone number further includes presenting, by the computing device and concurrent with the animated timing display, a button to cancel the dialing of the particular telephone number, wherein the computing device is configured to present the descriptions of the other of the search results in response to a user-selection of the button to cancel the automatic dialing.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the automatic calling of the telephone number includes a dialing of the telephone number by the computing device while the computing device is not presently connected to another computing device in a duplex telephone conversation.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising receiving, by the computing device, user input defining the query;

and wherein the query is provided to the computing system in response to a user-selection of a query button that causes the query to be transmitted to the computing system.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising providing, by the computing device and to the computing system, information that is used to identify a geographical location of the computing device;

wherein the one or more search results correspond to venues that are responsive to the query and that are geographically near the location.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the particular one of the one or more search results is a most-prominently ranked of the one or more search results.

10. (canceled)

16-28. -28. (canceled)

32. One or more computer-readable devices including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of operations that comprise:

providing, by a computing device and to a computing system that is remote from the computing device, a query so as to cause a search engine system to identify one or more search results that are responsive to the received query;

receiving, by the computing device and in response to providing the query to the computing system, a telephone number that corresponds to a the one or more search results; and

in response to receiving the telephone number, automatically calling, by the computing device, the telephone number without the computing device having received user input subsequent to providing the query.

33. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 32, wherein automatically calling the telephone number includes presenting, by the computing device, an animated timing display and dialing, by the computing device, the particular telephone number at an expiration of the animated timing display.

34. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 33, wherein during the presentation of the animated timing display, the computing device does not present descriptions of other of the one or more search results.

35. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 34, wherein automatically calling the telephone number further includes presenting, by the computing device and concurrent with the animated timing display, a button to cancel the dialing of the particular telephone number at the expiration of the animated timing display, wherein the computing device is configured to present the descriptions of the other of the search results in response to a user-selection of the button to cancel the automatic dialing.

36. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 32, wherein the automatic calling of the telephone number includes a dialing of the telephone number by the computing device while the computing device is not presently connected to another computing device in a duplex telephone conversation.

37. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 32, wherein the operations further comprise receiving, by the computing device, user input defining the query;

and wherein the query is provided to the computing system in response to a user-selection of a query button that causes the query to be transmitted to the computing system.

38. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 32, wherein the operations further comprise providing, by the computing device and to the computing system, information that is used to identify a geographical location of the computing device;

wherein the one or more search results correspond to venues that are responsive to the query and that are geographically near the location

39. The one or more computer-readable devices of claim 32, wherein the particular one of the one or more search results is a most-prominently ranked of the one or more search results.