BOOKING METHOD AND SYSTEM

• US 20170272949A1
• Filed: 05/30/2017
• Published: 09/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartcom Labs OY
• Original Assignee: Bookit Oy Ajanvarauspalvelu
• Inventors: SALONEN, Jukka Kalevi
• Granted Patent: US 10,990,908 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3221 Access to banking information through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3255 using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0609 Buyer or seller confidence or verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/207 with respect to certain areas, e.g. forbidden or allowed areas with possible alerting when inside or outside boundaries
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/37 E-mail addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/71 : Hardware identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/72 : Subscriber identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 : Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 : Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 : for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

There is disclosed herein a method and system for communicating over a telecommunications network between a service provider and one or more users, wherein the service provider can have access to multiple distinct addresses in the telecommunications network and each user is identified by an address, more specifically where a first message can be sent over at least a portion of the telecommunications network to a user'"'"'s address and based on a response from the user determining the message to which the response is a reply to.

Claims

1. A network server that facilitates communications between a product or service provider and a mobile device associated with a user and having an identifier address, the network server:

preparing one or more inquiry messages pertaining to a service provided by the service provider;

sending the one or more inquiry messages to the user'"'"'s mobile device;

receiving at least one reply message to the one or more inquiry messages from the user'"'"'s mobile device by the network server at a specified reply address, wherein the received reply message includes the identifier address of the user'"'"'s mobile device;

storing information pertaining to the received reply message in relation to the identifier address of the user'"'"'s mobile device and the specified reply address at which the reply message was received;

determining, for a received reply message, a corresponding inquiry message of the one or more inquiry messages; and

determining whether to authorize a transaction on an automated basis based on content of the received reply message using at least semantic analysis of the content in the received reply message.

2. The network server of claim 1, wherein the one or more inquiry messages includes at least one choice selectable by the user, wherein the received reply message also includes a user selected choice, and wherein the determination whether to authorize the transaction on an automated basis based on content of the received reply message includes determining the choice selected by the user in the received reply message using at least semantic analysis of the content in the received reply message.

3. The network server of claim 1, wherein the semantic analysis includes analysis of information included in the received reply to determine whether the information is an acceptable answer to the one or more inquiry messages.

4. The network server of claim 1, wherein the determination whether to authorize the transaction is based also on the reply address associated with the received reply and the identifier address of the user mobile device indicated in the received reply message.

5. The network server of claim 1, wherein the network server analyzes at least one of a profile that a user has created himself or herself, usage history records, and a user'"'"'s location to formulate communication messages with the user via the user'"'"'s mobile device.

6. The network server of claim 5, wherein the network server is configured to make decisions in an automated manner to support user decision making regarding which transactions a user wishes to authorize.

7. The network server of claim 6, wherein network server is configured to act as an agent of the user and negotiate with one or more service providers to initiate negotiation of a transaction without user involvement.

8. The network server of claim 7, wherein the initiation of transaction negotiation is performed based on user'"'"'s preferences included or determined from at least one of a profile that a user has created himself or herself, usage history records, and user'"'"'s location to formulate communication messages with the user.

9. The network server of claim 1, wherein the communication messages are text messages.

10. The network server of claim 1, wherein the communication messages are Short Messaging Service (SMS) messages.

11. The network server of claim 1, wherein the user identifier address includes an identifier chosen from the group consisting of a user'"'"'s A-subscriber'"'"'s number, Calling Line Identity, e-mail address and IP address.

12. The network server of claim 1, wherein the inquiry is a service request that identifies the user terminal device.

13. The network server of claim 12, wherein the inquiry to which a received reply message corresponds is determined in an asynchronous manner, wherein a received reply message need not correspond to a most recently sent inquiry message.

14. The network server of claim 13, wherein the determination of which of the plurality of inquiry messages sent to the user corresponds to the received reply message is based on semantic analysis of the received reply message.

15. The network server of claim 14, wherein the determination of which of the plurality of inquiry messages sent to the user corresponds to the received reply message is also based on the user identifier address for a device sending with the received reply message and the reply address at which the received reply is received.

16. The network server of claim 1, wherein the communications between the service provider and the user terminal device are based upon technology in which a reply to an inquiry does not automatically include an explicit reference to the inquiry.

17. The network server of claim 1, wherein the determination, for the received reply message, of the corresponding inquiry message includes analyzing the specified reply address at which the received reply message to determine which inquiry message included the specified reply address.

18. The network server of claim 17, wherein the determination, for the received reply message, of the corresponding inquiry message also includes analyzing the mobile device identifier address from which the received reply message was sent.

19. The network server of claim 1, wherein the determination, for the received reply message, of the corresponding inquiry message includes analyzing the mobile device identifier address from which the received reply message was sent.

20. The network server of claim 1, further comprising, prior to the sending the one or more inquiry messages to the user'"'"'s mobile device, specifying the reply address for the one or more inquiry messages, the specified reply address being selected from a plurality of different addresses.

26. The network server of claim 5, wherein the network server is configured to make decisions in an automated manner to support user decision making regarding which transactions a user wishes to authorize.

27. The network server of claim 26, wherein network server is configured to act as an agent of the user and negotiate with one or more service providers to initiate negotiation of a transaction without user involvement.

28. The network server of claim 27, wherein the initiation of transaction negotiation is performed based on user'"'"'s preferences included or determined from at least one of a profile that a user has created himself or herself, usage history records, and user'"'"'s location to formulate communication messages with the user.

21. A method for facilitating communications between a product or service provider and a mobile device associated with a user and having an identifier address using a network server, the method comprising:

preparing one or more inquiry messages pertaining to a service provided by the service provider;

sending the one or more inquiry messages to the user'"'"'s mobile device;

receiving at least one reply message to the one or more inquiry messages from the user'"'"'s mobile device by the network server at a specified reply address, wherein the received reply message includes the identifier address of the user'"'"'s mobile device;

storing information pertaining to the received reply message in relation to the identifier address of the user'"'"'s mobile device and the specified reply address at which the reply message was received;

determining, for a received reply message, a corresponding inquiry message of the one or more inquiry messages; and

determining whether to authorize a transaction on an automated basis based on content of the received reply message using at least semantic analysis of the content in the received reply message.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the one or more inquiry messages includes at least one choice selectable by the user, wherein the received reply message also includes a user selected choice, and wherein the determination whether to authorize the transaction on an automated basis based on content of the received reply message includes determining the choice selected by the user in the received reply message using at least semantic analysis of the content in the received reply message.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the semantic analysis includes analysis of information included in the received reply to determine whether the information is an acceptable answer to the one or more inquiry messages.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the determination whether to authorize the transaction is based also on the reply address associated with the received reply and the identifier address of the user mobile device indicated in the received reply message.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the network server analyzes at least one of a profile that a user has created himself or herself, usage history records, and a user'"'"'s location to formulate communication messages with the user via the user'"'"'s mobile device.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein the communication messages are text messages.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein the communication messages are Short Messaging Service (SMS) messages.

31. The method of claim 21, wherein the user identifier address includes an identifier chosen from the group consisting of a user'"'"'s A-subscriber'"'"'s number, Calling Line Identity, e-mail address and IP address.

32. The method of claim 21, wherein the inquiry is a service request that identifies the user terminal device.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the inquiry to which a received reply message corresponds is determined in an asynchronous manner, wherein a received reply message need not correspond to a most recently sent inquiry message.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the determination of which of the plurality of inquiry messages sent to the user corresponds to the received reply message is based on semantic analysis of the received reply message.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the determination of which of the plurality of inquiry messages sent to the user corresponds to the received reply message is also based on the user identifier address for a device sending with the received reply message and the reply address at which the received reply is received.

36. The method of claim 21, wherein the communications between the service provider and the user terminal device are based upon technology in which a reply to an inquiry does not automatically include an explicit reference to the inquiry.

37. The method of claim 21, wherein the determination, for the received reply message, of the corresponding inquiry message includes analyzing the specified reply address at which the received reply message to determine which inquiry message included the specified reply address.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the determination, for the received reply message, of the corresponding inquiry message also includes analyzing the mobile device identifier address from which the received reply message was sent.

39. The method of claim 21, wherein the determination, for the received reply message, of the corresponding inquiry message includes analyzing the mobile device identifier address from which the received reply message was sent.

40. The method of claim 21, further comprising, prior to the sending the one or more inquiry messages to the user'"'"'s mobile device, specifying the reply address for the one or more inquiry messages, the specified reply address being selected from a plurality of different addresses.