Method of providing transfer capability on web-based interactive voice response services

• US 6,600,736 B1
• Filed: 03/31/1999
• Issued: 07/29/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rehor, Kenneth G., Ball, Thomas J., Danielsen, Peter John, Mataga, Peter Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): WAITE, SCOTT A
• Application Number:
  US09/282,895
• Time in Patent Office: 1,581 Days
• Field of Search: 370/401, 370/352, 370/230, 370/353, 370/354, 370/356, 379/88.14, 379/88.17
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/60 Medium conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/58 Arrangements for transferring received calls from one subscriber to another; Arrangements affording interim conversations between either the calling or the called party and a third party substation line holding circuits H04M1/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal

Abstract

Interactive voice response (IVR) services are provided to an end user at a telephone terminal (201) connected to the PSTN (202) through a telephone/IP server (205) that serves as an interface between the PSTN and an IP network (204) such as the Internet. A first IVR service is provided by a web server (203) running a service logic (207) for that service, which produces pages formatted in a phone markup language (PML) in response to an HTTP request sent over the IP network by the telephone/IP server to the web server at the URL address associated with the service. Hyperlinks to a second IVR service offered on a web server (208) at a different URL address are embedded and associated with a specific question or statement in a PML-formatted page produced by the first service. When the end user affirmatively responds to that statement or question through a verbal or touch-tone input, the telephone/IP server translates that response as a “click” on the hyperlink and establishes a virtual connection to the hyperlinked URL address of the web server providing the second service. Further, information associated with the end user'"'"'s interaction with the first service, such as his identity, PIN, and/or zip code, is transferred to the second service by means of a cookie, URL encoding or other information transference mechanism, to provide an audio experience that seamlessly transfers the end user from the first service to the second.

Claims

1. A method for use in a system that comprises a telephone/IP server which serves as a gateway between an end user at an audio terminal that is communicating over a telephone network and a plurality of web servers on an IP network, which telephone/IP server translates web pages that are formatted using a phone markup language and received from the web servers into dialogs containing statements and/or questions for transmission over the telephone network to the end user, and which translates the end user'"'"'s inputs and/or responses to such statements and/or questions received from the audio terminal over the telephone network into IP-formatted requests for transmission over the IP network, the method comprising the steps of:

translating into an audio signal a web page that is formatted using the phone markup language and is received from a web server running a first service logic through which a first interactive voice response (IVR) service is provided, the translated web page providing a dialog containing statements and/or questions associated with said first IVR service for transmission over the telephone network to the end user'"'"'s audio terminal; and

translating the received end user'"'"'s responsive audio inputs to the statements and/or questions in the dialog of the first IVR service into IP-formatted requests for transmission on the IP network;

characterized in that;

at least one of the statements and/or questions associated with said first IVR service on its web page that is formatted using the phone markup language is associated with a hyperlink that is capable of being accepted by the end user through an audio input at the audio terminal, the hyperlink being a link to a web page that is formatted using the phone markup language that is on a web server running a second service logic through which a second IVR service is provided, and that the method further comprises the steps of;

translating an audio input received over the telephone network from the end user'"'"'s audio terminal in response to the end user'"'"'s affirmative response to the statement and/or question associated with the hyperlink into to an IP-formatted request for the linked web page on the web server providing the second IVR service;

outputting onto the IP network the IP-formatted request for the web page associated with the hyperlink for transmission to the web server running the second IVR service logic, the request also transferring information associated with the end user'"'"'s interactions within the first IVR service to the second service logic providing the second IVR service;

translating a received responsive linked web page formatted using the phone markup language from the web server running the second IVR service logic into an audio signal, the responsive web page from the web server running the second IVR service logic being formed using at least some of the transferred information associated with the end user'"'"'s interactions with the first IVR service, the translated linked web page providing a dialog containing statements and/or questions associated with said second IVR service,

wherein from the end user'"'"'s standpoint, with the transfer to the second service logic of information associated with the end user'"'"'s interactions within the first IVR service, a seamless transition occurs between the provisioning of the first IVR service by the first service logic and the provisioning of the second IVR service by the second service logic.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the hyperlink is a URL address.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the URL address of the hyperlink contains the information associated with the end user'"'"'s dialog in the first IVR service.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the first IVR service and the second IVR service are configured separately at different URL addresses.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the first service logic through which the first IVR service is provided and the second service logic through which the second IVR service is provided are running on the same web server.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein first service logic through which the first IVR service is provided and the second service logic through which the second IVR service are running on different web servers.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the end user'"'"'s interactions within the first IVR service comprises a name of the end user inputted by the end user.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the information associated with the end user'"'"'s interactions within the first IVR service further comprises a password inputted by the end user.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the end user'"'"'s interactions within the first IVR service comprises a zip code inputted by the end user.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein end user'"'"'s affirmative response to the statement and/or question associated with the hyperlink is verbally inputted through the audio terminal.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the end user'"'"'s affirmative response to the statement and/or question associated with the hyperlink is a dual tone multi-frequency tone inputted through the audio terminal.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the end user'"'"'s interactions within the first IVR service is included in a cookie forwarded in the request made to the web server providing the second IVR service.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the IP network is the Internet.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the phone markup language is the voice extensible markup language.