Systems and methods to avoid collisions in establishing real-time communication connections
First Claim
1. A method implemented in a communication system, the method comprising:
- storing, in a computing apparatus configured in the communication system, data identifying;
a plurality of advisers,availability of the advisers for real time communications over the communication system, andinformation about the advisers;
providing, via the computing apparatus, a user interface;
receiving, through the user interface, user input requesting a list of advisers of the plurality of advisers;
identifying and ranking, by the computing apparatus, the list of advisers based at least in part on an availability of the advisers, the information about the advisers, and the user input;
randomizing, by the computing apparatus, a top portion of the advisers of the list;
presenting, via the computing apparatus, the list with the top portion randomized in the user interface;
detecting, by the computing apparatus, a process for being connected to an adviser from the list, the detecting comprising receiving, through the user interface, a user selection of an adviser from the list; and
subsequent to the receiving of the user selection of the adviser, providing, by the computing apparatus, a real time communication connection between a user of the user interface and the adviser selected from the list.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A computing apparatus configured in the communication system to store data about advisers, including availability status of the advisers for real time communications with customers, ratings of the advisers by prior customers, compensate rates of the advisers, probability of being connected within a period of time for real time communication with customers, etc. The computing apparatus customizes the selection of lists of advisers for presentation to customers and/or the sequences of the lists to reduce collisions in concurrent requests for connections to same advisers for real time communication connections. The customization may include randomizing top portions of the lists, selecting and/or ranking the advisers in real time based on probability of advisers being connected within a period of time for real time communication with customers, etc.
53 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method implemented in a communication system, the method comprising:
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storing, in a computing apparatus configured in the communication system, data identifying; a plurality of advisers, availability of the advisers for real time communications over the communication system, and information about the advisers; providing, via the computing apparatus, a user interface; receiving, through the user interface, user input requesting a list of advisers of the plurality of advisers; identifying and ranking, by the computing apparatus, the list of advisers based at least in part on an availability of the advisers, the information about the advisers, and the user input; randomizing, by the computing apparatus, a top portion of the advisers of the list; presenting, via the computing apparatus, the list with the top portion randomized in the user interface; detecting, by the computing apparatus, a process for being connected to an adviser from the list, the detecting comprising receiving, through the user interface, a user selection of an adviser from the list; and subsequent to the receiving of the user selection of the adviser, providing, by the computing apparatus, a real time communication connection between a user of the user interface and the adviser selected from the list. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computing apparatus configured in a communication system, the computing apparatus comprising:
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at least one network interface; at least one microprocessor; and memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one microprocessor to store data identifying; a plurality of advisers, availability of the advisers for real time communications over the communication system, and information about the advisers; provide, via the at least one network interface, a user interface; receive, through the user interface, user input requesting a list of advisers of the plurality of advisers; identify and sort the list of advisers based at least in part on an availability of the advisers, the information about the advisers, the user input, and a probability of the advisers to become unavailable in a predetermined period of time; randomize a top portion of the advisers of the list; present, via the at least one network interface, the list with the top portion randomized; detect, via the at least one network interface, a process for being connected to an adviser from the list, the detecting comprising receiving through the user interface, a user selection of the adviser from the list; and subsequent to the receiving of the user selection of the adviser, establish, via the at least one network interface, a real time communication connection between a user of the user interface and the adviser selected from the list. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A non-transitory computer storage medium storing instructions configured to instruct a computing apparatus configured on a communication system to perform a method, the method comprising:
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storing, in a computing apparatus configured in the communication system, data identifying; a plurality of advisers, availability of the advisers for real time communications over the communication system, and information about the advisers; receiving, in the computing apparatus, requests from users to search for advisers; identifying, by the computing apparatus, lists of advisers for the users respectively based on the requests; identifying, by the computing apparatus, a subset of advisers of the lists; and customizing, by the computing apparatus, orders of the lists to avoid collision of requests for real time communication connections to advisers of the subset of advisers, wherein the subset of advisers is in a top portion of each respective list; and
the customizing includes randomizing the top portion of the advisers of each respective list;receiving, by the computing apparatus, respective selections of advisers from the lists by the respective users; and providing, by the computing apparatus, a respective real time communication connection between the respective users and the advisers respectively selected by the respective users from the lists. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification