Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080205627 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING TELEPHONE SUPPORT FOR INTERNET SALES - Methods and apparatus for providing manned, e.g., live customer support to customers, e.g., people using the Internet to purchase goods and/or services are described. A person viewing a Web Site, e.g., a customer, is presented with a button which provides the opportunity to talk to a customer service representative. Upon activating the button, e.g., by clicking on it, the customer's computer or other Internet browser device sends a signal, e.g., a call request message, over the Internet indicating that the customer wants to talk with a service representative. The call request message includes the customer's telephone number and/or IP address. In response to the call request message, calling equipment is used to establish a customer service call between the customer and a customer service representative. The equipment can be owned by the telephone company thereby avoiding the need for E-business companies to make investments in telephone equipment. In addition, a customer service representative can be located either at the E-business site or remotely, e.g., at the customer service representative's private home or other site, with the representative being called by the conference equipment as required to service a customer. Voice over IP conference equipment may be used instead or in conjunction with telephone conference equipment where one or both of the customer and service representative have voice over IP capability. | 08-28-2008 |
20080243853 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR NOTIFYING AN INVITEE USER WHEN AN INVITING USER ACCESSES A SOCIAL NETWORKING APPLICATION - A system and method may include receiving an access from an inviting terminal requesting access to a social networking application, the access request may be associated with a user identifier, searching a contact database, based on the user identifier and on an application identifier of the social networking application, to identify contact information associated with an invitee terminal, and generating a notification message based on the contact information, the notification message may be useable to indicate to the invitee terminal that the inviting terminal has accessed the social networking application. | 10-02-2008 |
20090060155 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CALL MANAGEMENT WITH USER INTERVENTION - Methods and systems for managing a call in real-time are disclosed. Methods and systems consistent with the present invention manage a call in real-time based on input from a user. A service center receives information pertaining to a call to the user from a service control point and sends a notification of the call to a device associated with the user. The service center receives a response to the notification from the user. Thereafter, the service center instructs the service control point to connect the call based on the response. | 03-05-2009 |
20110176666 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR LINE MANAGEMENT - Methods and Systems are provided for managing one or more communications lines associated with a user of a communications network. A service center may receive from a user line management information regarding one or more of the user's communications lines. This line management information may include a request from the user to handle all calls to the communications line in a particular manner (e.g., forward all calls to a different number). This line management information may also include information regarding scheduling the handling of calls to the communications line (e.g., scheduling call forwarding) or a request to handle calls differently based on information identifying the origination of the call (e.g., caller-ID). The service center may then forward instructions to the communications network such that the components (e.g., SSP or SCP) of the communications network implement the user's modifications. Additionally, the service center may be provided with information, in real-time, regarding a call to the communications line that may include, for example, the caller-ID for the incoming call. The service center may then determine how the call should be handled and forward instructions to the communications network to handle the call according to the user's requests. | 07-21-2011 |
20120106728 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR INTEGRATING COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES - Methods and systems providing access to integrated communications services are disclosed. A notification of a call to a user is received at a device associated with the user, the device being connected to a data network and including a base unit, a handset, and a user interface, wherein the device is determined based on retrieved data corresponding to the user, and the retrieved data was retrieved using information pertaining to the call. Input from the user indicative of a response to the notification is also received at the device. Response information reflective of the response to the notification is then sent to the server, wherein the server instructs a service control point to connect the call based on the response to the notification. | 05-03-2012 |
20120166568 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GROUP MESSAGING - Methods, systems, and apparatuses for group messaging are disclosed. An exemplary method includes a group messaging system receiving a broadcast message from an originating user, imposing a limit on a number of text characters included in the broadcast message, identifying a group of intended recipients of the broadcast message, determining contact information for an intended recipient included in the group, determining at least one broadcast message sending method for the intended recipient, and sending the broadcast message to the intended recipient using the at least one broadcast message sending method. | 06-28-2012 |
20130279665 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING, UPDATING AND DISTRIBUTING SPEECH RECOGNITION MODELS - Techniques for generating, distributing, and using speech recognition models are described. A shared speech processing facility is used to support speech recognition for a wide variety of devices with limited capabilities including business computer systems, personal data assistants, etc., which are coupled to the speech processing facility via a communications channel, e.g., the Internet. Devices with audio capture capability record and transmit to the speech processing facility, via the Internet, digitized speech and receive speech processing services, e.g., speech recognition model generation and/or speech recognition services, in response. The Internet is used to return speech recognition models and/or information identifying recognized words or phrases. Thus, the speech processing facility can be used to provide speech recognition capabilities to devices without such capabilities and/or to augment a device's speech processing capability. Voice dialing, telephone control and/or other services are provided by the speech processing facility in response to speech recognition results. | 10-24-2013 |
20130279680 | INTERACTIVE ASSISTANT FOR MANAGING TELEPHONE COMMUNICATIONS - An interactive assistant for managing telephone communications and services is disclosed. In one of many possible method embodiments, a chat interface is provided to a device associated with an intended recipient of an incoming voice call. A chat message from the intended recipient is received through the chat interface. The chat message is presented to a calling party associated with the incoming call prior to a disposition of the call being determined. In other embodiments, an interface provides controls for individually managing calls on a conference call, without affecting other calls on the conference call. | 10-24-2013 |
20130295974 | SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) DATA TRANSFER - Exemplary methods and systems for facilitating SMS data transfer services in mobile devices are described. An exemplary method includes sending a first SMS message to a device with a payload of the first SMS message including machine-readable information. Next, a second SMS message may be received from the device with a payload of the second SMS message including machine-readable information. The first or second SMS message payloads may include, for example, a synchronization message, a call message, call data, or a scheduling message. | 11-07-2013 |
20130297309 | PERFORMING SPEECH RECOGNITION OVER A NETWORK AND USING SPEECH RECOGNITION RESULTS - Systems, methods and apparatus for generating, distributing, and using speech recognition models. A shared speech processing facility is used to support speech recognition for a wide variety of devices with limited capabilities including business computer systems, personal data assistants, etc., which are coupled to the speech processing facility via a communications channel, e.g., the Internet. Devices with audio capture capability record and transmit to the speech processing facility, via the Internet, digitized speech and receive speech processing services, e.g., speech recognition model generation and/or speech recognition services, in response. The Internet is used to return speech recognition models and/or information identifying recognized words or phrases. The speech processing facility can be used to provide speech recognition capabilities to devices without such capabilities and/or to augment a device's speech processing capability. Voice dialing, telephone control and/or other services are provided by the speech processing facility in response to speech recognition results. | 11-07-2013 |
20140378110 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CALL MANAGEMENT WITH USER INTERVENTION - Methods and systems for managing a call in real-time are disclosed. Methods and systems consistent with the present invention manage a call in real-time based on input from a user. A service center receives information pertaining to a call to the user from a service control point and sends a notification of the call to a device associated with the user. The service center receives a response to the notification from the user. Thereafter, the service center instructs the service control point to connect the call based on the response. | 12-25-2014 |