The present invention relates generally to the fields of data networks and communication systems; more specifically, to a communication networks that support shared lines.
Small businesses, home offices, and enterprises interested in reducing overhead costs use shared telephone lines. Many business enterprises use shared communication (e.g., telephone) lines in their private branch exchange (PBX) system to allow more than one person to answer a call and to achieve cost savings. In a shared telephone line system, an incoming call to a single telephone number or extension is directed to a plurality of telephone devices, with each device usually being associated with a different person or work environment. In many cases, a receptionist or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) unit answers the calls and then directs each call to an extension or line that is shared by multiple persons. For example, a manager may share a line with his assistant or secretary such that an incoming call to the number or extension rings on both of their telephones. In other cases, a user may apply a shared line to multiple phones intended to reach that individual, such as where an incoming call simultaneously rings to a person's desk phone and their laboratory phone.
Numerous systems and methods exist for handling telephone calls in a shared line environment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,870,835 teaches a method of handling incoming calls directed to a virtual communication subscriber who is connected to a communication network via a shared line system. U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,844 teaches an automated telephone line sharing and lockout apparatus that allows only one telephone set or other communication apparatus to be connected to a shared line. A shared telephone line answering system in which extension telephone answering devices can be temporarily disarmed so they do not respond to tone codes that might otherwise activate them is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,210.
A number of commercial communication system products are available that combine call processing and IP telephony with many of the functions of a conventional IP-PBX system for business enterprises. For instance, Cisco's CallManager™ is a software-based call processing component that extends enterprise telephony features and functions to packet telephony network devices such as IP phones, media processing devices, voice-over-IP (VoIP) gateways, and multimedia applications. Additional data, voice, and video services such as unified messaging, multimedia conferencing, collaborative contact centers, and interactive multimedia response systems may interact with the IP telephony solution through the CallManager™ open telephony application programming interface (API).
In an existing version of the CallManager™ call processing software, when an incoming call is received at a telephone device (e.g., IP phone) the user can make the call private by pressing a “Privacy” softkey or button on their telephone device. When the Privacy button is pressed (i.e., in an “on” state) call information such as the calling number, the name of caller, etc., that is normally displayed is suppressed for all of the devices on the shared line other than the device answering the call. That is, call information is no longer displayed on the other telephone devices connected to the shared line. Instead, after the call has been answered and the Privacy button pressed, the other devices on the shared line typically display the words “In Use” or “Private”. In addition, pressing the Privacy button prevents others from listening to the call by cutting off the media stream to all of the other devices on the shared line.
One problem with the Privacy button feature on existing call processing systems is that privacy is provided only after the call has been answered. This means that while the call is ringing, the call information is revealed on all of the devices connected to the shared line. In other words, until the time that the call is answered, persons who may be viewing any telephone device on the shared line can see the call information. Even after the call has been answered, until the Privacy button is pressed others may join in the call simply by picking up one of the shared line telephone devices.
What is needed therefore is a call processing system that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art and which provides enhanced call privacy for both the caller and the called party in a shared line communication system
The present invention will be understood more fully from the detailed description that follows and from the accompanying drawings, which however, should not be taken to limit the invention to the specific embodiments shown, but are for explanation and understanding only.
A system and method that enhances a PBX system with enriched shared line and privacy features is described. In the following description specific details are set forth, such as device types, system configurations, methods, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, persons having ordinary skill in the relevant arts will appreciate that these specific details may not be needed to practice the present invention.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a privacy mechanism is provided that allows a shared communication line user to dynamically configure a list of contacts (i.e., callers or calling numbers) and mark or designate them as private. Each shared line of the PBX system is proactively configured in this manner such that when a call arrives from a caller or number that is listed as private for a certain user, the call rings at the telephone device associated with the intended recipient and not at any of the other telephone devices on the shared line. Moreover, call information of the incoming private call is not displayed on the other telephone devices connected to the shared line. In other words, if a contact is marked private and tied to a particular shared line, then incoming calls received from the contact will only alert (e.g., ring and display call information) the shared line telephone device associated with a user who has listed the contact as private under his personal configuration settings.
By way of example, in a manager-secretary scenario where both share the same telephone line, the manager may want to maintain privacy from the manager for certain calls from certain contact individuals. The same could be true for the secretary, who might desire to keep calls from her friends, spouse, relatives, etc., private and personal so as to avoid disturbing the manager. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the manager and secretary can each configure their own personal privacy policies or preferences such that the PBX system only alerts one person's telephone when an incoming call arrives from a person or number in included in that person's privacy list.
In accordance with the example shown in
Practitioners will appreciate that the configuration module 18 of
In another embodiment, certain configuration settings associated with a particular device on a shared line may allow for shared calls to be passed through to a subset of devices connected to the shared line. For example, a shared line may be connected with an arbitrary number (e.g., seven) of separate telephone devices, with a predefined configuration setting allowing a subset (e.g., three) of the devices to be alerted to a call from a particular caller.
By way of specific example shown in
Continuing with the exemplary flowchart of
In still another embodiment, caller control of the privacy policy may be included as a default or backup case in the event that no configuration listings or settings exist with respect to the caller or calling number. For instance, if a call arrives and the configuration module contains no listing of the caller or calling number, then the caller may be queried as described above before ringing any of the devices on the shared line. On the other hand, if the caller is included in a privacy listing of the configuration module, then caller control or assertion of privacy policies is overridden by the existing configuration policies of the shared line users. To state it differently, a query message is sent back to the caller only in the event that the caller or calling number does not match any listing contained in the configuration module of the PBX system.
In one implementation, IVR unit 57 may comprise a telephony script or a navigation menu module that may prompt a caller to choose one of a group of individuals sharing a telephone line associated with the called number. IVR unit 57 is typically embodied in one or more software or firmware modules with code that executes on one or more processors of subsystem 51. In other embodiments, IVR unit 57 may include dedicated processors that perform various tasks, such as speech processing, verification, and recognition. It is appreciated that PBX system 50 may also include a variety of other devices (e.g., controllers, EEPROMs, specialized processors, etc.) not shown in
It should be further understood that elements of the present invention may also be provided as a computer program product which may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which may be used to program a computer (e.g., a processor or other electronic device) to perform a sequence of operations. Alternatively, the operations may be performed by a combination of hardware and software. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnet or optical cards or other type of machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.
Additionally, although the present invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, numerous modifications and alterations are well within the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
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