Patent Application
20070081640
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a voice response system which after being notified that a caller has unsuccessfully attempted to call a called party functions to obtain presence information about one or more real-time activities of the called party, use the presence information to create a customized voice message, and play the customized voice message to the caller.
2. Description of Related Art
Today there are many types of voice response systems which can be used to interact with a caller that is attempting to call a called party but for whatever reason is not able to reach the called party. These voice response systems include, for example, answering machines, interactive voice response (IVR) systems and automated attendant systems.
The traditional answering machine plays a pre-recorded message to a caller and then records a message from the caller when that caller is not able to contact the called party. For instance, the answering machine can play a message to a caller as follows: “Hello, Jane is not available at this time if you like please leave her a message at the tone and she will return the call as soon as possible.” Then, the caller would leave a message.
The traditional IVR system plays a pre-recorded message to a caller and then receives and reacts to a response from the caller when he/she is not able to contact the called party. For instance, the IVR system can play a message to the caller as follows: “Hello, John is not available at this time if you like please press “1” to leave him a voicemail, or press “2” to page him etc . . . ”. And, if the caller presses “2” then the IVR system pages John.
The traditional automated attendant system functions like the IVR system except that it can also play messages and make routing decisions based on who the caller happens to be and their relation to the called party. In particular, the traditional automated attendant system can identify a caller by using their caller ID and if the caller has a special relationship with the called party then it can automatically route their call from the work phone (for example) of the called party to another phone like the mobile phone of the called party. For instance, the automated attendant system can receive a call from Don (caller) who is attempting to call Fred (called party) at his work phone. The automated attendant system recognizes that Fred (called party) has placed Don (caller) on a pre-approved list which directs the automated attendant system to forward the call to a mobile phone carried by Fred (called party).
As can be seen, the more sophisticated voice response systems like the IVR system and the automated attendant system attempt to model a human assistant/secretary. However, these voice response systems fail to model what a human assistant/secretary does when he/she screens calls for his/her manager. Because, the human assistant/secretary is able to maintain knowledge of the current activity of the manager, ascertain who is calling, make a decision as to how much to reveal to the caller, communicate the current or next availability of the manager based on who the caller is in relation to the manager, and/or route the call if appropriate. In particular, these voice response systems fail to model a human assistant/secretary because they cannot determine and convey the real-time availability of the called party. Moreover, these voice response systems are not adapted to provide a specific response to a specific caller based on the real-time availability of the called party. These problems and other problems are solved by the voice response system and method of the present invention.
The present invention includes a voice response system which after learning that a caller has unsuccessfully attempted to contact a called party functions to: (1) obtain presence information about one or more real-time activities of the called party; (2) use the presence information to create a customized voice message; and (3) play the customized voice message to the caller. In the preferred embodiment, a presence system collects the presence information which identifies the real-time activities of the called party and forwards at least a portion of the collected presence information to the voice response system.
A more complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
Referring to
The presence system 108 collects information about the real-time activities of the called party 106 and then publishes at least a portion of that information (which is known as presence information 110) to the voice response system 100. As shown in
The presence server 114 collects a wide-variety of information about the real-time activities of the called party 106. For instance, the presence server 114 can collect presence information 110 from the telephony switch 118c (via the telephony connector 116c) about whether or not the called party 106 is currently talking on their phone 120 (shown as a landline phone 120). If the called party 106 is talking on the phone 120, then the collected presence information 110 may be represented as “on-the-phone”. The telephony switch 118c can be anyone of a wide variety of switches including, for example, a private branch exchange (PBX) 118c (shown), a carrier switch, a mobile switch, or a voice switch.
The presence server 114 can also collect presence information 110 from the calendar server 118a (via the calendar connector 116a) about whether or not the called party 106 is currently participating in a meeting or is about to participate in a meeting. The calendar server 118a may also indicate the scheduled duration of the meeting. The presence server 114 can also collect other types of presence information 110 from the calendar server 118a such as if the called party 106 is “out of the office”, “on vacation” etc . . . .
In addition, the presence server 114 can collect presence information 110 from the IM server 118b (via the IM connector 116b) which indicates whether or not the called party 106 is currently sending IM message(s) to other people. The presence server 114 can also collect presence information 110 from the email server 118e (via the email connector 116e) which indicates whether or not the called party 106 is currently reading or sending email messages. Moreover, the presence server 114 can collect presence information 110 from the PC 118f (via the PC connector 116f) which indicates whether or not the person 102 is currently typing on their keyboard. And, the presence server 114 can also collect presence information 110 from the location server 118f (via the location connector 116f) about the current location (e.g., work, home, conference room, cafeteria) of the called party 106. For instance, the called party 106 may have to carry a RFID (radio frequency identification) to enable the location server 118f to determine their position.
As can be seen, the presence server 114 can collect a wide variety of presence information 110 about the real-time activities of the called party 106. Following is a list of some of the different types of presence information 110 that can be collected:
Of course, the presence server 114 can collect other types of presence information 110 which are not mentioned above but could also be used by the voice response system 100 to create and play a customized voice message 102. At this point and with this information 110, the voice response system 100 could create and play a customized voice message 102 that indicates the real-time availability and ability of the called party 106 to communicate with the caller 104. For example, the voice response system 100 can use the presence information 110 it receives to create a customized voice message 102 that states “Hello, John is currently in a meeting that is scheduled to last until 3 PM. Please press “1” if you would like to leave him a voicemail or press “2” if you would like to be forwarded to another salesman . . . ”. In this case, the voice response system 100 receives and uses presence information 110 that has not been aggregated/filtered by the rules engine 112. This scenario is described next.
If the advanced embodiment of the present invention is used, then the rules engine 112 would aggregate the collected presence information 110 and analyze the information 110 in view of stored preference rules/policies. The called party 106 and their employer (for example) can establish the preference rules/policies which function to dictate which if any of the presence information 110 can be sent at this time to the voice response system 100. For example, the rules engine 112 can use the preference rules/policies to learn that none of the person's presence information 110 should be published to a particular caller. Or, the rules engine 112 can use the preference rules/policies to output aggregated/filtered presence information 110 which indicates a preferred communication device and a means (e.g., another telephone number) that a particular caller 104 can use to reach the called party 106. Basically, the rules engine 112 can use the preference rules/policies to output aggregated/filtered presence information 110 that is adapted to:
In this way, the advanced embodiment of the voice response system 100 could create and play a customized voice message 102 that indicates the real-time availability, ability and desire of the called party 106 to communicate with a specific caller 104. For instance, the voice response system 100 can use the presence information 110 it receives to create a customized voice message 102 that states “Hello Cindy, John is currently out of the office but he is expecting your call so please wait while this phone call is forwarded to his mobile phone.” In this case, the voice response system 100 receives and uses presence information 110 that has been aggregated/filtered by the rules engine 112. In another embodiment, the voice response system 100 may receive the basic presence information 110 and the preference rules/polices and then create a customized voice message 102 for a specific caller 104. The former way may be more desirable since it may be safer to maintain the preference rules/polices within the rules engine 112 rather than making that information public by sending it to the voice response system 100.
Referring to
Referring to
From the foregoing, it can be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention includes a method for providing a customized voice message 102 to a specific caller 104 that indicates the real-time availability, ability and desire of the called party 106 to communicate with that specific caller 104. The customized voice message 102 is made with the aid of a rich presence system 108 that estimates the current availability of the called party 106 and also implements intelligent processing to determine the preference of the called party 106 to communicate with the caller 104 by taking into consideration the following (for example): (1) relationship of the caller 104 to the called party 106; (2) the current presence of the called party 106; (3) the time of day, current or upcoming events in the calendar of the called party 106; (4) the current state of the telephone 120 and/or IM system of the called party 106; (5) administrator policies; and/or (6) security considerations.
In an alternative embodiment, the presence system 108 can create the customized voice message 102 for the caller 104 which is then played by the voice response system 100. For instance, the presence system 108 can create the customized voice message 102 by: (1) using a presence server 114 which determines a presence state of a called party 106; and (2) by using a rules engine 112 to adapt the customized voice response 102 so it can communicate an appropriate availability to a particular calling party 104 which is responsive to the presence state of the called party 106 and the predetermined preferences of the called party 106. The predetermined preferences can include rules/policies based on time, date, relationship with the calling party and/or upcoming events of the called party (for example).
Following are some additional features, advantages and uses of the present invention:
This is a marked improvement over the prior art.
Although several embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanying Drawings and described in the foregoing Detailed Description, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.
