Patent EP0774853A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0774853A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Method and system for graphically displaying and navigating through an interactive voice response menu
Assignee: Microsoft Corp
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Filing: 1996-10-16
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2016-10-16
Abstract
Abstract An interactive voice response menu for computer software support which typically presents voice queries to a user is graphically displayed on a user computer. The interactive voice response menu is graphically displayed using a hierarchical paradigm scheme which is created based on statistics gathered from known user problem and is updated continuously when additional user problems are discovered. The user navigates through the graphical interactive voice response menu hierarchical scheme choosing more and more specific queries with the user computer to help diagnose the user's software problem. Also, when the user visits selected levels in the hierarchical scheme, diagnostic applications are launched automatically on the user computer which gather data for use in diagnosing the user's computer software problem. <IMAGE>
Inventors
- 👤 Phillip E. Fawcet
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-29 22:39
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04M; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/487; H04M3/493; G; G06; G06F; G06F3/00; G06F3/16; G06F3/167; H04M7/00; H04M7/0024; H04M7/0036; H04M2201/00; H04M2201/38; H04M2201/42; H04M2203/00; H04M2203/25; H04M2203/251; H04M2203/253; H04M2203/254; H04M2203/35; H04M2203/355; H04M3/42382; H04M3/50; H04M3/51; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S707/00; Y10S707/912; Y10S707/913; Y10S707/916; Y10S707/953; Y10S707/956; Y10S707/99941; Y10S707/99944; Y10S707/99945
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
194 words
In a system having a first computer coupled to a remote second computer by a communications circuit, each computer having a central processing unit coupled to a memory, a display for visually outputting data signals, a speaker for outputting audio signals, the remote second computer having one or more interactive voice response units, the communication circuit allowing the transfer of both audio signals and data signals, a method of obtaining responses to a set of queries comprising the steps of: sending a first set of queries from the first computer to the second computer, the first set of queries comprising an audio signal allowing a user of the second computer to select display of subsequent queries on the second computer display; outputting the first set of queries on the second computer using the speaker; monitoring the communications circuit from the first computer to detect a specific response to the first set of queries from the second computer; and in response to the detection of said specific response, sending a subsequent set of queries comprising data signals to the second computer, and outputting the subsequent set of queries using the display on the second computer.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
25 words
The method of claim 1 where sending a first set of queries includes sending the first set of queries using an interactive voice response unit.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 1 where the monitoring step includes monitoring the communications circuit for both audio and data signals.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 1 wherein the specific response is a telecommunications signal including DTMF tones.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 1 where the outputting the subsequent set of queries step includes outputting query data using a hierarchal paradigm.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
13 words
The method of claim 5 where the hierarchal paradigm is a decision tree.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
218 words
In a system having a first computer coupled to a remote second computer by a communications circuit, each computer having a central processing unit coupled to a memory, a display for visually outputting data signals, a speaker for outputting audio signals, the remote second computer having one or more interactive voice response units, the communications circuit allowing the transfer of both audio signals and data signals over said communications circuit, a method of displaying a plurality of queries: maintaining a database on the first computer containing database entries listing a plurality of interactive voice response queries; consulting the database on the first computer to obtain a current plurality of interactive voice response queries to display on the second computer; sending a first subset of said current plurality of interactive voice response queries to the second computer; outputting said subset of interactive voice response queries on the second computer; allowing a user to selectively respond to any of the outputted subset of interactive voice response queries; monitoring the communications circuit to detect a response to the subset of interactive voice queries from the second computer; and upon detecting a response, sending a subsequent subset of the plurality of interactive voice response queries to the second computer for display based on the user responses to said first subset of queries.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 7 where the consulting step includes using data obtained from previous interactions by users who have had computer software problems.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 7 where the sending steps include sending the subset of interactive voice response queries as data signals.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
22 words
The method of claim 7 where the sending steps include sending the subset of interactive voice queries as audio and data signals.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method of claim 7 where the outputting the subset of queries step includes outputting said interactive voice response queries using a hierarchal paradigm.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
13 words
The method of claim 11 where the hierarchical paradigm is a decision tree.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
18 words
The method of claim 7 where the outputting step includes outputting the interactive voice queries on the display.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
26 words
The method of claim 7 where the allowing step includes allowing a user to jump to any subset of interactive voice response queries which are displayed.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method of claim 7 where the monitoring step includes monitoring the communications circuit for both audio and data signals.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
251 words
In a system having a first computer coupled to a remote second computer by a communications circuit, each computer having a central processing unit coupled to a memory, a display for visually outputting data signals, a speaker for outputting audio signals, the remote second computer having one or more interactive voice response units, the communications circuit allowing the transfer of both audio signals and data signals over said communications circuit, a method of completing automatic remote diagnosis of computer problems comprising the steps of: maintaining a database on the first computer containing database entries listing a plurality of interactive voice response queries; consulting the database on the first computer to obtain a subset of the plurality of interactive voice response queries to display; sending a subset of said plurality of interactive voice response queries from the first computer to the second computer for display; outputting the subset of interactive voice response queries on the second computer using the display; monitoring the communications circuit to detect response to the subset of interactive voice response queries from the second computer; launching a selected diagnostic application on the second computer, the diagnostic application selected from a plurality of diagnostic applications based on the response obtained to the subset of interactive voice response queries from the second computer; collecting diagnostic information from the second computer using said diagnostic application; sending said collected diagnostic information from the second computer the first computer; and analyzing said collected diagnostic information from the second computer on the first computer.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
21 words
The method of claim 16 where the monitoring step includes monitoring the communications circuit for user inputs from the second computer.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of claim 16 where the launching step includes downloading a diagnostic application from the first computer to the second computer and executing said diagnostic application on the second computer.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 16 where the launching step includes executing resident a diagnostic application on the second computer.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
210 words
In a system having a first computer coupled to a remote second computer by a communications circuit, each computer having a central processing unit coupled to a memory, a display for visually outputting data signals, the remote second computer having one or more interactive voice response units, the communications circuit allowing the transfer data signals over said communications circuit, a method of graphically displaying a plurality of interactive voice response queries comprising: maintaining a database on the first computer containing database entries listing a plurality of interactive voice response queries; consulting the database on the first computer to obtain a first subset of the plurality of queries to graphically display on the second computer; sending the first subset of said current plurality of queries to the second computer; outputting graphically on the second computer said first subset of queries; allowing a user to selectively respond to any of the outputted first subset of queries; monitoring the communications circuit on the first computer to detect a response from the from the second computer; and upon detecting a response, selecting a second subset of queries for sending to the second computer for graphical display, the second subset of questions being selected based on the user responses to said first subset of queries.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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