EP0889627A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Internet-enabled voice-response service
Assignee: AT&T Inc
•
Filing: 1998-06-18
•
Granted: —
•
Expires: 2018-06-18
Abstract
Abstract A method and system of providing a remote user with access to a voice response unit, which allows Internet users to access voice response units using a web graphical interface. In one aspect, the present invention includes an Internet telephone services node, which includes a web server communicatively coupled to a client computer system of the remote user, a voice switch initiating a call to a voice response unit, responsive to a signal from the web server, a touch-tone generator generating a touch-tone signal, responsive to a signal from the web server, and transmitting the touch-tone signal to the voice response unit through the voice switch and an audio streaming server receiving an audio signal from the voice response unit through the voice switch, digitizing the audio signal and transmitting the digitized audio signal to the client computer system through the web server. In another aspect, in order to provide a remote user with access to a voice response unit, the Internet telephone services node receives a request for access to the voice response unit from the remote user. Communications with the voice response unit are established. An audio signal is received from the voice response unit and information to be displayed to the remote user, which corresponds to the received audio message, is transmitted to the remote user.
Inventors
- 👤 Lee B. Strahs
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-07 09:37
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04M; H04M3/00; H04M3/42; H04M3/487; H04M3/493; H04M2201/00; H04M2201/60; H04M3/42136; H04M3/42153; H04M3/42161; H04M7/00; H04M7/006; H04M7/12
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 32
Claim 1
Independent Claim
69 words
A method of providing a remote user with access to a voice response
unit via a computer network, comprising the steps of: receiving, over the computer network, a request for access to the voice
response unit from the remote user; establishing communications with the voice response unit; receiving an audio signal from the voice response unit; and transmitting the audio signal to the remote user over the computer
network.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
41 words
The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transmitting the audio
signal to the remote user comprises the steps of: digitising the audio signal received from the voice response unit; and transmitting the digitized audio signal to the remote user.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
27 words
The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of: transmitting information to be displayed to the remote user, the
information corresponding to the received audio signal.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
55 words
The method of claim 3, wherein the received audio signal indicates a
plurality of options that may be selected and the method further comprises the
steps of: receiving a selection indicating one of the plurality of options from the
user; and transmitting an audio signal based on the selected option to the voice
response unit.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 3, wherein communications with the remote user
are carried over the Internet.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 3, wherein the communications with the voice
response unit are audio communications.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
58 words
A method of remotely accessing a voice response unit, comprising the
steps of: accessing a server; receiving, from the server, information corresponding to an audio
message received from a voice response unit, the audio message indicating a
plurality of options that may be selected; and transmitting, to the server, a selection indicating one of the plurality of
options.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
44 words
The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of: receiving, from the server, information representing a plurality of voice
response units that may be selected; and transmitting, to the server, a selection indicating a selected one of the
plurality of voice response units.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of: displaying the received information corresponding to the audio
message.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of: receiving, from the voice response unit, the audio message indicating a
plurality of options that may be selected; and playing the audio message.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
19 words
The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of: displaying the received information corresponding to the audio
message.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
13 words
The method of claim 7, wherein the server is accessed over the
Internet.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
138 words
A method of providing a remote user with access to a voice response
unit, comprising the steps of: accepting access from the remote user; transmitting, to the remote user, information to be displayed, the
information representing a plurality of voice response units that may be
selected; receiving, from the remote user, a first selection indicating a selected
one of the plurality of voice response units; establishing audio communications with the selected voice response
unit; receiving, from the selected voice response unit, an audio message
indicating a plurality of options that may be selected; transmitting, to the remote user, information corresponding to the
received audio message; receiving, from the remote user, a second selection indicating a
selected one of the plurality of options; and transmitting, to the selected voice response unit, an audio signal based
on the selected option.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
16 words
The method of claim 13, wherein the access from the remote user is
over the Internet.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 13, wherein the audio communications are carried
over the public switched telephone network.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
158 words
A method of providing a remote user with access to a voice response
unit, comprising the steps of: establishing communications with an Internet telephone services node; receiving, from the Internet telephone services node, a first unit of
information representing a plurality of voice response units that may be
selected; displaying, to the user, the first unit of information, receiving, from the user, a first selection indicating one of the plurality
of voice response units; transmitting the first selection to the Internet telephone services node; establishing audio communications with the selected voice response
unit; receiving, from the selected voice response unit, a second unit of
information corresponding to an audio message, the audio message indicating
a plurality of options that may be selected; displaying the second unit of information to the user, receiving, from the user, a second selection indicating a selected one of
the plurality of options; and transmitting the second selection to the Internet telephone services
node.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
18 words
The method of claim 16, wherein communications with the Internet
telephone services node are carried over the Internet.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
36 words
The method of claim 16, wherein the second unit of information
comprises the audio message from the selected voice response unit, and the
method further comprises the step of: playing the audio message to the user.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
51 words
The method of claim 16, wherein the second unit of information
comprises a digitized audio message based on the audio message from the
selected voice response unit, and the method further comprises the steps of: converting the digitized audio message to analog form; and playing the audio message to the user.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
144 words
A computer program product for operating an Internet telephone
services node, comprising a computer processor, to provide a remote user with
access to a voice response unit, comprising: a computer readable medium; computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to receive, from the
remote user, a request for access to the voice response unit; computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to establish
communications with the voice response unit; computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to receive an audio
message from the voice response unit; and computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to transmit, to the
remote user, information to be displayed, the information corresponding to the
received audio message.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
88 words
The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the received audio
message indicates a plurality of options that may be selected and the computer
program product further comprises: computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to receive a selection
indicating one of the plurality of options from the user; and computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to transmit an audio
signal based on the selected option to the voice response unit.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
18 words
The computer program product of claim 20, wherein communications
with the remote user are carried over the Internet.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
18 words
The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the
communications with the voice response unit are audio communications.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
19 words
The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the audio
communications are carried over the public switched telephone network.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
33 words
The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising: computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to transmit the audio
message to the remote user.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
80 words
The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the Computer
program instructions instructing the Internet telephone services node to
transmit the audio message to the remote user comprise: computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to digitize the audio
message received from the voice response unit; and computer program instructions, recorded on the computer readable
medium, instructing the Internet telephone services node to transmit the
digitized audio message to the remote user.
Claim 27
Independent Claim
117 words
A system for providing a remote user having a client computer system
with access to a voice response unit, comprising: a web server communicatively coupled to the client computer system; a voice switch operable to initiate a call to a voice response unit,
responsive to a signal from the web server; a touch-tone generator operable to generate a touch-tone signal,
responsive to a signal from the web server, and transmit the touch-tone signal
to the voice response unit through the voice switch; and an audio streaming server operable to receive an audio signal from the
voice response unit through the voice switch, digitize the audio signal and
transmit the digitized audio signal to the client computer system.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
81 words
The system of claim 27, wherein: the received audio signal indicates a plurality of options that may be
selected; the web server is further operable to receive a selection indicating one
of the plurality of options from the user and transmit a signal based on the
selected option to the touch-tone generator; and the touch-tone generator is operable to transmit a touch-tone signal
based on the selected option to the voice response unit, responsive to the
signal from the web server.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
17 words
The system of claim 27, wherein communications with the client
computer system are carried over the Internet.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
16 words
The system of claim 27, wherein the communications with the voice
response unit are audio communications.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
17 words
The system of claim 30, wherein the audio communications are carried
over the public switched telephone network.
Claim 32
Independent Claim
96 words
A method of providing touch tone signals from a network node to a
voice response unit, the voice response unit in communication with the
network node via a telephone network, the network node also in
communication with a client computer which communicates with the node
using information packets, the method comprising the steps of: receiving from the client computer one or more information packets
representing at least one touch tone signal; generating at least one touch tone signal based on the received
information packets; and transmitting the generated touch tone signal to the voice response unit.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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