Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02246174 1998-08-31
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRESENTING
COMPUTER-TELEPHONY OPTIONS
Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to telephony and in particular to a method
and system for presenting computer-telephony options.
5 Back~round Of The Invention
Many businesses make use of computer-telephony systems having
auto-attendants to answer incoming telephone calls. When an incoming telephone call
is received, the auto-~ n(l~nt presents the caller with a variety of options viadialogue. The caller after listening to the dialogue can select the desired option by
10 pressing the ~propliate touch-tone key. To facilitate use, the dialogue is arranged in
a convenient and logical manner consistent with knowledge of human psychology.
These computer-telephony systems save money by allowing a caller to
direct their own telephone call without requiring the ~ t~nre of an employee of the
business. Although this benefit exists it is offset by the many options typically
15 presented to callers and the fact that the options are conveyed by voice making the
process slow and error prone. If a caller makes a mistake, the caller often must listen
to many seconds of repeat dialogue resulting in caller frustration. Accordingly,improvements to computer-telephony systems of this nature are desired.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel
20 method and system for presenting computer-telephony options.
Summary Of The Invention
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided in a
computer-telephony system having an auto-attendant to answer incoming telephone
25 calls, a method of presenting computer-telephony options to a telephone having an
associated display after a telephone call has been answered, said method comprising
the steps of:
monitoring said telephone to detect a request for computer-telephony
options;
CA 02246174 1998-08-31
-2 -
transmitting said computer-telephony options to said telephone for
presentation on said display upon detection of said request;
monitoring said telephone to detect selection of one or more of said
computer-telephony options; and
S conditioning said auto-atten~nt in accordance with said one or more selected options.
In a plefelled embodiment, the request for computer-telephony options
is in the form of a sequence of DTMF signals generated by the telephone. It is also
preferred that the computer-telephony options are presented on the display as text. In
10 one embodiment, the text is transmitted from the computer-telephony system to the
telephone via text encoded DTMF signals. In one embodiment, the selection of theone or more computer-telephony options is made via a sequence of DTMF signals orby highlighting text presented on the display.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a
15 communications system comprising:
at least one telephone having an associated display; and
a computer-telephony system having an auto-attendant to answer
incoming telephone calls, said computer-telephony system including means for
monitoring said at least one telephone to detect a request for computer-telephony
20 options; means for transmitting said computer-telephony options to said at least one
telephone for presentation on said display upon detection of said request; means for
monitoring said at least one telephone to detect selection of one or more of said
computer-telephony options; and means for conditioning said auto-~ttçn~l~nt in
accordance with said one or more selected options.
The present invention provides advantages in that a caller does not
have to wait until all options are presented verbally by the auto-attendant. Instead, the
caller can request the computer-telephony system to transmit the complete menu of
options for presentation on the display associated with the telephone allowing the
caller to select one or more desired computer-telephony options without having to
30 navigate through the auto-attendant dialogue.
CA 02246174 1998-08-31
Brief Description Of The Drawin~s
An embodiment of the present invention will now be described more
fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a schematic of a communications system including a
computer-telephony system having an auto-attendant and a plurality of remote user
locations;
Figure 2 is a schematic of one of the user locations of Figure 1
including a telephone having an associated display;
Figure 3 is a schematic of the computer-telephony system shown in
1 0 Figure 1;
Figure 4 is an illustration of computer-telephony options presented by
the computer-telephony system of Figure 3; and
Figure S is a table of DTMF comm~ntl~ to which the computer-
telephony system of Figure 3 responds.
Detailed Description Of The Preferred Embodiment
Referring now to Figure 1, a communications system is shown and is
generally indicated to by reference numeral 10. Communications system 10 includes
a computer-telephony system 12 connected to a public switched telephone network
(PSTN) 14 via a trunk connection 16. A plurality of remote user locations 20 are also
connected to the PSTN 14 via trunk connections 22 and include telephones to allow
callers to establish telephone calls with the computer-telephony system 12 over the
PSTN 14.
Figure 2 better illustrates one of the user locations 20. As can be seen,
the user location 20 includes a personal computer 30 having a monitor 32, a keyboard
34 and a mouse pointer 36 operating in a well known manner. A telephone 38 is
connected to the personal computer 30 by way of a universal serial bus (USB) 40.USB 40 includes a 12Mbit/s serial interface running over a 4 wire bus with an
associated software stack supporting peripheral connectivity to the personal computer
CA 02246174 1998-08-31
30. A DTMF signal receiver 42is also included in the personal computer 30 as well
as software to convert DTMF signals to text for display on the monitor 32.
Computer-telephony system 12 is best illustrated in Figure 3 and is
typically located at the premises of a business. As can be seen, computer-telephony
system includes an auto-alt~n~l~nt 50 to answer incoming telephone calls received
from user locations 20 over the PSTN 14 and to direct the incoming telephone calls to
an ~plo~,iate telephone 52. As is well known the auto-~tten~l~nt 50 presents a caller
with the options via dialogue and prompts the caller to select options by pressing
apl~lopliate keys on a touch-tone telephone. A DTMF signal receiver/generator 5410 within the auto-attendant detects pressed keys so that the auto-attendant 50 can
process the incoming call in the manner selected by the caller. In addition to the
above-described conventional operation, the auto-attendant 50 also transmits thecomplete menu of options to the caller for display on the monitor 32 upon receipt of a
request from the caller as will be described.
Figure 4 illustrates the menu of options 60 available through the auto-
attendant 50 which is normally presented to a caller through dialogue. As can beseen, in the first branch of the menu 60, a caller has the following options:
(i) selecting the language the dialogue is to be presented (either
English or French) by pressing a "1" or "2";
(ii) requesting tr~ncmi.c.cion of the menu of options 60 for display by
pressing the DTMF signal sequence "* * * * *"; or
(iii) requesting connection to an operator by pressing "0".
If the caller selects the language of the dialogue, the auto-attendant 50
25 enters a second branch and the caller is presented with more options via dialogue.
Specifically, the caller has the following options:
(i) selecting sales by pressing a " 1 ";
(ii) selecting complaints by pressing a "2"
(iii) selecting accounting by pressing a "3"; or
(iv) requesting connection to an operator by pressing "0".
CA 02246174 1998-08-31
S
If one of options (ii) to (iv) is selected, the auto-aKendant 50 directs the incoming
telephone call to the apl)lop-iate telephone 52 so that the incoming telephone call is
answered by the proper party. If option (i) is selected, the caller is presented with
5 more options as follows:
(i) selecting North America by pressing " l ";
(ii) selecting Europe by pressing "2"; or
(iii) requesting connection to an operator by pressing "0".
Once one of these options has been selected, the auto-aKendant 50 directs the
l0 incoming telephone call to the a~plopliate telephone 52. This operation ofthe auto-
attendant 50 is conventional.
If the caller requests tr~n~mi~sion of the menu 60 for display by
pressing the DTMF signal sequence "*****", the auto-aKendant 50 transmits the
menu as text in ASCII that has been encoded via DTMF signals to the user location
l 5 20. Since DTMF encodes digits 0 to F in hexadecimal and since ASCII encodes text
letters as hexadecimal numbers from 00 to FF, each ASCII term is represented by 2
DTMF signals. When the user location receives the string of DTMF signals, the
DTMF receiver 42 in the personal computer 30 detects the DTMF signals. Software
executed by the personal computer 30 in turn converts the DTMF signals back into20 ASCII and presents the menu as text on the monitor 32 so that the caller has all of the
available options visible.
When the caller wishes to select an option, the caller enters a start of
item sequence of DTMF signals of the form "# # # * *". Following this, the caller
enters the DTMF signals corresponding to the desired level and branch in the menu
25 For example, if the caller wants to select European sales in English from the menu 60,
the caller enters the DTMF signal sequence "0l, 0l, 02" corresponding to the menu
options "l" for English, "l" for Sales and "2" for Europe. Once this is completed, the
caller enters an end of item sequence of DTMF signals of the form "# # * # #".
CA 02246174 1998-08-31
The caller can also pause a session by entering the DTMF signal
sequence "11111111*" as well as end a session by entering the DTMF signal sequence
"###*#".
Altematively, the caller can highlight and select the desired option
using the mouse pointer 36 or keyboard 34. In this case, the personal computer 30
generates the applupl;ate DTMF signal sequence.
When the auto~ n~nt 50 receives the DTMF signals from the user
location, they are detected by the DTMF receiver generator 54. The auto-~tt~n~nt in
turn processes the DTMF signals and processes the caller's selected options so that
10 the caller is directed to the applopliate telephone 52 in the desired manner. As will be
appreciated, a caller requesting the menu for display can select from the menu without
having to listen to the dialogue of the auto-attendant 50 associated with the various
levels and branches of the menu.
Although the menu 60 has been described as being transmitted to the
15 user location as ASCII text encoded via DTMF signals, those of skill in the art will
appreciate that any conventional modem standard can be used to transmit the menufrom the computer-telephony system to the personal computer.
In addition, although the user locations have been described as
including a telephone connected to a personal computer via a USB, it will be
20 appreciated that the user locations can include telephones with built in displays and
DTMF receivers to allow the text encoded DTMF signals to be decoded and displayed
as text.
Those of skill in the art will also appreciate that variations and
modifications may be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit
25 and scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.
