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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and a system for placing and
responding to published advertisements.
Many magazines and newspapers regularly publish special classified sections
commonly referred to as "personals" in which parties wishing to form
relationships with other parties may place ads. The typical ad describes
the person placing the ad, the type of relationship desired, and the type
of person he or she would like to meet. Other persons reading such ads and
also wishing to form personal relationships, will contact the person who
placed the ad if their interests appear to coincide. Contact is
established between such persons by mail, generally sent to a blind post
office box keyed to a code appearing in the ad. The post office box is
usually managed by the magazine or newspaper.
Some people hesitate to use the "personals", even though they are
interested in establishing relations, because of a perceived indignity in
the process. Others feel uncomfortable about revealing personal
information to a stranger. And there are some who will not respond to a
"personals" ad because they feel that they are unable to communicate
effectively in writing. Finally, for all of those who use the "personals",
there is no way of eliminating a delay of a few days or more between the
appearance of an ad and the contact between two interested parties.
The aforementioned copending patent application describes a telephone
system that favorably alters the perception about individuals who use
"personals" and thereby increases the number of people placing and
responding to such ads, that provides a "personals" service in which
confidentiality and anonymity of all parties can be preserved if desired,
and that provides a "personals" service in which responding to an ad can
be accomplished without using the mailed letter format. Additionally, the
copending application describes a "personals" service which enables an
immediate and direct contact between a person answering an ad and the
subscriber who placed the ad, and which provides the subscriber with the
ability to modify the parameters of the service via the telephone.
While the copending application provides many features never before
available in a standard classified advertisement system, such as the
"personals", there remains the need to minimize the size of the system
while still providing adequate and substantially unlimited service,
especially when maintaining direct telephone contact between many persons
answering ads and many subscribers who placed the ads.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an efficient telephone system through which
mutually anonymous parties may conduct telephone communication with each
other, without delay, and maintain such anonymous communication for as
long as they desire.
In accordance with the present invention, as an example, "personals" ads
are placed and published as previously known. A person reading an ad
(herein referred to as the caller), and interested in establishing a
personal relationship with the person who placed the ad (herein referred
to as the subscriber), uses his or her telephone and calls a telephone
number published in the "personals" column. The number called connects the
caller to a central computer based system, and the caller is prompted by a
voice prompting/recording and control system (by speech synthesis,
recorded message, or the like) to enter the subscriber's reference number
(SRN) furnished in the ad and unique to the subscriber. The voice
prompting/recording and control system is connected to and controlled by
the central computer based system. The computer then uses the subscriber
reference number as an index to locate the subscriber's telephone number,
and after verifying certain conditions to be explained below,
automatically connects the caller to the subscriber. Only the computer is
aware of the identity of a subscriber and a subscriber's telephone number
(such is the same, when appropriate, for the identity of the caller and
the caller's telephone number), and hence the parties can communicate with
one another while being mutually anonymous for as long as they desire.
Furthermore, the telephone communication system of the present invention
uses certain available features of the public telephone company (in
particular, a service sometimes called the "Centrex" phone service) to
connect a caller to a subscriber. After it is determined that the
subscriber is available by availability information stored by the
subscriber in the central computer, the caller is placed on hold at the
telephone company's central office switching equipment. The subscriber's
telephone number is then found in the interactive system's memory. This is
accomplished by the voice prompting/recording and control system hook
flashing the incoming line of the caller. The subscriber is then called
and also put on hold by the voice prompting/recording and control system
at the central office switching equipment. Finally, by hook flashing or
some other means, the interactive system (herein sometimes referred to as
the system) makes a connection between the caller and the subscriber at
the telephone company's central office switching equipment, thus
disconnecting the system from the line that originally was occupied by the
caller, and thus making the line available for the next incoming call. A
similar procedure is followed to connect a subscriber to a caller.
Utilizing this technique, the total number of lines required by the
interactive system to provide adequate service to all callers and
subscribers is minimized, for the system needs only enough lines to
simultaneously process a peak number of calls that are expected to come in
at the same time, without having to consider the unknown and
uncontrollable length of time that a caller and a subscriber may want to
talk to one another.
If the subscriber to whom a call is placed is not available, or does not
wish to answer the telephone, or if the subscriber's line is busy, or
generally if the system is set up for receiving calls without immediate
connection with a subscriber, the system offers the caller the ability to
record a personal voice message for the subscriber. The caller is not,
however, required to reveal his or her identity or telephone number to the
subscriber in order to enable the subscriber to call back. Such a feature
of the system is achieved by the computer assigning the caller a unique
call back reference number (CBRN) that is indexed by the computer to the
caller's telephone number. The call back reference number, if used, is
automatically included with any voice message that was left by the caller.
The subscriber then may return the call from the caller in a manner
similar to that of a caller calling a subscriber, as explained above, by
using the caller's call back reference number, and speak with the caller
while maintaining complete privacy for both parties.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an
advertising system, such as a "personals" system, that offers the users
the possibility of preserving anonymity, and the capability of rapidly
exchanging personal thoughts in a manner that efficiently minimizes the
need for dedicated telephone lines despite heavy usage of the system.
The above and other objects will become apparent when reference is made to
the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying
drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the anonymous interactive telephone
system of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart diagram illustrating the caller interfacing program
associated with the telephone system depicted in FIG. 1.
FIGS. 2A and 2B are flow chart diagrams illustrating in greater detail
portions o the caller interfacing program illustrated in FIG. 2.
FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 are flow chart diagrams illustrating in greater detail
portions of the interfacing program illustrated in FIGS. 2, 2A and 2B.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart diagram illustrating the subscriber interfacing
program associated with the telephone system depicted
FIGS. 7, 8, 9, 10, 10A, 11 and 12 are flow chart diagrams illustrating in
greater detail portions of the interfacing program illustrated in FIG. 6.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For purposes of disclosure, the present invention will be described as an
interactive telephone system of the "personals" type. It should be
understood, however, that the system finds use in other advertising
environments.
Referring first to FIG. 1, the anonymous interactive telephone system of
the present invention is generally referred to by reference number 10. The
interactive telephone system 10 involves the interlinking through the
public telephone service (enclosed by dotted lines and referred to by
reference number 11) of a subscriber to the "personals" service and an
interested party (the caller). The subscriber has a telephone at a
subscriber station 14, and the caller has a telephone at a caller station
16. The parties located at the respective stations 14 and 16 are mutually
anonymous, but both are aware of the telephone number of the "personals"
service through which communication with complete confidentiality is
assured, all of which will be explained in detail hereinafter.
Through public telephone lines 12 and the public telephone service 11, a
caller at a station 16 can reach an incoming trunk line of the system 10
at caller port A. This is accomplished by calling a telephone number
published in the "personals" column. Similarly, the subscriber at station
14 can reach an incoming trunk line of the system 10 at subscriber port B,
identified preferably by a second telephone number known only to the
subscribers and to the "personals" service.
Ports A and B connect to a digital switch 18 whose functions are provided
by the public telephone company. While not specifically illustrated, ports
A and B, as well as other components to be described hereinafter, are
integral with and/or connected to switch 18 through many lines; and other
components to be described hereinafter, are integral with and/or connected
to a system controller 20 through many lines, although only one line is
illustrated for clarity. Further, although not illustrated, numerous known
connecting components, such as modems for example, form part of the system
10.
A port C interlinks the digital switch 18 to a voice prompting/recording
and control system 32, while an outward calling port D designated by the
number 34, is connected to telephone company lines 12 and capable of
connecting the caller station 16 and the subscriber station 14 to the
digital switch 18. Next, a billing terminal 36 is connected to the system
controller 20; and finally, a credit verification port E interlinks the
system controller 20 with a credit verification/authorization facility 38.
Ports A, B, C, D, and E are illustrated as being functionally distinct and
separate elements. However, as is well known in the art, connection ports
of digital switches (such as switch 18) are indistinguishable until a
particular line is connected to them. As such, ports A, B, C, D, and E may
be considered as elements inherently included as part of the digital
switch 18.
The function of the voice prompting/recording and control system 32 is two
fold. First, the system 32 interacts verbally with the subscriber and
caller. Second, system 32 interacts with the digital switch 18 to effect
the connecting operations. Specifically, system 32, prior to attempting
connection with a subscriber, hook flashes the incoming line of the caller
to place the call on hold at the digital switch 18. Also, after it is
determined that the subscriber is available, system 32 hook flashes the
subscriber's line to connect the caller to the subscriber at the digital
switch 18. The system 10 is then disconnected from the caller and
subscriber.
The different operational steps and component connections referred to above
and further described hereinafter are under the control of the digital
switch 18, the system controller 20, and the voice prompting/recording and
control system 32. System controller 20 can take the form of known general
purpose computers, and includes memory capabilities for purposes discussed
hereinafter. Thus, programmed operation of the system controller will
provide the appropriate commands to various system components for
affecting the different operational modes in accordance with the present
invention.
The mutually anonymous parties at the subscriber and caller stations 14 and
16, interact with the system 10 of the present invention by available
Touch-Tone telephone equipment in accordance with one embodiment of the
invention. However, the present invention contemplates the use of speech
recognition and other advanced forms of user inputs through which callers
and subscribers may interact with the system.
The primary service provided by the system involves connecting together,
over public telephone lines 12, a party at a subscriber station 14 and a
caller at a caller station 16 for the purpose of establishing a
confidential and mutually anonymous communication with one another; such
communication can be initiated by either party. In operation, a subscriber
places an advertisement for publication by a magazine, newspaper, or other
media and provides unpublished information relating to availability for
receiving calls, such as time of day, day of week and his/her telephone
number.
The system 10 then stores the subscriber-provided information in the
system's memory bank, and indexes the system controller 20 to a unique
system-generated subscriber reference number (SRN) to be published in the
subscriber's ad. The "personals" ad then is published, and it is read by
potentially interested parties. A telephone number that will connect a
caller to the system 10 is published with the ad.
A caller initiates telephone contact with the system 10 by calling the
telephone number published in the "personals" column. The telephone is
answered by the voice prompting/recording and control system 32 through
the digital switch 18. The caller is prompted to enter credit card
information (if this particular method of billing is selected from the
various available methods) and then to enter a subscriber reference number
by Touch-Tone input from his or her telephone. In response to entry of a
SRN, the system controller 20 opens the file of the appropriate subscriber
and reads the stored instructions. The voice prompting/recording and
control system 32 then furnishes information through the telephone
connection to the caller, based on stored instructions from the
subscriber, or could even play a personal message previously recorded by
the subscriber. The incoming call from the caller is then transferred
either to the subscriber station 14 or the speech recording component
within system 32.
If the call is made at a time acceptable to the subscriber, the voice
prompting/recording and control system 32 signals the outward calling port
34 to call the subscriber station 14 at the stored telephone number. Once
the telephone connection is established the voice prompting/recording and
control system 32 preferably requests verification from the subscriber
before connecting the caller to the subscriber; such verification could be
accomplished by Touch-Tone of the subscriber's personal access code (PAC)
or, alternatively, the subscriber's telephone number. Once it is verified
that an authorized individual is on the telephone at the subscriber
station 14, connection of the caller to the subscriber is permitted. At no
time will either party know the identity or telephone number of the other
party unless volunteered during the telephone conversation or otherwise
previously volunteered.
Upon completion of the call the time duration of the call is sent to the
system controller 20 and subsequently is transmitted to the billing
terminal 36; the caller then is billed for the call on the basis of credit
information previously obtained by the speech prompting component of the
system 32, provided by the caller through his or her Touch-Tone telephone,
verified by credit facility 38, and stored in the memory of the system
controller 20. As noted previously, other billing techniques may be
employed, such as direct billing by the telephone company on a per-call
basis. If the incoming telephone call from the caller station 16 to the
subscriber station 14 cannot be completed (line busy, no answer, wrong
time or day), the call is directed to the speech recording section of
system 32. In such case, the caller is asked whether he or she desires
that the subscriber return the call, and if so, is requested by the speech
prompting component of system 32 to furnish his or her telephone number,
to be available only to the system controller. The caller then enters his
or her telephone number by way of the Touch-Tone pad, which is indexed to
the requested subscriber and stored in a database memory of controller 20.
(This step may not be needed, depending upon the availability of certain
services offered by the local telephone company.) The caller at that time
is assigned a unique call back reference number (CBRN) that is announced
to the caller by the voice prompting/recording and control system 32. As
the next step, the caller is asked by the voice prompting/recording and
control system 32 whether he or she wishes to furnish a voice message to
the subscriber. Such a recorded message, if left, is stored in the voice
recording component of system 32 for subsequent review by the subscriber
to whom the message is addressed.
The subscriber may call into the system 10 at any time in order to review
messages or to perform other tasks described hereinafter. Initial contact
is made with the voice prompting component of system 32, as previously
described with respect to the incoming calls from the caller, when the
subscriber calls a telephone number of the subscriber port B. The voice
prompting component of system 32, under the direction of the system
controller 20, asks the subscriber for his or her identifying number, such
as the subscriber reference number, and looks up the SRN in the memory
bank of the system controller 20. Once the SRN is verified, recorded data
and messages directed to that particular subscriber may be reviewed by the
subscriber. The subscriber may then enter instructions to the system
controller 20 regarding, for example, which calls, if any, are to be
returned. The subscriber may return a telephone call from a caller by
Touch-Tone entry of the caller's call back reference number furnished to
the subscriber by the system controller 20 through the voice prompting
component of system 32. Once again, connection is made between the caller
and the subscriber without either party knowing the identity or telephone
number of the other. Obviously, this would not be the case if the caller
chose to leave his or her name and/or telephone number by way of the
previously described voice message to the subscriber.
With reference now to FIG. 2, it will be explained how the system
controller 20 is programmed to control the operation of the various
components relating to speech prompting and recording, billing, and call
transferring, for interfacing a caller station 16 with the system 10. The
program is initiated by the caller as indicated at 40 in FIG. 2. When the
telephone number of the caller port A is called, connection is initiated
at 50. The voice prompting component of system 32, under control of the
system controller 20 and a digital switch 18, transmits a greeting to the
caller as indicated at 52, and requests certain data in order to initiate
a data verification procedure 54. After data verification is complete, the
caller can talk to or leave a message for a subscriber via communication
program 56.
As shown in greater detail in FIG. 2A, the data verification procedure in
accordance with one embodiment of the invention involves receiving credit
card data in response to a request, and then searching a remote database
(credit verification/authorization facility 38 of FIG. 1) for verification
of the credit card number. Such data verification procedure is further
detailed in FIG. 3, and is initiated by a request 60 for data followed by
the caller's entry at 62 of the requested data. The caller then verifies
at 64 that the data was correctly received, resulting in a decision 66
that the entered data should be utilized. If the entered data is not
verified, the procedure is repeated a predetermined number of times, such
as three, until verification occurs. If the entered data is not verified,
then the incoming call is disconnected. The process continues to the next
sequence if verification occurs.
With continued reference to FIG. 2A, following verification of the credit
card type at 58, the credit card number is verified as indicated at 68.
Then, the expiration date of the credit card is verified as indicated at
70. The verification procedure is completed by an update operation 72 of
the database forming a part of the system controller 20.
After credit verification, the system enters the confidential subscriber
contacting program 56 illustrated in FIG. 2B and requests the subscriber
reference number from the caller. The SRN is Touch-Tone entered by the
caller and such entry is verified as indicated at 74. The verification
procedure 74 is similar to that detailed in FIG. 3 as previously
described.
After SRN verification, the system issues a command at 76 (FIG. 2B) to
access the subscriber instruction file 78. In accordance with one
embodiment of the invention, the subscriber instruction file contains
various parameters such as status, activity time, and caller message
duration. Under the status parameter, the subscriber may instruct the
system through a subscriber interfacing program hereinafter described,
that the subscriber reference number is to be deactivated or activated. If
deactivated, the system will not transfer calls or take messages, but will
deliver to the caller an appropriate informational message by the voice
prompting/recording and control system 32.
If the subscriber reference number is active, the system will transfer
telephone calls from callers in accordance with the activity time and
message duration parameters. In regard to the activity time parameter, the
subscriber may furnish to the system the desired days of the week and the
active hours during each day that calls will be accepted. With respect to
receipt of caller messages, the message duration parameter will limit the
duration of verbal messages within specified limits in order to
accommodate limited time for message review. Information on the foregoing
parameters of the subscriber instruction file 78 may be furnished to the
caller by the voice prompting component of system 32. As a courtesy, and
along with general information about the system, the caller is also
advised by the system that it is checking to see if the requested
subscriber is currently available. Such checking step is depicted at 80.
As indicated by reference number 82. If the subscriber is available, a
call transferring operation is initiated as depicted at 84. If the
subscriber is not available, then the incoming call from the caller is
transferred to a recorder under a speech recording operational mode 86,
which could include the playing of a custom message from the subscriber,
recorded as indicated at 222 in FIG. 6, and the telephone number of the
caller is requested at 87 for a message to the subscriber.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of this invention, the system
10 is designed to maximize the number of incoming calls it is able to
handle. Under normal operations, the system 10 spends most of its time
connecting a caller to a subscriber, or vice versa; therefore, to avoid
the costly maintenance of such a static connection, the system 10 employs
certain switching features, through a service known as "Centrex", provided
by the public telephone company 11 at the digital switch 18. As a result,
all static connections between caller and subscriber are maintained by the
telephone company's digital switch 18, and the number of calls
simultaneously permitted is limited only by the capacity of the telephone
company's local network, usually more than 100,000 lines.
FIG. 4 illustrates in greater detail the program associated with the call
transferring operation. After it is determined that the subscriber is
available in step 82, the voice prompting/recording and control system 32
asks the caller to hold, and hook flashes the incoming line of the caller
to place the call on hold at the phone company's central office. The
central office also connects an outgoing line to the voice prompting
recording system 32 and signals this connection by providing a dial tone.
Concurrently, a search of the database at 92 is made for the subscriber's
telephone number corresponding to the SRN entered by the caller. The
subscriber is then called in step 96 and step 98 determines whether the
subscriber's line is busy. If the line is busy, the routine is exited via
step 99, disconnecting from the subscriber and connecting back to the
caller. Otherwise, a predetermined amount of time for the subscriber to
answer the call is provided in steps 100 and 102. If the call is not
answered within this allotted time period the routine is exited via step
99, disconnecting from the subscriber and connecting back to the caller.
Otherwise, the call is answered and the answering subscriber is prompted
in step 104 to enter his or her personal access code, telephone number, or
subscriber reference number, by Touch-Tone input for verification in step
106. Following verification, the voice prompting/recording and control
system 32 hook flashes this line to connect the caller to the subscriber
at the telephone company's central office in step 108. The voice
prompting/recording and control system 32 then announces that the
subscriber and the caller are now connected in step 110. Once the
connection between the caller and subscriber is established, a charge
computation step 190 then ensues, followed by a disconnection operation
192. A database update operation 194 completes the caller interfacing
program. The system 10 then is removed from the loop and the phone
company's central switching equipment maintains the static connection
between the caller and subscriber. Thus, the system 10 has freed this line
for the next incoming call.
In the event the subscriber to whom a call is to be transferred is not
available, then a message recording mode ensues as indicated by reference
number 86 in FIG. 2B. Following such message recording operation, the
caller may select another subscriber as indicated by reference number 196.
In such case, another interfacing program is initiated, bypassing the data
verification portion thereof. In the event that no other call is to be
initiated, as indicated by decision 196, then the program proceeds to
computation, connection closing, and database update steps 190, 192 and
194 respectively, before the caller interfacing program is completed.
FIG. 5 illustrates the program for the message recording mode of operation.
Such operational mode, which permits total anonymity, if desired, is
initiated with an announcement from the speech prompting component of
system 32 to the caller that the subscriber is unavailable and a message
can be left as indicated by reference number 200. If no message is
desired, the program terminates and the call is disconnected as previously
described with respect to FIG. 2B. On the other hand, if the caller wishes
to leave a message, as indicated at decision 202, the caller telephone
number is requested and then verified by a verification operation as
indicated by reference number 204. A call back reference number is
assigned as indicated at 206 and is indexed to the caller's telephone
number. Additionally, the caller information is indexed to the particular
subscriber to whom the call was placed. The assigned call back reference
number is announced to the caller as indicated at 208, followed by the
furnishing of voice message recording instructions as indicated at 210. A
recording and playback operation 212 then ensues. The caller is then given
the option, as indicated at 214, of either accepting or rejecting the
recorded message. If the recorded message is rejected, another
record/playback session occurs. Once the caller hangs up at the end of the
record/playback session, the message recording mode is terminated and the
database is updated as indicated at 216. If the caller does not require
anonymity, he or she may, in the recording or playback operation 212,
provide his or her name, telephone number, etc., for the subscriber.
FIG. 6 illustrates the subscriber interfacing program initiated by an
incoming call to the system 10 from a subscriber station 14 through the
subscriber port B. Such an incoming call is met by a greeting originating
from the speech prompting component of system 32 similar to the incoming
call program illustrated in FIG. 2 with respect to the caller station 14.
The subscriber is then prompted to enter by Touch-Tone input, an access
code which is either the same as the published subscriber reference
number, or if more security is desired, an unpublished code given to the
subscriber when initiating the service, or perhaps even the subscriber's
own telephone number. The access code is then verified at 218.
Upon verification of the access code of the subscriber, the subscriber may
make a selection from a variety of services pursuant to a service
selection program 220. In accordance with the embodiment illustrated in
FIG. 6, the menu of services includes a custom message service 222, a
contact caller service 224, a message review service 226, an instruction
entry service 228 and a message statistic service 230. After the selected
services are performed, the program continues as indicated at 232 to a
disconnect operation 234. This is followed by a charge computing step 236
and a system administration step 238. The system is then reset to receive
another incoming call from a subscriber.
The service selection program 220 previously referred to in FIG. 6 is
illustrated in greater detail in FIG. 7. The program is initiated by
speech prompting information transmitted at 240 to the subscriber for
entering his or her code instructions. The subscriber then enters a
selection code number as indicated at 242 in order to initiate a selection
execution program 244. The selection execution program 244 consists of a
plurality of decision steps 246.sub.1 -246.sub.n, the number of code
decision steps in the illustrated embodiment being five as depicted in
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