International Business Machines Corporation

Vicki L Colson

Baiju Dhirajlal Mandalia

Victor S Moore

Thomas Edward Creamer

Peeyush Jaiswal

Brent L Davis

Edward J Dahmus

Glen R Walters

Vanessa V Michelini

Pnina A Vortman

Ran Cohen

Paul G Ringhof

Tommy R Alcendor

Ann-Marie W Hoher

Ronald D Swan

Moore Victor

Uzi U Shavdron

Elinor R Williams

A method of providing a telephony service can include creating a database of subscriber identities and subscriber voice prints and telephony services associated with the subscriber identities and receiving a spoken utterance from a subscriber. A subscriber identity can be determined according to voice print identification of the spoken utterance and a telephony service associated with the subscriber can be activated according to the determined subscriber identity.

Providing telephone services based on a subscriber voice identification

A method for providing caller identification information to instant messaging communication participants can include identifying an online presence for at least a first instant messaging client and determining caller identification information for a user associated with the first instant messaging client. The caller identification information can be provided to a second instant messaging client.

Instant messaging with caller identification

A method of providing telephony services can include receiving a request to query a subscriber information data store to determine service description information for a call. The service description information can specify at least one telephony service associated with a subscriber for use in processing the call. The method further can include querying the subscriber information data store to determine the service description information, receiving the service description information from the subscriber information data store, and providing the service description information to a telephony service node to implement a telephony service specified by the service description information with respect to the call.

Telephony service invocation using service descriptors

A method of deriving audio content from visual content can include modifying a visual markup language document requested by a client computer system to specify a control for generating an audio markup language document version of the visual markup language document. The modified visual markup language document can be provided to the client computer system. Responsive to a selection of the control, an audio markup language document version of the visual markup language document can be generated. The audio markup language document can be saved for subsequent presentation through an audio interface.

Personal voice portal service

A method for communicating with a call center can include receiving a telephony contact from a caller. A discoursive input including free-form speech can thereafter be received. The discoursive input can be converted into a textual transcription. At least a portion of the textual transcription can be presented upon a display screen of a service agent computer system. The telephony contact can be routed to a telephony device associated with the service agent computer system.

Automated call center transcription services

A method of aggregating interactive voice response services from a plurality of interactive voice response systems can include, for at least one caller, storing service information for a plurality of services within an interactive voice response system. Each service can be accessible through a corresponding one of the plurality of interactive voice response systems. The method further can include receiving a call from the caller and receiving an input from the caller over the call, wherein the input identifies at least one of the plurality of services and corresponding interactive voice response systems. The method also can include accessing the interactive voice response system corresponding to the identified service on behalf of the caller, retrieving information from the interactive voice response system, and providing the retrieved information to the caller.

Interactive voice response (IVR) aggregation master service

A method of automatically acquiring and/or updating a customer address within an interactive voice response system including establishing a telephony connection with a customer and identifying a telephone number associated with the customer. A directory assistance data store external to the interactive voice response system can be accessed. A reverse directory search based upon the telephone number can be performed to retrieve an address from the directory assistance data store. The retrieved address can be stored within an interactive voice response system data store.

IVR customer address acquisition method

A call director (CD) system and method is disclosed which enables a Virtual Automatic Call Director (ACD) environment with integrated voice response unit (VRU) and Virtual Automatic Call Distributor (VACD) to have a programmable interface with a common script logic so that the complete call flow can be executed in a single process. The disclosed system incorporates a network interface ( ), one or more VPU IP telephony servers ( ), a MCU configuration/supervision unit ( ), Virtual Automatic Call Distributor (VACD) subsystem ( ), customer information files ( ), and incoming call router (ICR) ( ).

Call director system and method

A system and method for Assisting Speech And Hearing-impaired Subscribers Using The Telephone And Central Office is disclosed. The present invention in some preferred embodiments permits remote customization of Central Office resources on behalf of a specific subscriber, and also allows the subscriber to test the customization before deployment. The present invention helps advance the art of telephony voice assistance by adding mechanisms to solve problems present in standalone environments. The method on the system comprises the steps of: receiving a communication session request from a first party using a first user unit; and determining if the first party is speech-impaired, and if the first party is speech-impaired, then performing the sub-steps of: prompting the first party for text input; receiving the text input from the first party; converting the text input, using a Text-to-Speech resource, to an audio output; and sending the audio output to a second party.

Method and apparatus for assisting speech and hearing impaired subscribers using the telephone and central office

A method for managing operator services comprises the steps of: compressing respective voice calls between a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and a local area network (LAN) of telephone operator work stations into respective streams of digital voice data packets; multiplexing the respective streams of digital voice data packets; transmitting the multiplexed streams of the respective voice data packets between the PSTN and the LAN over a single digital data transmission line; demultiplexing the respective streams of the digital voice data packets transmitted over the single digital data transmission line; and, decompressing the demultiplexed streams of the digital voice data packets.

Voice over data for remotely located operators

A method for managing operator services comprises the steps of: linking a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and an operator registration server (ORS) to one end of a single digital data transmission line; linking the other end of the single digital data transmission line to a local area network (LAN) of telephone operator work stations; converting voice calls between the PSTN and the LAN into digital voice data; transmitting the voice data between the PSTN and the LAN over the single digital data transmission line; transmitting digital operator activity data over the single digital data transmission line between the ORS and the LAN over the single digital data transmission line; and, multiplexing the transmitting steps.

Operator status server for voice over data

A method for managing operator services comprises the steps of: converting a plurality of voice calls between a public switched telephone network (PSTN) and respective operator work stations in an operator service local area network (LAN) into digital voice data; respectively transmitting the voice data between the PSTN and the respective operator work stations over single digital data transmission lines; respectively transmitting requests for operator services data and operator services data between a data center LAN and respective ones of the operator work stations over the single digital data transmission lines; respectively transmitting operator activity data between an operator registration server on the data center LAN and respective ones of the operator work stations over the single digital data transmission lines; and, multiplexing and demultiplexing the voice data and at least one of the data requests, requested data and the activity data for simultaneous transmission over respective ones of the single digital data transmission lines.

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Deerfield Beach, FL, United States of America

Vicki L Colson