System and method for providing audio cues in operation of a VoIP service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10469556-B2
Application number	US-15656208-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 2, 2008
Priority date	May 31, 2007
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

An exemplary VoIP service provides call participants cues to indicate that an enhanced service is being employed. When calling, the standard dial tone may be replaced with a distinctive dial tone or sound that indicates to the call participant that enhanced service is active (e.g., a service active sound). In some embodiments, the person called by the VoIP user hears a viral sound that indicates that an enhanced telephone service is being used. Furthermore, communication audio cues may be provided during the communication to provide further information to the call participants.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for notifying a user that a data communications network is being used to provision a voice telephone call and enhanced service functionality is available for the voice telephone call, the method comprising:
determining whether the data communications network is operative to maintain the high-quality voice stream;
in response to the data communications network being operative to maintain a high quality voice stream,
informing the user audibly with a first audio cue of a plurality of audio cues, that the data communications network will be used to provision the voice telephone call and enhanced service functionality is available for the voice telephone call, wherein the informing the user audibly with the first audio cue further comprises:
detecting if at least one of the user and a receiving party are speaking during the informing, and
if at least one of the user and the receiving party are speaking during the informing, blending the first audio cue with the voice stream during the provisioning of the voice telephone call; and

provisioning the voice telephone call between the user and the receiving party at least over the data communications network based on at least a destination identifier; and

in response to the data communications network being inoperative,
provisioning the voice telephone call between the user and the receiving party at least over a public switched telephone network (PSTN).

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: in response to the connection to the data communications network being operative to maintain the high-quality voice stream, informing the receiving party audibly that the data communications network will be used to provision the voice telephone call.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the informing the user audibly comprises providing a viral sound to the user, the viral sound comprising a distinct tone, series of tones, or music.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the provisioning over the data communications network includes a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a response to the informing the user audibly from the user and generating a second audible cue from the plurality of audio cues, based on the received response.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving at least one trigger to initiate the informing the user audibly that the data communications network will be used to provision the voice telephone call and enhanced service functionality is available for the voice telephone call, wherein the first audio cue initiated from the plurality of audio cues is selected based on the received at least one trigger.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the informing the user audibly comprises providing a promotional branded audio cue of the enhanced service.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the informing the user audibly that the data communications network will be used to provision the voice telephone call and enhanced service functionality is available for the voice telephone call comprises:
providing a service active sound (SAS) to the user upon detection of an initiating communication device changing from an on-hook state to an off-hook state.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the informing the user audibly is performed when a start of a communication is detected.

10. The method of claim 1
wherein the blending the first audio cue with the voice stream during the provisioning of the voice telephone call further comprises: fading out a volume of the informing the user during the provisioning of the voice telephone call between the user and the receiving party at least over the data communications network.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the informing the user audibly comprises utilizing applications of ASTERISK to perform the informing.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the provisioning of the voice telephone call between the user and the receiving party at least over the data communications network further comprises:
receiving an email message at a communication device associated with the user;
reviewing a subject and sender of the email message to determine if the email message warrants alerting the user; and
performing a second notifying to the user in response to the email message warranting alerting the user, the second notifying utilizing a second audio cue of the plurality of audio cues, the second audio cue being different from the first audio cue.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the provisioning of the voice telephone call between the user and the receiving party at least over the data communications network further comprises:
receiving an updated stock price at a communication device associated with the user;
ascertaining if the stock price meets a predetermined trigger point; and
performing a second notifying to the user in response to ascertaining the stock price meets the predetermined trigger point, the second notifying utilizing a second audio cue of the plurality of audio cues, the second audio cue being different from the first audio cue.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining whether the data communications network is operative to maintain a high-quality voice stream at a lower cost than the PSTN.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: informing the user audibly that the data communications network will be used to provision the voice telephone call at a lower cost than the PSTN.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the informing the user audibly that enhanced service functionality is available for the voice telephone call further comprises informing the user audibly with different audio cues from the plurality of audio cues to indicate varying levels of functionality of the enhanced service at different times during the voice telephone call.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the informing the user audibly further comprises informing the user audibly with different audio cues from the plurality of audio cues based on at least one of: time of day, frequency of calls, caller geography, callee geography, and caller psychographics.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the different audio cues differ in at least one of: composition, duration, volume, pitch, and delay.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the informing the user audibly further comprises informing the user audibly based on user defined settings for audio cues stored in a settings database.

20. A system for notifying a user that a data communications network is being used to provision a voice telephone call and enhanced service functionality is available for the voice telephone call, the system comprising:
a processor; and
a memory, the memory being coupled to the processor and storing a program executable by the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
determining whether the data communications network is operative to maintain a high-quality voice stream;
in response to the data communications network being operative to maintain the high quality voice stream,
informing the user audibly with a first audio cue of a plurality of audio cues that the data communications network will be used to provision the voice telephone call and enhanced service functionality is available for the voice telephone call, wherein the informing the user audibly with a first audio cue further comprises:
detecting if at least one of the user and a receiving party are speaking during the informing, and
if at least one of the user and the receiving p

Assignees

• Frame Andrew
• Peng Dennis
• Cheung Kelvin
• Peck Jeff
• Farrand Toby
• Ooma Inc

Inventors

• Frame Andrew
• Peng Dennis
• Cheung Kelvin
• Peck Jeff
• Farrand Toby

Classifications

• H04L65/1069

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04M7/0057

  Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network · CPC title

• H04L65/80 Primary

  Responding to QoS · CPC title

• H04M7/0069

  comprising a residential gateway, e.g. those which provide an adapter for POTS or ISDN terminals · CPC title

• H04M7/129

  Details of providing call progress tones or announcements · CPC title