GB2382262A

GB2382262A - Telecommunications system with access to audio recordings

Info

Publication number: GB2382262A
Application number: GB0225879A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jeffrey Wilson
Original assignee: Intellprop Ltd
Current assignee: Intellprop Ltd
Priority date: 2001-11-13
Filing date: 2002-11-06
Publication date: 2003-05-21
Also published as: GB0225879D0; GB0127233D0

Abstract

A telecommunication services apparatus and method for providing to users of a telecommunications system access to selected audio recordings, comprising: an audio store 4 for storing audio recordings; selecting means allowing selection of only one of the stored audio recordings whereby an identifier for the selected audio recording is stored in a data store 2; and reproduction means for receiving a telephone call from a user and for reproducing the selected audio recording from the audio store on the basis of the respective stored identifier. The selecting means may be operable via a web site on the internet, via a telephone voice call with interactive voice response or upon receipt of a mobile telephone text message. The user would be charged according to the particular type of content and duration of use, via his telephone bill.

Description

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES APPARATUS This invention relates to telecommunications services apparatus for providing to users of a telecommunications system access to selected audio recordings.

Mobile telephones are becoming universal and are carried by many people. A service which provides mobile phone users with easy access to a wide range of information and audio material would be attractive to many people. This is especially true for drivers with vehicle mounted hands-free telephones who may like to be able to make better use of the time spent in the car. Access to entertaining or educational audio of their choice could be a great benefit, provided that the service can be accessed very simply and with a minimum of interaction. However, making a wide range of material available over the telephone would generally be accompanied by a complex and unwieldy menu interface to allow selection of the material.

It is known that a wide range of audio material is available on the web for downloading for educational and entertainment purposes, for example Audible. com is a provider which specialises in selling audio content to users. However, in that case, audio must be downloaded manually from the web site to one's PC before it can be listened to. Not only does this take time but it also means that for audio which is regularly changing (e. g. news headlines or financial reports) the audio must be downloaded every time to obtain the latest update.

It is also known that certain telephony services are available which can play audio content to callers. However, these services provide content which is chosen by the provider.

One aspect of the invention provides a telecommunications services apparatus for providing to users of a telecommunications system access to selected audio recordings, the apparatus comprising: an audio store for storing audio recordings;

selecting means allowing selection of only one of the stored audio recordings whereby an identifier for the selected audio recording is stored in a data store; and reproduction means for receiving a telephone call from a user and for reproducing the selected audio recording from the audio store on the basis of the respective stored identifier.

Another aspect of the invention provides a method of providing to users of a telecommunications system access to selected audio recordings, the method comprising : storing audio recordings in an audio store; selecting only one of the stored audio recordings whereby an identifier for the selected audio recording is stored in a data store; and reproducing the selected audio recording from the audio store upon receiving a telephone call from a user, on the basis of the respective stored identifier.

Although a preferred embodiment of this invention is appropriate for hands-free mobile use, it will also be applicable to fixed network users, particularly those with high quality hands free telephones.

The web offers many avenues for reaching content; however digital access to source material leads problems with unauthorised copying, since if the material can be downloaded for listening, it can also be replicated and distributed. Users of web-based content are usually restricted to access from a fixed terminal, while the present invention permits mobility without the requirement for the user to download and transfer data to a mobile device.

There is also no easy means to charge for content delivered via the web. The cost of administering a charging system makes it impractical for use with small charges.

Although users are becoming increasingly accustomed to paying for high-price-ticket items over the web, there is still a wariness on the part of users to pay for services delivered over the web. This is because pay-per-use involves an ongoing authority to a web-provider to charge for content and risk is seen to out-weigh the advantage. Where

such services have been implemented, they are usually done by subscription i. e. payment in advance of an entry fee which allows subsequent free access for some period or quantity of material. The up-front payment is a deterrent to many users.

This can be contrasted with mobile telephony which is now a well developed and ubiquitous medium. Both the contract and pre-paid sectors of this market accept the ongoing charging for use of the service. These billing mechanisms provide an ideal

vehicle for extension to charging for other low-price-ticket services. The introduction of GPRS is an example, whereby in most cases users will be charged on a"pay per byte"basis for data services delivered to their mobile handset. Some countries already have an extensive history of using telephone bills to pay for all kinds of services from third party providers.

An advantage of the preferred embodiment of the invention is that there is provided a source of audio content (although the concept extends also to video and other forms of multimedia content) available for use over the telephone, for which the user may be charged according to the particular type of content and its duration of use, via his telephone bill. The service may be provided over the mobile or fixed telephone network and the user may be able to select in advance his personal choice of audio, or initially to accept a default item.

Co-pending UK Patent Application No. 0126262.5 discloses a similar but more complex technique whereby multiple items of audio are selectable by the user, and a particular item may be subsequently chosen from this list and other lists by means of selections made using the telephone keypad. In contrast, the preferred embodiment of the present invention is aimed at instant set-up and use, whereas the other technique is aimed at pre-meditated set-up of a range of items for use at some time in the future.

Furthermore, for ease of use it is envisaged that the preferred embodiment of the present invention should use SMS as the set-up means, (although set-up could also be made by means of the Internet, or a voice call using DTMF or speech recognition,) and a voice call as the retrieval means, both being accessible on the same telephone number, that preferably being a short code or otherwise memorable number. For use in

a car, the telephone number for both services may be arranged to be easily accessible from the telephone's internal memory, for example by being the first item in the directory.

This invention permits the user to select a single item of audio content from a number of categories of material and subsequently to listen to this item, or automatic updates of the item, using a telephone. Because the digitised source audio is never transferred directly to the user, loss of control of the source material is not a problem.

Furthermore, the preferred method for charging the user for usage of such audio is by charging it as part of the cost of the telephone call. Various billing arrangements are possible, from revenue sharing to separately itemised costs derived from Call Detail Records, and are applicable both to contract customers and pre-pay customers of telephone networks.

As can be seen from existing web implementations for distributing audio content, a wide variety of audio categories is suitable. These include-

Copyrighted material, for example archived broadcasts, information, educational material, entertainment, speeches or books. w Regularly updated material, for example latest headlines, sports reports, financial information.

w Personal audio uploaded by the user, for example telephone calls, treasured recordings, management messages

. Copyright free material, for example public domain audio from various sources including recordings of copyright-free text or books.

w Voice email, the system could also be used as an interface to a messaging system, whereby voice messages could be played back and received email or SMS messages could be read back using text to speech conversion. By

providing suitable links to these types of messaging systems, it would be possible to allow the user to access the messages via audio in the same way as he would access any of the other classes of audio content described above.

The preferred embodiment of the invention has the following advantages compared to the web access model: 1) Digitised source material which is copyright of a third party is never transferred to the end user and so content providers may provide sources of audio with no risk of unauthorised copying. Attempts to copy the material, even if delivered over a digital telephony bearer such as ISDN would result in a low-bandwidth monaural recording, characteristic of'telephone audio. 'This level of commercial safety is not achievable with traditional content distribution implementations.

2) The Selection is available immediately, because it is already loaded onto a server, and no copying or downloading is required.

3) The existing telephone billing system provides an ideal means for charging for low tariff content.

4) Access to regularly updating material (such as news headlines) is possible without the need for the user to repeatedly download the latest content.

5) Because the material is available over the telephone, other facilities of the telephone network may be used in combination with aspects of the invention thereby increasing its usefulness, e. g. conferencing whereby two or more parties can talk together, with an additional source of audio into the conference being optionally provided by the preferred embodiment. Alternatively the system may be used to interactively play audio into a call to a third party, where the audio replayed may be for example the content of a previous telephone conversation.

6) The choice of audio selection may be made over the internet but may also be made from a telephone or mobile terminal. For example SMS or Interactive voice response could be used to choose the audio selection, so that when the service is subsequently dialled, that selection is immediately available.

The charging model for this system, whereby the telephone bill or pre-paid account is used to debit the user, avoids the need for any monetary transactions to take place over the web thereby removing an objection from many prospective users. Also the Call Detail Records and per-second billing infrastructure that already exists in the telecoms industry is ideal for charging according to content. This system provides no threat to other outlets for audio content, it is simply an additional and safe source of revenue for audio copyright owners.

Accordingly, the invention may provide instant accessibility to any type of audio material or information by making it easily selectable and then immediately available to listen to over a telephone. An envisaged use is that, prior to spending some otherwise unproductive time in the proximity of a telephone, whether for example at home or on a journey, the user may simply specify, by sending a text message or by some other means, an item of audio that he would like to listen to. The chosen item of audio is then immediately available to the user to listen to in a voice call, preferably in a hands-free manner.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, throughout which like parts are referred to by like references, and in which: Figure 1 is a system block diagram of apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the invention; and Figure 2 is a table showing a method of hashed CLI used to look up a user's audio selection.

Referring to Figure 1, there is shown a telephony server 1 which includes a data store 2, a call controller 3 and an audio store 4. The telephony server 1 provides communication between an access controller 5, an audio manager 6, and callers 9. The access controller 5 also communicates with a web site (and/or SMS/USSD communication) 8. The audio manager 6 communicates with audio sources 7.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described; however many implementations are possible without diverging from the core concept of the invention.

It is a desirable feature of the preferred embodiment of the invention that both the choice of the audio item by text message, and the retrieval of the item by voice call should be accessible on one and the same telephone number or short code.

The technique pre-supposes access to a wide range of audio content as is already available in some previously-proposed systems. Referring to Figure 1, an access controller 5 provides the selection function, and may be accessed by suitable means 8, such as by text message, e. g. SMS or USSD, or via an interactive voice call, or via the web. The access controller 5 is also capable of sending a text message to a telephone. Registration is not necessary for the operation of this system. Users could obtain any information that they require about available audio and access instructions, for example from a published booklet or other media, including SMS, a voice call, or from the web.

The service operates on the telephony server 1, and will identify the user by his CLI. A telephone call to the service from a previously used CLI will then allow the system to look up the user's choice of audio content. Users are identified by the telephone number from which they call (their CLI) and space is automatically allocated in the system for a new user, for storage of the identity of his chosen audio. CLI lookup is preferably achieved using a hashing technique, for example as shown in Figure 2.

Hashing is a well known method for taking an item of data taken from a large but sparsely populated space (the number of possible telephone numbers is enormous) and transforming it into a table index with a much smaller range, thereby restricting the required table size to manageable limits. The data store 2 holds a pointer to the audio item selected by each user. Additional information may also be arranged to be accessible.

Referring again to Figure 1, the user may update his audio choice at any time via suitable means 8 such as text messaging or a voice call, or via the web, and interact with the access controller 5 to select an item of audio content from the range indicated

as available by the audio manager 6. A pointer to the selected item of audio content is loaded by the access controller 5 into the data store 2 and associated with the telephone number registered by the user. All of the audio items from the audio sources 7 available to be selected are already loaded as audio content in the audio store 4 which is part of the telephony server 1. The server I is accessible for example from a caller 9 at any telephone by dialling a known telephone number, and from certain telephones by dialling a short code.

The telephony server 1 may also implement a"bookmark"system so that when intentionally or due to loss of signal the user is disconnected from the service, then his next call to the same service will continue audio from the point where it previously left off. The bookmark information may be held in the data store 2 along with the user's audio pointer. This conveniently allows users to split up listening to an audio item across a number of sessions since a user can redial and continue his listening session, possibly with a deliberate overlap period to provide continuity. If the user updates his pointer selection to replace an item of audio which was previously bookmarked, then the bookmark is also erased. If the network is able to distinguish inadvertent cleardowns (e. g. due to loss of signal) from other causes of cleardown, it may be possible to redial the user automatically to re-establish the call, with the bookmark providing content continuity. A means may also be provided via the user interface for over-riding the bookmark and jumping back to the start of an audio item, for example by keying 0.

Upon dialling into the service on this telephone number, the call will be answered by the call controller 3. The call controller 3 will retrieve from the data store 2 the identity of any file previously listened to by the calling CLI, and the location within that item (the'bookmark'). The user may either continue listening to an item from where he last left off, or he may restart from the beginning. This means the telephony user interface may be extremely simple and is practical for use in a vehicle. When the caller clears down, current bookmark information is stored in the data store 2.

In order to provide graceful interaction with the user, additional audio phrases may be recorded on to the audio store 4. These files may be used to welcome the caller, and to indicate whether a bookmarked selection is being continued, and to announce the title of the item etc. Audio prompts may also be used to request DTMF input from the user.

It would be possible for a user to register more than one telephone number for use with the service, by means of a registration process, which could for example be implemented on the web. If more than one person attempts to register the same additional telephone number then the system may handle this either by rejecting the new request (and optionally informing the original owner that someone else has tried to register it), or alternatively when someone dials in from a number which has been registered by more than one person the system could prompt the caller to enter the registered mobile phone number and/or the PIN number in order to ensure authorised use and correct billing. This would, for example, allow company users with a common CLI to access the service from their desk telephones, in that the CLI + PIN would act, in so far as operating functionality is concerned, in the same manner as a CLI in the ordinary case.

Associated with each audio item in the telephony server's audio store 4 is the charging information for that item. Some audio items may be free of charge while others may for example attract a charge according to the duration of listening. If desired, the charging scheme could also provide an upper limit to the charge levied on a given user for use of an individual audio item.

Some audio items on the system may be regularly updated by the system provider, for example to keep the'News'items current. These types of items may be termed'auto updating. 'When an item of audio is updated on the server, callers who are listening to the original audio continue to hear the original audio until the end of the item, while new callers accessing this item receive the updated audio, without having to modify their selection. This may be implemented by maintaining duplicate audio items for those selections which are'auto updating. 'The duplicate or shadow items may be updated when new material (e. g. a news item) becomes available, and once ready, all

subsequent callers to the service should receive the new item from the beginning. Preferably the update could be achieved by a system of indirection, which minimises the amount of pointer updating which is required. The old item must not be deleted while callers are still listening to it. Bookmarks which were pointing at the old item should not be used with the replacement item.

Since the content of a file therefore never changes during play, the rate of charging for an item can always be decided at the start of its playback. At the end of each call, a Call Detail Record (CDR) may be written containing information for all of the chargeable content which has been listened to. These CDRs would contain the item identity, the charging rate, the number of seconds and a time stamp.

EXAMPLE SELECTION AND AUDIO SESSIONS First the user accesses the selection service by sending a text message containing a keyword or reference which identifies the item to the short code 1288. Optionally the system could implement a text dialogue with the user for resolving ambiguities or reporting status; however in its simplest form, the system matches an audio item against the text request, and makes that item available for access during a subsequent voice call. Optionally the system could send a text message back to the user confirming the identity of the item that has been selected and indicating that it is now available for listening.

On this occasion, the user sends the text message'European VAT'to the system telephone number 1288. The system allocates an audio tutorial about European VAT as his audio item.

Later, while driving his car the user dials 1288 as a voice call. The server recognises his CLI, welcomes him and begins playing the audio item which he has previously selected. A pre-recorded title for the selection may be played first. Shortly after starting to listen to the broadcast, poor signal causes his call to be dropped. With a single key-press he redials 1288 and is immediately re-connected to the service which

continues to play his audio from where it left off by using its built-in bookmark mechanism.

Next the user sends the text message'Paternity leave'to the system telephone number 1288. The system allocates an audio tutorial about paternity leave regulations as his audio item. Later, the user dials 1288 again as a voice call. The server recognises his CLI, welcomes him and begins playing the audio item about paternity leave.

An advantage of this technique is that at no time was any audio transfer undertaken by the user either to his PC or from his PC to a PDA or mobile device.

GLOSSARY

CLICalling Line Identity SMSShort Message Service of the GSM mobile telephone system

Claims

1. A telecommunications services apparatus for providing to users of a telecommunications system access to selected audio recordings, the apparatus comprising: an audio store for storing audio recordings; selecting means allowing selection of only one of the stored audio recordings whereby an identifier for the selected audio recording is stored in a data store; and reproduction means for receiving a telephone call from a user and for reproducing the selected audio recording from the audio store on the basis of the respective stored identifier.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an identifier for the user is stored in the data store, and the reproduction means is operable to reproduce the selected audio recording upon identification of the user.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the user making a telephone call to the apparatus may initiate reproduction of the selected audio recording by means of the keypad on the user's telephone.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the data store associates the identifier for the user with at least one telephone number.

5. Apparatus according to claim 4, including calling line identity (CLI) recognising means operable, upon receipt of a call, to match the CLI of the call with a telephone number in the data store.

6. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising bookmarking means operable, during reproduction of the selected audio recording from the audio store to a user, to bookmark a point in the

audio recording at which the user's call was disconnected so as to allow subsequent reproduction from that bookmarked point upon call reconnection.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the bookmarking means is operable, on the basis of information provided by the telecommunications network, to distinguish inadvertent call disconnection from other causes, and to redial the user in the event of inadvertent call disconnection.

8. Apparatus according to claim 6 or claim 7, wherein bookmarking information is stored in the data store.

9. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selecting means is operable via a web site on the internet.

10. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selecting means is operable via a telephone voice call with interactive voice response.

11. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selecting means is operable upon receipt of a mobile telephone text message.

12. Apparatus according to claim l l, wherein the text message is an SMS message.

13. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the text message is a USSD message.

14. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, comprising charge calculation means associated with the data store and operable to

calculate a billing charge to the user based on the audio recordings that have been reproduced.

15. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the audio store may store audio recordings of copyrighted material.

16. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the audio store may store audio recordings of copyright-free material.

17. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the audio store may store audio recordings of updatable material which is periodically updated.

18. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the audio store may store audio recordings of personal audio uploaded by the user.

19. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the audio store may store audio recordings derived from a messaging system.

20. A telecommunications services apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

21. A method of providing to users of a telecommunications system access to selected audio recordings, the method comprising: storing audio recordings in an audio store; selecting only one of the stored audio recordings whereby an identifier for the selected audio recording is stored in a data store; and

reproducing the selected audio recording from the audio store upon receiving a telephone call from a user, on the basis of the respective stored identifier.

22. A method of providing access to selected audio recordings, the method being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.