GB2495913A

GB2495913A - Fetching contact information from an internet server or cloud

Info

Publication number: GB2495913A
Application number: GB1118236.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Sivapathalingham Sivavakeesar; Sivapathalingham Ravishankar
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2011-10-22
Filing date: 2011-10-22
Publication date: 2013-05-01
Also published as: GB201118236D0

Abstract

The present invention proposes a new fixed communication device allowing a first user to fetch contact information pertaining to a different entity (i.e. another individual person or organisation, business, government body, emergency service or the like that provides/offers a particular product or service that a first user is interested in, such as may be provided by yellow pages look up) on-demand from the Internet cloud (comprising generally both structured and unstructured information source) or a centralised server (having a very structured database source) without necessarily using any web-browser and use the fetched contact information to establish a communication session with the desired entity. In addition, the present invention allows a user to maintain all the relevant contact information pertaining to a given user's friends, relatives, colleagues and the like in the Internet cloud or a centralised server and fetch on demand the required type of contact information depending on the communication technology/mode a user is going to use to communicate with another user. The device may include a phone client, a PSTN and Internet connection (the latter of which may be via a wireless access point), and may have a simple user interface for interacting with the cloud/server. Alternatively voice based interaction may be used.

Description

INTELLECTUAL

*.. . PROPERTY OFFICE Applicalion No. GBI 118236.7 RTM Dare:19 February 2012 The following terms are registered trademarks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document:

CORBA Java

Cold Fusion Microsoft Intellectual Properly Office is an operaling name of Ihe Patent Office www.ipo.gov.uk A Communication Apparatus, System, and Method thereof

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a system, method and apparatus for providing communication facility being used in residential, office or similar environment.

Background

As one of the good examples of social animals, humans seek to collaborate with each other in order to achieve their goals. Both at professional and private settings, people use communication as a tool for collaboration, and this is vital to accomplish a given task on time. Because of the complex nature of modern day society and tasks, it is often observed that most interactions both at workplaces and domestic dwellings are short in nature and tend to be spontaneous.

Before communicating with another, a first user has to know the contact details of a second user (e.g., a telephone number in the case of Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Pubfic Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or the registered usernarne in case of IP-based telephony). Generally

-I

such contact details pertaining to a second user are obtained by a first user when meeting in person (e.g., through the exchange of business cards or the like), from the Internet using any web-browser, papers, magazines and the like -once the contact details are obtained these are either stored in a telephone device for future use or manually entered and dialled. In business as well as home settings, calling another individual person, business, local authority, organisation and the like (collectively referred to as an entity here onwards) for the first time is quite usual in order to accomplish a task (e.g., calling a plumber to attend a leak) or to get the required goods/products and/or services. Under such circumstances, people tend to use tdephone directories (conventional method), web-directories, papers, magazines or search engines to look for a contact detail of a preferred entity. Old fat dumb telephone directones are not the answer any more whereas looking for telephone numbers on the Internet using a personal computer is again a time consuming and expensive process. This is because a computing device has to be handy all the time to get the desired contact details from the web/internet; and unless they are not powered on already, they need to be turned on and a user has to wait until the PC has successfully established physical and logical connection with the Internet. Having a computing device everywhere is not affordable too. On the other hand, with the availability of smartphones, this process is made simple -but people do not carry around srnartphone at home/office all the time, and even if they do. their screen size is still too small to get the desired contact details. Further not every business, organisation and the like have smartphone edition (micro edition) of their websites.

Although the present day telephone apparatus takes different forms and extra features, there is hardly any change in terms of the way a caller gets the telephone number of a callee Although there exists a wealth of online resources from which a caller can get the telephone number in case Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or similar type network is used or the registered username in case IP-telephony is used of the desired entity to be called -these telephone numbers and registered user names are collectively referred to as contact details although it may in fact generally refer to those pertaining to any mode of communication such as electronic/postal mail, instantaneous messaging (IM) and the like. However, this has to be performed more economically as equipping a fixed landline phone with a complex touch-screen and a flip out QWERTY keyboard and/or an on-screen/soft keyboard in Ueu of a physical keyboard, a track ball for easy navigation and the like will obviously increase the cost of a telephone apparatus and make it hardly affordable.

The present invention is hence pertains to the "Touch Tone" or DTMF-based fixed landline telephone handset, phone or apparatus that is used to communicate via Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), Public Switched Telephone Network PSTN), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or similar type network or a hardware-based IF phone. The apparatus, methodologies and the system that the present invention proposes deal with phones that are hence connected to conventional landline systems such as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) or data-networks providing conventional circuit-switched or packet-switched networking. These phones can be connected to these circuit-switched networks either directly or via Private Branch eXchange (PBX) system. Terms such as telephone, phone, handset, communication device or apparatus are used interchangeably arid refer to the same in the present invention although the present invention prefers to use the term communication device -these are hence different from mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones. netbooks/notebooks and the like unless stated otherwise.

Hence, the availability of convenient and economic communication device or phone enabflng users to get the telephone numbers (contact details) of the desired entity/party on-the-fly without having to get such details manually from business cards, papers, tabloids, magazines, directories, the World Wide Web or the Uke is paramount for anybody to live up to the current standards as required in the modem society. One of the objectives of the present invention is to achieve this very economically without increasing the intelligence and cost of these communication devices unreasonably and unnecessarily. More importantly, this process has to be user-friendly achieving the desired task with a click of a few buttons without incurring any or long delay.

People nowadays tend to maintain different individual contact lists consisting of telephone numbers of desired entities for fixed line land phones, mobile phones, smart-phones, social networking sites and the like separately. This is an unnecessary duplication process and leads to wastage of time and resources. With the emergence of cloud-based storage, another objective of the present invention is to maintain the contact details of desired entities (e.g., friends, colleagues) consisting of telephone numbers, email addresses, profile addresses of one or plurality of social networking sites (SNSs), instant messaging and presence services (IMPS), Voffl/V2IP services, online blogging, photo/video-sharing, genealogy, dating, gaming, diary and similar web-sites in addition to those details the conventional business card used to hold in one place (termed cloud-based addressing system here onwards) and let different devices such as fixed line phones, mobile phones, smart-phones, or clients pertaining to email. IMPS, SMSs, VoIPJV2JP services and the like fetch relevant details pertaining to a desired entity to be contacted on demand as and when needed. For instance, a fixed line phone or smart-phone can access/inquire the cloud-based addressing system and its associated database and fetch only the telephone numbers pertaining to a desired entity (i.e., callee) before making a call.

To cater for the modem society's demands, with the technological advances S in nanotechnology, hardware becomes increasingly cheaper -which in turn results in faster, smaller, more accessible, more affordable, and easier to use portable computing and communication devices. The same evel of innovaflon can be witnessed in networking technologies. As a result, new short-range radio commimication standards such as ZigBee, WiMedia Ultra Wide Band (UWB), Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) and IEEE 802.11/WiFi including WiFi-Direct are emerging while promising hundreds of megabits per second data rate with low power consumption -hence are more suitable for portable communication devices. This can lead to a widespread availability of portable communication devices that are equipped with one or plurality of wireless transceivers employing such short-range radio standards as DECT, WiFi (IEEE 802.11 and its variants). Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1). ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), Infrared, WiMedia UWB and the like. All these technological breakthroughs can increase the versatilities of conventional telephone handsets or phones.

People tend to spend most of their time either at home or in their work-place.

However, there does not exist a convenient device for people to get the contact details of a desired party/entity on-the-fly and communicate in spite of technological breakthroughs in multiple fronts. On the other hand, alihough ideally mobile phones can be used to communicate with anybody in an "any-time and any-where" manner, people do not tend to carry their mobile phones with them all the time especially when they are at home or work-place -these mobile phones can take the form of a smartphone, tablet-PC, PDA or the 111cc.

Also, people do not carry around bulky telephone directories, business cards.

papers, magazines and the like to get the telephone number (contact detail) of a desired party/entity or it is not always possible to get those details manually from the Internet as every room may not have computers that are connected to the Internet andior it is time-consuming process of turning on computers and getting details from the web.

Although the use case scenario of the proposes apparatus, system and methodologies is quite different from those of other communication systems, the following paragraphs explain the main differences by way of making comparisons with different representative systems found in the prior art. A voice communication device for providing Voice over Wireless Local Area Network (V0WLAN) communication using a single microprocessor is disclosed in US patent US 2008/0008 142 Al. Given that this particular patent concentrates much on how to realise a single processor VoWLAN communication device, the objectives and the scope of the present invention are different from those of US 2008/0008 142 Al.

One of the reasons for search engincs existence is to filter the desired contact details out from a wealth of online resources and enable a user to contact another entity mostly using a telephone. Voice communication is still a prevailing mode of communication to achieve a task on time in a private, commercial, organisational or government settings. Hence, one of the main objectives of the present invention is to integrate this search facility to a landline fixed phone so that making a voice/video communication will be very straight forward without the need to rely on external equipment or resources to fetch contact details and such an integrated apparatus, system and method&ogies as proposed by the present invention will hence save time and money.

Disclosure of the Invention

According to the first aspect of the present invention there is provided a communication device of first type that can form part of a distributed computing system together with a purpose-built application server; wherein the said communication device of first type allows a first entity: a) to fetch information of first type pertaining to a second entity on-demand from the said purpose-built application server or the Internet; and, b) to establish a point-to-point communication session with a second entity using the fetched information of first type; wherein a first entity can be an individual private user or a person attached to a household, organisation, business, government or the like and a second entity can be an individual person, organisation, business, government, or the like that provides any good/product or service being available in a commercial market.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said information of first type is a telephone number along with the name and classification of a second entity and is generated as a search result in return of a search query pertaining to a second entity by a first entity.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said information of first type can also be any contact information being used by one or plurality of communication modes or technologies such as electronic mailing (i.e., email address), social networking sites (SNSs) namely twitter (e.g., user-specific profile identifier), instant messaging and presence services (IMPS) (e.g., JM identifier). VoIPIV2IP services (e.g., Skype ID) and the like along with the name and classification of a second entity.

It is prefened that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said infoimation of first type is fetched by the said communication device of first type without employing any web browser.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication device of first type falls within the general category of communication devices that are normally attached to any circuit-switched public switched telephone network (PSTN) or integrated services digital network (ISDN).

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type that is used to maintain a connection between the said communication device of first type and the said application server via a packet-switched network.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication interface of first type supports WiFi (IEEE 802.11) and the said communication device of first type possessing a WIFE transceiver to connect to any WLAN access point.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication interface of first type supports Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), any power-line communication as standardised namely by HomePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901, or necessary communication protocols as standardised by the 1-lome Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and the said communication device of first type has the necessary standard hardware interface and inter-connect and/or the transceiver.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of second type; wherein a communication session between a first entity and a second entity can be circuit-switched and is provided on communication interface of second type via a circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network.

It is prefened that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein a communication session between a first entity and a second entity can be packet-switched and is provided on communication interface of first type via a packet-switched network.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication session can be online (interactive voice/video communication or Instantaneous Messaging) or offline (e.g.. email).

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication interface of second type is used to get the said communication device of first type to be part of any circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network such as PSTN, POTS, ISDN or the like and the said communication device of first type has the necessary telephone jack andlor interconnect.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said distributed computing system foimed by the said communication device of first type and the said purpose-built application server is highly-coupled employing one of the following local component model technologies: a) Enterprise Java Beans (EJB); b) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA); c) Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) d) Component Object Model (COM) It is preferred that the said comnmnication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said distributed computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said purpose-built application server is loosely-coupled employing web services.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said distributed computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said purpose-built application server follows a 3/n-tier client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules"). computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said purpose-built application server additionally performs one or plurality of the following functionalities: i) web server allowing a) entities to create/maintain their profiles containing at least entity-specific infonnation of first type; and, b) service profile creation containing at least entity-specific infomniation of first type; ii) auto-complete assistance (i.e., predictive text input): iii) Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) allowing speech to text dictation (i.e.. Speech Recognition to convert a words into texts) enabling Voice Search; iv) providing interfaces to a variety of web search engines, online repositories and directories; and, v) database server functionality for maintaining a plurality of databases; wherein the said communication device of first type operating in the capacity of a client and the said application server interacts to provide the said information of first type pertaining to a second entity in return of a search query by a first entity.

It is prefened that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said search query can be in the form of text or voice and on receiving voice search commands the said communication device of first type will interact with the said ASR functionality of the said purpose-built application server to confirm the search query and to perform speech to text conversion, and get the said purpose-built application server to get the required infonnation of first type.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said purpose-built application server maintains a plurality of databases namely through the said database server functionality: i) a varieties of directories/repositories containing structured information; ii) Profile database pertaining to different entities; iii) ASR related database; iv) caller/device location database; and, v) Location/Service Provider Mapping; It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said purpose-built application server will look up one or plurality of said databases on receiving any search query pertaining to a second entity by a first entity for the required information of first type that is satisfying one or more search criteria including the proximity to the physical location of a first entity and/or other default/user search preferences; failing that it will execute geographically confined searches with iespect to the physical location of a first entity on one or plurality of major search engines or online directories through appropriate APIs provided by those search engines and directories, get the required information of first type and return it to the said communication device of first type after formatting.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said purpose-built application server creates and constantly maintains directories for various businesses, organisations, government bodies, charities, people, products/services that are available in the market and the like in the said databases in a very hierarchical tree-based manner.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising an input and output mechanism being made up of hardware and software components comprising: i) a visual display panel allowing text inputs and text outputs; ii) a set of buttons/keys to allow the following search categories: a) Classified business/organisations/government bodies directory search; b) Classified Products and Services directory search; c) Classified people directory search; d) An open search query using keywords on the text input field (i.e., search box) provided by the said phone client.

iii) up/down/side arrOW andlor scroll keys to navigate through the search results verdcaily and horizontally; Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said input and output mechanism incorporates a voice user interface to enable speech to text conversion; wherein the said communication device of first type has an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) functionality.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said purpose-built application server provides auto-complete facility through query predictions in the said search box when text-based search is opted for.

Preferably the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said information of first type (i.e., search result) is formatted by the said purpose-built application server before being passed on to the said communication device of first type.

PreferaNy the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein the said communication device of first type can be logically associated with an entity-specific profile created and maintained in on or plurality of databases attached to the said purpose-built application server.

It is preferred that the said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate; wherein an entity-specific profile comprising at least search preferences in terms of the criteria to be used in searches and the way each search result should be displayed, geographic locations and personalised address book (i.e.. friend-list) and associating a communication device of first type to an entity-specific profile will enable a first entity to execute a customised search and have an instant access to personalised address book being maintained with ease centrally in the cloud.

Accordthg to the second aspect of the present invention there is provided distributed directory enquiry computing system comprising: i) a phone client running on a communication device of type; ii) a centralised server; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system allows a first entity to fetch contact details pertaining to a second entity on demand using the said communication device of first type from a centralised server or the Internet before establishing a communication session between a first entity and a second entity using the said communication device of first type.

Preferably the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein a first entity can be an individual private user or a person attached to a household, organisation, business, government or the like and a second entity can be an individual person, organisation, business, government, or the like that provides any good/product or service being available in a commercial market.

It is preferred that the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type to connect to the said centralised server or the Internet as and when needed via any packet-switched network.

Preferably the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication interface of first type is provided by Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), WiFi (IEEE 802.11) Bluetooth, any power-line communication as standardised namely by FlornePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901 or necessary communication protocols as standardised by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and the said communication device of first type has the necessary standard hardware interface and inter-connect and/or the transceiver.

It is preferred that the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; whereiii the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of second type; wherein a communication session between a first entity and a second entity can be circuit-switched and is provided on communication interface of second type via any circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network.

Preferably the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein a communication session between a first entity and a second entity can be packet-switched and is provided on communication interface of first type via a packet-switched network.

Preferably the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication interface of second type is used to get the said communication device of first type to be part of any circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network such as PSTN, POTS, ISDN or the like and the said communication device of first type has the necessary telephone jack or interconnect.

It is preferred that the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication session can be online (interactive voice/video communication or IM) ni offline (e.g., email).

PreferaNy the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein entities maintain their preferred contact details centrally in one or plurality of databases via a web server arid the said centralised server fetches the contact details pertaining to a second entity from the said databases or from one or plurality of external databases or search engines using APIs provided by those search engines and external databases and pass the contact details on to the said phone client in a preferred format; wherein the preferred formatted contact details will allow a first entity to make sure that it has found the right entity before establishing any communication session with a second entity.

It is preferred that the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system is a highly-coupled distributed system employing one of the following local component model technologies: a) Enterprise Java Beans (EJB); b) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA); c) Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) d) Component Object Model (COM) S Preferably the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system is a loosely-coupled distributed system employing web services.

It is preferred that the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system follows a 3/n-tier client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules"), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules.

Preferably the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising an input and output mechanism being made up of hardware and software components comprising: i) a visual display panel allowing text inputs and text outputs; ii) a set of buttons/keys to allow the following search categories: c) Classified busincss/organisations/governrnent bodies directory search; U Classified Products and Services directory search; g) Classified people directory search; h) An open search query using keywords on the text input field (i.e., search box) provided by the said phone client.

iii) up/downlside arrow andlor scroll keys to navigate through the search results vertically and horizontally.

It is preferred that the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said input and output mechanisms (i.e., visual display panel allowing text inputs and text outputs, a set of buttons/keys and up/down/side arrow and/or scroll keys) enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches such as a people directory search and classified business name/directory or product/service search pertaining to a second entity; wherein the said directories are orgathsed and built systematically in a hierarchical tree-based manner in one or pluralities of databases with which the said centralised server has an access via a said database server and fetching the relevant contact details pertaining to a second entity by a first entity comprising the steps of: I) on a first entity requesting a search through a said input mechanism, the said phone client contacting the said centralised server with an information as to the type of search requested; ii) the said centralised server contacting the said one or plurality of databases, and enabling the said phone client to populate information pertaining to the first or chosen hierarchy (i.e., instantaneously mapping exact hierarchy as maintained in the said databases without necessarily maintaining any local database) on the said output mechanism (i.e., a said visual display panel) in the same way as it is maintained in the said databases for a first entity to choose the next hierarchy by navigating through the shown hierarchy; iii) on a first entity requesting the next hierarchy information, the said phone client contacting the said centralised server in order to pass the hierarchy information sought and to request the population of information relevant to the chosen hierarchy as it is maintained in the centralised database; iv) the said centralised server and the said phone client following steps (ii) and (iii) until the chosen hierarchy is able to provide the contact details pertaining to a second entity as required by a first entity; v) the said centralised server determining the physical location of a first entity and carrying out a search with an intention to look for one or more entities that are of a second entity type while confining the search geographically with respect to the physical location of a first entity andior taking into consideration user search preferences; vi) the said centralised server populating one or plurality of search results in a preferred format for the first entity to scroll through side ways and/or up/down direction; wherein the said centralised server interacts with the said phone client to map, populate and display the hierarchical database information in the same order as maintained in one or plurality of databases while allowing the said phone client to have very limited capab[lity and capacity (i.e., very "thin") and on first entity selecting a given search result the said phone client establishing the said communication session between a first entity and a second entity.

Preferably the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches using one or plurality of keywords.

It is preferred that the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein searches using keywords can be executed by way of text inputs.

PreferaNy the said distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein searches using keywords can be executed by way of voice commands.

It is preferred that the said distributed directoiy enquiry computing system; wherein the said centralised server additionally performs one or plurality of the following functionalities: i) web server allowing a) entities to create/maintain their profiles containing at least entity-specific information of first type; and, b) service profile creation containing at least entity-specific information of first type; ii) auto-complete assistance (i.e., predictive text input); iii) Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) allowing speech to text dictation (i.e., Speech Recognition to convert a words into texts) enabling Voice Search; iv) providing interfaces to a variety of web search engines, online repositories and directories; and, v) database server functionality for maintaining a plurality of databases; wherein the said phone client and the said centralised server interacts to provide one or plurality of search results pertaining to a second entity in return of a search query by a first entity.

According to the third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method to turn a communication device of first type through software and/or hardware solutions in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system comprising: i) a phone client running on a communication device of type; ii) a centralised application server; wherein the said communication device of first type connects to the said server via a and enables a first entity to fetch required contact information pertaining to a second entity concisely with limited input without using any web-browser technology and use the fetched information to establish a communication session with a second entity via a circuit-switched network or packet-switched network.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; whereiii the said communication device of first type falls within the general category of communication devices that are normally attached to circuit-switched public land mobile telecommunication network.

Preferably the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type that is used to maintain a connection between the said phone client and the said centralised application server via a packetswitched network.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication interface of first type supports WiFi (i.e., IEEE 802.1 1), Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), any power-line communication as standardised namely by HomePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901, or necessary communication protocoh as standardised by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (I-IPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and the said communication device of first type has the necessary standard hardware interface and inter-connect and/or the transceiver.

Preferably the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of second type that is used to establish a communication session between a first entity and a second via a circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network such as 2G cellular network (e.g.. OSM), PSTN, ISDN, and POTS.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication interface of second type supports the air interface as supported by any 2G cellular network (e.g., GSM) any hardware interface and interconnect being used to connect to PSTN, ISDN, and POTS.

Preferably the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distnbuted directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of third type that is used to maintain a connection between the said phone client and the said centralised application server via a packet-switched network and establish a communication session between a first entity and a second via a circuit-switched network or packet-switched network.

It is prcfcrrcd that the said mcthod to turn a communication dcvicc of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication interface of third type supports the air interface as supported by any 2.SG, 3G and 4G cellular network (e.g., GPRS, UMTS. LTE, WiMAX).

Preferably the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication session can be online (interactive voice/video communication or IM) or offline (e.g., email).

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said centralised application server is highly-coupled employing one of the following local component model technologies: a) Enterprise Java Beans (EJB); b) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA); c) Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI); or, d) Component Object Model (COM).

Preferably the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said centralised application server is loosely-coupled employing web services.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing sy stem foirned by the said communication device of first type and the said centralised application server follows a 3/n-tier client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules"), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said centralised application server additionally performs one or plurality of the following functionalities: i) web server allowing a) entities to create/maintain their profiles containing at least entity-specific information of first type; and, b) service profile creation containing at least entity-specific information of first type; ii) creating and maintaining a service repository; iii) service composing; iv) phone client adapting namely providing auto-complete assistance (i.e., predictive text input): v) Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) allowing speech to text dictation (i.e., Speech Recognition to convert a words into texts) enabling Voice Search; vi) providing interfaces to a variety of web search engines, online repositories and directories; and, vii) database server functionality for maintaining a plurality of databases; wherein the said phone client and the said server interacts to provide the said information of first type pertaining to a second entity in return of a search query by a first entity.

Preferably the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said search query can be in the form of text or voice and on receiving voice search commands the said phone client will interact with the said ASR functionality of the said centralised application server to confirm the search query and get the said centralised application server to get the required contact information.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising an input and output mechanism being made up of hardware and software components comprising: i) visual display panel allowing text inputs and text outputs; ii) graphical user interface provided by the said phone client on the said visual display panel for the purpose of displaying a search box; iii) a set of buttons/keys to allow the following three searches a) Classified business name/directory search; b) Classified Products and Services directory search; c) Classified people directory search; d) An open search query using keywords on the text input field provided by the said phone client.

iv) up/down/side arrow and/or scroll keys to navigate through the search results vertically and horizontally.

Preferably the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distnbuted directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said input and output mechanisms (namely a visual display panel allowing text inputs and text outputs, a set of buttons/keys and up/down/side arrow and/or scroll keys) enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches such as a people directory search and classified business name/directory or product/service search pertaining to a second entity; wherein the said directories are organised and built systematically in a hierarchical tree-based manner in one or pluralities of databases with which the said centralised application server has an access via a said database server and fetching the relevant contact details pertaining to a second entity by a first entity comprising the steps of: i) on a first entity requesting a search through a said input mechanism, the said phone client contacting the said application server with an information as to the type of search requested; ii) the said application server contacting the relevant databases, and enabling the said phone client to populate information pertaining to the first or chosen hierarchy (i.e., instantaneously mapping exact hierarchy/order as maintained in the centralised server without necessarily maintaining any local database) on the said output mechanism (i.e., a said visual display panel) in the same way as it is maintained in the said databases for a first entity to choose the next hierarchy by navigating through the shown hierarchy; iii) on a first entity requesting the next hierarchy information, the said phone client contacting the said application server in order to pass the hierarchy information sought and to request the population of information relevant to the chosen hierarchy as it is maintained in the centralised database; iv) the said application server and the said phone client following steps (ii) and (iii) until the chosen hierarchy is able to provide the contact details pertaining to a second entity as required by a first entity or a first entity is to perform an open search using one or plurality of key words at the selected hierarchy level; v) the said server application determining the physical location of a first entity and carrying out a search with an intention to look for one or more entities that are of a second entity type while confining the search geographically with respect to the physical location of a first entity and/or those search preferences as set in the user profile pertaining to a first entity; vi) the said server application populating one or plurality of search results in a preferred format for the first entity to scroll through side ways and/or up/down direction; wherein the said application server interacts with the said phone client to map.

populate and display the same hierarchical database information as maintained in one or plurality of databases while allowing the said phone client to have very limited capability and capacity (i.e., very "thin") and on first entity selecting a given search result the said phone client establishing the said communication session between a first entity and a second entity.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enqufty computing system; wherein the said phone client will logically associate a given communication device of first type with an entity-specific profile created and maintained in on or plurality of databases attached to the said application server.

PreferaNy the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein an entity-specific profile comprising at least search preferences in terms of the criteria to be used in searches and the way each search result should be displayed, geographic locations and personalised address book (i.e., friend-list) and associating a communication device of first type to an entity-specific profile will enable a first entity to execute a customised search an have an instant access to personalised address book being maintained with ease centrally in the cloud.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein the said communication device of first type enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches using one or plurality of keywords.

PreferaNy the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein searches using keywords can be executed by way of text inputs.

It is preferred that the said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system; wherein searches using keywords can be executed by way of voice commands.

Description of the Drawings

Non-limited and non-exhaustive embodiments are described with reference to the following figures, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various views unless otherwise specified.

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference will be made to the following detailed description of the invention, which is to be read in association with the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is an illustrative distributed computing system where the embodiment of the present invention is said to work.

Figure IA illustrates a variety of components that the centralised server or server application can preferaNy possess in order to accomplish various tasks as proposed according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Figure lB shows a variety of databases, directories or repositories that the centralised server or server application can preferably access in order to accomplish various tasks as proposed according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows the exemplaiy front view of the basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type to be used to fetch contact information on-demand from a centralised server or the Internet before establishing a communication session according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 3 is an exemplary illustration of the way hierarchical tree-based database/directory pertaining to different products and services being available particularly in the commercial markets is maintained according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 4 is an exemplary iflusifation of the way hierarchical tree-based database/directory pertaining to different businesses, organisations, charities and various government bodies, departments and units including the emergency services or the like is maintained according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 5 is an exemplary illustration of the way hierarchical tree-based database/directory pertaining to people/personnel is maintained according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Figure 6 illustrates one exemplary main profile window that can be used by an individual user/entity to create, activate and subsequently to maintain individual user profile with minute privacy settings according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6A illustrates one exemplary window being used by an entity to exercise/perform minute privacy settings in terms of who can see what content of a user/entity-specific profile according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 7 shows an exemplary main profile window that can be used by an entity to create, activate and subsequenfly to maintain a service/business profile according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 8 is an exemplary illustration of the alphabetically grouped goods and products being availab'e particu'arly in the commercial markets that make up hierarchically organised tree-based product directory according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 9 is an exemplary iflustration of the alphabetically grouped services being available particularly in the commercial markets that make up hierarchically organised tree-based service directory according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 10 is a flow chart illustrating the operational procedure involved from the time a search query is initiated to locate a particular product/service or a person/entity until a communication is established as proposed according to various embodiment of the present invention.

The figures are provided for ease of explanation of the basic proposals of the present invention only; the extensions of the figures with reference to number, position, relationship and dimensions of the parts to form the prefelTed embodiment will be explained or will be within the skill of the art after the following proposals/findings of the present invention have been read and understood.

Description of Specific Embodiments

The present invention will now be described in a more elaborative manner hereinafter with reference to the accompanying figures, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments by which the invention may be practised. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete. and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is proposed a new communication device (termed communication device of first type 130/132) allowing a first user (termed first entity) to fetch contact information (termed generally as the information of first type) pertaining to a different/second entity (i.e., another individual person or organisation, business, government body, emergency service or the like that provides/offers a particular product or service that a first user/entity is interested in) on-demand from the Internet cloud 154 (comprising generally both structured and unstructured information source) or a centralised server 160 (having a very structured database source) and use the fetched contact information to establish a communication session with the desired entity.

Another embodiment of the present invention deals with an issue of allowing a user to maintain all the relevant contact information (or the information of first type) pertaining to a given user's friends, relatives, colleagues and the like in the Internet cloud 154 or a centralised sei-ver 160 and fetch on demand the required type of contact information (or the information of first type) depending on the communication technology/mode a user is going to use to communicate with another user. In other words, it is required by any user to maintain one address-book in the centralised cloud-based addressing system containing contact addresses of a given user's friends, relatives, colleagues and the like consisting of telephone numbers, email addresses, and profile addresses of one or plurality of social networking sites (SNSs), instant messaging and presence services (IMPS), VoIP/V2IP services, online blogging, photo/video-sharing, genealogy, dating. gaming, diary and similar web-sites in addition to those details the conventional business card used to hold in one place in a centralized server 160 or the Internet (termed cloud-based addressing system here onwards) 154 and let different devices such as fixed line phones, mobile phones, smart-phones, or clients pertaining to email.

IMPS. SMSs, VoIP/V2IP services and the like fetch relevant details pertaining to a desired entity to be contacted on demand as and when needed.

For instance, a fixed line phone or smart-phone can access/inquire the cloud-based addressing system and its associated database and fetch only the telephone numbers (including the appropriate area code and/or a country code) pertaining to a desired entity (i.e.. callee) before making a call. On the other hand, an email client will look for only the email address of a desired entity before sending an email.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, in order to minimise the need to spend too much time in the search using the communication device of first type, relevant directories are hierarchically maintained in one or pthrality of databases 180 that can be connected to the said communication device of first type via any packet-switched network or the Internet and the communication device of first type simply maps, populates and display exactly what is maintained in the centralised databases without having to store them locally. This avoids the need to maintain databases locally in the communication device of first type unnecessarily.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, in order to minimise the time involved to get the desired search result on time, a user can create and maintain an online profile where a given user can specify his/her search settings in tern-is of what search criteria that need to be used in case a particular search is related to a given product/service category or entity (e.g., business, people and the like) and how the search results should appear in the communication device of first type and logically associate a given communication device of first type with an active online profile.

Fig. 1 is an illustrative distributed computing system 100 that can be used to make the said cloud-based addressing system and/or a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to various embodiments of the present invention. This distributed system 100 mainly consists of a communication device of first type 130/132 that operates in the capacity of a client and a server 160 According to one embodiment of the present invention, the communication device of first type 130/132 is a "Touch Tone" or DTMF-based fixed landline telephone handset, phone or apparatus that is used to communicate via Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or similar type network. In other words, the communication device of first type 130/132 (although it may take different shapes) is hence connected to conventional landline systems such as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), integrated Services Digital Network (IS DN) or similar network providing conventional circuit-switched telecommunication service. These phones can be connected to these circuit-switched telecommunication networks either directly or via Private Branch eXchange (PBX) system, although it is not shown in Fig. 1. This means that a communication device of first type 130/132 falls within the general category of conmiunication devices that are normally attached to any circuit-switched public switched telephone network (PSTN) or integrated services digital network (ISDN).

Unlike the conventional landline phone, according to the various embodiments of the present invention, the communication device of first type 130/132 maintains a constant connectivity to a circuit-switched teleconmiunication network such as 2G/POTS/PSTN/ISDN 152 directly or via a PBX system and a packet-switched network providing connection to a centralised server 160 andlor to the Internet 154. 2G (or 2-G) is short for second-generation wireless telephone technology -a typical example is OSM.

In order to get a circuit-switched connection and a packet-switched connection, a communication device of first type 130/132 can be connected to any Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) such as GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 30/FISPA/LTE, 4G/LTE-A and the like although this is not common. The communication device of first type 130/132 does not necessarily have any capability/intelligence to run any web-browser. On the other hand, the communication device of first type 130/132 runs a very lightweight phone client 110.

In order to maintain connectivity with the centralised server 160 andlor to the Internet 154 while being part of a circuit-switched telecommunication network 152, the communication device of first type 130/132 comprises a communication interface of first type which is used to maintain a connection between the said phone client 110 running on 130/132 and the said centralised server 160 via any packet-switched network. According to one arrangement the said communication interface of first type supports WiFi (IEEE 802.11) and the said communication device of first type 130/132 possesses a WiFi transceiver to connect to a WLAN access point 150 in order to connect to the centralised server 160 directly or via the Internet 154. According to different arrangements, the communication interface of first type supports Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), DECT/Bluetooth/Zigbee, any power-line communication as standardised namely by HornePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901, or necessary communication protocols as standardised by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (I-IPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance tMoCA) in order to connect to the centralised server 160. According to another arrangement of the present embodiment, the communication interface of first type can even support the main air interface of GPRS/EDGE, 3G/HSPA or 4G network cellular network or WiMAX network. For this purpose, the said communication device of first type 130/132 should have the necessary standard hardware interface and inter-connect and/or the transceiver.

Accordthg to one arrailgement of the present invention, the phone client 110 running on the communication device of first type 130/132 can connect to the centralised server 160 via any packet-switched network (e.g., private leased line) that does not have any connection to the Internet 154. On the other hand, according to one another arrangement, the connection between the phone client 110 mnniiig on 130/132 and the centralised server 160 is provided via the Internet 154.

Connecilvity to the circuit-switched network 152 is provided via a communication interface of second type and for this purpose each communication device of first type 130/132 is equipped with the necessary registered jack (RJ) or the connector plug (6F6C). This registered jack (Ri) is a standardized physical network interface -both jack construction and wiring pattern -for connecting any telecommunication equipment to a service provided by a circuit-switched local exchange carrier or long distance carrier 152. The standard designs for these connectors and their wiring are named Ri 11, RJI4, RJ2 1, RJ4S, etc. Many of these interface standards are commonly used in North America. though some interfaces are used world-wide. In other words, the communication interface of second type is used to get the said communication device of first type 130/I 32 to be part of circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network 152 such as PSTN, POTS, ISDN or the like.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a communication device of first type 130/132 supports the communication interface of first type to connect to the server 160 or to the Internet 154 on-demand and allows a first entity to get contact information pertaining to a second entity whereas the communication interface of second type being supported by the communication device of first type 130/132 enables a first enfity to establish a communication session (e.g., interactive voice/video communication) with a second entity via a circuit-switched network 152 using the fetched contact information.

According to another arrangement of the present embodiment, the communication device of first type 130/132 can dial automatically a telephone number (hardwired or user-settable number including the necessary area code and/or a country code) to connect to a centralised server 160 via a communication interface of second type on-demand and fetch a contact information pertaining to a second entity automatically if such a service is sought by a first entity before establishing a circuit-switched communication session between a first entity and a circuit entity via 152. The centralised server 160 can preferably accept such a request from a communication device of first type 130/132 via an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) server 176 as it will be explained later -in this case it is sufficient for a communication device of first type 130/132 to support only the communication interface of second type.

According to one another arrangement of the present embodiment, the communication device of first type 130/132 can be a hardware-based IP phone and uses the communication interface of first type to fetch contact information pertaining to a second entity from the centralised server 160 or the Internet 154 and to establish a communication session between a first entity and a second entity via any packet-switched network. In this case, the need for communication device of first type 130/132 to support the communication interface of second type is avoided.

The phone-client running 110 running on the communication device of first type 130/132 is configured with the network address of the centralised server 160 so that it can connect to 160 on-demand. These settings can be hardwired or settable by a user or learnt on-demand depending on how the distributed system 100 is implemented as it will be explained later.

The web-client device 140 can be used by an entity to create, activate and maintain user, service or business profile in one of the databases ISO. For this purpose the centralised server 160 takes additional web-server 168 functionality. The web-client device 140 can also be used to build one or plurality of directories (preferably tree-based hierarchical ones) pertaining to different products and services being available particularly in the commercial markets or pertaining to different entities (e.g., businesses. organisations, charities and various government bodies, departments and units including the emergency services and the like) or pertaining to people/personnel manually.

However, the centralised server 160 will have additional intelligence to build these well-structured directories/databases automatically from online resources and/or entity-specific profiles and/or have an access to already existing external databases/directories. Use of web-crawling, spidering, web scraping, web harvesting, web data extraction, search engine indexing or similar technique possibly using software agents, ants, automatic indexers, hots, web spiders. web robots or similar mechanism/tool can be utilized for this purpose.

The centralised server 160 has an access to one or plurality of databases 180 -for this purpose it has the database server 166 functionality. The database server 166 passes stored data to/from the application server 170, and manages data access as well as data recovery in case of failure. The distributed system may optionally contain a srnartphonefPDA 136 or similar device (e.g.. a tablet PC, netbook, notebook, laptop or the like) having the ability to support a comnunication interface of third type to connect a centralised server 160 in order to enjoy the same services being available to communication device of first type 130/132 such cloud-based addressing andlor directory enquiry without using any web-browser as proposed by the present invention. The communication interface of third type can preferably support the main air interface of GPRS/EDGE. 30/IJMTS/HSPA. WiMAX/WiFi. LTE, LTE-A/4G or the like. The srnartphone/PDA 136 will run a different type of phone client 110 and for this purpose 136 needs to install a purpose-built mobile application that can connect to the centralised server 160 on-demand to fetch the required contact information without having to use any web-browser.

In essence the purpose of 100 is to enable a communication device of type 130/132 (with or without help of a phone client 110 running on it) to fetch contact information pertaining to a second entity on demand when requested by a first entity from a server 160 or the Internet 154 before establishing a preferred communication session between a first entity and a second entity.

On receiving such a search request, the centralised server 160 first traces to identify where the search query originates from in terms of who originates/triggers the search query, whether the originator has sufficient privilege to use the directory enquiry or cloud-based addressing service, the capabilities and identity of the originating device and its type (e.g., communication device of first type). Subsequently the centralised server 160 will interpret the search query depending on its type -there will be different search types as it will be explained later. The centralised server 160 will then determine the physical geographical location of a first entity using different positioning techniques as it will be explained later. With this location information, the server 160 will carry out a geographically confined search (i.e.. in fact a service discovery process and for this purpose the server 160 incorporates one or plurality of service discovery protocols and algorithms) with respect to the physical location of a first entity to look for a second entity. The radius of the physical localised search can take a default value or a value as set by a first entity. This localised search can further take into account the search preferences and criteria as set by a first entity in its entity-specific profile -this will be explained ater. For instance, a first entity can opt for Product/Service Directory search (this is the search type) and on a relevant key/button on a communication device of first type 130/132 is pressed by a first entity, the phone client] ] 0 and the server 160 will map and populate the same hierarchical tree information in the same order as maintained in the relevant database/directoiy in ternm of different product/service or entity categorisation and let a first entity choose the right product/service or categorisation that a first entity is interested in. Suppose a first entity is in search of a taxi. Once received, the server 160 will carry out a localised search to identify the relevant taxi fIrms and return the search results in the required format to the communication device of first type 130/132. In case a first entity maintains an entity-specific profile with the server 160 and that has a specific search settings for taxi set-vice (for instance, a first entity is interested in taxies that provide support for a disable). it can be taken into consideration in the localised search. The server 160 may have an access to a variety of online directories and databases that are either local or external to itself and maintain standard interfaces to a variety of search engines in order to can-y out the localised search -additional explanation will be given later.

Accordingly, when a first entity triggers a search request pertaining to a second entity, the phone client 110 will contact the server 160 and send, for instance, a Service Request asking for information of first type pertaining to a second entity while passing information namely the identifier of the communication device of first type 130/132 that is used by a first entity and/or the identifier of a first entity as parameters and/or the search type and/or information of second entity. The server 160 will determine the physical location of a first entity, carries out relevant geographically confined search to get information of first type pertaining to a second entity and return it in the required format through, for instance, a Service Response.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the phone client 110 is very simple that simply passes what a user types in or inputs using a voice command for further processing by the server 160, and it is the server 160 that acts upon every user query/action in terms of carrying out required searches, filtering out and formatting the results appropnately, passing the formatted search results on to 130/132 all at once or one by one for the display on the communication device of first type 130/132. Hence, the server 160 is "thick" in terms of the intelligence, processing power, database availability it possesses whereas the communication device of first type 130/132 or the client 110 it runs is very "thin" in this respect.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, every search result containing the information of first type is formatted to hold 3-tuple information such as the name, classification and the telephone number pertaining to a second entity being queried by a first entity by default with a flexibility for users to change the constituents of the said 3-tuple information using the profile association process as it will be described later.

The distributed computing system 100 enabling the proposed directory enquiry or cloud-based addressing or fetching of information of first type on demand can be implemented based on client-server paradigm, 3-tier architecture, n-tier architecture, distributed objects, loosely-coupling, or tightly-coupling architecture. It can even be peer-to-peer although it may unnecessarily increase the intelligence of a communication device of first type 130/132. In the client-server paradigm. the phone client 110 which is preferably made out of hardware, software or a combination of both contacts the server 160 for data (both raw and formatted) and displays it to a first entity. Three tier systems move the client intelligence to a middle tier so that stateless phone clients 110 can be possible. This will be further expanded in an n-tier system that allows further forwarding of client requests to other enterprise services.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the distributed computing system 100 follows a 3-tier client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules"), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules -they can even be on separate platforms. The three-tier architecture is intended to allow any of the three tiers to be upgraded or replaced independently as requirements or technology change.

This three-tier architecture of 100 has the following three tiers namely a presentation tier (which is basically a phone client 110 and these terms will be used interchangeably), an application tier (which is basically an application server 170 and these terms will be used interchangeably) and a data tier (which is basically a database server 166 having an access to one or plurality of databases 180 and these terms will be used interchangeably). The presentation tier 110 is the topmost level of the application. The presentation tier 110 can display a search box or a hierarchical tree-based database skeleton in the same order as it is maintained by the data tier depending on the search type chosen by a first entity in the communication device of first type 130/132.

The application tier] 60 is actually a business logic, logic tier, data access tier, or middle tier. This middle tier 160 is pulled out from the presentation tier 110 and, as its own layer; it controls the overall task of fetching information of first type on demand by performing the localized search after determining the physical location of a first entity. Given that the application tier 160 maintains standard interfaces to a variety of search engines, relevant data can be pulled out of search engines on-demand in real-time in return of a search query by a first entity. The application tier 160 may perform additional data processing as it will be explained in connection with Fig. 2. The data tier consists of a database server 166 that maintains the necessary online directories or repositories. This tier keeps data neutral and independent from application servers or business logic. Giving data its own tier also improves scalability and performance. According to another arrangement of the present embodiment, the middle tier 160 may be multi-tiered itself (in which case the overall architecture is called an "n-tier architecture".

Accordthg to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the said information of first type is a telephone number along with the name and classification of a second entity and is generated as a search result in return of a search query pertaining to a second entity by a first entity. According to a different arrangement of the present invention, the said information of first type can also be made up of any contact information being used by one or plurality of communication modes or technologies such as electronic mailing (he., email address), social networking sites (SNSs) namely twitter (e.g., user-specific profile identifier), instant messaging and presence services (IMPS) (e.g., IM identifier), VoIP/V2IP services (e.g., Skype ID) or the like along with the name and classification of a second entity. According to one another arrangement of the present invention, the information of first type can include the contact number/address (e.g., tdephone number, email address or the like), locality in terms of the distance from a first entity and the pt-ice, and it can vary depending on the user search preference or settings as specified in the entity-specific profile.

On obtaining the required contact information (or the information of first S type) pertaining to a given entity, the communication device of first type 130/132 will enable a first entity to establish a communication session with another entity. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the information of first type mainly consists of a telephone number (including necessary area and/or country code) and the communication session being supported by 130/132 is an interactive voice and/or video communication session being supported/provided via a circuit-switched network. According to another arrangement of the present embodiment, the information of first type contains one or plurality of contact addresses pertaining to different communication technothgies or modes being supportedlprovided by any packet-switched network. Hence, the communication session between a first entity and another entity can be online (interactive VoTP/V2TP communication or IM) or offline (e.g., email). The email address being supported by the proposed directory enquiry or cloud-addressing system 100 can takes a standard form being made up of a cztelephone-number/profile-ID>@<preferred domain name>. As it can be seen, the name part of the email address is made up of either a telephone number or the profile identifier in case the communication device of first type 130/132 is associated with any user/entity-specific profile -this aspect will be further explained later. The telephone number is the one that is assigned to a given device 130/132 and includes the full country and area code. The (client of) instant messaging and presence services UMPS) being supported by a communication device of first type 130/132 can be tied to the telephone number or the profile being associated with 130/132.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, by foRowing the 3-tier client-server architecture, the proposed distributed computing system 100 allows the phone client 110 to display a search box or a hierarchy tree-based skeleton in the same order as it is maintained centrally in response to a search query by a first entity. Hence, the displayed content on can be very dynamic. The application server 170 can run on Java EE, ASP.NET, PHP, or ColdEusion platform. The database server 166 can be based on the database management system or RDBMS software that manages and provides access to the data being maintained in a variety of databases, directories, and/or repositories 180.

Data transfers between tiers in 100 can be based on protocols as specified by one or more of SNMP. CORBA, Java RMI.. NET Remoting, Windows Communication Foundation, sockets. UDP, web services or other standard or proprietary protocols. According to one arrangement of the present embodiment, a middleware which is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications can be used to connect the separate tiers. The data tier 166 is queried by the application server 170 when information is needed using a data retrieval language like SQL.

The distnbuted computing system 100 as proposed can be highly/tightly-S coupled distributed systems, where the phone client [00 and the server 160 are very dependent on each other. Highly/tightly coupled systems can be implemented based on distributed object technologies such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) and/or Java/Remote Method Invocation (Java/RMI). According to another arrangement, the distributed computing system 100 can be implemented based on distributed component models such as CORBA Component Model (CCM) and Enterprise Java Beans (EJB). In case the required information of first type pertaining to a second entity is not readily available in any local database 180 maintained by 160, according to one arrangement of the present invention, the server 160 on receiving a search request pertaining to a second entity may use loosely coupled web services to gather information of first type from the Internet. In this case the server 160 will operate in the capacity of a client to get the required web service.

Accordthg to one arrangement, the server 160 can preferably be part of Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF). This can be possible in the n-tier architecture described above. In addition to the use of web service, adoption of distributed object computing is also possible to get the information of first type from the Internet.

According to one another arrangement of the present embodiment, the phone client 11 0 and the server 1 60 can be part of a web services architecture or framework. This architecture thus is made up of Service Processes (e.g., discovery service). Service Description, Service Invocation and an appropriate transport mechanism to transport messages between the phone client 110 and the server 160. Service description can be handled by the Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Invoking a Web Service (and, in general, any kind of distributed service such as a CORBA object or an Enterprise Java Bean) involves passing messages between the client 110 and the server 160. SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) specifies how the requests to the server 160 should be formatted, and how the server 160 should format its responses to return the information of first type. In theory, other service invocation languages (such as XML-RPC, or even some ad hoc XML language) can be used for this purpose. However, according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, SOAP is used for the Service Invocation, whik the transport mechanism employs HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).

Fig. 1A illustrates a variety of components (both optional and non-optional) that make up the centralised server 160 or the server application 170 has an access to in order to accomplish various tasks as proposed according to various embodiments of the present invention. The centralised server 160 that takes the functionality of a coordinator is the key to the distributed computing system 100 proposed. By having much intelligence and capabilities, the centralised server 160 makes a communication device of first type 130/132 or the phone client 110 running on it very simple and lightweight -and hence very "thin" in terms of the intelligence and capabilities it needs to possess.

Terms coordinator and the centralised server 160 are used interchangeably.

According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the coordinator 160 comprises an application server 170; and the phone client 110 directly contacts the application server 170 whenever a first entity initiates any search query to get the information of first type pertaining to a second entity.

The application server 170 has an access to one or plurality of local databases comprising namely people directory, product directory. service directory, business directory or the like preferably via one or plurality of database servers 166. The database server 166 functionality forms the data tier of a 3-tier/n-tier architecture as explained previously. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the application server 170 takes an additional functionality to create and/or constantly maintain directones for various businesses, organisations, government bodies, charities, people.

products/services that are available in the market and the like using 166 in a very hierarchical tree-based manner. This is possible by accessing both online and offline resources.

Not every search query by a first entity has an answer (i.e.. in ternis of getting the required infoimation of first type pertaining to a second entity) in the directories maintained internally by the application server 170 with the help of 1 66. Under such circumstances, the app] ication serve!' 170 needs to try and get the information of first type pertaining to a second entity from external resources such as external directories or search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo and the like). For this purpose. the application server 170 can maintain one or plurality of interfaces to external directories or search engines directly or via a Service Provider or contact selector] 72. These interfaces will allow the application server 170 or the service provider/contact selector 172 to access directories or search engines via any standard or proprietary application programming interface (API).

The web directory interface 178 allows the coordinator 160 to get the required information of first type pertaining to a given entity from any external directory (e.g., people directory, business directory or the like). The Search engine interface 164 allows the coordinator 160 to get the required information of first type pertaining to a given entity from any search engine.

This is possible by using custom API (e.g., JSON/Atorn Custom Search API to retrieve and display search results from Google Custom Search programmatically) andlor web services (e.g., web services search engine). For this purpose the application server 170 can preferably employ Search-based applications (SBA) that uses any search engine platform as the core infrastructure for information access and reporting. With this, the application server 1 70 will use semantic technologies to aggregate, normalize and classify unstructured, semi-structured and/or structured content across multiple repositories, and employ natural language technologies for accessing the aggregated information. This will in turn enable sub-second access to information in multiple formats and from muldple sources (i.e., enabling multi-source information access). Further, with the Search based applications, the application server 170 can mash-up data and functionality from diverse sources (databases, Web content, user-generated content, mapping data and functions and the like).

According to one arrangement of the preferred embodiment, with the integration of Search-based applications (SBA), the application server i70 adds one dimension to the 3-tier/n-tier architecture whereby the data tier 166 can be placed behind another tier which contains a search engine and search engine index which is queried in-place of the database management system.

Queries from the application server 170 are made in the search engine query language instead of SQL. The search engine itseff crawls the relational database management system in addition to other traditional data sources such as web pages or traditional file systems and consolidates the resulis to filter out the required information of first type pertaining to any entity. This strategy of adding a search layer to the architecture stack of IOU will bring in a benefit of rapid response time and large dynamic datasets being made possible by search indexing technology such as an inverted index. This additional search engine tier can be integrated directly into the application server 170 or the service providerlcontact selector 172.

The application server 170 can preferably employ meta-search engine principles transmitting a single search query simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases of web pages and getting back results from all the search engines queried.

The centralised server/coordinator 160 can optionally integrate web server functionality 168 allowing entities to create and maintain their own entity-specific profiles containing at least entity-specific information of first type using any web client. This process will indirectly enable the building of directories pertaining to entities (i.e., people, various businesses, oiganisations, government bodies, charities or the like) and/or products/services that are available in the market and the like in a very distributed manner. The web server 168 is connected to the Internet through a firewall and intrusion detection!prevention system. The web server 168 preferably acts as a user interface for the application server 170. Access to the web server 168 can be provided to internal elements such as directory enquiry system personnel or external elements such as users/entities of 100 through an appropriate firewall and intrusion detection/prevention system.

The centralised server/coordinator 160 can optionally provide phone client adapting functionality 158 namely for providing auto-complete assistance (i.e., predictive text input). In this case the server 160 provides auto-complete facility through query predictions in the search box when the user opts for text-based search. The server/coordinator 160 and the phone client 110 will coordinate with each other to realise this operation. As and when user types in any text/alphabets. the phone client 110 will pass the typed text/alphabets on to the server 160 instantaneously and with the help of phone client adapter 158 the server 160 will return and display the predicted text/word in the search box on the communication device of first type 130/132. Text-based search for different natural languages can be made possible -this means the phone client adapter 158 should provide the auto-complete or predictive text-input for all supported natural languages as well.

In addition, through the provision of very structured directories 186, 190, 192 and the like which systematically maintain especially the information of first type pertaining to people and/or entities (i.e., businesses, organisations, charities, government departments, emergency services and the like that provide a particular product or service) and the ability of phone client 110 and the server 160 to map and display those directories in the same hierarchical order as maintained in those directories, user input is very much reduced. This will enhance the user experience as pocket-size devices, such as phone or mobile phones, currently rely on small buttons for user input. These are either built into the device or are part of a touch-screen interface. Extensive button-pressing on devices with such small buttons can be tedious and inaccurate, so an easy-to-use, accurate, and reliable directory service will potentially be a major breakthrough in the ease of their use. In addition, by associaring a user profile with 13 0/132, a directory search can be made further quick, accurate and refined with a little user input at run time.

The centralised server/coordinator 160 can enable service providers to advertise/list their services using the web server 168. This will enable the distributed creation and maintenance of directories pertaining to different product/service and/or entities (i.e., businesses, organisation. charities.

government departments, emergency service and the like).

The centralised server/coordinator 1 60 can optionally provide an additional Interactive voice response (IVR) server 176 functionality to get the search query from the communication device of first type 130/132, in case it does not have communication interface of first/third type to connect to any packet-switched network. In this case the phone client 110 is connected to the application server 170 via the IVR server 176 functionality. The IVR server 176 may also locates a caller (i.e., query initiator) from a given caller's telephone number using caller/device location database 182 andior any mobile positioning technique enabling reverse lookup of the location of a given communication device of first type 130/132. A search query can be keyword-based as opposed to directory-based and the keyword is issued using voice commands. The voice commands have to be converted to text at either the device 130/132 end or server 160 end for the server 160 to carry out geographically-confined search and return the results to 130/132. According to one arrangement the search result (i.e.. the information of first type) can preferably be in text form for a user to navigate through. According to another arrangement, the search result (i.e., the information of first type) can preferably be in voice form.

The centralised server/coordinator 160 can preferably provide an additional Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) 174 functionality allowing speech to text dictation (i.e., Speech Recognition to convert a spoken words into texts) enabling Voice Search. In this case, the phone client 110 synthesises the speech command and pass it to the centralised server/coordinator 160 instantaneously for the purpose of converting a spoken words into texts. This will enhance the user experience in terms of getting the required information of first type on time without expecting a user to either search through the hierarchically arranged directories or type in the text to be used for a search.

In order to handle user subscription, billing and account management. the centralised server/coordinator 160 can preferably have an additional authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) functionality 162. This allows entities to advertise and pay for different levels of subscription that governs how the information of first type has to be presented in terms of the order in case a search query for a given product/service results in more than one entity to be presented. Making use of the proposed directory enquiry system or cloud-based addressing system may be possible only to subscribed users and hence the same AAA functionality 162 ensures and enforces this aspect. Additionally, the server application 170 can coordinate with this AAA functionality 162 to allow only the authenticated (paid) users either to list their products and/or services in one of the directories maintained by 180 and use the directory enquiry or doud-based addressing service.

In order to carry out geographically confined search andlor provide predictive text search facility of 158 anchor ASR service andlor direct the search result to the correct device/entity, it is important for the centralised server/coordinator to determine where the search query originates from. For this purpose, the centralised server will need to identify each communication device of first type 130/132 (i.e., address individually) and the colTesponding physical location where it is configured to operate from. According to one arrangement of the preferred embodiment, each communication device of first type 130/132 has a globally unique identifier (ID) that the phone client 110 will learn automatically and pass it onto the server/coordinator 160 in one of its protocol messages. This globally unique ID can be the MAC address of the communication interface of first type 130/132. The physical location in terms of where a given communication device of first type 130/132 is configured to operate from can be learnt by the centralised server/coordinator 160 from a variety of sources. One possibility is to make use of the fixed line telephone number including the necessary area and country code that has been assigned to a given device 130/132 and to learn the location of a given device 130/132 from the fixed line caller location database enabling reverse iookup of the location of a given communication device of first type 130/132. In order to map a given communication device of first type 130/132 to a entity-specific profile maintained with the central database 180. according to one arrangement an entity/user is required to enter the globally unique ID of a given communication device of first type 130/132 at the time of profile creation. According to another arrangement, by signing in the phone client 110 using the login credentials generated after a successful profile creation and activation, the centralised server/coordinator 160 can learn who uses a given communication device of first type 130/132 to generate the search query. This is possible only when the phone client 110 is intelligent enough to provide the necessary user interface for the user to sign in and interacts with the AAA functionality 162 of the centralised server/coordinator 160 for the authenticating, authorising and accounting purposes. If this is possible. the centralised server/coordinator 160 can learn the physical location from where a given communication device of first type 130/132 is configured to operate from the user/entity profile of the owner.

According to another arrangement, the physical location where a given communication device of first type 130/132 is configured to operate from can be learnt by a phone client by prompting the user to enter the location in terms of a city, county/state, postcode/zip-code. country or the like. The gathered location information will subsequently be passed on to the centralised server/coordinator 160 for it to be maintained centrally in 180.

According to one another arrangement of the present embodiment, the phone client 110 and the centralised server/coordinator 160 can make use of Search/Retrieve Web service (SRW) in order to search and get the information of first type pertaining to any entity. SRW provides a SOAP interface to queries and to augment the URL interface provided by its companion protocol Search/Retneve via URL (SRU). SRU can be replaced by SRU VIA HTTP SOAP, where the request is encoded in XML and wrapped in some additional SOAP specific elements. The response is the same XML as SRU via GET or POST, but wrapped in additional SOAP specitic elements.

The incremental benefits of SRU via SOAP are the ease of structured extensions, web service facilities such as proxying and request routing, and the potential for better authentication systems. Queries in SRU and SRW are expressed using the Contextual Query Language (CQL).

Fig. I B shows a variety of databases, directories or repositories that the centralised server 160 or server application 170 can preferably maintain internally in order to accomplish various tasks as proposed according to various embodiments of the present invention. As it can be seen, the database consists of one or plurality of directories, repositories, mapping table and the like that maintain very structured information.

The product/service directory I 92 maintains structured information pertaining to almost all products and services that are available in the national and international commercial market -it is systematically categorised and grouped in a tree-based hierarchica' manner such that accessing the directory by the server application 170 or any component of 160 is easy and quick. The businesstorganisation/government directory 190 maintains structured information pertaining to the identities of almost all national and international businesses, organisations. government bodies, charities and the like again in a tree-based hierarchical order. The people directory 186 enhsts the identities of almost every human being that bye on this planet in a very structured way -again systematic tree-based hierarchical classification is used in the maintenance of this people directory 186 such that sorting people according to alphabetical order based on names, geographical location (e.g., street name, city, distnct, county/state, national or international level), demographics (i.e., age, gender and the like), profession and the like is possible. Similar types of sorting are possible with other directories such as 190 and 192. In addition to keeping other details, each directory 186, 190 and 192 importantly keeps the infonTnation of first type pertaining to each individual person and an entity that provides/offers a particular service or product.

As mentioned previously, individual persons or entities (i.e., business, organisation, charity. government department, emergency service and the like) can create, activate and maintain online profile centrally in the user, service or business profile directory 188. In addition to specifying his/her/its entity-specific information of first type, each person or entity can use a profile to specify his/her search settings in terms of what search critena that need to be used in case a particular search is related to a given product/service category or entity (e.g., business, people and the like) and how the search results should appear in the communication device of first type 130/132. After successfully activating an online profile in 188, a person or entity needs to logically associate a given communication device of first type 130/132 with an active online profile by way of specifying the globally unique ID of 130/132 in the profile.

The caller/device location directory 182 maintains the identities of each communication device of first type 130/132 in terms of where it is configured to operate from (i.e., physical geographical location) and/or who mainly uses a given device 130/132 in case a user/entity maintains any active profile in 188 and/or the telephone number associated with a given communication device of first type 130/132. Each communication device of first type 130/132 has a globally unique identifier which can preferably be used to identify each device 130/132. Another possibility is to use the telephone number to identify each device 130/132 and where it is physically located. The caller/device location database 182 may contain Caller Location Identification (CLI) mechanism that can be used to identify and locate a communication device of first type 130/132 that has generated a particular search query. The application server 170 or the centralised coordinator [60 can have an access to external Caller Line Identification (CLI) database and/or 182 to trace a given communication device of first type 130/132. lii case the communication device of first type 130/132 is ever connected to any mobile cellular network.

locating a given device 130/132 is possible through reference node-based positioning, cell-ID based positioning, cell of origin (COO), time of arrival (TOA) or E-TOA (enhanced time of arrival) or observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA), assisted GPS or similar mobile positioning techniques. In this particular case, the application server 170 or the centrali sed coordinator 160 can have an additional access to any caller location database maintained by each cellular operator.

The centralised server/coordinator 160 or the application server 170 can preferably have an access to relevant databases that are necessaiy for its automatic speech recognition (ASR) or computer speech recognition operation. According to one arrangement, the centralised server/coordinator or the application server 170 may maintain an internal ASR database 184 for this purpose.

The database 1 80 may optionally contain a Location/Service provider mappings directory 194 which is actually a mapping table that provides a list of service providers within a geographical locality (e.g., city, town. postcode or the like) for a specific service or product category. This additional directory 1 94 can make the query search fast if a table entry can specify whether a given service or product is available or not in a given locality. This location/service provider mapping directory 194 can be used along with 186, or 192 to expedite the search process. According to one arrangement of the preferred embodiment, one or plura'ity of database 180 can be accessible to the centraljsed server/coordinator via the database server 166.

Fig. 2 shows the exemplary front view of the basic/elementary version of the communication device of first type 130/132 allowing a user to fetch contact information (i.e., information of first type) pertaining to a different person/entity on-demand from a centralised server/coordinator 160 or the Internet before establishing a communication session according to various embodiments of the present invention. The communication device of first type 130/132 consists of an electronic visua' display panel 210 that is preferably used to get user input and output the results of a search query. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the visual display panel 210 makes use of liquid crystal display (LCD) technology that can display very elementary alpha numerals -this means that the visual display panel 210 does not have to disp'ay high-resolution graphics. This aspect will tremendously bring down the cost and capability required especially to drive the graphic module if employed otherwise. The visual display panel 210 can preferably display the tree-based hierarchy of any directory in the same order as it is maintained in one of the internal directories 186/190/192. The visual display panel 210 can preferably display a search box required for accepting text-based search.

Accordthg to another alTangement of the embodiment, the visual display S panel 210 can make use of any touch-screen technology.

The communication device of first type 130/132 has one or plurality of special keys/buttons to trigger the desired search with a press/touch of a button/key. The purposes of each key is briefed as follows: key 242 to trigger people directory search, key 240 to initiate business/organisation directory search, key 250 to trigger product directory search, key 252 to initiate service directory search, key 228 to trigger a keyword-based text search. and key 224 to trigger a voice-based search. When a user presses the key 242. the phone client 110 will coordinate with the application server 170 to map, populate and display the tree-based hierarchy in the same order as maintained in the people directory 186 in the electronic visual display panel 210. The user can use the scroll key, down/up keys, or SELECT/OK key 214 of 248 to navigate through the tree-based hierarchically organised directory level-by-level. The tree-based directory has a number of levels that represent service/product, people or entity classification. As we move away from the root to the leaves/levels of a tree, services/products, people or entities become more specific. One way of organising a tree-based people directory as maintained in 186 is exemplarily depicted in Fig. 5. Once a user has pressed the key 242, information pertaining to the hierarchy level-I as being made up of leaves 512, 514,.., 516, 518, 520, ... will be shown in 210-the user has to scroll through up and down and select a particular leave (say 516). According to the exemplary way being used to classify the people directory 186, at this level, a user will be prompted as to the criterion that can be used to base a search upon. Then level-2 will display different classification as applicable to that hierarchical-level. For instance, in this example. Level-2 being made up of leaves 522, 524, 526 will be shown and the user can navigate through different hierarchical levels (i.e., higher according the numbering of the hierarchies used in our description) until the user has either found the required person's name and got the information of first type or opt for keyword-based search -the latter aspect will be explained later. In case the size of 210 is not enough to display the information pertaining to all leaves making up a particular hierarchy-level, then each leave will be displayed one after the other and hence the user is expected to scroll up/down using the up/down scroll keys of 248.

Similarly, pressing the key 240 will enable a user to navigate through the hierarchical tree-based directory 190 that contains the identities of every business, organisation, government departments, charities. emergency services and the like at the national and international levels. Once the key 240 is pressed, the level-I information being composcd of4l2, 414, 416 418 as shown exemplarily in Fig. 4 will be displayed in 210. The leaves that make up level-I of 400 will be different if classification at this hierarchy is made based on geography, industry, organisation type/size/age and the like.

In the same way, pressing the key 250/252 will enable a user to navigate through the entire product/service directory 1 92. If the key 250 is pressed, leaves 314, 316 318 pertaining to level-2 of the hierarchical tree-based directory 300 as exemplarily shown in Fig. 3 will be displayed one after the other in 210. Again the leaves making up hierarchy-level 2 will be different, if different classification is adopted to make up the directory 300. On the other hand, if the key 252 is pressed, the entire service directory can be navigated through starting with leaves 330, 332, 338 of 300.

Text-based open keyword search is possible with a key 228. In this case, no directory will be initially mapped and populated/displayed on 210; instead a search box to accept a search text from a user will appear on 210. Also, while navigating through a particular directory such as 186, 190 or 192, a keyword-based search is possible with the press of the key 228. k this case, the scope of the search will be much narrower, when compared to a case where keyword-based search is triggered without having any relation to any directory 186. 190, 192 or the like. In other words, depending on how many levels of hierarchies a user has navigated/parsed through already, keyword-based search can become narrower with the hierarchical levels -all the navigated hierarchies as well as the user input text will be taken in to account for the keyword-based search to narrow down a given search process.

Voice search is possible with the press of the key 224. Voice search, also called voice-enabled search, allows the user to use a voice command on the communication device of first type 130/132 to search and fetch information of S first type. In return of a voice search the formatted result (i.e., information of first type) will appear on 210 -i.e., in terms of the way the search result is output and the form it takes, there is no much difference between the pressing of key 224 and the pressing of key 228. Again, voice search is possible in the middle of directory search or it can be open domain. A prerequisite for such a feature is natural language speech recognition support or Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) capability. This support can be provided either by a communication device of first type 130/132 (with or without the assistance of the phone client 110) or by the centralized server 160. If this voice search is to be supported by the communication device of first type 130/132 or its phone client 110, voice user interface (VUI) can preferably be provided to enable speech to text conversion and this means that a communication device of first type 130/132 or its phone client 110 has an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) functionality. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the voice search is possible with the word to text conversion and this is performed by the centralized server/coordinator 160 while the communication device of first type 130/132 or its phone client 110 synthesize the spoken word and pass it on the centralized server 160 instantaneously as and when spoken. The centralized server may make use of internal ASR database 1 84 or online external resources in order aid its speech recognition functionality.

According to another arrangement of the present embodiment, one search key S can be provided on a communication device of first type 130/132 instead of 224, 228, 240, 242, 250 and 252. Tn this case all possible searches that are individually provided by keys 224, 228, 240, 242, 250 and 252 are structured under a single key possibly with a search menu for a user to choose the exact search type at the user's discretion -but this process will be slightly time consuming.

An-ow and scroll keys of 248 will allow a user to navigate through either a variety of online internal directories such as 186. 190, 192 or any external directory (e.g... a phone/people/classified directory provided by a third party company) that contains very structured information at the time of querying a directory or any search result (formatted) up/downward and/or sideways.

Select/OK button 214 is used to select one search result and establish a communication session. At this stage, various options will be displayed for a user to choose the desired communication mode/technology (e.g., circuit-switched Voice/Video call, VoIP/V2IP, Instantaneous Messaging, email and the like) to establish a communication session with another entity depending on what communication mode/technologies that are supported by a given communication device of first type 130/132.

The communication device of first type has other standard input/output mechanisms such as 232 which is a modem day telephone keypad that has the appropi-iate mapping of letters to numbers. Keys 220 and 244 are off-hook and on-hook keys respectively. The menu key 230 can be used by a user to perform various phone settings.

According to the prefen-ed embodiment of the present invention, in case the size/width of the visual display panel 210 is not enough to display the 3-tuple information of first type completely in each row, each search result can move/scroll side ways automatically or with a manual pressings of the side arrow keys of 248.

If a second entity being queried by a first entity has more than one contact number, the server 160 is capable to find the appropriate number depending on the time of the day -e.g., office or mobile number during office dme, home or mobile number after office hours. In other words, context-aware contact information fetching based on the time of day (office number or home number), diary/profile settings (e.g., travel plan) of a second user/entity and dialling without a first user worrying about these is possible with the proposed system 100.

The communication device of first type 130/132 can optionally have a number of additional executive features such as different natural language support (hence 210 is able to display alphabets of different natural languages in case 210 is of elementary aphanurneric-only LCD type), an alarm clock, a calculator, a button for muting the handset, and buttons for storing and retrieving numbers and feature codes. Other features include increasing, decreasing the speaker sound or muting it. Speaker phone facility (i.e., hands free operation), settings key, divert/hold/park andlor re-dial functionalities.

According to one another arrangement, all keys 214, 220, 224, 228, 230, 232, 240, 242, 244, 250, 252 or the like of a communication device of first type 130/132 as shown in Fig. 2 can be soft keys appearing on a touch screen if 210 is wide enough and has touch screen functionality -but this feature will unnecessarily increase the cost and intelligence of a communication device of first type 130/132.

According to another arrangement of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the communication device of first type 130/1 32 can preferably have additional intercom functionality. According to this arrangement, each communication device of first type 130/132 that are physically dispersed within a small office or home (SOI-lO) or similar environment can communicate with each other using a communication interface of fourth type.

The communication interface of fourth type can support DECT, WiFi (IEEE 802.11), Blutooth/ZigBee. Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), any power-line communication as standardised namely by HomePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901, or necessary communication protocols as standardised by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance MoCA) or any radio communication technology that uses the ISM spectrum. Each communication device of first type 130/132 has special keys or generic keys that can be associated with various locations of a typical house or similar environment (e.g., sitting/bed room, conference room, kitchen/canteen and the like). Each device 130/132 has to be first registered pci location and each device will subsequently learn collectively its neighbours in terms of their addresses/identities and the locations where they are configured to operate from. This is possible with a dissemination of some protocol messages (e.g., HELLO or ALIVE packet) periodically with each other via the communication interface of fourth type. This feature will enable a communication device of first type 130/132 to provide a room-to-room calling facility with a press of a key without having to use any numeric telephone numbers or extension numbers unlike the way being used by conventional intercom facilities.

This intercom functionality can even detect the presence of a human in one end of a house or similar environment and notifies the other ends by way of illuminating different location specific keys that correspond to thcations where human presences are detected. This is possible if every communication device of first type 130/132 possibly employs any human presence detection mechanism preferably through relevant PIR, sound detection or microwave technology.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 illustrate one way of building structured directories for the purpose of holding structured information so that service discovery (i.e., search) will be carried out quickly and rapidly. Fig. 3 is an exemplary illustration of the way hierarchical tree-based database/directory pertaining to different products and services being available particularly in the commercial markets is maintained in the product/service directory 192 according to various embodiments of the present invention. This tree-information will be mapped and populated/displayed in the electronic visual display panel 210 of 130/132 in terms of the leaves that make up a given hierarchy/level chosen by a user. Fig. 4 is an exemplary iflustration of the way hierarchical tree-based database/directory pertaining to different businesses, organisations, charities and various government bodies, departments and units including the emergency services and the Uke is maintained in directory 190 according to various embodiments of the present invention. Fig. 5 is an exemplary illustration of the way hierarchical tree-based database/directory pertaining to people/personnel is maintained in the people directory 186 according to various embodiments of the present invention.

Accordingly, in a tree-based directory arrangement, the tree has a number of levels that represent service/product/person/entity classification. As we move down the tree from root to the leaves, services/products/persons/entities become more specific. Service/product/person/entity at any of the intermediate node/level indicates generic classification. These include all the actual services/products/persons/entities present below that node down to the bottom.

Fig. 6 illustrates one exemplary main profile form/window 600 that can be S used by an individual user/entity to create, activate and subsequently to maintain individual user profile with minute privacy settings according to one embodiment of the present invention. Section 640 is used to enter personal details -the owner of a profile can exercise minute privacy control in terms of who can see what content. A user can use optional part 630 to specify whether user/entity looks for any job vacancy (service seeker), has a job vacancy (service provider), is interested in dating or has any product to sell/buy/hire, availability/travel-plan (e.g., through the maintenance of an online diaiy) by completing a variety of sub-profiles. The multimedia sub-profile of 630 can preferably enable a user to specify the URLs of any cloud music service (Apple's iCloud. Google Music and Amazons Cloud) along with the login credentials, preferred Internet radios and the like in a single place. This sub-profile will enable a user to store their preferred songs. music, videos, movies and the like and/or specify their prefelTed cloud music service along with login credentials in one place (i.e., cloud Multimedia Service) and access from a single device such as a communication device of first type 130/132.

According to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, a user is able to build a music/media library with the centralised server 160 that can consists of IJRLs of other preferred Tnternet Radio Stations (e.g., Pandora) and cloud music service (Apple's iCloud, Google Music and Amazon's Cloud) along with login credentials, and use a communication device of first type 130/132 as a media player. In this arrangement, the centralised server 160 will function as a proxy media server that can perform Digital rights management (DRM), transcoding or codec conversion and port forwarding whereas a communication device of first type 130/132 will operate as a media player.

This means that server 160 will stream from one or plurality of third party media servers as indicated by a user in 630 of the user's profile, converts the codec if needed and let a phone client 1 10 or communication device of first type 130/132 re-stream and play back. This however requires the logical association of entity-specific profile with a given communication device of first type 130/132 as explained previously -one possibility of performing this is by specifying the g1obaly unique identifier of a communication device of first type 130/132 in 610.

An individual user can use 620 to specify search preferences in terms of the criteria to be used in searches and the way each search result should be displayed -minute settings are possible for different types of searches such as classified business/organisations/government directory search, classified products and services directory search, classified people directory search, and open search query using keywords on the text input field. Minute search settings are possible given that hierarchy tree-based approach is again adopted -a classicisation/window that is used in this process is similar to the one exemplarily shown in 720 and partly by 710 (e.g.. industry/classification of a entity being searched) of Fig. 7. For instance, a person interested in a car of a preferred model/type/brand/colour and the like can simply navigate through the product/service directory 192 while looking for automobiles. In this case a user has two options: i) one is to further narrow down the search by manually moving down the tree from root to the leaves, until the desired car of a given model/brand/type is found; or ii) activate search at that level probably with a press of a special button -not shown in Fig. 2) provided that a user has specified minute details like the preferred car brand, model, colour and the like in the web-based profile. The (ii) option is faster than (i) and more accurate. However, people that do not have any access to any computing device that can run a browser (e.g., a PC) or those that do not bother to maintain profiles can stifl get the required contact details by adopting (i) as stated above -but after some more rounds of navigation through the hierarchical tree-based databases. The phone client 110 simply maps and displays what is available in the central database 180.

This profile creation mechanism should also enable a user/entity to maintain a personalised address book (i.e., friend-list) with a centralised server 160 or the Internet cloud to be used by the cloud-based addressing. As described before, associating a communication device of first type 130/132 to an entity-specific profile will enable a first entity to execute a customised search and have an instant access to personalised address book being maintained with 160/170/180. These refined search settings can be narrowed down to each product/service/people! entity category -hence. minute independent search settings are possible.

Any created profile has to be finally activated using a key in 610. A successfully activated profile will be assigned a globally unique profile identifier (ifi) and/or approved login credentials. According to one anangement this way of profile creation can preferably result in the creation and maintenance of directories 186, 190, 192 (especially the people directory) and the like in a very distributed manner.

Fig. 6A illustrates one exemplary window being used by an entity to exercise/peiform minute privacy settings in terms of who else can see what content of a user/entity-specific profile according to one embodiment of the present invention. This restriction can be based on geography, demographics.

profession and the like.

Another unique feature of the proposed directory enquiry system 100 is that users are able to communicate with a total stranger without knowing the exact contact detail -this is possible via a variety of communication technologies/modes (e.g., circuit-switched voice/video call, VoIP/V2IP. IM, email and the like) depending on whether all of those are supported by 130/132. For instance, a first user can identify a second user by name, address, profession or the like using the proposed system 100 after a search and make a voice/video call to a second user using a communication device of first type 130/132 without knowing a telephone number of a second user. For this purpose, the centralised server hides the contact details depending on the privacy settings of a user/entity and establishes the necessary communication sessions seanilessly. Users/entities can use the pnvacy settings mechanism as explained in relation with Fig. 6A to indicate whether they can accept any call or communication session originated in this way by a stranger who cannot see the contact details of the former.

Fig. 7 shows an exemplary main profile form/window that can be used by an entity to create, activate and subsequently to maintain a product/service or entity-specific (i.e.. businesses, organisations, government bodies, charities, emergency services and the like) profile according to one embodiment of the present invention. The contents of 720 are dynamically populated and hence vary depending on contents of 710. The registrant of any product/service or entity-specific has to use 730 to enter some personal details as exemplarily shown in 730 before activating a product/service or entity-specific profile.

Figures 8 and 9 is an exemplary illustration of the alphabetically grouped goods/products and services respectively being available particularly in the commercial markets that make up hierarchically organised tree-based product directory according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the operational procedure involved from the time a search query is initiated to locate a particular product/service or a person/entity until a communication session is established as proposed according to various embodiment of the present invention. This procedure allows an entity/person to use a communication device of first type 130/132 to initiate a search query to get the information of first type pertaining to another user/person or another entity (e.g., business, organisation. institution, government department, emergency service, or the like) that provides a given product or service. As far as this search query is related to any product or service provider (e.g., any entity/person), the search is normal'y carried out by default to locate the provider of a given product/service in the local neighbourhood of the user that initiates it. For example. a person looking for a restaurant can trigger a search (there are different types of search being supported by the proposed system 100) and automatically find the restaurants that are near to where the communication device of first type 130/132 being used is configured to operate from. However, as explained before a user can change the default search settings through a user-specific profile.

This operational procedure starts at 1004. The communication device of first type 130/132 or the phone client 110 (or the mobile application in case of a smart-phone, PDA, tablet-PC. netbook and the like) constantly monitors in 1006 to see whether the user has initiated any search query. In 1008, it checks whether it has received any search query. If it is the case, in 1012 the search query type will be determined to see whether it is of directory search type.

The distributed computing system 100 can support namely the following S search types: a) Classified business name/directory search -to look for a given entity (business, organisation, charity, government department, emergency service and the like) by its name: b) Classified Products and/or Services directory search -to look for a provider/entity (i.e., a business, organisation, charity, government department. emergency service and the like) of a given product or service; c) Classified people directory search -to look for a person based on name, geography. demographics. profession or the like; d) An open search query using keywords on the text input field provided by the said phone client and/or using voice commands-it can be carried out as part of a directory search or independently.

The search type is instantaneously passed on to the server 160 for it to locate the appropriate directory 186, 190, 192 or the like, map and populate/display the directory hierarchy on to the communication device of first type 130/132 for a user to navigate through -this set of operations is shown by 1016. In the meantime, the server 160 or the server application 170 monitors a user's subsequent navigation attempts of a chosen directory and act upon them in terms of populating the leaves that make up a selected hierarchy level (i.e., constituents of a given hierarchical level) in the same order/classification as maintained in a chosen hierarchy. The navigation attempt will normally continue until a user has found a hierarchy level that is more specific to a given product/service or entity/person that a user is looking for or opt for a keyword-based search. Hence, at the decision-making stage 1024, it will be checked whether a user makes further navigation attempt or not. If further navigation attempts are made, the server 160 will map and populate/display the content of a given directory at the chosen hierarchical level on the communication device of first type 130/132. The server 160 (mainly the server application 170) and communication device of first type 130/132 (especially the phone client 110) will coordinate with each other to let a usei navigate through a chosen directory -this is performed at 1040.

At the decision making stage 1048, it will be checked whether a productlservice or entity/person becomes more specific -if not, the control loop of this operational procedure will move to 1024. If on the other hand, further navigation attempts are not made at 1 024, it will be further checked at 1020 whether a user opts for any keyword-based search. This can also possibly be the case when a user does not opt for any directory-based search at 1012.

A keyword-search can be text-based or voice-based, Hence, at 1020, it is further checked by a communication device of first type 130/132 and/or the server 160, whether text-based search is opted for by a user. If this is the case, a contsponding search box will he displayed on 210 of 130/132 for a user to type in a text -the set of actions that takes pace at this stage is shown by 1028. If applicable, the server 160 or the communication device of first type 130/132 can preferably provide an auto-complete assistance (i.e., predictive text provisioning to minimise the input from a user). This support needs to be (as shown at 1052) provided irrespective of the natural language chosen by a user. In this respect, the directory enquiry system 100 can preferably provide multi-lingual support.

If, on the other hand, it is determined that a user opts for a voice search in 1032, a communication device of first type 130/132 that has an additional automatic speech recognition functionality or the server 160 that has an additional automatic speech recognition functionality will perform the word to text conversion. If. on the other hand, a communication device of first type 130/132 does not have automatic speech recognition functionality, it will synthesis the voice commands and pass them on to the server 160 to recognise and perform the voice to text conversion -this set of action is shown by 1044.

Once the server 160 is sure in terms of what is looked for irrespective of whether it is a directory-based or keyword-based search, the server 1 60 will first determine the geographical location of a user that has initiated a given search query. In the keyword-based search the keyword is passed on to the server to look for a particular product/service or a person or an entity. Once the location is known at 1060, the server 160 will check whether a user has specified any search preferences for a given product/service/people/entity category being queried in terms of the criteria to be used in searches and the way each search result should be displayed by way of maintaining a user/entity-specific profile with 160 as explained earlier. This is checked at 1064. If there is a search preference for the given product/service/people/entity category being queried, they will be taken into account; otherwise default search settings will be taken into consideration.

With this information, the server 160 will carry out a personalised search (as shown in 1068) based on user settings learnt from a user/entity-specific profile or a default search (as shown in 1072) which is normally geographically confined with respect to the location of a querying user. The search can be made on the internal directories such as 186, 190. 192 or the like, external directories or any search engine via appropriate search engine APIs/interfaces. Once the information of first type is filtered out, it will be formatted based again either on a user/entity setting or on default settings.

Information of first type is formatted by default to include 3-tuple information such as <name of an entity>, <fine-granular classification/description>, <contact number>. For instance, in the case of a user looking for a restaurant, the 3-tupele information will include <restaurant name>, <restaurant>.

<telephone number of a local branch>. In this case, the information of first type pertaining to a particular product/service can be sorted based on price as set by a user (i.e., automatic provisioning of pnce-comparison service) or locality or like (or combination of many).

Once the search result is displayed in the form of information of first type on a communication device of first type 130/132, a user can navigate through the result if more than one entity meets the search criteria using scrolllup/down and side arroW keys of 248. A user can select one entity by highlighting it and make a communication session via a circuit-switched network or packet-switched network. A user's attempt to establish a communication session is checked at 1076.

As mentioned earlier, a communication session can be estabhshed using any other preferred communication technology/mode such as electronic mailing, social networking sites (SNSs) namely twitter, instant messaging and presence services (IMPS), VoIP/V2TP services or the like as long as the information of first type contains the relevant contact information such as email address, user-specific profile identifier of an SNS (e.g., twitter), EM identifier, Skype ID or the like respectively and a communication device of first type 130/132 being used by a user supports a given preferred communication technology/mode. In 1084, different options in terms of the supported communication technologies/modes will be shown by 130/132 to a user for a user to select the preferred communication technology/mode to be used to establish a communication session with a second entity. Once a preferred communication technology/mode is selected, a communication device of first type 130/132 will coordinate with the server to establish the necessary physical and logical connection between a first enrity and a second entity.

A mobfle phone can operate in the capacity of a communication device of first type 130/132 with the help of an appropriate mobile application. The mobile application can provide necessary user interface (appropriate search keys, search box, VUI) for a user to carry out a search in the same way as that is carried out with 130/132. The mobile application can contact the server 160 that can carry out geographically confined search in the same way as that is carried out as proposed earlier. The formatted result will be displayed and the user will be allowed to select and establish a communication session using any preferred technology. During the query initiation process, the mobile application performs the same functions as those the phone client 100 does.

According to one arrangement of the present invention, the information of first type can be passed on to a communication device of first type 130/132 by a server 160 in the form of Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Messaging Service (MM S) or via an email.

Claims

<claim-text>Claims 1. There is provided a communication device of first type that can form part of a distributed computing system together with a purpose-built application server; wherein the said communication device of first type allows a first entity: c) to fetch information of first type pertaining to a second entity on-demand from the said purpose-built application server or the Internet; and, d) to establish a point-to-point communication session with a second entity using the fetched information of first type; wherein a first entity can be an individual private user or a person attached to a household, organisation. business, government or the like and a second entity can be an individual person, organisation, business, government, or the like that provides any good/product or service being available in a commercia' market.</claim-text> <claim-text>2. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1; wherein the said information of first type is a telephone number along with the name and classification of a second entity and is generated as a search result in return of a search queiy pertaining to a second entity by a first entity.</claim-text> <claim-text>3. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that infoirnation to communicate according to claim 1; wherein the said information of first type can also be any contact information being used by one or plurality of communication modes or technologies such as electronic mailing (i.e., email address), social networking sites (SNSs) namely twitter (e.g., user-specific profile identifier), instant messaging and presence services (IMPS) (e.g.. IM identifier). VoIPIV2IP services (e.g., Skype ID) and the like along with the name and classification of a second entity.</claim-text> <claim-text>4. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I; wherein the said information of first type is fetched by the said communication device of first type without employing any web browser.</claim-text> <claim-text>5. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or 4; wherein the said communication device of first type falls within the general category of communication devices that are normally attached to any circuit-switched public switched telephone network (PSTN) or integrated services digital network (ISDN).</claim-text> <claim-text>6. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I or 5; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type that is used to maintain a connection between the said communication device of first type and the said application server via a packet-switched network.</claim-text> <claim-text>7. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I or 6; wherein the said communication interface of first type supports WiFi (FEE 802.11) and the said communication device of first type possessing a WiFi transceiver to connect to any WLAN access point.</claim-text> <claim-text>8. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I or 6; wherein the said communication interface of first type supports Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), any power-line communication as standardised namely by HomePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901, or necessary communication protocols as standardised by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances HPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and the said communication device of first type has the necessary standard hardware interface and inter-connect and/or the transceiver.</claim-text> <claim-text>9. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or 5; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of second type; wherein a communication session between a first entity and a second entity can be circuit-switched and is provided on communication interface of second type via a circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network.</claim-text> <claim-text>10. The said conmiunication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I or 6; wherein a communication session between a first entity and a second entity can be packet-switched and is provided on communication interface of first type via a packet-switched network.</claim-text> <claim-text>11. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I or any preceding claim; wherein the said communication session can be online (interactive voice/video communication or Instantaneous Messaging) or offline (e.g.. email</claim-text> <claim-text>12. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or 9; wherein the said communication interface of second type is used to get the said communication device of first type to be part of any circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network such as PSTN, POTS, ISDN or the like and the said communication device of first type has the necessary telephone jack and/or interconnect.</claim-text> <claim-text>13. The said conmiunication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I; wherein the said distributed computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said purpose-built application server is highly-coupled employing one of the following local component mod& technologies: a) Enterprise Java Beans (EJB); b) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA); c) Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) d) Component Object Model (COM).</claim-text> <claim-text>14. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that infonnation to communicate according to claim 1; wherein the said distributed computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said purpose-built application server is loosely-coupled employing web services.</claim-text> <claim-text>15. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that infoirnation to communicate according to claim 1; wherein the said distributed computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said purpose-built application server follows a 3/n-tier client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic (business rules"), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules.</claim-text> <claim-text>16. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or any preceding claim; wherein the said purpose-built application server additionally performs one or plurality of the following functionalities: i) web server allowing a) entities to create/maintain their profiles containing at least entity-specific information of first type; and, b) service profile creation containing at least entity-specific information of first type; ii) auto-complete assistance (i.e., predictive text input): iii) Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) allowing speech to text dictation (i.e., Speech Recognition to convert a words into texts) enabling Voice Search; iv) providing interfaces to a variety of web search engines, online repositories and directories; and, v) database server functionality for maintaining a plurality of databases; wherein the said communication device of first type operating in the capacity of a client and the said application server interacts to provide the said information of first type pertaining to a second entity in return of a search query by a first entity.</claim-text> <claim-text>17. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim I or 1 6; wherein the said search query can be in the form of text or voice and on receiving voice search commands the said communication device of first type will interact with the said ASR functionality of the said purpose-built application server to confirm the search query and to perform speech to text conversion, and get the said purpose-built application server to get the required information of first type.</claim-text> <claim-text>18. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or 17; wherein the said purpose-built application server maintains a plurality of databases namdy through the said database server functionality: i) a varieties of directories/repositories containing structured information; ii) Profile database pertaining to different entities; iii) ASR related database; iv) caller/device location database; and, v) Location/Service Provider Mapping; 19. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or any preceding claim; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising an input and output mechanism being made up of hardware and software components comprising: i) a visual display panel allowing text inputs and text outputs; ii) a set of buttons/keys to allow the following search categories: a) Classified busi ness/organisations/government bodies directory search; b) Classified Products and Services directory search; c) Classified people directory search; d) An open search query using keywords on the text input field (i.e., search box) provided by the said phone client.iii) up/downlside arrow andlor scroll keys to navigate through the search results vertically and horizontally.20. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 01 1 9; wherein the said input and output mechanism incorporates a voice user interface to enable speech to text conversion; wherein the said communication device of first type has an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) functionality.21. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 01 1 9; wherein the said purpose-built application server provides auto-complete facility through query predictions in the said search box when text-based search is opted for.22. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first typc from a server or the Internet on dcmand to use that infoirnation to communicate according to claim I or any preceding claim; wherein the said information of first type (i.e., search result) is formatted by the said purpose-built application server before being passed on to the said communication device of first type.23. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or any preceding claim; wherein the said communication device of first type can be logically associated with an entity-specific profile created and maintained in on or plurality of databases attached to the said purpose-built application server.24. The said communication device of first type that can fetch entity-specific information of first type from a server or the Internet on demand to use that information to communicate according to claim 1 or any preceding claim; wherein an entity-specific profile comprising at least search preferences in terms of the criteria to be used in searches and the way each search result should be displayed, geographic locations and personalised address book (i.e., friend-list) and associating a communication device of first type to an entity-specific profile will enable a first entity to execute a customised search and have an instant access to personalised address book being maintained with ease centrally in the cloud.25. There is provided distributed directory enquiry computing system comprising: i) a phone client running on a communication device of type; ii) a centrailsed server; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system allows a first entity to fetch contact details pertaining to a second entity on demand using the said communication device of first type from a centralised server or the Internet before establishing a communication session between a first entity and a second entity using the said communication device of first type.26. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25; wherein a first entity can be an individual private user or a person attached to a household, organisation, business, government or the like and a second entity can be an individual person, organisation, business, government, or the like that provides any goodlproduct or service being available in a commercial market.27. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type to connect to the said centralised server or the Internet as and when needed via any packet-switched network.28. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25 or 27; wherein the said communication interface of first type is provided by Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), WiFI (IEEE 802.11) Bluetooth, any power-line communication as standardised namely by NomePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901 or necessary communication protocols as standardised by the Home Phone-line Networking Alliances (HPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and the said communication device of first type has the necessary standard hardware interface and inter-connect and/or the transceiver.29. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to S claim 25; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of second type; wherein a communication session between a first entity and a second entity can be circuit-switched and is provided on communication interface of second type via any circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network.30. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25 or 27; wherein a conmiunication session between a first entity and a second entity can be packet-switched and is provided on communication interface of first type via a packet-switched network.3!. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25 or 29; wherein the said communication interface of second type is used to get the said communication device of first type to be part of any circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network such as PSTN, POTS, ISDN or thc like and thc said communication dcvice of first type has the necessary telephone jack or interconnect.32. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system is a highly-coupled distributed system employing one of the foflowing local component model technologies: a) Enterprise Java Beans (EJB); b) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA); c) Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) d) Component Object Model (COM).33. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system is a loosely-coupled distributed system employing web services.34. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system follows a 3/n-tier client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic (business rules), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules.35. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising an input and output mechanism being made up of hardware and software components comprising: i) a visual display panel allowing text inputs and text outputs; ii) a set of buttons/keys to allow the following search categories: a) Classified business/organisations/governrnent bodies directory search; b) Classified Products and Services directory search; c) Classified people directory search; d) An open search query using keywords on the text input field (i.e., search box) provided by the said phone client.iii) up/down/side arrow and/or scroll keys to navigate through the search results vertically and horizontally.36. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25 or any preceding claim; wherein the said input and output mechanisms enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches such as a people directory search and classified business name/directory or product/service search pertaining to a second entity; wherein the said directories are organised and built systematically in a hierarchical tree-based manner in one or pluralities of databases with which the said centralised server has an access via a said database server and fetching the relevant contact details pertaining to a second entity by a first entity comprising the steps of: i) on a first entity requesting a search through a said input mechanism, the said phone client contacting the said centralised server with an information as to the type of search requested; ii) the said centralised server contacting the said one or plurality of databases.and enabling the said phone client to populate information pertaining to the first or chosen hierarchy (i.e., instantaneously mapping exact hierarchy as maintained in the said databases without necessarily maintaining any local database) on the said output mechanism (i.e., a said visual display panel) in the same way as it is maintained in the said databases for a first entity to choose the next hierarchy by navigating through the shown hierarchy; iii) on a first entity requesting the next hierarchy information, the said phone client contacting the said centralised server in order to pass the hierarchy information sought and to request the population of information relevant to the chosen hierarchy as it is maintained in the centralised database; iv) the said centralised server and the said phone client following steps (ii) and (iii) until the chosen hierarchy is able to provide the contact details pertaining to a second entity as required by a first entity; v) the said centralised server determining the physical location of a first entity and carrying out a search with an intention to look for one or more entities that are of a second entity type while confining the search geographically with respect to the physical location of a first entity and/or taking into consideration user search preferences; vi) the said centralised server populating one or plurality of search results in a preferred format for the first entity to scroll through side ways and/or up/down direction; wherein the said centralised server interacts with the said phone client to map, populate and display the hierarchical database information in the same order as maintained in one or plurality of databases while allowing the said phone client to have very limited capability and capacity (i.e., very "thin") and on first entity selecting a given search result the said phone client establishing the said communication session between a first entity and a second entity.37. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25 or any preceding claim; wherein the said communication device of first type enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches using one or plurality of keywords.38. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25 or 37; wherein searches using keywords can be executed by way of text inputs.39. The said distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim 25 or 37; wherein searches using keywords can be executed by way of voice conmiands.40. There is provided a method to turn a communication device of first type through software and/or hardware solutions in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system comprising: i) a phone client running on a communication device of type; ii) a centralised application server; wherein the said communication device of first type connects to the said server via a and enables a first entity to fetch required contact infoimation pertaining to a second entity concisely with limited input without using any web-browser technology and use the fetched information to establish a communication session with a second entity via a circuit-switched network or packet-switched network.41. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to cthim 40; wherein the said communication device of first type falls within the general category of communication devices that are normally attached to circuit-switched public land mobile telecommunication network.42. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 41; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of first type that is used to maintain a connection between the said phone client and the said centralised application server via a packet-switched network.43. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 42; wherein the said communication interface of first type supports WiFi (i.e., IEEE 802.11), Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), any power-line communication as standardised namely by HomePlug Powerline Alliance and IEEE 1901, or necessary comniunication protocols as standardised by the Home Phone-fine Networking Alliances (1-IPNA) and the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and the said communication device of first type has the necessary standard hardware interface and inter-connect and/or the transceiver.44. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 41; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of second type that is used to establish a communication session between a first entity and a second via a circuit-switched fixed telecommunication network such as 2G cellular network (e.g., OSM), PSTN, ISDN, and POTS.45. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 44; wherein the said communication interface of second type supports the air interface as supported by any 20 cellular network (e.g., GSM) any hardware interface and interconnect being used to connect to PSTN, ISON, and POTS.I I I46. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directoiy enquiry computing system according to claim or any preceding claim; wherein the said communication device of first type comprising a communication interface of third type that is used to maintain a connection between the said phone client and the said centralised application server via a packet-switched network and establish a communication session between a first entity and a second via a circuit-switched network or packet-switched network.47. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 46; wherein the said communication interface of third type supports the air interface as supported by any
2.5G.3G and 4G cellular network (e.g., GPRS. UMTS, LTE. WiMAX).48. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 41; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said centralised application server is highly-coupled employing one of the following local component model technologies: a) Enterprise Java Beans (EJB); b) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA); c) Java Remote Method invocation (RMI); or.d) Component Object Model (COM).49. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 41; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said centralised application server is loosely-coupled employing web services.50. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or 41; wherein the said distributed directory enquiry computing system formed by the said communication device of first type and the said centralised application server follows a 3/n-tier client-server architecture in which the user interface, functional process logic ("business rules'), computer data storage and data access are developed and maintained as independent modules.51. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or any preceding claim; wherein the said input and output mechanisms enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches such as a people directory search and classified business name/directory or product/service search pertaining to a second entity; wherein the said directories are organised and built systematically in a hierarchical tree-based manner in one or pluralities of databases with which the said centralised application server has an access via a said database server and fetching the relevant contact details pertaining to a second entity by a first entity comprising the steps of: i) on a first entity requesting a search through a said input mechanism, the said phone client contacting the said application server with an information as to the type of search requested; ii) the said application server contacting the relevant databases, and enabling the said phone client to populate information pertaining to the first or chosen hierarchy (i.e., instantaneously mapping exact hierarchy/order as maintained in the centralised server without necessarily maintaining any local database) on the said output mechanism (i.e., a said visual display panel) in the same way as it is maintained in the said databases for a first entity to choose the next hierarchy by navigating through the shown hierarchy; iii) on a first entity requesting the next hierarchy information, the said phone client contacting the said application server in order to pass the hierarchy information sought and to request the population of information relevant to the chosen hierarchy as it is maintained in the centralised database; iv) the said application server and the said phone client following steps (ii) and (iii) until the chosen hierarchy is able to provide the contact details pertaining to a second entity as required by a first entity or a first entity is to perform an open search using one or plurality of key words at the selected hierarchy level; v) the said server application determining the physical location of a first entity and carrying out a search with an intention to look for one or more entities that are of a second entity type while confining the search geographically with respect to the physical location of a first entity and/or those search preferences as set in the user profile pertaining to a first entity; vi) the said server application populating one or plurality of search results in a preferred format for the first entity to scroll through side ways and/or up/down direction; wherein the said application server interacts with the said phone client to map, populate and display the same hierarchical database information as maintained in one or plurality of databases while allowing the said phone client to have very limited capability and capacity (i.e., very "thin") and on first entity selecting a given search result the said phone client establishing the said communication session between a first entity and a second entity.52. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or any preceding claim; wherein the said phone client will logically associate a given communication device of first type with an entity-specific profile created and maintained in on or plurality of databases attached to the said application server.53. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or any preceding claim; wherein an entity-specific profile comprising at least search preferences in terms of the criteria to be used in searches and the way each search result should be displayed, geographic locations and personalised address book (i.e., friend-list) and associating a communication device of first type to an entity-specific profile will enable a first entity to execute a customised search an have an instant access to personalised address book being maintained with ease centrally in the doud.54. The said method to turn a communication device of first type in to be part of a distributed directory enquiry computing system according to claim or any preceding claim; wherein the said communication device of first type enabling a first entity to carry out one or plurality of searches using one or plurality of keywords; wherein searches using keywords can be executed by way of text inputs or voice commands.</claim-text>