GB2521617A

GB2521617A - System and method for initiating a communication

Info

Publication number: GB2521617A
Application number: GB1322902.6A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ray O'malley
Original assignee: LOQUITUR Ltd
Current assignee: LOQUITUR Ltd
Priority date: 2013-12-23
Filing date: 2013-12-23
Publication date: 2015-07-01
Also published as: WO2015097249A1; GB201322902D0

Abstract

Initiating a communication for a caller (20) with a third party (30), comprising sending (210) a message (33) to a processing centre (80) and extracting (220) from the message (33) a requesting identifier (35), associated with the caller, and a destination tag (37). The destination tag (37) is compared (230) with a set of stored tags (39) and on matching (233) of the destination tag (37) with a member of the set of stored tags (39), the communication is initiated (240 250) with the third party (30) having the associated matched stored tag (39).

Description

Title:SystcmandIMethodkrInitiatin4aCommnr1icatic?I

Field of the Invention

[0001] The field of the invention relates to a method and system for initiating a conunurication hctcen a user and a du d par y

Background of the invention

[0002] Cyberbullying is defined as the use of information technology to harm or harass other people in a deliberate, repeated and hostile manner. Cyherbullying could be limited.

to posting turnouts or gossip about a person on the Internet and thus causing hatred in other's minds; or it may go to the eitent of personally idenfit3dng victims and publishing rratcnals eveic. dcfammg and hurnthatmg them CyherhuHtng!ccludcs, hut s not limited to, any harassment that occurs via the Internet, cell phones or other communications devices. this often occurs by sending text messages or by making obscene, hurtful or silent phone cafls.

[00031 With the increase in use of mobile phone, cyberhullying has become increasingly "0 corrrnon. e-peually among teenagen Awrnes has also nsen. due m pad o high profile cases, which include suicides.

[0004] Researchers have suggested that programs he put in place for prevention of cyherhuilying, These programs can be incorporated into school curricula and would include online safety and instruction on how to use the Internet properly. These programs could teach a victim proper methods of potentially avoiding the cyberbully, such as not responding to bullying messages or calls, informing a parent or teacher when bullying occurs or increasing the security on their computer. Some telecommunications providers enable call blocking from certain numbers. The degree of blocking depends on the teiecommumcations provider. Tlri.s protection. can be avoided by the caller (bully) using a new number that has not been blocked, [0005] Ckariy one scilut on to the proilem of c)berbull\lng ould he no to use a mobile telephone or the hnernet, There i. however, a very strong desire among parents to give their children a mobile phone as a safety device so that the children can caB if they are in trouble, There is therefore a need to have a method and system for enabling communications to be made, whilst allowing unwanted or bullying communications through calls and texts to be blocked.

[00061 There are other instances in which a caller may wish not to give his or her telephone number. For example doctors often want their patients to he able to contact them during periods of treatment, but not to have their mobile number to call at any time through the year. Schools and parents want children on school trips to be able to contact the accompanying teacher when necessary on the trip, but teachers do not want to give their mobile phone number to children when may later make inappropriate use of the teachers phone number. SimBarly users of data sites may not wish to exchange telephone numbers at an early stage of their friendship.

100071 European Patent Nr. EP 1 466 466 (Hauglum, assigned to Scandinavian Mobile ieclrn&ogy) teaches a method for connecting telephone calls in which a user sends, using a text4,ased message servce, information to an operator centre. The operator centre uses the rntorrnation to identify a destination telephone Tmmher and a caB is connected between the user and the desired destination indicated by the destination telephone number. The operator centre includes an operator centre database having a customer pro.file base for customers having acquired from the operator a right to a telephone domain name. The users send the information to the operator centre via an operatir centre short code to that the message can be routed by a local exchange to die operator centre. [he operator centre searches the operator centre database for the desired domain name and the corresponding destination number, The operator centre calls the destination number and establishes the connection.

[0003] The system and method of the EP 466 are suitable when the destination is interested in receiving any call from any customer. However, the system and method does not enable a "block" to he placed on calls so that unwanted calls are not received.

Summary of the Invention

[00091 A method tot initiating a communication with a third party is described. The method comprises sending a message to a processing centre, extra etthg from the message a requesting identifier and a destination tag, comparing the destination tag with a set of stored tags and, on matching of the destination tag with a member of the set of stored tags.

initiating the communication with the third party having the associated matched stored tag.

This method ensures that the communication is only initiated, if both parties are in agreemer.fl with the corrununication.

[00101 In one aspect of the disclosure, the account balance is check after extraction of the requesting identifier prior to comparing the destination tag with the set of stored tags. This enables the communication. to be i.ntiated only if sufficient credit haiance is present.

[0011] A system for the management of a communication is also described. The system comprises an interface for acceptance of incoming messages, a database comprising a set of stored tags and associated destination numbers. A processing centre is connected to the interface and the database and is adapted to receive incoming messages and. extract a destination tag from the incoming message. The processing centre compares the extracted destination tag ith the set of stored tags in the database to identify an associated destination number. A communication device is adapted to receive the associated destination number and a requesting identifier and to initiate a communication between the associated, destination number and. the requesting identifier.

10012] A database is provided which comprises a set of stored tags and associated destination numbers as well asaset of reachable ones of' the stored tags for an individual user.

Description of the figures

[0013] Fig. I shows an overview of the system of the msclosure.

[0014] Fig. 2 shows a flow dia'am for initiation of a communication.

[0015] Fig.3 shows a flow diagram for the creation of an account, [00161 Fig. 4 shows a. flow diagram for the storage of a tag.

[00171 Fig. S shows an example of a database.

Jo Detailed description of the invention

[0018] [he invention wifl now be described on the basis of the drawings, it iiI he understood that the embodiments and aspects of the invention described herein are only exampes and do not limit the protective scope of the dairns in any way. The invention is Is defined by tile claims and their equivalents. It will be understood that features of one aspect or embodinient of the invention can he combined with a feature of a different aspect or aspects andior embodiments of the invention.

0019] Fig I shows an example of the system fot the managemeir of a tonunumcation between a user and a third party. The system 10 comprises a processing centre 80, which is connected to a database 70, an interface 6 to a telecommunications system and a communications device 90, which is also connected to the same or another telecommunications system.

[0020] The database 70 comprises a set of destination tags 37 and associated destination numbers 38, as well as other inrmation that will be detailed later. Each one of the destination tags 37 can he associated with one or more destination numbers 3. In one aspect of the system there is a onetoone match between the destination tag 37 and the destination number 38. In other words, each one of the destination tags 37 is associated only with a single one of the destination numbers 38.. In another aspect of the invention, the destination tag 37 could he associated with a plurality of destination numbei 38 in a one-to-nrniw relationship.

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[0021] The system 10 also has an accounting device 100, which stores credit values for users of the system it), enaMes payments from hank accounts, credit cards or cash payments as well as calculating costs of the communication and debiting the communication costs from the stored credit values.

[0022] Figishowstwo users with mobile stations 20 and 30 who are both signed up to use the service provided by the system 10: Details of how to sign up to the service are given later in this descriptIon. A first user with a first mobile station 20 wishes to communicate %ilh a second user with a second mobile station 30 using a destination tag 37 to provided by the service and not by using a regular telephone number. The mobile stations and 30 can be one or more of a mobile telephone, srnartphone. tablet or computer. The mobile stations 20, 30 are connected to a telecommunications network (but not necessarily the same one of the telecommunications networks) and can transmit messages 33 from the mobile station to the interface 60. The mobile stations 20, 30 have a display 17 and an input device 18 for inputting data.

[002 fl In one aspect of the uhclosare the riescages 33 wnt from the rst n,ohfe station comprise a requesting identifier 35, an (optional) operand 36 and the. destination tag 37 reia1ng to the second user. The requesting identifier 35 is an identifier associated with the user's mobile station 20. This requesting identifier 35 can he supplied, for example, using the caller-line identification (CU) feature provaled in. tekconununicauons protocols.

Altematively, the requesting identifier 35 can be anottier alphanumeric set of characters deutifying the caller, [00241 The optional operand 36 can indicate, for example, whether a telephone call is being attempted or a text message is being sent Foi example the opeiand th piecedwg the destination tag 37 indicates that the text message is to be sent to the second user ideniifled by the destination tag 37. as will he explained Iatr, .A lack of the operand 36 indicates that the telephone call, should be initiated. Other operands 36 can he introduced. For example a :30 "±" operand. indicates that the destination tag 37 should he added and "" operand indicates that the destination tag 37 should be deleted, [0025] The destination tag 37 indicates the second mobile station 30 with which the first user of the first mobile station 20 wishes to conununicate. i'he con.uriunication can he either by a voice call or by a text message (SMS or MMS). hut the fbrm of the communication is not limiting of the invention, [0026] Fig. 2 shows a flowchart ot the initiation of a conirnunication between the first mobile station 20 and the second mobile station $0. The first mobile statlon 20 sends a message 33 in step 210, which is received at the inierthee 60 of the system 10. The interface 60 passes the received message 33 to the processing centre 80 in step 220. The io requesting identifier 35 anu the destination tag 37 are extracted from the message 33 at. the processing centre 80. This is done by parsing the received message 33. The processing centre go compares in step 230 the requesting identifier 35 and the destination tag 37 with the data in the database 70 in order to see whether the first mobile station 20 is authorised to connect to the second mobile station 30 and whether the second mobile station 30 is empowered to connect to the first mobile station.

[0027] Shoud the comnarison in step 233 indicate that no connection can he made between the requesting identifier 35 and the destination tag 37, then an error message 33e, I to canz, is tenant d in tep 216 to the tnohoe otatlor 20 I e eror nesage 3e states, for example, that the first mobile station 20 has tried to contact the second mobile station idei.iti.fied by the destination tag 37 at.id this destination tag 37 is not in their List of valid destination tags 37. This could mean that no tworway communication has yet been validated (ir has been withdrawn) or that. the destination tag 37 is invalid, unavailable or similar. The error message 33e should not generally state that the connection may not he made or isfDrhidden.

[0028] A check is rnad.e of the account balance in the accounting device in step 23 1 and if the credit for a communication is insufficient (or at least below a threshold value), then an accoun.t balance message 33a can. he sent to the first mobile station 20 to indicate that there is insufficient credit in the accounting device 1 00. The user can then initiate a credit transaction to increase the amount of credit. [his could he. by purchase of a voucher or direct debiting from a bank account or credit card.

[0029] Should the comparison in step 230 be positive and the database 70 indicate that a connection between the destination tag 37 and the requesting identifier 35 is possihe, then the destination number 38 associated with the destination tag 37 is extracted from the database 70 in step 240.

[0030] The communications device 90 initiates a communication between the first mobile station 20 and the second mobile station 30 in step 250 using the destination number 38.

The communication can be in the fhrm of a telephone call!nftiated by the communications o device 90 between the first mobile station 20 and the second mobile station 30.

Alternatively the communication can be in the form of' a text message using, br example, the SMS or MMS protocols. Should the second mobile station be unavailable as tested in step 260 then an unavailable message 33u is sent in step 270. Otherwise communication is established in step 280. It will be noted that bathe first mobile station 20 and the second mobile station 30 can be programmed only to receive calls and text messages from the conimumcations device 90 and not from any other telephones or other communications devices.

[0031] The accounting device 100 Will generally be contacted prior to establishing the communication to see whether the first user has sufficient hinds to pay for the telephone call or delivery of the text message. The accounting device 100 can initiate a debit of a bank account or credit card or request a top up of hinds as and when required. In one alternative or additional aspect of the invention, the second user may indicate that he or she is prepared to pay thr incoming communications. In this alternative or additional aspect of the invention, the accounting device 100 will dheck the account balance of the second user prior to initiating the telephone call or fbrwarding the text message.

[0032] The message 33 could he either in fonn of a text message such as an &MS or an MMS or carried out by using a series of codes in the USSD protocol. It would also be possinle to u',e a graphical user mteiface if the first mobile station 20 is a srrartphone, tablet on nersojal computer In this case an appication on the mobile \t4tio n 20 ould send [he message 33 through a graplucal i ser interface or aiteniatnely a hracer coula connect to a graphical user interface provided by the system i0 The message 33 could also include text tbr the text message in the communication. Other communications coud he by instant message, voice over IP, or email.

[90331 Fia 3 shows an example of th.. flowchart at the iegistrauon at the first inobilt station 20. It will be noted tha.t both the first rnobie station 20 and the second mobile station 30 will need to be registered with the system 10 and. details stotul in the database 7c) before the con'mumation can he cst3hhshed 5ctcen the first mobile %tatlon 20 and the second mobile station 30. The registration needs to be done individually for each mobile Jo station, but it would be possible for one user to set up both the first mobile station 20 and the second mobile station 30. For example. a parent may chose to set up a child's mobile station at the same time as setting up their own mobile station.

[0034] In a first step 310. the user registers his or her mobile station 20 with the system 10. This registration process may he cairied out using a browser on a computer or on the mobile station 20, 30 to pcrfinn the registration ncess, or alternatively the registration process may he initiated by sending an initiafisalion message 33i to the system 10 using the mobjie station 20, 30,A further verification step can he carried out if the registration process is earned out by using a browser. The user will he asked to provide the CLI of the mobile siaflon 20 being registered and to add an email address and a verification message with a PIN (e.g. a text using the SMS service or the MMS service) will be sent to the mobile sta ion 20, The user will be prompted through the browser to enter the PIN into the browser. The registration process will fail if the PIN is entered incorrectly or not entered within a certain period of time.

[0035] The initialisation message 33i will have the format "Destination'l'ag [space] EmailAddress" and the initialisation message 33i will be recoised as a request to register the mobile station 20, o [9016] 1 he iser then choses a unique ch'cnrat on tag 7 tat is typically made up ot aiphanumenc characters. The destination tag 37 is associated with the requesting identifier of the mobile station 20. The destination tag 37 is unique, but can have a nickname associated with the destination tag. The nickname is only known to the mobile station 20 and is also stored in the database 70. For example, a tag JohnSmithl 970 could he chosen to indicate John Smith (horn in 1970) and is unique to the database. 70. John Smith may also be a father and thus the nickname dad' could be associated with the destination tag JohnSmithl9/0. The tnohi].e station 20 could initiate a communication with the first mobile station 20, belonging to a son or daughter of John Smith, by either using the destination tag JohnSrnith 1970 o e t sing the nij,.nanic thd [0037] The uniqueness of the destination tag 37 as well as whether the us er (or at least jo the user's recuesting identifier 35) is checked in step 330 and, if this the destination tag unique and the requesting identifier 35 is not already present, then the destination tag 37 is stored in the database 70 in step 340. Checks can be carried out to ensure that the destination tag 37 is dissimilar from another tag or that common letters or simple alternatives, such as rearrangement letters and mistypes will also be checked to reduce the chance of errors occuring. An error message 33e can. he sent if the requesting identifier 35 is already present. This could happen, kr example, when phone numbers are reissted or another user uses the same mobile station 20.

[0038] In one aspect of the disclosure more than one number can be associated with each one of the destination tags 37. For example the destination tag 37 may have a number associated with John Smith's mobile telephone number during the day and John Smith's home telephone number at night.

[0039] Fig. 4 shows an example in which the user of the mobile station 20 can indicate those people from whom lie or she wishes to receive communications. In a first step 410 the first user receives the destination tag 37 of a new correspondent, eg. the second user.

This can be done verbally (e,g, "my tag is johnsniith"l. The first user sends the newly received destination tag 37 to the system 10 in step 420 using either the graphical user interface andlor the text message 33. The text message 33 can use the operand "-F" to identify that the text message 33 is for adding a new destination tag 37. The processing centre 80 receives the destination tag 37. as well as the requesting identifier 35 and passes the information to the database 70. The database 70 will therefore store, at least, the requesting identifier and the associaS destination tag 37 in step 420 and thus enable eomnwn.catons to be initiated to the first mobile station 20 indicated by the destmaaon tag 37. The first mobile station 20 can then add to the database 70 using the message 33 and/or a graphical interface those destination tags 37 from which the user of the first S mobile station is prepared to receive communications. The user of the first mobile station does not have to know the associated telephone numbers or identifiers.

[0040J The newly added destination tag 37 is kept in a list of pending tags until the iser associated with the newly added destination tag 37 autborises communications, for 0 exanple by also adding tc flist mobile stanon 20 to their list 01 desnnatiun tags 37 I he list of pending tags can be viewed through the browserS 0041] It s extremely easy for the user of fle mobile taton 20 to remove o c of the destination tags 37. if he or she no longer wishes to receive communications from the is person using the identified second mobile station 30 A message 33 is sent to the processjriu centre, for example with the operand 36 "-", 80 to instruct the database 70 to remove link authorising the communication, Parents can, however, ensure that the link.

between their mobile telephone and a cinid.s mobile telephone is not removed.

[0042] Fig. 5 shows an example of the data item 39 in the database 70 including typical fields that are generated. The authorised destination, tags 37 (and also pending destination tags) are stored in field 510. The destination number 38 is stored in field 52C. It was rioted above that there may he more than one destination number 38, [0043] The database 70 also includes an email address in field 530 (possibly the postal address) as well as a password in field 540, The password is set up using the usual password validation mechanisms.

[0044] The aatabase 70 includes in field 550 the cicdn l'alnee, which s tecewed fern the accounting device 100.

[0045] The contact list 560 lists aH of the destination tags 37 which are authorised to make the communication with the user of [he d.aEa item 39.

[0046] Field 570 includes a list of calls and field 50 includes a list of SMScs that are made by the accowit holder, The payment history as well as bank account or credit card details can be included in 590.

Reference Numerat System Mobile station 17 Display 18 Input device User's mobile station Other mobile station 33 Message 33e En'or message 33i hiitialisation message 33u Unavailable message Requesting identifier 36 Operand 37 Destination tag 38 Destination number 39 Data items Interface Database 80 Processing centre Communications device Accounting device

510 Destination Lag field

520 Edentifier field

530 Email address field

540 Password field

550 Credit balance field

560 Contact UsE 570 List of calls 580 ListofSMS 590 Payment history