ITMI20131751A1 - METHOD AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFICATION OF THE TELEPHONE OPERATOR OF A MOBILE OR FIXED TELEPHONE NUMBER - Google Patents

Description

"METHOD AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING THE TELEPHONE OPERATOR OF A MOBILE OR FIXED PHONE NUMBER"

DESCRIPTION

Field of application of the invention

The present invention refers to an electronic method and system for identifying the telephone operator of a mobile or landline telephone number.

State of the art

The identification of the telephone operator to which a mobile or landline telephone number is attested assumes technical relevance in the factual situation that has recently arisen, in which it is no longer possible to uniquely recognize this operator based on the simple analysis of the number.

The techniques currently available to know the operator of a mobile or landline telephone number are manual and empirical, such as the following:

- Make a call directly to the telephone number and ask the person who answers who is the operator of his telephone line;

- Make a call to your operator to find out if the mobile phone number to be identified is attested to a specific operator. Some operators provide this service by calling a service number, called “tariff transparency”, for example by putting a prefix on the number itself and making the call;

- Empirically decide that the number prefix is attested to a given operator.

In the first case, the information obtained by calling the person and asking directly, may or may not be correct, based on the person's good faith and knowledge.

In the second case, the information obtained from the service of your operator can be exhaustive (ie indicating the exact telephone operator relating to the specific number) or only partial (ie indicating whether it belongs to the same operator operating on your terminal or not). It is not possible to know in advance whether the information will be exhaustive or partial because it depends on mutual cooperation agreements between your operator and the operator of the specific interest number.

In the third case, given the large number of people who decide to change telephone operators while keeping the same telephone number, the information on the area code is currently not very reliable and is destined to be less and less reliable. Therefore, the technical need arises to have a system for the automatic identification of the operator, which makes this identification fast and reliable.

Summary of the invention

Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to propose a method and an electronic system for identifying the telephone operator of a mobile or landline telephone number, aimed at overcoming all the aforementioned drawbacks.

An aim of the invention is to propose a method and system that automatically allows this recognition. The subject of the present invention is a procedure for identifying the telephone operator of a mobile or landline telephone number, comprising the following steps, managed through a management system:

- populate and update a first database with indications of telephone number and operator by authenticated users; - populate and update a second database with telephone number and operator information provided by telephone operators;

- populate and update a third database with operator identification information obtained through automatic telephone calls to operator identification services provided by said operators;

- search for said mobile or landline telephone number with information on the relative operator in said first, second and third database associated with an assessment of a degree of confidence above a threshold;

- in the event of a positive evaluation, identify said operator as a telephone operator;

- in the event of a negative evaluation, making comparisons between information in said third database and information obtained from recordings of telephone calls made with said mobile or landline telephone number to said operator identification services of said operators, each of said comparisons being associated with a evaluation of the degree of maximum similarity;

- identify as the telephone operator the one associated with the call that generated the greatest number of said evaluations of the degree of maximum similarity (Similarity_MAX), if any.

An electronic system for the implementation of the method is also the subject of the present invention.

A particular object of the present invention is an electronic method and system for identifying the telephone operator of a mobile phone number, as better described in the claims which form an integral part of this description.

Brief description of the figures

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become clear from the following detailed description of an example of its embodiment (and its variants) and from the annexed drawings given purely for explanatory and non-limiting purposes, in which:

Figure 1 shows a general functional block diagram of the method object of the present invention;

Figure 2 shows a more detailed operational flow diagram of a first part of the diagram of Figure 1;

Figure 3 shows a circuit diagram of a device adapted to be applied to a mobile phone for the implementation of a part of the method;

Figure 4 shows a more detailed operational flow diagram of a second part of the diagram of Figure 1.

The same reference numbers and letters in the figures identify the same elements or components.

Detailed description of examples of realization

The electronic system includes a server (serverONS) which is adapted to receive an input number for which you want to know the operator and return the operator's identification information with a certain degree of reliability.

The system includes cooperating functional blocks designed to identify the operator, based on the following operations:

1) connect locally, for example via wifi, or IP network, to some devices, such as mobile phones or terminals, equipped with a dedicated hardware / software system, to have these devices dial the number of the identification service prepared by their operator, analyze the audio response and identify the operator;

2) receive operator identification information from the ad hoc application installed on the user's phone that allows you to specify your phone number and the operator you belong to;

3) connect to the operators database to check if that number belongs to the operator questioned or not.

More in detail, with reference to Figure 1, the system object of the invention includes a hardware / software platform with a server station and IP connections, and includes the following functional blocks:

- Block 11 (Number Input): this block offers an interface that allows you to receive the number to be analyzed for identification of the operator to whom it is attested. The number can be communicated by a user requesting the information or by a communicating electronic system

- Block 12 (Number Search): searches for the operator of the desired number using three different databases, with their search system, which will be described in greater detail below:

- Database 14 (DB User Based), with connected populating and updating system 17 (User Based System): allows users authenticated on the platform to spontaneously declare their number and operator; - Database 15 (DB Operator), with connected populating and updating system 18 (MNO System): searches the operator for a number by interfacing with the operators' systems and databases, with which a connection and dialogue is established;

- Database 16 (DB 456), with connected comparison and resolution system 19 (456 System): searches for the operator for a number by automatically calling a special service called "tariff transparency" of the various operators existing in the caller's territory;

- Block 13 (Operator, Confidence): communicates the result of the search to the requesting user or system, keeping track of it.

In a non-limiting example, the system is implemented at the software level using the Java language. The system includes a web-application that resides on a J2EE application server (for example Apache Tomcat), a relational database (RDBMS) and a standalone application that can be run on devices with a suitable operating system, for example Android, capable of performing phone calls on the mobile network.

The functional blocks of Figure 1 are described in greater detail below.

In block 11 (Number Input) the input number to be analyzed is communicated to the system server through an HTTP-type procedure, through the HTTP POST method. For example, the number is communicated without spaces and with an international prefix in the variable "number". For example, for an Italian mobile number: number = 00393281234567, an example of a line of code is:

http: //serverONS/input.foxsim? number = 00393281234567

The system server analyzes the incoming number and performs operations to check that it is a valid number, in particular for example for a mobile phone in Italy:

- that the international prefix is Italian (0039);

- that the digit after the international prefix is "3"; - that the figures are 14.

If the check is successful, you go to the next phase (block 12 - NumberSearch), otherwise an error message is returned consisting of the number and an XML message that contains:

<number> number </number>

<result> <error> not valid </error> </result>

In this case the applicant is asked to re-enter the number to be analyzed.

In block 12 (Number Search), the operator search for the desired telephone number is performed.

First it checks if the number is present in each of the three databases 14, 15, 16 above defined, for example with an SQL query.

In an embodiment example, for each table in database 14 (DB User Based), but in an equivalent way in databases 15, 16, search for whether operator and date exist:

SELECT Operator, Data FROM DB_UserBased WHERE Number = ”number”;

If the outcome of the research is positive then:

DAYS_30_IN_MS = 2592 000 000;

difference_in_ms = date.getTime () - date_DB; // difference in ms

confidence = (DAYS_30_IN_MS - difference_in_ms) / DAYS_30_IN_MS;

That is to say, it calculates the difference in number of days, between the current date and the one in which the data was entered in the database. This difference has a positive value, if the data was created in a day that compared to the current date is lower than a threshold of previous days, for example 30, otherwise negative. Then it calculates a “confidence” value given by the ratio between said difference and the threshold.

If the "confidence" is greater than zero, block 13 outputs a tuple <number, operator, confidence> with greater "confidence", that is to say with a higher value, considering the data with greater temporal proximity to today's date to be more reliable. The process is finished.

If the result of the search is negative or if a tuple with positive confidence has not been found in the three databases, then a further search is started on the systems of blocks 18 (MNO System) and 19 (456 System).

Through the populating and updating system 17 (User Based System), the system allows a user, following authentication, to communicate their telephone number and the operator used. The communication can be made through a form on a website or through an application resident on the mobile phone, preferably of the smart-phone type.

The tuple number, operator, date of insertion, is inserted in database 14 (DB User Based), and is used to respond to requests concerning that specific telephone number.

The population and update system 18 (MNO System) allows interconnection with any services offered by telephone operators for consulting their databases regarding whether a telephone number belongs to its user base.

The interconnection between MNO System 18 and the operator's system can be achieved with methods developed ad hoc, or thanks to interfaces that operators offer on their website.

The interconnection request is made at the service of the operator.

For example, in the case of the Italian operator TIM, with a GET request the response page is analyzed (for the example Java code, refer to http://hc.apache.org/httpclient-3.x/tutorial.html ):

https://www.119selfservice.tim.it/selfcare/public/vfn/exe cute.do?custcode=3281234567

and then the body of the response is analyzed to find if the line belongs to the TIM operator or not:

<strong> The line <span class = "color_blue"> 3281234567 </span> is not TIM </strong> </p>

By analyzing the string "it is not TIM", it is possible to determine whether or not the number belongs to the TIM operator.

Any positive information is entered in the DB Operator 15, with the current date, otherwise it is thrown away as it is not interesting.

The comparison and resolution system 19 (456 System) makes it possible to exploit the response of the defined tariff transparency service provided by the various operators existing in the caller's territory.

This system is described below in its functional blocks, with reference to Figure 2.

In block 21 (Number Input) the number to be analyzed is input with a procedure equivalent to that described for block 11 of fig. 1.

In block 22 (Data acquisition) the interconnection of a series of certain terminals is implemented, for example mobile devices (cell phones) 23 through the TCP / IP network. The server-type computer on which the system is installed is located in the same IP network as the mobile devices (mobile phones) 23, in order to contact mobile phones via IP, for example via WiFi network or remotely.

In the example described here, each mobile phone is equipped with a telephone subscription attested to an operator other than that of the other mobile phones, so the number of mobile phones 23 is at least equal to the number of mobile operators existing in a given territory, for example Italy.

These mobile devices (cell phones) 23 are equipped with the following characteristics:

- ability to make calls on the mobile network;

- connection to the IP network (via WiFi or 3G, LTE,….);

- Android operating system with version 2.3 or higher, or other operating system with equivalent characteristics that allows you to install and run applications;

- jack for connecting external headphones / microphone;

- installation of a dedicated software application “456 Application” described below;

- installation of a dedicated hardware device “456 Hardware” described below.

As regards the dedicated hardware device "456 Hardware", it must first be noted that in many countries the audio recording of telephone calls is prohibited between two normal interlocutors, unless after having obtained the interlocutor's consent. For this reason, the operating systems of mobile devices have completely disabled this function at the software level; therefore the need arises for a hardware device that allows you to record a call with the microphone of the phone itself.

With reference to Figure 3, an example of embodiment of the dedicated hardware device "456 Hardware" is described, suitable for allowing the recording of a call with the microphone of the telephone itself.

The hardware device includes a 4-pin 3.5mm jack, adapted for insertion into the audio input (headphones / microphone) of the phone. The pins of the jack are connected to each other by current dividers in order to direct the received audio signal towards the microphone input.

This device has been made as shown in the diagram, with the possibility of inverting PIN3 with PIN2 in order to be compatible with all telephones on the market. For example PIN4 is mass, PIN3 or PIN2 (depending on the type of mobile phone) audio channel, PIN1 microphone.

The current partitions are made by means of resistors, in a non-limiting example of 100 kΩ and 30 kΩ values, or of different values as long as they maintain a similar proportion between them (for example 200kΩ and 60kΩ).

There are possible alternatives of construction to the device of figure 3, however alternatives that require an external voice emission also significantly reduce the quality of the recording.

As regards the dedicated software application "456 Application", installed on the mobile phone, it is software for mobile phones with an Android operating system or equivalent. When started it remains running on the mobile phone (through the CommandServiceActivity and MyService functions) and launches a service for receiving commands (CommandListener) on TCP / IP port 6789 type.

With reference to figure 4, a flow diagram of the functional blocks of the “456 Application” application is described below.

For each mobile phone, the 456 Application after startup registers itself (block 41) on the server of the comparison and resolution system 19 (456 system), communicating its status and IP address. This is done through an HTTP call to the server listening on port 8080 of the server itself (block 42) with the following information:

- IP address of the network interface;

- Operator of the card inserted in the telephone;

- Telephone status (free, busy).

In an example of a call instruction: http: //serverONS/input456.foxsim? IP = 10.10.10.10 & op = TIM & st ato = free

The 456 Application then receives a response from the server. If positive it remains in free state and listening (block 43) for calls through the CommandListener, on TCP / IP port. If the answer is negative, the application repeats the call at regular intervals, possibly increasing progressively, until the server is free.

In the following operation, for each mobile phone, the 456 Application receives from the server a string containing the telephone number to call (for example: number = 4563281234567), on TCP / IP protocol, on port 6789. Then it changes its status to busy ( block 44) and:

- make a call (with the Caller method that starts the ActionCall), block 45, to the operator to whom the mobile phone is connected;

- starts a timer which determines the duration of the call, for example 15 seconds, block 46;

- start recording (with the AudioIn method), block 47 - after 15 seconds the timer calls EndCallListener which closes the call;

- sends the registration to the server with an HTTP 8080 call (block 48) with:

- telephone number called;

- telephone card operator;

- Audio Recording;

- if it receives a positive response from the server, it goes into free status; - otherwise retry the POST call after 10 sec and continue until it has a positive response. After that it goes into free state.

In block 24 (Audio File, Operator), Figure 2, at the end of the process described above, for each cell phone 23 equipped with "456 Application", and which made the call, the result on the server is a tuple consisting of:

- recorded audio file of the response of the 456 service (audio_rec);

- the operator who generated the recorded response;

- the telephone number called.

The server then registers a corresponding series of tuples with the above data.

In block 25 (Audio Comparison), the next step consists in classifying the response received from each telephone.

To do this, a comparison algorithm is used which compares, for each tuple, the recorded audio file with respect to a file library previously created for the specific operator (block 26 Audio File Library).

Below is an example of creating the file library for operators, in the non-limiting case of mobile phone numbers.

When the system is initialized, the following procedure is performed for each operator.

N cell numbers were called whose operator they belonged to, for all N operators in the territory considered, for example Italy, using the Data Acquisition process (block 22) previously described.

The process was repeated for all N operators.

Therefore for each opx∈ N operator (first column of the following table), N audio files have been obtained (respective rows of the table), each corresponding to the answer if the number belongs to a specific opy operator. To these were added the answers if the service was not available and if the number sought was not a mobile phone.

Sched Audio file library

a in the Out of Number not op1op2… opNtelef cellular service

or not

op1AudioLib AudioLib1_ AudioLib AudioLib… AudioLib 1_fs nocell 1_1 1_2 1_N op2AudioLib AudioLib2_ AudioLib AudioLib… AudioLib 2_fs nocell 2_1 2_2 2_N…………………

opNAudioLib AudioLibN_ AudioLib AudioLib… AudioLib N_fs nocell N_1 N_2 N_N Subsequently, in operation, the tuples of the series obtained from the data acquisition process are analyzed. In particular, each audio file (audio_rec) of the series of tuples is compared with the audio files (AudioLib) of the library that correspond to the specific phone card.

The method for the comparison is of a known type, which is based on spectrogram analysis, for example as provided by Google: MusicG https://code.google.com/p/musicg/

In particular, each audio file of the “audio_rec_opx” tuple (with x ranging from 1 to N) is compared with the AudioLibX_Y files (with Y ranging from 1 to N) and with the AudioLibX_fs and AudioLibX_nocell files.

The comparison is performed with the method performed with the AudioLibX_Y.getFingerprintSimilarity (audio_rec_op_X) code;

The result is compared on all Y's and only the one with maximum Similarity is kept. If the similarity is maximum for several values, they are saved.

At the end of the process you get a table as follows:

Sched Number sought: 3281234567

a in Out of Num op1op2… opN

telefone servants or not

ono uncle cellu

lare

op1Similarity… Similarity _MAX _MAX

op2Similarity ...

_MAX

... Similarity ... ...

_MAX

opN… Similarity

_MAX Then select the column with more Similarity_MAX: the operator for that number is represented by the column operator who collects multiple rows with Similarity_MAX.

At the end, block 27 (Operator, confidence), the operator found with maximum confidence and the date of the analysis are returned, and return to block 13 of figure 1.

The present invention can be advantageously carried out by means of a computer program which comprises coding means for carrying out one or more steps of the method, when this program is executed on a computer. Therefore it is intended that the scope of protection extends to said computer program and further to computer readable means comprising a recorded message, said computer readable means comprising program coding means for carrying out one or more steps of the method. , when said program is run on a computer.

Implementation variants of the described non-limiting example are possible, without however departing from the scope of protection of the present invention, including all equivalent embodiments for a person skilled in the art.

The elements and features illustrated in the various preferred embodiments can be combined with each other without however departing from the scope of protection of the present invention.

From the above description, the person skilled in the art is able to realize the object of the invention without introducing further construction details.

Claims (10)

CLAIMS 1. Procedure for identifying the telephone operator of a mobile or landline telephone number, characterized by what includes the following steps, managed through a management system: - populate and update a first database (14, 17) with indications of telephone number and operator by authenticated users; - populate and update a second database (15, 18) with telephone number and operator information provided by telephone operators; - populate and update a third database (16, 19) with operator identification information obtained through automatic telephone calls to operator identification services provided by said operators; - search for said mobile or landline telephone number with information of the relative operator in said first, second and third database associated with an assessment of a degree of confidence above a threshold; - in the event of a positive evaluation, identify said operator as a telephone operator; - in the event of a negative evaluation, making comparisons between information in said third database and information obtained from recordings of telephone calls made with said mobile or landline telephone number to said operator identification services of said operators, each of said comparisons being associated with a evaluation of the degree of maximum similarity; - identify as the telephone operator the one associated with the call that generated the greatest number of said evaluations of the degree of maximum similarity (Similarity_MAX), if any. 2. Process as in claim 1, wherein said confidence assessment includes the following steps: - calculate a difference in number of days, between the current date and the one in which the population data of said databases was entered in the database, said difference having a positive value, if the data was created in a day that compared to the current date it is less than a threshold of the number of previous days, otherwise negative; - calculate said degree of confidence on the basis of the ratio between said difference and said threshold. 3. Process as in claim 1, wherein said evaluation of maximum similarity degree (Similarity_MAX) comprises the following steps: - implementing an electronic connection between said management system and a number N of terminals equipped with a subscription to a respective of said operators, said terminals being equipped with means for audio recording of their own call; - determining a series of calls from each of said terminals to said operator identification services of each of said operators; - making first records of the responses to said calls in said third database (16, 19); - making second registrations in said third database (16, 19) of said telephone calls made with said mobile or landline telephone number to said operator identification services of said operators; - comparing all said first registrations with all said second registrations, in order to generate said greater number of evaluations of the degree of maximum similarity (Similarity_MAX). 4. Process as in claim 3, wherein said comparison is performed by spectrogram analysis of said recordings. 5. Process as in claim 3, comprising the steps of: - sending by said management system to each of said N terminals a string containing the telephone number to be called; - make a call from each of said N terminals to the operator to whom it is attested; - start a timer which determines the duration of said calls, and start said first or second recordings; - close calls at the end of the timer time; - sending said recordings stored in said third database to said management system, said records comprising information relating to the called telephone number, operator of the called telephone number, said audio recording. 6. Electronic system adapted for the identification of the telephone operator of a mobile or landline telephone number, characterized by what it includes means for the realization of each of the steps of the preceding claims. 7. Electronic system as in claim 6, comprising: - said management system equipped with means for connection to a TCP / IP network; - said N terminals, each of said N terminals being equipped with said means for audio recording of its own call, and with means for connection to a TCP / IP network in order to connect with said management system. 8. Electronic system as in claim 7, wherein said means for audio recording of one's call comprise a jack adapted for insertion into the audio input of the terminal, the pins of the jack being connected together by current dividers so as to direct the audio signal being received, to the microphone input of the terminal. 9. Computer program comprising program coding means adapted to carry out the steps of claims 1 to 5, when said program is run on a computer. 10. Computer readable means comprising a recorded program, said computer readable means comprising program coding means adapted to perform the steps of claims 1 to 5, when said program is run on a computer.