MXPA99006283A - Anonymous voice communication using controls in li - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing voice communications, anonymous, using the telephone network under the direction of an online data network. A Call Agent receives call configuration information from the online session participants such as participants in a chat room, after providing the call back telephone numbers and, as appropriate, the billing information. In an illustrative embodiment, a user (the call initiator) present in a conversation room session establishes a data connection in a telephone company site using for example an Internet network viewer to establish a Call Agent session . The Call Agent then provides session information (such as the phone company's URL) and a Participating Authorization Code (PAC), this information is passed to a select conversation participant in the current chat room. When the selected participant uses the received URL to access the telephone company's site and provides the received participant code and a return call number, the telephone company completes voice links to the initiator and the selected participant and bypasses these links on the whole. Other modalities allow adding additional parts and coupling the conversation server to negotiate with the Call Agent, to establish a PAC that is made available to all the participants of the conversation. These and other embodiments of the present invention allow participants in an online conversation or session based on similar text to retain their anonymity while extending their communications to voice calls.

Description

ANONYMOUS VOICE COMMUNICATION USING CONTROLS IN LTNEA Field of the Invention This invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing telephony communications using online communication links to select and configure telephone connections while maintaining the anonymity of callers. and call. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Current computer network communications allow users to communicate with each other anonymously through marked or other access lines. For example, online service providers allow users to connect their personal computers (PCs) together, for the purpose of communicating anonymously with each other. Online service users can choose to participate in online text discussions using channels or "virtual rooms" dedicated to discussions on general or specific topics. In these virtual or "conversation" halls (or a number of similar structures), text "conversations" are carried out where users send text to each other or just observe ("listen"). Once a conversation session is in place, online service users can choose to enter or leave a session at will. In REF .: General 30629, a list of users who take part in a conversation is listed or otherwise indicated on each user's computer screen of the session. The identities of the users in these lists usually take the form of "nicknames" or "handles" to preserve the user's anonymity, a distinctive conversation and many other forms of online communications. The conversation rooms are dedicated to thousands of thematic areas selected by a system or service operator or by the participants themselves. Procedures are in place in many of these areas on-line to request the establishment of a particular subject conversation room for a fixed time or indefinitely. More recently, features such as "sub-conversations" or "private conversations" have been provided in some online contexts, by which a subset (self-chosen) or low request by others) of online conversion participants you move to a separate (virtual) conversation zone. Another feature available in some conversation sessions is "Instant Messaging" (Instant Messaging) or a facility with a similar name by which a user in a conversation session is able to send direct messages to one or more other users who take part in the conversation. Thus, if secondary comments not appropriate for general observation between two users are desired, the selection (usually by an on-screen message button) of the instant message feature results in a window on the selection user's computer screen. , along with signals for the intended message recipient and the content of the message. When the originator of the message completes these fields and a Send button is pressed (or similar) it is selected by oppression (of the mouse button) the message is sent privately to the intended recipient using the guest message functionalities. Typical uses of these instant messages include setting up private chat rooms and inviting others to join. While the conversation sessions described above are conversation rooms all of text, ie all communications are through text messages between users of the conversation session, has been made available for subsequent rooms of Voice-based Conversation. In typical voice-based conversation rooms, a number of users participate in a manner similar to a discussion via a telephone conference call. Often, in a voice conversation room, there is not a single guest user - such that voice feeds are often made simultaneously by more than one user. The result is sometimes that the voice feed or something of it is lost. TotalHowever, conferences of modest size can proceed without undesirable congestion or confusion. The mechanism by which these voice-based conversation sessions operate is usually the same or very closely related to those employed in text conversations. In this way, a functional speech conversation "layer" can be added over what is basically a session control mechanism for text conversation. This is convenient because the conversation server requires minimal changes to perform the voice capabilities. Even more, these voice conversations proceed entirely within the conversation server (or servers for distributed conversation networks). No connection to the telephony network is required (apart from a data link by modem or similar if no other connection to a data network access point is available). While such voice conversations typically prove to be satisfactory for many purposes, a private voice chat room functionality has not emerged. Among the factors that contribute to this condition are the non-always-satisfactory data network voice transmission quality, the network guest capacity and the complexity of changes in these networked conversation guests. One approach to introducing voice communications between conversation session user or in other communication configurations is described in a co-pending patent application entitled "Anonymous Voice Communications" by R.B. Leipo, patent application of the U.S. Serial No. 08 / 573,865, filed on July 2, 1996 and granted to the assignee of the present application. In this application, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein as being fully established, a reliable agent is employed to establish voice communications between the parties online while maintaining the anonymity of the parties. The reliable agent simply in illustrative form as an auxiliary to processor functions in a network server such as an online conversation server. While efforts to achieve anonymous telephone communications between users in contexts such as online conversation sessions have proven possible, these efforts in general have required significant changes to an online server that are applicable only to voice conversation participants. . Thus, in these contexts the telephony functionality of another form not employed in a conversation server is required to perform the desired anonymous voice communications between the conversation users or others similarly located in other communication contexts. COMPENDIUM OF THE INVENTION The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior art and achieves a technical advance to provide anonymous voice communications using the telephone network under the direction of a call agent. In a first illustrative mode, a user (the initiator of the call) present in a conversation room session establishes a data connection to a telephone company site using for example a browser of the Internet network. After using the display to provide proper billing qualification (for example using credit card information) and to provide a return call number, the initiator receives a small call control applet from the site of the call. telephone company, thus establishing a call agent session. As is known, credit card information is advantageously captured on the display to allow transfer over the Internet in encrypted form, without requiring additional security measures in the small application (applet). In this first illustrative implementation, the session will be billed to the initiator. The information received from the Call Agent includes session information (such as the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the telephone company) and a Participant Authorization Code (PAC). Using an IM or similar selection button in the screen image for the small program (applet) received, the initiator causes a URL of the telephone company and participant code to be passed to a select conversion participant in the room. current conversation. When the selected participant uses the received URL to go to the telephone company's site and enters the received participant code and a number of return calls, the telephone company completes the voice link to the initiator and the select participant typically in that order . The telephone call in this manner is completed between the initiator and the participant of the selected conversation session without sharing the telephone numbers. s If the initiator wishes to add another participant in the conversation room to the voice session, the button in the small application (applet) again provides the same URL and a new participant code to the second selected conversion session participant. Each participant code is typically different and allows as much as one participant to join the voice session. This avoids enacting valid participant codes by anyone other than the initiator. As an alternative, multiple participants can use the same code, but this option is less secure, since there is the possibility of abuse, where a participant can propagate a valid code without knowledge of the initiator. In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, there is no initiator in the sense of the above-described embodiment but interaction with a calling agent in the name of the potential participants of the telephone call is achieved by the conversation server (s). The conversation server then negotiates with the Call Agent to establish a PAC that is made available to all the participants in the conversation. In this way, for example, when a sub-group (or all) in a text conversation session agree to establish a telephone connection between them, they agree to a separate chat room to which they are connected. has assigned a PAC for this purpose. The "separate" conversation room can be achieved by simply redefining your current conversation room if all participants are going to take part in the phone call. In any case, those in this separate chat room have indeed requested their or their chat servers to contact the calling agent to obtain participant authorization codes and session identification. When making these requests, potential participants will provide credit billing qualification or other necessary on an individual basis to the call agent along with the number for call back. When the telephone company is satisfied that the session and authorization information is correct, pass the individual participants to a conference bridge. Of course, the "conference" can include only two participants. These and other embodiments of the present invention allow participants in an online conversation or similar text-based session to retain their anonymity while extending their communications to voice calls. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above-summarized invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description which is read in light of the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of a communications network comprising links of data and voice optional. Figure 2 illustrates the way in which a Call Agent function is introduced between an online conversation server and a telephone network switch. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Figure 1 is a representation of a data network that interconnects a plurality of user sites, each having a personal computer (PC) or other terminal device. The "cloud" of the Data Network 100 represents a network of data links and nodes such as or including the Internet access links of user sites such as 101, 102, 113 and 115. Of course, in a configuration in The real world, the number of user sites and terminals can be much higher. In the illustrative network of Figure 1, an online server 110 serves at least some of the data network needs of users in the terminals such as 101, 102, 113 and 115. Servers such as 110 in general provide a large amount. of services to network users, illustratively including online conversation services.

The dotted lines on your right show the server 110 as one of a possibly large number of servers interconnected to provide a particular service or range of services. Also in Figure 1, a cloud of Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 130 connected to a representative one (140) of many public switches. It will be understood that although the PSTN 130 cloud is shown separately for discussion purposes, part of this network cloud represents connections from user sites to nodes in the data network 100. The public switch 140 is representative of network switches operated by one or more network operators to provide a number of network services. These services include the Simple Old Telephone Service (POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service), voice conferencing services and many other network services, well known in the field. Two representative telephone equipment 103 and 114 associated respectively with data network stations 102 and 113, are illustrated connected to the PSTN 130 cloud. For discussion purposes, these two telephone equipment will be considered co-located with the associated PCs or other terminals connected to the data network cloud 100.

In typical operation of the data terminals and data network (e.g. PCs) 101, 102, 113 and 115 may participate in a text conversation session through the conversation facilities of the on-line server 110 and / or one or more than the other servers that cooperate to provide the conversation service. For simplicity of presentation, it will be considered that the entire conversation session is controlled from the server 110, but it will be understood that the conversation (or similar meeting functionality by text) can be provided by a number of widely distributed network servers. During the course of the conversation session, one of the typical conversation participants in terminal 102 wishes to establish a voice conversation with the conversation participant in terminal 113. In accordance with aspects of the illustrative embodiments of the present invention, the Communications in or deriving from the conversation session in progress are used to establish such telephony conversation among the conversation participants by mutual agreement. Two-part or more detail phone calls (for example, conference calls) can also be established between the voluntary conversation participants, as will be seen in the following description.

It is considered that each of the participants of the potential telephone call has a telephone line available. For the initial description, a two-part telephone call will be considered, with the parties having the telephone numbers (973) 555-3333 (for the user the terminal 102) and (732) 555-4444 (for the user a terminal 113). It may also happen that one or both of these conversation party sites may have only one telephone line, this line is in use to provide access to the terminal conversation session. In such cases, it is arranged to have the telephone call configuration achieved in such a way that the participation of online conversation (and other online communications) can be terminated or suspended, thus releasing the telephone line for the call of desired phone. Upon initiating the establishment of a telephone call between conversation participants at sites 102 and 113, the party seeking to establish the call (the "initiator") uses standard Internet viewer functionality to establish contact with a Call Agent. The Call Agent functionality can be associated with the online server, the public switch, or another person or entity. For the present illustrative purposes, the Call Agent is considered associated with the telephone company, as represented by the public switch 140. In Figure 2, the Call Agent 210 is shown as an intermediary to the on-line switch 110 and the public switch 140. The Call Agent 210 can illustratively be a programmed hardware element. separately, such as a telephone network node arranged to receive data messages from the data network 100 and send telephony network signaling information to the PSTN using standard telephony signaling techniques, such as the Signaling System 7 (SS7 = Signaling System 7). Alternatively, the Call Agent 210 may be a co-located auxiliary with a PSTN switch, or it may be part of this switch. Access to the Call Agent through the online viewer session is achieved in a normal way such as by choosing a button on the display (or favorite or marked site) using the display or equivalent functionality in the user's terminal. As illustrated in Figure 2, the data network server (s) 110 that hosts the conversation server session is in communication with the Call Agent 210 using the facilities of the data network 100, either the Agent Call is on the phone company's site or not. The availability of these communications avoids any requirement that the Call Agent and the conversation server have a special relationship, such as being part of an integrated server complex. The communication between the telephone call initiator (102 in Figure 1) and the Call Agent 210 includes the presentation to the Calling Agent 210 of billing identification, such as a telephone company call card number, number of debit card (or other previously paid call data) or credit card number or the like which is subject to validation by the calling agent 210 in standard form. For example, said validation can be achieved through the PSTN by public switch 140 for databases for credit card validation. Alternatively, the Call Agent 210 may employ the data network 100 or some other data network (not shown) to transfer interrogation and response messages between the Calling Agent 210 and the database for credit card authorization. . When the credit card billing identification is employed, messages can be sent through the PSTN to a telephone company network database for authorization, as is well known in the art.

The Call Agent 210 is also sent in Figure 2 by the telephone call initiator, a response call number, in this example (973) 555-3333. The response to the request to initiate a telephone call, considering that the request for billing authorization is approved, is a small application (applet) of call control that is sent from the Call Agent to the location of the initiators to control additionally the establishment of the telephone call. In addition, the Call Agent 210 sends information to the initiator session, typically in the form of the same URL as will be used by the initiator - although a separate identifier may be employed. Also sent by the Call Agent to the initiator is a Participant Authorization Code (PAC). The PACs are advantageously limited in time, that is to say if they are not used in a predetermined time, they expire and they are not usable, and they can not be used by more than one telephone call participant. When the PAC data and session identification are received by the initiator, they can be sent by the initiator to the selected called party, typically using instant messages or a text discussion in a private conversation room configured with the selected conversation participant. With the session and PAC information available, the selected conversation session participant (called) can become a party to the desired telephone call, by contacting the Call Agent 210 using the session information and providing PAC and the call number back (in the Example in Figure 1, (732-555-4444)). When the Call Agent 210 is satisfied that the information provided by the selected called party is in order, the Calling Agent 210 signals the telephone company (represented by the switch 140) to call both the initiating telephone number and the number Telephone part of the call. In the present Example, the initiator will be responsible for the payment of all phone call charges. While the embodiment of the preceding example of the present invention has been based on calls between an initiator and a called party, it will be understood that the same principles and techniques can be employed for multi-party calls. In this way, the initiator can search PACs for a plurality of different potential named parties. To minimize the possibility of misuse, a different PAC will typically be employed by each called party. PACs for a number of potential called parties can be sent in a message a.1 initiator or separate requests for PACs can be employed - as required by the Calling Agent and / or the Telephone Company. In an alternate billing structure, communications between the potential called party (s) and the calling agent may include a request by the Call Agent for billing information. In these cases, the potential called party will pay a portion (or all) of the charges per call. In this way, the nature of the PACs requested and sent to the originator may vary, and not all of them need to be of the same type: a PAC can transport with it an authorization for the originator to be charged for the portion of the charges of a part call, while a second PAC (or other) may require that the called party agree to pay some or all of the charges. In a further variation of the billing structures, a called party that already participates in a telephone call configuration as described above, may receive compliance from the other participants in the telephone call to add one or more additional parties to the call . In these circumstances, that party can send an additional message to the Call Agent using a "add a part" button and again negotiate the billing information. Under these circumstances, the calling agent can poll the originator (and some or other existing participants in the telephone call) to determine if there is any objection to the addition of extra parts. In such call agent interrogations, the proposed party to be added will typically be identified between another text conversation session (or other) online users and the billing base will typically be announced. Unanimity (or no objections or other criteria) between the existing telephone conversation parties (or only those billed) will usually be required before the Call Agent 210 allows any of these call participants to be added. In the previous illustrative modalities, the participation of the online server to establish voice conversations by telephone is minimal. In fact, the participation of the online server has been primarily in standard message passing operations between the text conversation participants and the Call Agent. In addition, in the illustrative modalities described so far, the functionality of the Call Agent has been considered within the reality of the telephone company. In some circumstances, however, it proves convenient to include certain Calling Agent functionality in the online server (s), by providing textual conversation functionality or in a non-telephone company server. In an illustrative embodiment of the present invention involving the online server (s) to a greater degree than the modalities of the preceding example, no particular online text chat participant initiates the telephone call participation. On the contrary, the conversation server (s) establish a voice conversation room, parallel to some or all of the text conversation sessions that are established. In a particular illustrative embodiment of this general type, a sub-conversation or private conversation zone (room) is configured at the request of the participants of the text conversation session. When the online server 110 configures a text conversation room that allows establishing telephone connections between the participants (a voice-activated conversation), it typically concurrently establishes a Call Agent session in the online server (or in another non-telephone company site). For simplicity of presentation, the Call Agent will be considered associated with the online server. In this way, for example in the representation of Figure 2, the Call Agent functionality. 210 is associated with processes running on the online server. these processes include SS7 (or other telephone) signaling or messaging functionality to communicate with one or more telephone switches. Upon receiving the well-known signaling messages (or other agreed messages) the telephone switches configure the call and bridge links, as required. The voice session is advantageously initialized in an exchange of messages between the conversation server session running on an online server and the Call Agent session on that or another server, on a network of servers interconnected by the data network 100. The transaction between the conversation server and the Call Agent identifies the Call Agent as potential participants in a voice session (here, a telephone call) in preparation for further negotiation between the Call Agent and the client sessions. for each of the participants in the conversation room. In a typical mode, the text conversation clients that run on the PCs or terminals of the conversation participants allow a participant in a voice activated conversation to negotiate with the Call Agent running on the server (s). Communications between the respective text conversation clients in a voice-activated conversation session and the Call Agent 210 then includes the same billing approval and return call information operations-as before, but advantageously also include data identifying (by name, etc.) to the existing telephone call participants. Individual participants can indicate willingly the willingness to pay for telephone call connections to other users, such as by completing screen elements in the form of additional billing (for example, by checking "will pay all phone charges" or "will pay for"). conversation participants (identified), as well as the usual information of calling card, debit card or credit card and the like Other billing arrangements can of course be made for some kind of users or participants in some conversation sessions by In all cases, although the use of the Call Agent allows the anonymity of the participants to be maintained, in a particular case, billing for all participants in a telephone call can be made to a third party, including particular the part that the conversation server provides, this latter part of course can put compensatory billing of users through a subscription or other relationship.

In any case, as the Calling Agent session running or operating on the online server receives authorization to bill the participants' telephone calls, it provides messages or telephone signaling information to a telephone company switch such as the switch 140 to establish the required connections. The switch, as in the other examples, provides bridging between the telephone links to the authorized telephone call participants. This bridging will be accomplished locally at the switch 140 or elsewhere in the telephone network, as is well known in the art. When an online text conversation participant gains access to an online server that uses the only available telephone line (the line that has the return call number that is provided to the Call Agent), the current call back it is advantageously delayed until the online session is paused or terminated, thus releasing the line associated with the callback number. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (18)

1. CLAIMS Having described the invention as above, the content of the following claims is claimed as property: 1. A call agent, comprising means for receiving first messages from online users, users include text conversation session users, each first message includes a request to identify a telephone call session, maintaining the anonymity of the conversation participants, means to send a second message in response to each first message, every second message identifies a telephone call session, means for To receive third party messages from Ojmgsarri sessions by online text, each message includes call back information that allows establishing a telephone link with one of the participants of the conversation, and means to send control messages to a network of telephony that identifies return call information associated with at least two parties conversations and authorization to complete connections between the two participants of the conversation at least. The call agent according to claim 1, characterized in that the first and third messages originate in the clients of the online conversation. The call agent according to claim 2, characterized in that the second messages are sent to client sessions in conversation and further comprise at least one Participant Authorization Code (PAC). The calling agent according to claim 3, characterized in that at least some of the third messages further comprise an identification of a telephone call session. The calling agent according to claim 3, characterized in that at least some of the third messages also comprise a PAC. 6. The call agent according to claim 1, characterized in that the first messages identify all the participants in a conversation session by text. The call agent according to claim 6, characterized by the means for sending response messages comprising means for sending messages to an online conversation server session. 8. A method for establishing an anonymous telephone call that involves participants in an online text conversation session, comprising the steps of receiving a request from one of the participants to set up a telephone call connecting to one of the the participants and at least one select participant from among the other participants, send a message to the first participant, the message comprises a telephone call session identifier and at least one participant authorization code (PAC), receive PAC and information Call back from at least one of the other selected participants and send control information to a telephone network to establish telephone links with the initiating participant and each of the other selected participants of which the PAC and call information In return, the phone links are received and bridged. 9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that one of the participants is an initiating participant. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the PAC is received by at least one of the other selected participants using instant messaging. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the PAC is received by at least one of the other selected participants who use a private conversation zone. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that at least one of the other selected participants consists of a participant. 13. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the control information is sent in the form of common channel signaling. 14. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that the telephone link for an initiator or other select participant is bridged altogether only if the telephone line identified by the callback information for the other select participant is on hold. 15. A method for establishing an anonymous telephone call, which involves participants in an online text conversation session, comprising a conversation session per server hosting a plurality of remote client conversation sessions, the conversation session per server is enhanced by a call agent session, the method comprises the steps of receiving requests in the server conversation session of each of the plurality of client conversation sessions, to configure a telephone call connecting associated participants with each of the client conversation sessions, sending a message to each of the participants from whom a request is received, the message comprises a telephone call session identifier and at least one Participant Authorization Code (PAC) , receive in the Call Agent session of each of the plurality of conversation sessions of the Use the PAC and callback information for the telephone associated with the respective customer conversation sessions and send control information to a telephone network to establish telephone links with the initiating participant and each of the other selected participants from whom the PAC and the return call information are received, and to bypass the telephone links together. 16. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the plurality of participants consists of a participant. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the control information is sent in the form of a common channel signaling. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the telephone link for participants is bridged together, only if the telephone line identified by the callback information for the participant is at rest. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A system and method for providing voice communications, anonymous, using the telephone network under the direction of an online data network. A Call Agent receives call configuration information from the online session participants such as participants in a chat room, after providing the call back telephone numbers and, as appropriate, the billing information. In an illustrative embodiment, a user (the call initiator) present in a conversation room session establishes a data connection in a telephone company site using for example an Internet network viewer to establish a Call Agent session . The Call Agent then provides session information (such as the phone company's URL) and a Participating Authorization Code (PAC), this information is passed to a select conversation participant in the current conversation room. When the selected participant uses the received URL to access the telephone company's site and provides the received participant code and a return call number, the telephone company completes voice links to the initiator and the selected participant and bypasses these links on the whole. Other modalities allow adding additional parts and coupling the conversation server to negotiate with the Call Agent, to establish a PAC that is made available to all the participants of the conversation. These and other embodiments of the present invention allow participants in an online conversation or session based on similar text to retain their anonymity while extending their communications to voice calls. 06-086