Abstract:
Once a voicemail is received, it is the onus of the recipient of the voicemail message to call the caller back when a “missed call” message is received on the phone or after the voicemail message is retrieved. While some of the more advanced voicemail systems provide the capability of automatically placing a call from the callee back to the caller upon completion of the callee listening to the voicemail message, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention allows the caller to be connected to the callee should the callee become available while the caller is leaving a voicemail message for the callee.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is directed toward telephony devices, services and methods, and more specifically, to allow a caller that has been diverted to voicemail the option of being put through to the callee, should the callee become available while the caller is leaving a message. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Voicemail systems have been around for a number of years. Traditional voicemail systems have generally been centered around an answering machine that may or may not be collocated with a caller. The voicemail systems can be analog or digital, and may also be a service offered by a carrier. Some of these answering machines allow a callee to intercept the caller while the caller is leaving a message on the machine. 
     More advanced voicemail systems allow enhanced functionality above and beyond simple “play” and “delete” functions. For example, this enhanced functionality can include fast forward, fast forward to end of message, faster playback, slower playback, repeat, envelope information, message skipping, replying to the message, calling back the caller who left the message, saving the message, forwarding the message, receive notification services, downloading of message(s), personal greeting and options menus, etc. 
     Callwave® provides an Internet based answering machine that is capable of receiving calls while online. The Caller ID and Caller Name features of Callwave® enable the user to view the name of the person calling while the callee is online. Before a callee hears a caller&#39;s message, the callee will see the caller&#39;s name and telephone number displayed in a window in the Callwave® interface. Thus, the callee is aware of who called even if the caller does not leave a message. 
     SUMMARY 
     Call Waiting allows a callee to switch between calls. Should the callee choose, and upon notification that there is a call waiting, the callee can interrupt a current call and flash over to speak with the incoming call that is in a “call waiting” state. This toggling between an active call and a call waiting call can occur at the callee&#39;s discretion. 
     In existing voicemail systems, once a voicemail is received, it is the onus of the recipient of the voicemail message to call the caller back when a “missed call” message is received on the phone or after the voicemail message is retrieved. While some of the more advanced voicemail systems provide the capability of automatically placing a call back to the caller upon completion of the voicemail message, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention allows the caller, automatically or at the caller&#39;s election, to be connected to the callee should the callee become available while the caller is leaving a voicemail message. 
     For example, and from the perspective of the involved parties, the flow between a caller and a callee would be as follows. The caller calls the callee but the callee is unavailable as, for example, they are on another call. Thus, the caller is diverted to voicemail. While the caller is leaving a message, the callee becomes available, i.e., they end their call. The caller is informed, e.g., by an armouncement being played, that the callee is now available and is given the option of connecting to the callee or continuing to leave the message. 
     In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, there could also be communication between a PBX and a voicemail system to send notification messages regarding the callee&#39;s state to the caller and to handle the re-termination of the call to the callee. For example, a PBX could receive a call from the caller and, upon finding the callee to be unavailable, connect the caller to voicemail. The PBX continues to monitor the availability of the callee until the PBX receives a message from the voicemail system indicating that the caller has completed their message and terminated the call. 
     If the PBX detects that the callee has become available and the caller is still connected to the voicemail system, the PBX can signal the voicemail system with this information. The voicemail system could then audibly or through some other indication or message notify the caller that the callee is available. If the caller signals to the voicemail system that they would like to be put through to the callee, then the appropriate network components would transfer the call back to the PBX which would in turn the ring the callee&#39;s phone. 
     A Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol that can be used for establishing sessions in an IP network. The session can be a simple two-way telephone call or, for example, could be a multi-party, multi-media conference session. SIP protocols are well known and allow the ability to establish sessions in a host of different service options such as voice-enriched e-commerce, web page click-to-dial, instant messaging, IP Centrex services and the like. An exemplary embodiment of the systems and methods of this invention could use SIP protocols to implement the functionality and messaging described herein. Additionally, the determination as to whether a callee is available need not be limited to the identification of a busy signal, but could also be based on presence information or “do not disturb” status information available to, for example, a PBX. 
     An exemplary aspect of the invention is related to call redirection. 
     More specifically, an exemplary aspect of the invention relates to reconnecting a previously terminated call once a callee becomes available. 
     Aspects of the invention further relate to allowing a caller that has been diverted to voicemail an option of being put through to the callee when the callee becomes available. 
     Still further aspects of the invention relate to redirecting a caller to a callee upon a determination being made that the callee is available. 
     These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of the exemplary embodiments. The embodiments and configurations herein are neither complete nor exhaustive. As will be appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possible utilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features set forth above or described in detail below. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The exemplary embodiments of the invention will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary embodiment of a voicemail redirect system according this invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates exemplary call flow according to an embodiment of this invention; and 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of voicemail redirect according to this invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The exemplary embodiments of this invention will be described in relation to caller initiated undivert from voicemail. However, it should be appreciated, that in general, the systems and methods of this invention will work equally well for any type of communication system in any environment. 
     The exemplary systems and methods of this invention will also be described in relation to telecommunications systems and associated communication hardware, software and communication channels. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention, the following description omits well-known structures, network components and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, are well known or are otherwise summarized. 
     For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated however that the present invention may be practiced in a variety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein. 
     Furthermore, while the exemplary embodiments illustrated herein show the various components of the system collocated, it is to be appreciated that the various components of the system can be located at distant portions of a distributed network, such as a telecommunications network and/or the Internet, or within a dedicated secure, unsecured and/or encrypted system. Thus, it should be appreciated that the components of the system can be combined into one or more devices, such as a PBX or voicemail system, or collocated on a particular node of a distributed network, such as an analog and/or digital telecommunications network, a circuit switched network and/or a packet switched network. As will be appreciated from the following description, and for reasons of computational efficiency, the components of the system can be arranged at any location within a distributed network without affecting the operation of the system. For example, the various components can be located in a PBX, at one or more users&#39; premises, or some combination thereof. Similarly, one or more functional portions of the system could be distributed between a telecommunications device(s) and an associated computing device. 
     Furthermore, Session Initiation Protocol or SIP (which is a simple signaling/application layer protocol for data network multimedia conferencing and telephony) can at least be used with the present invention to provide a degree of presence awareness in the communication network. Although other protocols are equally supportive of presence concepts, SIP provides an illustrative basis for the present invention. 
     In SIP, end systems and proxy servers can provide services such as call forwarding, callee and caller number delivery (where numbers can be any naming scheme such as a conventional URL format), personal mobility (the ability to reach a callee under a single, location-independent address even when the callee changes terminals), terminal-type negotiation and selection (e.g., a caller can be given a choice on how to reach the callee), mobile phone answering service, terminal capability negotiation, caller and callee authentication, blind and supervised call transfer, and invitations to multicast conferences. 
     To provide these varied services, SIP uses a relatively simple message system, namely an “INVITE” message (with the caller&#39;s codec preferences) and an “OK” message (with the callee&#39;s codec preferences), and various software entities, namely registrars which maintain a map of the addresses of a given user at the current time, proxies which perform call routing, session management, user authentication, redirect functions, and routing to media gateways, redirect servers which perform a subset of forwarding functions, and SIP location servers which maintain user profiles and provide subscriber registration. “Registration” is a mechanism whereby a user&#39;s communication device registers with the network each time he or she comes online and individual profiles are accessed that specify information for routing based on a number of different criteria. 
     It should also be appreciated that the various links, including communications channel and the various links  5 , connecting the elements can be wired or wireless links, or any combination thereof, or any other known or later developed element(s) that is capable of supplying and/or communicating data to and from the connected elements. The term module as used herein can refer to any known or later developed hardware, software, firmware, or combination thereof that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element. The terms determine, calculate and compute, and variations thereof, as used herein are used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique. Further, it is to be noted that the term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms “comprising”, “including” and “having” can be used interchangeably. 
     Also, while the flowcharts have been discussed in relation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciated that changes, additions and omissions to this sequence can occur without materially effecting the operation of the invention. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the voicemail redirect system  1 . The voicemail redirect system  1  comprises a portion of a telecommunications system  100  connected via links  5  and networks  10  to a communications device  105  at a caller and a communications device  115  at a callee. The portion of the telecommunications system  100  comprises a call status monitoring module  110 , a call management module  120 , a messaging module  130 , a voicemail management module  140 , voicemail  150 , controller  160  and memory  170 , all interconnected via link  5 . 
     As will be appreciated, the portion of the telecommunications system  100  comprises other well known components which will not be discussed herein in detail. For example, the portion of the telecommunications system  100  can further include one or more telephony switch/media servers that can be any architecture for directing communications to one or more communication devices. The network  10  can and typically includes proxies, registrars, switches and routers that are well known. The communication devices  105  and  115  can be any communication device suitable for the network to which they are connected. For example, the communications devices can be any wired or wireless phone such as IP hardphones, such as the Cisco 7960™ phone, IP softphones, Personal Digital Assistants or PDAs, Personal Computers or PCs, laptops, mobile phones, traditional PSTN type phones, cellular phones or any combination thereof. 
     A typical communications device comprises a handset, or headset, and a cradle assembly. The cradle assembly typically comprises a display, a nonprogrammable or hard keypad and programmable or soft keypad. 
     In operation, a call is originated in communications device  105  by the caller and routed, with the cooperation of network  10  and various portions of the telecommunications system  100  such as controller  160  and memory  170 , to the communications device  115  possessed by the callee. The call management module  120  monitors the status of the incoming call&#39;s connection to communications device  115 . Upon determining that the communications device  115  is busy, or otherwise not available, the call management module  120  in cooperation with the voicemail management module  140 , forwards the incoming call from the caller for the callee to voicemail  150 . 
     The voicemail management module  140  and voicemail  150  provide standard, well-known features that allow the caller/callee to navigate the voicemail system. Features such as review message, save message, send message, delete message, skip message, forward message, faster, slower, repeat and the like can be provided as are well known. 
     While the caller is leaving a voicemail in voicemail  150 , which may or may not also be broadcast to the callee, the call status monitoring module  110 , in cooperation with the controller  160  and memory  170 , monitors the status of the communications device  115 . Upon the call status monitoring module  110  determining that the communications device  115  is available, and in cooperation with the messaging module  130  and the voicemail management module  140 , the caller is notified that the callee is available. In conjunction with this notification, the voicemail management module  140  and instructs voicemail  150  go into a pause mode until a determination is made by the caller as to whether they would like to connect to the callee. 
     More specifically, and in cooperation with the messaging module  130 , a message is determined and forwarded via network  10  and link  5  to the communications device  105 . The caller is prompted, for example, via an audio or other prompt, to select to either connect to the callee, continue the voicemail, or terminate the call. 
     If the caller elects to connect to the callee, the caller can be prompted as to whether the partially completed voicemail should be deleted. If desired, the caller can select to have the partially completed voicemail deleted and the caller terminated to the callee. Alternatively, the caller can leave the partially completed voicemail in voicemail  150  which will, in due course, be forwarded to the callee at communication device  115 . Alternatively still, the partially completed voicemail can be automatically deleted. 
     If the caller elects to not be connected to the callee, the caller can be returned to voicemail when the caller can complete the voicemail or, alternatively, the call terminated. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary call flow associated with an embodiment of this invention. Specifically, the caller places a call to the callee. If the callee is not busy, the caller is connected to the callee. However, if the callee is busy, the caller is diverted to the callee&#39;s voicemail. While the caller is in the callee&#39;s voicemail, the status of the callee is monitored to detect availability. Should the callee become available during the time when the caller is leaving a voicemail, the caller is given the opportunity to connect with the callee and exit the voicemail system. For example, the caller can be prompted with “Press 1 to connect to callee, Press 2 to continue with voicemail.” For example, one or more of the caller and the callee can subscribe to a service that provides the above functionality and, for example, the service can store a profile that defines how, for example, notification, billing, or the like is to occur. 
     Additionally, or alternatively, the present invention can use presence information to determine the status of the callee and the appropriate termination or diversion of a call. “Presence” relates to the person having multiple devices with multiple communication paths and the user&#39;s preference/preferred devices and availability. “Presence information” typically refers to any information associated with a network node and/or endpoint device, such as a communication device, that is in turn associated with a person. Examples of presence information include registration information under the Session Initiation Protocol, information regarding the accessibility of the endpoint device, the endpoint&#39;s telephone number or address, the recency of use of the endpoint device by the person, recency of authentication by the person to a network component, and the preferences of the person (e.g., contact mode preferences or profiles such as the communication device to be contacted for specified types of contacts or under specified factual scenarios or presence contexts, contact time preferences, impermissible contact types and/or subjects such as subjects about which the person does not wish to be contacted, permissible contact types and/or subjects such as subjects about which the person does wish to be contacted, parties who must not contact (i.e., do not call if you are calling on behalf of XYZ company), and parties who can contact at any time (e.g., I will accept a call from the head of Company “x” regardless of what I am doing). Presence information can be user configurable, i.e., the user can configure the number and type of communication and message devices with which he or she can be contacted and to define different profiles that define the communication and messaging options presented to the incoming contactor in specified factual situations or sets of facts. By identifying a predefined set of facts, the pertinent profile can be followed to direct the contact to the user preferred device. “Contact” means a connection or request for connection between two or more communication devices. As will be appreciated, the contacts can be of various types and forms, such as voice contacts, e-mail, faxes, instant messages, paging signals, VoIP sessions, chat sessions, video conferences, multimedia multi-part messages, and cross-media messages. Moreover, “Availability intelligence” can be combined with the presence information, wherein “Availability intelligence” refers to processed (e.g., compiled, cross-referenced, and/or filtered) presence information or meta-information. Policy rules associated with the callee&#39;s name space can then be mapped against the one or more of the presence information and intelligence information to determine what availability intelligence, if any, is to be provided to a callee. 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of the invention. In particular, control begins in step S 100  and continues to step S 110 . In step S 110 , a caller places a call to the callee. Next, in step S 120 , the caller is routed to, for example, the callee&#39;s voicemail since the callee is busy or otherwise unavailable. For example, the determination that the callee is unavailable can be based on one or more of presence information, a do not disturb status, line conditions, a busy signal, or the like. Alternatively, the caller could be routed to, for example, an interactive voice response system, where the redirecting of the caller to a callee when the callee becomes available would work in the same manner. In general, the caller could be directed to any service while the callee is busy with the systems and methods described herein having the ability to redirect the caller from that service to a callee upon the callee becoming available. 
     Then, in step S 130 , and during the caller&#39;s communication with the callee, the status of the callee is monitored. Control then continues to step S 140 . 
     In step S 140 , a determination is made whether the callee has become available. If the callee has become available, control continues to step S 150 . Otherwise, control jumps to step S 145 . 
     In step S 145 , a determination is made whether the caller has completed their voicemail. If the voicemail has not been completed, control jumps back to step S 130 . Otherwise, control continues to step S 190  where the control sequence ends. 
     In step S 150 , the caller leaving the voicemail is interrupted and voicemail is paused. Next, in step S 160 , the caller is notified that the callee is available. For example, the caller can be notified through one or more of an audio message, a visual indicator, vibrating, or an interactive voice response (IVR) type of message. Another example of notifying the caller would be to alter a display on a phone, such as a LCD display, to provide a message to the caller that, for example, the callee&#39;s line is no longer busy. The display could also be populated with the appropriate messages and corresponding buttons activated to, for example, allow the caller to “Return to Voicemail,” “Connect to Callee,” and “Hang-up.” 
     Then, in step as  170 , a determination is made whether the caller has elected to connect to the now available callee. 
     If the caller desires to connect to the callee, control continues to step S 172 . In step S 172 , the caller is given the option of deleting the partially completed voicemail. If the caller elects to delete the voicemail, the voicemail is deleted in step S 173  with control continuing to S 176 . Otherwise, the caller can save the voicemail which will be forwarded to the callee in step S 174 . Control then continues to step S 176  where the caller and callee are connected. 
     If the caller decides not to connect to the now-available callee, control continues to step S 180 . In step S 180 , the caller is queried whether they would like to return to voicemail or to terminate the call. If the call is to be terminated, control continues to step S 190  were the control sequence ends. 
     However, if the caller elects to return voicemail, control continues to step S 185  where the caller is returned to voicemail until the voicemail is completed. Control then continues to step S 190  were the control sequence ends. 
     While the above-described flowcharts have been discussed in relation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciated that changes to this sequence can occur without materially effecting the operation of the invention. Additionally, the exact sequence of events need not occur as set forth in the exemplary embodiments. The exemplary techniques illustrated herein are not limited to the specifically illustrated embodiments but can also be utilized with the other exemplary embodiments and each described feature is individually and separately claimable. 
     The above-described system can be implemented on wired and/or wireless telecommunications devices, such a telephone, mobile phone, PDA, a wired and/or wireless wide/local area network system, a satellite communication system, or the like, or on a separate programmed general purpose computer having a communications device(s) or in conjunction with any compatible communications protocol(s). 
     Additionally, the systems, methods and protocols of this invention can be implemented on a special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit element(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such as discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device such as PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, a communications device, such as a phone, any comparable means, or the like. In general, any device capable of implementing a state machine that is in turn capable of implementing the methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the various communication methods, protocols and techniques according to this invention. 
     Furthermore, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented in software using object or object-oriented software development environments that provide portable source code that can be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms. Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially or fully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design. Whether software or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance with this invention is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirements of the system, the particular function, and the particular software or hardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems being utilized. The communication systems, methods and protocols illustrated herein can be readily implemented in hardware and/or software using any known or later developed systems or structures, devices and/or software by those of ordinary skill in the applicable art from the functional description provided herein and with a general basic knowledge of the computer and telecommunications arts. 
     Moreover, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented in software that can be stored on a storage medium, executed on a programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of a controller and memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, or the like. In these instances, the systems and methods of this invention can be implemented as program embedded on personal computer such as an applet, JAVA® or CGI script, as a resource residing on a server or computer workstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated communication system or system component, or the like. The system can also be implemented by physically incorporating the system and/or method into a software and/or hardware system, such as the hardware and software systems of a communications device or system. 
     It is therefore apparent that there has been provided, in accordance with the present invention, systems and methods for caller redirect. While this invention has been described in conjunction with a number of embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations would be or are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the applicable arts. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, equivalents and variations that are within the spirit and scope of this invention.