METHOD TO IDENTIFY CLIENTS AND METHOD FOR USING A TELETERMINAL DEVICE

Abstract: In order to open a telephone extension as a business terminal a contact is taken via a common telenetwork to a contract and/or service provider. In a telematic service the data of a business symbol announced by an A-subscriber is compared with the data of the business symbol in the file of the telematic service provider. When these data coincide, a password or some other means identifying the A-subscriber, e.g. a voice sample, is activated to be connected with the business symbol.

Description: METHOD TO IDENTITY CLIENTS AND METHOD FOR USING A TELETERMINAL DEVICE The invention relates to the method according to the intro- ductory part of claim 1 for customer identification and the method according to claim 9 for the use of a telephone exten¬ sion of a stationary wire network or a mobile subscription of a mobil network as a payment and/or business terminal. In the realization of payment transactions and interactive services intended for plenty of users the identification or verification of a sufficiently well-protected undisputed customer is difficult. Tradionally this problem has been solved so, that customers are called to the customer service point of the organization in question, f.ex. a telephone company, in which their identity is checked and simultaneous¬ ly protection means - business symbol and passwords, are delivered. This is in practice a troublesome, slow and expen¬ sive way to create a wide group of identified customers. The purpose of the invention is to provide an improvement for the above-mentioned disadvantages and enable the use and/or opening of a terminal connection, especially a telephone extension, as a business terminal, whereby the customer is identified and the terminal connection is harnessed as an integral part of the identification process. Characteristic features of the invention are shown in the accompanying claims. By the invention it is strived to avoid unnecessary stay of customers in customer service points. The purpose is to raise the identification reliability and the undisputed nature of the use of services to a high level without compromising the easy utilization of the service. It is essential that the customer can after his or her first contact make business by his own telephone extension and it is not necessary for him in any case to visit the customer service. During the first contact the contract provider identifies the customer, whe- reby during this contact passwords associated with the acti¬ vated business symbol will be delivered to the customer. These passwords can alternatively be replaced by voice samp¬ les, which are used for individual speaker identification. Upon the identification an addressed letter dispatch - letter secret - and a connection for a certain address can be linked to each other, so that only a beforehand defined person may join the service from a connection fixed in advance. After activation of the business symbol the customer can use iden¬ tified closed services from any connection. The invention will be described in the following with refe¬ rence to the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 shows schematically the system according to the in¬ vention; Figure 2 shows a block diagram of the system. Knowledge bases or registers comprise a contract database 1, in which are kept all the contracts made with the customer both in the data form required for data processing and in the facsimile form required for filing, identification database 2, in which are kept the data needed for the customer identi- fication and verification, as: customer number, business symbol, passwords 16 and/or voice samples needed for the speaker identification as well as data associated with the status of the business symbol, and customer database 3, in which are kept the customer data required for the customer relation from address data to customer's bank connection and to which can also be connected information concerning persons outside the clientele. Database registers 1, 2, 3, 15 and 16 are connected by cer- tain computer protocol f.ex. with a network 14, to which have been linked devices utilizing the information in databases and which also can participate in the telecommunications. These devices include inter alia a telematic service unit 12 that can also give a notice for sending of a confirmation letter for instance by eKirje, which is abbreviation for an electronic letter, or a computerized answering machine. In this machine a computer, available through the telephone network and identifying DTMF- frequency signals and called in the following as Central Voice Applications Platform, gives the answer. The caller or A-subscriber discusses with the voice of VCAP by depressing a selected telephone key proposed by the machine according to a recorded program. In the system the data is transferred coded as DTMF-signals, which then can be transferred as digital, analog, electric data or as air pressure variations through computer or te- lephone networks or magnetic media. After the entry of a computer program or a voice message, the computer makes the desired operations according to the user's key-tapping. Cor¬ responding contracts to be sent in written form are received f.ex. to telecopies 8, in which the contract is automatically processed. The telecopy code is converted by the computer software into data form. The mechanical processing in the the telecopies 8 is divided into two parts: filing and identifi¬ cation of automatically readable fields. Also a computer 7 can be used, which is intended for automatic recording of a telecopy dispatch or a facsimile of scanned document in a way known per se, so that it can later be returned to its origi¬ nal output format and mailed or telecopied to the customer, if required, from the contract base register 1 for example based on the connection information received from the clien- tele register 3. Computer-readable fields can be identified by telecopies 8 using a form reserved for this purpose, so that desired sec¬ tions of the contract document converted into computer lan- guage can be identified either as a text, numbers or box mar¬ king selections. On the grounds of this information the data varying according to customers and relating to the contract can be registered. This option can be used, when the exten¬ sion customer mails or otherwise sends the form to the cont¬ ract provider. eKirje 4 means an electronic letter, by which the contract situation at any given time is confirmed to the customer, if required, or when the customer makes a contract of new servi¬ ces by telephone or telecopy, he receives automatically by the eKirje a confirmation for the concluded agreement. The customer can also take care of his contract matters by the terminal 9. The contract can be returned also by post, as is shown by number 10, and it is further processed by the Scanner, an image reading device 11, which converts the cont- ract into a suitable form for computer processing. Thereafter the computer processings corresponding the Telecopy dispatch - filing and identification - can be made for the contract. Figure 2 shows a block diagram depicting the contract pro- cess. When the customer has been notified by a letter of the possibility to take contact to the contract provider, inclu¬ ding the information announced by the service provider and concerning the contract format and the customer-related bu¬ siness symbol, which can be f.ex. a computer-created unambi- guous business symbol, the customer takes from his own te¬ lephone extension 6 contact to the service offered by the contract provider. When the customer calls the voice service computer, the business symbol is asked. Based on this symbol on grounds of the data in the contract base it is checked, whether the customer's business symbol is activated for use. The telephone responder can alternatively be a physical per¬ son, who can verify the contract situation from the register in connection through the network. If the business symbol has not been activated for use, the contact-taking place of the customer is checked. If the AID is received from the common telephone network (digital ex¬ change), it can be compared with the information in the cus¬ tomer and contract base and it can clearly be determined, whether the call comes from the desired extension address. Corresponding identification procedure can also be used, if the terminal device has been connected to another common te- lenetwork, for instance mobile network, circuit or packet switched datanetwork. If AID is not obtained, the correspon¬ ding checking of the extension address can be made by a coun- tercall. By uniting the letter secret and the address of the telephone extension in this way to each other, it can be concluded, that the person who opens the connection, really is mentioned in the customer base. Finally an opportunity is given to the customer to convert the computer-created business symbol into an individual bu¬ siness symbol the customer has chosen. Thereafter individual passwords associated with the activated business symbol will be mailed to the customer. As an alternative individualizing identification information instead of passwords it is possi¬ ble to use voice samples to be recorded from the customer in this connection, which will be used together with a speaker identification algorithm in the individual customer identifi¬ cation. After receiving passwords the customer can use diffe- rent services, whereby the call can be directed to various services, when the code is activated. A closed service means a service, the use of which requires unambiguous identification of the user. Business symbol comprises an unambiguous symbol number to be used for individualization of the customer. This number can have varying lengths, e.g. seven characters. Passwords mean in this connection a predefined group of sec¬ ret words connected together and to one and only one business symbol. The contract provider has given passwords to the customer, who is properly identified during the contact. AID (A-number Identification) means signalling service of a digital exchange of the common telephone network or a mobile system, by which the caller can clearly be identified and also the call receiver can unambiguously determine the net¬ work address, wherefrom the contact is made. Countercall means a procedure, in which the call receiver calls back to the defined telephone number and can thus be sure, that he is dealing with the desired extension. Telematic service means a service to be used by a terminal or telephone, in which identification of an actual customer is required. One widely increasing field comprises the settle¬ ment of payments, especially fixed and as function of time changing payments to the service provider by the teleterminal device of a stationary telenetwork or mobile network. As an example can be mentioned among other things cinema and/or theater tickets, parking fees etc. Telematic service can be realized computerwise, whereby the customer is in connection by a telephone or a terminal to a data system, which the customer controls by speaking or key-tapping and which guides the customer by spoken or character-formed messages. Telema¬ tic service can be realized also so, that the actual customer takes contact by telephone to the person in customer service, and in this case this person has at his disposal a data sys¬ tem for identification of the customer. Examples of this include among other things payment transfers from one bank account to another and post and ticket sales. When the method according to the invention is used by a tele¬ terminal device opened as a business terminal, the A-subscri- ber takes on the grounds of the business symbol from his teleterminal device contact to the telematic service of the service provider, to whose files have in advance been recor- ded necessary subscriber data of the A-subscriber, whereby in the telematic service the information included in the busi¬ ness symbol announced by the A-subscriber will be compared with the information in the files of the telematic service provider. When these informations coincide, the service can be used and/or the payment can be delivered further on only after the proper password or other means identifying specifi¬ cally the A-subscriber, as the voice sample, has been given. According to the invention in order to use a telephone exten¬ sion of a stationary wirenet or a teleterminal device of a mobile suscription of a mobile network as a payment or bu¬ siness terminal the caller, i.e. A-subscriber, takes by the teleterminal device contact through the common telephone network to the provider of a contract or a service or product etc. liable to a charge, and the A-subscriber is identified by the A-identity or AID. For the A-subscriber has been in advance determined, preferably with a contract concerning the service, a business or contract symbol, whereby according to a special realization form of the method in compliance with the invention a centralized service center will be used, to which the A-subscriber takes contact by a predetermined se¬ lection. In the service center, when the call is coupled on, to the A-subscriber related register in the database of the service center will be recorded the payment and/or business transaction of the A-subscriber. The business or contract symbol will advantageously be used as a questioning key for the payment and/or business transaction by taking contact to the service center, and by the inquiry based on said business or contract symbol information is received in order to iden¬ tify the A-subscriber and payments or the business transacti¬ on. It is advantageous, that the service center of the telematic service is connected with the intelligent network underlay maintained by the teleoperator, and that the databases of the service center comprise:

Claims: - contract database 1, in which are kept all the contract made with the customer both in the data form required for data processing and in the facsimile form required for filing. - identification database 2, in which are kept the data needed for the customer identification and verification, as: customer number, business symbol, passwords 16 and/or voice samples needed for the speaker identification as well as the data associated with the status of the bu- siness symbol. - customer database 3, in which are kept the customer data required for the customer relation from address data to customer's bank connection and to which can also be con¬ nected information concerning persons outside the cliente- le. - transaction database, in which are recorded in registers relating to business symbols the data about the payment and/or business transactions made by the customers, where¬ by this data is updated to proper registers on the grounds of the AID-identification made in connection with the call and from which transaction database the customer or a person authorized for the verification of a payment and/or business transaction can, if desired, verify the transac¬ tion in question by using the customer's business symbol as a key. Databases are connected by certain computer protocol with the common telenetwork or a closed private network, to which have been connected devices utilizing the information in databa- ses. These devices can also participate in the telecommuni¬ cations and they include inter alia a service center of tele¬ matic services, having f.ex. a computer identifying DTMF- transmission signals or CVAP, Central Voice Applications Platform, which answers the call of the caller or A-subscri- ber. The A-subscriber then discusses with CVAP by depressing selectively the telephone keys. In the system the data is transferred coded for instance as DTMF-signals, which then can be transferred as digital, ana¬ log, electric data or as air pressure variations through computer or telephone networks or magnetic media. After the entry is made, the computer protocol performs the operations desired by the A-subscriber and updates the databases. Con¬ cerning payment transactions it can be stated that the pay¬ ments registered into the transaction databases are accounted by the teleoperator directly to the service provider in ques- tion and transferred to customer-related invoicing bases maintained by the teleoperator, by which bases payments are charged afterwards from the customer, f.ex. in connection with the telephone invoice. The invention has been described above only by some preferab¬ le opening and operational embodiments of the teleterminal. This of course does not restrict the invention, but various modification and alternatives as well as practical adapta¬ tions are possible within the inventive principle defined in the accompanying claims.

Inventors: HAEMAELAEINEN ANTTI, HAEMAELAEINEN, ANTTI
Applicants: FINLAND TELECOM OY, HAEMAELAEINEN ANTTI, HAEMAELAEINEN, ANTTI, TELECOM FINLAND OY
Application year: 1995
Main classification: H04M3
IPC codes: H04M3, H04M15, H04Q3, H04W4