Abstract:
The graphical display capability and the digital data communication capability of wireless mobile handsets are used to present a customized directory of a called enterprise on the display screen of the mobile handset to allow the caller to identify their desired call destination by name. A directory database stores directory information for each call destination of the enterprise. An incoming call to an enterprise IVR unit causes a directory manager to generate a request for user data which is forwarded to the mobile handset via a gateway. The mobile handset opens a data connection and forwards the user data to the directory manager. The directory manager evaluates at least one access rule in response to the user data to select relevant directory information from the directory database, and the directory manager forwards the relevant directory information to the mobile handset for display. Then the user of the mobile handset selects a call destination based on the displayed directory information.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable. 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH 
     Not Applicable. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates in general to telephone interfacing between an incoming caller and an automated response system for an enterprise such as a business, institutional, governmental or other enterprise organization, and, more specifically, to pushing an organizational directory to a mobile handset of a caller to facilitate selection of a desired call destination. 
     A typical business or other organizational enterprise (e.g., a governmental or educational entity) may have many members or employees of the organization who are reachable by respective telephone extensions. An enterprise system may use a public branch exchange (PBX) that includes a main telephone number associated with a central system wherein the central system interacts with callers and redirects calls to appropriate destinations within the PBX. The interface function is typically automated using an interactive voice response (IVR) unit that plays audio prompts and collects responses from the caller. The prompts typically follow a menu structure that is navigated by the caller by speaking various commands or by pressing keypad buttons on the telephone device to produce the commands as DTMF tones. 
     A typical person has an easier time remembering the name of a person they want to call rather than an extension number of that person. Systems are known wherein an IVR menu provides access to the names of people available at an enterprise, such as by entering the first few letters of their name using the keypad and then providing prompts to confirm the selection. However, such systems can be cumbersome and are not helpful when the caller can remember neither the person&#39;s name nor their extension number. Furthermore, prior systems have not been adaptable to take into account the actual availability of the callee or to provide the call recipients with any control over which callers can gain access to their extensions. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved directory system for providing contact information when a caller calls into a business or other enterprise exchange. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention uses the graphical display capability and the digital data communication capability of wireless mobile handsets to present a customized directory of a called enterprise on the display screen of the mobile handset to allow the caller to identify their desired call destination by name. 
     In one aspect of the invention, a system is provided for displaying directory information on a mobile handset of a user. A carrier network carries telecommunication calls to and from the mobile handset. An enterprise unit is coupled to the carrier network and serving an enterprise having a plurality of call destinations. A directory database stores directory information for each call destination including a respective destination identifier and a respective access rule. A directory manager is coupled to the directory database and the enterprise unit, wherein the directory manager generates a request for user data in response to a call from the mobile handset to the enterprise unit. The carrier network includes a gateway for forwarding the request from the directory manager to the mobile handset. The mobile handset forwards the user data to the directory manager. The directory manager evaluates at least one access rule in response to the user data to select relevant directory information from the directory database, and the directory manager forwards the relevant directory information to the mobile handset for display. Then the user of the mobile handset selects a call destination based on the displayed directory information. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram showing one representative embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a data table showing an example of a directory database. 
         FIG. 3  illustrates the act of displaying a directory on a mobile handset. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart of one preferred embodiment of a method of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a signaling diagram showing a first preferred embodiment of the invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a signaling diagram showing a second preferred embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     When the user of a wireless mobile handset (such as a CDMA phone) calls a business or other enterprise wherein calls to a main exchange are distributed to a plurality of call destinations within the enterprise, the present invention temporarily makes available a directory of relevant call destinations of the business on the wireless handset. Instead of being prompted to dial the extension of the person to whom the caller wishes to speak, she can open the provided contact list and select the name of the person or the department desired. The invention further allows the business or the identified persons within the business to control the circumstances under which particular call destinations will be included in the directory supplied to the caller based on such factors as the phone number of the caller and the location of the caller. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a mobile handset  10  is wirelessly coupled to a carrier network  11 , such as a CDMA-based network. A voice network  12  (such as a public switched telephone network) connects carrier network  11  to an enterprise system  14 . Enterprise system  14  is further coupled to carrier network  11  by a data network  13  (such as the Internet). Mobile handset  10  can send and receive both voice and data signals. It includes a graphical display  15  and a keypad  16 . 
     Carrier network  11  includes a mobile switching center  17  to establish voice calls from mobile handset  10  through voice network  12  to a business exchange unit  20  in enterprise system  14 . Business exchange unit  20  may preferably comprise an interactive voice response (IVR) unit associated with a PBX having a plurality of call destinations (not shown) in the form of a plurality of phone extensions associated with people within the enterprise. As used herein, enterprise means any business, governmental, institutional, educational, or other group dealing with the public and having a common phone system. 
     Carrier network  11  further includes a multimedia access gateway  18  for providing data connections between mobile handset  10  and data network  13 , wherein the data connections can also be made to other remote data entities such as a directory manager  21  in enterprise system  14 . Directory manager  21  is coupled to business exchange  20  and to a directory database  22 . Directory manager  21  communicates with a push proxy gateway  19  in carrier network  11  to establish a data connection with mobile handset  10  as described in greater detail below. Directory database  22  is configured to provide the customized directory information to be transferred over the data connection to the mobile handset in appropriate circumstances. Configuration of the directory database may be performed by users for their individual records via a user access terminal  23  connected to data network  13 . Thus, a business employee can connect their personal computer to directory manage  21  in order to remotely configure access rules in directory database  22  that determine what directory information, if any, will be sent to the calling party at particular times and under specific circumstances. 
     In operation, a call initiated from mobile handset  10  by dialing a telephone number associated with business exchange  20  is set up via MSC  17  and voice network  12 . Business exchange  20  answers the call and provides an audio prompt including a choice to download a directory associated with the call destinations within the business enterprise. Provided that mobile handset  10  is preconfigured with a client application to perform the functions associated with retrieving and displaying the directory, the calling party selects the corresponding menu command thereby causing business exchange  20  to launch the directory process of the present invention. 
     The directory retrieval process is coordinated between directory manager  21  and mobile handset  10  as follows. Business exchange  20  informs directory manager  21  of the telephone number of the called party (e.g., obtained from a caller ID signal). Directory manager  21  then attempts to learn additional information about the caller as the basis for retrieving appropriate directory information. In order to obtain this user data, a data connection must be established between mobile handset  10  and directory manager  21 . Therefore, push proxy gateway  19  is provided in carrier network  11  so that directory manager  21  can push its network address to mobile handset  10  which then opens a socket for a data session with directory manager  21 . Once the data connection is established, user data that is preconfigured within the client application on handset  10  is transferred to directory manager  21  which applies access rules to determine appropriate directory information to be extracted from directory database  22 . Then directory manager  21  sends the extracted directory information to handset  10  via the existing data connection. Alternatively, the data may be sent via a different route such as an SMS text message or email to handset  10 . The directory data may be presented as comma delimited text which is fed into a graphical display on display  15  allowing the caller to review the directory information and to select a desired call destination based on the displayed names. 
     Example contents within directory database  22  are shown in  FIG. 2  which is organized as a plurality of call destination records  25 . Preferably, each record includes a directory name such as the name of a person (e.g., Tom, Harry, or Joe) or a function or department (e.g., accounting, service, or receptionist). Each record includes a destination identifier (such as a phone extension) for each call destination name. The records further include access rules that may be queried by the directory manager to determine relevant contact information that should be included in the data to be returned to any particular caller. The access rules may take the form of a scope or a filter, for example. A “scope” access rule may include a public scope wherein the associated call destination (with the name and destination identifier) is provided with every directory transfer to a caller (i.e., it is always relevant). Other scopes include records which may be restricted or hidden according to the application of various filters. Any particular scope may also include certain time blocks for which it is valid. In other words, a particular contact may be public at certain times and restricted at other times. 
     A “filter” access rule may include the location of the caller as determined from the user data obtained from the mobile handset. For example, the handset client application may monitor its location to determine a city where it is presently located. The access filter defines a relevant location as a city designated “x”. If the cities match, then the record is relevant and the contact information of that person is included in the directory data sent to the client application. Another filter may be based on the actual identity of the caller as determined by the caller&#39;s phone number or from other information stored in the mobile handset. The filter defines the identities of callers who would be allowed to see the hidden contact. Such a “white list” of accepted callers to the hidden contact may also include time blocks during which the white list status is valid and other time blocks during which the contact will not be shown to the caller. 
     Once relevant information is extracted from the directory database based on a query from the directory manager, it is returned to mobile handset  10  and displayed as shown in  FIG. 3 . The relevant directory information is transmitted to a directory application  26  such as an application program interface (API) which formats the name portion of the directory information and displays a directory selection menu  27  on display  15 . For example, each name in the directory may be assigned to a respective key on the keypad so that the user may press a corresponding key, causing the directory application to capture the key press and send a corresponding destination identifier back to the directory manager so that the voice call to the business exchange can be redirected to the desired call destination. Alternatively, the destination identifier may be sufficiently complete to allow mobile handset  10  to establish a new call to the desired call destination.  FIG. 3  also shows a memory  28  for storing the user data, which may include preconfigured data and real-time data that is determined by application  26  as needed. 
     One preferred embodiment of a method of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 4 . The mobile user makes a call to a business or other enterprise in step  30 . The business exchange or enterprise unit initiates a data connection in step  31 , for example by pushing a message to the mobile handset application wherein the message includes a network address for the directory manager. In step  32 , the enterprise unit is obtains the caller&#39;s user data (i.e., predetermined items of information of the type used to define relevant directory information according to the various access rules that may be employed). Based on the caller data, the directory manager queries the directory database in step  33 . The relevant directory information resulting from the query is sent to the mobile application in step  34 . In step  35 , the directory information is displayed on the handset and the mobile user makes a selection. In step  36 , a voice call is connected to the selected call destination, and the directory can be removed from the display on the mobile handset. 
     A more detailed signal flow for a first embodiment is shown in  FIG. 5 . Transactions occur between the separate entities of the client application  40 , business exchange unit  41 , directory manager  42 , directory database  43 , and call destination  44 . In transaction  45 , a call is connected between mobile client  40  and business exchange unit  41 . The business exchange unit  41  notifies the directory manager of the call in transaction  46 . In transaction  47 , directory manager  42  requests user data (via the push proxy gateway), wherein the requested user data may include location and other biographic information. In transaction  48 , client application  40  returns the user data to directory manager  42 . 
     In transaction  49 , directory manager  42  creates a criteria C based on the user data, wherein criteria C may identify the user location, the identity of the business exchange being service by the current process, a profile status of the caller, or other factors. In transaction  50 , directory manager  42  queries directory database  43  in order to find relevant directory information matching criteria C. Based on criteria C, a result set is returned from directory database  43  to directory manager  42  in transaction  51 . In transaction  52 , the result set is returned to client application  40  as the relevant contact information for display as a directory on the mobile handset. 
     After reviewing the display directory, the caller indicates a selection for a call destination causing client application  40  to request redirection to a destination D in transaction  53 . The redirection request is sent via the data connection to directory manager  42 . Directory manager  42  then forwards the redirection request to business exchange unit  41  in transaction  54 . The IVR unit within business exchange unit  41  redirects the voice call to destination  44  in transaction  55 . At the conclusion of the call, the caller hangs up and a disconnect message is provided to business exchange unit  41  in transaction  56 . Thereafter, the displayed directory of contacts is removed from the mobile handset in transaction  57 . Alternatively, the directory may be removed after a time out, independently of the call termination. 
     An alternative embodiment is shown in  FIG. 6  wherein voice and data call set up and user data exchange are identical for transactions  60  through  67 , resulting in the display of the directory information on the mobile handset. The method of  FIG. 6  differs in that the business exchange unit is not employed to redirect the existing call. Instead, the mobile handset initiates a separate voice call to the desired destination. This embodiment allows contact information to be shown beyond the extensions of the local PBX. 
     More specifically, client application  40  may request a full identifier for the selected call destination in transaction  68  if it was not already sent as part of the directory data. The full identifier is returned from directory manager  42  to client application  40  in transaction  69 . The mobile handset disconnects from business exchange  40  at transaction  70  and then a new call is set up to call destination  44  in transaction  71 . Thereafter, the directory is removed from the mobile handset display in transaction  72  after call disconnection or a timeout.