WO2013123866A1

WO2013123866A1 - Interactive ringback tone server, interactive ringback tone system, and method for providing interactive ringback tone service

Info

Publication number: WO2013123866A1
Application number: PCT/CN2013/071624
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ming-Shih Huang; Guo-Ju PAN; Li-Pei KE; Chein-Chun CHANG; Ming-Way LI
Original assignee: Shanghai Grand Trade Co.,Ltd.; Oh!Ya Holding Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2012-02-21
Filing date: 2013-02-17
Publication date: 2013-08-29
Also published as: CN103260137A

Abstract

An interactive ringback tone server includes a playback and detecting unit which accesses one of a plurality of ringback tone data included in a playback schedule for provision to a caller, and which detects a response from the caller when the accessed ringback tone data includes a prompting function to request for the response to the accessed ringback tone data from the caller, and a processing unit which provides a message corresponding to the detected response to the caller, which records information associated with the accessed ringback tone data and the message thus provided for historical statistics, and which updates content of a future message to be provided according to the historical statistics.

Description

INTERACTIVE RINGBACK TONE SERVER, INTERACTIVE RINGBACK TONE SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING INTERACTIVE

RINGBACK TONE SERVICE CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority of Chinese Patent

Application No . 201210041071.7 , filed on February 21 , 2012.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to provision of ringback tones, more particularly to an interactive ringback tone server and a method for providing interactive ringback tone service.

2. Description of the Related Art

During the process of mobile phone communications, a ringback tone is heard by a caller for indicating that the caller has successfully connected to a call recipient's telecommunication system. A default ringback tone of the telecommunication system is a repeating tone with intermittent pausing, which may be considered by some to be monotonous . For improving this situation and efficiently using waiting time before the call recipient answers a call, a service of ringback music which replaces the default ringback tone with popular music, funny audio content or audio advertising content is currently offered by mobile network operators . Even though the conventional service of ringback music may offer variety, a scheme of the ringback music is one-way broadcasting, and lacks interactive operation, such as an instantaneous response to the content of the ringback music, to be made by the caller. Thus, the conventional service of ringback music may not enable advertisers to gauge effectiveness of the ringback advertising, and is unable to provide suitable advertisement according to historical behavior of the caller.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENT ION

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an interactive ringback tone server capable of providing interactive ringback tone service.

According to this invention, an interactive ringback tone server comprises a playback and detecting unit, and a processing unit. The playback and detecting unit is configured to access one of a plurality of ringback tone data included in a playback schedule for provision to a caller who is making a call to a call recipient, and to detect a response from the caller when said one of the ringback tone data thus accessed includes a prompting function to request for the response to said one of the ringback tone data from the caller. The processing unit is coupled to the playback and detecting unit, and is configured to provide a message corresponding to the response detected by the playback and detecting unit to the caller, to record information associated with said one of the ringback tone data accessed by the playback and detecting unit and the message thus provided for historical statistics, and to update content of a future message to be provided according to the historical statistics.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for providing interactive ringback tone service to be implemented by a ringback tone server. The method comprises :

(A) configuring the ringback tone server to access one of a plurality of ringback tone data included in a playback schedule for provision to a caller who is making a call to a call recipient;

(B) configuring the ringback tone server to detect a response from the caller when said one of the ringback tone data accessed in step (A) includes a prompting function to request for the response to said one of the ringback tone data from the caller;

(C) configuring the ringback tone server to provide amessage corresponding to the response detected in step (B) to the caller;

(D) configuring the ringback tone server to record information associated with said one of the ringback tone data accessed in step (A) and the message provided in step (C) for historical statistics; and

(E) configuring the ringback tone server to update content of a future message to be provided according to the historical statistics.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an interactive ringback tone system capable of providing interactive ringback tone service.

According to this invention, an interactive ringback tone system comprises a switching scheme adapted to establish connection between a caller and a call recipient, and an interactive ringback tone server. The interactive ringback tone server includes a playback and detecting unit, and a processing unit coupled to the switching scheme and the playback and detecting unit . The playback and detecting unit is configured to access one of a plurality of ringback tone data included in a playback schedule for provision to the caller who is making a call to the call recipient, and to detect a response from the caller when said one of the ringback tone data thus accessed includes a prompting function to request for the response to said one of the ringback tone data from the caller. The processing unit is configured to provide a message corresponding to the response detected by the playback and detecting unit to the caller, to record information associated with said one of the ringback tone data accessed by the playback and detecting unit and the message thus provided for historical statistics, and to update content of a future message to be provided according to the historical statistics .

Effects of the present invention reside in that, after listening to content of said one of the ringback tone data, the caller is able to obtain the preferred message according to the prompting function included in the ringback tone data, and the interactive ringback tone server is able to predict which type of the messages the caller will have interest in according to the historical statistics, so as to update content of future messages to be provided to the callers. In this way, the effectiveness of the ringback advertising may be promoted .

BRIE F DE SCRI PT ION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a preferred embodiment of an interactive ringback tone server according to the present invention in combination with a communication system;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the preferred embodiment of the present invention illustrating a condition that communications between a caller and a call recipient are held through the same mobile phone operator ;

Figure 3 is a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of a method for providing interactive ringback tone service according to the present invention;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating communications established between the caller and the call recipient; and

Figures 5 and 6 are schematic diagrams illustrating communications between the interactive ringback tone server and the communication system.

DE TAI LED DE SCRI PT ION OF THE PRE FERRED EMBOD IMENT

Referring to Figure 1, a preferred embodiment of an interactive ringback tone server 3 according to the present invention is adapted to be used in combination with a switching scheme 2 in a communication system 100.

The switching scheme 2 includes a first base station 21, a first telephone exchange 22, a second telephone exchange 23, and a second base station 24 which are coupled to each other in the given order.

The interactive ringback tone server 3 comprises a processing unit 31 and a playback and detecting unit 32 which is coupled to the processing unit 31 and is to be coupled to the switching scheme 2. The processing unit 31 includes a ringback tone data module 311 which is coupled to the playback and detecting unit 32, a messaging module 312 which is coupled to the playback and detecting unit 32 and the ringback tone data module 311 and which is to be coupled to the switching scheme 2, and an analysis module 313 which is coupled to the ringback tone data module 311 and the messaging module 312.

Referring to Figure 1 to Figure 3, a preferred embodiment of a method for providing interactive ringback tone service to be implemented by the aforementioned interactive ringback tone server 3 will now be described.

First, in step S10, the interactive ringback tone server 3 is configured to generate a plurality of ringback tone data included in a playback schedule according to a plurality of preset advertising orders. In this embodiment, the ringback tone data module 311 of the processing unit 31 generates periodically the plurality of ringback tone data included in the playback schedule according to the plurality of preset advertising orders. Each of the advertising orders includes information associated with how many times an advertisers' advertisement is desired to be played within a certain date and/or time, and depending on the age, income, gender, home city, etc. of a call recipient a plurality of ringback audio files are to be provided correspondingly to a caller as the ringback tone data. It is noted that the information associated with age, income, gender, home city, etc. of the call recipient is related to a phone number of the call recipient. The ringback tone data module 311 is configured to arrange the ringback audio files in the playback schedule, and each of the ringback audio files is assigned a ringback tone ID to serve as a respective one of the ringback tone data. Types of the ringback audio files include information available for caller retrieval, goods promotional content , sweeps takes information, ringback music, ringback advertising, etc. Moreover, content of some of the ringback audio files may include a prompting function to request for a response to the ringback audio files from the caller, i.e., voice prompting content such as "Press key 2 to obtain coupons" or "Press key 3 to obtain a sweepstake ticket", etc. The ringback tone data module 311 is further configured to send the playback schedule to the playback and detecting unit 32.

Referring to Figure 3 and Figure 4, in step S20, the interactive ringback tone server 3 is configured to detect whether a connection is to be established between the caller and call recipient via the switching scheme 2. In this embodiment, when the caller is dialing the phone number of the call recipient, the caller is connected to, via the first base station 22 near the caller, the first telephone exchange 22 of the caller' s mobile phone operator, and is subsequently connected to the second telephone exchange 23 of the call recipient's mobile phone operator via a mobile communication switching system. In this way, the caller may be connected to the second base station 24 near the call recipient so as to communication with the call recipient .

Referring to Figure 2 , itisnotedthat when the caller and the call recipient are serviced by the same mobile phone operator, the caller is making a call to the call recipient via the same network. That is, after the caller has connected to the first base station 21 of the caller' s mobile phone operator, the first telephone exchange 22 is capable of establishing communication connections between the caller and the call recipient via the second base station 24.

Referring to Figure 3 and Figure 5, in step S30, the playback and detecting unit 32 is configured to access one of the plurality of ringback tone data included in the playback schedule for provision to the caller who is making the call to the call recipient according to the playback schedule. In this embodiment, when the second telephone exchange 23 detects that the call recipient has applied for a ringback tone service, the second telephone exchange 23 then establishes connection with the playback and detecting unit 32.

The playback and detecting unit 32, via the connection with the second telephone exchange 23, transmits said one of the ringback tone data included in the playback schedule to the caller, and determines whether said one of the ringback tone data thus accessed includes the prompting function, such as the aforementioned voice prompting content.

Referring once again to Figure 2, it is noted that when the caller and the call recipient are served by the same mobile phone operator, connection between the switching scheme 2 and the playback and detecting unit 32 may be established via the first telephone exchange 22.

Referring to Figure 3 and Figure 6, in step S40, the playback and detecting unit 32 is configured to detect the response from the caller when said one of the ringback tone data accessed in step S30 includes the prompting function to request for the response to said one of the ringback tone data from the caller. In this embodiment, after the caller has listened to the voice prompting content in said one of the ringback tone data associated with adverting and sweepstakes, the caller may send the response by means of a keypad with the dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) function. For example, when the caller pressed a key "1", the playback and detecting unit 32 is configured to detecting a DTMF signal in the request from the caller, and to determine a symbol associated with the key (for example, "0-9", "#" and "*") that was pressed by the caller . The playback and detecting unit 32 is further configured to determine the ringback tone ID of said one of the ringback tone data provided to the caller according to the phone number of the call recipient, and transmits results of the detection and determination (i.e., the symbol of the key and the ringback tone ID) thus made and a mobile subscription identification number (MSIN) which relates to a phone number of the caller to the messaging module 312.

In step S50, the interactive ringback tone server 3 is configured to provide a message corresponding to the response detected in step S40 to the caller.

In this embodiment, according to the ringback tone ID and the MSIN received from the playback and detecting unit 32, the messaging module 312 determines, through the ringback tone data module 311, message content which corresponds to the ringback tone ID and the symbol of the key, and then provides the message which contains the message content to the caller. For example, content of said one of the ringback tone data includes "Press key 1 to obtain cola coupons, Press key 2 to obtain fries coupons , Press key 3 to obtain a free sweepstake ticket". If the caller presses key "3", the messaging module 312 determines, through the ringback tone data module 311, that the message content corresponding to the symbol "3" includes one of a predetermined content and a unique serial number. Accordingly, the messaging module 312 is configured to generate the message that contains the predetermined content to the caller, and alternatively to generate a message containing a unique serial number to serve as a ticket to the sweepstakes for provision to the caller.

More specifically, the switching scheme 2 further includes a first message service center 25 which is coupled to the first telephone exchange 22 via the first base station 21, and a second message service center 26 which is coupled to the first message service center

25. The messaging module 312 of the present invention is to be coupled to the second message service center

26. When the messaging module 312 correspondingly generates the message, the messaging module 312 transmits, via the second message service center 26, the message thus generated to the first message service center 25. Subsequently, the first message service center 25 transmits the message to the first base station 21 near the caller so as to provide the message to the caller . Format of the message may be one of short message service (SMS), enhanced messaging service (EMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), messages from mobile applications, etc., and is not limited to the disclosure herein.

Referring to Figure 1 and Figure 3, in step S60, the interactive ringback tone server 3 is configured to record information associated with at least one of said one of the ringback tone data accessed in step S30, the caller, and the message provided in step S50 for historical statistics.

In this embodiment, the playback and detecting unit 32 records the phone number of the caller, the type and content of said one of the ringback tone data, the time at which said one of the ringback tone data was provided, content of the message provided by the messaging module 312, a number of times the message was provided, the time at which the message was provided, functions of the message, and the response made by the caller for historical statistics, and transmits the historical statistics to the ringback tone data module 311 for storage therein.

In step S70, the interactive ringback tone server 3 is configured to update content of a future message to be provided according to the historical statistics.

In this embodiment, the analysis module 313 is configured to determine statistical information associated with messages obtained by the caller, for example, a number of times the responses from the caller were detected within each of preset time periods, a total number of the responses from the caller, the time period during which a highest number of times the responses from the caller were detected, and a type of the message corresponding to a highest number of the responses from the caller, according to the playback schedule in the ringback tone data module 311 and the historical statistics. It is noted the statistical information is not limited to the disclosure of this embodiment. Subsequently, the analysis module 313 is configured to update the content of the future message to be provided to callers. For example, for the following callers, a free coupon message of "One piece of free fried chicken" may be replaced with "One serving of free hamburger". The analysis module 313 is further capable of predicting which kind of message is preferred by the caller (such as one of fried chicken and hamburger) according to the playback schedule in the ringback tone data module 311 and the historical statistics, and updating a default message in the messaging module 312 for provision to the caller. The flow then goes back to step S10.

To sum up, in the present invention, aside from providing a variety of interactive ringback tones having promotion or sweepstake functions to attract interest of the callers and providing a corresponding message thereto in response to the caller' s demand, the interactive ringback tone server 3 that implements the method for providing interactive ringback tone service is further configured to gather statistics associated with which types of the functions provided in the ringback tone data the caller is most interested in an interactive manner, so as to update the future messages to be provided according to the historical statistics. In this way, precision marketing may be achieved.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.

Claims

WHAT I S CLAIMED I S :

1. An interactive ringback tone server comprising: a playback and detecting unit configured to

access one of a plurality of ringback tone data included in a playback schedule for provision to a caller who is making a call to a call recipient, and detect a response from the caller when said one of the ringback tone data thus accessed includes a prompting function to request for the response to said one of the ringback tone data from the caller; and

a processing unit coupled to said playback and detecting unit, and configured to

provide a message corresponding to the response detected by said playback and detecting unit to the caller,

record information associated with said one of the ringback tone data accessed by said playback and detecting unit and the message thus provided for historical statistics, and

update content of a future message to be provided according to the historical statistics.

2. The interactive ringback tone server as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said processing unit is further configured to generate the ringback tone data included in the playback schedule according to a plurality of preset advertising orders.

3. The interactive ringback tone server as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the response from the caller that is detected by said playback and detecting unit is in the form of dual-tone multi-frequency signaling.

4. The interactive ringback tone server as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the ringback tone data is associated with one of information available for caller retrieval, goods promotional content, and sweepstakes information .

5. The interactive ringback tone server as claimed in Claim 1, wherein said processing unit is configured to update the content of the future message based on at least one of the following information determined from the historical statistics:

a number of times the responses from the caller were detected within each of preset time periods;

a total number of the responses from the caller; the time period during which a highest number of times the responses from the caller were detected; and a type of the message corresponding to a highest number of the responses from the caller.

6. A method for providing interactive ringback tone service to be implemented by a ringback tone server, the method comprising:

7. The method as claimed in Claim 6, further comprising, prior to step (A) , the step of configuring the ringback tone server to generate the ringback tone data included in the playback schedule according to a plurality of preset advertising orders.

8. The method as claimed in Claim 6, wherein, in step (B), the response from the caller that is detected by the ringback tone server is in the form of dual-tone multi- frequency signaling.

9. The method as claimed in Claim 6, wherein, in step (A), the ringback tone data is associated with one of information available for caller retrieval, goods promotional content, and sweepstakes information.

10. The method as claimed in Claim 6, wherein, in step (E), the ringback tone server is configured to update the content of the future message based on at least one of the following information determined from the historical statistics:

11. An interactive ringback tone system comprising: a switching scheme adapted to establish connection between a caller and a call recipient; and an interactive ringback tone server including a playback and detecting unit configured to

access one of a plurality of ringback tone data included in a playback schedule for provision to the caller who is making a call to the call recipient, and

detect a response from the caller when said one of the ringback tone data thus accessed includes a prompting function to request for the response tosaidoneoftheringbacktonedata from the caller, and

a processing unit coupled to said switching scheme and said playback and detecting unit, and configured to

12. The interactive ringback tone system as claimed in Claim 11, wherein said processing unit is further configured to generate the ringback tone data included in the playback schedule according to a plurality of preset advertising orders.

13. The interactive ringback tone system as claimed in Claim 11, wherein the response from the caller that is detected by said playback and detecting unit is in the form of dual-tone multi-frequency signaling.

14. The interactive ringback tone system as claimed in Claim 11, wherein the ringback tone data is associated with one of information available for caller retrieval, goods promotional content, and sweepstakes information .

15. The interactive ringback tone system as claimed in Claim 11, wherein said processing unit is configured to update the content of the future message based on at least one of the following information determined from the historical statistics:

a total number of the responses from the caller; the time period during which a highest number of times the responses from the caller were detected; and atypeofthemessagecorrespondingtoa highest number of the responses from the caller.