Abstract
The present invention concerns a method, implemented by a telephone terminal in order to trigger an interactive application on recognition of the call number, the method comprising the following steps: the telephone number of a call made to a called number or of a call received from a calling number is compared to a list of predefined numbers; if said current number is present in said list of predefined numbers (110), an interactive application is activated and presented to the user (160), and if, furthermore, the call is an outgoing call (170), the telephone communication corresponding to said outgoing call is inhibited (180).
Claims
1. Method implemented by computing means of a telephone terminal for the activation of an interactive application on recognition of a call number, said terminal being configured to emit and receive audio calls and to animate and present interactive applications, the method comprising the steps in which: a current telephone number of a call sent to a called number or of a call received from a calling number is compared with a list of predetermined numbers, if said current number is present in said list of predetermined numbers (110), an interactive application is activated and presented to the user (160), and if furthermore the call is an outgoing call (170) the telephone communication corresponding to said outgoing call is inhibited (180).
2. Method according to claim 1, comprising the steps in which: said interactive application is notified of a current event (100) of the type: incoming call, outgoing call, paused call, resumed call, end of incoming call, end of outgoing call, missed incoming call or missed outgoing call, the type of said current event notified to said application is compared with a list of predetermined event types, if said type of current event notified is present in said list of predetermined event types (130), the interactive application is activated and presented to the user via a man/machine interface (160).
3. Method according to claim 1, comprising a step in which: the activation of said interactive application is also dependent on a verification of current conditions from a predetermined list of possible operating context conditions (140).
4. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that: said interactive application has at least one interface element enabling the user to establish a telephone communication (200).
5. Telephone terminal, characterised in that it comprises: a non-volatile memory module for storing a list of telephone numbers, a module for recognising an incoming call number and an outgoing call number, and a processor for: comparing a current called telephone number or a current calling telephone number with the list of stored telephone numbers, and executing an interactive application activating a man/machine interface presented to the user if said current number is present in said list of predetermined numbers, inhibiting an outgoing call if furthermore the current number is an outgoing call number.
6. Computer program, characterised in that it contains instructions for implementing the method according to claim 1, when these instructions are executed by a processor.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0039] The features of the invention mentioned above, as well as others, will emerge more clearly from a reading of the following description of example embodiments, said description being given in relation to the accompanying drawings, among which:
[0040] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating various steps of a method of activating an interactive application on recognition of a call number, explaining particularly the steps relating to the process flow for the notified event,
[0041] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating various steps implemented when the user clicks on an element of the interface of the interactive application, said element making it possible to send a telephone call,
[0042] FIG. 3 is flow diagram illustrating some of the steps implemented in an application of the method according to the invention, the purpose of which is to replace an outgoing call to an interactive voice server with voice messaging,
[0043] FIG. 4 contains examples of interactive interfaces when the telephony terminal is a smartphone used by the Android system,
[0044] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the principles corresponding to the steps of the method according to the invention implemented in the case where the terminal is a smartphone, and
[0045] FIG. 6 illustrates highly schematically a terminal within the meaning of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0046] With reference to FIG. 1: [0047] At step 100: on a telephone terminal, a process, also referred to as an interactive application, is notified of events relating to the telephone calls sent or received by the terminal; in a particular instance of the method, the process is notified of an event E, also referred to as the current event. The event E in question enables the process to have knowledge of the telephone number NA associated with the call, also referred to as the current telephone number. The event E also enables the process to access the type of event E, among the following types: incoming call, outgoing call, paused call, resumed call, end of incoming call, end of outgoing call, missed incoming call, missed outgoing call. The data structures associated with the event E comprise a field containing the telephone number NA and a field for identifying the type of event. [0048] At step 120, the event E is transmitted to the telephone communication management interface TCMI of the terminal, which processes it. The event is consumed and completed by the TCMI at this step. This allows normal processing for calls, in particular with the interface habitual to the user, thus giving the possibility for example, and without any constraining character, of taking or rejecting a received call, send a dialled call and pausing or resuming a current call. [0049] At step 110: the process makes a comparison of the number NA with a list of predetermined numbers LN stored in the non-volatile memory of the terminal; this makes it possible to activate the interactive application and to present the man/machine interface solely for certain pre-identified telephone numbers, in particular, but without any limitative character, for the numbers of customer services or contact services of businesses and organisations. If the number NA is not one of those in the list LN, the event E is transmitted to the telephone communication management interface TCMI of the terminal and step 120 is executed. This, if the called or calling telephone number is not one of those to be taken into account, allows normal processing of the calls. [0050] At step 130: the number NA is one of those in the list LN. The process determines whether the type of event E belongs to a non-empty list LT of predetermined event types; this makes it possible to differentiate the cases. In particular, this makes it possible to process only certain types of event. If the type of event E does not belong to the list LT, step 120 is executed, which causes the normal processing of the event, offering to the user the normal telephone call management interface. This makes it possible to present the man/machine interface of the interactive application only in the case where the triggering event is of one or more predetermined types. This, for example and without any limitative character, allows the presentation of the interactive interface only if the call is an outgoing call. This also makes it possible for example, without any limitative character, to present the interactive interface only in the case where the type of event notified is one of the two types “end of incoming call” or “end of outgoing call”, in order to present said interactive interface after a communication has actively and effectively been established and ended, the application then offering an interface to a satisfaction inquiry relating to the call that has just ended. [0051] At step 130: the number NA is in the list of numbers LN and the type of event E is in the list of event types LT. The process determines whether a set of conditions, also referred to as current conditions, is satisfied. The current conditions are evaluated at the time of notification of the event. The current conditions to be evaluated are those in a predetermined list LC of context conditions CN (standing for conditions necessary). The list LC may be empty. Each condition CN present in the list LC is evaluated according to the current context. This makes possible, for example and without any limitative character, to evaluate, at the present moment, a condition CN in the list LC specified such as “the apparatus has a connection to the internet”. Without this having a limitative character, the most usual context conditions are the following: the existence of a connection to an internet data network, the existence of a connection to a high-speed wireless data network, the fact that the system interface of the terminal uses a given language, the fact that the terminal is situated in a given country or geographical area, the fact that the current time lies in a certain set of time ranges; other context conditions and combinations of context conditions may exist according to the various specificities of the application in question. The evaluation of each condition of the list LC makes it possible to activate the interactive interface only under certain conditions. If at least one of the current conditions present in the list LC is not satisfied, step 120 is executed, resulting in a standard processing and an experience of the user similar to that experienced using a conventional telephone terminal, in particular a landline. [0052] At step 160: the number NA belongs to the list of numbers to be taken into account, the type of event E forms part of the types to be taken into account, and all the necessary conditions are satisfied. The interactive application then presents to the user a man/machine interface; this interface may be unique or differ according to the type of event notified. In particular, and without this have a limitative character, this interface may be the one presented by the terminal when the user navigates on the website of the calling or called entity; the interface may also be more specific and in particular may be that of an application loaded on the terminal, said application taking advantage of the type of event E. [0053] At step 170: the process determines whether the type of event E is of the “outgoing call” type. If such is the case, step 180 is executed and the event E is consumed and completed. The event E is then not transmitted to the TCMI module of the terminal, which has the effect that the audio communication is not actually established between the terminal and the subscriber to whom the call number NA belongs. In particular, and non-limitatively, in the cases where the telephone communication with the called number is processed by an IVS, the user then prevents navigation on the IVS of the called entity. If the type of event E is not “outgoing call”, then step 120 is executed. This enables the user to use the normal telephone interface, in particular and non-limitatively, in order to be able to reply to or reject a call.
With reference now to FIG. 2: [0054] At step 200, the interactive application is notified of an event characterising the fact that the user has activated an element of the interactive interface intended to initiate the sending of a telephone call. For example and non-limitatively, this event may be generated after the user has pressed an element of the button type of an interface of the touch-screen type, said button-type element containing the text “Call the customer service”. [0055] At step 210, the application invokes the creation of an event OC. The event OC is created with the type of event “outgoing call”. A call number is associated with the event OC. [0056] At step 220, the application transmits the event OC to the telephone communication management interface TCMI of the terminal that is processing said event. The event is consumed and completed by the TCMI at this step. This allows normal processing of the call. [0057] At step 230, the normal call management interface is activated, thus giving the possibility for the user, for example and without any constraining character, to pause, resume and terminate the call sent.
[0058] FIG. 3 illustrates some of the steps deemed to be relevant for an understanding of the present invention, steps implemented in an application of the method according to the invention, the purpose of which is to replace, by an interactive man/machine interface, a call sent to the voice messaging of the mobile telephony operator SFR. The subscribers of this mobile telephony operator dial the number 123 in order to access their voice messaging. The latter offers an interface of the interactive voice server type in which, among other things, pressing the key 1 makes it possible to listen to the archived messages in the chronological order of their recording and pressing the key 2 makes it possible to listen to new messages. The subscribers of this operator also have the possibility of using the IMAP (internet message access protocol) in order to have access to the recording of voice messages of their voice messaging in the form of emails, said recordings then being provided in the form of documents attached to said emails.
[0059] Step 300 of this figure corresponds to the start of step 140 of FIG. 1, the call number having been compared positively with the prerecorded number 123 and the type of event notified being “outgoing call”. At step 310, the application satisfies the following conditions: [0060] One of the following three conditions is satisfied: the terminal is connected to an internet network via WiFi, the terminal is connected to the internet via a 3G data network, the terminal is connected to the internet via a 4G data network [0061] The application can initiate a connection to the distant server imap.sfr.fr via the IMAP protocol using the identifiers and passwords of the user, previously given and recorded.
[0062] If at least one of these two conditions is not satisfied, the call is passed normally to the number 123, which is shown schematically by step 320, in every respect similar to step 120 in FIG. 1. Thus, in the case where it is not possible to effectively interact, through lack of connectivity or bandwidth, with the server imap.sfr.fr, the call to the number 123 is effectively passed and the user then uses the IVS of the voice messaging.
If the previous two conditions are satisfied, step 330 is implemented: [0063] The application establishes the connection to the server imap.sfr.fr using the IMAP protocol and the identifiers and passwords of the user previously given and recorded. [0064] The IMAP protocol is used to recover the list of available emails. [0065] The application selects, from said list of available emails, those containing voice-message recordings. To do this, the application identifies the emails where the subject begins with the keywords “Voice Message from”. An email the subject of which is “Voice Message from 0102030405 received on 24/11/2014 at 17.53” would thus be selected.
At step 340: [0066] The application displays the list of emails thus selected in reverse chronological order. [0067] The application enables the user to select the subject of an email thus displayed and then to listen to the voice message that is attached thereto using an interface element provided for this purpose. When the user activates said interface element, the application uses IMAP protocol to recover the email the subject of which was selected and extracts from the items attached to the email the voice message recorded in the form of an MP3 audio file to enable it to be listened to. [0068] The application enables the user to select a plurality of messages in order to delete them.
[0069] The application also enables the user to call the telephone number of the sender of a recorded message, extracting said telephone number from the subject of the email. The detection of the fact that the user has triggered the call to said telephone number is illustrated by step 350. When this detection has taken place, the application initiates the outgoing call as described previously and illustrated in FIG. 2, which is shown schematically by the link between step 350 and step 200.
[0070] FIG. 4a illustrates an example of an interactive man/machine interface presented on a telephone terminal used by the Android system. This interface is presented at the time of interception of an outgoing call to a telephone number of a customer service putting the user in contact with an interactive voice server. This interface is presented instead of the sending of the call. The field containing the text “Call” enables the user to send a telephone call to the telephone dialled by the user and the interception of which triggered the activation and the application and the presentation of the interactive man/machine interface.
[0071] FIG. 4b illustrates an example of an interactive man/machine interface presented on a terminal used by the Android system when the interactions of the user with the interactive application result in the latter displaying an interactive interface requesting contact with a partner. The area where the text “Call” appears enables the user to establish a telephone call to a telephone number, the latter being able to be predefined or supplied dynamically by the interactive application according to the current context.
[0072] FIG. 4c illustrates examples of interactive man/machine interfaces presented on a terminal used by the Android system when an outgoing call is intercepted. The area where the text “Call” appears enables the user to establish a telephone call to a telephone number, the latter being able to be predefined, for example the number initially dialled, or supplied dynamically by the interactive application according to the current context.
[0073] FIG. 5 illustrates the concatenation of the steps of a particular embodiment of the method according to the invention when the telephone terminal is a smartphone and the interactive interface is used as a touchscreen of the terminal to interact with the user.
[0074] Finally, FIG. 6 shows a telephone terminal TER comprising, within the meaning of the invention: [0075] antenna means ANT for sending or receiving calls, [0076] a non-volatile memory module M10 for storing a list of telephone numbers, [0077] a module M11 for recognising incoming call numbers and outgoing call numbers, [0078] and a processor PROC for: [0079] comparing a current called telephone number or a current calling telephone number with the list of stored telephone numbers, [0080] and executing an interactive application activating a man/machine interface presented to the user if said current number is present in said list of predetermined numbers, inhibiting an outgoing call if furthermore the current number is an outgoing call number.
[0081] Naturally the present invention is not limited to the example embodiments below: it extents to other variants.
[0082] Thus, for example, account is taken in the example embodiment presented here both of the call number and of the type of event notified. Nevertheless, it will be understood that at least one of these parameters such as the call number is already suitable by itself for deciding on an activation of the interactive application within the meaning of the invention.
