Interactive telephone lottery system with a verification code

#The present invention relates generally to an interactive telephone computer system and more specifically to interactive telephone computer system which may be used for various transactions which involve transfer of funds from an existing account.

#Several systems are presently available with which a person may use a telephone to interact with a remotely located base computer system. Most of these existing systems involve the use of a telephone with a touch-tone keypad. The user provides input to the system log processing a predetermined sequence of keys on the keypad.

#For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,563 (Riskin) discloses a system which utilizes a conventional touchpad telephone to transmit and receive voice messages from a database computer. The touch-tone signals from the telephone are relayed to an access processor which in turn communicates with a computer base. The computer base then communicates with a billing computer. The database computer then provides a signal to a response storage unit which is interfaced with a voice synthesizer to relay a signal to the access processor. The access processor then provides a voice response which is transmitted through the telephone receiver to the caller.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram, in block diagram form, illustrating a preferred embodiment of the interactive telephone system of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a preferred embodiment of the logic for the transaction processor.

#FIGS. 3a-3f illustrate a preferred embodiment of the logic for a lottery processor.

#Referring now specifically to FIG. 1, the telephone based interactive transaction system of the present invention is designated generally by reference numeral 10. For purposes of illustration portions of the description which follows are directed to a lottery game system. It will be recognized by those skilled in the art, however, that the invention is not limited to lottery games and contemplates other transactions such as catalog transactions or game shows.

#The system 10 includes a telephone 12, preferably of the touchtone keypad type, which is located at a customer's location 11. A customer's or user's location 11 is defined here as the customer's home, office or any other location in which the user may have access to a telephone. That is, a location that is not the location of the representative of the seller, store or service center to which a customer would normally have to travel for the transaction.

#The telephone 12 is connected, preferably over a conventional telephone connection network 110, to a digital switching unit (DSU) 14. The digital switching unit is preferably a general purpose stored program controlled, digital switching machine such as one that includes 1024 time slots. The digital switching unit 14 serves as the main interface to the public telephone switched network. A suitable digital switching unit is available from Summa Four, Inc., Manchestor, N.H. as an SDS-1000 specialty digital switching system. The digital switching unit is preferably equipped with a dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) receiver in order for the digital switching unit 14 to operatively receive the DTMF signals generated by the keypad of the telephone 12.