US 8,619,948 B2Granted

Intelligent interactive automated notification system

AssigneeGroupCast, LLC

InventorsJoe Harley Moore, John William Lindemann, III, Scott Allen Schulte

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Abstract

A method and system are disclosed for intelligently notifying first parties via automated telephone calls regarding an absence by second parties at an event with minimal burden on a third party who manages attendance issues for the event. In a preferred embodiment, the event is a school session, the second parties are students who are supposed to attend the school session, the first parties are guardians for the students, and the third party is a school employee who handles attendance issues. Differentiated notifications are provided to first parties based on whether the first parties receive the notifications in person or in absentia. The first parties are also provided with opportunities for responding to the notifications while avoiding direct interactions with the third party.

Claims37

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

initiating a communication session with a communications device associated with a first party via an automated telephone call;
detecting whether the communication session is an in person communication with a user of the communications device or an in absentia communication session with the communications device;
in response to detecting that the communication session is the in person communication session, (1) sending a first automated notification to the user via the automated telephone call, the first automated notification configured to provide a notification regarding a non-attendance by a second party at an event, wherein the first automated notification is further configured to prompt the user for an explanation regarding the non-attendance and be interactive to permit the user to respond to the notification with the explanation during the automated telephone call, (2) receiving a response from the user to the first automated notification during the automated telephone call, (3) storing the received response, and (4) providing a third party with access to the stored response;
and
in response to detecting that the communication session is the in absentia communication session, sending a second automated notification to a messaging service associated with the communications device via the automated telephone call, the second automated notification configured to provide a notification regarding the non-attendance by the second party at the event and also including contact information associated with the third party;
and
wherein the initiating, detecting, first automated notification sending, receiving, storing, providing and second automated notification sending steps are performed by a processor;
and
wherein the second party comprises a student at a school, wherein the first party comprises a guardian for the student, wherein the communications device comprises a telephone having a telephone number that is associated with the guardian, wherein the event comprises a school session, and the method further comprising the processor personalizing the first and second automated notifications to the guardian regarding non-attendance by the student at the school session.

6 more elements

A system comprising:

a processor configured to (1) initiate a communication session with a communications device associated with a first party via an automated telephone call, (2) detect whether the communication session is an in person communication with a user of the communications device or an in absentia communication session with the communications device, (3) in response to detecting that the communication session is the in person communication session, (a) send a first automated notification to the user via the automated telephone call, the first automated notification configured to provide a notification regarding a non-attendance by a second party at an event, wherein the first automated notification is further configured to prompt the user for an explanation regarding the non-attendance and be interactive to permit the user to respond to the notification with the explanation during the automated telephone call, (b) receive a response from the user to the first automated notification during the automated telephone call, (c) store the received response, and (d) provide a third party with access to the stored response, and (4) in response to detecting that the communication session is the in absentia communication session, send a second automated notification to a messaging service associated with the communications device via the automated telephone call, the second automated notification configured to provide a notification regarding the non-attendance by the second party at the event and also including contact information associated with the third party, wherein the second party comprises a student at a school, wherein the first party comprises a guardian for the student, wherein the communications device comprises a telephone having a telephone number that is associated with the guardian, and wherein the event comprises a school session;
and
wherein the processor is further configured to personalize the first and second automated notifications to the guardian regarding non-attendance by the student at the school session.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/768,343Filed 27 Apr 2010
Published: US 2011/0261933 A127 Oct 2011
Granted: 31 Dec 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

H04M 3/53366
Voice mail systems: message disposing or creating aspects
H04M 2201/39
Electronic components, circuits, software, systems or apparatus used in telephone systems: using speech synthesis
H04M 2203/2016
Related to features of supplementary services: call initiation by network rather than by subscriber
H04M
Telephonic communication