U.S. patent application number 11/608894 was filed with the patent office on 2007-04-12 for providing access to captured data using a multimedia player.
This patent application is currently assigned to WITNESS SYSTEMS, INC.. Invention is credited to Pierpaolo Frigerio, Kondal Reddy Gundla, Jeffrey Michael Iannone.
Application Number | 20070083540 11/608894 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36318282 |
Filed Date | 2007-04-12 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070083540 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Gundla; Kondal Reddy ; et
al. |
April 12, 2007 |
Providing Access to Captured Data Using a Multimedia Player
Abstract
A multimedia player is provided access to recorded multimedia
data including data of a first media type, e.g., voice, and at
least a second media type, e.g., text, exchanged between at least
one user and at least one server. The recorded multimedia data of
the first media type is synchronized with the recorded multimedia
data of the second media type, e.g., by matching timing
information, and the synchronized data is combined. The combined
data is then rendered into an audio-video format compatible with
the multimedia player. The rendered data may then be saved into a
file accessible by the multimedia player. The rendered data may be
sent to a multimedia player, or a hyperlink may be created for
accessing the rendered data by the multimedia player. The recorded
data may be annotated with multimedia data. The user may be
notified that the multimedia data has been recorded.
Inventors: |
Gundla; Kondal Reddy;
(Suwanee, GA) ; Frigerio; Pierpaolo; (Marietta,
GA) ; Iannone; Jeffrey Michael; (Alpharetta,
GA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FISH & RICHARDSON P.C.
P.O BOX 1022
Minneapolis
MN
55440-1022
US
|
Assignee: |
WITNESS SYSTEMS, INC.
300 Colonial Center Parkway
Roswell
GA
30076
|
Family ID: |
36318282 |
Appl. No.: |
11/608894 |
Filed: |
December 11, 2006 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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10136718 |
Apr 30, 2002 |
7149788 |
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11608894 |
Dec 11, 2006 |
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10061469 |
Jan 31, 2002 |
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10136718 |
Apr 30, 2002 |
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10061489 |
Jan 31, 2002 |
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10136718 |
Apr 30, 2002 |
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10061491 |
Jan 31, 2002 |
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10136718 |
Apr 30, 2002 |
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10058911 |
Jan 28, 2002 |
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10136718 |
Apr 30, 2002 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 ;
707/999.101; 707/E17.009 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 67/2819 20130101;
H04L 63/00 20130101; H04L 67/02 20130101; H04M 3/5175 20130101;
H04M 3/2281 20130101; H04L 67/28 20130101; G06Q 40/12 20131203;
H04M 3/42221 20130101; G06F 16/40 20190101; H04L 63/30
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
707/101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 7/00 20060101
G06F007/00 |
Claims
1-52. (canceled)
53. A method for providing access to a multimedia player of
recorded data including data of a first media type and at least a
second media type exchanged between at least one user and at least
one server, the method comprising the steps of: synchronizing the
recorded data of the first media type with the recorded data of the
second media type; converting the synchronized data of the first
and second media types to a common format; combining the converted
data; and wherein the step of synchronizing comprises matching
timing data included in the data of the first media type with
timing data included in the data of the second media type; wherein
the data of the first media type is generated from an exchange
between a call center agent and a customer, and the data of the
second media type is based upon screen data from a computer
associated with the call center agent captured during the exchange;
wherein the data of a first media type and the data of a second
media type were recorded independently in an encrypted format;
wherein the multimedia player is inoperable to present either of
the first and second media types prior to the converting step.
54. The method of claim 53, further comprising saving the converted
combined data into a file accessible by the multimedia player;
wherein the multimedia player operates on a remote computer
residing outside of the call center, and wherein the remote
computer is inoperable to replay data of either the first media
type or second media type.
55. The method of claim 54, further comprising creating a hyperlink
to the saved data for accessing the multimedia player.
56. The method of claim 54, further comprising sending the saved
file to the multimedia player.
57. The method of claim 53, wherein the combined data is converted
into an audio-video format comprising an audio video interleave
(AVI) format, a moving pictures expert group (MPEG) format, or
similar multimedia format.
58. The method of claim 53, wherein the first media type is voice,
and the second media type is screen data text.
59. The method of claim 53, wherein the recorded data exchanges
comprises a voice exchange, a voice and text exchange, a web chat,
instant messaging, e-mail, or an internet transaction.
60. The method of claim 53 , wherein the user is a web browser or a
web server, and the server is a web server.
61. The method of claim 60, wherein the user is a web browser or a
web server outside the enterprise, and the server is a web server
in communication with at least one agent within the enterprise;
and, wherein the recorded data includes simultaneous exchanges
between a plurality of agents and a user, the agent and a plurality
of users, or a plurality of agents and a plurality of users.
62. The method of claim 61, wherein the multimedia player is
provided access to recorded data including exchanges between a
plurality of agents and at least one user as one continuous
exchange.
63. The method of claim 53, wherein only data that satisfies
predetermined business rules is recorded.
64. The method of claim 53, further comprising: annotating the
recorded data with annotation data of a first media type,
annotation data of at least a second media type, or a combination
of annotation data of the first media type and the second media
type; wherein the step of annotation is performed upon playback of
the recorded data via the multimedia player.
65. The method of claim 64, wherein the annotation data is
accessible during a subsequent playbacks.
66. The method of claim 53, further comprising constructing an
audit trail.
67. The method of claim 53, further comprising: notifying the user
that the data has been recorded, wherein the step of notifying
comprises sending at least one of a page, a personal digital
assistant (PDA) message, a wireless application protocol (WAP)
message, an e-mail message or a cellular phone message to the user;
wherein the step of notifying comprises sending a third generation
(3G) cellular phone message to the user.
68. The method of claim 53, wherein the data of the first media
type includes voice data and time stamps, the second media type
includes text data and time codes, and the step of synchronizing
comprises matching the time stamps with the time codes.
69. The method of claim 53, wherein the multimedia player is
located on a computer remote to the call center, and does not
include software which would enable the computer to replay either
of the encrypted format of the first and second media types, and
wherein the combined data substantially represents a record of the
call center agent's activities with the customer during a call
center interaction.
70. The method of claim 53, wherein the data further comprises data
of a third media type, wherein the data of the third media type
comprises data exchanged between a customer and a server.
71. The method of claim 70, wherein the server is a web server
residing at an enterprise associated with the call center.
72. A system for providing access to a multimedia player of
recorded data including data of a first media type and at least a
second media type exchanged between at least one user and at least
one server, the system comprising: a synchronization module
configured to synchronize the recorded data of the first media type
with the recorded data of the second media type, the
synchronization module being operable to match timing data included
in the data of the first media type with timing data included in
the data of the second media type; a mixer configured to combine
the synchronized data; and a format conversion module configured to
convert the combined data in a format compatible with the
multimedia player; wherein the data of the first media type is
based upon an exchange between a call center agent and a customer,
and the data of the second media type is based upon screen data
from a computer associated with the call center agent captured
during the exchange; wherein the data of a first media type and the
data of a second media type comprise encrypted data, and the
multimedia player is inoperable to present one or more of the first
or second media types prior to the format conversion.
73. The system of claim 72, further comprising means for saving the
converted combined data into a file accessible by the multimedia
player.
74. The system of claim 73, further comprising a hyperlink creation
module configured to generate a hyperlink to saved data, the
hyperlink being configured to facilitate accessing the multimedia
player.
75. The system of claim 73, further comprising an interface
configured to send a saved file to the multimedia player.
76. The system of claim 72, wherein the combined data is converted
into an audio-video format comprising an audio video interleave
(AVI) format, a moving pictures expert group (MPEG) format, or
other similar multimedia format.
77. The system of claim 72, wherein the first media type is voice,
and the second media type is screen data.
78. The system of claim 72, wherein the recorded data exchanges
comprises at least one voice exchange, a voice and text exchange, a
wet chat, instant messaging, e-mail, or an internet
transaction.
79. The system of claim 72, wherein the user is a web browser or a
web server, and the server is a web server.
80. The system of claim 79, wherein the user is a web browser or a
web server outside the enterprise and the server is a web server in
communication with at least one agent within the enterprise.
81. The system of claim 80, wherein the recorded data includes
simultaneous exchanges between a plurality of agents and a user,
the agent and a plurality of users, or a plurality of agents and a
plurality of users.
82. The system of claim 80, wherein the multimedia player is
provided access to recorded data including exchanges between a
plurality of agents and at least one user as one continuous
exchange.
83. The system of claim 72, wherein only data that satisfies
predetermined business rules is recorded.
84. The system of claim 72, further comprising: an interface module
configured to enable annotation of the recorded data with
annotation data of a first media type, annotation data of at least
a second media type, or a combination of annotation data of the
first media type and the second media type, wherein the first media
type is voice, and the second media type is text.
85. The system of claim 84, wherein annotation is performed upon
playback of the recorded data via the multimedia player.
86. The system of claim 85, wherein the annotation data is
accessible during a subsequent playback.
87. The system of claim 72, further comprising means for
constructing an audit trail.
88. The system of claim 72, further comprising means for notifying
the user that the data has been recorded; wherein the means for
notifying sends a page, a personal digital assistant (PDA) message,
a wireless application protocol (WAP) message, an e-mail message to
the user, or a cellular phone message to the user.
89. The system of claim 88, wherein the means for notifying sends a
third generation (3G) cellular phone message to the user.
90. The system of claim 72, wherein the data of the first media
type includes voice data and time stamps, the second media type
includes text data and time codes, and the step of synchronizing
comprises matching the time stamps with the time codes.
91. A method for providing access to a multimedia player of
recorded data including data of a first media type and at least a
second media type exchanged between at least one user and at least
one server the method comprising the steps of: synchronizing the
recorded data of the first media type with the recorded data of the
second media type; combining the synchronized data; and converting
the combined data in a format compatible with the multimedia
player; wherein the step of synchronizing comprises matching timing
data included in the data of the first media type with timing data
included in the data of the second media type; wherein the data of
the first media type and the data of the second media type are
generated by an exchange between a customer point of contact and a
customer; wherein the data of a first media type and the data of a
second media type comprise encrypted data; wherein the multimedia
player is inoperable to present either of the first and second
media types prior to the converting step.
92. A method for providing access to a multimedia player of
recorded data including data of a first media type and at least a
second media type exchanged between at least one user and at least
one server, the method comprising the steps of: converting recorded
data of a first media format with recorded data of the second media
format to a common format compatible with the multimedia player;
synchronizing and combining converted data of the first media
format with the converted data of the second media format; wherein
the step of synchronizing comprises matching timing data included
in the data of the first media format with timing data included in
the data of the second media format; wherein the data of the first
media format and the data of the second media format are generated
by an exchange between a customer point of contact and a customer;
wherein the data of a first media format and the data of a second
media format comprise encrypted data; wherein the multimedia player
is inoperable to present one or more of the first or second media
formats prior to the converting step.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of commonly
assigned U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 10/061,469, 10/061,489,
and 10/061,491 filed Jan. 31, 2002 and hereby incorporated by
reference. This application is also a continuation-in-part of
commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/058,911,
filed Jan. 28, 2002 and hereby incorporated by reference. Also,
this application is related to copending applications entitled
"Methods and Systems for Categorizing and Cataloguing Recorded
Interactions", "Method and System for Selectively Dedicating
Resources for Recording Data Exchanged Between Entities Attached to
a Network", and "Method and System for Presenting Events Associated
with Recorded Data Exchanged Between a Server and a User", filed on
or about the same day as the present application an hereby
incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] The present invention is directed to a method and system for
providing access to captured multimedia data. More particularly,
the present invention is directed to a method and system for
providing access to a multimedia player of multimedia data captured
during exchanges between a user and a server to a multimedia
player.
[0003] For systems employing interactions between a user and
server, it is often desirable to be able to view the interactions,
ideally in a manner that is transparent to the user. This is
particularly desirable in a context such as sales, customer
service, and e-commerce, where interactions between customers and a
service provider are important indicators of customer
satisfaction.
[0004] Attempts have been made to recreate interactions between a
user and a server. For example, click stream analysis procedures
have been used to recreate interactions between a web user and a
web service provider. This type of procedure is analogous to
reviewing and analyzing the script to a movie. While this procedure
reveals some information about the interaction between the server
and the user, it does not provide a clear tangible picture of
special effects, the environment, chemistry between the user and
the server, etc.
[0005] Other attempts have been made to replay recorded
interactions between a server and a user. However, these attempts
are typically implemented at the server and are thus suitable only
for a particular type of server. The format into which the data is
recorded is typically not accessible by a large number of users
using conventional servers. Also, the recorded exchanges often
contain multimedia data, e.g., text and audio, which needs to be
synchronized.
[0006] In addition, these approaches typically do not distinguish
between interactions that are considered important and interactions
that are not important. Thus, a lot of time and resources are
wasted on replaying unimportant recorded interactions.
[0007] Also, it may be important for users to be notified when
certain events occur, e.g., when certain data is recorded. In
addition, it may be useful to annotate recorded interactions upon
playback.
[0008] There is thus a need for a technique for providing access to
multimedia data captured during exchanges between and a web server
and a user. There is also a need for providing for notification to
users of event occurrence and to provide of annotation of recorded
data.
SUMMARY
[0009] The present invention is directed to a method and system for
providing access to a multimedia player of multimedia data captured
during at least one interaction between at least one server and at
least one user. It is a further object of the present invention to
provide for notification to a user of certain event occurrences. It
is still a further object of the present invention to provide for
annotation of recorded data exchanges.
[0010] According to exemplary embodiments, these and other objects
are met by a method and system for providing access to a multimedia
player of recorded multimedia data including data of a first media
type, e.g., voice, and at least a second media type, e.g., text,
exchanged between at least one user and at least one server. The
recorded multimedia data of the first media type is synchronized
with the recorded multimedia data of the second media type, e.g.,
by matching timing information, and the synchronized data is
combined. The combined data is then rendered into an audio-video
format compatible with the multimedia player. The rendered data may
then be saved into a file accessible by the multimedia player. The
rendered data may be sent to a multimedia player, or a hyperlink
may be created for accessing the rendered data by the multimedia
player.
[0011] According to one aspect of the invention, the recorded
multimedia data may be annotated with annotation data of a first
media type, annotation data of at least a second media type, or a
combination of annotation data of the first media type and the
second media type. The annotation may be performed upon playback of
the recorded data via the multimedia player.
[0012] According to another aspect of the invention, a user may be
notified that the multimedia data has been recorded. Notification
may be performed by sending a page, a personal digital assistant
(PDA) message, a wireless application protocol (WAP) message, an
e-mail message to the user, or a cellular telephone message.
[0013] Further objects, advantages and features of the present
invention will become more apparent when reference is made to the
following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying
drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary system for capturing,
recording, and playing back data according to an exemplary
embodiment;
[0015] FIG. 1B illustrates in detail an exemplary system for
recording data;
[0016] FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate exemplary systems in which the
invention may be implemented;
[0017] FIG. 3A-3D illustrate exemplary screens for presenting
recorded events to a user;
[0018] FIGS. 4A-4E illustrate exemplary screens for annotating
data;
[0019] FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate exemplary screens used for
notification;
[0020] FIGS. 6A-6G illustrate exemplary screens used for exporting
one or more contacts; and
[0021] FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary system for synchronizing
multimedia data for playback and export.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0022] According to exemplary embodiments, access is provided to a
multimedia player of data exchanged between a server and a user. In
the following description, the server is referred to as a web
server, and the user is referred to as a web browser. It will be
appreciated, however, that the invention may be applicable to other
types of servers and users.
[0023] FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary system for capturing,
recording, and playing data in which the invention may be
implemented. The system includes a server, such as a web server
100, a data capturing module, such as a page capture module 110,
and a user, such as a web browser 120.
[0024] Although only one web server 100, page capture module 110,
and web browser 120 are depicted in FIG. 1, it will be appreciated
that the invention is applicable to any number of servers, data
capturing modules, and users.
[0025] The web browser 120 may be implemented in a personal
computer, a telephone, etc. The web server 100 may be implemented
as a server supporting any operating system, e.g., Unix, Linux, NT
or Windows 2000.
[0026] The page capture module 110 is arranged between the web
server 100 and the web browser 120. For security purposes, a
firewall 115 may separate the web browser 120 and the page capture
module 110.
[0027] The page capture module 110 operates independently from the
web server 100 and the web browser 120. Thus, the page capture
module 110 does not need to be customized for each type of web
server but may be used with any web server, supporting any
operating system.
[0028] Although the page capture module 110 operates independently
from the web server 100 and the web browser, it may be implemented
in the same device as the web server 100 or the web browser
120.
[0029] The page capture module 110 captures pages and other data
exchanged between the web server 100 and the browser 120. Pages and
other data may be captured continually or at designated intervals
or time windows. The page capture module 110 may also record these
pages and other data, or recording may be performed in a separate
recorder server connected to the page capture module.
[0030] Each web browser 120 is assigned a unique machine identity
(ID) by the web server 100. A persistent machine ID cookie may be
created by the web server 110 and stored at the web browser 120 for
this purpose. All pages served to a particular web browser 120 are
identified and grouped by the machine ID.
[0031] Although the module 110 is described as a page capture
module, according to exemplary embodiments, other types of data may
also be captured. For example, events and attributes may be
captured. Attributes may be captured in a manner similar to that in
which pages are captured, as described above.
[0032] For event capturing, according to an exemplary embodiment,
an event capture module captures user side events and delivers
these to the page capture module 110. The event capture module may
be implemented as an applet 130 that is downloaded to the web
browser 120. Although shown as a separate component, the event
capture applet 130 is stored at the browser, with parameters such
as the web browser machine ID, the host Internet Protocol (IP)
address, and the current page name. The event capture applet 130
may be notified, for example, by JavaScript embedded in the current
page, whenever an event needs to be recorded. The event capture
applet 130 records events such as: page load, page unload, page
scroll, page resize, and browser exit. The event capture applet 130
sends captured events to the page capturing module 110 via, for
example, a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
socket connection on port 80 (or port 443 for secure
exchanges).
[0033] Pages and other data captured during exchanges between the
web server 100 and the web browser 120 at the page capture module
110 are sent from the page capturing module 110 to a page
preprocessor 125 via, e.g., a TCP/IP socket.
[0034] According to an exemplary embodiment, each captured page is
assigned a unique page ID and is associated with a specific browser
user machine ID. Each page may also contain the date and time that
the page was captured and the page status (recording, processing,
playback, etc.) After pages are captured, this information is
extracted from the captured page, and a new record is inserted into
a database 145.
[0035] The page preprocessor 125 acts as a recorder server and
stores the captured data in a device such as a database 145. The
pages 135 are then passed on to the page post-processor 140.
Alternatively, the page capturing module 110 may perform this
recording. To reduce the amount of storage necessary, only
predetermined portions of data may be stored, e.g., the request
portion or the response portion. Also, only data satisfying
predetermined rules, e.g., rules indicating timing, may be stored.
When the captured pages are recorded, identifying information may
also be recorded, e.g., a session record ID, a date/time of
recording, a machine ID, etc.
[0036] The page capturing module and page preprocessor are
described in more detail in the afore-mentioned U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 10/061,469.
[0037] A post-processing module 140 determines which captured data
satisfies predefined rules, e.g., business rules, and records this
data in a playback database 180, such as a JAR file. The database
145 is updated to indicate what captured data has been selected and
recorded for playback. The post-processing module is described in
further retail below with reference to FIG. 1B.
[0038] A playback tool 190 selects recorded data from the database
180, using the information in the database 145. The playback module
190 controls playback of the data. The data may be displayed, for
example, in a search frame for the web server or the browser.
[0039] Although not shown in the interest of simplifying the
illustrations, it will be appreciated that the system in FIG. 1A
may also include other components, e.g., configuration files used
for processing and log files use for storing information for
debugging, etc.
[0040] According to an exemplary embodiment, a user is allowed to
search for, select and playback a recorded browser session using
the playback module 190. The playback module 190 assembles a
session of recordings selected by the user and plays back the
session. The playback module may be implemented using, e.g.,
Netscape 4.5x and above browser or an Internet Explorer 4.x and
above browser. More details are provided for searching, selecting,
and playing of a recorded browser session in the afore-mentioned
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/061,491.
[0041] FIG. 1B illustrates in detail an exemplary system for
processing captured data according to an exemplary embodiment.
Captured and recorded pages, attributes, and events are fed to a
page post-processing program running on a page post-processor 140.
A business rules engine 150 delivers business rules to the
post-processor 140 that evaluates the captured/recorded pages to
determine whether they satisfy the business rules.
[0042] According to exemplary embodiments, business rules are
applied to the recorded data in the business rule engine 150 to
determine whether a page should be saved for playback. A business
rule may be defined as a statement that defines or constrains some
aspect of a business. The business rule asserts business structure
or controls or influences the behavior of the business.
[0043] Data from a page table database 160 and a page rule table
database 170 may be used in the evaluation by the business rule
engine 150. Pages that satisfy the business rules are recorded for
future playback. The page table and page rule database are updated
after post-processing.
[0044] An example of a comparison of business rule with captured
data may be determining whether the captured data is an interaction
resulting in a sale greater than a predetermined number of dollars,
determining whether an interaction was longer than a predetermined
number of minutes, etc. As another example, a business rule may
state that the current page is to be recorded and all previous
pages for that machine ID in that session. Also, a business rule
comparison may be in the form of voice recognition.
[0045] According to exemplary embodiments pages that do not satisfy
the business rules are deleted.
[0046] Page post-processing is described in more detail in the
afore-mentioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/061,489.
[0047] FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary implementation of a system
for capturing, recording, storing, and playing back data exchanged
between a user and a server. According to an exemplary embodiment,
business rules are applied to captured data, e.g., captured pages,
using an applications server such as the server 500 shown in FIG.
2A. The server 500 may be implemented as a Component Object Model
(COM) based server.
[0048] According to an exemplary embodiment, the server 500
includes a business rules engine, such as the engine 150 shown in
FIG. 1B, an editor, a scheduled rules processor, a business object
layer (BOL) 510, a data abstraction layer (DAL) 520 and 525 and a
repository or database 530. Alternatively, the database 530 may
included as a separate entity, e.g., if a large load is
expected.
[0049] Data exchanged between the user and the server may include
one or more contacts. According to an exemplary embodiment, a
contact may be considered an interaction between, e.g., an agent
within the same enterprise as the server and a user outside the
enterprise. In addition to playing back data in sessions as
described above, captured data may be played back as one or more
contacts.
[0050] A contact may include one or more events and some content
representing contacts in a machine readable form. The events may
include occurrences associated with entities external to the
enterprise, such as occurrences associated with Computer Telephony
Integration (CTI), telephony, or speech recognition. Also, the
events may include occurrences within the enterprise and
occurrences associated with user-initiated annotations.
[0051] Attributes of contacts and metadata may be stored in the
database 530, as well as business rule data populated and
manipulated by the editor. The server 500 communicates with the
database 530 to obtain the business rules. The engine 150 applies
the business rules to the captured data and communicates with a
recorder server 540 for recording the captured data that satisfies
predetermined business rules. The BOL 510 interfaces with both the
business rule editor applet and the DAL 520 and 525 to manage
traffic to and from the database 530.
[0052] According to an exemplary embodiment, business rules may be
added, deleted, copied, pasted, and or modified by a user, such as
a supervisor, using the business rules editor implemented in the
server 500 shown FIG. 2A. The server communicates with a client
computer, such as the computer 550. The client computer may be
implemented as a browser-based application, utilizing Java applets
and HTML, and interfacing with some COM-Java bridging tool
(Jintegra or R-JAX) to allow the Java-based client to communicate
with the COM-based server. The business rules editor may be a Java
applet running in a browser (MSIE or NN) on the client machine such
as the computer 550 shown in FIG. 2A.
[0053] According to an exemplary embodiment, contacts are organized
and grouped into a contact folder. The contact(s) may be played
back under the control of a contact manager 151 as shown in FIG.
2B.
[0054] Referring to FIG. 2B, a contact manager 151 is in
communication with the business rules engine 150 for mapping
business rules to folders. The business rules engine 150, in turn,
is in communication with a BOL 510 that communicates with the
database, e.g., through the DAL 520.
[0055] As shown in FIG. 2B, the contact manager 151 may communicate
with the business rules engine via an internal event notification
service 156. The internal event notification service 156 controls
notification of event occurrences through, e.g., an email
notification service 158 for e-mail notification and a pager
notification service 157 for page notification. Notification is
described in more detail below.
[0056] As shown in FIG. 2B, the contact manager 151 is also in
communication with the recorder via a content manager 155 that
manages how the content in a contact is recorded. Also, the contact
manager 151 is in communication with the client via a call or
session manager 152 that manages session playback, a DCOM interface
153, and a CTI adapter 555. The contact manager 151 also
communicates with the event persistence 154, e.g., through the
internal event notification service 156. The contact manager 151
also communicates with the event persistence 154, e.g., through the
internal event notification service 156. The event persistence 154
maintains events and permits a user to jump to a point in a contact
at which an event occurred. The event persistence 154, in turn,
communicates with the database 530.
[0057] Also shown in FIG. 2B are a scheduler 159 and a live
monitoring and playback service 161. The scheduler 159 coordinates
scheduling of event occurrence. The live monitoring and playback
service 161 controls playback of recorded data and live monitoring
of data and is connected via a playback socket to a user desiring
to playback or monitor the data.
[0058] Recorded and/or live contacts may be replayed to a user
under the control of the contact manager 151 and the live
monitor/playback server 161 connected to the user via a playback
socket. The live monitor/playback server 161 may be considered as
part of the playback module 190 shown in FIG. 1A.
[0059] The components to the right of the dashed-dotted lines in
FIG. 2B may be implemented, e.g., in an application server 500.
Alternatively, some of the components shown to the right of the
dashed-dotted lines in FIG. 2B may be implemented as separate
entities.
[0060] A contact may include voice/graphical user interface
(desktop) data, an e-mail message or a web transaction. A list of
contacts may be displayed to a user for playback, as shown, e.g.,
in FIG. 6A described below and in more detail in the
afore-mentioned U.S. patent application entitled "Methods and
Systems for Categorizing and Cataloguing Recorded
Interactions".
[0061] When a user selects a contact from the contact list page in
the contact module, a new browser window may be displayed as shown
in FIGS. 3A-3D. The browser contains an applet that displays all
the events for the contact. The applet may also contain a
player.
[0062] According to an exemplary embodiment, each event recorded in
a contact may be assigned an event identifier. This may be in the
form of a time code or a timestamp. For example, voice data may be
given a time stamp, and text data may be given a time code.
[0063] For playback of events, a list of events may be displayed
via a player in sequence on an event list, e.g., top to bottom, in
the order in which the event time-stamp occurs. This is
illustrated, e.g., in FIGS. 3A and 3B, which show an event list of
e-mail events, and in FIGS. 3C and 3D, which show an event list of
call events.
[0064] The screens shown in FIGS. 3A-3D, may be divided into two
parts, e.g., a right pane and a left pane. According to an
exemplary embodiment, the left pane contains the contact name and
the event list. The event list may be scrollable. The right pane
contains one or more tabs. One tab may labeled content, and the
other tab may be labeled attributes.
[0065] When the event list screen is first opened, the user may be
presented with the contact name at the top of the left pane and a
list of events below the contact name on the left pane. The first
event may be preselected automatically, and its content table may
be visible in the right pane.
[0066] The interface allows all events associated with a contact to
be displayed. If the user does not have security privileges to the
events, they may not be displayed.
[0067] Referring again to FIGS. 3A and 3C, when a user selects an
event name in the left pane, the right pane displays the "content"
tab open, and the "attributes" tab behind it. Upon selection of the
content tab, the screen shown in FIG. 3A (for e-mail events) or
FIG. 3C (for call events) is displayed. Upon selection of the
attributes tab, the screen shown in FIG. 3B (for e-mail events) or
FIG. 3D (for call events) is displayed. On the attributes tab, all
the attributes of the event are displayed, including the attribute
name and value. Also, right mouse clicking on an event may cause
the attributes of the event to be displayed.
[0068] According to an exemplary embodiment, the display may be
different depending on the type of contact.
[0069] For example, if the contact is an e-mail message, the player
has the ability to show information for each event in the contact
in text format. The e-mail contact may be stored in the event as an
attribute. There is no content to display for e-mails.
[0070] An e-mail event, in most cases, contains the text of an
e-mail message. However, this is not always the case. For example,
if an e-mail does not reach its destination, then this would
correspond to some event but there would not necessarily be an
e-mail message associated with the event. Some text may be
displayed describing the event. The text of an e-mail message may
be obtained from the corresponding attribute.
[0071] If the event is an e-mail event, and the address and text
attributes are present, the re-constructed email may be displayed
in the "content" tab, as shown, e.g., in FIG. 3A. The content
includes the re-constructed email, including addressing information
and the e-mail text, with some icon representation of any
attachments. The applet shows a list contains all the events/emails
in a chain. An e-mail may be displayed by selecting it from the
events/email list. If the e-mail cannot be reconstructed, the
message "there is no available content for this event" may
displayed instead.
[0072] In the content tab, shown in FIG. 3B, the event attributes
may include anything. It the attributes contain the email address
an text attribute, the e-mail may be reconstructed to include to:
information, which may include many names separated by semicolon, a
sender, the date/time sent, a cc recipient string, a bcc recipient
string, the subject line, the email text, which may be scrollable,
and any attachments. If it is not possible to reconstruct the email
from the attributes present for the event, a message such as "no
viewable content exists for this event" may be displayed in the
content window.
[0073] If the contact is a voice/graphics user interface contact,
e.g., a call, content and attribute data may be displayed as shown
in FIGS. 3C and 3D, respectively. The these types of contacts, the
player has the ability to play the voice/graphical user interface
data for all events in the contact. This includes all annotations
and bookmarks. The content of the agent desktop (if any) may be
displayed on the screen 3C.
[0074] In addition to the content screen shown in FIG. 3C, controls
for play, pause, stop, fast forward, and rewind may be displayed
along a progress bar as shown, e.g., in FIG. 4C. The user may use
any of the controls to navigate through playback. Any action
requested applies to both voice and graphical user interface data.
A pointer representing the relative position of the listener in the
contact may be displayed on the timeline bar. Also, by selecting an
event in the list, the user may jump to a specific location in
playback.
[0075] Once a contact has been played back, an indicator may be set
that the contact/session has been reviewed. This indicator may be
stored as a value in the database. An icon representing the
reviewed/unreviewed status may appear on the contact list of
contacts.
[0076] There may be a limit to the number of contacts that may be
recorded without having been reviewed. To keep track of unreviewed
contacts, in addition to setting an indicator, the count of
unreviewed sessions may be decremented by one. This prevents
contacts continually being saved without the events being reviewed.
The unreviewed contact counter may be stored in the database.
[0077] For contact events, in the left pane the event name may be
preceded by one or more icons which indicate the type of media
involved in the event, whether the media is voice and GUI, voice
only, or e-mail. An example may be business rule triggered events
or annotations. Annotations may include voice and/or text. Business
rule trigger events have no icons.
[0078] If one or more business rules have been triggered on this
contact, the name(s) of the business rule(s) triggered may be
displayed. If the user selects a business rule name from the left
pane, the content tab in the right pane displays the content of the
event which triggered the business rules. If no content is
available, e.g., because the business rules was triggered after a
call, a message "no viewable content for this event" may be
displayed. If the event was a voice event, play may begin at the
point where the business rule was triggered, e.g., at the
time-stamp in the contact content.
[0079] In addition to playing back recorded contacts between a
server and a user, agent initiated monitoring (AIM) recorded
contacts may be played back. Also, live monitoring may be provided,
in which a data exchange is played back as it occurs.
[0080] If AIM recordings have been stored for an event, a caption
"agent initiated monitor % agent name % may be listed in the event
list, one for each occurrence. If live monitor recordings have been
stored for an event, a caption live monitor record by %
name-of-person % may be listed in the event list, one for each
occurrence.
[0081] In addition to playing back recorded events and live monitor
playback, a user may annotate contacts upon playback. Contact
annotation is the process of adding text or voice to a contact
during playback.
[0082] According to an exemplary embodiment, to annotate a contact,
a user selects a contact in a contact folder using, e.g., a screen
such as that shown in FIG. 6A. This causes the event viewer, such
as that shown in FIGS. 3A-3D to be displayed. The user may make
voice and text annotations to the contact.
[0083] The name of each annotation created for a contact may be
displayed, unless the annotation is marked private. If the
annotation is marked private, it may only appear in the list if the
user is also the annotation owner. To the left of the annotation
name, an icon may appear to indicate if the annotation is voice or
text.
[0084] At any point in the replay, the user may add an annotation
by selecting "pause" on a player controller, such as that shown in
FIG. 4C, and then pressing tools, annotation, create voice/text
annotation. Alternatively, the system may automatically pause if
the user attempts to create an annotation during play.
[0085] If text annotation is requested, an interface such as that
shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B for providing text data may be presented
to the user. Once the user requests to save the information, the
text data is sent to a contact annotation service. The annotation
service creates an event and sends it to the event notification
server.
[0086] Voice annotation may be implemented as follows. If s user is
listens to playback on a soundcard, then the voice annotation may
be done performed via soundeard. If the user is listening to
playback via a phone, then the voice annotation may be performed
via phone.
[0087] If voice annotation is requested through a phone, a request
is made to an annotation service implemented, e.g., in the
applications server 500, to record for the agent/extension. For
example, the annotation service may use, e.g., the voice card 765
shown in FIG. 7 for receiving requests for annotation. The
annotation service passes the agent/extension to the content
routing service and requests that recording begin. In an exemplary
embodiment, the telephony data manager 760 and the n data manager
770 shown in FIG. 7 may act as the content routing service. The
annotation data may be stored in a database. The content routing
service returns a globally unique content identity that may be used
to refer to the recorded information.
[0088] The user indicates that recording is complete via a user
interface control. At this point, the user makes a request to the
annotation service that records stop for the particular
agent/extension. The annotation service forwards this request to
the content routing service to stop the recording.
[0089] If voice annotation is requested through a
soundcard/microphone, the recorded data and its length are passed
to the annotation service. This data is forwarded to the content
routing service. The content routing service returns a globally
unique identifier that may be used to reference the recorded
information.
[0090] According to an exemplary embodiment, the annotation may be
given the date/time stamp of its relative location in the contact.
When the annotation is complete, the play may be resumed by
clicking the pause" control again.
[0091] The user may also assign a label to the annotation to
uniquely and descriptively identify it.
[0092] As annotations are added (saved), the event list may be
dynamically updated to include the new annotations.
[0093] A user with appropriate access may view an annotation. To
view an annotation, the user selects the annotation in the event
list. The annotation may then be displayed (if it is text) or
played back (if voice). An example of an annotation to an e-mail
message is shown in FIG. 4D.
[0094] In addition to viewing annotations by selecting annotations
in the event list, annotations may be viewed using, e.g., a player
control including annotation names as shown in FIG. 4E. When a
mouse is moved over the inverted triangle representing an
annotation, the name of the annotation appears. The triangle under
the timeline bar represents the relative position of the listener
in the contact.
[0095] In addition to annotation, the ability to notify parties is
included. Notification may be implemented using a system such as
that shown in FIG. 2B, using the internal event notification
service 156.
[0096] For notification, property screens such as those shown in
FIGS. 5A and 5B may be displayed. Referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B, if
notification is desired, the send notification checkbox may be
checked or the notification tab may be selected, activating the
notification tab on the property sheet.
[0097] According to an exemplary embodiment, there may be different
types of notifications, e.g., e-mail notification, page
notification, PDA device notification, WAP device notification, 3G
wireless cellular phone notification, etc. For simplicity of
illustration, only e-mail notification and page notification are
described below.
[0098] The notification pages shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B correspond
to e-mail notification and pager notification, respectively. In the
exemplary implementation shown in FIG. 2B, e-mail notification is
controlled by the e-mail notification service 158, and pager
notification is controlled by the pager notification service
157.
[0099] According to an exemplary embodiment, notification follows a
similar routine whether it occurs via e-mail, pager, PDA, WAP, 3G
or any other suitable device. First, the users who will receive the
notification must be assigned. For setting notifications, it is
assumed that the notification recipient's information is defined
within the user profile and that this information is requested when
necessary. For example, for e-mail notification, it is assumed that
the recipient's e-mail address is defined in the user profile.
[0100] User names may be multi-selected from the left-hand user
list in the screen shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, and the users may be
assigned to the notification list by clicking the top button. For
advanced users, simply double-clicking on the user name in the
left-hand list may add the name to the right-hand list. The
opposite also holds true. User names may be multi-selected in the
right-hand list and the bottom button clicked to remove them from
the notify list, or the name may be double-clicked.
[0101] For e-mail notification, there may be two options for the
subject line: the rule's name may be used, or some user specified
text may be used. The body of the e-mail may be entered into the
text box labeled for e-mail text. A notification frequency may be
set to indicate how often the user(s) should be sent an e-mail
message when the rule is fired. This may be tracked by the business
rule engine.
[0102] As shown in FIG. 5B, the configuration for notification via
pager is very similar to that for e-mail. The assignment of users
follows the same method. Where the e-mail definition dealt with a
subject line, the pager setup requires the actual text to be sent
to the pager. The options are to either use the rule name or to use
some user-defined text. The paging time constraint restricts the
time that users may be paged to a specific time range. Again, as
with e-mail notification, a notification frequency may be set.
[0103] Notifications are particularly useful when interactions are
played to an entity outside of the enterprise. For example, an
entity outside of the enterprise using, e.g., Windows media player
may desire to access the data. This entity may be, e.g., a
supervisor interested in viewing or personnel in other parts of the
company. This outside entity may not have equipment necessary to
playback the recorded interactions in the format in which they are
stored in the enterprise, e.g., VOX format for voice data and
proprietary DAT format for text data. Also, since the data may
contain media of different types, the data needs to be synchronized
before being presented to the media player.
[0104] Thus, according to an exemplary embodiment, voice and data
(e.g., desktop content) of a contact may be converted to any
audio-video format easily accessible without requiring special
hardware. Examples of such an audio-video format into which the
contact may be converted include an audio video interleaved (AVI)
format, a Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) format, etc.
[0105] The converted file may be saved in an HTML format and
associated with a hyperlink or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that
is accessible by launching a media player. This is described in
more detail below. Alternatively, the user may choose to email the
converted file, and the converted file may be provided as an
attachment to an email.
[0106] For exporting a contact, the contact folder that contains
the contact to be exported may be selected via a contact tab such
as that shown in FIG. 6A. Once the contact is selected, the export
feature may be selected using a contact editing pop-up menu, such
as that shown in FIG. 6B.
[0107] Rather than selecting a contact to export using the contact
tab, the playback event viewer may also include a button for
"export contact". This may only be visible if a user has
permission. The playback event viewer may also contain validation
to allow this on CTI contacts only, not e-mail or web contacts. An
error message may be generated if validation fails.
[0108] If the "export contact" button is selected while the contact
is being replayed, the replay may be paused until the conversion is
complete, and the user has specified the file name and path for the
converted file. Then, replay may resume.
[0109] Using the dialog box shown in FIG. 6C, a user may decide
whether to export audio data only, video data only, or audio and
video. The selected contact is then converted into a format
compatible with the multimedia player. While the conversion occurs,
a window may display the progress, as shown in FIG. 6D. If
conversion of the contact fails, a message may be generated.
[0110] When the conversion is complete, the converted contact may
be saved, and a hyperlink may be created for the contact using the
screen shown, e.g., in FIG. 6E. The file type may be passed back to
the browser, which may then display a "file, SaveAs" box. The user
selects the path and name. For an AVI file, the extension is forced
to "avi".
[0111] If the save is not successful, an error message may be
displayed. If successful, the "file Save As" box is closed, and
replay resumes if the contact was paused in replay. Otherwise,
direction from the user is awaited.
[0112] A user may decide to view the contact or e-mail the link to
the contact using a dialog box such as that shown in FIG. 6F. To
e-mail the contact link, the user may be presented with a default
mail client set to "composed", and the unique contact name may be
displayed in the subject line as shown in FIG. 6F. The user
completes the "to" field in the e-mail window and any other
information in the body of the message and selects "send". The
hyperlink link for the contact may then be sent to the e-mail
addresses.
[0113] A multimedia player may then be launched from a machine to
view the contact by linking to that URL. The media player may be
launched from a control panel screen, such as that shown in FIG.
6G. The converted contact may be replayed by commercially available
media player, which may be chosen by the customer and obtained at
the customer's option.
[0114] Contacts may be retrieved from an archives and converted to
an audio-video format, in a similar fashion.
[0115] An audit trail data of converted contact may be available
for reporting, at customer's option. The audit trail may include
information indicating what entity converted the file, the contact
name, and the date. The audit trail may be handled similarly to
reporting.
[0116] FIG. 7 illustrates a system for synchronizing multimedia
data according to an exemplary embodiment. In FIG. 7, control
signal paths are represented by dotted lines, and data signal paths
are represented by solid lines.
[0117] As shown in FIG. 7, a recording interface 705 receives
signals from a recorder server 540. Also, the recorder interface
705 is connected to voice card drivers 715 via a telephone network
connection manager 710 for receiving control data. The recorder
interface 705 outputs control signals to the central unit 700
which, in turn, outputs control signals to the LAN data managers
730 and 735, the telephony data manager 760, and the n data manager
770.
[0118] A node manager 720 starts various processes performed by the
components and monitors their progress. A time synchronization 725
unit provides a synchronization signal to all components so that
the playback of the recorded contacts is synchronized.
[0119] The LAN data manager 730 receives captured screen data,
e.g., from an agent's desktop from screen data record units 740 and
745. This data may be stored in a local storage 775 and then
transferred to a database via the data store manager 780.
[0120] The telephony data manager 760 receives captured voice data
via a voice card driver 765. This data may also be stored in the
local storage 775 and transferred to a database via the data store
manager 780. Also, this data may be provided, e.g., back to the
agent for live monitoring.
[0121] Screen data in the local storage 775 may be provided to the
LAN data manager 735 for playback, e.g., to an agent or a
supervisor, via the playback module 750. The playback module 750
synchronizes data of different media types, e.g., voice data and
text data. This may be performed by matching, e.g., the time codes
of the voice data and the time stamps of the text data.
[0122] The playback module 750 also converts the multimedia data
into an audio-video format suitable for a multimedia player, e.g.,
an AVI format or an MPEG format. The playback module then exports
the data to local storage 755. When a media player is launched
from, e.g., a browser outside the enterprise, the converted
audio-video format file may be retrieved from the local storage 755
and played back.
[0123] Both recorded data and live data may be processed in the
playback module 750.
[0124] A n data manager 770 receives data from the local storage
775 and outputs data to other applications, as desired.
[0125] All of the components in FIG. 7 may be implemented in the
applications server 500.
[0126] According to exemplary embodiments, captured multimedia data
may be recorded and stored, annotated, and exported for playback to
any media player. Also, users may be notified upon recording and
storing.
[0127] It should be understood that the foregoing description and
accompanying drawings are by example only. A variety of
modifications are envisioned that do not depart from the scope and
spirit of the invention. The above description is intended by way
of example only and is not intended to limit the present invention
in any way.
* * * * *