U.S. patent application number 12/367349 was filed with the patent office on 2009-08-13 for method for initiating internet telephone service from a web page.
This patent application is currently assigned to Yahoo! Inc.. Invention is credited to Joe S. Abuan, Seung-Ho Cho, Wongyu Cho.
Application Number | 20090201918 12/367349 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 33511917 |
Filed Date | 2009-08-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20090201918 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Cho; Wongyu ; et
al. |
August 13, 2009 |
METHOD FOR INITIATING INTERNET TELEPHONE SERVICE FROM A WEB
PAGE
Abstract
A direct telephone dialing scheme for initiating internet
telephone service from a web page is provided. The scheme allows a
caller, using an internet telephone service, to place telephone
call to a telephone number appearing on any web page directly from
that web page. In one embodiment, a caller navigates to a desired
web page on the internet and the caller dials a telephone number on
that web page directly to initiate a two-way audio communication
with the destination telephone number using an internet telephone
service. The direct telephone dialing scheme of the present
invention improves the accessibility and ease of use of internet
telephone services. Furthermore, the direct telephone dialing
scheme can be used with video, data, and fax communications which
are supported by the VoIP data communication standard.
Inventors: |
Cho; Wongyu; (San Jose,
CA) ; Cho; Seung-Ho; (Santa Clara, CA) ;
Abuan; Joe S.; (Fremont, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Yahoo! Inc.;c/o DARBY & DARBY P.C.
P.O. BOX 770, Church Street Station
NEW YORK
NY
10008-0770
US
|
Assignee: |
Yahoo! Inc.
Sunnyvale
CA
|
Family ID: |
33511917 |
Appl. No.: |
12/367349 |
Filed: |
February 6, 2009 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11644013 |
Dec 21, 2006 |
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12367349 |
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09668427 |
Sep 22, 2000 |
6834048 |
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11644013 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
370/352 ;
715/205; 715/234; 715/733 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M 7/003 20130101;
H04M 3/4938 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
370/352 ;
715/234; 715/205; 715/733 |
International
Class: |
H04L 12/66 20060101
H04L012/66 |
Claims
1. A method for initiating internet telephone service from a web
page containing a telephone number, comprising: accessing the web
page using a browser; downloading a web page document associated
with the web page; parsing the web page document for detecting a
character string representing a telephone number; determining if
the character string is a hypertext link; if the character string
is not a hypertext link, then: modifying the character string in
the web page document into a link to the internet telephone
service, providing the web page document including the modified
character string to the browser; and displaying the web page on the
browser including the modified character string, wherein the act of
parsing the web page for detecting a character string indicative of
a telephone number comprises: determining if the character string
includes alphanumeric characters matching one or more predetermined
telephone number formats; and if the character string matches a
first one of the predetermined telephone number format, designating
the character string as a telephone number; and if the character
string is a hypertext link, refraining from designating the
character string as a telephone number even if the character string
matches a first one of the predetermined telephone number
format.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: selecting the
modified character string indicative of the telephone number;
activating the link to the internet telephone service; passing the
telephone number to the internet telephone service; initiating a
telephone call to the telephone number; and establishing two-way
communications between a caller selecting the character string and
a destination audio device designated by the telephone number.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the initiating a telephone call
to the telephone number comprises: launching a server side script
at the internet telephone service for initiating the telephone
call.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the act of launching a server
side script at the internet telephone service comprises:
determining if the caller has logged into the telephone service; if
the caller has not logged in, requesting the caller to log into the
telephone service; and placing a telephone call to the telephone
number through the internet telephone service.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more predetermined
telephone number formats include at least one of the following:
(###) ###-####, (###) ###-####, ###.###.####, ###/###/####,
###/###-####, ###-###-####, (###-###-####), #-###-###-####, +#
(###) ###-####, +# (###) ###-####, +# ### ### ####, +#-### ###
####, +#-### ###-####, +#-###-###-####, ### ### ####, ### ###.####,
and ### ###-####, where # represents a digit between 0 and 9 or a
character between A and Z.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the one or more predetermined
telephone number formats further include ##########, where the
first three characters are numeric digits between 0 and 9.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page document is written
in hypertext markup language (HTML) and the determining if the
character string is a hypertext link comprises: determining if the
character string is preceded by the character A or a.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing a
caller-selectable interface for selectively enabling or disabling
the acts of parsing the web page document and modifying the
character string in the web page document.
9. A system for initiating internet telephone service from a web
page containing a telephone number, comprising: a browser for use
in downloading a web page document associated with the web page;
and a processor for executing instructions that perform actions
including: parsing the web page document for detecting a character
string representing a telephone number; determining if the
character string is a hypertext link; if the character string is
not a hypertext link, then: modifying the character string in the
web page document into a link to the internet telephone service;
providing the web page document including the modified character
string to the browser; and providing the web page for display on
the browser including the modified character string, wherein the
act of parsing the web page for detecting a character string
indicative of a telephone number comprises: determining if the
character string includes alphanumeric characters matching one or
more predetermined telephone number formats; and if the character
string matches a first one of the predetermined telephone number
format, designating the character string as a telephone number; and
if the character string is a hypertext link, refraining from
modifying the character string.
10. The system of claim 9, wherein the modified display for the
telephone number includes at least one of a highlighted telephone
number, an underlined telephone number, or a bolded telephone
number.
11. The system of claim 9, wherein determining if the character
string includes alphanumeric characters further comprises
performing a comparison of the character string to at least one of
a domestic telephone area code, international country code,
international city code, or an international telephone area
code.
12. The system of claim 9, wherein the web page document is written
in hypertext markup language (HTML) and the determining if the
character string is a hypertext link comprises: determining if the
character string is preceded by the character A or a.
13. The system of claim 9, wherein at least a portion of the
executed instructions comprise a downloaded application that is
arranged as at least one of a dynamic linked library or a java
script.
14. The system of claim 9, wherein the executing instructions
further provide a caller interface that enables a caller to enable
or disable a direct telephone dialing function.
15. The system of claim 9, wherein the executing instructions
further include an application is configured and arranged to
perform further actions, including, until a caller is logged into
the telephone service, preventing the providing of the telephone
service over the gateway.
16. A client device for initiating internet telephone service from
a web page containing a telephone number, comprising: a browser
that is used to download a web page document associated with the
web page; and a processor that executes instructions that perform
actions including: parsing the web page document for detecting a
character string representing a telephone number; selectively
performing the following actions, while avoiding writing over an
existing hypertext link within the web page when the character
string is determined to be a hypertext link: modifying the
character string in the web page document into a link to the
internet telephone service; providing the web page document
including the modified character string to the browser; and
providing the web page for display on the browser including the
modified character string, wherein the act of parsing the web page
for detecting a character string indicative of a telephone number
by determining if the character string includes alphanumeric
characters matching one or more predetermined telephone number
formats, and if the character string matches a first one of the
predetermined telephone number format, designating the character
string as a telephone number.
17. The client device of claim 16, wherein selectively performing
the following actions, while avoiding writing over existing
hyperlinks within the web page further comprises determining if the
character string is a hypertext link, and if the character string
is a hypertext link preserving an integrity of the web page
document.
18. The client device of claim 16, wherein the one or more
predetermined telephone number formats further include ##########,
where the first three characters are numeric digits between 0 and
9.
19. The client device of claim 16, wherein the web page document is
written in hypertext markup language (HTML) and wherein selectively
performing the following actions, while avoiding writing over
existing hypertext links within the web page further comprises
determining if the character string is preceded by the character A
or a.
20. The client device of claim 16, wherein the processor executes
instructions that perform actions, further including: electing the
modified character string indicative of the telephone number;
activating the link to the internet telephone service; passing the
telephone number to the internet telephone service; initiating a
telephone call to the telephone number; and establishing two-way
communications between a caller selecting the character string and
a destination audio device designated by the telephone number.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a Continuation patent application of
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/644,013 filed on Dec. 21, 2006;
which is a reissue of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/668,427
(U.S. Pat. No. 6,834,048) filed on Sep. 22, 2000, which claims the
benefit under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 121, and which are incorporated
herein by reference in their entirety.
REFERENCE TO APPENDICES
[0002] Appendix A, which is an integral part of the present
disclosure, includes a computer program listing of components of
the Microsoft Visual C++ project used to create a dynamically
linked library (DLL) named IEHooker.DLL for implementing the direct
telephone dialing scheme according to one embodiment of the present
invention.
[0003] Appendix B, which is an integral part of the present
disclosure, shows modifications to the Microsoft Windows registry
for implementing the direct telephone dialing scheme according to
one embodiment of the present invention.
[0004] Appendices A and B contain copyrighted material. The
copyright owner, Dialpad.com, Inc., has no objection to the
facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documents or patent
disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent
files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights
whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0005] 1. Field of the Invention
[0006] The present invention generally relates to voice
communications; and in particular, the present invention relates to
a method for initiating internet telephone service from a web
page.
[0007] 2. Background of the Invention
[0008] Voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology has spawned
made available internet telephone services. An internet telephone
service allows a caller to place a telephone call from his/her
personal computer (PC) through the internet to another audio
communication device, such as a wired or wireless telephone. VoIP
technology is based on the ITU-T H.323 standard and supports audio,
video, data, or fax communications using the internet protocol (IP)
on the public internet and within private intranets.
[0009] Internet telephone service can take many forms. Typically, a
caller accesses an internet telephone service provider's web site
which provides an interface to the internet telephone service. The
caller enters then the telephone number he wishes to dial. The
telephone service "dials" the telephone number and "rings" the
destination communication device (e.g. a telephone).
[0010] However, improvements over the existing internet telephone
services are desired. In particular, it is desirable to provide
features to make internet telephone services more convenient and
accessible.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a
method for initiating an internet telephone service from a web page
containing at least one telephone number comprises: (a) accessing
the web page using a browser; (b) downloading a web page document
associated with the web page; (c) parsing the web page document for
detecting a character string indicative of a telephone number; (d)
modifying the character string in the web page document into a link
to the internet telephone service; (e) providing the web page
document including the modified character string to the browser;
and (f) displaying the web page on the browser including the
telephone number.
[0012] According to another embodiment of the present invention,
the method further comprises: (g) selecting the character string
indicative of the telephone number; (h) activating the link to the
internet telephone service; (i) passing the telephone number to the
internet telephone service; (j) launching a server side script at
the internet telephone service for initiating a telephone call to
the telephone number; and (k) establishing two-way communications
between a caller selecting the character string and a destination
audio device designated by the telephone number.
[0013] The present invention is better understood upon
consideration of the detailed description below and the
accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a communication system
for providing audio communication between a personal computer and
an audio communication device.
[0015] FIG. 1B illustrates another embodiment of a communication
system for providing audio communication between a personal
computer and an audio communication device where the personal
computer is located behind a firewall.
[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates the conventional operation of a browser
for downloading and displaying a web page document.
[0017] FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of a browser together with
the direct telephone dialing scheme of the present invention.
[0018] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the detailed operation
of the direct telephone dialing scheme for internet telephony
according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0019] FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary web page containing
telephone numbers displayed by Microsoft Internet Explorer.TM..
[0020] FIG. 5B illustrates the web page of FIG. 5A displayed by
Microsoft Internet Explorers.TM. after the operation of the direct
telephone dialing scheme of the present invention.
[0021] In the present disclosure, like objects which appear in more
than one figure are provided with like reference numerals.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0022] In accordance with the present invention, a direct telephone
dialing scheme for internet telephony is provided to allow a
caller, using an internet telephone service, to place a telephone
call to a telephone number appearing on any web page directly from
that web page. In one embodiment, a caller navigates on the
internet to a desired web page and then clicks on a telephone
number appearing on the web page to initiate a telephone call using
an internet telephone service. Contrary to a conventional telephone
service initialization process, the caller may place a telephone
call without the need to navigate to the internet telephone service
provider's web site and enter or type in the desired telephone
number on the service provider's web site. The direct telephone
dialing scheme of the present invention greatly improves the
accessibility and ease of use of internet telephone services and
provides convenience not realized by conventional internet
telephone services.
[0023] A direct telephone dialing scheme of the present invention
can be used with any internet telephone service, such as those
provided by Dialpad.com, Phonefree.com, and Net2phone. In one
embodiment, the internet telephone service is based on the
communication system described in co-pending and commonly assigned
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/401,898, entitled "Scaleable
Communications System," of Wongyu Cho et al., filed Sep. 24, 1999,
which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. FIG. 1A
illustrates one embodiment of the communication system of the
aforementioned patent application by Cho et al. which provides
audio communication between a personal computer 11 and an audio
communication device 14. In operation, a local caller using
computer 11, equipped with a sound card and headset, for example,
uses a web browser to access and log onto web site 16 of an
internet telephone service provider. After logging-on, the local
caller provides the phone number of regular telephone 14 to web
site 16, which then directs an Internet Telephone Service Provider
(ITSP) gateway 12 to provide a voice connection between computer 11
and telephone 14. ITSP gateways are available from several network
service providers including the IDT Corporation and Qwest
Communications. ITSP gateway 12 is coupled to a remote caller who,
in this example, uses telephone 14 linked to a public switched
telephone network (PSTN) 13. PSTN 13 provides either wired or
wireless telephone service commonly known as "plain old telephone
service" (POTS). ITSP gateway 12 converts the voice data from
computer 11 into corresponding voice signals for transmission to
telephone 14 through PSTN 13. Conversely, ITSP gateway 12 converts
voice signals received from telephone 14 into a form that is
suitable for transmission over the internet to computer 11. The
direct-dial internet telephone service initiation scheme of the
present invention can also be used with a network in which computer
11 is located behind a firewall 15 as illustrated in FIG. 1B. A
method for exchanging data with computers within a secure network
is described in copending and commonly assigned U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 09/627,723, "Data Exchange With Computers
Within A Secure Network", by Wongyu Cho and Hyungkeun Hong,
incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
[0024] To use an internet telephone service to place a telephone
call, a caller uses a personal computer (such as PC 11 in FIG. 1A)
to access the internet or a private network. The personal computer
is equipped with a web browser such as Microsoft Internet
Explorer.TM. or Netscape Navigator.TM. for accessing a web page
with graphical content. To specify a web site, the caller enters a
uniform resource locator (URL) specifying both the server and the
specific data ("web page") requested. The URL may specify a
hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or another transfer protocol for
communicating between the server and the browser. In conventional
internet telephone service, the caller accesses the web site of an
internet telephone service provider and enters the telephone number
of the destination communication device on a "console" (e.g., a
graphical caller interface) of the provider's web site. The
internet telephone service provider then dials the telephone
number. However, in many instances, the caller may navigate to a
web page containing telephone numbers which the caller wishes to
dial. For example, the caller may navigate to the web page of a
local restaurant which includes the telephone number of the
restaurant. To place a telephone call to the restaurant using
internet telephony, such as to make a dinner reservation, the
caller has to record the telephone number in some manner and go to
the web site of his desired internet telephone service provider by
specifying the provider's URL. The caller then enters the recorded
telephone number into the console at the web site of the telephone
service provider for dialing the telephone number. This telephone
dialing process is very cumbersome, particularly when the caller is
viewing a page containing several telephone numbers which he wishes
to dial in sequence, such as when the caller is viewing a yellow
page listing of restaurants in the local area.
[0025] The direct telephone dialing scheme of the present invention
facilitates convenient internet telephone service by integrating
internet telephone services with telephone numbers appearing on any
web pages. A caller may dial a telephone number appearing on any
web page directly from that web page. In one embodiment, the caller
dials the telephone number by placing the cursor on the telephone
number and selecting the telephone number (such as by clicking on
the number). The caller does not have to leave the web page he is
currently viewing and can thus conveniently dial one or more of the
telephone numbers appearing on the web page.
[0026] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the
direct telephone dialing scheme for internet telephony is embodied
in a software program operating as a browser level application. The
software program, called the Direct Dial software program, is
installed in the caller's computer and works cooperatively with the
browser application to provide the caller with a more convenient
access to internet telephone services. The operation of the direct
telephone dialing scheme with a browser application is explained
with reference to the flowcharts in FIGS. 2 and 3.
[0027] Referring to FIG. 2, when a caller navigates to a new web
page identified by a new URL, the browser performs three basic
functions. First, the browser downloads the selected web page
document (step 200). Typically, the web page document is written
using HTML (hypertext markup language). Then, the browser
interprets the web page document and prepares the host environment
for the document (step 202). Finally, the browser renders the web
page on the caller's computer display (step 204). When the direct
telephone dialing scheme for internet telephony of the present
invention is installed into the caller's computer, the browser
operates according to the flowchart in FIG. 3. The direct telephone
dialing scheme operates to intercept a web page document downloaded
by the browser, and parses and modifies the web page as needed
(step 310) before the web page is interpreted by the browser (step
202). Specifically, the direct telephone dialing scheme operates to
parse the web page document, detect for text strings matching the
criteria of telephone numbers, and modify the text string into a
link to an internet telephone service provider so that the caller
may activate the internet telephone service upon selecting or
clicking on the modified text string. After the direct dial
software program operates on the web page, the web page document
with the modified text string is returned to the browser,
interpreted (step 202), and then rendered on the computer display
of the caller's computer (step 204).
[0028] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the detailed operation
of the direct telephone dialing scheme for internet telephony
according to one embodiment of the present invention. First, a
caller installs the Direct Dial software program that embodies the
direct telephone dialing scheme of the present invention (step
402). For instance, the caller can copy the Direct Dial software
program to his host computer and install the software program on
the computer as is conventionally done. In one implementation, the
Direct Dial software program is provided in a dynamically linked
library (DLL) file and after the caller copies the DLL file to his
host computer, the caller installs the DLL file by registering the
file with the Microsoft Windows.TM. operating system using the
"REGSVR32.exe" file. When the Direct Dial software program is
installed onto the caller's computer, the program is loaded
whenever the browser application is activated.
[0029] After the caller installs the Direct Dial software program,
the caller can then invoke the browser application and access the
internet, selecting web sites she wishes to view. To access a
particular web page, the caller specifies the URL of the desired
web page and the browser downloads the web page document associated
with the URL (step 404). Before the web page is interpreted by the
browser for display on the computer screen, the direct telephone
dialing program of the present invention intercepts the web page
(step 406). The direct telephone dialing scheme of the present
invention operates to parse the web page document and detect text
strings which constitute telephone numbers appearing in the
document (step 408). In one embodiment, the direct telephone
dialing scheme examines the character strings in the document and
identifies character strings having the following formats as
constituting telephone numbers:
[0030] (###)###-####,
[0031] (###) ###-####,
[0032] ###. ###. ####,
[0033] ###/###/####,
[0034] ###/###-####,
[0035] ###-###-####
[0036] (###-###-####),
[0037] #-###-###-####,
[0038] +# (###) ###-####,
[0039] +# (###)###-####,
[0040] +# ### ### ####,
[0041] +#-### ### ####,
[0042] +#-### ###-####,
[0043] +#-###-###-####,
[0044] ### ### ####,
[0045] ### ###.####,
[0046] ### ###-####, and ##########,
where # represents an alphanumeric character from 0 to 9 and from A
to Z. Note that the direct telephone dialing scheme recognizes a
character string with the format "##########" as a telephone number
only when the first three characters are numeric characters from 0
to 9. In the present embodiment, the direct telephone dialing
scheme recognizes any 10-digit alphanumeric string or any 11-digit
alphanumeric string as telephone numbers. Furthermore, the
alphanumeric strings may use any form of character separations
including but not limited to: ".", "/", "-", "+", "(", and ")".
Thus, the formats given above can be used to recognize United
States telephone numbers in any format. The use of alphanumeric
characters in the present embodiment allows the recognition of
telephone numbers which are spelled in alphabetical characters,
such as 1-800-ASK-USPS used by the United States Postal Service. In
the present embodiment, the recognized telephone numbers always
include the area code, even for local calling. However, the 1
prefix is optional. The advantage of only recognizing telephone
numbers including the area code is to ensure that the telephone
call is placed to the correct recipient. Since the internet allows
the caller to access web pages without geographic limits, a caller
often accesses web pages outside of his local telephone dialing
area. By recognizing only telephone numbers including the area
code, the direct telephone dialing scheme of the present invention
ensures that any telephone call placed will be to the correct
recipient. Of course, the area code requirement is optional and the
direct telephone dialing scheme can be made to work with telephone
numbers not including area codes.
[0047] Of course, the direct telephone dialing scheme of the
present invention can also operate with international telephone
numbers for dialing a telephone number outside of the country the
caller is in. Additional telephone number templates can be added to
the direct telephone dialing scheme for recognizing international
telephone numbers. For example, a typical Korean telephone number
has the format: 82-2-2000-1000. If it is important to recognize
Korean telephone numbers, a telephone number template such as:
##-#-####-#### can be used. Furthermore, the direct telephone
dialing scheme of the present invention can also append the
necessary international dialing access code to the international
telephone number to facilitate international calling using an
internet telephone service. Thus, if the caller is in the United
States, the direct telephone dialing scheme can append the code
"011" to the beginning of an international telephone number so that
an internet telephone service can place the telephone call directly
to the oversea recipient.
[0048] After the direct telephone dialing scheme identifies certain
character strings in the web page document as telephone numbers,
the telephone dialing scheme proceeds to modify the identified
character strings (step 410). Specifically, the character strings
are modified to include a link to an internet telephone service
provider. In one embodiment, the appearance of character strings is
also modified. For example, the character strings can be
underlined, highlighted, or bolded. By modifying the appearance of
the character strings, the direct telephone dialing scheme of the
present invention identifies to the caller the character strings on
the web page which have been designated as telephone numbers and
are thus available for direct telephone service initiation. After
the direct telephone dialing scheme operates on the web page
document, the document is returned to the browser (step 412). The
browser interprets the modified web page, and displays the modified
web page on the caller's computer screen (step 414). FIG. 5A
illustrates an exemplary web page without being modified by the
direct telephone dialing scheme of the present invention. In FIG.
5A, a telephone listing of pregnancy centers provided by
YellowBook.com.TM. is shown. FIG. 5B illustrates the same web page
after the operation of the direct telephone dialing scheme of the
present invention. The character strings in the web page that have
been underlined have been designated as telephone numbers and can
be used to activate internet telephone service.
[0049] To place a telephone call to a telephone number designated
by the direct telephone dialing scheme, the caller selects the
designated telephone numbers by clicking on the underlined or
hi-lighted text (step 416). Because the designated telephone number
is a link to an internet telephone service provider, selection of
the telephone number launches the internet telephone service (step
418). The internet telephone service proceeds in accordance with
the communication protocol of the service provider. In one
instance, the service provider requires the caller to login to the
service provider's network. Thus, the service provider determines
whether or not the caller has already logged into the network (step
419). If the caller has not logged in, then the service provider
prompts the caller for login information (step 420). After the
caller logs into the provider's network, the internet telephone
service provider places the telephone call to the designated
telephone number (step 422). As mentioned above, any number of
internet telephony technology can be used to place the telephone
call and accomplish voice communication between the caller and the
designated audio communication device. The services provided by
Dialpad.com are one exemplary internet telephone service.
[0050] According to another embodiment of the present invention,
the telephone number detection step 408 of the direct telephone
dialing scheme further detects whether the character string
identified as a telephone number is itself a hypertext link. If the
character string is itself a hypertext link, then the direct
telephone dialing scheme will not designate the character string as
a telephone number and modification step 410 will not modify the
character string into a link to an internet telephone service
provider. In this manner, the direct telephone dialing scheme
avoids writing over existing links in the web page and preserves
the integrity of the web page document. In one embodiment, when the
web page is written in HTML format, the direct telephone dialing
scheme determines if a character string is a hypertext link by
detecting for the anchor element A or a preceding the character
string which is used to denote the character string as a hypertext
link.
[0051] According to yet another embodiment of the present
invention, the direct telephone dialing scheme provides a caller
interface to allow the caller to enable or disable the direct
telephone dialing function. When disabled, the browser operates
according to the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 2.
[0052] An implementation of the direct telephone dialing scheme of
the present invention is now described using Microsoft Internet
Explorer.TM. as an example. Of course, persons of ordinary skill in
the art can adapt the present teachings to work with other types of
web browsers. Appendix A includes a computer program listing of
components of the Microsoft Visual C++ project used to create a
dynamically linked library (DLL) named IEHooker.DLL which
implements the direct telephone dialing scheme according to one
embodiment of the present invention. The files contained in the
computer program listing detail the customization for implementing
the direct telephone dialing scheme in Internet Explorer. When a
caller installs IEHooker.DLL onto its computer, the objects in the
DLL become registered with the Windows Registry and will be
available for use by Internet Explorer. In the present
implementation, the direct telephone dialing scheme is applied to
the internet telephone service provided by Dialpad.com and the
direct telephone dialing scheme is called "Dialpad Everywhere."
Appendices A and B are not necessary to the understanding of the
invention, but are provided merely as additional examples.
[0053] In the present embodiment, the direct telephone dialing
scheme is implemented as a Browser Helper Object (BHO) of Internet
Explorer. Browser Helper Objects are in-process Component Object
Model (COM) components and can be applied to allow one to customize
Internet. Explorer to create a specialized version of the browser.
For a detailed description of Browser Helper Objects, see Browser
Helper Objects: The Browser the Way You Want it by Dino Esposito,
January 1999, available at the following web site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/bho.htm. The article is
incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In brief, BHOs
are component objects which Internet Explorer loads each time the
application is started. A BHO can be used to detect the browser's
typical events or install hooks to monitor messages and actions in
Internet Explorer.
[0054] A BHO, as a COM in-process server, is registered under a
certain registry's key so that Internet Explorer can look up and
load the browser help object during startup. The CIEHooker.rgs file
in Appendix A is a registration script file used to create registry
entries for implementing the direct telephone dialing scheme upon
installation of the CIEHooker.DLL file. The following Microsoft
Windows registry folders are created in one example:
TABLE-US-00001 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/
Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/`Browser Helper
Objects`/{16122F02-9713-11D3-9744-005004116944}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/IEHooker.CIEHooker.1
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/IEHooker.CIEHooker.1/CLSID
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/IEHooker.CIEHooker
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/IEHooker.CIEHooker/CLSID
HKEY-CLASSES_ROOT/IEHooker.CIEHooker/CurVer
[0055] Example modifications to the Windows registry for
implementing the direct telephone dialing scheme of the present
invention in Internet Explorer is also shown in Appendix B. In the
present embodiment, a registry is also created to query the caller
to set and determine the operation status of the direct telephone
dialing feature. In operation, the registry provides a caller
interface where the caller may enable or disable the direct
telephone dialing feature.
[0056] The file CIEHooker.cpp in Appendix A is a source file
containing the overrides needed to hook the direct telephone
dialing feature into Internet Explorer as a browser helper object.
The direct telephone dialing BHO executes custom codes when certain
events from the browser take place. Here, the custom codes are
executed during the events DISPID_DOCUMENTCOMPLETE and
DISPID_ONQUIT. CIEHooker.h is a header file for CIEHooker.cpp.
[0057] In the present embodiment, the custom codes for the direct
telephone dialing feature are CheckNum.h (the header file) and
CheckNum.cpp which is a source file containing a program segment
for parsing the text in the document for telephone numbers and
modifying the telephone numbers into links to an internet telephone
service provider. In the present implementation, the links are
hyperlinks as will be described in more detail below.
[0058] In operation, when Internet Explorer completes downloading
of a web page document, typically written in HTML (step 404 in FIG.
4), the program segment embodiment in the CheckNum.cpp code is
executed to detect and modify text strings which constitute as
telephone numbers (steps 408 and 410 of FIG. 4). In CheckNum.cpp,
the telephone number formats described above are used to detect the
presence of telephone numbers in the character strings of the web
page document. After a telephone number is detected, the program of
CheckNum.cpp inserts three link strings to the telephone number to
convert the telephone number to a hyperlink. For example, the
original character string in the web page document may appear as
follows (note that the telephone number string is denoted by the
argument phonenumber):
[0059] <Font>phonenumber</Font>
[0060] In the present implementation the direct telephone dialing
scheme inserts three link strings into the character string above
as follows:
[0061] [Link String1] phonenumber [Link String2]
[0062] phonenumber [Link String3].
[0063] The three link strings are defined as follows:
TABLE-US-00002 Link String1 <FONT CLASS=`PHONE`
STYLE=`CURSOR=HAND;` COLOR=`#0000FF`
OnMouseOut=window.event.srcElement.style.color=`#0000FF`
OnMouseOver=window. event.srcElement.style.color=`#FF0000`
OnClick=window.open(`http://www.dialpad.com/cgi-bin/launch.
pL?Number= Link String2
`,`Dialpad`,`scrollbars=no,resizable=no,width=420,
height=370`)><U> Link String3 </U></Font>
[0064] In the present example, Link String1 contains commands for
controlling the rendering and style of the mouse on the caller's
host computer, such as the "OnMouseOut" and "OnMouseOver" commands.
These commands are of course optional. The "OnClick command" in
Link String1 modifies the character string into a link for
launching a server side script of an internet telephone service
provider. Here, the internet telephone service provider is
Dialpad.com. When the OnClick command is executed, the phonenumber
parameter appended to the end of Link String1 is passed with the
link to the server side script of the internet telephone service
provider (i.e., Dialpad.com). The server side script is linked to
an applet for activating the internet telephone service at the
provider's server. When the applet is launched, the service
provider dials the telephone number received via the phonenumber
parameter. Here, the server side script launches the Dialpad applet
for initiating voice communication over the internet using the
network described in aforementioned patent application Ser. No.
09/401,898, entitled Scalable Communications System, of Wongyu Cho
et al.
[0065] When the OnClick command is executed, the service provider
may provide a window on the computer display identifying the
telephone service provider and the status of the telephone call.
Link String2 contains standard window sizing parameters and
properties for defining the display window of the telephone service
provider. In the present example, Link String2 is used for the
Dialpad.com telephone service. Link String2 or similar command
strings may be optional for other telephone service providers. At
the end of Link String2, the phonenumber parameter is again
inserted for providing to the computer display the character string
which has been identified as a telephone number. In the present
implementation, the character string is being underlined by the
action of Link String3. Of course, other formatting functions can
be used. After the execution of the program CheckNum.cpp, the web
page is returned to Internet Explorer for display.
[0066] In the present embodiment, CheckNum.cpp includes a routine
for excluding modification of character strings which are already a
hypertext link. In HTML, an anchor element, A or a, is used to
denote a text string as a hypertext link. CheckNum.cpp checks for
the presence of the anchor element A and if a character string is
preceded by <A or <a, the string is skipped to avoid
modifying any existing hypertext link in the web page document.
[0067] The direct telephone dialing scheme can also be implemented
in Netscape Navigator. The Direct Dial software program can be
written as a Java script. Then, the Java script is installed and
activated using Script Signing. A description of Script Signing can
be found at the web site:
[0068]
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/partbook/instantj/scriptbasedsecu-
rity.htm.
[0069] The direct telephone dialing scheme for internet telephony
has many advantages. First, a caller can dial telephone numbers
from any web pages and do not need to switch to an internet service
provider's web site to access the internet telephone service. This
is particularly useful when the caller is using internet yellow
pages to generate a list of telephone numbers to call. Second, the
caller can dial any of the telephone numbers identified by the
scheme without the need to record the telephone number and type in
the number onto a console of the service provider. Third, the
caller does not have to leave the web site from which he makes the
call and thus can inquire about information on the web site while
communicating with the destination telephone number.
[0070] The above detailed descriptions are provided to illustrate
specific embodiments of the present invention and are not intended
to be limiting. Numerous modifications and variations within the
scope of the present invention are possible. The present invention
is defined by the appended claims.
* * * * *
References