Patent Issued for Outbound dialer and messaging system and user interface for group messaging (USPTO 11431664): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company
2022 SEP 15 (NewsRx) -- By a
The patent’s assignee for patent number 11431664 is
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In large communities or enterprise environments, the dissemination of information to individuals or groups of individuals may require maintaining or periodically updating contact information. Contact information for designated recipients in some cases may be outdated. In some cases, such as in emergency and/or disaster relief situations, multiple channels of communication may be needed to ensure that important messages, such as, for example, emergency alert messages, are received by a large number of individuals in a timely and secure manner. In addition, maintaining and transmitting private contact information may require heightened security measures to maintain privacy. In some cases, the communication may require conformance with regulatory requirements such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. For example, individuals who do not wish to receive alerts (e.g., have opted out of alerts) may need to be proactively excluded from receiving any communication.
“In cases where mass groups of individuals need to be notified, determining which individuals need to be contacted may require acquiring information from multiple sources. In some cases, manual operation of a mass notification system may be required. For some known mass notification systems, a notification message (e.g., alert) may require manual input of each recipient’s contact information. Some mass notification systems may be limited to unidirectional messages of limited content. These mass notification systems may not allow recipients to respond, thereby requiring the recipient to use alternate methods to initiate a response. Accordingly, there exists a need for a communication system that enables bilateral communication, in real time, with mass groups of individuals without compromising the security of each individual’s contact information.”
As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may relate to systems and methods for providing multi-function enterprise communications using user and group aliases. In one embodiment, the enterprise communication system uses an enterprise communication computing device to communicate with recipient computing devices based upon a unique, non-telephonic-based recipient computing device identifier associated with each recipient computing device.
“In one aspect the enterprise communication (“EC”) computing device may include a processor in communication with a memory device and a communication interface. The communication interface includes a plurality of modules including a telephonic communication module for cellular telephonic communication with remote computing devices. The communication interface also includes a text-based messaging module for cellular text-based communication with remote computing devices.
“The EC processor may be programmed to (i) generate a user interface for execution on the enterprise communication computing device, the user interface including a display with a plurality of icons, each icon representative of a corresponding module of the plurality of modules, (ii) receive, from within the user interface executed on the enterprise communication computing device, a user selection of a first icon of the plurality of icons, the first icon representative of a first module of plurality of modules (iii) execute the first module represented by the selected first icon, (iv) receive user input defining a content message to be sent using the first module and including one or more user identifiers identifying a respective one or more intended recipients of the content message to be sent, (v) generate an input field enabling user entry of a plurality of response options, each response option responsive to content of the content message to be sent, (vi) receive user input of the plurality of response options, (vii) format the plurality of response options to generate a response-request portion of the content message to be sent including the plurality of response options in a drop-down menu, (viii) transmit, via the first module, the content message to a respective recipient computing device associated with each intended recipient, the content message including the content and the response-request portion, wherein receipt of the content message at a recipient computing device causes the recipient computing device to display the drop-down menu including the plurality of response options within a respective user interface of the recipient computing device, and (ix) receive, from one or more of the recipient computing devices, a response message including a selected response option from the plurality of response options.
“In another aspect, a method for initiating communication between a group of computing devices may be provided. The method may be implemented using an enterprise communication computing device including a processor in communication with a memory device and a communication interface, the communication interface including a plurality of modules including (i) a telephonic communication module for cellular telephonic communication with remote computing devices, and (ii) a text-based messaging module for cellular text-based communication with remote computing devices.
“The method may include (i) generating a user interface for execution on the enterprise communication computing device, the user interface including a display with a plurality of icons, each icon representative of a corresponding module of the plurality of modules, (ii) receiving, from within the user interface executed on the enterprise communication computing device, a user selection of a first icon of the plurality of icons, the first icon representative of a first module of plurality of modules, (iii) executing the first module represented by the selected first icon, (iv) receiving user input defining a content message to be sent using the first module and including one or more user identifiers identifying a respective one or more intended recipients of the content message to be sent, (v) generating an input field enabling user entry of a plurality of response options, each response option responsive to content of the content message to be sent, (vi) receiving user input of the plurality of response options, (vii) formatting the plurality of response options to generate a response-request portion of the content message to be sent including the plurality of response options in a drop-down menu, (viii) transmitting, via the first module, the content message to a respective recipient computing device associated with each intended recipient, the content message including the content and the response-request portion, wherein receipt of the content message at a recipient computing device causes the recipient computing device to display the drop-down menu including the plurality of response options within a respective user interface of the recipient computing device, and (ix) receiving, from one or more of the recipient computing devices, a response message including a selected response option from the plurality of response options. The computer-implemented method may include additional, less, or alternate functionality, including those discussed elsewhere herein.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. An enterprise communication computing device for initiating communication between a group of computing devices, the enterprise communication computing device comprising a processor in communication with a memory device and a communication interface, wherein said communication interface comprises a plurality of modules comprising: a telephonic communication module for cellular telephonic communication with remote computing devices; and a text-based messaging module for cellular text-based communication with remote computing devices; and wherein said processor is programmed to: generate a user interface for execution on the enterprise communication computing device, the user interface including a display with a plurality of icons, each icon representative of a corresponding module of the plurality of modules; receive, from within the user interface executed on the enterprise communication computing device, first user input from a sender user, the first user input including a user selection of a first icon of the plurality of icons, the first icon representative of a first module of plurality of modules; execute the first module represented by the selected first icon; receive second user input from the sender user, the second user input defining a content message to be sent using the first module; generate an input field enabling user entry of a plurality of response options, wherein each response option includes a text-based response statement that is responsive to the content message to be sent; receive third user input from the sender user, the third user input including the plurality of response options as entered by the sender user to be presented to each recipient of the content message; format the plurality of response options to generate a response-request portion of the content message to be sent including instructions for a corresponding recipient computer device to display the plurality of response options in a drop-down menu including the text-based response statements; automatically generate, by applying machine learning techniques to the content message and based upon an identity of the sender user, as represented by the enterprise communication device, a list of intended recipients of the content message, the list including a plurality of user identifiers identifying a respective plurality of intended recipients of the content message to be sent; transmit, via the first module, the content message to a respective recipient computing device associated with each intended recipient of the plurality of intended recipients included in the automatically generated list, the content message including the content and the response-request portion, wherein receipt of the content message at a recipient computing device instructs the recipient computing device to display the drop-down menu including the plurality of response options and corresponding text-based response statements within a respective user interface of the recipient computing device, and wherein the plurality of response options are displayed to enable the recipient to select a response option to respond to the content message; receive, from one or more of the recipient computing devices, a notification indicating the content message was received at the respective recipient computing device; receive, from one or more of the recipient computing devices, a response message including a selected response option from the plurality of response options; retrieve, from a remote data source, a report including, for each recipient computing device, whether the at least one of the notification and the response message was received; determine, based upon the report, a subset of the recipient computing devices from which no notification or response message was received; and display, to the sender user on the user interface executed on the enterprise computing device, a summary of unresponsive recipients including the subset of recipient computing devices.
“2. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 1, wherein said processor is further programmed to: transmit, to the remote data source, a respective reporting message associated with each received notification or response message, each reporting message including at least one of: (a) the notification, or (b) at least one of the response message and an indicator of the selected response option included within the response message, wherein receipt of the reporting message causes the remote data source to store the reporting message as a data structure in a storage location indexed by at least one of (i) a device identifier of the enterprise communication computing device and (ii) a unique identifier associated with the content message.
“3. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 2, wherein, to retrieve the report, said processor is further programmed to: transmit, to the remote data source, a report request requesting the report of all received notifications and response messages, the report request including the at least one of (i) the device identifier of the enterprise communication computing device and (ii) the unique identifier associated with the content message, wherein receipt of the report request causes the remote data source to retrieve all data structures of reporting messages in the storage location and generate the report including all notifications and a summary of all selected response options; and receive, from the remote data source, a report response message including the report including the notifications and the summary of all selected response options formatted as at least one of a bar chart and a pie chart; and wherein said processor is further programmed to further cause display, to the sender user on the user interface executed on the enterprise computing device, the report including the formatted response options within the user interface executed on the enterprise communication computing device.
“4. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 1, wherein said processor is further programmed to: generate a group identifier associated with the plurality of intended recipients of the content message; and store, in at least one of the memory device and the remote data source, a data structure associating the group identifier with a group of device identifiers of user computing devices associated with each intended recipient.
“5. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 4, wherein the content message is a first content message, wherein said processor is further programmed to: receive a user selection of a recipient entry field associated with a second content message; receive user input of the group identifier; retrieve, from the at least one of the memory device and the remote data source, the group of device identifiers; and populate the recipient entry field with the group of device identifiers.
“6. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 5, wherein said processor is further programmed to: receive user input indicating a request to modify the group of device identifiers; receive user selection of a first device identifier of the group of device identifiers; receive user input indicating deletion of the first device identifier; and update, in the at least one of the memory device and the remote data source, the group of device identifiers stored in the data structure by removing the first device identifier from the group of device identifiers.
“7. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 5, wherein said processor is further programmed to: receive user input indicating a request to modify the group of device identifiers; receive user input of a new intended recipient; and update, in the at least one of the memory device and the remote data source, the group of device identifiers stored in the data structure by adding a new device identifier associated with a user computing device of the new intended recipient to the group of device identifiers.
“8. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 1, wherein said processor is further programmed to: transmit, to a remote data source, a query including a plurality of user identifiers associated with each of the plurality of intended recipients of the content message; and receive, from the remote data source, a respective recipient device identifier of each recipient computing device, each recipient computing device associated with a respective one of the plurality of intended recipients of the content message, wherein each recipient identifier includes a unique non-telephonic-based identifier associated with the respective recipient computing device, wherein to transmit the content message, said processor is further programmed to transmit, via the first module, the content message to each recipient computing device identified based upon the received recipient device identifiers.
“9. The enterprise communication computing device of claim 1, wherein said processor is further programmed to: determine, by applying artificial intelligence to the content message, additional information relevant to the content message; and append the content message with a selectable link that, upon selection of the link by the recipient of the content message, instructs the corresponding recipient computing device to display the additional information to the recipient.”
There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.
For additional information on this patent, see: Acosta,
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