Bizarre Patents
Neuroimaging as a Marketing Tool
Neuroimaging as a means for validating whether a stimulus such as advertisement, communication, or product evokes a certain mental response such as emotion, preference, or memory, or to predict the consequences of the stimulus on later behavior such as consumption or purchasing.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8184797 | System and method for improved directory assistance searches A system and method for improved directory assistance searches involving feedback from previous calls made to telephone numbers in a vendor database, in order to improve the quality of customer service and satisfaction by the vendors associated with the telephone nu... | 05/22/2012 |
| 8175248 | Method and an apparatus to disambiguate requests A method and an apparatus to disambiguate requests are presented. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a request for information from a user. Then data is retrieved from a back-end database in response to the request. Based on a predetermined configurati... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8144858 | Unrecognized number identifier Communication address identification information is obtained. A communication address number is collected from a customer at a telecommunications apparatus in response to a trigger being initiated at a switch and a connection being established between the switch and... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8139748 | Communication assistance system and method A communication assistance system provides access to information corresponding to a plurality of subscribers. The system includes a means for receiving incoming communications from a plurality of requesters desiring to access the information corresponding to subscri... | 03/20/2012 |
| 8116444 | System and method of publishing contact information A system and method of publishing contact information is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, the method includes receiving a command to publish a collection of contacts to a plurality of recipients, where the collection of contacts is associated with a network ad... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8090090 | Method and apparatus for monitoring telephonic members and providing directory assistance Telephone users desiring directory assistance services are connected via standard telephone procedures to a directory assistance provider, such as an operator. An operator provides the destination number and initiates a connection to that number. Once that connectio... | 01/03/2012 |
| 8085923 | System and method for efficient call management for directory assistance services A communication assistance system includes a first database having a plurality of listings, each listings has at least one contact name and a corresponding contact number. A means is provided for receiving communications from a user among a plurality of users desiri... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8036365 | Communication assistance system and method A communication assistance system is provided for accessing information corresponding to a plurality of subscribers. This system is comprised of a telephone switch for receiving calls from a plurality of requesters, a call center for routing each of said received ca... | 10/11/2011 |
| 8031855 | Method for providing enhanced directory assistance upon command using out-of-band signaling A user calls a directory assistance service provider to search for a desired telephone number and be connected to a party at the desired number. In one such connection, the user is afforded enhanced directory assistance upon a user command in the form of an out-of-b... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8027451 | Electronic call assistants with shared database A telephone exchange (1) arranged to communicate with communication units (2, 3, 4, 5, 7) and to provide a plurality of electronic call assistants to the communication units, a first electronic call assistant (12) being provided to a first commu... | 09/27/2011 |
| 8023633 | Communication assistance system and method A communication assistance system for providing access to information corresponding to a plurality of subscribers includes a telephone switch for receiving calls from a plurality of requesters desiring to access the subscriber information. A listing database is conf... | 09/20/2011 |
| 8014509 | Automated telephone attendant A telephony system (100) includes a user device (110, 130) configured to enable a user of the telephony system (100) to place and receive telephone calls, and a service node (180, 185) configured to communicate with the user device (11... | 09/06/2011 |
| 7995735 | Method and apparatus for managing customer data Embodiments of the technology disclosed herein provides an overall, or holistic view, of an enterprise's interaction with its customers. These embodiments can also provide a holistic view of other types of interactions. In one particular embodiment, a system collect... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7991140 | Enhanced directory assistance system An enhanced directory assistance system includes a telephone switch for receiving calls from at least one caller desiring to receive directions. A direction module is configured to receive a desired destination information provided by the caller and the location of ... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7945039 | Operator services customization with advanced intelligent network integration of a profile database An Advanced Intelligent Network architecture is used by a first telecommunications service provider having an operator services switch to provide enhanced call processing for operator services calls. The calls received at the operator services switch originate from ... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7940910 | Directory integration in mobile systems Embodiments for generating a sorted integrated directory are described. The sorted integrated directory integrates contacts from disparate directories into a common directory. The formation of the integrated directory includes receiving contacts from multiple direct... | 05/10/2011 |
| 7929681 | Technique for continually assisting a user during an information assistance call A user may want to search for relevant information and/or conduct a transaction through an information assistance service. During an information assistance call, the user may return to an information assistance provider multiple times to accomplish the task at hand.... | 04/19/2011 |
| 7912201 | Directory assistance dialog with configuration switches to switch from automated speech recognition to operator-assisted dialog A method of providing a caller with a directory assistance dialog. The dialog is configurable, at any level of the dialog, from an automated speech recognition (ASR) dialog to an operator-assisted (OP) dialog. The dialog is handed off to an operator if any level of ... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7912202 | Enhanced directory assistance system with voice over IP call handling A method is provided for operating a directory assistance system. The method includes the steps of storing a plurality of directory listings, including listings relating to identification of Voice over IP devices. A directory request is received for one of the direc... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7899173 | Communication connectivity via context association, advertising sponsorship, and multiple contact databases Communication connectivity via context association is provided by associating targeted subscriber contact information with a key at a subscriber database. At a data center, the keys are associated with unique characteristics or aliases (contexts) of the subscribers,... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7894592 | Automated operator assistance with menu options A subscriber implements and accesses telecommunications services, using a graphical user interface (GUI) via the Internet, and an interactive voice response (IVR) system via the public switched telecommunications network (PSTN). The subscriber can create preferences... | 02/22/2011 |
| 7885397 | On-demand seamless phone number updates A method, system and apparatus for on-demand phone number updating. A system for on-demand phone number updating can include a smooth number transition (SNT) call routing table mapping prior telephone numbers to new telephone numbers for corresponding SNT subscriber... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7881451 | Automated directory assistance system for a hybrid TDM/VoIP network An automated directory assistance platform architecture is provided for at least partial automatic processing of 411 calls from TDM-based telephone networks and from VoIP networks. The architecture includes three layers. One layer is a telephony network interface th... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7831031 | Method and system for operator services automation using an operator services switch A telecommunications system includes a front end automation system, an operator services switch, an automated operator, and an automation data server. The front end automation system interacts with a caller in order to recognize a request of the caller and determine... | 11/09/2010 |
| 7822189 | Searching multiple directories and generating a sorted integrated directory Embodiments for searching multiple directories are described. The searching includes remote searching and local searching. Local searching is performed against the local integrated phonebook on a client device. In contrast, remote searching is performed against one ... | 10/26/2010 |
| 7796745 | Systems and methods for automatic call completion In one embodiment, a method for automatically completing a call includes receiving a text message containing a telephone number of a target party, extracting the telephone number from the text message, and providing the telephone number to a telephone switching cont... | 09/14/2010 |
| 7792267 | Automatic call completion in a directory assistance system A method, system and apparatus for automatic call completion in a directory assistance system in concert with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). In accordance with the present invention, a method for automatic call completion in a directory assistance sys... | 09/07/2010 |
| 7711745 | Technique for selective presentation of information in response to a request for information assistance service In accordance with the present invention, when a user makes an information assistance call to an information/call center requesting a listing, the user can make arrangements for various services relating to the requested listing in the same call. These services may ... | 05/04/2010 |
| 7672441 | System and method for efficient call management for directory assistance services A communication assistance system includes a first database having a plurality of listings, each listings has at least one contact name and a corresponding contact number. A means is provided for receiving communications from a user among a plurality of users desiri... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7636430 | Toll-free call origination using an alphanumeric call initiator Toll-free calls are initiated using an alphanumeric call initiator (NAME) that is communicated to the network using a short message service (SMS), electronic mail message, a Worldwide Web interface or a voice connection to a voice recognition database. The NAME is t... | 12/22/2009 |
| 7623648 | Method and system of generating reference variations for directory assistance data Methods and systems of performing user input recognition. A digital directory comprising listings is accessed. Metadata information is associated with individual listings describing the individual listings. The metadata information is modified to generate transforme... | 11/24/2009 |
| 7606358 | System and method for providing personal directory assistance services A personalized assistance system for a user of a mobile device including a first database having a digital file library associated with the user, where the digital file library includes at least one digital file supplied to the first database by the user. An identif... | 10/20/2009 |
| 7596218 | Enhanced directory assistance services in a telecommunications network Directory assistance provides telephone number look up services to callers based on the business or caller name as listed in a telephone directory. As such, directory assistance in the prior art provides a value-added service to telephone users and an expense that m... | 09/29/2009 |
| 7577244 | Method and system for providing geographically targeted information and advertising A system and method of providing information based on the location of the target. The system is ideal for use with voice based technology, and uses street segments to allow users to identify their location by cross street. The system can target advertisements to use... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7555111 | System and method for star code dialing A system and method that enables callers to dial a subscription code instead of a telephone number to reach a subscriber of the subscription code. The system includes a lookup table that associates the subscription code with the subscriber's telephone number. The sy... | 06/30/2009 |
| 7529360 | Method and system for connecting calls An apparatus and a method for connecting calls from a digital directory. The system includes a telecommunication appliance and a digital directory, in communication with and accessible by the telecommunication appliance. The telecommunication appliance includes a di... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7499537 | Technique for providing personalized information and communications services A user may utilize a communication device, e.g., a wireless phone, mobile device or personal digital assistant (PDA), to contact an information/call center where an operator provides personalized information and communications services to the user in accordance with... | 03/03/2009 |
| 7443960 | Method and system for an automated departure strategy A method and system for an automated departure strategy from an automated system includes a track engine and an error engine. The track engine allows for the tracking and storing of one or more utterances spoken by a caller in response to one or more prompts. In add... | 10/28/2008 |
| 7433457 | Personalized assistance system and method The present invention is a personalized assistance system for a user of a telephone, comprised of a first database, the first database having a contact list for the user. The contact list includes at least one contact name and a corresponding contact number and incl... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7412042 | Technique for providing information assistance including a concierge-type service A user may access information assistance for a concierge-type service, whereby the user may make restaurant reservations, purchase goods and services, obtain movie listings, etc. with an agent's (or operator's) assistance. In accordance with the invention, the agent... | 08/12/2008 |
