Telephone Call Challenge System for Spam Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Individuals and businesses face inconvenience and frustration from unwanted telephone calls, as existing methods to block spam calls either prevent legitimate calls or are burdensome for callers.
Innovation Solution
A telephone call challenge system that uses a central computer, mobile telephone, or computing device to check incoming caller numbers against white and black lists, presenting unknown callers with a series of questions to verify their legitimacy, allowing only correct responses to ring through and terminating incorrect ones.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If caller screening is implemented by listening to the call, then unwanted calls are blocked, but legitimate callers are annoyed and the receiver experiences embarrassment
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification by playing a challenge question to the caller before the actual call is connected. This preliminary action filters out spam callers in advance, allowing legitimate callers to proceed without experiencing the annoyance of being screened during the actual call.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary verification mechanism (challenge question) between the caller and the receiver. This intermediary step validates the caller's legitimacy without requiring the receiver to personally screen each call, thus maintaining caller convenience while blocking unwanted calls.
2Reliability
If the receiver always answers the telephone, then no calls are missed, but time is wasted on unwanted calls and the receiver is frustrated
Solution Approach 1:
The challenge question is presented in advance before the call is fully established. This preliminary verification ensures that only legitimate callers proceed to the actual call, allowing the receiver to answer with confidence that time will not be wasted on spam.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides immediate feedback to the caller through the challenge question, automatically identifying and blocking unwanted calls before they consume the receiver's time. Legitimate callers receive positive feedback by being allowed to proceed, maintaining reliable call reception without time loss.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If telephone numbers are kept secret, then spam calls are reduced, but important calls from legitimate callers may be missed
Solution Approach 1:
The challenge question serves as an intermediary verification mechanism that does not require hiding the telephone number. Legitimate callers can identify themselves through the challenge, while spam callers are blocked, ensuring important calls are not missed while still reducing spam.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service verification where the caller must independently answer the challenge question to prove legitimacy. This eliminates the need for secret telephone numbers while still filtering out spam, as the verification process is automated and does not require the receiver to share personal information.
4Object-affected harmful factors
If a challenge question is presented to callers, then unwanted calls are blocked, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces complex manual screening processes with automated voice-based challenge questions. This substitution of mechanical/manual operations with automated acoustic verification simplifies the overall system while effectively blocking unwanted calls through intelligent automation.
Data Source
AI summary
A central computer of a telecommunications company handles an incoming call from a caller. The telephone number of the caller is checked against a white list or blacklist and handled accordingly. If the caller is unknown, a question is played to the caller (optionally selected randomly) along with a number of possible answers. The answers are presented randomly, associated with random identifiers, etc. If the caller selects the correct answer then the call is routed to the receiver's telephone. If not, then the call is terminated or other action taken as specified. The incoming call may also be handled by a mobile telephone or computing device at the user's home or business. The mobile telephone may alert the user when answering the incoming call or wait until the question is answered correctly before ringing the telephone.