Hold Status Management via Audio Variation Detection

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Solution Overview

Problem

Users are often left on hold during communications, leading to frustration as they must manually monitor the hold status, preventing them from engaging in other activities and posing a challenge for service providers to inform users of the hold duration.

Innovation Solution

A system that detects and manages hold status in communication sessions by monitoring changes in hold media, such as hold music, to automatically alert users when the hold status changes, allowing for customizable notifications and replacement media based on user preferences.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If users manually monitor the communication to determine when the hold period ends, then users can know when the representative returns, but users cannot be fully engaged in another activity while on hold

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehold status informationVSAvoiduser engagement in other activities

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically monitors the communication session and detects hold status changes without requiring user action. The processor autonomously analyzes media samples, compares them against reference samples, and determines when hold status changes occur, freeing the user from manual monitoring while maintaining accurate information delivery.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides automatic feedback to the user about hold status changes through notifications. When the processor detects that hold media has been replaced (indicating the representative has returned), it sends a notification to the user device, informing the user of the status change without requiring them to actively monitor the call.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

2Loss of information

If the system automatically detects hold status changes by monitoring hold media, then users can be informed of status changes, but the system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehold status informationVSAvoidsystem complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the essential audio features from the hold media that indicate representative presence, such as the presence or absence of hold music patterns. By focusing on specific acoustic characteristics rather than analyzing the entire audio stream in detail, the system reduces computational complexity while maintaining accurate hold status detection.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The system creates reference samples during known hold periods and uses these copies to compare against current media. Instead of developing complex algorithms to detect hold status from scratch, the system leverages recorded reference patterns of hold media, simplifying the detection process by comparing current audio against stored templates.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS9473628B2Method and system for providing communication hold status management

Publication Date: 2016.10.18 VERIZON PATENT & LICENSING INC

AI summary

An approach is provided for providing media and alert notification during a hold status of a communication session. The approach includes detecting a hold status of a communication session associated with a device. The approach also includes monitoring hold media transmitted to the device during the hold status and processing the monitored hold media to determine a variation in a characteristic of the hold media. The approach further includes determining a change in the hold status based on the variation; and presenting an alert notification on the device, another device, or a combination thereof to indicate the change in the hold status.