Patent: watch videos while your call is in a queue

An interesting new patent has been applied for this week by Roamware Inc. Filed on August 4th 2005 the patent covers an invention to play videos to a caller while they are placed on hold or in a queue.

There are so many businesses using call centres these days and with many people becoming frustrated by being kept on hold for 20 minutes just to speak to an operator this application could really take off. Currently most companies have some music playing in the background but this cannot be changed by the listener.

Imagine if you could browse the funniest YouTube videos while you were on hold to the gas company?

From the patent:

The present invention relates to methods and systems for offering calling parties a video indicia or segment while awaiting connection to a called party in a telecommunications network.

Currently, in the common carrier telecommunications market there is a concept called “Ringback Tones” “Tringtones” or “Color Ringback Tone,” wherein a telecommunications subscriber is able to specify in advance a short music or audio segment to be heard by callers while waiting for that subscriber to answer a call. Typically, that segment reflects a personal choice made by that subscriber for playing to all calling parties, or to calling parties specified by that subscriber with respect to that segment. Other existing concepts of Ringback Tones include ways for those segments to reflect personal choices made by the calling party. Also in existence is a service known as video mail that enables a calling party to see a video greeting and leave a video mail. However no services today include playing a video to the calling party while awaiting the called party to answer.

Via SEO by the Sea

This post was optimised by our search engine optimisation partner Blogstorm.