| 摘要 |
<p>An interactive system is provided for enabling TV shopping from a central provider by remote customers without the customers having to leave their remote locations. The system provides distribution means enabling (a) incoming customer telephone communications to be routed to particular agent workstations of the central provider, and (b) outgoing video and audio communications from the agent workstations to be routed to the respective customers from whom the incoming telephone communications are received. The system is adapted to enable agents working at the workstations to communicate interactively with the customers and provide to the customers video (picture) representations of available products for viewing on the customers' televisions. By viewing the product representations and talking to the agents, the customers are able to effect transactions with the agents. The system can be implemented at reasonable cost and is not limited in its application to TV home shopping; for example, it has utility for various applications where the management of customer-supplier relationships is involved.</p> |
