Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis
Reexamination Certificate
1997-06-11
2001-06-26
Weaver, Scott L. (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
C379S088070, C379S088220
Reexamination Certificate
active
06252944
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
The present invention is related to co-pending patent application Ser. No. 08/872,714, entitled “Dial On-Hold”, filed concurrently herewith, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates in general to telephone and voice processing systems, and in particular, to a telephone call/voice processing system operable and controlled by one set of software.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
There is a growing trend of individuals leaving large companies and forming their own enterprises with a handful of employees. Upon doing so, one of the first things these people realize is that they miss the tools they were accustomed to using within their former larger company. One of these primary tools is a small PBX (Private Branch Exchange) system or key system for interconnecting a number of local telephone sets to a fewer number of central office (“CO”) lines from the local telephone company or a private telecommunications network. Another tool often missed is some type of voice mail system (note, “voice mail system” and “voice processing system” are used interchangeably herein).
The problem for such companies is obtaining a telephone system and a voice mail system that work well together, since typically such systems are manufactured by different companies. The industry is currently separated into two markets, one of those being the voice mail or voice processing market and the other one being the telephone system, or PBX, market. The result is that separate telephone and voice mail systems must be purchased and interconnected to operate correctly and efficiently.
Referring to
FIGS. 2 and 13
, there is illustrated a prior art technique for combining telephone and voice mail systems. The dilemma is how to provide communication between the telephone system (PBX)
200
and the voice mail (“VM”) system
201
. Communication with the telephone system
200
is typically done through either the CO lines or on the station side. Since CO lines are more of a precious resource than the station connections, the prior art system shown in
FIG. 2
communicates between the voice mail system
201
and the telephone system
200
on the station side using connection
202
. Connection
202
may be an analog telephone line or via an EKT (electronic key telephone) integrated connection. Alternatively, a proprietary EKT line
204
may be coupled to an analog telephone adapter
205
, which uses analog line
203
to couple to voice mail system
201
.
Such systems are typically configured by programming the telephone system
200
to perform a transfer to ring a group of extensions that are connected to the voice mail system
201
upon one or more occurrences, such as when the outside call into the telephone system
200
to a particular extension receives a busy signal or the extension rings a certain number of times. At this point in time the telephone call resides within telephone system
200
(step
1301
). Next, the telephone system
200
performs the same physical functions as an operator by transferring the call using a flash-hook and then dialing the extension number (step
1302
) pertaining to the voice mail system
201
in order to transfer a call to the voice mail system
201
. At this point in time, the telephone call now resides within the voice mail system
201
, which may play a greeting to the incoming call (step
1303
). In response to the greeting played by the voice mail system
201
, the caller may dial digits, which are detected by the voice mail system
201
(step
1304
). Thereafter, the voice mail system may record a message spoken by the caller (the incoming call resides in the voice mail system
201
; step
1306
), or the voice mail system
201
may transfer the call to a desired destination, such as a station extension (the incoming call is now resident within the telephone system
200
; step
1305
). In-band signalling, a serial connection, etc. may be added to further improve the system, but it is still configured as two separate systems—a telephone system
200
coupled to a separate voice mail system
201
.
Another prior art system not shown herein is the use of a personal computer with a voice adapter card inserted therein for interconnecting to a telephone system. Again, the same problems arise, since there is a separate voice mail system coupled to a telephone system where software in the personal computer operates the voice mail portion.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an integrated system providing both telephone and voice mail capabilities.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing need is addressed by the present invention, which is a telephone and voice mail system requiring only a single processing means for controlling operations of both the telephone system and the voice mail system. The single processing means communicates with a hard disk, which stores programs for running the various operations of this system, voice prompts and all voice mail messages. The single processing means is coupled to a signal processing circuitry, which emulates analog electronics that would be used for filters, tone decoder, and generators, etc. The single processing means and signal processing circuitry are coupled to CO lines and station lines by a digital cross-point matrix, which can connect any voice path (also referred to herein as a “call”) to another voice path.
The system comprised of the single processing means, signal processing circuitry, and digital cross-point matrix is a fully digital architecture.
A single processing means is defined herein as one or more microprocessors and/or microcontrollers that are controlled by a single set of software. Essentially, a single microprocessor could be utilized to operate the present invention, but the present invention should not be limited to such a single microprocessor structure, since a plurality of microprocessors and/or microcontrollers could be substituted to perform various portions of the software code. Alternatively, it could be said that the present invention is under a single control mechanism, which may comprise one or more microprocessors and/or microcontrollers implementing a single set of software codes.
The signal processing means may be a digital signal processor (“DSP”), or any other equivalent mechanism.
The system also includes a modem so that the system can be accessed remotely for providing it with new programs and voice prompts.
Furthermore, the digital cross-point matrix provides connections to one or more analog ports for connecting to standard analog-type connections, such as cordless telephones, fax machines, etc. There is also a provision for providing hold music through the digital cross-point matrix.
One advantage of the present invention is that it integrates call processing and voice processing into one system controlled by one set of software.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it allows for the provision of a voice message to a caller that an extension is busy as opposed to the caller hearing a busy signal.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that it provides voice resources to the voice processing module of the system.
Yet still another advantage of the present invention is that the processing of incoming calls is done in an integrated fashion so that callers are not transferred back and forth from the telephone system and the voice mail system, with each performing its operation only during the time that it is connected to the caller.
And yet still another advantage of the present invention is that hook flash and other call progress monitoring is not required.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that a station user is provided with voice prompted Help providing interactive voice explanations of user programming requirements and all commonly used phone features.
Another advantage of the present invention is that it provides for one-keystroke immediate interface to the user's voice mail features.
And, another advantage of the present invention is that it provides a user the capabil
Hansen II Harold E. A.
Suder Eric G.
Estech Systems, Inc.
Kordzik Kelly K.
Weaver Scott L.
Winstead Sechrest & Minick P.C.
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