Data processing: speech signal processing – linguistics – language – Speech signal processing – Synthesis
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-15
2003-03-04
Banks-Harold, Marsha D. (Department: 2654)
Data processing: speech signal processing, linguistics, language
Speech signal processing
Synthesis
C704S260000, C704S270000, C705S026640
Reexamination Certificate
active
06529873
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of providing recorded audio messages for telecommunications, systems and, more particularly, to apparatuses and methods using the Internet to remotely order, create, edit, review, approve and download audio messages to be recorded for reproduction.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The first installed telephone systems had single lines provided to separate locations. Even in the case of business establishments, such single-line installations were the normal practice, when telephone systems were first being installed, despite the fact that only one incoming call could be received at a time, or alternatively, only one outgoing call could be made at a time using a single line. In the case of home telephone installations such single-line arrangements, even today, have been found predominately adequate. Now, homeowners, though, are beginning to have more lines installed as different types of telecommunications equipment beyond telephones, e.g., telecopy machines and modem equipped computers, are being installed and operated in their homes.
Despite the many decades through which single telephone line installations in homes were found adequate, such single-line installations for businesses were found early on to be inadequate. Beginning early in the history of telephone service, as more telephones were installed in homes and businesses, the numbers of incoming and outgoing calls to and from businesses proportionately increased. Unavoidably, as business telephone call traffic increased, those that were trying to reach businesses would often encounter busy lines, and, therefore, the caller would have to hang up and try to call later, or not call back at all, which raised the possibility of lost business. To avoid losing customers, businesses found it necessary to have multiple lines installed to their offices as more and more of those businesses increased the volume of business transacted by telephone.
In actuality, the installation of multiple lines only provided a partial solution of the problem; namely, it addressed the problem of technically being able to have multiple telephone conversations at the same time from one location. However, installation of multiple lines alone is not a complete solution because the early rudimentary telephone systems involved each line terminating with a separate telephone and that telephone being connectable to other system telephones by a separate designated circuit, i.e., telephone number. These consequences of multiple lines—namely separate multiple telephones and associated telephone numbers—unavoidably result in, at the very least, inefficiencies for the affected businesses. Ideally each business wants to have only one telephone number that customers have to remember and use to conduct business with that company, and businesses do not necessarily need each line to terminate with a different telephone set.
The solution that was developed to overcome these problems is a specialized switching system, installed at the business locations, that takes multiple outside lines as inputs and outputs a single line to a connected telephone or outputs a number of lines to a corresponding number of telephones. The switching system, which in its early embodiments utilized electromechanical technology, connects one outside line at a time to a connected telephone, and, depending on the order in which incoming calls are received, assigns each call to the next available line using a method called a hunt group, i.e., a roll-over process. Such a switching system installed at a business with multiple input outside lines, which is called a key service unit, enables that business to have one telephone number and to thereby simultaneously receive as many incoming calls as there are lines provided to the key service unit without a caller encountering a busy signal. Of course someone using a telephone connected to a key service unit could use one of those outside lines that is not being used for a previously made incoming call to make an outgoing call.
With the rapid acceptance and utilization of telephones that occurred in the business world, it did not take long for key service units to be installed for use by at least the number of telephones as there were occupied offices at a business location. Businesses further adopted systems whereby one of the telephones connected to the key service unit would, during business hours, be operated by a receptionist who would answer every incoming call and either connect a caller to a telephone on which a company employee could have a conversation with the caller or connect the caller to a shunt circuit, which became known as a music-on-hold (“MOH”) port or circuit. Such receptionist based systems essentially became the standard for businesses and still are widely used, though the receptionist function, for many business installations, now has been automated.
Being able to essentially immediately inform a caller that her call has reached the correct business and that someone knows her call has been connected to a MOH circuit are effective steps that a business having a key service unit with multiple outside lines can take to assure customers that their calls are important to the business. However, as the volume of business conducted by telephone and the pace at which customers expect to have their business attended to have increased, it has become recognized as an imprudent business practice merely to connect customers to essentially silent MOH circuits that do not provide continuous audio feedback. A basis for this recognition is a general belief that about 60 percent of callers who are connected to a MOH circuit for more than about one minute, will hang up, and of those callers who do hang up, about a third will not call back. Businesses attempt to avert losing customers who cannot immediately be connected to an employee for a conversation by having systems installed that continuously reproduce audio programs that are connected to their key service unit MOH circuits. Initially, the programs were music, without spoken dialog, that were intended to entertain customers while connected to the MOH circuits. Subsequently, audio programs were modified to include periodic verbal messages such as “Your business is important to us. Please wait and the next available attendant will answer your call.” Such messages are intended to placate customers as they become anxious that their calls are not being answered more quickly.
Since at least the early, 1980's, tape players or other similar electronic audio signal reproduction equipment have been used for providing audio programs to key service unit MOH circuits. Under commonly practiced arrangements for using such electronic systems, businesses contract with organizations who employ, for example, radio disc jockeys, or the businesses directly contract with disc jockeys themselves, to record spoken text along with background music on tapes so that the recorded audio programs can be reproduced and input to MOH circuits. Unavoidable problems that plague such arrangements include (1) the limited durability of the media on which produced audio programs may be recorded such as tapes; (2) the time required to pass information back and forth between a business and a producer to prepare a new audio program along with the unavoidable potential errors in both transmitting and receiving information used to create and edit audio programs; and (3) then the logistic delays in delivering audio recordings to business locations where players and key service units are installed.
Now, key service units are digitized and can have digital players connected to the MOH circuits. Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) circuits can be used in such digital players for reproducing prerecorded audio programs, and these digital players can either be included within the physical box containing key service unit electronics or they can be devices physically separated from the key service units with interconnections made to
Banks-Harold Marsha D.
Focuspoint, Inc.
Fulbright & Jaworksi LLP
Harper V. Paul
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