Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Call source identification
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-31
2001-11-27
Hoosain, Allan (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Call source identification
C379S070000, C379S093050, C379S242000, C379S265020, C379S265110, C379S067100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324263
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention pertains to improvements in the field of touch tone telephone systems having multiple extensions to which incoming calls need to be directed. Specifically, the invention provides the ability to route incoming calls automatically by detecting the caller ID and routing the call to the extension most often called by the person having that caller ID.
Caller ID has been in the prior art for several years now on personal and business lines. Caller ID is a system wherein the name and telephone number of the person making the call is transmitted to the called party using digital data transmitted between the first and second rings of a telephone call if the called party has subscribed to caller ID service. If the called party has subscribed to caller ID service and has a caller ID decoder or reception device or has a telephone which is capable of detecting and decoding the caller ID signals, the called party will be shown a display of the name and telephone number of the person who originated the call if that person has not put a block on their name and/or phone number or an error occurs.
Many prior art telephone systems and stand alone caller ID display devices can display caller ID information, but they are incapable of making automatic routing decisions based upon the caller ID information.
The prior art includes computer systems which receive information about the calling party and uses it. One example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,183. This patent teaches a system including a computer having hardware for interfacing the computer with the public telephone network. Incoming calls include automatic number identification data which identifies the calling telephone. The computer is further programmed to accept personal identification codes from the caller. The computer system uses the ANI data and the personal ID data from the caller to generate reports which indicate the location from which and time each caller called in so as to keep track of employees arrival and departure times from remote job sites.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,900 discloses a telephone message system which has a controller unit with caller ID capability which has one or more adjunct telephones all coupled to the controller by bridged connections to a single pair. The controller unit interfaces with a central provider through a video services network. A message routing capability is provided by providing for every party at the residence a mailbox of groups of telephone numbers of callers that typically call that party. These telephone numbers are provided to the controller unit. Upon receipt of a call from one of the telephone numbers, identified through caller ID, the incoming call is associated with the particular called party and the controller unit routes the call directly to the called party's mailbox where the caller leaves a message. The called party retrieves the messages in his mailbox only if the mailboxes are restricted access or other mailboxes if they are open.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,913 teaches an answering machine which stores a number of different messages each associated with a particular phone number. When a call comes in, the phone number of the caller is identified through caller ID data, and the answering machine compares the phone number with the list of phone numbers having associated messages. If a match is found, that message is played to the caller.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,680 teaches a telephone with automatic dialing capability which stores its own area code given to it by a user in an initialization step which is performed when the phone is installed or moved to a different area code. The phone stores incoming caller ID information including the area codes in the dialer memory. When a user requests the dialer to dial the number of a particular party, the phone dialer automatically compares its home area code with the area code it has stored for the number of the party to be called, and if the two area codes are different, the dialer automatically includes the area code in the dialed telephone number.
The specific problem to which the system of the invention provides a solution is the need for businesses which receive many phone calls to lower the labor costs associated with answering and routing such calls.
A need has arisen for a telephone system which can automatically route incoming calls based upon caller ID information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention defines a genus of species all of which are capable of automatically routing incoming telephone calls based upon caller ID information sent with the ring signal. The particular hardware or software used to perform this function is not critical and any circuitry and/or software which can perform this function will suffice to practice the invention.
The telephone system described herein is intended to be only one example of the many systems in which the invention can be usefully employed. Any system which performs the functions of trapping the caller ID information and use it to make routing decisions and route the call automatically to the appropriate extension based upon the routing decision will suffice to practice the invention.
In a typical species within this genus, a company telephone system will have many extensions and one central computer station with an interface card connected to one or more incoming telephone lines from the telephone company central office. The computer will also be coupled to the various extensions by separate lines. A routing table will be kept in the central computer having caller IDs of callers that frequently call the company and the extension number that those callers usually call. When one of the persons whose identity is stored in the routing table calls the company, the caller ID information transmitted with the call will be trapped and used as a search key into the routing table. The extension number that the caller usually calls will be extracted from the table or otherwise used to cause appropriate switching to route the call to the extension that caller usually calls. In other embodiments, the search key will be used to search a routing table to find a PBX internal telephone extension, an extension external to a PBX or voice mail box or boxes or voice or radio paging devices associated with the caller ID data for use in routing the call. After the predetermined destination is found from the routing table using the CID, a command will be generated to automatically transfer the call to the predetermined destination.
The routing table can map a large number of different caller IDs to the same extension.
In some embodiments, the caller receives a recorded announcement giving the caller an option to press one or more keys to bypass the automatic routing function and be directed to an attendant for manual routing.
Another form of call routing is based upon Direct Inward Dialing. In these embodiments, each incoming call includes a direct inward dialing (DID) telephone number representing the number the calling party dialed instead of the number from which the calling party called from. These embodiments use the DID number as a search key into the routing table to find the extension number that corresponds to the DID number. That extension number is then used to route the call.
The genus of the invention enables lowering labor cost for businesses by making it possible to eliminate a receptionist whose sole job it is to receive calls and route them manually to the appropriate party. For a very high volume of calls, the genus of the invention makes it possible to at least substantially reduce the workload of a receptionist or reduce the number of required receptionists by automatically routing some calls using caller ID information to the person or extension mapped to that caller ID in a routing table thereby eliminating the need for operator intervention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4757525 (1988-07-01), Matthews et al.
patent: 4985913 (1991-01-01), Shalom et al.
patent: 5029196 (1991-07-01), Morganstein
patent: 5255183 (1993-10-01), Katz
patent: 5329578 (1994-07-01), Brennan
Sherwood Charles Gregory
Yahn Charles Edward
Dialogic Corporation
Hoosain Allan
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
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