Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Dynamic audio signal recording or reproduction
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-29
2001-11-27
Tsang, Fan (Department: 2645)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Dynamic audio signal recording or reproduction
C379S088220, C379S067100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324262
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to telephone answering systems, and in particular to interactively monitoring conditions after an answering machine as been detected in automatic telephone number dialer systems in order to deliver realistic sounding recorded messages in their entirety without truncation onto the answering machines recorder. The system further compiles and updates statistics in a database based on results of the dialed calls.
BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART
Telemarketers generally attempt to deliver information messages by telephone to live consumers. In the last decade, automatic telephone answering machines have become a popular addition to most homes and businesses. Telemarketers are usually reluctant to leave information messages on these answering machines. Thus, it has become more popular than ever for the telemarketers to use computers which will detect conditions that an answering machine is receiving the call so that the call can be dropped(hung up). See for example: U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,348 to Smith. These dropped calls can be quite significant when considering the number of answering machines and undelivered information messages that occur.
Attempts have been made over the years to overcome the problems with delivering messages to telephone answering machines. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,065 to Bangerter; U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,168 to Kelly, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,787 to Hamilton; U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,792 to Jesurum et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,602 to Szlam et al. However, these patents are generally are limited to sensing audio signals generated by the answering machines and and do not cover all the types of answering machines which start recording after different selected delay times. For example, many of these devices commence playing a recorded message based on mistakenly detecting when the “beep” has occurred. The false “beep” signal is a common problem for real callers trying to leave messages on answering machines. Furthermore, these patents do not fully analyze the connected calls in order to utilize preselected delay times to deliver and play recorded messages.
Message delivery systems which deliver a recorded message to an answering machine must solve the problem of determining when to “Launch”(begin playback of) the prerecorded message. Conventional systems rely on a timer to determine the moment to begin playback of the recorded message. Typically a timer is initiated once the determination has been made that the call has been answered by a machine. Message delivery systems which rely on timed delivery experience a high percentage of truncation of the recorded message. This is a result of the system begins to play of the recorded message BEFORE the answering machine starts recording.
Another serious problem with timer based systems is that many answering machines will “hang up” on the system before the message launches. This is due to a “vox” function in many answering machines which allows them to stop recording after they detect several seconds of silence. If a timer based system waits too long before launching the message, the called answering machine may have already hung up before the message playback begins.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The first objective of the present invention is to provide a computer based system capable of accurately interpreting an answering machine's playback condition so as to deliver prerecorded messages in their entirety(without truncation) onto the answering machine.
The second object of this invention is to provide a system for delivering prerecorded messages onto answering machines to insure the message sounds realistic(non recorded), in that the message is delivered shortly AFTER the answering machine begins recording.
The third object of this invention is to provide a telephone dialing software message delivery system that overcomes leaving messages on machines based on a false “beep” signal.
RealCall replaces the pre-set timer controls of the prior art devices with an “interactive” logic, where the invention “listens” to the answering machine's outgoing message and waits for a condition suggesting that the answering machine is in “record” mode. RealCall tests for the “record” mode condition by continuing to “listen” to the call for confirmation before starting to launch. As a result, the time interval from the moment the call connects until RealCall “launches” a message is different for each call placed by the RealCall system.
The novel invention is a next level that comes into play after the system has detected whether the received call in the dialer system has reached a live person or an answering machine. Such a system is described in reference to U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,787 to Hamilton, which is incorporated by reference.
A preferred embodiment of the invention uses dual two tier steps after determining an answering machine has been reached. One two tier approach determines if a solid non human tone of at least one second duration is detected in the connected call and then playing the recorded information message only after the tone has been follow by a preselected interval of silence. The other two tier approach determines if silence of at least two seconds is detected in the connected call in leu of the indication of a solid non human tone of at least one second duration and then playing the recorded information message only after another one second interval of silence has been detected. The system allows for the delivery of a complete pre-selected message in a nontruncated form onto the answering machine within approximately two to three seconds of the start of the answering machine's recording step without allowing the machine to cut-off the complete pre-selected message, during the recording so that a user of the answering machine playing the complete pre-selected message believes a human and not a machine initiated the realistic recording. Unlike the limitations in the prior art systems, the novel invention can be used with all types of answering machines such as but not limited to a tape machine, a digital machine, a pager, a telephone provider voice/memory call machine, and a cellular machine.
Further objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of a presently preferred embodiment which is illustrated schematically in the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4356348 (1982-10-01), Smith
patent: 4539436 (1985-09-01), Theis
patent: 4667065 (1987-05-01), Bangerter
patent: 4692817 (1987-09-01), Theis
patent: 4941168 (1990-07-01), Kelly
patent: 5371787 (1994-12-01), Hamilton
patent: 5430792 (1995-07-01), Jesurum
patent: 5581602 (1996-12-01), Szlam
patent: 5644625 (1997-07-01), Solot
patent: 5724420 (1998-03-01), Torgrim
patent: 5768358 (1998-06-01), Venier et al.
patent: 5799066 (1998-08-01), Joyce et al.
patent: 5901214 (1999-05-01), Shaffer et al.
patent: 5943410 (1999-08-01), Shaffer et al.
patent: 5995826 (1999-11-01), Cox et al.
patent: 6226360 (2001-05-01), Goldberg et al.
patent: 6233319 (2001-05-01), Cox et al.
Escalante Ovidio
Law Offices of Brian S. Steinberg
Market Ability, Inc.
Steinberg Brian S.
Tsang Fan
LandOfFree
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