Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Voice message synthesis
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-29
2002-08-27
Weaver, Scott L. (Department: 2745)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Voice message synthesis
C379S071000, C379S088280
Reexamination Certificate
active
06442246
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to telephone communication systems and particularly to automatic announcement systems adapted to be connected to telephone lines to provide for such services as Automatic Call Back and Enhanced Repeat Dial.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Various services have become available with the development of communications technology. For example, in a telephone system, there are many services in practical use such as call forwarding, Automatic Voice Messaging (AVM), Automatic Call Back (ACB), Enhanced Repeat Dial (ERD), and Abbreviated Dialing (AD). These services are typically presented to users by recorded announcements. Recorded announcements for such calling services are formed from spoken words, phrases, tones or periods of silence stored in separate speech files. In response to a request for such calling services, various speech files are accessed in a predetermined order to generate a complete announcement which is then presented to the caller.
Telecommunications equipment vendors support such calling services by providing multiple speech files on circuit cards along with a microprocessor controller for accessing the speech files and generating announcements. The circuit cards provide link access to the front end of a digital phone network switch. An example of such a circuit card is the NT1x80AA Enhanced Digital Recorded Announcement Machine (EDRAM) card manufactured by Northern Telecom.
Commercially available circuit cards have several shortcomings, however. The circuit cards typically have announcement fragments stored in several separate speech files. In a typical announcement, portions of the several speech files must be accessed to form a complete announcement. A telephone company seeking to implement a particular calling service must purchase all of the speech files, even though many of the fragments within the speech files do not support the desired calling feature. Furthermore, due to limited memory space on the circuit cards, the resources of an entire circuit card can be exhausted in a typical implementation of a single calling service. Thus, for each calling service implemented by a telephone company, a dedicated circuit card must be purchased. In some instances, a separate controller card must also be programmed to retrieve and assemble complete announcements from the available speech files on the circuit cards. Considering a large telephone company with many central offices, circuit cards represent a substantial equipment investment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a general object of the present invention to reduce the number and thus the cost of circuit cards for a telephone system. It is another object of the present invention to provide more than one communication service on a single circuit card.
It is also an object ox the present invention to provide a circuit card with audio segments unique to two separate communication services, as well as segments common to both services. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a single circuit card with audio segments necessary to compose announcements for both Automatic Call Back and Enhanced Repeat Dial services.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent when viewed in light of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the attached drawings and appended claims.
The present system is directed to an improved announcement delivery system which overcomes these and other disadvantages of previous calling service systems. The method provides more than one communication service on a single circuit card by defining the groups of audio segments necessary to compose a complete announcement of the first communication service such as ACB (Automatic Call Back) and the second communication service such as ERD (Enhanced Repeat Dial). Once the announcement fragments are defined, they are stored on a single circuit card. The circuit card is then programmed to deliver, in response to a user selection of either the first or second communication service, a complete announcement for the respective service composed from the audio segments stored on the circuit card.
For a more complete understanding of this invention, reference should be made to the embodiment illustrated in greater detail in the attached specification and accompanying drawings.
In particular, the present invention has a number of important advantages. Specifically, the present invention provides an improved method of providing multiple calling services on a single circuit card.
Another advantage of he present invention is saving recording time by eliminating unnecessary verbiage within the speech files forming the calling service announcements. A further advantage of the present invention is increased speech file storage by the elimination of unnecessary speech files for unsupported calling service announcements.
Another advantage of the present invention is improved maintenance of the overall system due to the reduced number of components. Still another advantage of the present invention is the reduction of equipment necessary to implement multiple calling services, including a reduced number of circuit cards and maintenance trunk module slots.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4439635 (1984-03-01), Theis et al.
patent: 4918322 (1990-04-01), Winter et al.
patent: 5436967 (1995-07-01), Hanson
patent: 5539808 (1996-07-01), Inniss et al.
patent: 5664060 (1997-09-01), Jarrett et al.
patent: 5724406 (1998-03-01), Juster
patent: 5742674 (1998-04-01), Jain et al.
patent: 5758323 (1998-05-01), Case
patent: 5771276 (1998-06-01), Wolf
patent: 5784438 (1998-07-01), Martinez
patent: 5802150 (1998-09-01), Beck et al.
Crumpler Ronald Dale
Downey John David
Rice Carol Ann
Ameritech Corporation
Weaver Scott L.
LandOfFree
Multiple service announcement method does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Multiple service announcement method, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Multiple service announcement method will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2969751