Telephone call screener

Details Telephone call screener Telephone call screener

1998-10-14

1999-11-23

Zele, Krista

Telephonic communications

Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis

Message management

379 77, 379 80, 379 8801, 379196, 379199, 379210, H04M 164

Patent

active

059913673

ABSTRACT:
A telephone call screener and method of use is disclosed for use with a user's telephone system. It rejects unwanted telephone calls, such as those from telemarketers, while still allowing personal calls to ring through to the user, all without any user involvement. The screener recognizes an incoming call and disconnects the user's telephone. The screening process then reads prerecorded messages to the caller, attempting to verbally filter out and reject undesired call types. In a first embodiment, the screener generates a random single digit number, and requests the caller to press this number key on their phone to verify compliance with the previously read message. Depending on the caller's actions, the call is either disconnected, or is allowed to ring through to the user's telephone. Neither the caller nor the screener user needs to know any predefined codes. Further, the screener does not depend on any Caller ID system or telephone answering machine. In alternate embodiments, the screener could be implemented in a business telephone system, or at a telephone company.

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