Home gateway system with telephony functions and method

• US 10,230,537 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2016
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ameritech Corp. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bossemeyer, Jr., Robert Wesley, Bennett, III, Raymond Walden, Liebrecht, Donald Bernard, Sullivan, Barry James
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Joseph T
• Application Number:
  US15/053,749
• Publication Number:
  US 20160373271A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/578 associated with a synthesized vocal announcement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/642 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/06 Recording class or number of calling , i.e. A-party or called party , i.e. B-party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis speech synthesis per se G10L13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/41 using speaker recognition speaker recognition per se G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4288 Notifying a called subscriber of an incoming call during an ongoing call, e.g. Call Waiting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/14 WLL [Wireless Local Loop]; RLL [Radio Local Loop]

Abstract

A home gateway system has a transceiver (70) capable of establishing a wireless local loop connection (72). A voice processing system (74) is coupled to the transceiver (70). The voice processing system (74) is capable of storing a message from an incoming call.

A caller identification processing system (76) is coupled to the transceiver (70). The caller identification processing system (76) determines a telephone number of the incoming call and routes the incoming call to the voice processing system (74), if the telephone number belongs to a screened group of telephone numbers.

Claims

1. A tangible machine readable storage device including instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

identifying a calling telephone number associated with an incoming call;

when the calling telephone number is an authorized telephone number, providing a caller of the incoming call access to a plurality of control options of a home automation system via a voice processing system; and

when the calling telephone number is an unauthorized telephone number;

requesting the caller to speak a name of the caller during the incoming call;

obtaining the name of the caller by performing speech recognition on a response to the request uttered by the caller during the incoming call; and

when the name corresponds to an authorized person, providing the caller of the incoming call access to the plurality of control options of the home automation system via the voice processing system.

2. The storage device as defined in claim 1, wherein the operations further include playing a recording of the spoken name to a destination party of the incoming call when the name corresponds to an unauthorized person.

3. The storage device as defined in claim 1, wherein the operations further include posting an indicator of the incoming call to a user when the incoming call is received during an existing call.

4. The storage device as defined in claim 1, wherein the operations further include causing a speech synthesizer to play the plurality of control options to the caller.

5. The storage device as defined in claim 1, wherein the operations further include directing the incoming call to a voice mail control system based on a response to the plurality of control options.

6. The storage device as defined in claim 1, further including a voice bridge.

7. The storage device as defined in claim 1, further including a smart card interface to implement at least one of the plurality of control options.

8. The storage device as defined in claim 1, wherein the operations further include when the name corresponds to an unauthorized person, performing speaker verification before providing the caller of the incoming call access to the plurality of control options.

9. A method, comprising:

identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, a calling telephone number associated with an incoming call;

when the calling telephone number belongs to a list of authorized telephone numbers, granting, by executing an instruction with the processor, a caller of the incoming call access to a plurality of control options a home automation system via a voice processing system; and

when the calling telephone number does not belong to the list of authorized telephone numbers;

obtaining, by executing an instruction with the processor, an utterance made by the caller in response to a request for a name of the caller, the utterance made during the incoming call;

obtaining, by executing an instruction with the processor, the name of the caller by performing speech recognition on the utterance;

determining, by executing an instruction with the processor, whether the name of the caller corresponds to an authorized set of people; and

when the name of the caller corresponds to one of the authorized set of people, granting, by executing an instruction with the processor, the caller access to the plurality of control options via the voice processing system.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, further including playing the utterance to a destination party of the incoming call when the name does not correspond to one of the authorized set of people.

11. A method as defined in claim 9, further including posting an indicator of the incoming call to a user when the incoming call is received during an existing call.

12. A method as defined in claim 9, further including causing a speech synthesizer to play the plurality of control options to the caller.

13. A method as defined in claim 9, further including directing the incoming call to a voice mail control system based on a selection.

14. The method of claim 9, further including, when the calling telephone number does not belong to the list of authorized telephone numbers and the name of the caller corresponds to one of the authorized set of people, performing a speaker verification before granting the caller access to the control options.