Network based voice mail with call screening

• US 20010053206A1
• Filed: 07/05/2001
• Published: 12/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Urs A. Muller
• Original Assignee: Urs A. Muller
• Inventors: Muller, Urs A.
• Granted Patent: US 6,751,300 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/64 Automatic arrangements for answering calls; Automatic arrangements for recording messages for absent subscribers; Arrangements for recording conversations centralised dictation systems H04M11/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/652 Means for playing back the recorded messages by remote control over a telephone line H04M1/658 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/658 Means for redirecting recorded messages to other extensions or equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/724 User interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/4563 Voicemail monitoring during recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/658 Combination of voice calls and paging
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53333 Message receiving aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53358 Message preview
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/537 Arrangements for indicating the presence of a recorded message , whereby the presence information might include a preview or summary of the message
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A network based voice mail system without losing any of the advantages of traditional answering machines includes a small device, which looks like an answering machine and costs about the same, and three-way calling service. The small device (called a Remote Answering Device) looks just like an ordinary answering machine. It has a speaker, a message number indicator and the basic play back control buttons like “play”, “delete”, “stop”, “rewind”, “skip”, etc. When a call comes in that is not answered by a human, the Remote Answering Device will pick up after a preselected number of rings and play a prerecorded greeting that is stored locally and then prompt the caller to wait for the beep. The Remote Answering Device then uses three-way calling service to conference the user'"'"'s voice mail number into the call, by sending a hook flash signal and speed dialing the user'"'"'s voice mail number. When conference a call is established it plays the beep and then plays the message which is being recording live on the speaker. The caller can skip the greeting by pressing any button, like with most traditional answering machines. After answering a call, the Remote Answering Device constantly senses the impedance of the telephone line to detect if any of the extension phones is being picked up. If an extension is picked up, the Remote Answering Device drops the conference call by sending another hook flash signal and hangs up. The user can then talk normally with the caller. Since the Remote Answering Device answered all calls it knows how many messages have been left and can indicate this number on its display. The user can press a simple “play” button to play back the messages. The Remote Answering Device will automatically call up the user'"'"'s voice mail box and start playing the messages. If a call is received by the network based voice mail system that did not first pass through the Remote Answering Device, e.g., because the line was busy or out, the network based voice mail system sends a page to the Remote Answering Device that identifies the correct message count in the queue. The Remote Answering Device includes a paging receiver that receives the message and sends the correct count to a processor that updates the message count indicator.

Claims

1. A network based voice mail apparatus comprising:

a) a network based voice mail system including a user voice mail box;

b) at least one remote answering device coupled to a user'"'"'s incoming telephone line;

c) a telephone network providing three-way calling service, wherein the remote answering device answers an incoming call after a predetermined number of rings, and conferences in the user'"'"'s voice mail box in the network based voice mail system using the three-way calling service of the telephone network; and

d) a paging system being coupled to the network based voice mail system, said network based voice mail system notifying the paging system when a message is received by the network based voice mail system that has not simultaneously been received by the at least one remote answering device, said paging system transmitting a paging signal to the at least one remote answering device indicating a number of messages in the network based voice mail system.

2. The apparatus according to

claim 1

, further comprising an Internet interface via which a user can access the user voice mail box.

3. The apparatus according to

claim 2

, wherein the Internet interface comprises a World Wide Web site that the user can access using a personal computer running a Web browser to review messages in the user'"'"'s voice mail box in the network based voice mail system.

4. The apparatus according to

claim 1

, further comprising a plurality of remote answering devices, each disposed at different locations and different incoming telephone lines, wherein each of the plurality of remote answering devices accesses the same user'"'"'s voice mail box.

5. The apparatus according to

claim 1

, further comprising a wireless remote answering device being couplable to the network based voice mail system via a wireless communications network and including command functionality similar to the remote answering device coupled to the user'"'"'s incoming telephone line.

6. In a network based voice mail system that has a user voice mail box that is accessible over a telephone network via a predetermined telephone number and an optional predetermined access code, a remote answering device comprising:

a) a modem answering an incoming call upon detecting a predetermined number of rings, dialing the user'"'"'s voice mail box using a three-way calling service and conferencing the incoming call with the user'"'"'s voice mail box;

b) a memory storing the predetermined telephone number and the optional predetermined access code;

c) a processor controlling the modem and passing the predetermined telephone number and optional predetermined access code from the memory to the modem; and

d) a paging receiver receiving a paging signal that indicates that a message exists in the network based voice mail system that was not received by the remote answering device, and outputting a numerical code to the processor indicating a message count.

7. The device according to

claim 6

, further comprising a speaker coupled to the modem and outputting a voice signal from the incoming call to the speaker.

8. The device according to

claim 6

, further comprising a message number display coupled to the processor displaying a count of the messages in the network based voice mail system, wherein the paging interface receives a page from the network based voice mail system indicating that a message has been received in the user'"'"'s voice mail box without passing through the remote answering device, said paging interface outputs the message count to the processor, which updates the message number display.

9. The device according to

claim 6

, wherein the processor detects a change in an impedance of the telephone line, which indicates that a telephone extension has been picked up, and then outputs a signal to drop the voice mail box from the conference call.

10. The device according to

claim 6

, further comprising a plurality of control buttons coupled to the processor.

11. The device according to

claim 10

, wherein the plurality of control buttons include at least one selected from the group consisting of play, stop, delete, record, skip, fast, slow, save, and rewind.

12. The device according to

claim 6

, further comprising a telephone built into the device.

13. The device according to

claim 6

, further comprising a number keypad for entering in the predetermined telephone number of the user'"'"'s voice mail box and for entering in the optional predetermined access codes for accessing the user'"'"'s voice mail box.

14. The device according to

claim 6

, further comprising a memory storing a local greeting, which is played to a caller during an incoming call while the network based voice mail system is being accessed.

15. The device according to

claim 7

, wherein the message being recorded by the caller is simultaneously being played over the speaker.

16. The device according to

claim 6

, further comprising a play button, wherein the processor initiates a call to the user'"'"'s voice mail box upon the play button being pressed and the processor queries the user'"'"'s voice mail box to determine how many messages remain in the user'"'"'s voice mail box, and if different than those contained in a count maintained by the processor, the processor synchronizes its count to that of the user'"'"'s voice mail box.

17. The device according to

claim 16

, wherein the modem receives data from the user'"'"'s voice mail box while simultaneously receiving voice signals.

18. The device according to

claim 16

, wherein the processor periodically calls in to the voice mail box to synchronize its message indicator.

19. The device according to

claim 6

, wherein the remote answering device further comprises a tape recorder, which records incoming messages simultaneously along with the network based voice mail system.

20. The device according to

claim 6

, wherein the network based voice mail system indicates to a caller that the call to the user did not go through if the call to the user does not get through to the remote answering device.