Personalized call-reception prompter
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- means for determining both (a) which of a plurality of users of a communications terminal is an intended recipient of a communication incoming to the terminal and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
means responsive to the determining means for effecting alerting of the users to the incoming communication in a manner indicating to the users both (a) the intended recipient and (b) the at least one of the priority and the source.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A personalized call reception prompter (106 for a shared communications reception terminal (104) or for co-located communications reception terminals (104A-104X) enables the users (100-102) of the shared terminal or the co-located terminals to customize and prioritize (200-204) a list of callers, whereupon the prompter alerts the users to incoming calls in a distinctive manner that identifies both the intended recipient and the priority and/or source of the call. A user-programmable table (210) correlates (212) users'"'"' IDs (220) with callers'"'"' IDs (222) and with corresponding alerting signals or call priorities (224). The prompter uses (308) the caller ID of an incoming call to determine (310) the user ID and alerting signals or priority that are correlated in the table, with that caller ID. The prompter then generates (312) an alert that both identifies the correlated user as the intended recipient of the call and includes either the correlated alerting signals to identify the caller or indicates the correlated call priority.
98 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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means for determining both (a) which of a plurality of users of a communications terminal is an intended recipient of a communication incoming to the terminal and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
means responsive to the determining means for effecting alerting of the users to the incoming communication in a manner indicating to the users both (a) the intended recipient and (b) the at least one of the priority and the source. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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12. An apparatus comprising:
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an effector of determining both (a) which of a plurality of users of a communications terminal is an intended recipient of a communication incoming to the terminal and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
an effector responsive to the effector of determining, of alerting the users to the incoming communication in a manner indicating to the users both (a) the intended recipient and (b) the at least one of the priority and the source.
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13. An apparatus comprising:
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a memory-based device for determining both (a) which of a plurality of users of a communications terminal is an intended recipient of a communication incoming to the terminal and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
a device for generating signals perceivable by the user that alert the users to the incoming communication in a manner indicating to the users both (a) the intended recipient and (b) the at least one of the priority and the source.
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14. A method comprising:
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determining both (a) which of a plurality of users of a communications terminal is an intended recipient of a communication incoming to the terminal and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
in response to the determining, alerting the users to the incoming communication in a manner indicating to the users both (a) the intended recipient and (b) the at least one of the priority and the source.
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16. An apparatus comprising:
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means for determining both (a) which of a plurality of users is an intended recipient of an incoming communication and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
means responsive to the determining means for effecting alerting of the intended recipient to the incoming communication via an alerting signal that is unique to the intended recipient and that indicates to the intended recipient the at least one of the priority and the source.
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23. An apparatus comprising:
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an effector of determining both (a) which of a plurality of users is an intended recipient of an incoming communication and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
an effector responsive to the effector of determining, of alerting the intended recipient to the incoming communication via an alerting signal that is unique to the intended recipient and that indicates to the intended recipient the at least one of the priority and the source.
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24. An apparatus comprising:
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a memory-based device for determining both (a) which of a plurality of users is an intended recipient of an incoming communication and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
a device for generating signals perceivable by the intended recipient that alert the intended recipient to the incoming communication via an alerting signal that is unique to the intended recipient and that indicates to the intended recipient the at least one of the priority and the source.
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25. A method comprising:
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determining both (a) which of a plurality of users is an intended recipient of an incoming communication and (b) at least one of a priority and a source of the communication; and
in response to the determining, alerting the intended recipient to the incoming communication via an alerting signal that is unique to the intended recipient and that indicates to the intended recipient the at least one of the priority and the source. - View Dependent Claims (26)
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Specification