Communications control method and apparatus
First Claim
1. A method for processing an incoming communication from a calling party sent to a communications device 1014 of a receiving party, the method comprising the steps of:
- storing a caller database including a plurality of records, each record including caller identification information corresponding to a particular caller and a respective priority selected from a plurality of priorities; and
storing a blocking time database including a plurality of records respectively corresponding to the plurality of priorities and including respective blocking time information for each priority.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A communications controller is provided for empowering the user of a communications device, such as a telephone or other device, to assume control over incoming communications. This communications controller is based on artificial intelligence and behavior modeling techniques. Each communication is identified by unique identification information associated with an incoming communication. The user selects one of a plurality of different priority rating levels for a particular communication. The user also selects or infers block time intervals for each priority to indicate times during which incoming communication is not desired. Dynamic communications control is achieved by also determining the mood of the user or mode of the device. Undesirable communications will be “blocked”. For example, when that particular caller places a call to the user, the user'"'"'s communication controller determines the caller'"'"'s identification information and recalls the priority and corresponding blocking time interval for that particular caller. The user'"'"'s mood or the mode of the communications device is determined. The call is accordingly passed to the communication device or blocked.
163 Citations
45 Claims
-
1. A method for processing an incoming communication from a calling party sent to a communications device 1014 of a receiving party, the method comprising the steps of:
-
storing a caller database including a plurality of records, each record including caller identification information corresponding to a particular caller and a respective priority selected from a plurality of priorities; and
storing a blocking time database including a plurality of records respectively corresponding to the plurality of priorities and including respective blocking time information for each priority. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
-
-
15. A communications system for processing incoming communications which include caller identification information, the system comprising:
-
a caller identification device 1003 for receiving the incoming communication and extracting caller identification information from the incoming communication;
a user communications device 1014 for receiving and providing an incoming communication to a user of the communications device;
a communications controller 1013 coupled between the caller identification device and the user communications device, the controller including;
a processor 1006 for executing code to control the transmission of incoming communications to the user communications device;
a memory 1007, 1008 for storing code for execution by the processor to control the transmission of incoming communications to the communications device, the code including a caller database including a plurality of records, each record including caller identification information corresponding to a particular caller and a respective priority selected from a plurality of priorities, the code further including a blocking time database having a plurality of records respectively corresponding to the plurality of priorities and including respective blocking time information for each priority.
-
-
27. A method for processing incoming communication sent to a communications device of a receiving party, the method comprising the steps of:
-
storing at least one of a plurality of originating source criteria;
storing at least one of a plurality of time criteria; and
storing at least one of a plurality of associated relative classification criteria, for classifying an incoming communication as a function of at least one of source and time.
-
-
41. A method for the user rating a communication comprising of the following steps of:
-
establishing a communication link type;
establishing the communication source identification;
the user receiving the communication;
the user providing feedback criteria on how much they liked the communication; and
storing the user provided feedback criteria for future use. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45)
-
Specification