Methods and systems for voice activated dialing

• US 20050123104A1
• Filed: 12/09/2003
• Published: 06/09/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koch, Robert, Bishop, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,356,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.40
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4931 Directory assistance systems

Abstract

Methods and systems for routing a call based on voice activated dialing (VAD). A VAD device module may respond to a VAD instruction, or to a call received with a VAD instruction with a corresponding call destination number obtained from a personal VAD directory. If the personal VAD directory fails to include the call destination number, the VAD device module may route the call or initiate a call through a gateway to a VAD network module. The VAD network module may obtain call destination information from the VAD instruction, and may use the call destination information obtain the call destination number. The VAD network module may obtain additional information from the call or other source, and use the additional information to obtain the call destination number. The call then is routed to the call destination number. The call destination number may be added to the personal VAD directory.

Claims

1. A method for routing a call based on voice activated dialing (VAD), comprising:

receiving a call with a voice activated dialing (VAD) instruction;

failing to find a call destination number corresponding to the VAD instruction in a first directory;

translating at least a part of the VAD instruction into data;

using the data to obtain the call destination number from a second directory; and

routing the call to the call destination number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the data to obtain the call destination number from the second directory comprises:

obtaining additional information from the call;

translating the additional information into additional data; and

using the data and the additional data to obtain the call destination number from the second directory.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding the call destination number to the first directory.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the call is received in a voice communications network;

wherein the second directory is part of a data network;

wherein using the data to obtain the call destination comprises communicating with the second directory in the data network; and

wherein the call is routed in the voice communications network to the destination number

5. A method for routing a call based on voice activated dialing (VAD), comprising:

receiving a call with a voice activated dialing (VAD) instruction;

failing to find a call destination number corresponding to the VAD instruction in a first directory;

using the VAD instruction to obtain the call destination number from a second directory; and

routing the call to the call destination number.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein using the VAD instruction to obtain the call destination number comprises obtaining additional information from the call, and using the VAD instruction and the additional information to obtain the call destination number.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

adding the call destination number to the first directory.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein using the VAD instruction to obtain the call destination number from the second directory comprises:

translating at least call destination information from the VAD instruction into data; and

using the data to obtain the call destination number from the second directory.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the call is received in a voice communications network;

wherein the second directory is part of a data network;

wherein the VAD instruction is used to obtain the call destination number from the second directory in the data network; and

wherein the call is routed in the voice communications network to the call destination number.

10. A method for voice activated dialing (VAD) of a call, comprising:

receiving a VAD instruction with call destination information;

translating the call destination information into data; and

using the data to obtain a call destination number.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

routing the call to the call destination number.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

initiating a call to the call destination number.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining a call path between origination of the VAD instruction and the call destination number.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

causing a call to be routed along the call path.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the VAD instruction is received in a voice communications network;

wherein the data is used to obtain the call destination number from an element in a data network; and

further comprising;

routing a call in the voice communications network to the destination number.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

prior to translating the call destination information into the data, failing to find the call destination number in a directory.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the directory comprises a first directory;

and

wherein using the data to obtain the call destination number comprises using the data to obtain the call destination number from a second directory.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein using the data to obtain the call destination number comprises obtaining additional information, and using the additional information to obtain the call destination number.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

adding the call destination number to the first directory.

20. A system for voice activated dialing (VAD), comprising:

a VAD device module operative to respond to a VAD instruction by causing a call to be routed to a gateway communicatively connected to a VAD network module; and

the VAD network module being operative to use at least part of the VAD instruction to obtain a call destination number from a directory, and to cause the call to be routed to the call destination number.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the VAD device module causes the call to be routed to the gateway based on a failure by a VAD directory to provide the call destination number corresponding to the VAD instruction.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the gateway comprises a voice/data gateway.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the VAD network module is operative through the gateway to obtain additional information and to use the additional information to obtain the call destination number from the directory.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the VAD network module is operative to update the VAD device module with the call destination number.