CALL ANSWERING

• US 20080112555A1
• Filed: 11/09/2006
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Johns, Kevin C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,081,748 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/207.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/642 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4285 Notifying, informing or entertaining a held party while on hold, e.g. Music On Hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53308 Message originator indirectly connected to the message centre, e.g. after detection of busy or absent state of a called party

Abstract

A method, phone, and system for answering phone calls in such a manner as to limit or otherwise ameliorate interruptions to a called party and others in an environment of the called party. The answering optionally including silently answering the phone call with a message instead of requiring the called party to verbally communicate with a calling party.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a phone to facilitate answering a call placed from a calling entity to a user of the phone, the method comprising:

answering the call with an announcement stored on the phone such that the call is answered without the user verbally communicating with the calling entity; and

including instructions within the announcement for instructing the calling entity with respect to establishing verbal communications with the user.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising placing the call on hold and instructing the calling entity through the announcement that the call is on hold.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising removing the call from hold and allowing the user to verbally communicate with the calling entity as a function of a user inputs made to the phone after the call is placed on hold.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising providing the calling entity an option to leave a message for the user in place of waiting on hold.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising providing the calling entity another option to continue to hold.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising instructing the calling entity through the announcement to select from at least a first and second option, the first option associated with leaving a message for the user in place of verbally communicating with the user and the second option associated with requesting the user to verbally communicate with the calling entity.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising controlling the phone to generate an alert in response to receiving the second command, the alert associated with requesting the user to establish verbal communications with the calling entity.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising playing the announcement as a function of a user input made to the phone after the phone begins to ring.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising playing the message as a function of user input made to the phone prior to the phone beginning to ring.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising muting a microphone of the phone when answering the call such that the muting prevents the user from verbally communicating with the calling entity.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising answering the phone according to enablement of an auto-attendant application included on the phone whereby the call is automatically answered by the phone and the announcement is played when the called is received

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising automatically answering the call without alerting the user to the call.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising only alerting the user of the call after the announcement is played and an input is received from the calling entity.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising alerting the user to the call with a silent alert.

15. A method of answering a phone call comprising:

connecting the phone call to a phone in such a manner that the phone answers the phone call without alerting a calling party to the phone call and without allowing a calling party to hear the called party; and

playing an announcement message stored on the phone after connecting the phone call to the phone.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising providing an option to the calling party to leave a message after playback of the announcement message.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising providing an option to the calling party to alert the called party to the phone call after playback of the announcement message.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising selecting a severity for the alert as a function of user inputs of the calling party.

19. The method claim 15 further comprising automatically playing the announcement message if an auto-attendant feature on the phone is enabled.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising playing the announcement message after the called party is alerted to the phone call.

21. The method of claim 15 further comprising selecting the announcement message in response to user inputs.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising selecting the announcement message as a function of user inputs made after connecting to the phone call.

23. The method of claim 15 further comprising specifying a hold period in the announcement message, the hold period associated with an expect period in time in which the called party is available to communicate with the called party.

24. The method of claim 15 further comprising connecting the phone call in such as manner as to prevent the phone call from forwarding to a network based voicemail entity.

25. An application for use with a phone to facilitate answering a phone call, the application including instructions for:

connecting the phone call to a phone in such a manner that the phone answers the phone call without alerting a called party to the phone call and without allowing a calling party to hear the called party; and

playing an announcement message stored on the phone after connecting the phone call to the phone.

26. A phone configured for:

silently connecting to a phone call; and

playing an announcement message stored on the phone after connecting the phone call, the message for instructing a calling party with respect to establishing verbal communications with a called party.