Broadcast interactive telephone system
First Claim
1. In a verbally interactive telephone interrogation system comprising a two-way telephone subscriber network including a plurality of telephone caller means and a telephone message routing means operatively connected to said plurality of telephone caller means for selectively connecting individual ones of said plurality of telephone caller means to a remote message transmission means having an associated telephone number in response to provision of a unique dialing code from any of said telephone caller means corresponding to said associated telephone number, each of said telephone caller means comprising telephone reception means for receiving audio messages over said two-way telephone subscriber network and signal generator means for selectively providing the unique signal outputs to be transmitted over said two-way telephone subscriber network, said two-way subscriber network comprising a plurality of incoming telephone lines to said remote transmission message means;
- the improvement comprisingstorage means capable of retrievably storing a plurality of parallel retrievable channel sets of interactive audio information, having substantially the same audio information and content duration, said parallel channel sets of retrievable audio information being simultaneously broadcast with each parallel channel set audio information content having a message initiation time and message termination time, each of said channel message set initiation times and termination times being staggered in real time with respect to each other;
each of said channel sets comprising a plurality of interactively related channels of audio information responsive to individual interactive selection by a caller connected thereto via said subscriber network;
means responsive to an activation signal for initiating cyclical simultaneous rebroadcast of said staggered parallel channel sets audio information, independent of subsequent caller selection of said information; and
means for providing independent interactive parallel processing of multiple subscriber calls to said associated telephone number whereby each caller contacting said associated telephone number may independently interact with said audio information in a given channel set for providing an individualized interactive message over said two-way subscriber network via said subscriber signal generator to said storage means and receive an individualized interactive audio response in response thereto directly dependent on said caller individual selection for providing an individualized interactive communication;
said storage means comprising a message selection maze comprising multiple levels and multiple channels within said level with each level having staggered message initiation times, whereby a plurality of subscribers may engage in substantially simultaneous interactive telephone communication.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A verbally interactive broadcast type of telephone interrogation system (100) capable of simultaneously handling multiple callers over a two-way telephone subscriber network (102, 104, 106) to provide individualized interactive responses. A plurality of telephone boards (108, 110, 112) are connected in parallel to prerecorded data and deck address logic (114) to enable parallel processing of interactive telephone communications with the multiple callers, with one telephone board (108, 110, 112) being provided per incoming telephone line (102, 104, 106) to provide an unlimited number of potential interactive users for the system (100). The prerecorded data is stored by channel and level, with each level (150, 152, 154, 156, 158, 160) comprising, by way of example, four channels per multitrack tape deck (162, 164, 166, 168) with four decks (162, 164, 166, 168) being provided per level for a total of sixteen channels per level or ninety-six channels per telephone board (108, 110, 112). The correct channel and level is selected for an incoming call by a microcomputer (122) on the telephone board (108, 110, 112 ) and analog multiplexing (124) is used to select the particular channel in the ninety-six channels corresponding to the selected interactive message. Statistical and demographic caller data may also be stored (116, 118). The information is continuously rebroadcast over the ninety-six channels for interactive selection with the rebroadcast being independent of the next caller although what is heard by that caller is directly dependent on his/her selection.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. In a verbally interactive telephone interrogation system comprising a two-way telephone subscriber network including a plurality of telephone caller means and a telephone message routing means operatively connected to said plurality of telephone caller means for selectively connecting individual ones of said plurality of telephone caller means to a remote message transmission means having an associated telephone number in response to provision of a unique dialing code from any of said telephone caller means corresponding to said associated telephone number, each of said telephone caller means comprising telephone reception means for receiving audio messages over said two-way telephone subscriber network and signal generator means for selectively providing the unique signal outputs to be transmitted over said two-way telephone subscriber network, said two-way subscriber network comprising a plurality of incoming telephone lines to said remote transmission message means;
- the improvement comprising
storage means capable of retrievably storing a plurality of parallel retrievable channel sets of interactive audio information, having substantially the same audio information and content duration, said parallel channel sets of retrievable audio information being simultaneously broadcast with each parallel channel set audio information content having a message initiation time and message termination time, each of said channel message set initiation times and termination times being staggered in real time with respect to each other;
each of said channel sets comprising a plurality of interactively related channels of audio information responsive to individual interactive selection by a caller connected thereto via said subscriber network;means responsive to an activation signal for initiating cyclical simultaneous rebroadcast of said staggered parallel channel sets audio information, independent of subsequent caller selection of said information; and means for providing independent interactive parallel processing of multiple subscriber calls to said associated telephone number whereby each caller contacting said associated telephone number may independently interact with said audio information in a given channel set for providing an individualized interactive message over said two-way subscriber network via said subscriber signal generator to said storage means and receive an individualized interactive audio response in response thereto directly dependent on said caller individual selection for providing an individualized interactive communication; said storage means comprising a message selection maze comprising multiple levels and multiple channels within said level with each level having staggered message initiation times, whereby a plurality of subscribers may engage in substantially simultaneous interactive telephone communication. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
- the improvement comprising
Specification