Telephone answering service with integrated voice and textual message storage
First Claim
1. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:
- a system memory for storing textual and voice messages;
a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory;
a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and
a programmed controller for controlling the operation of the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system by execution of a control program, the programmed controller decoding a telephone number of each telephone call to a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system, determining a programmed service option to be performed in answering each telephone call to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system based upon the decoded telephone number, causing the voice message recording system to record a voice message in the system memory if the service option is specified to be answering telephone calls by the voice message recording system, initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer the telephone call and causing the textual message recording system to record a textual message in the system memory if the service option is specified to use an operator to record a textual message in the system memory; and
whereinthe recording systems under the control of the programmed controller reproduce individual recorded messages recorded by the recording systems.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Reexaminations
Accused Products
Abstract
A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages generated by telephone answering of telephones of persons having telephone calls answered by the system. A system memory stores textural and voice messages. A voice message recording system controls recording of voice messages of answered telephone calls of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system. A textual message recording system controls recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having their telephones answered by the telephone answering system. A programmed computer program implements the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system by execution of a program. The computer decodes a telephone number of each telephone call answered by the telephone answering system, determines a program service option to be performed in answering each telephone call based upon the decoded telephone number, causes the voice message recording system to record a voice message in the system memory if the service option is specified to be answering telephone calls by the voice message recording system, initiates ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer the telephone call and causes the textual message recording system to record textual messages in the system memory if the service option is specified to use an operator to record textual messages. The recording systems function to permit selective playback of individual recorded messages by the placing of a telephone call to the answering system.
77 Citations
51 Claims
-
1. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:
-
a system memory for storing textual and voice messages; a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and a programmed controller for controlling the operation of the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system by execution of a control program, the programmed controller decoding a telephone number of each telephone call to a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system, determining a programmed service option to be performed in answering each telephone call to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system based upon the decoded telephone number, causing the voice message recording system to record a voice message in the system memory if the service option is specified to be answering telephone calls by the voice message recording system, initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer the telephone call and causing the textual message recording system to record a textual message in the system memory if the service option is specified to use an operator to record a textual message in the system memory; and
whereinthe recording systems under the control of the programmed controller reproduce individual recorded messages recorded by the recording systems. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 31, 47, 48)
-
-
17. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:
-
a system memory for storing textual and voice messages; a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and a programmed personal computer, the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system being program implemented within a program executed by the personal computer, the programmed personal computer decoding a telephone number of each telephone call to a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system, determining a programmed service option to be performed in answering each telephone call to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system based upon the decoded telephone number, the voice message recording system controlling the recording of a voice message in the system memory if the service option is specified to answer telephone calls by the voice message recording system, the programmed computer initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer the telephone call to the person having telephone calls answered by the answering system add the textual message recording system controlling the recording of a textual message in the system memory if the service option is specified to use an operator to record a textual message on the textual message recording system, the programmed personal computer having a digital data bus on which digitally encoded voice messages are transmitted under the control of the voice message recording system to the system memory for recording and on which digitally encoded textual messages are transmitted under control of the textual message recording system to the system memory for recording; and
whereinthe recording systems under the control of the programmed controller reproduce individual recorded messages recorded by the recording systems. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 49, 50)
-
-
33. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:
-
a system memory for storing textual and voice messages; a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and a programmed computer for controlling the operation of the voice message recording and the textual message recording systems by execution of a control program controlling the recording systems, causing the voice message recording system to control recording of a voice message in the system memory if a person has specified that telephone calls be answered by the voice message recording system, initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer a telephone call and causing the textual message recording system to control the recording of a textual message in the system memory if a person has specified that an operator record a textual message in the system memory in answering telephone calls, the programmed computer having a digital data bus on which digitally encoded voice messages are transmitted under the control of the voice message recording system to the system memory for recording and on which digitally encoded textual messages are transmitted under control of the textual message recording system to the system memory for recording; and
whereinthe recording systems under the control of the programmed controller reproduce individual messages recorded by the recording systems. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
-
-
41. telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:
-
a system memory for storing textual and voice messages; a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and a programmed computer, the voice message recording and the textual message recording systems being program implemented within a program executed by the programmed computer, the voice message recording system controlling recording of voice messages in the system memory if a person has specified that telephone calls be answered by the voice message recording system, the programmed computer initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer a telephone call and the textual message recording system controlling the recording of a textual message in the system memory if a person has specified that an operator record a textual message in the system memory in answering telephone calls, the programmed computer having a digital data bus on which digitally encoded voice messages are transmitted under the control of the voice message recording system to the system memory for recording and on which digitally encoded textual messages are transmitted under control of the textual message recording system to the system memory for recording; and
whereinthe recording systems under the control of the programmed controller, reproduce individual recorded messages. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
-
-
51. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls to persons having telephones calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:
-
a voice message recording system for recording voice messages provided by a caller to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in response to the answering of a telephone call by the telephone answering system; a textual message recording system for recording textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system; and a controller controlling the recording of messages by the telephone answering system and controlling the reproduction of the recorded messages to provide direct caller access to messages recorded by the voice message recording system and access through an operator to messages recorded by the textuaI message recording system under the control of a single control program.
-
Specification