Telephone answering service with integrated voice and textual message storage
First Claim
1. A telephone answering system for providing textural messages produced from operators answering telephone calls received by the answering system and voice messages produced by the answering of telephone calls received by the telephone answering system comprising:
- at least one operator station which is operated by an operator in answering telephone calls, an operator station including a display device for displaying information to be utilized by the operator in answering telephone calls at the operator station and a textual message generating device used by the operator during answering telephone calls for composing textual messages recording information from telephone calls answered by the operator;
a voice message recording system for recording the voice messages, from telephone calls answered by the answering system, in a memory of the answering system;
a textual message recording system for recording the textual messages, composed by an operator using the textual message generating device at one of the at least one operator station in answering a telephone call, in the memory of the answering system; and
a programmed controller for controlling the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system under the control of programming stored in the memory of the answering system, the programmed controller determining telephone number digits of each telephone call received by the answering system to be answered by the answering system, the digits being used by the controller to identify stored information, the stored information being used for controlling whether the received telephone call is to be answered either by the voice message recording system which records information from the answered telephone call in the memory of the answering system or by an operator at one of the at least one operator station who utilizes the information displayed on the display device obtained from the stored information to answer the received telephone call and who composes a textual message from answering the received telephone call which is recorded by the textual message recording system in the memory of the answering system, and controlling the reproduction of messages recorded by the recording system.
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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 textual 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 specificed to use an operator to record textual messages in. The recording systems function to permit selective playback of individual recorded messages by the placing of a telephone call to the answering system.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A telephone answering system for providing textural messages produced from operators answering telephone calls received by the answering system and voice messages produced by the answering of telephone calls received by the telephone answering system comprising:
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at least one operator station which is operated by an operator in answering telephone calls, an operator station including a display device for displaying information to be utilized by the operator in answering telephone calls at the operator station and a textual message generating device used by the operator during answering telephone calls for composing textual messages recording information from telephone calls answered by the operator; a voice message recording system for recording the voice messages, from telephone calls answered by the answering system, in a memory of the answering system; a textual message recording system for recording the textual messages, composed by an operator using the textual message generating device at one of the at least one operator station in answering a telephone call, in the memory of the answering system; and a programmed controller for controlling the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system under the control of programming stored in the memory of the answering system, the programmed controller determining telephone number digits of each telephone call received by the answering system to be answered by the answering system, the digits being used by the controller to identify stored information, the stored information being used for controlling whether the received telephone call is to be answered either by the voice message recording system which records information from the answered telephone call in the memory of the answering system or by an operator at one of the at least one operator station who utilizes the information displayed on the display device obtained from the stored information to answer the received telephone call and who composes a textual message from answering the received telephone call which is recorded by the textual message recording system in the memory of the answering system, and controlling the reproduction of messages recorded by the recording system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages from operators answering telephone calls received by the answering system and voice messages produced by the answering of telephone calls received by the telephone answering system comprising:
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at least one operator station which is operated by an operator in answering telephone calls, an operator station including a display device for displaying information to be utilized by the operator in answering telephone calls at the operator station and a textual message generating device used by the operator during answering telephone calls for composing textual messages recording information from telephone calls answered by the operator; a voice message recording system for recording the voice messages, from telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system, in a memory of the answering system; a textual message recording system for recording the textual messages, composed by an operator using the textual message generating device at the at least one operator station in answering telephone calls, in the memory of the telephone answering system; and a controller controlling the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system under the control of a single control program stored in the memory of the answering system, the controller determining telephone number digits of each telephone call received by the answering system to be answered by the answering system, the digits being used to identify stored information, the stored information being used by the controller for controlling whether the received telephone call is to be answered either by the voice message recording system which records information from the answered telephone call in the memory of the answering system or by an operator at one of the at least one operator system who utilizes the information displayed on the display device obtained from the stored information to answer the received telephone call and who composes a textual message from answering the received telephone call which is recorded by the textual message recording system in the memory of the answering system, and controlling the reproduction of messages recorded by the recording systems by either an operator reading a recorded textual message or an audio reproduction of the recorded voice message.
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Specification