Integrated voice-mail based voice and information processing system
DCFirst Claim
1. A system for economically providing telephone services to multiple users and for cooperating with a cable television network, said system including:
- a telephone switch coupled to a telephone network, said telephone switch receiving and routing incoming telephone calls;
voice mail means, coupled to said telephone switch, said voice mail means for automatically answering said incoming telephone calls, for selectively providing audio prompts to incoming calls connected thereto, and for selectively storing signals representing voice information received from said incoming telephone calls;
at least one digital data storing means for storing digital data;
voice conversion means, coupled to said telephone switch and to said digital storing means, for converting between stored digital data and audible telephone line voice signals;
said telephone switch being preprogrammed to route incoming calls to said voice mail means and to route said incoming calls to said voice conversion means; and
cable television network coupling means for coupling said system to said cable television network so as to permit signals to be passed between said system and said cable television network.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An innovative "one-stop" full service telephone call/communications handling system combining voice mail, voice recognition, database handling and networking features into an integrated system provides highly cost effective solutions for even small organization and individual users. A voice mail system is programmed to automatically answer incoming telephone calls from incoming sources, and offers callers different options depending upon the number they call in on. Some incoming telephone lines are dedicated to particular services or types of callers, while other incoming lines provide a more general public interface for a variety of services offered by the system. The system of the present invention provides a more generalized interface offering callers a variety of different functions/operations/capabilities, including electronic yellow pages, long distance credit card calling services, voice mail and voice conversion, one-stop travel arrangements, and high quality voice mail audio prompts.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A system for economically providing telephone services to multiple users and for cooperating with a cable television network, said system including:
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a telephone switch coupled to a telephone network, said telephone switch receiving and routing incoming telephone calls; voice mail means, coupled to said telephone switch, said voice mail means for automatically answering said incoming telephone calls, for selectively providing audio prompts to incoming calls connected thereto, and for selectively storing signals representing voice information received from said incoming telephone calls; at least one digital data storing means for storing digital data; voice conversion means, coupled to said telephone switch and to said digital storing means, for converting between stored digital data and audible telephone line voice signals; said telephone switch being preprogrammed to route incoming calls to said voice mail means and to route said incoming calls to said voice conversion means; and cable television network coupling means for coupling said system to said cable television network so as to permit signals to be passed between said system and said cable television network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for providing one stop travel services by telephone, said system including:
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telephone switch means coupled to a telephone network for receiving incoming calls and routing said received calls to a voice mail system; said voice mail system including; call responding means for responding to calls routed thereto by presenting a first audio menu of travel options and processing caller originated control signals selecting any one of said presented options, and call transfer means coupled to said call responding means for controlling said telephone switch means to transfer said call to a selected outside travel reservation telephone number in response to said processed caller originated control signals, said telephone switch means including means for monitoring termination of said call transferred to said outside travel reservation telephone number and for routing said call back to said voice mail means upon such termination. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A method of providing long distance telephone service comprising the following steps:
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(a) receiving an incoming call; (b) directing said incoming call to a voice conversion system; (c) soliciting, via audio prompts, caller credit card information with said voice conversion system; (d) processing dialing signals provided by said caller indicative of said credit card information; (e) accessing, with said voice conversion system, a host computer system database storing credit card verification information and verifying said user provided credit card information with said accessed database; and (f) conditionally performing the following additional steps in response to verification of said user-supplied credit card information; (i) soliciting a long distance telephone number from said caller with said voice conversion system, (ii) receiving caller-originated dialing signals and temporarily storing said signals within said voice conversion system, (iii) providing, with said voice conversion system, a hook flash signal to a telephone switch, (iv) dialing said long distance telephone number with said voice conversion system in response to said stored signals, (v) liberating said voice conversion system from said call and connecting said caller to said dialed long distance telephone number with said telephone switch, (vi) monitoring the duration of said long distance call, and (vii) logging said caller credit card information and said monitored duration.
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18. A system for economically providing services via a telephone network and a cable television network, said cable television network of the type including plural cable television subscribers, said system including:
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a telephone call handling system coupled to said telephone network, said telephone call handling system performing at least the following functions; (a) receiving incoming telephone calls from said telephone network, (b) automatically answering said incoming telephone calls, (c) providing audible voice prompts to said incoming calls, (d) storing signals representing voice information received from said incoming telephone calls, and (e) converting between stored digital database information and audible telephone network voice signals; and a cable television network coupling arrangement which couples said telephone call handling system to said cable television network, said cable television network coupling arrangement passing signals originating at said cable television network subscribers from said cable television network to said call handling system, said call handling system further including a processor which processes said signals passed by said cable television network coupling arrangement and which also processes said stored digital database information.
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Specification