Greeting and schedule integration arrangement
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a messaging system having a personal greeting capability such that the messaging system stores a greeting from a called party, and retrieves and presents the stored greeting to a calling party;
a source of called-party schedule information automatically indicating time periods and schedule entries of the called party for the indicated time periods; and
processing means for automatically end responsive to a schedule entry for a time period in the called-party schedule information obtained from the source, a personal greeting from the called party, for use by the messaging system during the time period, from the called-party schedule information obtained from the source;
the messaging system being responsive to the generating by installing the generated personal greeting, and further responsive to calls during the time period by retrieving and presenting the generated personal greeting to calling parties who call during the time period.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An arrangement (FIG. 4 ) that automatically generates and manages a subscriber'"'"'s personal greeting for a voice message system (1000), based upon information contained in the subscriber'"'"'s electronic schedule database (1007), such as a calendar manager program'"'"'s database, stored in a computer (1002). The arrangement, implemented as a process on the computer, periodically converts information for the present time that is stored in the schedule database into a voicable greeting, using text-to-speech conversion facilities, and sends the greeting to the voice message system for conventional use.
251 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a messaging system having a personal greeting capability such that the messaging system stores a greeting from a called party, and retrieves and presents the stored greeting to a calling party; a source of called-party schedule information automatically indicating time periods and schedule entries of the called party for the indicated time periods; and processing means for automatically end responsive to a schedule entry for a time period in the called-party schedule information obtained from the source, a personal greeting from the called party, for use by the messaging system during the time period, from the called-party schedule information obtained from the source; the messaging system being responsive to the generating by installing the generated personal greeting, and further responsive to calls during the time period by retrieving and presenting the generated personal greeting to calling parties who call during the time period. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. An apparatus for use with a messaging system having a personal greeting capability such that the messaging system stores a greeting from a called party, and retrieves and presents the stored greeting to a calling party, and further for use with a source of called-party schedule information automatically indicating time periods and schedule entries of the called party for the indicated time periods, comprising:
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processing means for automatically generating, responsive to a schedule entry for a time period in the called-party schedule information obtained from the source, a personal greeting from the called party for use by the messaging system during the time period, from the called-party schedule information obtained from the source; and means for automatically conveying the generated personal greeting to the messaging system for installation, and for subsequent retrieval and presentation of the generated personal greeting by the messaging system to calling parties who call during the time period. - View Dependent Claims (4)
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5. An apparatus comprising:
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a telecommunications system that retrieves and presents a stored message from the called party to a calling party who is trying to contact the called party through the telecommunications system; a database containing information that defines a schedule of the called party by indicating time periods and schedule entries of the called party for the indicated time periods; processing means for automatically generating, responsive to information contained in the database that defines a schedule entry for a time period in the schedule of the called party, the message from the called party, from the information contained in the database; and means for automatically causing the telecommunications system to store the automatically generated message from the called party; the telecommunications system being responsive to calling parties who try to contact the called party during the time period by retrieving and presenting the stored generated message from the called party to said calling parties. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for use with a telecommunications system that retrieves and presents a stored message from the called to a calling party who is trying to contact the called party through the telecommunications system, and further for use with a database containing information that defines a schedule of the called party by indicating time periods and schedule entries of the called party for the indicated time periods, comprising:
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processing means for automatically generating, responsive to information contained in the database that defines a schedule entry for a time period in the schedule of the called party, the message from the called party, from the information contained in the database; and means for automatically causing the telecommunications system to store the automatically generated message from the called party for subsequent retrieval and presentation of the stored generated message from the called party by the telecommunications system to calling parties who try to contact the called party during the time period. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of providing a called party'"'"'s personal greeting to a messaging system having a personal greeting capability such that the messaging system stores a greeting from a called party, and retrieves and presents the stored greeting to a calling party, comprising the steps of:
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automatically obtaining called-party schedule information from a source of called-party schedule information automatically indicating time periods and schedule entries of the called party for the indicated time periods; in response to a schedule entry for a time period in the called-party schedule information obtained from the source, automatically generating a personal greeting from the called party, from the obtained called-party schedule information; and automatically conveying the generated personal greeting to the messaging system; the messaging system being responsive to the conveying by installing the generated personal greeting as the personal greeting from the called party; and the messaging system further being responsive to calls during the time period by retrieving and presenting generated personal greeting to calling parties who call during the time period. - View Dependent Claims (15)
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16. A method of providing a message from a called party to a telecommunications system that retrieves and presents a stored said message from the called party to a calling party who is trying to contact the called party through the telecommunications system, comprising the steps of:
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automatically obtaining, from a database, information that defines a schedule of the called party by indicating time periods and schedule entries of the called party for the indicated time periods; in response to information obtained from the database that defines a schedule entry for a time period in the schedule of the called party, automatically generating a message from the called party, from the obtained information; automatically causing the telecommunications system to store the automatically generated message from the called party; and in response to calling parties trying to contact the called party during the time period, the telecommunications system retrieving and presenting the stored automatically generated message from the called party to said calling parties. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification