Intelligent call processing platform for home telephone system

• US 5,881,134 A
• Filed: 09/03/1996
• Issued: 03/09/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Philips Electronics North America Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Voice Control Systems, Inc. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Bareis, Bernard F., Foster, Peter J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan S.
• Application Number:
  US08/707,109
• Time in Patent Office: 917 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88, 379/67, 379/201, 379/216, 379/88.01, 379/88.02, 379/88.04, 379/142
• US Class Current: 379/88.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/247 Telephone sets including user guidance or feature selection means facilitating their use user interfaces specially adapted for cordless or mobile telephones H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/575 Means for retrieving and displaying personal data about calling party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/652 Means for playing back the recorded messages by remote control over a telephone line H04M1/658 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/667 Preventing unauthorised calls from a telephone set H04M1/677 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/715 using two or more extensions per line cordless telephones H04M1/725
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/382 using authorisation codes or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42204 Arrangements at the exchange for service or number selection by voice at the terminal H04M1/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42314 in private branch exchanges

Abstract

The present invention comprises an intelligent call processing platform for use with a home telephone system. The system consists of a processing unit interfaced with a variety of memory storage areas, a switching central office providing local telephone service and a plurality of telephone handsets. Using a variety of voice and/or pushbutton commands, a user is able to access a variety of telephone services from any telephone interfaced with the platform. Services provided include identification of incoming callers, automatic speed dialing of user-stored telephone numbers, storage of new numbers to the user-stored list of telephone numbers, and control of peripheral systems interconnected with the intelligent call processing platform.

Claims

1. A control platform for use between a remote switching system and an on-site telephone system including at least one telephone, the platform comprising:

means for interfacing the platform directly to the on-site telephone system;

a trigger recognizer for recognizing voice or DTMF command triggers input through the at least one telephone;

announcing means for providing predetermined messages;

processor means, operative under the control of a program stored therein and responsive to receipt of an incoming call from the remote switching system, for identifying a source identifier of the incoming call; and

the processor means, further operative under the control of the program and responsive to receipt by the trigger recognizer of a first voice or DTMF command trigger during the ringing stage of the incoming call, for controlling the announcing means to announce to a user an identification associated with the source identifier of the incoming call.

2. The control platform of claim 1, wherein the processor means is further operative under the control of the program and responsive to receipt by the trigger recognizer of a second command trigger entered by the user, for forwarding the incoming call to a selected service.

3. The control platform of claim 2, wherein the selected service comprises playing a message to the incoming call.

4. The control platform of claim 2, wherein the selected service comprises recording a message from the incoming call.

5. The control platform of claim 1, wherein the trigger recognizer comprises a voice recognizer for recognizing characters and commands spoken by the user.

6. The control platform of claim 1, wherein the trigger recognizer comprises a DTMF digit recognizer for recognizing DTMF digits entered by the user.

7. A centralized control platform for providing a variety of telephone services to a local telephone system having at least one telephone, comprising:

a local interface for connecting the platform to the at least one telephone of the local telephone system;

a communications circuit for interfacing the platform to external communications means; and

processing means interconnected with the local interface and communications circuit responsive to receipt of an incoming call from the external communications means for providing a user with command triggered access to a plurality of telephone services, the processor further comprising;

trigger recognition means for recognizing voice or DTMF command triggers input by the user through the at least one telephone during the ringing stage of the incoming call; and

announcing means for providing predetermined messages to the user.

8. The centralized control platform of claim 7 wherein the processing means further includes means for identifying a caller based upon a caller I.D. number in an incoming call received over the communications circuit and for controlling the announcing means to announce the identified caller in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

9. The control platform of claim 8 wherein the processing means further includes means for forwarding the incoming call to a selected calling service in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

10. The control platform of claim 9, wherein the selected calling service comprises playing a message to the incoming call.

11. The control platform of claim 9, wherein the selected calling service comprises recording a message from the incoming call.

12. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the processing means further includes means for forwarding all incoming calls to a telephone service for recording messages in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

13. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the processing means further includes means for providing access to a selected peripheral system by the control platform in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

14. The centralized control platform of claim 13 wherein the processing means further include means for controlling the accessed peripheral system through a telephone handset in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

15. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the processing means further includes means for controlling the announcing means to request a user to enter information identifying a destination number to be dialed in response to receipt of a first command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

16. The control platform of claim 15 wherein the processing means further includes means for transferring the information identifying the destination number out over the communications circuit to a destination to which the number corresponds in response to receipt of a second command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

17. The control platform of claim 15 wherein the processing means further includes means for storing the information identifying the destination number for subsequent retrieval and use by the user in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

18. The control platform of claim 15 wherein the trigger recognition means comprises a voice recognizer and the information identifying the destination number comprises voice commands.

19. The control platform of claim 15 wherein the trigger recognition means comprises a DTMF digit recognizer and the information identifying the destination number comprises DTMF digits.

20. The centralized control platform of claim 7 wherein the processing means further includes:

means for controlling the announcement means to request a validation code to provide a user access to the platform in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means; and

means for providing access to the platform if the user enters a proper validation code in response to a prompt issued by the platform following receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

21. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the processing means further includes means for enabling the user to access messages for the user in response to an entered validation code.

22. The centralized control platform of claim 21 wherein the processing means further includes means for controlling playback of the messages in response to receipt of a command trigger by the trigger recognition means.

23. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the control platform and the local telephone system are wireline connected.

24. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the control platform and the local telephone system are wirelessly connected.

25. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the local telephone system comprises a PBX system.

26. The control platform of claim 7 wherein the processing means further includes:

means for accessing a plurality of outbound telephone services for connection to a remote switching system in response to receipt of a first command trigger by the trigger recognition means; and

means for initiating an outbound call using one of the plurality of outbound telephone services in response to receipt of a second command trigger