Personal telephone agent
First Claim
1. A method of operating an automated personal telephone agent for messaging, comprising the steps of:
- a. recording a message specified by a sending party;
b. identifying each intended recipient of the message;
c. calling the telephone number for each intended recipient;
d. when an intended recipient'"'"'s telephone line is answered;
(i) sending the message to the answered telephone line; and
(ii) automatically recording a response to the message by the recipient; and
e. reporting a summary of the results of the call attempts made to each intended recipient back to the sending party based on an analysis of the recorded response of at least one recipient.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A personal telephone messaging agent can automate routine scheduling, coordinating and information gathering tasks while maintaining the advantages inherent in the telephone system. A person specifies a message and, optionally, some specific questions, and a list of recipients to his or her personal messaging agent. The messaging agent delivers the message to and collects a response from each messaging recipient using the telephone system. When each intended recipient has been reached, the agent contacts the sender to report the results or, optionally, the agent could undertake routine tasks such as scheduling a meeting based upon the responses and assigning a conference room for the meeting.
An even more sophisticated personal telephone agent may be employed in the context of an information retrieval service. An IVR system has an interface designed for people to use. However, the databases of information that an IVR system draws upon could be accessed over the telephone network by an automated agent using an interface designed for agent access. In this way, a messaging agent can be used to retrieve the desired information and report back to the caller.
The personal telephone messaging system of the present invention can be applied to tasks such as scheduling a meeting, confirming a decision, determining the price of an item, and finding flight information.
159 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A method of operating an automated personal telephone agent for messaging, comprising the steps of:
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a. recording a message specified by a sending party; b. identifying each intended recipient of the message; c. calling the telephone number for each intended recipient; d. when an intended recipient'"'"'s telephone line is answered; (i) sending the message to the answered telephone line; and (ii) automatically recording a response to the message by the recipient; and e. reporting a summary of the results of the call attempts made to each intended recipient back to the sending party based on an analysis of the recorded response of at least one recipient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of operating an automated personal telephone agent for messaging, comprising the steps of:
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a. recording a message specified by a sending party; b. identifying each intended recipient of the message; c. calling the telephone number for each intended recipient; d. when an intended recipient'"'"'s telephone line is answered; (i) sending the message to the answered telephone line; and (ii) automatically recording a response to the message by the recipient; and e. initiating at least one task from a predetermined set of tasks in accordance with the results of the call attempts based on an analysis of the recorded response of at least one recipient. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An automated personal telephone agent for messaging, comprising:
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a. a message recorder that receives and stores a message specified by a sending party; b. an automatic telephone dialer that calls at least one intended message recipient; c. a message transmitter that sends a stored telephone message to an intended recipient wherein the message includes a prompt for the recipient to provide a response; d. a response recorder that automatically captures a response to the message; and e. a report generator that reports a summary of the results, of call attempts to intended recipients back to the sending party based on an analysis of the recorded response of at least one recipient. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. An automated personal telephone agent for messaging, comprising:
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a. a message recorder that receives and stores a message specified by a sending party; b. an automatic telephone dialer that calls at least one intended message recipient; c. a message transmitter that sends a stored telephone message to an intended recipient wherein the message includes a prompt for the recipient to provide a response; d. a response recorder that automatically captures a response to the message; and e. a processor programmed to initiate at least one task from a predetermined set of tasks in accordance with the results of the call attempts based on an analysis of the recorded response of at least one recipient. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method of operating an automated personal telephone agent for information retrieval, comprising the steps of:
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a. recording a desired information request specified by a requesting party; b. identifying each intended information source; c. calling the telephone number for each intended information source; d. when an intended information source'"'"'s telephone line is answered; (i) sending the information request to the answered telephone line; and (ii) automatically recording a response to the information request by the information source; and e. reporting the results of the information retrieval requests back to the requesting party based on an analysis of the recorded response of at least one information source. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 41, 42)
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36. An automated personal telephone agent for information retrieval, comprising:
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a. recorder that receives and stores a desired information request specified by a requesting party; b. an encoder that encodes the information request into a data format suitable for transmission to an information source; c. an automatic telephone dialer that calls at least one information source; d. a transmitter that sends the information request to at least one information source; e. a recorder that automatically captures information retrieved from at least one information source; f. a decoder that decodes the retrieved information into a format suitable for communication to the requesting party; and g. a report generator that reports the requested information including the results of the call attempts back to the requesting party based on an analysis of the recorded response of at least one information source. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification