Electronic document answering machine

• US 6,483,905 B1
• Filed: 08/13/1996
• Issued: 11/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: OL Security LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Lextron Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Kikinis, Dan
• Primary Examiner(s): Zele, Krista
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoosain, Allan
• Application Number:
  US08/696,207
• Time in Patent Office: 2,289 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67, 379/88, 379/89, 379/67.1, 379/88.01, 379/74, 379/88.13, 379/88.17, 379/93.09, 379/93.24, 379/100.05, 379/100.08, 379/179, 379/185, 379/34, 379/40, 379/92.01, 379/93.35, 709/219, 709/220, 709/221, 709/229
• US Class Current: 379/93.24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 379/90 Internet, e.g. Internet phone, webphone, internet-based telephony
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 379/908 Multimedia

Abstract

An Electronic Document Answering Machine is adapted to connect to remote information sources and to download digital documents including e-mail and WEB pages, and to store the documents for later review by a user. The Answering machine has an alert device for alerting a user that new documents are available for review, and an initializing device for a user to cause documents to be communicated for review one-at-a-time. In a preferred embodiment documents are communicated over a speaker via voice synthesis. In an alternative preferred embodiment a small display is provided wherein documents may be displayed in alphanumeric characters. The answering machine can be implemented as a stand-alone device or can be connected via a serial port to a host PC for transferring documents to the PC for processing and review. In other embodiments the Answering Machine is implemented as a system in a PC, with alert and selective input added as an interface. The interface can be in a keyboard, and can be provided by existing keys and LEDs on a keyboard. An Answering Machine is also provided as a set-top-box for a TV, downloading digital documents from the Internet and providing the documents with user prompting to a TV via an audio/video output, prompting may be by infrared input from a remote controller.

Claims

1. A dedicated electronic document answering machine, not a PC and integrated separately from functional elements of a PC, comprising:

a CPU and memory connected by a communication bus;

a modem connected to the bus responsive to the CPU and connecting to remote sources on a telephone line;

an on-board system to communicate downloaded documents to a user independent of any peripheral device;

an alert apparatus to signal a user that new documents are waiting to be reviewed;

an input device to signal the system to communicate the new documents to the user;

a programing interface to program remote sources to be accessed for the electronic documents and periodic time intervals for access and downloading; and

a digital port for connecting to a host personal computer (PC);

wherein the sole functions of the machine are to connect to the remote sources automatically at the programmed periodic time intervals;

to initiate the downloading of the electronic documents including e-mail documents, to alert the user to the presence of downloaded documents, to communicate the documents to the user on demand using the outboard system for communicating, and to communicate stored documents to the PC for processing.

2. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 1 wherein the on-board system for communicating comprises a speaker and voice synthesis apparatus, whereby text documents are rendered as speech and played for the user.

3. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 1 wherein the on-board system for communicating comprises a display apparatus.

4. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 1 adapted for use by the PC as a modem.

5. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 1 wherein the modem is operated by the CPU and has no separate CPU.

6. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 1 wherein the remote sources include an Internet mail server, and downloaded documents include e-mail addressed to a particular user.

7. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 1 wherein the alert apparatus is an LED and the input apparatus is a pushbutton having the LED integrated in the pushbutton.

8. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 7 further comprising a second pushbutton adapted for applying and removing power to power-using elements of the Machine.

9. A dedicated electronic document answering machine integrated into a keyboard for a computer, comprising:

a CPU and memory connected by a communication bus;

a modem connected to the bus responsive to the CPU and connecting to remote sources on a telephone line;

an on-board system to communicate downloaded documents to a user independent of any peripheral device;

a pushbutton with a built-in LED, the pushbutton providing a user input to initiate communicating the document to the user and the LED to alert the user to the presence of documents to be communicated; and

a programming interface to program remote sources to be accessed for the electronic documents and periodic time intervals for access and downloading;

wherein the sole functions of the machine are to connect to the remote sources automatically at the programmed periodic time intervals;

to initiate the downloading of the electronic documents including e-mail documents, to alert the user to the presence of downloaded documents, and to communicate the documents to the user on demand using the on-hoard system for communicating.

10. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 9 wherein the digital documents include e-mail addressed to the PC user.

11. The dedicated electronic document answering machine of claim 9 wherein the alert apparatus is an LED in a standard keyboard adapted to serve as the alert apparatus, and the input apparatus is a standard key on the keyboard adapted to serve as the pushbutton.