Computer-based method and apparatus for controlling, monitoring, recording and reporting telephone access
DCFirst Claim
1. A method for detecting call bridging to a third party during a telephone conversation between a calling party and a called party, comprising:
- detecting tones originated by the called party arising during the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party;
comparing the tones to a predetermined call-bridging tone set to positively identify an attempt to bridge the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party to include the third party; and
executing call-bridging prevention instructions in response to an identified call-bridging attempt;
wherein the call-bridging tone set includes at least one of dial tones, busy signal tones, ring signal tones, dual tone multi-frequency (“
DTMF”
) tones and special instruction tones (“
SIT”
).
31 Assignments
Litigations
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A telephone station interface is provided with apparatus for detecting when a called party has or is attempting to patch or bridge one telephone call with another telephone call. The detecting of such bridging or conferencing is accomplished through the detection of tones which are commonly associated with such activities, such as a ring signal, a busy signal, special information tones (SIT tones), dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones or so-called Touch Tones, call progress tones, or other tones that occur when calls are placed. The present invention does not have the capability of sensing clicks, pops, or other audio signals associated with the conferencing of multiple communications circuits. The method and apparatus herein are for managing institutional telephone activity, and utilize a computer control unit to control a trunk management unit, which connects institutional telephones to outside telephone lines.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. A method for detecting call bridging to a third party during a telephone conversation between a calling party and a called party, comprising:
-
detecting tones originated by the called party arising during the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party;
comparing the tones to a predetermined call-bridging tone set to positively identify an attempt to bridge the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party to include the third party; and
executing call-bridging prevention instructions in response to an identified call-bridging attempt;
wherein the call-bridging tone set includes at least one of dial tones, busy signal tones, ring signal tones, dual tone multi-frequency (“
DTMF”
) tones and special instruction tones (“
SIT”
).- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
terminating the telephone conversation.
-
-
3. The method of claim 1 wherein executing the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
inserting a warning message into the telephone conversation.
-
4. The method of claim 1 wherein executing the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
recording a telephone number of the third party.
-
5. The method of claim 1 wherein executing the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
-
comparing a telephone number of the third party against a list of authorized called parties; and
terminating the telephone conversation unless the telephone number of the third party appears on the list of authorized called parties.
-
-
6. A method for detecting call bridging to a third party during a telephone conversation between a calling party and a called party, comprising:
-
detecting tones arising during the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party;
comparing the tones to a predetermined call-bridging tone set to identify an attempt to bridge the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party to include the third party; and
executing call-bridging prevention instructions in response to an identified call-bridging attempt, wherein executing the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises;
terminating the telephone conversation unless an authorization code is received from the third party within a predetermined time period;
wherein the call-bridging tone set includes at least one of dial tones, busy signal tones, ring signal tones, dual tone multi-frequency (“
DTMF”
) tones and special instruction tones (“
SIT”
).
-
-
7. A method for detecting call bridging to a third party during a telephone conversation between a calling party and a called party, comprising:
-
detecting by an answer supervision board tone frequencies originated by the called party arising during the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party that match a predetermined tone set to identify tone matches;
determining by a computer control unit tone characteristics of tone matches received from the answer supervision board; and
positively identifying by the computer control unit call-bridging attempts by comparing tone matches and tone characteristics received from the answer supervision board with a predetermined call-bridging tone data set; and
executing call-bridging prevention instructions;
wherein the predetermined call-bridging tone data set comprises at least one of dial tones, busy signal tones, ring signal tones, dual tone multi-frequency (“
DTMF”
) tones and special instruction tones (“
SIT”
).- View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
terminating the telephone conversation by the computer control unit after identifying a call-bridging attempt.
-
-
9. The method of claim 7 wherein the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
introducing a warning message into the telephone conversation by the computer control unit after identifying a call-bridging attempt.
-
10. The method of claim 7 wherein the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
recording a telephone number of the third party by the computer control unit after identifying a call-bridging attempt.
-
11. The method of claim 7 wherein the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
terminating the telephone conversation by the computer control unit after identifying a call-bridging attempt unless a telephone number of the third party appears on a list of authorized called parties.
-
12. The method of claim 7 wherein the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
terminating the telephone conversation by the computer control unit after identifying a call-bridging attempt unless an authorization code is received within a predetermined time period.
-
13. The method of claim 7 wherein executing the call-bridging prevention instructions comprises:
storing at least one of a calling party calling history or a called party calling history by the computer control unit after identifying a call-bridging attempt.
-
14. A system for detecting call bridging to a third party during a telephone conversation between a calling party and a called party, comprising:
-
tone detection means for monitoring the telephone conversation to detect bridging tones originated by the called party arising during the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party to include a third party and sending bridging tone reports to a computer control unit; and
the computer control unit configured to execute call-bridging prevention instructions upon receipt of a bridging tone report based on the comparison of the detected bridging tones to a predetermined call-bridging tone set;
wherein the tone detection means are configured to detect bridging tones comprising at least one of dial tones, busy signal tones, ring signal tones, dual tone multi-frequency (“
DTMF”
) tones and special instruction tones (“
SIT”
).- View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A system for detecting call bridging to a third party during a telephone conversation between a calling party and a called party, comprising:
-
a computer control unit configured to execute call-bridging prevention instructions upon receipt of a bridging tone report; and
tone detection means for monitoring the telephone conversation to detect bridging tones arising during the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party and sending bridging tone reports to a computer control unit;
wherein the computer control unit in executing call-bridging prevention instructions terminates the telephone conversation unless an authorization code is received within a predetermined time period;
wherein the tone detection means are configured to detect bridging tones comprising at least one of dial tones, busy signal tones, ring signal tones, dual tone multi-frequency (“
DTMF”
) tones and special instruction tones (“
SIT”
).
-
-
20. A system for detecting call bridging to a third party during a telephone conversation between a calling party and a called party, comprising:
-
an answer supervision board configured to detect tone frequencies originated by the called party arising during the telephone conversation between the calling party and the called party that match a predetermined tone set to determine tone matches; and
a computer control unit configured to determine tone characteristics of tone matches received from the answer supervision board, to positively identify call-bridging attempts by comparing tone matches and tone characteristics with a predetermined call-bridging tone data set, and to execute call bridging prevention instructions after identifying a call bridging attempt, wherein the answer supervision board is configured to detect tone frequencies comprising at least one of dial tones, busy signal tones, ring signal tones, dual tone multi-frequency (“
DTMF”
) tones, and special instruction tones (“
SIT”
).- View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
a trunk management unit configured to provide telephony services between the calling party and the called party and further configured to contain the answer supervision board.
-
Specification