System and method for interfacing a privacy management service with a voice mail system

• US 7,082,190 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2004
• Issued: 07/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Simpson, Anita Hogans, Mullis, Karen, Holt, Scott, Vincent, James, Regas, Iris
• Primary Examiner(s): Tieu, Benny Quoc
• Application Number:
  US10/967,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20050078807A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.22, 379/211.02, 379/207.02, 379/142.05, 379/196, 379/229, 379/219, 379/220.01, 379/201.01, 379/67.1
• US Class Current: 379/67.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2005 Temporarily overriding a service configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2011 Service processing based on information specified by a party before or during a call, e.g. information, tone or routing selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2027 Live party detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/22 Automatic class or number identification arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42042 Notifying the called party of information on the calling party details within substation equipment H04M1/57, signalling details H04Q3/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/436 Arrangements for screening incoming calls , i.e. evaluating the characteristics of a call before deciding whether to answer it based on the calling party profile H04M3/42059; based on location H04M3/42348; based on presence H04M3/42365; diversion H04M3/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 3/0029 Provisions for intelligent networking

Abstract

A privacy screening service in an Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) includes a service node which records a caller'"'"'s name when a call directed to a subscriber of the service originates at an unknown number. The service node, in turn, places a call to the subscriber and transmits the recorded name together with a signal which is recognizable by a voice mail system. Following the transmission, the service node waits for the subscriber either to accept or reject a call from the caller. When the subscriber'"'"'s line is answered by a voice mail system, the voice mail system recognizes and acknowledges the signal so that the voice mail system and service node may determine that their call is between two machines and may take appropriate action. One such action is to connect the caller to the subscriber'"'"'s voice mail and to restart the subscriber'"'"'s outgoing voice mail greeting.

Claims

1. An answering machine comprising:

circuitry or code that answers an incoming telephone call, receives a first signal, recognizes said first signal, and either;

(a) performs at least one action that the answering machine would not have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal, or (b) omits at least one action that the answering machine would have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal.

2. The answering machine of claim 1, wherein said first signal comprises signaling inbound audio.

3. The answering machine of claim 2, wherein said signaling inbound audio comprises an audible tone.

4. The answering machine of claim 3, wherein said signaling inbound audio comprises a dual tone.

5. The answering machine of claim 1, wherein said first signal is received as part of said incoming telephone call.

6. The answering machine of claim 1, wherein said circuitry or code generates an audio message that is transmitted to a source of said incoming telephone call, said first signal being received during transmission of said audio message, and wherein said circuitry or code restarts said audio message in response to recognition of said first signal.

7. The answering machine of claim 1, wherein said circuitry or code transmits a second signal to a source of said incoming telephone call in response to recognizing said first signal.

8. The answering machine of claim 1, wherein said circuitry or code records information received as part of said incoming telephone call.

9. A voice mail server comprising:

circuitry or code that answers an incoming telephone call, receives a first signal, recognizes said first signal, and either;

(a) performs at least one action that the voice mail server would not have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal, or (b) omits at least one action that the voice mail server would have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal.

10. The voice mail server of claim 9, wherein said first signal comprises signaling inbound audio.

11. The voice mail server of claim 10, wherein said signaling inbound audio comprises an audible tone.

12. The voice mail server of claim 11, wherein said signaling inbound audio comprises a dual tone.

13. The voice mail server of claim 9, wherein said first signal is received as part of said incoming telephone call.

14. The voice mail server of claim 9, wherein said circuitry or logic generates an audio message that is transmitted to a source of said incoming telephone call, said first signal being received during transmission of said audio message, and wherein said circuitry or logic restarts said audio message in response to recognition of said first signal.

15. The voice mail server of claim 9, wherein said circuitry or code transmits a second signal to a source of said incoming telephone call in response to recognizing said first signal.

16. The voice mail server of claim 9, wherein said circuitry or code records information received as part of said incoming telephone call.

17. A method of operating a telephone message recording machine comprising:

answering a telephone call;

receiving a first signal;

recognizing said first signal; and

in response to the recognizing of said first signal, performing at least one action that the telephone message recording machine would not have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal, or omitting at least one action that the telephone message recording machine would have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the telephone message recording machine comprises an answering machine.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the telephone message recording machine comprises a voice mail server.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein said first signal comprises inbound audio.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said inbound audio comprises an audible tone.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said audible tone comprises a dual tone.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting a recorded audio message to a source of said telephone call, the first signal being received during the time of transmission of the audio message; and

in response to recognizing said first signal, restarting said recorded audio message.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the method further comprises:

following the completion of the restarted recorded audio message, recording at the voice message recording device information received from the source of said telephone call.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to recognizing said first signal, transmitting a second signal to a source of said telephone call.

26. A machine-readable medium encoded with machine executable instructions to perform a method of operating a telephone message recording machine, the method comprising:

answering a telephone call;

receiving a first signal;

recognizing said first signal; and

in response to the recognizing of said first signal, performing at least one action that the telephone message recording machine would not have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal, or omitting at least one action that the telephone message recording machine would have performed in the absence of recognizing said first signal.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the telephone message recording machine comprises an answering machine.

28. The machine-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the telephone message recording machine comprises a voice mail server.

29. The machine-readable medium of claim 26, wherein said first signal comprises inbound audio.

30. The machine-readable medium of claim 29, wherein said inbound audio comprises an audible tone.

31. The machine-readable medium of claim 30, wherein said audible tone comprises a dual tone.

32. The machine-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting a recorded audio message to a source of said telephone call, the first signal being received during the time of transmission of the audio message; and

in response to recognizing said first signal, restarting said recorded audio message.

33. The machine-readable medium of claim 32, wherein the method further comprises:

following the completion of the restarted recorded audio message, recording at the voice message recording device information received from the source of said telephone call.

34. The machine-readable medium of claim 26, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to recognizing said first signal, transmitting a second signal to a source of said telephone call.