Personalized telephone announcement

• US 7,224,792 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2001
• Issued: 05/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qwest Communications International Incorporated (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fusco, Marc E.
• Primary Examiner(s): HAROLD, JEFFEREY F
• Application Number:
  US09/920,208
• Publication Number:
  US 20030026416A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,127 Days
• Field of Search: 379/67.1, 379/68, 379/76, 379/82, 379/88.07, 379/88.12, 379/88.16, 379/88.21, 379/93.03, 379/100.13, 379/374.02, 379/373.04, 379/373.01, 379/372, 379/373.02, 379/373.03, 370/352, 370/356, 455/413, 455/462
• US Class Current: 379/374.02
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/578 associated with a synthesized vocal announcement
• 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 3/4872 Non-interactive information services

Abstract

According to the invention, a method for alerting a user of an incoming phone call is disclosed. In one step, notification of the incoming phone call is received with an identifier that is associated with the incoming phone call. The identifier associated with the incoming phone call is detected. The identifier is correlated with a pre-recorded voice announcement and the pre-recorded voice announcement is played.

Claims

1. A method for alerting a user at a terminal location of an incoming phone call, the method comprising steps of:

receiving a criterion manually entered by the user before the incoming phone call is placed;

receiving notification of the incoming phone call with an identifier associated with the incoming phone call;

detecting the identifier associated with the incoming phone call;

correlating the identifier with a pre-recorded voice announcement using the criterion;

converting the pre-recorded voice announcement to digitized text;

receiving the pre-recorded voice announcement and the digitized text from a point geographically separate from the terminal location; and

interrupting a phone call to play the pre-recorded voice announcement through an earpiece at the terminal location and concurrently display the digitized text at the terminal location.

2. The method for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of correlating the identifier comprises at least one of the following steps:

correlating a phone number with a pre-recorded voice announcement;

correlating a portion of the phone number with a pre-recorded voice announcement; and

correlating a caller ID name with a pre-recorded voice announcement.

3. The method for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 1, further comprising a step of:

recording the pre-recorded voice announcement.

4. The method for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 3, further comprising a step of storing the pre-recorded voice announcement with consumer phone equipment.

5. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 1.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the criterion manually entered by the user is received via a web interface.

7. The method for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 1, further comprising a step of:

determining whether to interrupt the phone call based at least in part on criteria associated with frequency of repeat calls associated with the correlated identifier.

8. A method for alerting a user of telephone equipment of an incoming phone call, the method comprising steps of:

recording a voice announcement to create a pre-recorded voice announcement, wherein the recording occurs at a point geographically separate from the terminal location;

receiving a selection that helps correlate the pre-recorded voice announcement to an identifier, wherein the selection is manually entered by the user prior to the incoming phone call;

receiving notification of the incoming phone call that indicates the identifier associated with the incoming phone call;

detecting the identifier associated with the incoming phone call;

correlating the identifier with the pre-recorded voice announcement using the selection;

converting the pre-recorded voice announcement to digitized text;

receiving the pre-recorded voice announcement and digitized text from the point geographically separate from the terminal location;

disp1aying the digitized text at the terminal location; and

playing the pre-recorded voice announcement with a speaker separate from an earpiece, wherein the pre-recorded voice announcement is played when the telephone equipment is not engaged in an ongoing phone call.

9. The method for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 8, wherein the step of correlating the identifier comprises at least one of the following steps:

correlating a phone number with the pre-recorded voice announcement;

correlating a portion of the phone number with the pre-recorded voice announcement; and

correlating a caller ID name with the pre-recorded voice announcement.

10. The method for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 8, further comprising a step of storing the pre-recorded voice announcement with consumer phone equipment.

11. The method for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 8, further comprising a step of interrupting a phone call to play the pre-recorded voice announcement.

12. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for alerting the user of the incoming phone call as recited in claim 8.

13. An alert subsystem geographically remote from a terminal location for announcing phone calls with a pre-recorded voice announcement, the subsystem comprising:

an announcement storage database storing the pre-recorded voice announcement;

a recorder to record the pre-recorded voice announcement;

a converter to convert the pre-recorded announcement to digitized text;

a caller ID function that detects an identifier associated with an incoming phone call;

a correlator that associates the identifier with the pre-recorded voice announcement; and

an interface that transmits the pre-recorded voice announcement and the digitized text to the terminal location after the pre-recorded voice announcement is correlated to the identifier.

14. The alert subsystem for announcing phone calls with a pre-recorded voice announcement as recited in claim 13, further comprising a web interface for receiving at least one of a criterion and a voice announcement.