Voice caller ID

• US 8,139,758 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2008
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Moton, Robert T., Enzmann, Mark J., Zellner, Samuel N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elahee, Md S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Teshale, Akelaw
• Application Number:
  US12/197,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20080310615A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,303 Days
• Field of Search: 379372-386, 37914201-14218, 379/283
• US Class Current: 379/373.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/578 associated with a synthesized vocal announcement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier

Abstract

An apparatus and method for audibly annunciating at a device information transmitted over a telephone network. The information is transmitted in the form of a modulated signal to the device wherein the modulated signal is representative of the information. The apparatus includes a receiver for capturing a ring signal and a modulated signal representative of information transmitted over a telephone network during an interval between the ring signal and a subsequent ring signal; a converter in communication with the receiver for converting the modulated signal into a stream of audible signals; and a speaker in communication with the converter for producing audible sounds corresponding to the stream of audible signals representative of the information received over the telephone network.

Claims

1. An apparatus for audibly annunciating caller identification information transmitted over a network using a signal representative of the information, comprising:

a receiver for receiving the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network;

a control circuit for capturing and holding a ring signal received from the network, wherein the receiver provides a subsequent ring signal for ringing a telephone device after receiving the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network;

a converter in communication with the receiver for converting the signal representative of the information into audio signals, the audio signals comprising the information converted into words; and

a speaker in communication with the converter for producing audible sounds corresponding to the audio signals representative of the information received over the network;

wherein the converter is in communication with a matching network, the matching network operative to reroute and forward the audio signals over a telephone line to another speaker in an alternative communication device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receiver is adapted to operate in a wireless network environment.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the converter is a multi-lingual text-to-speech converter.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receiver is in communication with a telephone device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a processor for converting the signal into a stream of characters representative of the information.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 further comprising a memory circuit in communication with the processor, wherein the processor stores the stream of characters representative of the information in the memory circuit.

7. A method for audibly annunciating caller identification information transmitted over a network using a signal representative of the information, the method comprising:

receiving the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network;

capturing and holding a ring signal received from the network;

providing a subsequent ring signal for ringing a telephone device after receiving the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network;

converting the signal representative of the information into audio signals, the audio signals comprising the information converted into words;

producing audible sounds corresponding to the audio signals representative of the information received over the network; and

transmitting the audio signals to a matching network, the matching network operative to reroute and forward the audio signals over a telephone line to another speaker in an alternative communication device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the converting the signal representative of the information into audio signals is a multi-lingual text-to-speech conversion.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising converting the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network into a stream of characters representative of the information.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising storing the stream of characters representative of the information.

11. An apparatus for audibly annunciating caller identification information transmitted over a network using a signal representative of the information, comprising:

a receiver for receiving the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network;

a control circuit for capturing and holding a ring signal received from the network;

a signal generator for generating a ring signal for ringing a telephone device after the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network is received by the receiver;

a converter in communication with the receiver for converting the signal representative of the information into audio signals, the audio signals comprising the information converted into words; and

a speaker in communication with the converter for producing audible sounds corresponding to the audio signals representative of the information received over the network;

wherein the converter is in communication with a matching network, the matching network operative to reroute and forward the audio signals over a telephone line to another speaker in an alternative communication device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the receiver is adapted to operate in a wireless network environment.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the converter is a multi-lingual text-to-speech converter.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the receiver is in communication with a telephone device.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a processor for converting the signal into a stream of characters representative of the information.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 further comprising a memory circuit in communication with the processor, wherein the processor stores the stream of characters representative of the information in the memory circuit.

17. A system for audibly annunciating caller identification information transmitted over a network using a signal representative of the information, comprising:

a first device in communication with a separate second device, the first device including;

a receiver for receiving the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network;

a control circuit for capturing and holding a ring signal received from the network,

a signal generator for providing a subsequent ring signal for ringing a telephone device after the receiving the signal representative of the information transmitted over the network; and

a converter in communication with the receiver for converting the signal representative of the information into audio signals, the audio signals comprising the information converted into words;

the second device including;

a speaker for producing audible sounds corresponding to the audio signals representative of the information received over the network;

wherein the converter is in communication with a matching network, the matching network operative to reroute and forward the audio signals over a telephone line from the first device to the speaker in the second device.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the first device is not a phone.