Automated unique call announcement

• US 8,280,025 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2007
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sharpe, Timothy David, Etezadi, Cameron Ali
• Primary Examiner(s): Jamal, Alexander
• Application Number:
  US11/824,474
• Publication Number:
  US 20090003538A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 379/142.14
• US Class Current: 379/207.16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/578 associated with a synthesized vocal announcement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/04 the ringing-current being generated at the substations

Abstract

Automated unique call announcements for incoming telephone calls are provided. When a call is received at a mobile or wired telephone, a variety of data about the calling party, for example, caller identification and profile data for the calling party and data associated with the called party, for example, scheduling data, contacts data, and contextual data, such as time of day, may be used for generating a text-to-speech message that may be played to the called party as a unique call announcement. If desired, a standard or customized ring tone may be played before, after, or before and after presentation of the unique call announcement. In addition, voice command functionality may be provided for allowing a called party to direct a disposition of an incoming telephone call without answering the incoming telephone call.

Claims

1. A method of providing a unique call announcement for an incoming telephone call, comprising:

receiving an indication of an incoming telephone call;

retrieving information about the incoming telephone call;

obtaining contextual data for the incoming telephone call, the contextual data comprising one or more of the following associated with the incoming telephone call;

gender data, age data, nationality data, and a list of potential topics to discuss between a calling party and a called party based on previous communications between the calling party and the called party, wherein the contextual data is attached to the incoming telephone call;

generating, using the contextual data, a unique call announcement containing the information retrieved about the incoming telephone call, the unique call announcement comprising a synthesized voice in an accent corresponding to a nationality of the calling party in the nationality data; and

presenting the unique call announcement as a notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a ring tone immediately before, immediately after, or immediately before and after presenting the unique call announcement.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the ring tone immediately before, immediately after, or immediately before and after presenting the unique call announcement includes providing a custom ring tone having tonal qualities customized in association with information about the incoming call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the unique call announcement as a notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call includes presenting the unique call announcement as an audible notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call.

5. The method of claim 4, prior to presenting the unique call announcement as an audible notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call, converting a text-based version of the unique call announcement to an audible version of the unique call announcement for providing to a called party.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving information about the incoming telephone call includes retrieving location data for a calling party associated with the incoming call for providing a location of the calling party as part of the unique call announcement.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving information about the incoming telephone call includes retrieving a date and time of the incoming call for customizing the unique call announcement based on the date and time of the incoming call.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving information about the incoming telephone call includes retrieving scheduling data for the called party for customizing the unique call announcement based on a relationship between the incoming call and scheduling data for the called party.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein retrieving information about the incoming telephone call includes receiving scheduling data for the calling party for customizing the unique call announcement based on a relationship between the scheduling data for the calling party and scheduling data for the called party.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving information about the incoming telephone call includes receiving urgency data associated with the incoming call for customizing the unique call announcement based on an urgency of the incoming call.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting one or more tonal attributes of the unique call announcement based on information retrieved about the incoming telephone call.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving one or more instructions from a called party for disposing of the incoming telephone call based on information retrieved about the incoming telephone call.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving one or more instructions from a called party includes receiving one or more instructions from a called party via voice commands from the called party.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving one or more instructions from a called party includes receiving one or more instructions from a called party via keypad key entry.

15. A computer readable medium containing computer executable instructions which when executed by a computer perform a method of providing a unique call announcement for an incoming telephone call, comprising:

retrieving information about an incoming telephone call;

obtaining contextual data for the incoming telephone call, the contextual data comprising one or more of the following associated with the incoming telephone call;

gender data, age data, nationality data, and a list of potential topics to discuss between a calling party and a called party based on previous communications between the calling party and the called party, wherein the contextual data is attached to the incoming telephone call;

generating, using the contextual data, a unique call announcement containing the information retrieved about the incoming telephone call, the unique call announcement comprising a synthesized voice in an accent corresponding to a nationality of the calling party in the nationality data;

presenting the unique call announcement as a notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call; and

providing a ring tone immediately before, immediately after, or immediately before and after presenting the unique call announcement.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein providing the ring tone immediately before, immediately after, or immediately before and after presenting the unique call announcement includes providing a custom ring tone having tonal qualities customized in association with information about the incoming call.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein presenting the unique call announcement as a notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call includes presenting the unique call announcement as an audible notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising adjusting one or more tonal attributes of the unique call announcement based on information retrieved about the incoming telephone call.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 15, further comprising receiving one or more instructions from a called party for disposing of the incoming telephone call based on information retrieved about the incoming telephone call.

20. A system for providing a unique call announcement for an incoming telephone call, comprising:

a unique call announcement module operative

to receive an indication of an incoming telephone call;

to retrieve information about the incoming telephone call;

to obtain contextual data for the incoming telephone call, the contextual data comprising one or more of the following associated with the incoming telephone call;

gender data, age data, nationality data, and a list of potential topics to discuss between a calling party and a called party based on previous communications between the calling party and the called party, wherein the contextual data is attached to the incoming telephone call;

to generate, using the contextual data, a unique call announcement containing the information retrieved about the incoming telephone call, the unique call announcement comprising a synthesized voice in an accent corresponding to a nationality of the calling party in the nationality data;

to pass the unique call announcement to a text-to-speech system for generating an audible version of the unique call announcement; and

to play the audible version of the unique call announcement as a notification to a called party of the incoming telephone call.