Stateful home phone service

• US 9,191,505 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2012
• Issued: 11/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Poder, James
• Primary Examiner(s): ADDY, THJUAN KNOWLIN
• Application Number:
  US13/543,284
• Publication Number:
  US 20120275581A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• Field of Search: 379/207.12, 379/211.02, 379/211.04, 379/212.01, 379/37, 379/201.01, 379/201.02, 455/456.6, 455/417
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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

Abstract

Incoming messages, such as phone calls, may be routed to destinations based on a variety of factors, such as the state of the callee'"'"'s security system, the date and time, the identity of the caller, and the number of recent call attempts by the caller. Potential destinations include all or a subset of the phones associated with a subscriber and outside phones, such as cellular phones operated by third parties. The rules used to route calls may be defined or modified via a web interface.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices, a telephone call to a destination telephone number from a caller;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, an intended recipient of the telephone call based on an originating telephone number of the caller or identity of the caller; and

routing, by the one or more computing devices, the telephone call to one or more devices based at least in part on the intended recipient of the telephone call and based at least in part on information received from a security system, the information comprising an indication of a state of the security system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the telephone call further comprises:

determining a location associated with the intended recipient; and

selecting a first device of the one or more devices to receive the telephone call based at least in part on an indication of a presence or absence of movement at the location.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the routing further comprises routing the telephone call based at least in part on an indication of an individual that placed the security system into its current state.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in a memory, by the one or more computing devices, information indicating phone call routing destinations based on different alarm settings of the security system.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing further comprises routing the telephone call based at least in part on a time of day at which the telephone call was received.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the routing further comprises:

determining a first cellular telephone within the one or more devices;

determining a current time zone associated with the first cellular telephone; and

routing the telephone call to the first cellular telephone based on the determination of the current time zone associated with the first cellular telephone.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing further comprises routing the telephone call:

based at least in part on a day of the week that the telephone call was received.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving a second information indicating a prior behavior stored before the telephone call, the second information indicating the prior behavior associated with the caller, wherein the routing further comprises routing the telephone call

based at least in part on the second information indicating the prior behavior associated with the caller.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the routing further comprises:

retrieving records corresponding to a number of previous telephone calls associated with the caller;

determining a time period corresponding to the number of previous telephone calls associated with the caller; and

routing the telephone call based at least in part on the number of previous telephone calls associated with the caller and the time period corresponding to the number of previous telephone calls associated with the caller.

5. A method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices, a message;

determining, by the one or more computing devices, a location of an intended recipient of the message within a premises based at least in part on information received from a security system of the premises; and

routing, by the one or more computing devices, the message to one of a plurality of devices in the premises, based at least in part on the determined location of the intended recipient of the message within the premises.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the information received from the security system that is used to determine the location of the intended recipient of the message comprises an indication of a presence or absence of movement at a location associated with the intended recipient of the message.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the information received from the security system comprises an indication of a state of the security system.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the information received from the security system comprises an indication of who placed the security system into its current state.

17. The method of claim 5, wherein routing the message to the one of the plurality of devices in the premises is further based on a day of the week on which the message was received.

18. The method of claim 5, wherein receiving the message comprises receiving an email, text message, or short message service (SMS) message, and wherein routing the message to the one of the plurality of devices further comprises routing the message to a device capable of displaying the email, text message, or SMS message.

9. A method comprising:

receiving an incoming message from an external communication network; and

routing the incoming message to a subset of a plurality of devices in a premises based on output from a movement detector of a security system associated with the premises, wherein the subset of the plurality of devices in the premises excludes one or more devices in the plurality of devices in the premises.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein routing the incoming message to the subset of the plurality of devices in the premises is further based on a state of the security system.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein routing the incoming message to the subset of the plurality of devices in the premises is further based on information indicating an individual that placed the security system into its current state.

19. The method of claim 9, wherein receiving the incoming message comprises receiving an email, text message, or short message service (SMS) message, and wherein routing the incoming message further comprises routing the incoming message to one or more devices capable of displaying the email, text message, or SMS message.

20. The method of claim 9, wherein the routing further comprises routing the incoming message to the subset of the plurality of devices in the premises based at least in part on a time of a day at which the incoming message was received.