Home gateway system with telephony functions and method

• US 9,294,629 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2006
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ameritech Corp. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bossemeyer, Robert Wesley Jr., Bennett, Raymond Walden III, Liebrecht, Donald Bernard, Sullivan, Barry James
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Joseph T
• Application Number:
  US11/326,307
• Publication Number:
  US 20060140356A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,729 Days
• Field of Search: 379/142.01
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/57 Arrangements for indicating or recording the number of the calling subscriber at the called subscriber's set at the operator set in a manual exchange H04M5/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/578 associated with a synthesized vocal announcement
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/642 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/06 Recording class or number of calling , i.e. A-party or called party , i.e. B-party
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/39 using speech synthesis
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/41 using speaker recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42059 Making use of the calling party identifier
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4288 Notifying a called subscriber of an incoming call during an ongoing call, e.g. Call Waiting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/533 Voice mail systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/14 WLL [Wireless Local Loop]; RLL [Radio Local Loop]

Abstract

A home gateway system has a transceiver (70) capable of establishing a wireless local loop connection (72). A voice processing system (74) is coupled to the transceiver (70). The voice processing system (74) is capable of storing a message from an incoming call.

A caller identification processing system (76) is coupled to the transceiver (70). The caller identification processing system (76) determines a telephone number of the incoming call and routes the incoming call to the voice processing system (74), if the telephone number belongs to a screened group of telephone numbers.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory including machine readable instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to perform operations including;

identifying a calling telephone number associated with an incoming call;

when the calling telephone number is an authorized telephone number, providing a caller of the incoming call access to a plurality of control options via a voice processing system, wherein the providing of the caller of the incoming call access to the plurality of control options includes providing access to a home automation system via the voice processing system; and

when the calling telephone number is an unauthorized telephone number;

performing speech recognition on a spoken name uttered by the caller during the incoming call to obtain a name of the caller; and

when the name corresponds to an authorized person, providing the caller of the incoming call access to the plurality of control options.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations further include determining whether the incoming call is received during an existing call and posting an indicator of the incoming call to a user when the incoming call is received during the existing call.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the providing of the caller access to the plurality of control options includes causing a speech synthesizer to play the plurality of control options to the caller.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations further include directing the incoming call to a voice mail control system based on a response to the plurality of control options including a selection of the voice mail control system from the plurality of control options.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a voice bridge.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a smart card interface to implement at least one of the plurality of control options.