Method and apparatus for enabling voice dialing of a packet-switched telephony connection

• US 20070127439A1
• Filed: 12/02/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Stein, Robert
• Application Number:
  US11/292,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20070127439A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42204 Arrangements at the exchange for service or number selection by voice at the terminal H04M1/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/1215 where a cable TV network is used as an access to the PSTN/ISDN

Abstract

A method and apparatus provides a packet-switched telephony service over a broadband communications network. The apparatus may be a residential gateway that includes data terminal equipment having an interface for communicating with customer premises equipment. The apparatus also includes a processor configured to receive a voice utterance of a user and initiate a packet-switched telephony connection over the broadband communications network based on the voice utterance.

Claims

1. A residential gateway for providing packet-switched telephony service over a broadband communications network, comprising:

data terminal equipment having an interface for communicating with customer premises equipment; and

a processor configured to receive a voice utterance of a user and initiate a packet-switched telephony connection over the broadband communications network based on the voice utterance.

2. The residential gateway of claim 1 further comprising a broadband modem for communicating data between the data terminal equipment and the broadband communications network.

3. The residential gateway of claim 1 wherein the voice utterance of the user identifies a selected party with a voice entry identifying the selected party, said selected party being selected from among a plurality of parties each having a telephone number and a voice entry identifying the respective party, and further comprising a digital memory configured to store the voice entry and the telephone number associated therewith of each party.

4. The residential gateway of claim 1 further comprising a first electronic memory segment in which a speech recognition algorithm is stored to perform the matching.

5. The residential gateway of claim 4 further comprising a second electronic memory segment configured to store a directory that associates each of the voice entries with its corresponding telephone number.

6. The residential gateway of claim 5 further comprising a third electronic memory segment storing a plurality of menu-driven voice prompts to be communicated to the user during a voice activation process.

7. The residential gateway of claim 1 wherein the customer premises equipment is a telephone.

8. The residential gateway of claim 1 further comprising a program electronic memory segment that stores executable instructions for controlling operation of the data terminal equipment to implement a voice recognition engine.

9. The residential gateway of claim 8 wherein the data terminal equipment includes a CODEC for converting voice signals to and from voice data and a DSP for processing the voice data, wherein the executable instructions control the operation of the DSP to implement the voice recognition engine.

10. The residential gateway of claim 1 wherein the packet-switched telephony connection conforms to a voice-over-IP protocol.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting an identifier of the party to be called based on the first signal;

retrieving a telephone number associated with the party to be called using the selected identifier;

encoding the telephone number into a packetized format suitable for transmission over the broadband communications network; and

forwarding the telephone number in the packetized format over the broadband communications network to a call agent for establishing communication with the party to be called.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the packetized format conforms to a voice-over-IP protocol.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising transmitting at least the retrieved telephone number to a display associated with the telephone in accordance with a caller ID on call waiting signaling protocol.

16. The method of claim 12 further comprising transmitting an alphanumeric representation of the party to be called to a display associated with the telephone in accordance with a caller ID on call waiting signaling protocol.

11. A method of initiating a packet telephony call over a broadband communications network, comprising:

receiving from a telephone a first signal representative of a voice utterance that identifies a party to be called; and

initiating a packet-switched telephony connection over the broadband communications network based on the voice utterance.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising receiving a second signal initiating a voice dialing mode of operation.

17. A computer readable medium containing instructions to cause a processor to perform a method of initiating a packet telephony call over a broadband communications network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving from a telephone a first signal representative of a voice utterance that identifies a party to be called; and

initiating a packet-switched telephony connection over the broadband communications network based on the voice utterance.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising:

selecting an identifier of the party to be called based on the first signal;

retrieving a telephone number associated with the party to be called using the selected identifier;

encoding the telephone number into a packetized format suitable for transmission over the broadband communications network; and

forwarding the telephone number in the packetized format over the broadband communications network to a call agent for establishing communication with the party to be called.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18 further comprising receiving a second signal initiating a voice dialing mode of operation.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 18 wherein the packetized format conforms to a voice-over-IP protocol.

21. The computer readable medium of claim 18 further comprising transmitting at least the retrieved telephone number to a display associated with the telephone in accordance with a caller ID on call waiting signaling protocol.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 18 further comprising transmitting an alphanumeric representation of the party to be called to a display associated with the telephone in accordance with a caller ID on call waiting signaling protocol.