Abstract: A telephone call screening device having an improved telephone call filtering mechanism which prevents unwanted disturbances and allows the user to designate which callers may ring the user's telephone system. The present invention also monitors a connected power source and telephone line and notifies a user if power is lost, the line is severed, or a telephone set has been left off hook. The present invention comprises a router for routing the incoming calls to one or more connected telephone sets based on codes entered by callers; a recorder; and a processor for receiving and processing the codes entered by the callers and controllably connecting the routing and recording functions and telephone sets. In the preferred embodiment, the recorder may record and play messages to incoming callers as well as record messages from the callers. A caller identification function may be included to display caller identification to the user.

Abstract: An apparatus and method allow a called party, who is utilizing the telephone transmission line to connect to a data network, and as such is unable to directly receive an incoming phone call from a calling party, to be able to provide a specific response message to the calling party while not requiring the called party to directly communicate with the calling party.

Abstract: Selection of a suitable call-center agent (106-108) to handle a call is based on which available suitable agent's handling of the call will tend to optimize call wait times. When a call needing a particular skill becomes available (200), all skills of agents in the agent queue (131-139) corresponding to the particular skill are determined (202, 204). The agent queues corresponding to the determined skills are checked (206) to determine which ones identify only one agent. For each available agent having the particular skill, the number of agent queues which identify this agent as their only agent is computed (208). The available agent having the lowest computed number is selected (210) to handle the call. This minimizes the number of skills that will be left without an available agent to handle subsequent calls, and thus tends to maximize the probability that a next call will also have a suitable agent already available and not have to wait for one to become available, thereby optimizing call wait times.

Abstract: A system and method for performing call signalling for multimedia call setups. A user equipped with calling terminals of various types may initiate a call from any of these terminals, and the call is intercepted and handled by the system. A calling agent looks up an E-mail address for the called party, and sends a setup request E-mail to a called agent associated with the called party. The called agent determines the current terminal that the callee is using, and together with the calling agent a call medium and other parameters are established. Then a connection is made between a calling terminal and the current terminal. This provides a generic signalling system for a callee using a wireline terminal, wireless terminal, or H.323 terminal to be connected to a called terminal also being any one of these or other types.

Abstract: Using the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) network 320, a WWW Client 310 can communicate with a WWW Server 330 to request access to and notification of a user's voice mail. The user enters their voice mail mailbox number, and activates an appropriate hyperlink. The WWW Server then launches an application, MSG Client 350, which in turn communicates with an application, MSG Server 370, that runs in conjunction with the voice mail system 380, 385, 390. In response to an initial message from the MSG Client, the MSG Server returns information about all voice mail messages within the specified mailbox, which are displayed at the WWW Client. This display includes a hyperlink to each message in the mailbox. In addition, the MSG Server downloads an applet for execution on the WWW Client. This applet communicates with the voice mail system in order to provide up-to-date notification of incoming messages.

Abstract: A method and system provide enhanced caller identification information to a called party. The system determines whether or not standard caller identification information associated with a calling party can be provided to the called party. The system preferably determines whether the standard caller identification information is unavailable, incomplete or has been blocked. When the system determines that the standard caller identification information cannot be provided, the system transmits a request for audible caller identification information to the calling party. If the calling party provides the requested audible caller identification information, the audible caller identification information is transmitted to the called party. The called party is thus provided with information about the calling party that can assist the called party in deciding whether or not to answer the call.

Abstract: In a method of leaving a message for a calling party in an automatic long-distance re-dialing service where a called party returns a call from the calling party but the calling party does not answer the called party's return call, the method comprises the steps of providing the called party an option of returning the call from the calling party, for example, at the expense of the calling party and prompting the called party to leave a message for the calling party if the calling party does not answer the called party's return call. The apparatus comprises a controller for controlling operation of an announcement(message delivery capability, a dialer, a voice detector/coder and a memory for storing the message from the called party to be delivered to the calling party.

Abstract: An automated telephone system includes a telephone terminal for communicating with a remote party over a telephone line; a storage device for storing a plurality of pre-recorded voice messages entered through said terminal; and a service controller connected to the telephone terminal and the storage device. The service controller is responsive to commands entered through the telephone terminal either to store spoken messages in said storage device and associate them with a unique identifier, or to access a selected one of the stored messages using its unique identifier and replay it over the telephone line to a remote party.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for assisting voice-dialing using a model of an individual's calling behavior to improve recognition of an input name corresponding a desired telephone number. When the individual picks up a telephone, activity is initiated in a neural network model of the individual's calling behavior that predicts the likelihood that different numbers will be called, given such predictors as the day of the week and the time of day. The model is constructed by training the neural network with data from the user's history of making and receiving telephone calls. The auditory output from an automatic speech recognition system and the output from the user model are integrated together so as to select the number that is most likely to be the number desired by the speaker. The system can also provide automatic directory assistance, by speaking the number aloud rather than dialing it. In one version, the system is a personal directory for an individual maintained on that individual's personal computer.

Abstract: A telephone system having a voice mail system and supporting virtual telephone numbers for called parties. A switching system in the telephone system has a plurality of telephone lines connected to the switching system with each telephone line having a telephone number. Each called party in the system has a virtual telephone number that is not associated with a particular telephone line. When a called party desires to receive incoming telephone calls over a telephone line, the called party performs a log-in from the telephone line. The log-in causes the switching system to extend all calls specifying the virtual telephone number of the called party to the telephone line. If the incoming call is not answered, the call is extended to a voice mail system which records a message and stores the message in a voice mail box associated with the virtual telephone number of the called party.

Abstract: A system and process for automatic storage, enforcement and override of consumer do-not-call (DNC) requests includes a control device for selectively blocking communication between a communication device and a destination over a communication medium. The control device is connected to the communication medium and to a database for storing identifiers of destinations for which communication is to be blocked. The communication device has an input mechanism responsive to a user to generate an identifier of the destination. The input mechanism is also responsive to an update signal indicating that the identifier should be added to the database or an override signal indicating that the blocked call should in fact, be permitted, thereby overriding the blocking mechanism. The communication device is automatically updated with information stored in the database which may be used by the communication device to process further communication.

Abstract: A telephone on-hold system (10) allows a calling party such as a consumer (20) to place the telephone call on-hold from the consumer's handset (18C) in response to dialing a number where the receiving end (R) put the call on-hold pending availability of an agent (22). While the call is on-hold from the consumer's end, a counter-message is played to alert the agent (22) to notify the consumer's handset (18C) that the agent (22) is available, such as by depressing touch-tone keys at the agent's end (18R). The system (10) recognizes the tones and provides an alert (40) to the consumer (20) so as to allow the consumer (20) to end the on-hold status of the call from the consumer's end and undertake normal conversation with the agent (22).

Abstract: A telephone network provides personalized services based on voice identification of a person making or receiving a call. For example, when a person initiates a call, the network executes a speaker identification/verification procedure to identify the person as a subscriber. The identification/verification process provides a virtual office equipment number corresponding to the identified subscriber. The central office switch servicing the outgoing call receives this virtual number and uses it to retrieve a service profile associated with the subscriber. The switch provides a personalized telephone service to the subscriber during processing of the call, using the retrieved service profile. The personalized service may include a number of unique features, such as recording call related data together with data about the identification of the person. For home incarceration or the like, the service may entail monitoring speech communications to detect certain designated words and automatically terminate the call.

Abstract: A bridge connection is made between interfaces on physically distinct telecommunication servers such that the two ends of the bridge can be used to connect existing calls that are terminated on each of the servers. To provide the bridge connection, a call using a standard outgoing T1 trunk on one of the servers is made through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to an incoming T1 trunk on the other server. The servers reserve a special directory number for such calls. When a bridge connection is required one of the servers is queried for its special directory number. The other server is then instructed to make a call to that number. When the called server recognizes the incoming call as using its special number, it answers the call. The calling server then outpulses information needed by the called server to associate the bridge connection with the pending action. In this manner, calls terminating on distinct servers can be connected without the need for additional hardware.

Abstract: A messaging system with a remote message recording device is provided. To compose and send a message to an intended recipient, the sending party remotely records a spoken message on a recording device. When recording the message, the sending party adds a predefined spoken header before the actual subject matter of the message and also adds a predefined spoken closure comment at the end of the message. The spoken header includes identification information for the intended recipient of the message. To transmit the message to the intended recipient, the sending party downloads the recorded message to a message transmission system. The transmission system includes speech recognition software. The speech recognition software interprets the identification information for the intended recipient contained in the spoken header of the message. The transmission system utilizes this identification information for the intended recipient to access a database that contains a routing access code for the intended recipient.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is described for outbound message personalization. A call list containing names and associated phone numbers are given as a starting point. A first or last name is compared to entries in a match table. If a match between names is found, then the index number corresponding to the entry is obtained. The index number is stored in the call list. When the message is ready to be delivered, the stored index number from the call list is retrieved and the stored-digital audio (as addressed by the index number) is converted to speech. Then an index number corresponding to a message body is used to retrieve and convert the message body into speech. In this manner, a personalized message can be created, wherein a large percentage of first names can be stored and used to personalize outbound messages.

Abstract: A method and system permit monitoring of a call center agent or similar service representative in servicing calls in a call center using a variety of scheduling criteria. Monitoring schedules for the service representatives may be based on monitoring periods having scheduling criteria, such as a time interval, a scheduling rule, a number of calls, a monitoring length, a random indicator, call type information, agent performance level information, call traffic information, and others. The method and system record a customer call if the scheduling criteria of the associated monitoring period is met.

Abstract: This invention relates to an intelligent peripheral (IP) for connecting to a telephone network and providing added capabilities to the network. More particularly the invention relates to programmable suppression of call answer supervision by an intelligent peripheral or a voice recognition unit in a telephone network. The method comprises the steps of: the peripheral device receiving a call setup message from a network switch when a call is being initiated. The IP, on receipt of the call setup signal, suppresses the normal answer signal output and instead outputs a progress signal to the network switch. For an ISDN network the progress signal is a Progress Indicator PI=08 signal.

Abstract: In a skills-based ACD, an agent is selected to handle a call based on which available agent's handling of the call will produce the least deviation from the agent's target performance criteria, and a call is selected for handling by an agent based on which available call's handling will produce the least deviation from the agent's target performance criteria. Illustrative target performance criteria include target per-agent per-skill skill work time to staff time ratios. Moreover, the selected call is left waiting and the selected agent is left idle if handling of the call by the agent would increase deviation from the agent's target performance criteria. This serves to equalize the levels of service given to small skills (those staffed with few agents) and large skills (those staffed with many agents).

Abstract: A telephony system schedules and delivers multimedia Alarm Call messages to users via multimedia end user terminals connected with the system over a multimedia bearer connection. A user may select one of a plurality of predefined messages to be delivered either once or periodically according to a user-defined schedule. The system may also allow users to create and schedule delivery of custom multimedia Alarm Call messages.