Abstract: A system (8, 60, 500) for identifying an unidentified person (14, 510) includes a database (42) that contains utterance data (162) and an ambiguity-resolution criterion (114, 119, 121) corresponding to a known person. A processing system (10, 11, 502) is coupled to the database (42) and receives utterance information and an ambiguity-resolution identifier corresponding to the unidentified person (14, 510). The processing system (10, 11, 502) compares the utterance information with the utterance data (162) to identify the unidentified person (14, 510) as at least one known person. If the processing system (10, 11, 502) ambiguously identifies the unidentified person (14, 510) as more than one known person, the processing system (10, 11, 502) compares the ambiguity-resolution identifier with the ambiguity-resolution criterion (114, 119, 121) to identify the unidentified person (14, 510) as a particular known person.

Abstract: A messaging system allows a message recipient to assign different message lengths to different messages. In one embodiment, the recipient sets the length of time per message. In another embodiment, the recipient programs the messaging system with codes that, when matched, enable longer messages. The recipient assigns the codes to “preferred” senders. The senders transmit the code, either explicitly, for example by a sequence of keystrokes, or automatically, for example by transmitting caller identification.

Abstract: The present invention relates to simultaneous computer screen and voice monitoring from a remote location, and particularly relates to synchronized telephone and screen monitoring of a computer workstation from a remote location. Such monitoring is useful for providing training and assistance to those using such workstations, especially in connection with telephone use, can also be useful for providing an audit trial of significant on-screen events, or can be used as a trigger to initiate other separate events. In one embodiment, graphics primitives are used to determine localized screen changes which are periodically copied from the monitored workstation desktop and sent over a network to a remote, monitoring, workstation. In another embodiment, localized screen changes are determined by full screen comparison, and sent over a network to a remote, monitoring, workstation.

Abstract: A relay is described to facilitate communication through the telephone system between deaf people and hearing people. To overcome the speed limitations inherent in typing, the call assistant at the relay does not type most words but, instead, re-voices the words spoken by the hearing person into a computer operating a voice recognition software package trained to the voice of that call assistant. The conversation-type flow of communications achieved by this type of relay enables the design of a new class of interpreters for the deaf.

Abstract: A user can program the user's VCR when away from home by calling the user's home telephone number and remotely interacting with the user's telephone which is adapted for programming the VCR in accordance with the invention. A telephone answering device according to the invention thus includes an incoming call signal decoder adapted to decode a signal contained within an incoming call, and an output device adapted to output a control signal to a remotely controlled device in response to the decoded signal. In an alternative embodiment, a method of programming a video recording device includes steps of calling, from a telephone at a remote location, to a telephone answering device; and providing a programming signal to the telephone answering device, wherein the telephone answering device responds to the programming signal to program the video recording device.

Abstract: A call handling mechanism provides a resource manager for controlling the allocation of functional modules to process a received call. Each of the functional modules can be implemented as a software application, preferably implemented in the form of a bean, such as a Java bean. The resource manager allocates the functional modules in accordance with the priority order. Different types of applications are given priority numbers within different ranges so that, for example, a voice application such as a voicemail application will always precede a facsimile application, which in turn will precede a data application. In this manner, reliable call answering can be provided using third party supplied call handling applications which are pre-allocated priority numbers in an appropriate range for the type of application.

Abstract: A telephone device that has a call subscriber telephone number detector, a memory for memorizing a plurality of call subscriber information audio signal in advance and which can memorize an arbitrary call subscriber telephone number in correspondence with a call subscriber information audio signal arbitrarily selected from the plurality of call subscriber information audio signals, a comparator for comparing whether a call subscriber telephone number detected by the call subscriber telephone number detector is coincident with a call subscriber telephone number memorized in the memory, upon coming-call, and an electroacoustic transducer to which a call subscriber information audio signal read out from the memory is supplied, wherein when it is detected by the comparator that a call subscriber telephone number detected by the call subscriber telephone number detector is coincident with a certain call subscriber telephone number memorized in the memory, a certain call subscriber information audio signal corre

Abstract: A method provides customer with simple and flexible dialog control and faster access to the desired information. In response to a customer call, a control program for dialog control created with the aid of a graphical editor as a flow chart is started, once access authorization is checked. All of the computer-supported telephony (CTI) information input modules and information output modules provided within the framework of the dialog control service in question, which are subject to continuous monitoring, are simultaneously made available in parallel to the customer via a control module for controlling the resources. The customer can actively intervene in the dialog already during the welcome via the information input modules allocated to him. The dialog commences again at the place designated by the customer. The method is suitable for at least information, news and connection services which are based on very significant parallelism and which are configured for mass telephony.

Abstract: The lexical network of a large-vocabulary speech recognition system is structured to effectuate the rapid and efficient addition of words to the system's active vocabulary. The lexical network is structured to include Phonetic Constraint Nodes, which organize the inter-word phonetic information in the network, and Word Class Nodes which organize the syntactic semantic information in the network. Network fragments, corresponding to phoneme pronunciations and labeled to specify permitted interconnections to each other and to phonetic constraint nodes, are precompiled to facilitate the rapid generation of pronunciations for new words and thereby enhance the rapid addition of words to the vocabulary even during speech recognition. Functions defined in accordance with linguistic constraints may be utilized during recognition. Different language models and different vocabularies for different portions of a discourse may also be invoked depending, in part, on the discourse history.

Abstract: A method and system for interfacing a legacy e-mail, voice mail and facsimile system into a unified messaging system. The system includes visual message notification for notifying a user of incoming messages. Visual notification may include a flashing light emitting diode and/or text messages. The text messages may include various characteristics of the waiting messages, such as identification of the sender, subject header, message type, time and date received and a like.

Abstract: A speech information communication system includes a speech recognizer which converts an input speech signal to character code information and speech feature information. The character code information and the speech feature information are transmitted to a receiving side where the received character code information is converted to an output speech signal depending on the received speech feature information.

Abstract: An advanced resource management system for an interactive voice response (IVR) service node allows multiple network ports to be served by one application port thereby increasing efficiency. An IVR with a plurality of network ports can now be efficiently configured with a plurality of application ports with varying capabilities. The resource management system determines which of the plurality of application ports on the service node has the capability to service an incoming call and then dynamically assigns a time slot to one of the network ports and to one of application ports to perform IVR services. The dynamic allocation of application ports to network ports also allows for a more simplified connection of the service node to the telecommunications network in which it is deployed.

Abstract: A method and communication network wherein one or more announcement texts are established in a service control point. A message initiated on the basis of a call of the subscriber wherein information about the supportability of announcements by an announcement unit are contained is received and interpreted by the service control point. Given support of an announcement by an announcement unit, a message in which the announcement text is contained is sent from the service control point. The announcement unit converts a received announcement text into an announcement that is then transmitted to the calling subscriber on a voice channel.

Abstract: An automated method and apparatus for notifying subscribers of a customer message manager notification system upon changes in some real-time data is disclosed. Subscribers are notified in an order based on some predetermined criteria, such as subscriber level. More specifically, airline customers are notified of changes in airline information which affects their travel plans, as well as other types of notification. This notification can occur via standard communications devices commonly carried by travels such as pagers, two-way pagers, cellular telephones (e.g., via automated voice, call centers), and mobile computers (e.g., via email or a web page). The present invention further provides for notifying selected groups of customers based on a predetermined criteria, such as frequent flyer level, class of service, or price of ticket.

Abstract: A server facilitates communication between a calling party and a called party. The server includes a communications interface for enabling communications with the calling party. The server also includes a processing device that receives a telephone call from the calling party and identifies the calling party. The processing device then determines whether the calling party is a predetermined party and transmits a notification to the called party when the calling party is the predetermined party.

Abstract: A mobile station subscriber can access data from an informational database and have it forwarded to a desired destination. A database associated with the informational database maintains subscriber profiles. When the informational database receives a data request, it uses a mobile station identifier to acquire subscriber profile information. Using that profile information, the requested data is forwarded to a destination designated in the profile in a SMS format.

Abstract: A text enhanced voice menu system includes data storage, a voice communication path, a text communication path and switch logic. The data storage stores audio information for producing a voice menu, and stores text information for producing a text version of the voice menu. The voice communication path generates a voice menu from the audio information. The text communication path generates a text menu from the text information. The switch logic selects one of the voice menu and the text menu to be transmitted over a connection line.

Abstract: The multi-threaded database system manages access to a plurality of databases. A separate thread is assigned to each of the databases so as to encapsulate activities relative to the databases. Threads may be performing separate activities independently of each other. As a result, a first database may be modified, added, or deleted while a second database is being accessed. The database system is especially well-adapted for use with an interactive voice response platform.

Abstract: In one embodiment according to the invention, a telephonic apparatus includes an interface to a network, a memory adapted to store a telephone number, a text-to-speech module adapted to produce audible signals associated with the stored telephone number, a processor, and a local input unit. The local input unit is adapted to produce an input signal in response to user activation, and the processor is adapted to respond to the input signal by retrieving the stored telephone number from the memory and causing the text-to-speech module to produce the audible signals for transmission to the network via the interface. In an alternative embodiment according to the invention, a method of transmitting Caller ID data to a distant party includes the steps of receiving a local input command, retrieving stored Caller ID data in response to the local input command, producing audible signals based on the retrieved Caller ID data, and transmitting the audible signals to the distant party.

Abstract: The system for providing calling party privacy during subscriber call screening for a central office switching system enables a subscriber to monitor and intercept the last forwarded, active call to the Voice Messaging System, while providing the calling party with privacy as the voice messaging system provides the prerecorded instructions/message to the calling party. The calling party privacy feature delays call screening alerting to the subscriber to prevent the subscriber from monitoring the call connection until the calling party is recording their message on the voice messaging system. Depending on the method used, once the calling party privacy feature requirements are satisfied, the subscriber call screening system notifies the subscriber of the presence of a calling party who is recording a message for the subscriber on the Voice Messaging System.