Abstract: An intelligent telephone network provides personalized communication services based on a voice identification of the subscriber. The network executes a speech processing operation to identify the person or a party that the person is calling as a known subscriber. The network can provide personalized services to several subscribers sharing a common line. For incoming calls to such a line, the network executes an interactive procedure to determine from the caller which subscriber is being called. If the line is free, the switch applies distinctive ringing. If the line is in use, the switching office uses the profile of the identified subscriber to provide a distinctive call waiting tone or a voice message over the line. The tone or voice message indicates to the party using the line that there is a call waiting and specifically identifies the called subscriber.

Abstract: Speaking a predetermined phrase by a user, causes a handset to transmit this audio information to a personal computer. The personal computer is responsive to the predefined phrase to determine that the user of the handset has answered an incoming call.

Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for managing voice messages based on emotion characteristics of the voice messages. First, a plurality of voice messages that are transferred over a telecommunication network are received. Thereafter, such voice messages are stored on a storage medium. An emotion associated with voice signals of the voice messages is then determined. The voice messages are organized based on the determined emotion. Access to the organized voice messages is then permitted.

Abstract: Method and system for transmitting messages to subscribers of a telephone network during the set-up stage of incoming calls prior to the off-hook from a local exchange to at least one telephone terminal through an access system. The access system simulates, on one hand, the operation of a telephone terminal towards the local switching exchange such that it receives, from the local switching exchange and by means of an access node located in the access system, a first message preferably modulated and demodulates and stores it for subsequent replication; and, on the other hand, simulates the operation of a local switching exchange towards the telephone terminal such that it generates and transmits to the telephone terminal and by means of a network termination located in the access system, a second message preferably modulated which is a replication of the first message.

Abstract: System and methods for real-time, interactive transmission of information about travel schedules and creation of travel schedules are provided. A user defines desired travel parameters, such as dates, times, costs and the like related to a travel component. Travel components are reviewed to determine if traveler parameters are triggered. If a travel component triggers traveler parameters, options for other travel components may be determined. A user may be contacted and communicated information about the travel component and options, thereby allowing a user to interactively create a travel schedule.

Abstract: A telephone answering apparatus for confirming an acoustic command signal includes a controller operatively connected to an acoustic signal detector and to an acoustic signal generator. The controller initiates the transmission of an acoustic response signal to a remote user in response to the detection of an acoustic command signal.

Abstract: A telephone answering device uses capacitive fingerprint minutia analysis to provide individualized user access to messages stored by the device. The capacitive sensor provides inputs to an fingerprint identification module which compares identifying patterns in the ridges of a finger touching the telephone answering device's playback key to patterns registered for access to one or more categories of messages stored by the telephone answering device. If the identifying patterns match those of a registered user of the device, the categories of messages for which the user is registered are played back. A different category of messages is played back when the same user touches the playback key repeatedly, until all categories of messages for which the user is registered have been played back. The playback key includes a capacitive or push button switch for activating the fingerprint identification module.

Abstract: A virtual assistant system (VAS) (102) supports call services (104), message services (106) and profile services (108) and interfaces to both a telephone network (114) and to a data network (116). The telephone network (114) may be the PSTN and/or another telephone network. The data network (116) may be the Internet, an Intranet or another data network in which communications are packet based. The call services (104) include call receipt services, call initiation services, conference calling services and other types of services in which calls are initiated, routed and/or completed and that are typically provided by a telephone company. The message services (106) include voice mail, email, Faxes, video mail, and other types of messages that include one or more types of media, e.g., audio or visual. The profile services (108) uniquely identify each subscriber and provide contact information for the subscriber. [All communications (email, voice mail, Fax, etc.

Abstract: A language-independent speaker-recognition system based on parallel cumulative differences in dynamic realization of phonetic features ( i.e. , pronunciation) between speakers rather than spectral differences in voice quality. The system exploits phonetic information from many phone recognizers to perform text independent speaker recognition. A digitized speech signal from a speaker is converted to a sequence of phones by each phone recognizer. Each phone sequence is then modified based on the energy in the signal. The modified phone sequences are tokenized to produce phone n-grams that are compared against a speaker and a background model for each phone recognizer to produce log-likelihood ratio scores. The log-likelihood ratio scores from each phone recognizer are fused to produce a final recognition score for each speaker model. The recognition score for each speaker model is then evaluated to determine which of the modeled speakers, if any, produced the digitized speech signal.

Abstract: A telephone station interface is provided with apparatus for detecting when a called party has or is attempting to patch or bridge one telephone call with another telephone call. The detecting of such bridging or conferencing is accomplished through the detection of tones which are commonly associated with such activities, such as a ring signal, a busy signal, special information tones (SIT tones), dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones or so-called Touch Tones, call progress tones, or other tones that occur when calls are placed. The present invention does not have the capability of sensing clicks, pops, or other audio signals associated with the conferencing of multiple communications circuits. The method and apparatus herein are for managing institutional telephone activity, and utilize a computer control unit to control a trunk management unit, which connects institutional telephones to outside telephone lines.

Abstract: A system for recording an audio description of an item that may be offered for sale over the Internet makes use of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. A user wishing to make an audio recording accesses the IVR system via a telephone or a computer, and interacts with the IVR system to record, edit and/or re-record the audio description of the item. The IVR system can then place the recorded audio description in one or more electronic data files on an Internet server. The data files can then be accessed, via the Internet, and played over user computers. The process of recording an audio description may also include a prompt for the user to input a predefined control number. Such a predefined control number could be assigned by an Internet content provider before the audio recording is created. The IVR system could then store the audio recording, on an Internet server, in a data file having a filename that reflects the control number.

Abstract: An interactive apparatus allows the user to interrupt an outgoing prompt and remove component which is normally found in the users' responses (e.g., a frequency band) from the outgoing output prompt. An input signal analysis unit in the apparatus is able to detect the response of the user (and distinguish it from an echo of the outgoing prompt) by noting the presence of the component which is lacking from the outgoing prompt. As an alternative, the apparatus may force spaced timeslots in the outgoing signal to silence. In that case, the input signal analysis unit can detect the presence of the user's signal over a predetermined time interval. As well as being applicable to apparatuses which involve the user in prompt/response dialogues, the invention is also useful in relation to the interruption of messages being replayed by voice-controllable answerphones of the like.

Abstract: A messaging system comprises a storage unit for storing e-mail messages, a text-to-speech converter for converting the different text segments of e-mail messages into speech signals for playback to a user via a telephone handset, and a cache for storing the speech signals of selected ones of previously converted text segments. Upon a subsequent request by a user to convert the text segments of a new e-mail message to speech signals for playback via a telephone handset, the speech signals of previously converted text segments that are identical to any text segments of the new e-mail message are played back from the cache thus avoiding the need for the text-to-speech converter to convert those text segments of the new e-mail message to speech. The load on the text-to-speech converter is thereby reduced.

Abstract: A system and method for organizing and accessing multi-media messages from a displayless interface. According to one embodiment, voice recognition techniques are used to allow the user to identify and create a hierarchical organization for stored messages.

Abstract: A method of creating a call usage record is provided. An input signal is received. A call usage record is created in response to the received input signal. An event jacket is created. The event jacket is associated with the call usage record. A command to place a call is received. A confirmation signal is received after the call has been placed. Finally, a call leg jacket is created. The call leg jacket includes at least one record. The at least one record includes information relating to the call.

Abstract: A voice messaging system such as a telephone answering device which allows automatic identification and tagging of a voice clip portion of a full voice message which contains a spoken telephone number (e.g., a call back number). The voice clip may be tagged for later playback separate from playback of the full voice message. The full voice message may be deleted, leaving just the voice clip portion containing the spoken telephone number. The spoken telephone number may be processed through an appropriate voice recognition application program to generate textual information regarding the spoken telephone numbers, which may then be displayed. Call related information such as Caller ID information may be displayed together with the displayed textual voice clip information. The voice clip portions of the full voice message may be identified either in substantially real-time, or off-line during periods of non-use of the telephone answering device.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing institutional telephone activity utilizes a computer control unit to control a trunk management unit, which connects institutional telephones to outside telephone lines. The computer control unit contains a database for storing the calling privileges and restrictions of institutional users and for recording calling transactions made by the users. The computer control unit implements a prospective call screening feature whereby outside recipients of undesired calls from the institution may enter a code that directs the computer control unit to prohibit similar calls in the future.

Abstract: A system and method within a multimedia messaging system for automatically enabling the system to notify a user that his or her mailbox is full and therefore no longer accepting messages for storage. The system includes one or more mailboxes to receive and store messages from callers, a capacity calculator to determine whether the messages stored in the mailbox exceed the allotted amount of storage space and a message transmittal unit to enable one or more notification alerts to be generated in response to the capacity calculator determining that the mailbox is full.

Abstract: A server located at a first location for recording and managing communications for transcription generated at a second location. Clients contact the server to store communications for transcription. The client is given the option to create a user configurable profile that defines user identification data and recording options for that client. The user identification data includes a user identification number and an audible user identification which is associated with each user identification number. The communications are recorded based on the recording options in the user configurable profile. Exemplary recording options include file integrity and audio archiving. The server also provides the user with the ability to withhold a recording for completion at a later time.

Abstract: A system for indicating to a message subscriber when a message has been left for that subscriber accommodates multiple time zones by providing information to the subscriber related to the subscriber's time zone indicating that the message was left. When the caller leaves his message, the caller's time zone is determined based the caller's phone number's time zone determined from a database corresponding these data. Then the subscriber's local time zone is determined. The difference in time zones is determined and the time indicated to the subscriber is related to the subscriber's time zone, not the caller's, by adding or subtracting the appropriate amount of time indicated by the difference in time between the time zones to give the subscriber the time of the call in the subscriber's local zone.