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: 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 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: 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: 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: A unified messaging system includes a voice gateway server coupled to an electronics mail system and a private branch exchange (PBX). The voice gateway server provides voice messaging services to a set of subscribers. Within the voice gateway server, a trigraph analyzer sequentially examines 3-character combinations within a text message; determines occurrence frequencies for the character combinations; compares the occurrence frequencies with reference occurrence statistics modeled from text samples written in particular languages; and generates a language identifier and a likelihood value for the text message. Based upon the language identifier, a message inquiry unit selects an appropriate text-to-speech engine for converting the text message into computer-generated speech that is played to a subscriber.

Abstract: A priority call queuing system allows the called site to exercise control over the position in a phone queue of an incoming call, based upon an economic value assigned to the incoming call. When the incoming call is received, an interactive voice response unit interrogates the caller and determines information such as, identity of the caller, quantity of items to be ordered, item numbers, catalog numbers and other data from which an economic value of the call can be determined. Thereafter, the call information is used, in conjunction with pricing and other economic data, present in a database at the called site, to assign an economic value to the call. The call's position in the queue is then adjusted in manner that is hidden from the caller, in accordance with the determined economic value. The rank positions of other calls within the queue are adjusted, accordingly.

Abstract: A unified messaging system selectively provides voice messages and computer-generated speech messages to a set of subscribers. The unified messaging system includes a voice gateway server coupled to an electronics mail system and a private branch exchange (PBX). In addition, the unified messaging system is configured for determining if a received message is a text message from the electronic mail system or a voice message from the PBX. The voice gateway server preferably includes a trigraph analyzer. When a subscriber selects review of a received message that includes a text message, the trigraph analyzer sequentially examines 3-character combinations within the text message; determines occurrence frequencies for the character combinations; compares the occurrence frequencies with reference occurrence statistics modeled from text samples written in particular languages; and generates a language identifier and a likelihood value for the text message.

Abstract: A computer based method for performing a command via a voice user interface on a subset of objects. The subset is selected from a set of objects, each having an object type. At least one taggable field is associated with the object type and has a corresponding value. The set of objects is stored in the computer memory. An utterance is received from the user and includes a command, an object type selection, a taggable field selection, and a value for the taggable field. Responsive to the utterance, at least one object is retrieved from the set of objects, the object of the type selected by the user and having a value in the taggable field selection that matches the taggable field value received from the user. The command is performed on the object. The object consists of text which is converted to voice output.

Abstract: A telephone subscriber unit (22) includes a caller identification device (120), a memory unit (114), a pre-processor (124) and a text-to-speech synthesizer (TTS) (110). The caller identification device (120) receives caller ID information of a calling party in a first textual format and stores the caller ID information in the memory unit (114) The pre-processor (124) converts textual caller ID information from the first data format to a second data format suitable for text-to-speech synthesis by the text-to-speech synthesizer (110). The text-to-speech synthesizer (110) generates audible caller ID information responsive to receiving the textual caller information.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to assist users to understand the operation of a telephone in a system comprising a telephone with buttons, a telephone controller and a memory, said method comprising

Abstract: A method and system for personalized multimedia messaging include multiple communication mode interfaces which enable the system to communicate with multiple types of communication devices. Caller profiles are configured for preselected callers such that each caller profile includes at least one caller identifier representative of data patterns in incoming. calls received over the communication modes. The caller profiles are selectively configured to include personalized messages intended for a subset of the preselected callers and can also include caller identity verification data. A caller identification subsystem monitors the communication modes for incoming calls which include the data patterns. Upon detecting one of the data patterns, a processor accesses a corresponding caller profile and determines if the caller profile includes a personalized message.

Abstract: An automated message processing system is disclosed which receives an electronic mail message, coverts the mail message into speech and delivers the converted message to one or more telephone recipients identified in the electronic mail message. The system includes means for creating an electronic mail message which identifies one or more telephone recipients, means for converting the electronic mail message to speech and means for delivering the converted electronic mail message to the one or more telephone recipients identified in the electronic mail message. The system of the present invention utilizes text-to-speech techniques to convert the text in the electronic mail message into speech.

Abstract: A server provides media and telephony services in a telecommunications network. The server has a distributed, object-oriented software architecture, allowing client applications to access resources located anywhere in the network. The server provides interfaces to media and telephony resources so that client applications, which may access the server through an IP data network, can access the resources. The software architecture framework is provided by Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA). The interfaces provided by the server are Interface Definition Language (IDL) application program interfaces (APIs) implemented using a distributed object model such as CORBA.

Abstract: A method for providing multiple calling service announcements on a single circuit card within a telephone network. The method reduces the number of stored speech files necessary to generate announcements regarding a calling service such as Automatic Call Back or Enhanced Repeat Dial. By reducing the amount of speech data stored on a circuit card, multiple calling service announcements can be provided on a single circuit card, thereby reducing equipment costs.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for inducing a person to store telephone numbers or other contact information entered into a new voice message delivery method and system. The invention preferably operates after the person has completed a transaction, such as sending or receiving a voice message, so that the action of saving the telephone number or other contact information is convenient for the user and is less competitive with the action of sending or receiving a voice message. After a person sends or receives a voice message, the invention determines whether to offer the person an opportunity to save the telephone number or other contact information already entered into the system. The invention then allows the person to save the telephone number or other contact information in an address book associated with their account.

Abstract: An interactive voice response (IVR) system collects data associated with a telephone call, and provides the data to a server. The server transforms the data into a format consistent with a different telephony platform specification implemented by clients attached to the server such that the data can be retrieved by any client to which a telephone call is transferred. Data is also shared between remote servers when calls are transferred. The servers each broadcast their identity when initially connected to a wide area network. In response, each server on the network responds with their identify. Each server updates a table of servers in accordance with the messages exchanged.

Abstract: Upon receipt of an incoming signal containing information regarding a caller's telephone number, whether a telephone number matching with the received telephone number is registered in the memory part 17 is determined. A baseband part 12 converts the caller's name which corresponds to the registered telephone number into voice information if the telephone number is among the registered numbers but converts the received telephone number into voice information if the telephone number is not among the registered numbers, the voice information is reported by an earphone/microphone 13, and the call is taken. If the telephone number information is not contained in the incoming signal, this fact is reported in a similar manner. Further, this informing operation is omitted and the call is taken directly if the earphone microswitch 22 is depressed.

Abstract: In situations where the calling party is connected to Limited-Intelligence Incoming Call-Accepting (LIICA) terminating entity, for example, a telephone answering machine, a much more satisfactory interaction is had for both the calling party and the called party when the telephone service provider's system detects that a connection is being made to LIICA entity and provides the calling party with the option to leave a message in the provider's messaging platform. When the caller accepts that option, the system interacts with the caller in a conventional way to leave a message on the messaging platform, and also interacts with the LIICA entity (if possible) to leave a short message thereon that informs the called party that a message is waiting for the called party on the messaging platform, which can be retrieved at the called party's discretion.

Abstract: An automated toll-free telecommunications information service may be provided responsive to a user sending an E-mail request via the Internet or by a caller dialing a toll-free telephone number and announcing a voice request wherein the caller request comprises categories of interests. A service node interprets the request and collects matches to the request from a database. A match to a request may comprise the identity of an entity corresponding to the match, a toll-free number for the match and a brief information sketch describing the entity. The matches are announced and played for the caller. The caller may barge in with a predetermined voice announcement such as “please dial” when they wish to select an item of the list. In response, the service node initiates the launch of a call to the selected entity.

Abstract: A network that establishes a telephone call between a calling party and a called party and alters speech signals generated by the calling party during the telephone call. The network includes a network node that is coupled to the transmit channel of the calling party and the receive channel of the called party. The network node is programmed to receive a request to establish the telephone call from the calling party and receive a selection of a speech signal alteration from the calling party. The network node initiates the telephone call to the called party. Further, the network node alters the speech signal of the calling party based on the speech signal alteration selection.

Abstract: A system (10) and method (40) for providing audible caller information to telephone service subscribers is presented. The system (10) includes a pre-processor (28) that converts textual caller information from a first data format to a second data format suitable for text-to-speech synthesis (TTS). The pre-processor (28) can be incorporated in a service node/intelligent peripheral (SN/IP) (24) in an advanced intelligent network (AIN). In this configuration, the pre-processor (28) can be used to convert caller-ID with name database entries into a predetermined TTS format. The TTS formatted information can be provided to a TTS synthesized (30) included in the SN/IP (24). In conjunction with a switching service point (SSP) (20), the pre-processor (28) can provide a talking call-waiting feature to subscribers with significantly improved intelligibility.

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: An emergency call load handling system in a call network has an interactive voice response (IVR) unit associated with a switching apparatus to which calls may be diverted in special conditions, such as during emergencies or disasters when calls to certain destinations may suddenly increase dramatically. Calls are diverted depending on call destination and/or pre-programmed triggers, such as a call load threshold experienced by the switching apparatus or for a specific destination. The IVR unit in some cases negotiates with callers for priority to further route calls, and may play pre-recorded messages. Low priority calls are typically disposed of to for fire stations, hospitals, government emergency handling centers and the like. In some cases rules may be amended in real time by use of data network connections between call centers and the SCPs involved.

Abstract: A portable radio telephone is provided with a headset having a user actuable switch and a microphone. The handset of the radio telephone includes circuitry for responding to the operation of the headset by the user to select or generate information such as a telephone number.

Abstract: A system is disclosed in which a caller may provide certain information during a call to an interactive voice response unit, prior known information about the caller may be stored in a computerized database, and an agent terminal may access the information in the database and collected at the interactive voice response unit, during the call, such that information collected from the caller before arriving at the agent does not have to be recollected from the caller by the agent.

Abstract: A mobile communication system which includes mobile terminals with a voice mailbox function. The mobile terminals are equipped with mobile-adapted WWW-browsers. The voice mailbox function provides one or more functions in the form of being able to download at least one home page into a WWW-browser of the mobile terminals.

Abstract: An improved prompting system for accessing specified functions. According to one embodiment, a particular user may identify himself to the system and thereafter preprogram one or more paths that lead directly to a desired function within the hierarchical menu prompting system. The next time the user needs to access the system the user can navigate directly to the desired function by pressing a predetermined key or sequence of keys on his or her Touch-Tone dial. Alternatively, the prompting system may present as an option a direct path to the desired function.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for allocating resources within an automatic call distributor. The method includes the steps of receiving an incoming call from a supervisor on a voice channel of the automatic call distributor and routing the incoming call to an autoattendant of the automatic call distributor. The method further includes the steps of presenting the supervisor with a set of options regarding the allocation of resources within the automatic call distributor, receiving a change request from the supervisor and executing the change request.

Abstract: In recent years, the telecommunications industry has witnessed the proliferation of a variety of digital vocoders in order to meet bandwidth demands of different wireline and wireless communication systems. The rapid growth in the diversity of networks and the number of users of such networks is increasing the number of instances where two vocoders are placed in tandem to serve a single connection. Such arrangements of low bit-rate codecs can degrade the quality of the transmitted speech. To overcome this problem in the specific situation involving store-and-forward systems (e.g. voicemail), the invention provides a novel method and apparatus including a plurality of different vocoders that can be selectively invoked to process the voice signal so as to reduce signal degradation. Also, the apparatus has the capability to bypass the vocoder bank when exchanging data with a remote signal processor capable of accepting data frames in compressed format.

Abstract: An interactive voice response application on a computer telephony system includes a method of playing voice prompts from a mixed set of pre-recorded voice prompts and voice prompts synthesised from a text-to-speech process. The method comprises: reserving memory for a synthesised prompt and a pre-recorded prompt associated with a particular prompt identifier; on a play prompt request selecting the pre-recorded prompt if available and outputting through a voice output; otherwise selecting the synthesised prompt and playing the selected voice prompt through the voice output. If neither pre-recorded or synthesised data are available then text associated with the voice prompt is output through a text-to-speech output.

Abstract: A voice processing system is connected to a switch via multiple telephone lines, and provides a set of line objects, each line object being associated with one of the physical telephone lines. The line object allows a demarcation to be made between the underlying voice processing system software, and external business applications. Thus a line object supports a set of methods such as Get DTMF Tone, Play Audio, Answer Call, and End Call, to allow the external business applications to perform desired operations on a telephone line. These methods are invoked via a set of corresponding IVR action objects, which in turn are integrated into the business application. The business application itself, and its IVR actions, regard the line objects effectively as servers to provide IVR functionality. The business application may therefore run partially or completely on a separate physical machine from the IVR system itself.

Abstract: In an audio-digital telephone interface system, selective operation prompts a caller with oral instructions to provide: digital control signals, digital data signals (numeric) or audio signals. Inbound and outbound operations are involved and inbound callers are qualified as by automatic number identification (ANI) signals and consumable key operation. A data cell is loaded in accordance with an operating program and the resulting data packet is flagged depending on the presence of audio signals. Data packets are returned to storage, as for subsequent addressing to call up, as to process or cue a caller. The illustrative format receives and organizes order data for goods or services or to isolate a subset or a sub-subset, of callers.

Abstract: A dialed number of a called party is received from a calling party. Based on the dialed number, a name of the called party is retrieved from a database. An audio message which includes the name of the called party is generated and communicated to the calling party. A call is routed between the calling party and the called party after said communicating the audio message.

Abstract: A communications system generally comprises communications apparatus 1 which is connected via a communications link 2 to a user's computer system 3 and via a telephone system 4 to a plurality of telephones 5 each belonging to a call recipient. The basic functioning of the communications system is as follows. The user whose computer system 3 is connected to the communications apparatus 1 has information stored in the computer system 3 which either he wishes to deliver to the call recipients or which the call recipients wish to obtain. This information is received by the communications apparatus 1 and at an appropriate time the communications apparatus 1 automatically calls the telephone 5 of the correct call recipient and delivers an audible voice message via the telephone system 4 to the telephone 5 of the call recipient.

Abstract: A voice paging system includes a computer for receiving an electronically transmitted text message and controlling the voice paging system, a text-to-voice converter for converting the text message to a voiced message, a transmitter for transmitting the voiced message in a wireless manner, and a voice pager unit for receiving the transmitted voiced message and broadcasting the voiced message.

Abstract: A telephone system for travel card users where the users may program a switch processor so that it completes, re-routes, or refuses to complete calls as predetermined by the customer. Data is captured as it is transferred from the switching module to an internal buffer and is fed through a digital communications path and an analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter to a switching station computer. The switching station computer is in communication with a data storage server computer and the data storage server computer is in communication with remote telephones and with computers and facsimile machines in remote customers, offices. The switching station computer is thus programmable by the customer and incoming calls are handled as predetermined by the customer. A voice response device provides verbal communication between the system and its users.

Abstract: A message generation and automatic dialing system is used in conjunction with a telephone for a customer to receive product information and to place an order for the product or service. The product information such as product list and prices are prerecorded in a ROM and broadcast from a speaker, which is acoustically coupled to the telephone. The speaker then automatically generates dialing tones to connect the telephone to the customer service of the product company for the user to place an order of any product.

Abstract: The reception part 30 outputs the text and the header of the received electronic mail to the voice synthesizing part 32. The voice font switching part 326 outputs the sander ID contained in the header to the voice font searching part 328. The voice font searching part 328 searches the voice feature data in the voice font database part 330 to have voice feature data in which the user ID contained in the header of the voice feature data matches the sender ID sent to the rhythm control part 322 and the voice generating part 324. The rhythm control part 322, the voice generating part 324 and the voice output part 38 read the content of the text in a voice feature indicated by the phonemes contained in the supplied voice feature data and generates a voice signal characterized by rhythm data contained in the header of the voice feature data for output.

Abstract: A queueing system in a call center is adapted to queue voice mails as well as live telephone calls. In a preferred embodiment the calls include both connection-oriented switched telephony (COST) calls and Data Network Telephony (DNT) calls. Callers are enabled to leave voice mail as an alternative to waiting, and records of the voice mails are queued, preferably in the same queue processing the live calls. In some embodiments the call center is enabled to process e-mails, video mails and facsimile messages as well as live calls and voice mail messages, and all types of multimedia communication can be queued in the same queue according to prestored routing rules and priority rules.

Abstract: A computer-implemented control center for permitting a subscriber of a plurality of communication services of a unified messaging system to customize communication options pertaining to the communication services through either a telephony-centric network using a telephone or a data-centric network using a display terminal is disclosed. The computer implemented control center includes a subscriber communication profile database having therein an account pertaining to the subscriber. The account includes the communication options for the subscriber. The communication options include parameters associated with individual ones of the communication services and routings among the communication services. There is also included a computer server coupled to exchange data with the subscriber communication profile database.

Abstract: A communication system for providing communication between a first party and second party. A first party message input receives first party messages from the first party, and a first party message output delivers the first party messages to the second party in an unattended manner. A second party message input receives second party messages from the second party in response to the first party messages, and a second party message output delivers the second party messages to the first party in an unattended manner. A pass-through message channel receives and delivers in an attended manner pass-through messages between the second party and the first party. A memory records, stores, and indexes the first party messages, the second party messages, and the pass-through messages.

Abstract: A message accessing apparatus and method for providing access of select messages (voice or text) to multiple recipients in cellular networks. A network subscriber accesses a subscriber's mailbox which contains a message, by entering a voice messaging service address code and entering a personal access code. A temporary access code is then assigned to the selected message and the messaging service address code and temporary access code are transmitted to the intended recipients of the voice message to allow the intended recipients to access the selected message by contacting the voice messaging service and entering the temporary access code.

Abstract: A multi-user e-mail reader system allows several users to access their e-mail accounts simultaneously and have the e-mail messages played back with speech synthesis. The user navigates through various functional states of the system using either touch-tone keypad commands or optionally voiced commands interpreted by a speech recognizer. Users can send reply e-mail messages without the use of a computer, by invoking the system's text processor. The text processor operates in conjunction with a keypad-to-ASCII conversion mechanism that allows fully punctuated and properly addressed e-mail messages to be composed from the touch-tone phone. Digital audio sound file attachments may be recorded through the telephone handset and attached to an outgoing e-mail message. A system for storing canned messages allows the user to quickly send pre-composed reply messages, either as stored or after editing using the text processor.

Abstract: In a portable telephone device, a desired telephone number selected by an user from all or a part of telephone directory list is converted into audio data by an audio data converting circuit to transmit it to a communication partner, so that the telephone number corresponding to the audio data can be uttered as a voice at the partner side who receives the audio data. Thereby, a portable telephone device with improved user ability can be realized.

Abstract: A wireless telephone with record and playback capability is disclosed. The telephone has an operation module, which transmits near-end signals and receives far-end signals, and a record module which writes transmission packets formed from the near-end signals in a first location of a memory and reception packets formed from the far-end signals in a second location of the memory. A playback module reads the transmission packets and the reception packets from the memory, and decodes the transmission packets into transmission speech samples and the reception packets into reception speech samples using transmission and reception decoders, respectively. Further, the playback module has a mixer to mix the transmission speech samples with the reception speech samples to form mixed speech signals for playback on a speaker.

Abstract: The invention provided a a communication method, a voice transmission apparatus and a voice reception apparatus by which, in communication through a non-guarantee type network, deterioration in voice, unnatural interruption of language, jump of voice and so forth which arise from unstable communication or a load variation can be eliminated to the utmost to allow conversation which can be recognized readily and conversation by natural voice can be achieved. Voice of a talking person is inputted through a voice to electric conversion element such as a microphone to a voice inputting and outputting element, by which the voice signal is converted into a corresponding voice data electric signal. The voice data are inputted to a speech recognition and conversion section, by which they are converted into a character code data signal by speech synthesis.

Abstract: A priority call queuing system allows the called site to exercise control over the position in a phone queue of an incoming call, based upon an economic value assigned to the incoming call. When the incoming call is received, an interactive voice response unit interrogates the caller and determines information such as, identity of the caller, quantity of items to be ordered, item numbers, catalog numbers and other data from which an economic value of the call can be determined. Thereafter, the call information is used, in conjunction with pricing and other economic data, present in a database at the called site, to assign an economic value to the call. The call's position in the queue is then adjusted in manner that is hidden from the caller, in accordance with the determined economic value. The rank positions of other calls within the queue are adjusted, accordingly.

Abstract: A communications system includes a single transmitter and a large number of individual receivers. The transmitter broadcasts a signal over a medium a continuous stream of digitally coded text items, each carrying information as to one or more subjects described by an index term. Each receiver includes a demodulator for continuously receiving the broadcast signal, a profile storage tailorable by each user individually to contain a list of desired index terms, means for selecting only those items having index terms matching those in the profile storage, and a memory for storing the selected items. The user can activate the receiver to play back items in the memory and to choose among the stored items. The items chosen for playback are converted from digital text to a synthesized voice, which is sent as an audio signal to the user.

Abstract: The invention relates to a voice enabled user interface which correlates, at development time or at run time, utterances, by a caller who is interacting with the user interface, with transaction phrases in a transaction phrase data structure, such as through the use of synonyms, descriptions of the transactions, comparing selected words, and phrases having one or a plurality of word in common. The user interface employs the results of the correlation to calculate an offering to the caller which may include a list of transaction phrases, a list of correlation results, a prompt for the caller to speak additional information to the user interface, or a combination of the two. The user interface may assess whether a number of transaction phrases in a determined list is small enough to be suitable for presentation and, if not, enable a correlating step to be repeated to yield a smaller number of transaction phrases in the correlation result.