USO0RE39722E

(19) United States (12) Reissued Patent

(10) Patent Number: US (45) Date of Reissued Patent:

Hansen, 11 et al. (54)

TELEPHONE CALL/VOICE PROCESSING

5,381,465 5,394,445 5,400,393 5,452,289 5,463,684

SYSTEM

(75) Inventors: Harold E. A. Hansen, II, Plano, TX (US); Eric G. Suder, Plano, TX (US)

(73) Assignee: Estech Systems, Inc., Plano, TX (US)

(21) Appl. No.: 11/145,504 Jun. 3, 2005 (22) Filed: Related US. Patent Documents

Reissue of:

(64)

Patent No.:

6,252,944

Issued:

Jun. 26, 2001

Appl. No.:

08/873,215

Filed:

Jun. 11, 1997

A A A A A

* 1/1995 * 2/1995 * 3/1995 * 9/1995 * 10/1995

5,471,523

A

*

11/1995

Smith et a1.

A

*

12/1995

Sato

5,483,577 5,517,556 5,541,984 5,544,231 5,555,258 5,586,172 5,590,171

A A A A A A A

* 1/1996 * 5/1996 * 7/1996 * 8/1996 * 9/1996 * 12/1996 * 12/1996

(51)

. . . . . . ..

379/165

. . . ..

358/481

Gulick .... .. 379/67 Pounds et al. ........ .. 379/67 Yoshida ............... .. 379/100.14 Cho ...................... .. 379/88.24 Snelling et al. .. ...... .. 370/280 Sakurai et a1. ......... .. 379/88.18 Howe et a1. ................ .. 379/33

5,598,409 A

*

1/1997 Madonna et a1.

A

*

2/1997

Pinault et al.

5,615,257 A 5,623,538 A

* *

3/1997 4/1997

PeZZullo et a1. .......... .. 379/396 Petty ..................... .. 379/88.13

5,712,902 A

*

1/1998 Florence et al. .

5,815,552 A

*

9/1998

......

379/269 . . . ..

379/284

379/213

Ohtsuka ................... .. 379/157

(Continued) Primary Examiner%}erald Gauthier (74) Attorney, Agent, or FirmiFish & Richardson P.C.;

Int. Cl. H04M 1/64

Kelly KordZik

(2006.01)

(52)

US. Cl. ................................ .. 379/88.25; 379/88.07

(58)

Field of Classi?cation Search ............... .. 379/211,

379/221, 67, 196, 156 See application ?le for complete search history. (56)

References Cited US PATENT DOCUMENTS 4,228,536 A 4. “W980 Gueldenpfennig et a1‘ 370/66 4,371,752 A * 2/1983 Matthews et a1‘ _____ __ 379/88‘26 4,554,413 A

.....

......

5,604,740

Provisional application No. 60/023,749, ?led on Jun. 12, 1996.

Jul. 10, 2007

Carter et al. ................ .. 379/67 Ball et a1. ...... .. 379/67 Knuth et al. ................ .. 379/88 Sharma et a1. .............. .. 379/93 Morduch et al. .... .. 379/202.01

5,477,342

US. Applications: (60)

RE39,722 E

*

4,602,129 A * 4,799,144 A * 4,860,339 A *

11/1985

ABSTRACT

A telephone and Voice mail (Voice processing) system is implemented using only a single processing means for controlling operations of both the telephone system and the Voice mail system. The single processing means communi cates With ahard disk, Which stores programs for running the Various operations of the system, Voice prompts and all Voice mail messages. The single processing means is coupled to signal processing circuitry, Which emulates ana log electronics that Would be used for ?lters, tone decoder,

. . . . .. 379/165

generators, 310- The slngle prOCeSSmg means and slgnal

7/ 1986 Matthews et al. . 379/8826 1/1989 Parruck et a1. ........... .. 364/200 8/1989 D’AgOStO et a1~ ~~~~~~~~~~ -- 379/29

processing circuitry are coupled to central o?‘ice lines and station lines by a digital cross-point matrix, Which can connect any Voice path to another Voice path. The system

i i 1(1);

Pinede et al. . . . . . .

(57)

113501516 u

er e

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~

integrates call processing and Voice processing into one

.

' t t 11 d b t f ftW d 1 SZZCZIZISHCIOH152a; y one Se 0 so are an a Smge

’ ’ 4,955,054 A

*

9/1990 Boyd, Jr. et al. ......... .. 379/269

4,996,707 A 4,998,272 A

* *

2/1991 3/1991

5,274,738 A

* 12/1993 Daly et al. ................... .. 395/2

O’Malley et a1. ......... .. 379/100 Hawkins, Jr. et al. ...... .. 379/88

1

307

HARDDISK

I

W

P

g

'

48 Claims, 18 Drawing Sheets

AsYxcuégamlNK

1“

"11$?!"

I w,’

% MODEM

10'1 112

".1

0491441 WI IDWI m0 \,

ANALOG "4

11s~ PORT n

ANALOG

115- FORT :2

11? _

405

I'HIIH

US RE39,722 E Page 2

US. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5 , 854 , 978 A 5,867,559 A

* 12/1998 H e1_d an_ ..................... .. 455/418 * 2/1999 Jorgensen et a1. ....... .. 379/671

5,875,234 A

*

2/1999

5,898,708 A

*

4/1999 Tateishi et a1. ........... .. 714/752

Clayton et a1.

.... .. 379/67

_

5,924,016 A

*

7/1999 Fuller et a1. ........... .. 379/8825

5,960,348 A 6’058’178 A

**

9/1999 Eisdorfer et a1. 5/2000 McKendry et a1‘

_

* clted by exammer

455/445 37901201

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 2 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

zgs ANALOG TELEPHONE ADAPTOR (IO LINES ’—~A--—~

HI!

P0’

200 204

~zo1

TELEPHONE

VOICE

SYSTEM

MAIL

(PBX)

SYS'HEM ‘

262

A’

ll| STIT'IBN

$|DE

.

FIQ. 2

PRIOR ART

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

__EKT PCM HWY

1

Sheet 3 0f 18

, 1 1L2’

US RE39,722 E

396

‘—>?

3%”

ELECTRONIC "2 TO

DATA TRANSCEIVER

KEY _...3 EXT. TELEPHONE a~4 PHONES

AND MUX

INTERFACES "-5 (FIG. 14)

(10Ka/s)

_.

‘:9

391

395 LOOP START C0 00 To

__..\__..MICROCONTROU.ER

INTERFACES AND ---1 CENTRAL

s07

vomes .

MONITORING

2 OFICE -~3

MULTI-DROP ASYNC COMM

32K x a SRAM

300

TIMESLOT COUNTER FROM 100

3?‘ T|MESL0T

GENERATON

FlQ- 3

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 4 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

Fig. 4

493

TO A VALID CALL

ASSIGN RECORD RESOURCE

IGNORE KEY PRESS

7 * FILL-IN

408 CALLED/CALLING it ’

RESOURCE AVAILABLE ?

CC'JRNNECT RECrORD ESOURCE O *DATA RECORD APPROPRIATE INFééL-IN TIME/DATE SESSION PATH ‘

DISPLAY ERROR MESSAGE

INCREMENT COUNTER FOR gfATISTICS

L

FIELD IN RECORDING

WW RECORDING PROCESS

* START TIMER

(RECORDING DURATION)

~409

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 5 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

501

RECORD 502

594

RESOURCE 51m

596

OPEN

CONNECT 1*

CONNECTED

TRANSMIT

- SPEECH PATH T0 ~

,

SPEECH PATH

SINGLE TONE

KILL BEEP

YES

SP;

503

DELAY 200

'“5

507‘

RECONNECT

508‘

RESI'ART BEEP

g1_1 TIMER 1

END

50,

Fig. 5

h HANG UP OR ‘601 PRESS RECORD \

KEY

KILL BEEP ,

“"4

Fig‘ 6

TIMER v

602~

STOP

~

RECORDING PROCESS 603

\

S_A_"L_| vE ECORDING IN MAILBOX

(RECORDINGS 55cm"!

FREE RECORD RESOURCE FILL m ELAPSED TIME

D

1

‘05

ISCONNECT “s06 SPEECH PATH FOR RECORD

REsouRcE

607

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 6 0f 18

USER PRESSES PROG/ HELP KEY ON PHONE I ASSIGN A PLAY CHANNEL 702

CHANNEL AVAILABLE .7 NO PLAY REORDER TONE

YES

YES

I LOCK-OUT

714

STATE

YES

I WAIT FOR

PHONE TO GO ON-HOOK

FREE RESOURCES I

TEAR DOWN

MAKE APPROPRIATE CROSS -703 POINT CONNECTION I PLAY MASTER FROG/HELP PROMPT 704 705

~713

~777

CALL

718

Fly. 7A

US RE39,722 E

PLAY HELP PROMPT 706

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 7 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

69 PLAY INTRODUCTORY PROMPT 7Z0 1

721

KEY

YES

PLAY ‘HOW TO ANSWER" PROMPT

7(4 PLAY “HOW TO PLACE” PROMPT

7(6 PLAY ‘HOW TO TRANSFER’

PROMPT PLAY ‘HOW TO

CON FERENCE' PROMPT 729

710 PLAY "HOW TO ‘ ANSWER CALL

WAITING’ PROMPT

Fig. 7B

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 8 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

Q9 I

PLAY VOICE MAIL INTRODUCTORY PROMPT 740 ‘I 72 1 741 ‘I 1*

KEY

YES

PLAY LEAYE

PRESSED

MESSAGE

,

PROMPT

N0 2

3

N0

7

743

KEY PRESSED ?

14

PLAY "T0

YES

TRANSFER TO VOICE MAIL’ PROMPT 7

745

1‘

PRESSED

UP NTER AL

,

PROMPT N0

4

_

'

71s

747

KEY

YES mama's

PRESSED ,

PROMPT

NO

5

‘

7 o

7”

Kn

PLAY 'ro RECORBI YES

PERSONAL

PRESSED

GREETING’

?

PROMPT

_

NO ,7 751

KEY PRESSED

E

2

NO N0

TIME our g

752

Fig. 76 YES F

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 9 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

PLAY INTRODUCTORY PROMPT ~760

GET KEY CODE

USE KEY CODE AS INDEX INTO

PROMPT ARRAY

, 7(4 PLAY APPROPRIATE

Fig. 70

PROMPT

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 10 0f 18

PRESS

US RE39,722 E

801

HELP KEY

PRESS KEY ASSOCIATED

802

WITH HELP

REQUIRED DETERMINE CURRENT STATE ~803 PLAY

804

RESOURCE AVAILABLE ‘I

‘YES ASSIGN PLAY ~806

RESOURCE

sgs DISPLAY ERROR

CONNECT “807 SPEECH PATH I

PLAY

APPROPRIATE HELP PROMPT

L

808

RECONNECTTO _

ORIGINAL CONNECTION

809

U

END

810

Fi . 8

9

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

CALL HM ROUTED TO

Sheet 11 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

901

SI'ATION'S MAI LBOX

995 CALL 902 SCREENING ENABLED

CONTINUE PHONE RINGING DURING I PERSONAL

904

BEEP

GREETING

7

PROCESS

RECORD

SET-UP SPEECH PATH ~905

~907

NORMALLY

CONNECTION

'

T0 EXTENSION

I ALLOW USER TO MONITOR DURING MESSAGE

KILL VOICE

MAIL

~906

_

9”’

MESSAGE

USER PRESSES

9"

RECORD/

MONITOR KEY CONNECT TO

OUTSIDE CALLER AS “910

f

TURN

IF THIS WERE A

MONITOR

NORMAL CALL

SPEAKER OFF

_

9'2

CALL PROCEEDS F913

INTO VOICE MAIL NORMALLY

Fig, 9

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 12 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

-DT

~BT/ROT

10,07 -RBT ~1 1 00

DTMF 0*.

-SINGLE TONES -DTMF SENDERS

CALL

RECEWERS

PROCESSING

-__°

TONE GEN.

"'92

10,03

AUTOMATIC

RECORDING

°" GAIN CQNTROL

°_’

°"'

BUFFERS

FAXTONE

10“

CA LLER ID

~10a5

PLAY BUFFERS ———-o

DET.

MODEMS

\102

c

1006 ONFERENCE

F

mp8

BRIDGES

_

—<>

Fig. 10

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 13 0f 18

1104 ’

121

f

US RE39,722 E

1101

-1

T

{"02 BT0 { DATAQ LOCK

w

=

W

H ‘

>6

_ *DATA

P T

306

C 4103

1+36V

Fig. 11

1204

122 _

D MC ’

TO PHONE 0

‘Z03

1201

f

’

CHI?’ W?H CODEC

Tl;

“NE INTERFACE

LINE 1203’

VOLTAGE

MONITOR

Fig. 12

' C0 RIN=G TO uNw

J

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

CALL RINGS

INTO PABX

Fi . 13

(Pr or Art)

US RE39,722 E

Sheet 14 0f 18

1307

START RINGING INDUSTRY STANDARD 1302~ TELEPHONE UNES CONNECTED TO V.M. SYSTEM VM swam 13 03~

ANSWERS

(PLAYS GREETING)|

CALL IN PABX SYSTEM

CALL NOW IN VM SYSTEM

_CALLER DIALS 1304"



DIGITS

(omc'reo BY VM SYSTEM)

1396 ‘ CALL IN VM SYSTEM T

START

RECORDING VM MESSAGE

VM SYSTEM 1305 TRANSFERS CALL TO DESIRED

DESTINATION

CALL NOW IN PABX “STEM

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 15 0f 18

1400

US RE39,722 E

14-91

I

1407 1408

Fig. 14

1410

1406 \

1409 \

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 16 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

CALL RECEIVED ON CO LINE "7507

DIGITAL CROSS-POINT MATRIX CONNECTS 4502 CALL TO AN AVAILABLE PLAY CHANNEL, DTMF RECEIVER AND FAX TONE DETECTOR MICROPROCESSOR TRANSFER SPEECH DATA FROM HARD DISK TO PLAY BUFFER

"7503

CONNECT CALL ~1505 THROUGH DIGITAL

CROSS-POINT MATRIX TO ANALOG PORT VIA DSLAC CONNECT CALL .1507 THROUGH DIGITAL CROSS-POINT MATRIX TO EXTENSION VIA

P-CARD

FREE 1509‘ RESOURCES

*- TEAR DOWN

1510

CALL

ISH‘I IDLE I

Fig. 1 5

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 17 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

USER LISTENING TO A VOICE MAIL MESAGE

(NEW OR OLD VOICE MAIL OR RECORDING) “1601

PLAY ‘ENTER 4603

I""9- 16

DESTINATION’ PROM FT

r———-——-_. RECEIVE CODE FOR PREssED 085 KEY "604 OR DIGITS DIRECT DIALED

PLAY ‘ENTER ANOTHER

“7605

DESTINATION’ PROMPT

RECORD

4503

INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE COPY MESSAGE V1670 TO ALL MAILBOXES

1614 TEAR DOWN

CALL (IDLE)

QUICK END

I611

U.S. Patent

Jul. 10, 2007

Sheet 18 0f 18

US RE39,722 E

usea PICKS UP IDLE PHONE TO LEAVE A NEW MESSAGE IN A NUMBER OF DESTINATION ~1701 MAILBOXES. GO OFF HOOK 4702

(HANDSET OR

SPEAKER) PRESS VM KEY

~1703

I

PRESS DSS KEYOF 1ST PARTY TO 4704

RECEIVE MESSAGE

Fig. 17

DURING PARTYS PERSONAL 4705 GREETING PRESS ANOTHER D55 1706

NO YES AT BEEP

Y

COPY MESSAGE M ESSAG E

TO ALL

4709

DESTINATION MAILBOXES 1708’ HANG UP

END (QUICK) , 710