CA2571845A1 - Systems and methods for registration and retrieval of voice mail contact information - Google Patents

Abstract

Methods, apparatus and computer-readable media for registering and retrieving contact information associated with a potential calling party. The registration method comprises receiving an originating address associated with the potential calling party, receiving contact information associated with the potential calling party and storing the originating address associated with the potential calling party in an originating address field of a record associated with the potential calling party and storing the contact information associated with the potential calling party in a contact information field of the record associated with the potential calling party.
This increases the variety of contact information that can be left by the potential calling party, contributes to a greater efficiency with which the eventual called party may retrieve contact information associated with a voice mail message and also accelerates the process by which an actual calling party can leave contact information for the called party.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

7 This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of United States 8 Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/638,391 to Dave Clark et al., filed 9 December 27, 2004 and hereby incorporated by reference herein.

11 The subject matter of the present application is related to the subject matter of United 12 States Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/638,386 to Dave Clark et al., filed 13 December 27, 2004 and hereby incorporated by reference herein.

The subject matter of the present application is also related to the subject matter of a 16 United States Patent Application Serial to Dave Clark et al., entitled "SYSTEMS

18 AVAILABLE TO A CALLED PARTY", filed on the same day as the present 19 application and hereby incorporated by reference herein.

23 The present invention relates generally to voice mail systems and, more particularly, 24 to systems and methods for registration and retrieval of contact information associated with callers who leave messages in a voice mail system.

29 Voice mail systems provide a convenient way for a caller to leave a message for an intended recipient who is unavailable to answer an incoming call.
Specifically, a 31 conventional voice mail system detects when the intended recipient is busy or 32 unresponsive to the call, and consequently answers the call by playing the intended 33 recipient's audio greeting. Following this, the caller is prompted to record a voice 1 mail message, which is stored as an audio recording in a voice mailbox associated 2 with the intended recipient.

4 When the owner of the mailbox (i.e., the intended recipient) wishes to retrieve the contents of the mailbox at a later time, he or she dials into the voice mail system. The 6 voice mail system authenticates the owner of the mailbox, and subsequently allows 7 the owner of the mailbox to navigate through his or her mailbox in order to perform 8 various functions, such as playback, deletion and forwarding of individual voice mail 9 messages.

11 In a conventional voice mail system, any contact information that the caller may wish 12 to leave for the owner of the mailbox forms part of the recorded voice mail message.
13 This has several disadvantages.

Firstly, the contact information may be non-existent or, if it is present, it may be 16 buried at an arbitrary point within the voice mail message. This makes it difficult for 17 the owner of the mailbox to retrieve the contact information in an efficient manner.

19 Secondly, conventional approaches limit the type of contact information that can be left for the intended recipient to audio information in the form of recorded utterances 21 or tones.

23 Thirdly, the caller who leaves multiple voice mail messages in multiple mailboxes 24 must remember to replicate the contact information each time he or she leaves a voice mail message, making the process of leaving contact information tedious and slow.

27 Thus, the industry would welcome an improvement that overcomes one or more of the 28 aforementioned deficiencies.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

32 According to a first broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide a method of 33 registering contact information associated with a potential calling party.
The method 34 comprises receiving an originating address associated with the potential calling party;

1 receiving contact information associated with the potential calling party;
and storing 2 the originating address associated with the potential calling party in an originating 3 address field of a record associated with the potential calling party and storing the 4 contact information associated with the potential calling party in a contact information field of the record associated with the potential calling party.

7 According to a second broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide a 8 registration entity for registering contact information associated with a potential 9 calling party. The registration entity comprises a database of records including a record associated with the potential calling party; an input for receiving an originating 11 address associated with the potential calling party and contact information associated 12 with the potential calling party; and a processing entity for storing the originating 13 address associated with the potential calling party in an originating address field of the 14 record associated with the potential calling party and storing the contact information associated with the potential calling party in a contact information field of the record 16 associated with the potential calling party.

18 According to a third broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide computer-19 readable media tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer to perform a method of registering contact information associated with a 21 potential calling party. The method comprises receiving an originating address 22 associated with the potential calling party; receiving contact information associated 23 with the potential calling party; and storing the originating address associated with the 24 potential calling party in an originating address field of a record associated with the potential calling party and storing the contact information associated with the 26 potential calling party in a contact infonnation field of the record associated with the 27 potential calling party.

29 According to a fourth broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide a method of retrieving stored contact information associated with a calling party. The method 31 comprises receiving an originating address associated with the calling party, followed 32 by accessing a database of records associated with respective potential calling parties.
33 Each of the records in the database comprises a respective originating address field 34 and a respective contact information field, the originating address field of the record 1 associated with a given potential calling party containing an originating address 2 associated with the given potential calling party and the contact information field of 3 the record associated with the given potential calling party containing contact 4 information associated with the given potential calling party. According to this aspect, accessing the database of records comprises attempting to identify a particular 6 record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective 7 originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the 8 calling party. Responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the 9 database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field matches the originating address associated with the calling party, the 11 method further comprises retrieving the contact information contained in the contact 12 information field of the particular record, wherein the contact information contained 13 in the contact information field of the particular record corresponds to previously 14 stored contact information associated with the calling party.

16 According to a fifth broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide a network 17 entity, which comprises a database of records, each of the records being associated 18 with a respective potential calling party and including (I) an originating address field 19 containing an originating address associated with the respective potential calling party and (II) a contact information field containing previously stored contact information 21 associated with the respective potential calling party. The network entity further 22 comprises an input for receiving an originating address associated with a calling party 23 and a processing entity in communication with the input. The processing entity is 24 operative for accessing the database of records in an attempt to identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective 26 originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the 27 calling party. Responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the 28 database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating 29 address field matches the originating address associated with the calling party, the processing entity is further operative for retrieving the contact information contained 31 in the contact information field of the particular record. The network entity also 32 comprises an output for releasing the retrieved contact information.

1 According to a sixth broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide a system, 2 which comprises a contact information server that comprises a database of records, 3 each of the records being associated with a respective potential calling party and 4 including (I) an originating field containing an originating address associated with the respective potential calling party; and (II) a contact information field containing 6 previously stored contact information associated with the respective potential calling 7 party. The system also comprises a voice message taking entity that comprises a 8 plurality of mailboxes associated with respective mailbox owners, the voice message 9 taking entity being operable for executing a reconnaissance process to (I) determine an originating address associated with a particular calling party attempting to reach an 11 owner of a particular mailbox; and (II) supply the originating address associated with 12 the particular calling party to the contact information server. Responsive to receipt of 13 the originating address associated with the particular calling party from the voice 14 message taking entity, the contact information server is adapted for accessing the database of records in an attempt to identify a particular record in the database for 16 which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field 17 corresponds to the originating address associated with the particular calling party.
18 Responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the database for which 19 the originating address contained in the respective originating address field matches the originating address associated with the particular calling party, the contact 21 information server is adapted for retrieving the contact information contained in the 22 contact information field of the particular record. Finally, the contact information 23 server is adapted for returning the retrieved contact information to the voice message 24 taking entity for delivery to the owner of the particular mailbox.

26 According to a seventh broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide a method 27 of retrieving stored contact information associated with a calling party making a call.
28 The method comprises receiving an originating address associated with the calling 29 party and accessing a database of records associated with respective potential calling parties. Each of the records in the database comprises a respective originating address 31 field and a plurality of respective contact information fields, the originating address 32 field of the record associated with a given potential calling party containing an 33 originating address associated with the given potential calling party and each of the 34 contact information fields of the record associated with the given potential calling 1 party containing respective contact information associated with the given potential 2 calling party. The method further comprises receiving a contact information selection 3 associated with the call. According to this aspect, accessing the database of records 4 comprises attempting to identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds 6 to the originating address associated with the calling party. Responsive to successful 7 identification of a particular record in the database for which the originating address 8 contained in the respective originating address field matches the originating address 9 associated with the calling party, the method further comprises retrieving the contact information contained in a selected one of the contact information fields of the 11 particular record, the selected one of the contact information fields being related to the 12 contact information selection associated with the call, wherein the contact information 13 contained in the selected one of the contact information fields of the particular record 14 corresponds to previously stored contact information associated with the calling party.
16 According to an eighth broad aspect, the present invention seeks to provide a network 17 entity, which comprises a database of records, each of the records being associated 18 with a respective potential calling party and including (I) an originating address field 19 containing an originating address associated with the respective potential calling party and (II) a plurality of contact information fields each containing previously stored 21 contact information associated with the respective potential calling party.
The 22 network entity further comprises an input for receiving (I) an originating address 23 associated with a calling party and (II) a contact information selection associated with 24 the call. The network entity further comprises a processing entity in communication with the input and operative for accessing the database of records in an attempt to 26 identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained 27 in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address 28 associated with the calling party. Responsive to successful identification of a 29 particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated 31 with the calling party, the processing entity is operative for retrieving the contact 32 information contained in a selected one of the contact information fields of the 33 particular record, the selected one of the contact information fields being related to the 1 contact information selection associated with the call. Finally, the network entity 2 comprises an output for releasing the retrieved contact information.

4 These and other aspects and features of the present invention will now become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the following description 6 of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying 7 drawings.

11 In the accompanying drawings:

13 Figs. 1 A to 1E are conceptual block diagrams depicting interaction between a caller 14 and a voice mail system that comprises a voice message taking entity (VMTE) and a contact information server (CIS);

17 Fig. 2 illustrates a possible structure of a contact information database in the CIS, in 18 accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

Figs. 3A to 3C are conceptual block diagrams illustrating the manner in which the 21 VMTE passively obtains an originating address associated with the caller, in 22 accordance with various embodiments of the present invention;

24 Figs. 4A to 4C are conceptual block diagrams illustrating the manner in which the VMTE actively obtains an originating address submitted by the caller, in accordance 26 with various embodiments of the present invention;

28 Fig. 5 illustrates a possible structure of the contact information database in the CIS, in 29 accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;

31 Fig. 6 is a conceptual block diagram illustrating retrieval of a voice mail message 32 from a mailbox by the owner of the mailbox, in accordance with an embodiment of 33 the present invention;

1 Fig. 7 illustrates a possible structure of the contact information database in the CIS, in 2 accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

4 Fig. 8 illustrates a possible structure of a mailbox database in the VMTE, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

7 It is to be expressly understood that the description and drawings are only for the 8 purpose of illustration of certain embodiments of the invention and are an aid for 9 understanding. They are not intended to be a definition of the limits of the invention.

13 Figs. 1 A through 1 E show a voice mail system in accordance with various non-14 limiting embodiments of the present invention. In each case, the voice mail system comprises a voice message taking entity (VMTE) 12 in communication with a contact 16 information server (CIS) 14. The VMTE 12 comprises or is in communication with a 17 mailbox database 30 that includes a mailbox 16. Each of the mailboxes in the 18 mailbox database 30, including mailbox 16, has the capability of storing one or more 19 voice mail messages and is associated with a called party that is hereinafter referred to as the "owner" of the respective mailbox.

22 In the embodiments of Figs. 1 A, 1 B and 1 C, the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14 are both 23 reachable over a telephony network 18. The telephony network 18 may include the 24 public switched telephone network (PSTN), and/or it may include one or more wireless networks. In addition, the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14 may optionally be 26 connected to each other by a direct link 20 that bypasses the telephony network 18.
27 Furthermore, a private branch exchange (not shown) may act as a gateway between 28 the telephony network 18 and either or both of the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14.

In the embodiment of Fig. 1D, the VMTE 12 is reachable over the telephony network 31 18, while the CIS 14 is reachable over a data network 22. The VMTE 12 is connected 32 to the CIS 14 over a communications link 20. Alternatively, an interworking unit (not 33 shown) disposed between the telephony network and the data network 22 may provide 34 communication between the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14. The data network 22 may 1 include the Internet and/or one or more wireless networks. Accordingly, the 2 may be implemented as a Web server.

4 In the embodiment of Fig. 1 E, the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14 are both reachable over the data network 22. Each of the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14 may have direct access to 6 the data network 22 or may be connected thereto via an access gateway (not shown).

8 Generally speaking, the present invention contemplates a scenario whereby a calling 9 party (hereinafter a caller 24) attempts to reach the owner of mailbox 16, but fails and is prompted by the VMTE 12 to leave a voice mail message in mailbox 16. This can 11 be termed the "calling phase". The calling phase is preceded by a "registration 12 phase", during which the caller 24 will register "contact information" (to be described 13 later on in greater detail) with the CIS 14. The registration phase and the calling 14 phase are now described in the context of the various embodiments depicted in Figs.
1 A through 1 E.

17 I- Registration of Caller's Contact Information with the CIS 14 19 Fig. ]A
21 In the embodiment of Fig. 1 A, the caller 24 uses a telephone 110 connected to 22 the telephony network 18 when accessing the CIS 14 during the registration 23 phase. Then, during the calling phase, the caller 24 uses another telephone 24 112 connected to the telephony network 18 when placing a call to the owner of mailbox 16. It is within the scope of the present invention for the telephone 26 110 and the telephone 112 to be one and the same device, as it is also possible 27 for the two telephones 110, 112 to be different devices and possibly located in 28 different geographic areas.

Upon being contacted by the caller 24 using the telephone 110, the CIS 14 and 31 the caller 24 undergo a registration phase. The registration phase involves the 32 CIS 14 receiving an originating address associated with the caller 24 and 33 contact information associated with the caller 24.

1 Specifically, the originating address associated with the caller 24 can take on 2 at least two different forms. In a first form, the originating address refers to 3 the directory number of the telephone 112 from which the caller 24 expects to 4 make future calls. In a second form, the originating address refers to a code that the caller 24 intends to use to identify himself or herself when interacting 6 with the VMTE 12 during the later calling phase. The registration phase can 7 involve the CIS 14 implementing an interactive voice response system 32 in 8 order to prompt the caller 24 to enter the originating address using the 9 telephone 110.

11 The contact information refers to information that the caller 24 wishes to 12 render available to the owner of mailbox 16 when such owner retrieves the 13 caller's 24 voice mail message from mailbox 16 at a later time. Examples of 14 contact information include but are not limited to a name, telephone number, alternate telephone number, fax number, email address, web page address 16 (URL), salutation, slogan, confidentiality notice (e.g., of the type "THE

18 FOR THE INTENDED RECIPIENT...") , etc. In addition, the contact information 19 may, as a matter of redundancy, also include the originating address associated with the caller 24. The CIS 14 may implement the aforementioned interactive 21 voice response system 32 in order to prompt the caller 24 to enter the contact 22 information using the telephone 110. The CIS 14 may also implement a 23 speech-to-text conversion utility (not shown) to facilitate the entry of contact 24 information by the caller 24.

26 Fig, IB

28 In the embodiment of Fig. 1 B, the caller 24 accesses the CIS 14 during the 29 registration phase using a computer 120 that is equipped with a modem 122 connected to the telephony network 18. Then, during the calling phase, the 31 caller 24 uses a telephone 124 when placing a call to the owner of mailbox 16.

33 Upon being contacted by the caller 24 using the computer 120, the CIS 14 and 34 the caller 24 undergo a registration phase, which involves the CIS 14 receiving 1 an originating address associated with the caller 24 and contact information 2 associated with the caller 24.

4 Specifically, the originating address can take on at least two different forms.
In a first form, the originating address refers to the directory number of the 6 telephone 124 from which the caller 24 expects to make future calls. In a 7 second form, the originating address refers to a code that the caller 24 intends 8 to use to identify himself or herself when interacting with the VMTE 12 9 during the later calling phase. The CIS 14 may execute an interactive query-response program 34 in order to prompt the caller 24 to enter the originating 11 address using the computer 120.

13 The contact information refers to information that the caller 24 wishes to 14 render available to the owner of mailbox 16 when such owner retrieves the caller's 24 voice mail message from mailbox 16 at a later time. In addition to 16 the above examples of contact information, additional examples of contact 17 information that can be entered with the aid of the computer 120 include but 18 are not limited to a company logo, an image and a file attachment (e.g., text, 19 video, audio, multimedia). The CIS 14 may execute the aforementioned interactive query-response program 34 in order to prompt the caller 24 to enter 21 the contact information using the computer 120.

23 Fig 1C

In the embodiment of Fig. 1C, the caller 24 uses a telephone 130 when 26 accessing the CIS 14 during the registration phase. Then, during the calling 27 phase, the caller 24 places a call to the owner of mailbox 16 using an IP-28 enabled telephony device 132. The IP-enabled telephony device 132 is 29 connected to a data network 134 (such as the Internet) via an access gateway or server 136. The data network 134 is connected to the telephony network 18 31 via an interworking unit (IWU) 138. Non-limiting examples of the IP-enabled 32 telephony device 132 include an IP phone and a desktop or laptop computer 33 equipped with telephony software.

1 Upon being contacted by the caller 24 using the telephone 130, the CIS 14 and 2 the caller 24 undergo a registration phase, which involves the CIS 14 receiving 3 an originating address associated with the caller 24 and contact information 4 associated with the caller 24.

6 Specifically, the originating address can take on at least two different forms.
7 In a first form, the originating address refers to the directory number of the IP-8 enabled telephony device 132 from which the caller 24 expects to make future 9 calls. In a second form, the originating address refers to a code that the caller 24 intends to use to identify himself or herself when interacting with the 11 VMTE 12 during the later calling phase. The CIS 14 may implement an 12 interactive voice response system 32 in order to prompt the caller 24 to enter 13 the originating address using the telephone 130.

The contact information refers to information that the caller 24 wishes to 16 render available to the owner of mailbox 16 when such owner retrieves the 17 caller's 24 voice mail message from mailbox 16 at a later time. Examples of 18 contact information include but are not limited to a name, telephone number, 19 alternate telephone number, fax number, email address, web page address (URL), salutation, slogan, confidentiality notice, etc. In addition, the contact 21 information may, as a matter of redundancy, also include the originating 22 address associated with the caller 24. The CIS 14 may implement the 23 aforementioned interactive voice response system 32 in order to prompt the 24 caller 24 to enter the contact information using the telephone 130. The CIS

may also implement a speech-to-text conversion utility (not shown) to 26 facilitate the entry of contact information by the caller 24.

28 Fig. 1 D

In the embodiment of Fig. 1D, it is recalled that the CIS 14 is connected to the 31 data network 22 such as the Internet. The caller 24 accesses the CIS 14 during 32 the registration phase using an IP-enabled communication device 140 that is 33 also connected to the data network 22, possibly via a gateway or server 142.
34 Non-limiting examples of the IP-enabled communication device 140 include a 1 desktop computer, laptop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), smart 2 phone, etc. During the calling phase, in this embodiment, the caller 24 uses a 3 telephone 144 connected to the telephony network 18 when placing a call to 4 the owner of mailbox 16.

6 Upon being contacted by the caller 24 using the IP-enabled communication 7 device 140, the CIS 14 and the caller 24 undergo a registration phase, which 8 involves the CIS 14 receiving an originating address associated with the caller 9 24 and contact information associated with the caller 24.

11 Specifically, the originating address can take on at least two different forms.
12 In a first form, the originating address refers to the directory number of the 13 telephone 144 from which the caller 24 expects to make future calls. In a 14 second form, the originating address refers to a code that the caller 24 intends to use to identify himself or herself when interacting with the VMTE 12 16 during the later calling phase. The CIS 14 may execute a graphical user 17 interface (GUI) program 36 to present to the caller 24 an interface that 18 facilitates entry of the originating address using the IP-enabled communication 19 device 140.

21 The contact information refers to information that the caller 24 wishes to 22 render available to the owner of mailbox 16 when such owner retrieves the 23 caller's 24 voice mail message from mailbox 16 at a later time. Examples of 24 contact information include but are not limited to a name, telephone number, alternate telephone number, fax number, email address, web page address 26 (URL), salutation, slogan, confidentiality notice, company logo, image and file 27 attachment (e.g., text, video, audio, multimedia), etc. In addition, the contact 28 information may, as a matter of redundancy, also include the originating 29 address associated with the caller 24. The registration phase can involve executing the aforementioned GUI program 36 to present to the caller 24 an 31 interface that facilitates entry of the contact information using the IP-enabled 32 communication device 140.

34 Fig. 1 E

2 In the embodiment of Fig. 1 E, the caller 24 accesses the CIS 14 during the 3 registration phase using an IP-enabled communication device 150 that is 4 connected to the data network 22, possibly via a first gateway or server 152.
Examples of the IP-enabled communication device 150 include a desktop 6 computer, laptop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), smart phone, etc.
7 During the calling phase, the caller 24 uses an IP-enabled telephony device 8 154 when placing a call to the owner of mailbox 16. The IP-enabled 9 telephony device 154 is also connected to the data network 22, possibly via the first gateway or server 152, or via a second gateway or server 156. Examples 11 of the IP-enabled telephony device 154 include an IP phone and a desktop or 12 laptop computer equipped with telephony software. Clearly, IP-enabled 13 communication devices with telephony capabilities can serve as both the IP-14 enabled communication device 150 and the IP-enabled telephony device 154.
16 Upon being contacted by the caller 24 using the IP-enabled communication 17 device 150, the CIS 14 and the caller 24 undergo a registration phase, which 18 involves the CIS 14 receiving an originating address associated with the caller 19 24 and contact information associated with the caller 24.

21 Specifically, the originating address can take on at least two different forms.
22 In a first form, the originating address refers to an IP address of the IP-enabled 23 telephony device 154 from which the caller 24 expects to make future calls.
In 24 a second form, the originating address refers to a code that the caller 24 intends to use to identify himself or herself when interacting with the VMTE
26 12 during the later calling phase. The CIS 14 may execute a GUI program 36 27 to present to the caller 24 an interface that facilitates entry of the originating 28 address using the IP-enabled communication device 150.

The contact information refers to information that the caller 24 wishes to 31 render available to the owner of mailbox 16 when such owner retrieves the 32 caller's 24 voice mail message from mailbox 16 at a later time. Examples of 33 contact information that can be entered in this embodiment include but are not 34 limited to a name, telephone number, alternate telephone number, fax number, 1 email address, web page address (URL), salutation, slogan, confidentiality 2 notice, company logo, image and file attachment (e.g., text, video, audio, 3 multimedia), etc. In addition, the contact information may, as a matter of 4 redundancy, also include the originating address associated with the caller 24.
The CIS 14 may execute the aforementioned GUI program 36 to present to the 6 caller 24 an interface that facilitates entry of the contact information using the 7 IP-enabled communication device 150.

9 Of course, it should be understood that the above examples are not exhaustive of the scenarios in which the present invention is applicable and that further scenarios will 11 be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

13 With additional reference now to Fig. 2, the CIS 14 stores the aforementioned 14 originating address associated with the caller 24 and the aforementioned contact information associated with the caller 24 in a database 202 (hereinafter referred to as a 16 "contact information database"). The database 202 may reside internally or externally 17 to the CIS 14. The contact information database 202 comprises a set of records 18 associated with respective callers, each record having an originating address (OA) 19 field as well as a contact information (CI) field. In the case of the 'caller 24, the associated record is denoted by the reference number 204 in Fig. 2. The originating 21 address associated with the caller 24 is stored as an entry 206 in the OA
field of the 22 record 204, while the contact information associated with the caller 24 is stored as an 23 entry 208 in the CI field of the record 204. Where the entry 206 in the OA
field of the 24 record 204 is a caller-specified code (as opposed to a phone number or IP
address), such code is hereinafter denoted by the reference number 210.

27 II- Interaction Between the VMTE 12 and the Caller 24 29 At some instant in time subsequent to the registration phase, the caller 24 may decide to place a call to the owner of mailbox 16. In the embodiments of Figs. 1 A, 1 B and 31 1 D, the caller 24 is depicted as using a telephone (either 112, 124 or 144) in an 32 attempt to reach the owner of mailbox 16. Alternatively, in the embodiments of Figs.
33 1 C and 1 E, the caller 24 uses an IP-enabled telephony device (either 132 or 154, as 34 appropriate) in an attempt to reach the owner of mailbox 16.

2 In the event that the owner of mailbox 16 cannot be reached, the VMTE 12 begins an 3 interaction with the caller 24 and prompts the caller 24 to record a voice mail message 4 for the owner of mailbox 16. Upon termination of the recording, the VMTE 12 stores the voice mail message in mailbox 16 for subsequent retrieval by the owner of 6 mailbox 16. Commonly, the voice mail message may be stored as an audio file, 7 which may be in a format such as ".wav" or ".au", for example.

9 At some point after interaction between the VMTE 12 and the caller 24 has begun, and either before, during or following the act of recording the voice mail message, the 11 VMTE 12 executes a "reconnaissance process" to determine the originating address 12 associated with the caller 24. Two different embodiments of the reconnaissance 13 process are now described in greater detail.

Firstly, in an example embodiment illustrated in Figs. 3A, 3B and 3C, the 16 reconnaissance process passively determines the originating address associated with 17 the caller 24 without interacting therewith. This embodiment is particularly 18 applicable where the entry 206 in the OA field of the record 204 specifies either (a) 19 the directory number of the telephone (112, 124, 144) from which the caller expected to make future calls or (b) the IP address of the IP-enabled telephony device 21 (134, 154) from which the caller 24 expected to make future calls.

23 Specifically, as shown in Fig. 3A, when the caller 24 uses a telephone (112, 124, 144), 24 the VMTE 12 may rely on caller line identification (CLID) technology to learn the point A in the telephony network 18 from which the call has originated. On the other 26 hand, as shown in Figs. 3B and 3C, when the caller 24 is using an IP-enabled 27 telephony device (132, 154), the VMTE 12 may use Internet Protocol (IP) technology 28 (e.g., IP address sniffing) to learn the IP address B of the device having originated the 29 call.

31 In a second example embodiment illustrated in Figs. 4A, 4B and 4C, the 32 reconnaissance process actively determines the originating address associated with the 33 caller 24, i.e., through actual interaction with the caller 24. This embodiment is 34 particularly useful where the entry 206 in the OA field of the record 204 contains a 1 code 210. It is recalled that the code 210 will have been specified by the caller 24 2 during the registration phase.

4 Specifically, as shown in Fig. 4A, when the caller 24 uses a telephone (112, 124, 144), the VMTE 12 may execute an interactive voice response system 402 to prompt the 6 caller 24 to input a second code 404. In a similar fashion, when the caller 24 is using 7 an IP-enabled telephony device (132, 154), the VMTE 12 may also execute an 8 interactive voice response system 408 to elicit the second code 404 from the caller 24.
9 However, because of the relatively high level of sophistication inherent to the IP-enabled telephony device being used by the caller 24, it may be possible to enhance 11 the interactive voice response system 408 to include text-based or graphical means for 12 eliciting the second code 404 from the caller 24 (e.g., by way of a graphical user 13 interface).

The second code 404 is presumed to correspond to the code 210 occupying the entry 16 206 in the OA field of the record 204 in the contact information database 202.
17 However, if there is reason to believe that the second code 404 may differ from the 18 first code 210, then an authentication process may be performed by the VMTE
12, 19 such as to require the caller 24 to enter additional information that will authenticate him or her. To this end, and as shown in Fig. 5, the contact information database 202 21 in the CIS 14 may be augmented so as to contain an additional information field. For 22 the caller 24, an entry 406 in the additional information field of the record 204 could 23 be supplied during the registration phase, at the same time as the caller 24 provided 24 information for the entries 206 and 208 in the OA field and CI field, respectively, of the record 204.

27 Once the VMTE 12 has determined the originating address associated with the caller 28 24 in accordance with the reconnaissance process described above, and once 29 recording of the voice mail message is complete, the VMTE 12 stores both items of information in association with one another in mailbox 16. Referring to Fig.
8, the 31 voice mail message deposited by the caller 24 in mailbox 16 is denoted by the 32 reference number 26, and as mentioned above, the originating address associated with 33 the caller 24 is stored in association with the voice mail message 26 and represented 34 by reference number 28. Due to this double association, i.e., the originating address 1 associated with the caller 24 being associated with the voice mail message 26, the 2 item of information that is denoted by reference numeral 28 will hereinafter be 3 referred to as the "message-26-caller-originating-address".

III- Delivery of Contact Information to the Owner of Mailbox 16 7 At some instant in time subsequent to the calling phase, and as now described with 8 reference to Fig. 6, the owner of mailbox 16 (hereinafter referred to simply as the 9 "owner" and designated by reference numeral 600) interacts with the VMTE 12, using a telephony device 604 of the user's choice, which may be a conventional wireline or 11 wireless telephone, an IP-enabled telephony device (including but not limited to an IP
12 phone or a desktop or laptop computer equipped with telephony software), etc.
13 During the owner's 600 interaction with the VMTE 12, a "contact information 14 acquisition process" in the VMTE 12 will be triggered, followed by execution of a "delivery process" that delivers the acquired contact information to the owner 600.

17 The contact information acquisition process can be triggered under various conditions, 18 e.g., in response to the owner 600 accessing mailbox 16, or in response to the owner 19 600 initiating playback of any one of the voice mail messages (such as the message 26) in mailbox 16, etc. The contact information acquisition process begins with the 21 VMTE 12 obtaining the contact information associated with one or more callers who 22 left voice mail messages in mailbox 16.

24 In the specific case of the voice mail message 26 that was deposited by the caller 24, it is recalled (see Fig. 8) that the VMTE 12 stores the voice mail message 26 in 26 association with the "message-26-caller-originating-address" 28. Thus, as part of the 27 contact information acquisition process, the VMTE 12 uses the "message-26-caller-28 originating-address" 28 to query the CIS 14. The CIS 14 then consults the contact 29 information database 202 in an attempt to find a record for which the entry in the OA
field corresponds to the "message-26-caller-originating-address" 28 supplied by the 31 VMTE 12.

33 In this particular example, it is assumed that there is a match, namely it is assumed 34 that the entry 206 in the OA field of the record 204 in the contact information 1 database 202 of the CIS 14 corresponds to the "message-26-caller-originating-2 address" 28. In response, the CIS 14 returns the entry 208 in the CI field of the record 3 204 to the VMTE 12. The contact information obtained in this manner may be termed 4 "message-26-acquired-contact-information" and denoted by the reference number 602. (The aforementioned sequence may be repeated for other voice mail messages, 6 if any, in mailbox 16.) 8 Next, the delivery process involves the VMTE 12 delivering the acquired contact 9 information, including the "message-26-acquired-contact-information" 602, to the owner 600. For example, where the device 604 being used by the owner 600 to 11 access the voice mail message 26 in mailbox 16 is a conventional telephone, the 12 "message-26-acquired-contact-information" 602 can be audibly played back (e.g., 13 converted into speech) responsive to entry of a command by the owner 600 via a 14 touch-tone keypad or voice utterance, in which case it is apparent that delivery is performed in response to an action by the owner 600. Alternatively, the "message-26-16 acquired-contact-information" 602 can be audibly played back at the tail end or 17 beginning of the voice mail message 26 in an autonomous fashion, i.e., delivery 18 occurs without the entry of specific commands from the owner 600.

Alternatively, the VMTE 12 may send an electronic message (e.g., instant message, 21 email message, real-time text message such as SMS) to an address (e.g., an IP
22 address) associated with the owner 600. The electronic message may contain the 23 "message-26-acquired-contact-information" 602 in the form of, for example, a text 24 message, an attachment, a uniform resource locator (URL), etc. It is noted that in order for the VMTE 12 to learn the address associated with the owner 600, the VMTE
26 12 may consult a database 606.

28 In one embodiment, the database 606 maintains an association between the address 29 associated with the owner 600 and the identity of mailbox 16, which is also associated with the owner 600. Thus, the mere fact that the owner 600 has accessed mailbox 16, 31 is sufficient to determine the address associated with the owner 600.

33 In another embodiment, the database 606 maintains an association between the 34 address associated with the owner and one or more parameters that can be learned 1 during the time that the owner 600 is accessing mailbox 16. One example of such a 2 parameter is a directory number of the device 604 when implemented as a telephone.
3 For its part, the directory number of the device 604 can be obtained using 4 technologies such as caller line identification (CLID). Other examples of such a parameter include a MAC address of the device 604 when implemented as a 6 computing device (such as a computing device implementing a soft client), an 7 electronic serial number (ESN) of the device 604 when implemented as a wireless 8 device (such as a cellular phone or networked personal digital assistant, to name a 9 few) and an IP address of the device 604 when implemented as an IP-enabled telephony device such as an IP phone. The MAC address, IP address or ESN can be 11 learned from packets or signals received from the respective device 604 during 12 interaction with the VMTE 12.

14 It should be noted that the database 606 may be populated during an initial registration phase involving the owner 600 (this registration phase being distinct from 16 the registration phase described earlier in this specification and involving the caller 17 24).

19 Alternatively, the VMTE 12 may send a plurality of electronic messages to respective pre-determined addresses (e.g., IP addresses) associated with the owner 600.
In the 21 case of two electronic messages, one can be in the form of a notification (such as an 22 instant message or real-time text message) sent to a first pre-determined address, 23 while the other can be in the form of a lengthier electronic message (e.g., an email 24 message) sent to a second pre-determined address.

26 Also, the pre-determined address(es) can be totally independent of the device 604 that 27 is being used by the owner 600 to access mailbox 16. For example, the owner 28 may be using a pay phone to access the voice mail message 26, while the electronic 29 message(s) can be sent to the owner's 600 Internet service provider.

31 It will thus be appreciated that because the "message-26-acquired-contact-32 information" 602 is not embedded in the voice mail message 26, the contact 33 information 602 can be accessed by and delivered to the owner 600 independently of 34 the manner in which the voice mail message 26 is accessed by or delivered to the 1 owner 600. This contributes to a greater efficiency in the manner in which the owner 2 600 can retrieve the contact information for various messages in the mailbox 16.

4 Moreover, the contact information 602 may be more than a mere audio recording, since the present invention provides for a wide variety of text, audio and video to be 6 delivered as contact information. This is made possible by advance registration of the 7 caller's 24 contact information at the CIS 14, which allows the caller 24 to leave non-8 audio contact information that is beyond the capabilities of the device being used by 9 the caller 24 to leave the voice mail message 26. Furthermore, the contact information 602 may contain actionable items such as hyperlinks.

12 In addition, because the contact information associated with the caller 24 is registered 13 centrally (at the CIS 14), the caller 24 who wishes to leave his or her contact 14 information for multiple intended recipients need not be concerned with replicating the contact information for each intended recipient; rather the contact information to 16 be delivered to each intended recipient is retrieved by the VMTE 12 on the basis of 17 the originating address associated with the caller 24, which is determined either 18 autonomously or by having the caller 24 enter a code. The process by which the 19 caller 241eaves contact information for the intended recipient is therefore accelerated.
21 IV- Alternatives and Variants 23 It is within the scope of the invention to deliver and present contact information in a 24 form that is convenient for the owner 600. For example, if the device 604 used by the owner 604 executes a Microsoft OutlookTM-type software application, then it is within 26 the scope of the present invention for the VMTE 12 to provide contact information in 27 a format that is easily actionable by the owner through mouse clicks.
Taking the 28 example of the voice mail message 26, if the "message-26-acquired-contact-29 information" 602 contains an attachment or URL, then it is within the scope of the present invention for the VMTE 12 to send this information to the device 604 in a 31 suitable format so as to allow the owner 604 to simply double-click on the attachment 32 in order to open it or click on the URL in order to visit it on the Internet.

1 In yet another alternative embodiment, it is not necessary to wait until the owner 600 2 had begun an interaction with the VMTE 12 before executing the contact information 3 acquisition process. Specifically, the VMTE 12 may query the CIS 14 at an earlier 4 stage, e.g., as soon as the "message-26-caller-originating-address" 28 has been obtained. In response to obtaining the "message-26-acquired-contact-information"
6 602 from the CIS 14, the VMTE 12 stores this information in mailbox 16 in 7 association with the voice mail message 26. In this case, it is not necessary to store 8 the "message-26-caller-originating-address" 28. It is noted that this alternative 9 embodiment may require more memory in the VMTE 12 because contact information tends to be more memory-rich than an originating address.

12 It should also be appreciated that in applications where voice mail messages are 13 forwarded to a conversion entity for conversion to other forms of messages (e.g., 14 electronic messages), the acquired contact information associated with a given voice mail message can accompany the given voice mail message when it is forwarded to 16 the conversion entity.

18 Various other modifications and enhancements are possible. Consider, for example, 19 the scenario where the caller 24 wishes to choose between leaving first contact information (e.g., personal contact information with home telephone number) and 21 second contact information (e.g., business contact information with company logo and 22 URL). In this case, and with reference to Fig. 7, the contact information database 202 23 in the CIS 14 will store records that contain an OA field, as well as a first CI field and 24 a second CI field. Thus, during the registration phase for the caller 24, the first contact information associated with the caller 24 will reside in the first CI
field and 26 the second contact information associated with the caller 24 will reside in the second 27 CI field.

29 This alternative embodiment also calls for an additional level of interaction between the VMTE 12 with the caller 24 in order to ensure that the appropriate CI
field is 31 being delivered to the owner 600. Specifically, the VMTE 12 implements, as part of 32 the interactive voice response system 402 or 408, a function whereby the caller 24 33 inputs a "contact information selection" specifying which contact information applies 34 for the current voice mail message. For example, this could be achieved by way of an 1 interactive voice prompt such as "press 1 for personal contact information, 2 for 2 business contact information, or 9 for no contact information". The selection (e.g., 3 personal or business) is stored alongside the originating address associated with the 4 caller and the voice mail message left by the caller 24.

6 It will thus be appreciated that in the above embodiment, the contact information 7 delivered to the owner 600 will reflect the nature of the contact information that the 8 caller 24 wanted to leave. This concept can be extended to provide for various 9 possibilities such as seasonally dependent electronic greeting cards, as well as availability-dependent electronic greeting cards (such as when the caller 24 is 11 temporarily unavailable or out of the office or on vacation, etc.).

13 Still other embodiments are possible. For example, consider a registration phase 14 whereby the caller 24 uploads multiple attachments over the data network 22. Then, during the calling phase, the caller 24 is permitted to navigate through the previously 16 uploaded attachments in order to select a specific attachment to deposit as contact 17 information for a given voice mail message in mailbox 16. In this way, selected 18 attachments can be left for selected owners and/or in associated with selected 19 messages.

21 Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in some embodiments, certain 22 functionality of the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14 may be implemented as pre-23 programmed hardware or firmware elements (e.g., application specific integrated 24 circuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), etc.), or other related components. In other embodiments, the VMTE

26 and the CIS 14 may comprise an arithmetic and logic unit (ALU) having access to a 27 code memory (not shown) which stores program instructions for the operation of the 28 ALU in order to execute the various processes described above. The program 29 instructions could be stored on a medium which is fixed, tangible and readable directly by the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14, (e.g., removable diskette, CD-ROM, ROM, 31 or fixed disk), or the program instructions could be stored remotely but transmittable 32 to the VMTE 12 and the CIS 14 via a modem or other interface device (e.g., a 33 communications adapter) connected to a network over a transmission medium.
The 34 transmission medium may be either a tangible medium (e.g., optical or analog 1 communications lines) or a medium implemented using wireless techniques (e.g., 2 microwave, infrared or other transmission schemes).

4 While specific embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications 6 and variations can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as 7 defined in the appended claims.

Claims (37)

1. A method of registering contact information associated with a potential calling party, comprising:
- receiving an originating address associated with the potential calling party;
- receiving contact information associated with the potential calling party;
- storing the originating address associated with the potential calling party in an originating address field of a record associated with the potential calling party and storing the contact information associated with the potential calling party in a contact information field of the record associated with the potential calling party.

2. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the contact information includes at least one of a name, a telephone number, an alternate telephone number, a fax number, an email address, a web page address (URL), a salutation, a slogan and a confidentiality notice.

3. The method defined in claim 1, wherein the contact information includes at least one of a logo, an image and a file attachment.

4. The method defined in claim 1, wherein receiving an originating address associated with the potential calling party comprises interacting with the potential calling party to elicit input from the potential calling party specifying the originating address associated with the potential calling party.

5. The method defined in claim 4, wherein the originating address associated with the potential calling party comprises a telephone number input by the potential calling party.

6. The method defined in claim 4, wherein the originating address associated with the potential calling party comprises an IP address input by the potential calling party.

7. The method defined in claim 4, wherein the originating address associated with the potential calling party comprises a code input by the potential calling party.

8. A server executing the method defined in claim 1.

9. A registration entity for registering contact information associated with a potential calling party, the registration entity comprising:
- a database of records including a record associated with the potential calling party;
- an input for receiving an originating address associated with the potential calling party and contact information associated with the potential calling party;
- a processing entity for storing the originating address associated with the potential calling party in an originating address field of the record associated with the potential calling party and storing the contact information associated' with the potential calling party in a contact information field of the record associated with the potential calling party.

10. Computer-readable media tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer to perform a method of registering contact information associated with a potential calling party, the method comprising:
- receiving an originating address associated with the potential calling party;
- receiving contact information associated with the potential calling party;
- storing the originating address associated with the potential calling party in an originating address field of a record associated with the potential calling party and storing the contact information associated with the potential calling party in a contact information field of the record associated with the potential calling party.

11. A method of retrieving stored contact information associated with a calling party, comprising:
- receiving an originating address associated with the calling party;
- accessing a database of records associated with respective potential calling parties, each of the records in the database comprising a respective originating address field and a respective contact information field, the originating address field of the record associated with a given potential calling party containing an originating address associated with the given potential calling party and the contact information field of the record associated with the given potential calling party containing contact information associated with the given potential calling party;
- wherein accessing the database of records comprises attempting to identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the calling party;
- responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field matches the originating address associated with the calling party, retrieving the contact information contained in the contact information field of the particular record;
- wherein the contact information contained in the contact information field of the particular record corresponds to previously stored contact information associated with the calling party.

12. The method defined in claim 11, wherein said originating address associated with the calling party is received from a voice message taking entity that interacts with the calling party.

13. The method defined in claim 12, further comprising returning the retrieved contact information to the voice message taking entity.

14. The method defined in claim 13, further comprising authenticating the calling party prior to returning the retrieved contact information to the voice message taking entity.

15. The method defined in claim 11, wherein said originating address associated with the calling party is passively determined based on information obtained during communication with the calling party.

16. The method defined in claim 15, wherein said information obtained during communication with the calling party comprises a directory number associated with the calling party.

17. The method defined in claim 15, wherein said information obtained during communication with the calling party comprises an IP address associated with the calling party.

18. The method defined in claim 12, wherein said originating address associated with the calling party is passively determined by the voice message taking entity during interaction with the calling party.

19. The method defined in claim 11, wherein said originating address associated with the calling party is determined by interacting with the calling party to elicit input from the calling party specifying the originating address associated with the calling party.

20. The method defined in claim 19, wherein said input from the calling party comprises a code.

21. The method defined in claim 12, wherein said originating address is determined by the voice message taking entity interacting with the calling party to elicit input from the calling party specifying the originating address associated with the calling party.

22. A network entity, comprising:
- a database of records, each of the records being associated with a respective potential calling party and including (I) an originating address field containing an originating address associated with the respective potential calling party and (II) a contact information field containing previously stored contact information associated with the respective potential calling party;
- an input for receiving an originating address associated with a calling party;
- a processing entity in communication with the input and operative for:

(a) accessing the database of records in an attempt to identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the calling party;
(b) responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field matches the originating address associated with the calling party, retrieving the contact information contained in the contact information field of the particular record;
an output for releasing the retrieved contact information.

23. A system, comprising:

- a contact information server comprising a database of records, each of the records being associated with a respective potential calling party and including (I) an originating field containing an originating address associated with the respective potential calling party; and (II) a contact information field containing previously stored contact information associated with the respective potential calling party;

- a voice message taking entity comprising a plurality of mailboxes associated with respective mailbox owners, the voice message taking entity being operable for executing a reconnaissance process to (I) determine an originating address associated with a particular calling party attempting to reach an owner of a particular mailbox; and (II) supply the originating address associated with the particular calling party to the contact information server;

- the contact information server being adapted for:

- responsive to receipt of the originating address associated with the particular calling party from the voice message taking entity, accessing the database of records in an attempt to identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the particular calling party;

- responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field matches the originating address associated with the particular calling party, retrieving the contact information contained in the contact information field of the particular record;

- returning the retrieved contact information to the voice message taking entity for delivery to the owner of the particular mailbox.

24. A method of retrieving stored contact information associated with a calling party making a call, comprising:
- receiving an originating address associated with the calling party;
- accessing a database of records associated with respective potential calling parties, each of the records in the database comprising a respective originating address field and a plurality of respective contact information fields, the originating address field of the record associated with a given potential calling party containing an originating address associated with the given potential calling party and each of the contact information fields of the record associated with the given potential calling party containing respective contact information associated with the given potential calling party;
- receiving a contact information selection associated with the call;
- wherein accessing the database of records comprises attempting to identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the calling party;
- responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field matches the originating address associated with the calling party, retrieving the contact information contained in a selected one of the contact information fields of the particular record, the selected one of the contact information fields being related to the contact information selection associated with the call;

- wherein the contact information contained in the selected one of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to previously stored contact information associated with the calling party.

25. The method defined in claim 24, wherein the respective contact information contained in a first one of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to personal contact information associated with the calling party and wherein the respective contact information contained in a second one of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to business contact information associated with the calling party.

26. The method defined in claim 24, wherein the step of receiving a contact information selection associated with the call is performed subsequent to navigation by the calling party through the plurality of contact information fields of the particular record.

27. The method defined in claim 26, wherein the respective contact information contained in a first one of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to a first file attachment and wherein the respective contact information contained in a second one of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to a second file attachment.

28. The method defined in claim 24, wherein the respective contact information contained in different ones of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to different previously stored contact information associated with the calling party.

29. The method defined in claim 28, wherein the respective contact information contained in a first one of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to business contact information and the respective contact information contained in a second one of the contact information fields of the particular record corresponds to personal contact information.

30. The method defined in claim 28, further comprising:

31 - releasing the contact information contained in the selected one of the contact information fields of the particular record.

31. The method defined in claim 30, further comprising authenticating the calling party prior to releasing the contact information contained in the selected one of the contact information fields of the particular record.

32. The method defined in claim 28, wherein receiving an originating address associated with the calling party comprises receiving said originating address from a voice message taking entity interacting with the calling party.

33. The method defined in claim 28, wherein receiving an originating address associated with the calling party comprises passively determining the originating address based on information related to communication with the calling party.

34. The method defined in claim 33, wherein the information related to communication with the calling party comprises a directory number associated with the calling party.

35. The method defined in claim 33, wherein the information related to communication with the calling party comprises an IP address associated with the calling party.

36. The method defined in claim 28, wherein receiving an originating address associated with the calling party comprises interacting with the calling party to elicit input from the calling party specifying the originating address associated with the potential calling party.

37. A network entity, comprising:
- a database of records, each of the records being associated with a respective potential calling party and including (I) an originating address field containing an originating address associated with the respective potential calling party and (II) a plurality of contact information fields each containing previously stored contact information associated with the respective potential calling party;
an input for receiving (I) an originating address associated with a calling party and (II) a contact information selection associated with the call;
a processing entity in communication with the input and operative for:
(a) accessing the database of records in an attempt to identify a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the calling party;
(b) responsive to successful identification of a particular record in the database for which the originating address contained in the respective originating address field corresponds to the originating address associated with the calling party, retrieving the contact information contained in a selected one of the contact information fields of the particular record, the selected one of the contact information fields being related to the contact information selection associated with the call;
an output for releasing the retrieved contact information.