GB2286504A

GB2286504A - Telephone answering machine

Info

Publication number: GB2286504A
Application number: GB9402132A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Ashworth
Original assignee: Northern Telecom Ltd
Current assignee: Nortel Networks Ltd
Priority date: 1994-02-04
Filing date: 1994-02-04
Publication date: 1995-08-16
Anticipated expiration: 2014-02-04
Also published as: GB9402132D0; GB2286504B

Abstract

A telephone answering machine for use in a digital communications system has a first memory (M1) for storing caller identity information and a further memory (M3) for storing caller messages. The memory addresses of the caller information and the corresponding caller messages are stored in a look-up table for subsequent retrieval. This permits the caller identities to be reviewed to identify predetermined priority callers. The messages corresponding to those priority callers can then be selectively retrieved. <IMAGE>

Description

Telephone Answering Machine This invention relates to telephone subscriber equipment and in particular to telephone answering machines.

Telephone answering machines are widely used, particularly by small businesses, to provide a customer service during periods when staff are unavailable to handle calls. Messages are stored in the order in which they are received and are generally retained in the same order. A particular problem with such a system is that of identifying urgent messages and/or messages for priority customers so that those messages can be dealt with ahead of less urgent messages. At present it is necessary for an operator to listen to the entire message sequence to identify those to be accorded priority treatment. This is a time consuming operation which may not be practicable when staff are busy.

The object of the invention is to minimise or to overcome this disadvantage.

According to the invention there is provided a telephone answering machine for use in a digital communications system, the machine including means for storing incoming caller messages, means for storing a calling party identity associated with each user message, means for retrieving and displaying each said calling party identity, and means for retrieving a stored message associated with a selected calling party identity.

According to the invention there is further provided a telephone answering machine for use in a digital communications system, the machine including a first memory for storing incoming caller messages, a second memory for storing calling party identity information associated with each said user message, a look-up table for storing the first memory address of each said caller message together with the second memory address of the corresponding calling party identity information means for displaying the calling party identity information, means for retrieving via the look-up table a stored caller message associated with a selected calling party identity, and voice synthesis means for playing back that message to the operator.

Digital telephone systems are now being introduced in which the identity of a calling party is transmitted with the call. Such services include the integrated services digital network (ISDN) and the CLASS/CMS system in North America.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing in which the single figure is a schematic diagram of a telephone answering machine according to the invention.

Referring to the drawing, the answering machine, which is depicted in highly schematic form, is coupled to the line whereby to receive incoming calls. When a call is received the calling party number and optionally the time and date are delivered as a digital code over the line e.g. by CLASS/CMS. The control circuit decodes this information and stores it in a first memory M1, typically a DRAM. The control circuit then accesses a message store M2 whereby to output to the caller via the line a voice message identifying the called party and giving instructions to the caller to leave his/her own voice message for subsequent attention.On receipt of the caller's voice message, the control unit stores that message in digital form in a further memory M3 and at the same time enters the address of that message in memory M3 and the address of the corresponding caller identity information in memory M1 into a look-up table whereby to enable future retrieval. This sequence of events is repeated for subsequent caller messages e.g. overnight or during a weekend when no staff are available to handle calls.

The machine can be switched from its storage mode to its playback mode e.g. by entry of an operator instruction entered via the keypad. In response to this instruction, the control circuit accesses the look-up table and displays the number of calls received and the number of messages left. The latter may of course be less than the former if some of the callers did not leave a message. The operator can display all the caller identities stored in memory M1, whereby to identify those that will be accorded priority treatment, and can then retrieve the selected message and play them back via a voice synthesiser. To effect this playback, the control circuit obtains from the look-up table the M3 memory address of each caller message corresponding to a selected caller identity. Typically the display will comprise a menu screen giving a display of the calling party number, the time/date of the call and the duration of the stored message.

If the operator wishes to call back the caller of a particular message this can easily be accomplished via a keypad operation which instructs the control circuit to retrieve the caller number from memory M1 and to transmit that number to the line.

Should the operator wish to access the machine remotely over the telephone network then the machine could proceed as described above but present the information in an abbreviated format by means of voice synthesis. Each message stored in digital form in memory M3 would then be directed to the voice synthesiser for conversion to speech.

Claims

1. A telephone answering machine for use in a digital communications system, the machine including means for storing incoming caller messages, means for storing a calling party identity associated with each user message, means for retrieving and displaying each said calling party identity, and means for retrieving a stored message associated with a selected calling party identity.

2. A telephone answering machine for use in a digital communications system, the machine including a first memory for storing incoming caller messages, a second memory for storing calling party identity information associated with each said user message, a look-up table for storing the first memory address of each said caller message together with the second memory address of the corresponding calling party identity information means for displaying the calling party identity information, means for retrieving via the look-up table a stored caller message associated with a selected calling party identity, and voice synthesis means for playing back that message to the operator.

3. A telephone answering machine as claimed in claim 1 or 2, and including means for selectively retrieving a caller telephone number and for transmitting that number to the line whereby to effect call-back.

4. A telephone answering machine substantially as described herein with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawing.