GB2329296A - Voice activated messaging system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention concerns apparatus and a method for answering telephone calls. When a caller (102) calls a subscriber, an answering machine (108) or part of a telephone system (210,214; 310;314) plays a pre-recorded message to the caller. At any time, the caller (102) can leave a message (210,212; 310,312) for the subscriber merely by starting to speak. The pre-recorded message may or may not be interrupted by the caller starting to speak.

Description

TeleBkaone Messaexne Svstem Technical Field The present invention relates to the field of telephone systems. In particular, it concerns answering machines and the messaging or 'answering machine' facility offered by some telephone systems.

Btckeound Telephone systems can provide various 'answering machine' arrangements for a caller to leave a message when a called subscriber does not answer.

One of the most common such arrangements consists of a dedicated answering machine at the location of the called subscriber. This location is typically the home of the called subscriber. The answering machine has either a magnetic tape or, more recently, a solid state memory for recording the caller's message.

An alternative arrangement for providing this answering machine function can be located at the telephone exchange or other switching centre through which the call is routed. A computer memory in the switching centre can then perform this answering machine function. Such an arrangement is marketed by BT (registered trademark) in the United Kingdom under the name 'Call Minder'. Typically in such systems, the memory stores messages from a caller when the called subscriber either does not answer, or has indicated to the switching centre that it should store incoming calls.

All of the above answering machines are normally arranged to store a prerecorded message from the called subscriber. This pre-recorded message is played to a caller before that caller leaves a message, and usually will be the subscriber's voice informing the caller that that subscriber is unavailable at that time. Typically, a distinctive single tone is played by the answering machine immediately following the pre-recorded message, this tone introducing the time period during which the caller is able to record his/her message.

In the case of a home-based answering machine, the pre-recorded message is usually stored on the same tape, or in the same solid-state memory, as will be used to record the caller's message. Answering machines respond by first playing the pre-recorded message to the caller and then recording the caller's message.

A prior art system is known whereby a subscriber can interrogate his own answering machine remotely. To do this, the subscriber first rings his own number from a remote location. The subscriber then either presses a single button on a special unit which he owns to send a coded message from the remote location to the answering machine, or he himself enters a code number into the telephone at the remote location which is transmitted to his answering machine. If this coded information is recognised by the answering machine, then the answering machine knows that the answering machine's owner is making a legitimate attempt to contact it remotely. Remote interrogation allows an absent subscriber to periodically check for messages which have been left on his home machine for him and/or to change the pre-recorded message on the answering machine.

These prior art systems may be arranged to interrupt the playing of the pre-recorded message by the answering machine when the answering machine realises that the subscriber is interrogating it remotely. This enables the subscriber to listen to the callers' messages stored on the answering machine immediately, without the subscriber having to listen to his own pre-recorded message. It is emphasised here that this skipping of the pre-recorded message is likely to be only an optional feature. This is because the subscriber will wish to hear his own pre-recorded message when he has called up in order to change that message. He will wish to hear it through before changing it, and may well then wish to listen once to the new message which he has recorded.

Several general points apply to this facility described above for remote interrogation: (i) The procedure tends to be complex, involving either possession of the appropriate unit or use of a code known only to the subscriber, in order to access the subscriber's answering machine.

(ii) For security and privacy purposes, only the subscriber himself can carry out this remote interrogation.

(iii) Entering the access code takes a finite amount of time, which costs the subscriber money, particularly on high rate mobile or international calls.

The prior art remote interrogation systems discussed above can be used in a subscriber'8 home answering machine, and can equally well be employed where the answering machine function is fulfilled by a computer located in the telephone exchange or switch. They can also be employed with mobile telephones, including those which store messages or voicemail either in the mobile phone or at some central point in the telephone system.

Further known prior art systems are as follows: (i) A computerised answering service may offer a caller the possibility of speaking to one of several destinations which can be reached by pressing a key on the caller's keypad. While the caller is being informed of the available destinations, the caller may be empowered to press a key at any time.

One of these destinations may be an answering machine where the caller can leave a message. If a caller with previous experience of the system calls, he could press the particular key on his keypad for connection to the answering machine without awaiting completion of the pre-recorded instruction which is being played to him.

(ii) Computerised answering systems are known which enable the subscriber to the system to access messages stored for him, and possibly to change his pre-recorded message, by using voice control. In the Call Minder system described above, the subscriber is asked direct questions by the computer when he calls up to access his messages. The subscriber can only respond either 'yes' or 'no' to these questions. These responses can only be given during a short time interval which follows the computer's question to the subscriber. A typical conversation consists of the computer first stating "There is one new message. Hear it?". The subscriber can then choose to hear the message left by a caller for him by replying 'yes', or can decline the offer by replying 'no'.

The subscriber only has the possibility of replying to the computer, and can only do this in a period of a few seconds following the question put by the computer.

Summarv ofthe Invention The inventive concept can be implemented as either a telephone, a telephone system or an answering machine. The invention also comprises a method of answering incoming telephone calls.

A telephone or a telephone system in accordance with the invention comprises caller actuated means which a caller can actuate when a called subscriber responds to a call with a pre-recorded message, the caller actuated means comprising means which recognise when the caller starts to speak, enabling the caller to record a message without having to await completion of the pre-recorded message.

In a telephone or a telephone system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the caller actuated means comprise means which recognise when the caller speaks one or more predetermined words or phrases.

Actuation of the said caller actuated means may interrupt the prerecorded message, or may enable the caller to record a message whilst listening to the pre-recorded message.

The caller actuated means may comprise means located at the switch, the switching centre, or the telephone exchange.

A telephone answering machine in accordance with the invention comprises means which respond to an incoming telephone call by playing a pre-recorded message and caller actuated means which recognise when the caller starts to speak, enabling a caller to record a message without having to await completion of the pre-recorded message.

In a telephone answering machine in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the caller actuated means comprise means which recognise when the caller speaks one or more predetermined words or phrases.

Actuation by the caller of the means which enable the caller to record a message may interrupt the playing of the said pre-recorded message.

Alternatively, the telephone answering machine may be so arranged that the caller can continue to listen to the pre-recorded message after having actuated the means which enable the caller to record a message.

A method of answering telephone calls in accordance with the invention comprises responding to an incoming telephone call by playing a prerecorded message, detecting when the caller starts to speak and enabling the caller to record a message without having to await completion of the pre-recorded message.

The advantages of the invention will be clear in the light of the summary of the invention given above and the detailed description which follows.

However, the advantages can be summarised as follows: (i) The connection time, and hence cost to the caller, is reduced; (ii) There can be a substantial time saving for the caller, particularly if the caller must make multiple calls and leave messages for several called subscribers in succession, each of the messages which is to be left being independent of the contents of the called subscriber's pre-recorded messages; (iii) The called subscriber's answering machine and telephone line are occupied for less time. This may be of particular advantage to businesses, where callers may attempt to ring a competitor's business as soon as they find that business' line engaged.

Brief dewniption of the drawines Figure 1 shows an embodiment of the invention where the called subscriber has a dedicated answering machine co-located with the called subscriber's telephone; Figure 2 shows an embodiment of the invention where the answering machine function is performed centrally in the telephone switching centre; Figure 3 shows an embodiment of the invention where the called subscriber is a mobile telephone.

Itaied descriDton of thR Drefned enxbodimexat The invention results from a realisation that a caller can be empowered to leave a message for a called subscriber without completely hearing a prerecorded message stored on the called subscriber's answering machine, and that this can be implemented by recognition of a caller's voice.

Looking critically at the information content of a typical pre-recorded message on an answering machine, it is clear that some parts of a particular pre-recorded message may be of greater importance than other parts. The different parts of a pre-recorded message may also have different significance to different callers. Finally, the pre-recorded message may differ from day to day since subscribers are often advised to change the pre-recorded message frequently and many subscribers in any case leave different messages dependent on their present activities.

For any of these reasons, any particular caller may have heard all that he needs or wants to hear of a particular pre-recorded message, before all of that message has been played to him. The present invention saves the caller from having to hear the remainder of the pre-recorded message from that time point onwards, whatever that message may be.

A caller may have to call a large number of subscribers successively and leave a message which does not depend on each subscriber's pre-recorded message. This could occur, for example, when an organisation's secretary must call a large number of members and simply leave a message telling them the time of a meeting. Clearly in this example the secretary would save large amounts of time if he/she did not have to listen to the prerecorded message left by each member.

A further advantage of the invention resides in the saving of cost to the caller. Particularly on long-distance calls, the time saved by not having to listen through a long answering machine message translates into a correspondingly lower telephone bill.

In its broadest form, the invention concerns means which empower the caller to select the moment when he can begin to record his message by recognising the moment when the caller begins to speak. The caller can select this time point without the answering machine confining the caller to recording his message at a time determined by the answering machine.

Figure 1 shows an embodiment of the invention. Here a caller 102 can be connected via a telephone or other switching centre 104 to a called subscriber 106. The answering machine function in accordance with this embodiment is fulfilled by a dedicated answering machine 108 installed in the called subscriber's home.

If the called subscriber 106 does not answer the telephone after a certain number of rings, or if he has switched on the answering machine 108 in advance, the answering machine will respond to an incoming call by answering the call and starting to play the subscriber's pre-recorded message.

However, answering machine 108 is primed to receive a command from the caller. This command can consist of the caller simply starting to speak. The answering machine may be so arranged to that the caller must speak a particular word, phrase or group of words or phrases. In either case, the caller may or may not know about the facility in advance of making the call. The first part of the pre-recorded message could, for example, state "Your message will be recorded as soon as you start to speak" or "Please start to speak as soon as you are ready to record your message". In these examples, any caller from any phone would be able to command the answering machine to record. The telephones could also either be on an analogue or a digital network. Only the subscriber's answering machine would need appropriate design or adaptation.

Clearly, a caller, or certain classes of caller, may know before making the call about the facility for leaving messages simply by starting to speak.

The means actuated by the caller must be able to recognise the commencement of speech by the caller. Such means are readily available to the skilled person, and will not be described here in detail. An example would be a system for filtering the signal received from the caller, digitising this filtered signal and applying pattern recognition techniques to the digitised signal using a microprocessor. The means used must at least be responsive to the frequency range of male and female human speech at volume levels to be expected from the caller. They must also be able to distinguish speech from the background noise to be expected from a variety of situations of the caller, such as pay-phones or phones in moving vehicles.

The answering machine may stop playing the pre-recorded message when the caller starts to record a message for the absent subscriber.

However the inventor has made the further step of realising an embodiment of the invention in which it is not necessary for the answering machine to stop playing the pre-recorded message when the caller starts to record a message. The pre-recorded message can be played to the end, and may or may not be audible to the caller after the caller has started to speak his message. If audible, it may be muted in comparison with its normal volume.

This may be implemented by a number of means. Typically a shift register type store may be provided as a temporary memory. Consider the example of an answering machine where the subscriber's pre-recorded message is stored in the same storage means as will be used for the message which the caller leaves. For the remainder of the time whilst the answering machine is playing the pre-recorded message after the caller has started to speak his message, the caller's message is fed to this temporary memory, which is designed to feed the caller's message out after it has been stored for up to a maximum length of time. This temporary memory is of the type which feeds out the oldest part of its contents, here the caller's message, at the same time as a new portion is being recorded.

If the answering machine has a single main memory, such as a taperecorder type answering machine, this additional temporary memory could take any form, such as a small solid state memory. In operation, the temporary memory records the first part of the caller's message for at least the time required for the tape to finish playing the pre-recorded message.

By this time, the answering machine is able to feed the message emerging from the temporary memory on to the correct point on the tape. The tape then records the whole of the caller's message.

Such a temporary memory might also store the first part of the caller's message whilst the main memory, e.g. the tape, re-positions itself from the point where it has stopped playing the pre-recorded message to the point where it will store that caller's message. This allows the caller to speak immediately, without having to await the usual delay for the tape to reposition itself, and can be used whether or not the pre-recorded message is played to the end.

Although the above illustration is in terms of a tape-recorder memory, the same could be true of a solid-state type answering machine in the subscriber's home, or of an answering machine function implemented in a telephone exchange or other switching point.

It may be advantageous to continue to play the subscriber's message whilst the caller is recording. This would allow the caller to record some information, such as his own name and number, whilst hearing more of the pre-recorded message. An example where this is useful is where the pre-recorded message consists of a long list of different facts. The caller can record the bulk of his message whilst awaiting the part of the prerecorded message which is of particular interest to him. Considering once more the example given above of an organisation's secretary calling a large number of members to leave a message telling them the time of a meeting, the secretary could begin to leave a message whilst still listening to the pre-recorded message. The pre-recorded message might subsequently give details which would indicate to the secretary that it was not necessary to leave the whole message, e.g. because the pre-recorded message contained information about a prolonged absence of the subscriber concerned, meaning that the subscriber would not in any case be in the area at the time of the meeting.

Figure 2 shows an alternative embodiment of the invention applied to a telephone system. In each of figures 2 and 3, the reference numerals of elements common to earlier figures differ only in their first digit from the reference numerals used in the earlier figures.

In the embodiment of figure 2, the telephone exchange 204 houses means 210-214 for providing the answering machine function.

The principles underlying the embodiment of figure 2 are similar to those which underlie the embodiment of figure 1. Here once more elements 202 and 206 represent respectively the caller and the called subscriber.

However, the telephone exchange 204 of figure 2 houses the switching section 210, a memory 212 for recording subscribers' pre-recorded messages and a memory 214 for recording callers' messages. Memories 212 and 214 could be for example solid state memories, databases or computer hard-disks. They may simply consist of different portions of the same memory system.

A computer in the switching section 210 of the telephone exchange or a message stored in memory 212 can inform callers of the possibility of the caller determining the time-point at which he records a message. This computer can then record the caller's message into memory 214 as explained with regard to the embodiment of figure 1.

The arrangement of figure 2 has several advantages: (i) Firstly, there are economies of scale involved in implementing the inventive answering machine function in a central location, the telephone exchange, for all callers. For example, updates to the system, maintenance and fault finding need then only to be made at the central location, rather than being done to answering machines in many subscribers' homes.

(ii) Secondly, the functionality necessary to implement the invention is only used in home-based answering machines on the relatively rare occasions when they record a caller's message. The telephone exchange can expect to use the hardware and software concerned far more frequently, given the larger number of calls handled.

Figure 3 shows an embodiment of the invention applied to a called mobile subscriber.

The arrangement of figure 3 differs from that of figure 2 in that the subscriber 322 is a mobile subscriber. The mobile subscriber is typically reached via a base station 320. Base station 320 may be co-located with switching centre 304, and these may share components.

The memory 314 in the telephone exchange 304 can be constituted by the 'voice-mail' facility often provided for mobile 'phone subscribers. As an alternative to the arrangement shown in figure 3, the databases for either pre-recorded 312 or for incoming 314 messages, or for both, may be located in the subscriber's telephone.

In a telephone system where an exchange or switch is provided at the location of a large number of users, e.g. a customer's premises, that exchange or switch may be arranged to perform the function of elements 31S314.

Where the subscriber has a DECT telephone installation at home or at work, the memories for pre-recorded and incoming messages may be located in the central telephone installation in that home or workplace.

Claims (10)

Clstims

1. A telephone system, comprising caller actuated means (210, 214; 310, 314) which a caller (102) can actuate when a called subscriber (106) responds to a call with a pre-recorded message; the caller actuated means (210, 214; 310, 314) enabling the caller to record a message without having to await completion of the pre-recorded message; the caller actuated means (210, 214; 310, 314) comprising means which recognise when the caller starts to speak.

2. A telephone system in accordance with claim 1, wherein the caller actuated means (210, 214; 310, 314) comprise means which recognise when the caller speaks one or more predetermined words or phrases.

3. A telephone system in accordance with claim 1 or claim 2, whereby actuation of the said caller actuated means (210, 214; 310, 314) interrupts the pre-recorded message.

4. A telephone system in accordance with claim 1 or claim 2, whereby the said caller actuated means (210, 214; 310, 314) enable the caller to record a message whilst listening to the pre-recorded message.

5. A telephone system in accordance with any previous claim, whereby the said caller actuated means (210, 214; 310, 314) comprise means located at the switch, the switching centre, or the telephone exchange.

6. A telephone answering machine (108) comprising: means (108) which respond to an incoming telephone call by playing a prerecorded message; and caller actuated means (108) enabling a caller (102) to record a message without having to await completion of the pre-recorded message; the caller actuated means (108) comprising means which recognise when the caller (102) starts to speak.

7. A telephone answering machine (108) in accordance with claim 6, whereby the caller actuated means (108) comprise means which recognise when the caller speaks one or more predetermined words or phrases.

8. A telephone answering machine (108) in accordance with claim 6 or claim 7, whereby actuation by the caller (102) of the said caller actuated means (108) interrupts the playing of the said pre-recorded message.

9. A telephone answering machine (108) in accordance with claim 6 or claim 7, whereby the caller can continue to listen to the pre-recorded message after having actuated the said caller actuated means (108).

10. A method of answering telephone calls, comprising: responding (108; 210,212; 310,312) to an incoming telephone call by playing a pre-recorded message; detecting when the caller (102) starts to speak; and enabling the caller (102) to record a message without having to await completion of the pre-recorded message.