Auditory methods for providing information about a telecommunication system's settings and status

#The present invention relates generally to user interfaces for telephony systems and specifically to a user interface for telephony systems that provides desired information about a telecommunication device's settings and/or status.

#Telecommunication devices, such as wired and wireless telephones, softphones, speakerphones and mobile telephones typically have a variety of settings for device features/functions and for temporally changing the status of communication device operations. Communication device settings include, for example, speaker or microphone volume level, whether the speaker or microphone is activated, whether call forwarding is activated, the date and time settings, whether do not disturb is activated, the coverage path (i.e., where incoming calls will be forwarded if they are not answered), the starting and stopping times for time-dependent settings, the extent to which the battery is charged and/or the time remaining on the charge and the digital encoding algorithm currently in use (e.g., G.711, G.729, etc.). Communication device operational statuses include, for example, what, if any, lines are active, what lines have callers on hold, whether any new or old messages are enqueued, identification information associated with callers, the duration of the call, the length of time a call has been on hold, and the number or names of parties on a conference call. Information about settings and statuses of the communications device is typically obtained visually by enabled/disabled LEDs or LCDs and/or by textual or graphic information on a CRT/VDT display.

#In many applications, information about the feature settings and operational status of a communication device, such as a telephone, is difficult for users to obtain. Visually impaired people, for example, cannot see the statuses of the LEDs, LCD's or CRTs/VDTs. Older telephones used electro-mechanical or locking buttons, such as the Western Electric 1A2 key system, which are tactilely discernible by visually impaired users. Such buttons have been replaced by momentary-contact, non-locking buttons for reasons of cost and the inability to remotely enable or disable the function corresponding to the buttons' physical positions. Many governments are now requiring information associated with communication devices to be accessible by the visually impaired. As of Jun. 25, 2001, for example, Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1998 requires communication devices supplied to the U. S. government to have mechanically operated controls or keys that are discernible not only visually but also through touch or sound. A viable solution is urgently required to comply with such governmental requirements. In other applications, the increasing miniaturization of communication devices has presented difficulties for users to obtain setting and status information. The devices are often too small for users to readily and conveniently discern desired setting and status information. In yet other applications, users have difficulty in obtaining setting and status information due to remote access of a telephony system from an endpoint with limited display capabilities. An example of the former case is a situation where an employee seeks to access an office telephony system from a remote telephone. From the remote telephone, the employee is often unable to acquire status information about the current configuration of the telephony system, e.g., who is holding on what line, etc. An example of the latter case is a situation where a wireless telephone user is driving while trying to manipulate a wireless phone.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting an assistant according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting a first operational configuration of the assistant; and

#FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting a second operational configuration of the assistant.

#FIG. 1 depicts a telephony switch or server 100, such as a Private Branch Exchange or PBX or Automatic Call Distribution or ACD device, for switching connections or controlling calls between a plurality of internal and external lines 104a-c and 108a-c, respectively. As will be appreciated, the internal and external lines are in communication with one or more telecommunication devices, such as wired or wireless telephones, softphones, speakerphones, and mobile telephones. Typically, the telecommunication devices are nodes of the Public Switched Telephone Network or PSTN (not shown), a wide area network or WAN (not shown), and/or of a local area network or LAN. The switch or server 100 comprises memory 112 and processor 116. Memory 112 further comprises a switch or server control 120 for configuring desired connections between endpoints for effecting the desired connections, an assistant 124 to collect setting and status information about a feature, capability, endpoint or adjunct associated with the telephony switch or server 100, and a query recognition 128 to detect predetermined words or phrases in user commands and an audio output agent 129 to output auditory responses to the user. The residence of the assistant 124 on the switch or server 100 permits the assistant to interact with any telecommunication device or adjunct associated with or served by the switch or server 100.

#The switch or server control 120 and connection logic can be any suitable telecommunications control architecture. An example of a suitable switch or server control is DEFINITY™ and PROLOGIX™, of Avaya, Inc. and MAGELLAN™ of Nortel.

#The assistant 124 receives user queries for information regarding a feature setting and/or status of the user's communication device, of the switch or server, or of any associated system or adjunct. The query can be in the form of in-band tonal signaling (such as standard DTMF tones or the specialized tones used by assistive devices, e.g., the Baudot tones used by TTY's), digital non-acoustic signals triggered by special keys or buttons on the device, or voice command. As noted previously, communication device feature settings include speaker and/or microphone volume level, ringer volume level, whether the speaker and/or microphone is activated or deactivated, whether call forwarding is activated or deactivated, a date and/or time setting of the telecommunication device, whether do not disturb is activated or deactivated, the coverage path (i.e., where incoming calls will be forwarded if they are not answered), the starting and/or stopping times for time-dependent settings, the extent to which the battery is charged, the time remaining on the charge and the digital encoding algorithm currently in use (e.g., G.711, G.729, etc.). Communication device operational statuses or states include whether any lines are active and/or inactive, what lines are active and/or inactive, what lines have callers on hold and the identities of the callers, a number of callers on hold, whether any new and/or old messages are enqueued in voice mail, a number of new and/or old messages enqueued in voice mail, identification information associated with unanswered callers, the duration of the call, the length of time a call has been on hold, and the number and/or names of parties on a conference call.