Personal caller ID
OwnerGeorge Memosinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides an apparatus for efficient communication of messages such as voice messages in a telephone answering system. The apparatus includes an input to receive an incoming call, a recorder for recording outgoing messages, a memory to store incoming and outgoing messages, a comparator for comparing caller information to a client list, a player for playing a particular outgoing message to a calling party if the caller information matches a specific client in the client list, and a menu for identifying members of the client list and to identify locations in the memory for each of the members. The particular outgoing message includes a question previously posed by the specific client and a response to the question.
Claims11
An apparatus for processing a set of messages, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) a first memory operable to store messages;
- (b) a recorder operable to record an outgoing message by a user for a specific client, the outgoing message including a question previously posed by the specific client and a response to the question, the recorder recording the outgoing message in the first memory;
- (c) an input operable to receive an incoming call from a calling party;
- (d) a comparator operable to compare calling party information of the incoming call to a client list;
- (e) a menu operable to identify members of the client list and to identify a location in the first memory for each of the members;
- and
- (f) a player operable to play the outgoing message to the calling party if the calling party information matches to the specific client in the client list, the recorder being operable to record an incoming message from the calling party in the first memory after the outgoing message is played, the incoming message being associated with the outgoing message in the first memory, wherein the user can retrieve the outgoing message and the incoming message as a unit.
A client meter for use by a calling party in a messaging system, the client meter being provided to the calling party by a called party, the client meter comprising:
- a timing counter to identify timing information associated with a multi-part message, the timing information being provided by the called party that prepares a first segment of the multi-part message;
- a start button to start the timing counter;
- and
- a reverse button to reverse the timing counter;
- wherein the timing counter is operable to supply the timing information to the calling party, thereby facilitating recording of a second segment of the multi-part message by the calling party, and the called party determines the timing information prior to providing the client meter to the calling party.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.