US 4,375,582 AGranted

Telephone answering system and method

OwnerLarry B. Gist, Carroll D. Carruth, Jr.inventors

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Abstract

A telephone answering system includes a processor, a memory for storing alphanumeric subscriber information for each subscriber and typed-in alphanumeric messages for each subscriber, a keyboard for manual entry of the typed-in subscriber messages and commands for operating the answering system, and a CRT display for displaying which trunk lines are ringing, which are on hold, alphanumeric subscriber information for the telephone trunk line presently being answered, alphanumeric subscriber messages retrieved from the memory or being typed into the answering system by means of the keyboard, and indicators showing whether or not the retrieved subscriber message has been accepted by the subscriber. In one embodiment of the invention, a subscriber has a subsystem coupled to a trunk line. The subsystem includes a CRT and a keyboard. The subscriber can directly communicate with the processor to obtain a display of previously called-in messages on the subsystem CRT.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A telephone answering system coupled to a plurality of telephone company trunks, said telephone answering system comprising in combination:

(a) processor means for executing program instructions;
(b) memory means responsive to said processor means for storing subscriber messages received from persons placing calls to subscribers of said telephone answering system and subscriber information about said subscribers;
(c) entry means coupled to said processor means for permitting entry of commands and said subscriber messages into said telephone answering system;
(d) display means for displaying which trunks are presently ringing, which trunks are presently on hold, subscriber information corresponding to a trunk presently being answered, and subscriber messages taken from callers who have telephoned messages to one of said subscribers;
(3) means for effecting voice communication between an operator of said telephone answering system and a selected trunk;
and
(f) means responsive to said processor means for selectively effecting electrical coupling of a selected one of said trunks to said voice communication effecting means, wherein said coupling means includes voice coupling means responsive to said processor means for transmitting a status signal representing a condition occurring on a first one of said trunks to said processor means to cause said voice coupling means to effect electrical coupling of said first trunk to a first transmit conductor and a first receive conductor.

4 more elements

A method of using a telephone answering system coupled to a plurality of telephone company trunks, the telephone answering system including:

i. processor means for executing program instructions,
ii. memory means responsive to said processor means for storing information,
iii. means coupled to said processor means for effecting entry of information into said telephone answering system,
iv. display means for displaying information in response to the processor means,
v. means for effecting voice communication between an operator of said telephone answering system and a selected trunk, and
vi. means responsive to said processor means for selectively effecting electrical coupling of a selected one of said trunks to said voice communication effecting means,
said method comprising the steps of:
(a) sending ring interrupt information to the processor means in response to ringing of one of the trunks,
(b) utilizing the processor means to transmit a first coupling signal to the coupling means to effect electrical coupling of said ringing trunk to the voice communication effecting means;
(c) decoding a sequence of tones conducted by said ringing trunk to identify a first subscriber to whom the call on said ringing trunk is being made in order to produce a first digital code representing the identity of said ringing trunk and transmitting said first digital code to the processor means;
(d) utilizing said first digital code and the processor means to produce a first address code and transmitting said first address code to the coupling means to further effect electrical coupling of said ringing trunk to the voice communication effecting means;
and
(e) utilizing the entry means to enter a first subscriber message from a first caller on said ringing trunk into the telephone answering system in alphanumeric form and utilizing the processor means to effect storing of said first subscriber message in the memory means.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.