Multichannel interactive telephone answering apparatus

A multichannel interactive telephone answering apparatus adapted for use with a two-way telephone line after capture thereof for enabling interactive communication with a caller over said telephone line for enabling caller selectible interaction with said answering apparatus in response to designated arming signals provided by said caller, said apparatus comprising, a multichannel information storage means capable of retrievably storing information for enabling said interactive communication, said multichannel storage means comprising at least a main information channel and an auxiliary information channel and channel selection means for selectively switching at least between said main information channel and said auxiliary information channel, said channel selection means comprising signal detection means for detecting a designated arming signal provided by said caller over said captured telephone line and for providing an enable signal in response to detection of said designated arming signal, said channel selection means further comprising switching means responsive to said enable signal for providing said selective channel switching in response thereto, said multichannel information storage means further comprising playback means associated with each of said channels for providing selective playback of the information stored in said selected channel in response to said selection of a selected one of said channels, said selective playback providing said interactive communication, said multichannel storage means providing said playback from said main information channel in the absence of said detection of said designated arming signal, said main channel and said auxiliary channel comprising selectable different messages for playback to said caller over said captured telephone line in response to said channel selection, said auxiliary channel selectable message being for a particular caller or caller group whereas said main channel selectable message being for all callers, said auxiliary channel selectable message being selectable only in response to caller provision of a predetermined designated arming signal, whereby an interactive private message capability is provided for said telephone answering apparatus.

A multichannel interactive telephone answering apparatus adapted for use with a two-way telephone line after capture thereof for enabling interactive communication with a caller over said telephone line for enabling caller selectible interaction with said answering apparatus in response to designated arming signals provided by said caller, said apparatus comprising, a multichannel information storage means capable of retrievably storing information for enabling said interactive communication, said multichannel storage means comprising at least a main information channel and an auxiliary information channel and channel selection means for selectively switching at least between said main information channel and said auxiliary information channel, said channel selection means comprising signal detection means for detecting a designated arming signal provided by said caller over said captured telephone line and for providing an enable signal in response to detection of said designated arming signal, said channel selection means further comprising switching means responsive to said enable signal for providing said selective channel switching in response thereto, said multichannel information storage means further comprising playback means associated with each of said channels for providing selective playback of the information stored in said selected channel in response to said selection of a selected one of said channels, said selective playback providing said interactive communication, said multichannel storage means providing said playback from said main information channel in the absence of said detection of said designated arming signal, said multichannel information storage means comprising a multitrack magnetic storage medium for storing audio information thereon, said apparatus further comprising means for generating a trigger signal to be stored on one of said channels, and trigger signal detection means for detecting said trigger signal, said trigger signal detection means comprising means responsive to said trigger signal for generating a ringing signal for said called party only in response to caller provision of a predetermined designated arming signal, whereby call screening may be provided for only enabling selected calls to ring through.