Digital telephone system with automatic voice mail redirection

An apparatus comprising:

• a computer programmed to execute a voice mail recording and redirection process, said computer having a first bus;
• a host adapter circuit coupled to said first bus;
• a switch card circuit coupled to said first bus and coupled to said host adapter circuit by a second bus and including a switching circuit to transfer data between inbound and outbound timeslots, said inbound and outbound timeslots being temporarily or permanently assigned to particular extension telephones, a voice mail recording channel implemented by a digital signal processor on said switch card circuit and one or more incoming telephone lines from a telephone service provider;
• a port expansion circuit configured to couple to one or more telephone lines from a telephone service provider and to couple to a plurality of telephone lines coupled to extension telephones or TAPI interface circuits, and coupled to said host adapter circuit by a third bus,
• said port expansion circuit including an analog-to-digital converter and a digital-to-analog converter coupled to each of said one or more telephone lines and a hybrid circuit coupled to each of said one or more telephone lines and a ring detector circuit coupled to each of said one or more telephone lines from said telephone service provider and a power ring circuit coupled to each telephone line coupled to an extension telephone or TAPI device,
• said port expansion circuit functioning to generate digital data using said analog-to-digital converter by sampling analog signals on said telephone lines and sending said digital data to said switch card via said third and second buses and functioning to receive digital data from said switch card via said second and third buses and convert it to analog signals using said digital-to-analog converter and couple said analog signals to a telephone line coupled to an extension telephone or said telephone service provider;
• and wherein said ring detector circuit of said port expansion circuit functions to detect incoming ring signals of incoming telephone calls from said telephone service provider and generate a control signal indicating an incoming ring;
• and wherein said power ring circuit functions to, upon receiving a command signal, generate a power ring signal which causes an extension telephone coupled to said power ring circuit to ring, and wherein said host adapter circuit includes a micro controller programmed to detect said control signal indicating an incoming ring of a telephone call from said telephone service provider and send a message to said voice mail recording and redirection process that the ring signal of an incoming call has been detected;
• and wherein said voice mail recording and redirection process controls said computer to determine to which extension telephone the incoming call is directed and send a control signal to said power ring circuit to cause the appropriate extension telephone to ring, and, if the call is not answered after a predetermined time, to send a command to said switch card to connect digital data from said incoming call to said voice mail channel implemented by said digital signal processor of said switch card, and wherein said digital signal processor is programmed to format said data of said incoming call for transfer to said computer, said computer functioning under control of said voice mail recording and redirection process to record said data as a voice mail message on a hard disk memory, place a pointer to the voice mail message in a voice mail box associated with the extension to which the call was directed, generate a human perceptible indication to a user of the extension phone to which the call was directed that a new voice mail message has arrived, monitor the voice mail message to make sure that it has been picked up within a predetermined interval, and, if not, transfer the pointer to the voice mail message to another voice mail box and generate a human perceptible indication to the user of the extension telephone associated with the new voice mail box that a new voice mail message has arrived.

In a telephone system having multiple extension phones, a method for directly redirecting a voice mail message to a different voice mail box if the message is not retrieved within a predetermined time, comprising:

• receiving a telephone call from a caller and recording a voice mail message when an extension telephone to which the call is directed is not answered or is busy or a user of the extension phone elects to have the call directed to his or her receiving voice mail box;
• generating a human perceptible indication that a new voice mail message has been stored for the extension telephone which was called and starting an interval timer or recording date and time when the message was left;
• determining if the voice mail message was retrieved by a first recipient within a predetermined fixed or programmable interval;
• and
• if the message was not retrieved, directly transferring either the voice mail message itself or a pointer to the voice mail message to another voice mail box or memory or other media associated with or mapped to the receiving voice mailbox,
• wherein the determining and transferring are not triggered by a caller urgency input made by the caller during the call, the urgency input specifying an urgent delivery option for the message,
• wherein the transferring does not involve placing a voice call, and
• wherein a second recipient can access the directly transferred message only after the transferring is complete.

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of C.O. (central office) telephone lines;
• a plurality of extension telephones;
• a PBX switch coupled to said plurality of C.O. telephone lines and coupled to said plurality of extension telephones by drop lines, said PBX switch configured to receive a telephone call from a caller and direct it to one of a plurality of extensions or to a voice mail box associated with the extension;
• and
• a computer coupled to said PBX switch and programmed to receive, digitize and record a voice mail message in a file on a hard disk and store a pointer to said voice mail message in a voice mail box associated with the one extension and to cause a human perceptible indication of the existence of a voice mail message from the caller to be generated either by itself or by said PBX switch and to monitor said voice mail box or said voice mail file to determine if the voice mail message has been retrieved by a first recipient within a predetermined time, and, if not, to move the pointer to the voice mail message to another voice mail box,
• wherein the determining and moving are not triggered by a caller urgency input made by the caller during the call, the urgency input specifying an urgent delivery option for the message,
• wherein the moving does not involve placing a voice call, and
• wherein a second recipient can access the voice mail message only after the moving is complete.

In a telephone system having multiple extension phones, a method for directly redirecting a voice mail message to a different voice mail box if the message is not retrieved within a predetermined time, comprising:

• receiving a telephone call from a caller and recording a voice mail message when an extension telephone to which the call is directed is not answered or is busy or a user of the extension phone elects to have the call directed to his or her receiving voice mail box;
• determining if the voice mail message was retrieved by a first recipient within a predetermined fixed or programmable interval;
• and
• if the message was not retrieved, directly transferring either the voice mail message itself or a pointer to the voice mail message to another voice mail box or memory or other media associated with or mapped to the receiving voice mailbox,
• wherein the determining and transferring are not triggered by a caller urgency input made by the caller during the call, the urgency input specifying an urgent delivery option for the message,
• wherein the transferring does not involve placing a voice call, and
• wherein a second recipient can access the directly transferred message only after the transferring is complete.

An article comprising:

• a storage medium having stored thereon instructions that when executed by a machine result in the following:
• receiving a telephone call from a caller and recording a voice mail message when an extension telephone to which the call is directed is not answered or is busy or a user of the extension phone elects to have the call directed to his or her receiving voice mail box;
• generating a human perceptible indication that a new voice mail message has been stored for the extension telephone which was called and starting an interval timer or recording date and time when the message was left;
• determining if the voice mail message was retrieved by a first recipient within a predetermined fixed or programmable interval;
• and
• if the message was not retrieved, directly transferring either the voice mail message itself or a pointer to the voice mail message to another voice mail box or memory or other media associated with or mapped to the receiving voice mailbox,
• wherein the determining and transferring are not triggered by a caller urgency input made by the caller during the call, the urgency input specifying an urgent delivery option for the message,
• wherein the transferring does not involve placing a voice call, and
• wherein a second recipient can access the directly transferred message only after the transferring is complete.