Intelligent telephone set
AssigneeWorldCom, Inc.
InventorHack Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An intelligent telephone set is disclosed that includes a caller-ID circuit that extracts a call identifier from an incoming call. A call processing circuit in communication with the caller-ID circuit assigns the incoming call to a caller category associated with the call identifier. Subsequently, it selects a call processing action corresponding to the caller category and processes the incoming call using the selected call processing action. The intelligent telephone set allows users to set criteria for receiving and processing calls based on CID data. One such call processing action is to use CID data to forward an incoming call to a predetermined location.
Claims57
A telephone device for use in a telecommunications network, the telephone device being coupled to the telecommunications network by a plurality of telephone lines, the telephone device comprising:
- a caller-ID circuit operative to extract a call identifier from an incoming call propagating on a first telephone line of the plurality of telephone lines;
- a call processing circuit coupled to the caller-ID circuit, the call processing circuit being operative to assign the incoming call to a caller category based on the call identifier, to select a call processing action corresponding to the caller category, and to process the incoming call in accordance with the selected call processing action, the call processing action includes forwarding the incoming call to a predetermined destination over a second telephone line of the plurality of telephone lines;
- and
- a computer interface circuit coupled to the call processing circuit, wherein an e-mail message is transmitted to a predetermined e-mail address via the computer interface when a connection is not established with the predetermined destination.
A telephone device for use in a telecommunications network, the telephone device being coupled to the telecommunications network by a plurality of telephone lines, the telephone device comprising:
- a database component having stored therein a plurality of caller identifiers, each caller identifier being associated with one calling category of a plurality of calling categories;
- a caller-ID circuit operative to extract a call identifier from an incoming call propagating on a first telephone line of the plurality of telephone lines;
- a call processing circuit coupled to the caller-ID circuit and the database, the call processing circuit being operative to associate the incoming call to a caller category based on the call identifier association in the database, to select a call processing action corresponding to the caller category, and to process the incoming call in accordance with the selected call processing action;
- a call forwarding circuit coupled to the call processing circuit, the call forwarding circuit being operative to forward the incoming call to a predetermined telephone number over the second telephone line when the call identifier is associated with a predetermined caller category;
- and
- a computer interface circuit coupled to the call processing circuit, wherein an e-mail message is transmitted to a predetermined e-mail address via the computer interface when a connection is not established with the predetermined telephone number.
A method for processing an incoming telephone call using a telephone set, the telephone set being coupled to a telecommunications network by a plurality of telephone lines, the method comprising:
- extracting a call identifier from the incoming call propagating on a first telephone line of the plurality of telephone lines;
- assigning the incoming call to a caller category based on the call identifier;
- selecting a call processing action corresponding to the caller category;
- processing the incoming call in accordance with the selected call processing action, the call processing action includes forwarding the incoming call to a predetermined destination over a second telephone line of the plurality of telephone lines;
- and
- transmitting an e-mail message to a predetermined e-mail address via a computer interface when a connection is not established with the predetermined destination.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.