Telephone answering apparatus and method for confirming an acoustic command signal
Assignee3Com Corporation
InventorMilos Brablec
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A telephone answering apparatus for confirming an acoustic command signal includes a controller operatively connected to an acoustic signal detector and to an acoustic signal generator. The controller initiates the transmission of an acoustic response signal to a remote user in response to the detection of an acoustic command signal.
Claims9
A telephone answering apparatus for confirming the detection of a plurality of acoustic command signals sent by a remote user, the telephone answering apparatus configured to carry out a plurality of actions, comprising:
- a controller operatively connected to an acoustic signal detector for detecting from the remote user the plurality of acoustic command signals for carrying out the plurality of actions, each of the plurality of acoustic command signals being assigned to one of the plurality of actions, the controller also operatively connected to an acoustic signal generator for generating a plurality of acoustic response signals, each of the plurality of acoustic response signals being assigned to one of the plurality of acoustic command signals and each of the plurality of acoustic command signals having only one of the plurality of acoustic response signals assigned thereto,
- wherein the controller initiates the transmission of one of the plurality of acoustic response signals to the remote user in response to the detection of the acoustic command signal corresponding to the transmitted acoustic response signal before each of the plurality of actions is executed by the telephone answering apparatus thereby confirming to the remote user the detection of the acoustic command signal corresponding to the transmitted acoustic response signal before each of the plurality of actions is executed by the telephone answering apparatus and confirming that each of the plurality of actions will be executed.
A method for confirming the detection of a plurality of acoustic command signals sent by a remote user comprising:
- providing a telephone answering apparatus including a controller, the telephone answering apparatus configured to carry out a plurality of actions, an acoustic signal detector for detecting from the remote user the plurality of acoustic command signals, each of the plurality of acoustic command signals being assigned to one of the plurality of actions, and an acoustic signal generator for generating a plurality of acoustic response signals, each of the plurality of acoustic response signals being assigned to one of the plurality of acoustic command signals and each of the plurality of acoustic command signals having only one of the plurality of acoustic response signals assigned thereto;
- establishing a telephone connection between the remote user and the telephone answering apparatus;
- sending one of the plurality of acoustic command signals from the remote user to the telephone answering apparatus;
- detecting the sent acoustic command signal;
- transmitting the acoustic response signal assigned to the sent acoustic command signal to the remote user in response to the detection of the sent acoustic command signal before each of the plurality of actions is executed by the telephone answering apparatus thereby confirming to the remote user the detection of the sent acoustic command signal before each of the plurality of actions is executed by the telephone answering apparatus and confirming that each of the plurality of actions will be executed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.