Animatronic creatures that act as intermediaries between human users and a telephone system
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsStefan Johannes Walter Marti, Christopher Schmandt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An animatronic telephone agent consisting of a communications subsystem connected to a wired or wireless telephone network for receiving incoming telephone calls, and a robotic automaton coupled to the communications subsystem and responsive to incoming telephone calls for performing different movements that provide non-verbal visual cues to a human observer that are indicative of the status of each incoming call. The automaton preferably takes the form of an animatronic device that has movable appendages and a face with at least movable eyes or eyelids and which provides visual cues by making gestures and/or exhibiting facial expressions that are indicative of the receipt and progress of incoming calls.
Claims36
An animatronic telephone agent comprising, in combination,
- a communications subsystem connected to a wired or wireless telephone network for receiving incoming telephone calls, and
- a robotic automaton coupled to said communications subsystem and responsive to said incoming telephone calls for performing different movements that provide non-verbal visual cues to a human observer that are indicative of the status of one of said incoming telephone calls, said status being of the receipt and progress of said incoming call.
An animatronic telephone agent comprising, in combination,
- a communications subsystem connected to a wired or wireless telephone network for receiving an incoming telephone call, and
- a robotic automaton coupled to said communications subsystem and responsive to said incoming telephone call for performing different movements that provide non-verbal visual cues to a human observer that are indicative of the status of said incoming telephone call,
- wherein said different movements indicate, respectively, that said incoming telephone call has not yet been answered, has been answered and is being recorded, and has been terminated.
A communications control system for handling incoming calls or messages from a caller directed to a callee, said control system comprising, in combination,
- an interactive animatronic creature including one or more mechanical actuators for performing a set of pet-like or human-like movement behaviors in response to commands to provide non-verbal cues to said callee,
- a call processor for receiving and handling an incoming telephone call from a caller directed to said callee, said call processor including a call progress monitor for generating status signals indicative of the current status of said incoming call, which current status relates to the receipt and progress of said incoming call, and
- an animatronic command generator coupled to said call processor and to said interactive animatronic creature for converting at least selected ones of said status signals into movement command signals which are delivered to said mechanical actuators to cause said creature to perform said movement behaviors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.