Device for non-intrusive screening of telephone calls and method thereof
AssigneeC21 Patents, LLC
InventorKent S. Charugundla
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A telephone with a call screening device is able to screen automated calls by transmitting a message containing an instruction upon detecting an incoming call. The instruction from the call screening device requests that the calling party respond to the message correctly and in time before the call screening device allows the telephone to ring and the call answered. The instruction contains, inter alia, a string of randomly generated numbers that the calling party is asked to dial as part of his/her response. In the event that the response is not received in time or the response is incorrect, the call screening device terminates the call without the phone ever ringing.
Claims9
A call screening device coupled to communication equipment, the device comprising:
- a random number generator;
- and
- a microprocessor in communication with the random number generator causing a message to be transmitted in response to a received ring signal of a call to the communication equipment where the message comprises at least an N-digit string of numbers newly generated by the random number generator, where N is an integer equal to 2 or greater, said newly generated string of numbers being different from an immediately previous generated N-digit string of numbers and when a response to the message is received within a defined period of time, the microprocessor does not allow the ring signal to be received by the communication equipment and terminates the call if the response does not contain at least signals of the randomly generated numbers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.