Patent ID: 6724866
Filing Date: 2004-04-20
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A call screener apparatus, comprising:a telephone system interface having at least one port for connection to a telephone network and at least one port for connection to a telephone device of a user and being operable to selectively respond to calls originating from said telephone network to said telephone device; a dialogue system coupled to said telephone system interface that elicits speech from an incoming caller and causes said telephone system interface to respond to a call from said incoming caller based on a comparison of said elicited speech with a set of stored speaker models, or based on content of what the incoming caller says in response to a prompt; and a speaker model maintenance system that updates said set of stored speaker models automatically as a result of a communication between said user and said incoming caller, said maintenance system operating in a passive mode to store a speaker model for said incoming caller as an acceptable caller when said communication lasts more than a predetermined length of time selected to be of sufficient length to support a presumption that the user wishes to speak to the caller again.