Patent ID: 7054419
Filing Date: 2006-05-30
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
1. An answering machine detection method for a voice message delivery system, comprising: (a) placing an outbound call to a telephone line of a Recipient; (b) detecting a telephone line pick-up; (c) performing echo cancellation on the outbound call; (d) playing a prompt to introduce the outbound call to a live Recipient, wherein the prompt is selected from the group consisting of “This is a message from [Sender's name],” “This is a call from [Sender's name],” and “[Sender's name] has sent you a message,”; and (e) determining, at a voice message sewer, that the telephone line pick-up was by an existing answering machine when talk-over occurs at the same time as at least a portion of the playing of the prompt, the talk-over comprising voice energy coming from the telephone line of the Recipient.