Abstract:
A method and apparatus for emergency message delivery from an emergency center by receiving an incoming call from the emergency center for a first telecommunication terminal that is engaged in a telecommunication call with a second telecommunication terminal; identifying the emergency center; receiving an emergency message from the emergency center; recording an audio portion of the emergency message; alerting a user of the first telecommunication terminal of the recorded audio portion of the emergency message during the telecommunication call; detecting a signal from the first telecommunication terminal indicating that the user wants to hear the recorded audio portion of the emergency message; and transmitting the recorded audio portion of the emergency message to the first telecommunication terminal during the telecommunication call upon detection of the signal.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This patent application is a Continuation In Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/321,320, filed on Dec. 29, 2005 now abandoned, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/321,320 is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention relates to telecommunication switching systems, and in particular, to the provision of telecommunication priority messaging from an emergency center. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     Within the prior art, it is known that emergency centers (which are commonly called 911 centers in the United States) have to make calls to personnel in various types of locations to notify these personnel that an emergency situation has arisen and that certain steps need to be taken. Such calls are often referred to as “reverse 911 calls” in the United States. One example of such an emergency call would be to alert school administration that it was necessary to evacuate the school because of a potential bomb threat. Normally such a reverse 911 call is made to a specific telephone set. If that telephone set is busy, the reverse 911 call may be transferred to voice messaging and the user of the designated phone may fail to retrieve the message associated with the reverse 911 call. Even if the user of the designated telephone set has call waiting, the user may choose to ignore the reverse 911 call not realizing the importance of this call since it would appear like any other incoming call. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A method and apparatus for emergency message delivery from an emergency center by receiving an incoming call from the emergency center for a first telecommunication terminal that is engaged in a telecommunication call with a second telecommunication terminal; identifying the emergency center; receiving an emergency message from the emergency center; recording an audio portion of the emergency message; alerting a user of the first telecommunication terminal of the recorded audio portion of the emergency message during the telecommunication call; detecting a signal from the first telecommunication terminal indicating that the user wants to hear the recorded audio portion of the emergency message; and transmitting the recorded audio portion of the emergency message to the first telecommunication terminal during the telecommunication call upon detection of the signal. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  illustrates, in block diagram form, an embodiment; and 
         FIGS. 2 and 3  illustrates, in flowchart form, operations performed by an embodiment; 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an embodiment. In  FIG. 1 , control computer  101  performs the overall control functions for conventional telephones  107 - 108  and IP telephone sets  112 - 113 . IP telephones sets  112 - 113  may be IP telephone sets 4624 manufactured by Avaya, Incorporated or a similar telephone set. Switching network  105  performs the switching of not only audio information but also control information to and from computer  101  to the telephone sets. Control computer  101  controls the activity of IP telephone sets  112 - 113  by transmission of information to and from the IP telephone sets via WAN  111 . Control computer  101  controls telephones  107 - 108  by the transmission of information to and from the telephones via switching network  105 . 
     Control computer  101  comprises processor  121  and memory  122 . Processor  121  performs the necessary control functions by executing programs out of memory  122  as well as storing data in memory  122 . Overall control of computer  101  is performed by operating system  123 . Control routine  124  performs the overall telecommunication control. Priority messaging control  126  provides control over the priority messaging operations. 
     Control computer  101  utilizes voice message storage  119  to store voice messages. One skilled in the art would readily realize that voice messaging storage  119  could also be an external unit to telecommunication switching system  100 . 
     Telecommunication switching system  100  is interconnected to public switching telephone network  116  via trunk  114  that terminates on CO trunks  109 . Public switching telephone network  116  would have a plurality of telephones connected to it although  FIG. 1  illustrates only telephone  118 . In addition, emergency center  120  is interconnected to telecommunication switching system  100  via public switching telephone network  116 . 
     To understand the operations of the various embodiments, consider the following examples. Assume that emergency center  120  places a call to telephone  108  while telephone  108  is engaged in a telephone call with telephone  107 . Control computer  101  is responsive to the call from emergency center  120  to recognize that the call is from an emergency center and to obtain the message and the emergency duration time interval for this incoming call. The emergency time duration determines how long the emergency center  120  wishes to persist in attempting to contact telephone  108 . 
     Control computer  101  then signals telephone  108  utilizing a special emergency alerting message such as a siren sound to alert the user of telephone  108  that the incoming call is from an emergency center. The user of telephone  108  can then perform a flash hook or some other mechanism to signal control computer  101  that the user wishes to switch from the present telephone call to the incoming call from emergency center  120 . So long as the user of telephone  108  does not retrieve the message, the alerting signal would be transmitted at an certain interval, until the emergency duration time expires. In addition, another embodiment allows the emergency center to send a second message to control computer  101  indicating that the emergency message should no longer be sent to the user of telephone  108 . Upon receipt of this message, control computer  101  will cease to transmit the special emergency alerting message to telephone  108 . 
     To understand the operation of another embodiment, if a call is from another telephone rather than the emergency center, assume that telephone  108  is engaged in a telephone call with telephone  107 . Telephone  118  places a call to telephone  108 . Control computer  101  is responsive to this call from telephone  108  to execute priority messaging operations via the execution of priority message control  126 . Control computer  101  is responsive to the call from telephone  118  to inform telephone  118  that telephone  108  is presently engaged in a call. The user of telephone  118  can leave a priority message by entering a code specifying that a priority message is to be left. Computer  101  is responsive to this code to allow telephone  118  to leave a message on voice message storage  119  via switching network  105 , CO trunks  109  and public switching telephone network  116 . Control computer  101  then sends a message, normally an audible tone, to telephone  108 . However, control computer  101  controls switching network  105  so that this signal is not audible on telephone  107 . If in response to the audible signal, the user of telephone  108  performs a flash-hook, computer  101  interconnects telephone  108  to voice messaging storage  119  via switching network  105 , and voice messaging storage  119  plays the priority message to the user of telephone  108 . After the priority message has been played to the user of telephone  108 , control computer  101  controls switching network  105  so that telephones  107  and  108  are once again communicating on the original call. One skilled in the art would readily realize that similar operations could be performed with respect to IP telephones  112 - 113  which are also under the control of telecommunication switching system  100 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates, in flowchart form, operations performed by an embodiment that requires a caller to be an emergency center or listed in a database of priority callers in order to leave a priority message. After being started in block  201 , decision block  202  determines if there is an incoming call. If the answer is no, control is returned back to decision block  202 . 
     If the answer is yes in decision block  202 , decision block  203  determines if the called set is active. If the answer in decision block  203  is no, block  204  performs normal processing before returning control back to decision block  202 . 
     If the answer in decision block  203  is yes, decision block  205  determines if the call is from an emergency center. If the answer is yes, control is transferred to block  301  of  FIG. 3 . If the answer in decision block  205  is no, control is transferred to block  206 . The latter block accesses a database or file with the caller&#39;s identification before transferring control to decision block  207 . 
     Decision block  207  determines if the caller is listed in the database or file. If the answer is no, block  208  transmits a disconnect message to the caller before transferring control back to decision block  202 . 
     If the answer in decision block  207  is yes, block  209  records the message from the caller. Next, block  211  transmits an alerting message to the called set informing the called set that there is a priority message waiting before transferring control to decision block  212 . 
     Decision block  212  determines if the called set responded to the alerting message with a flash-hook signal. If the answer is no, control is transferred back to decision block  202 . If the answer is yes in decision block  212 , block  213  transmits the priority message to the called set before transferring control back to decision block  202 . 
     If the answer in decision block  205  of  FIG. 2  is yes, control is transferred to block  301  of  FIG. 3 . Block  301  records the emergency message and the designated emergency time duration, if one is provided, from the emergency center. Block  302  transmits the special emergency alerting message to the telephone set indicating that the call is from the emergency center. Decision block  303  determines if a flash hook has been received from the telephone set. Note, that other mechanisms could be utilized to signal that the telephone set wishes to receive the incoming call from the emergency center. If the answer in decision block  303  is yes, block  304  transmits the emergency message to the telephone set and block  308  removes the emergency alerting message to the telephone set before transferring control back to decision block  202  of  FIG. 2 . 
     If the answer in decision block  303  is no, decision block  306  determines if the emergency time duration has elapsed. If the answer is yes, control is transferred to block  308 . 
     If the answer in decision block  306  is no, decision block  307  determines if an emergency canceled message has been received from the emergency center indicating that the emergency center wishes to halt the delivery of the original emergency message. This would be done if the emergency had been resolved. If the answer is yes in decision block  307 , control is transferred to block  308 . If the answer in decision block  307  is no, control is transferred back to decision block  302 . 
     When the operations of a telephone set, control computer or server are implemented in software, it should be noted that the software can be stored on any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with any computer related system or method. In the context of this document, a computer-readable medium is an electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical device or means that can contain or store a computer program for use by or in connection with a computer related system or method. The telephone set, control computer or server can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In the context of this document, a “computer-readable medium” can be any means that can store the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. For example, the computer-readable medium can be, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: a portable computer diskette (magnetic), a random access memory (RAM) (electronic), a read-only memory (ROM) (electronic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM, EEPROM, or Flash memory) (electronic), and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CDROM) (optical). 
     In an alternative embodiment, where the telephone set, control computer or server is implemented in hardware, the telephone set, control computer or server can be implemented with any or a combination of the following technologies, which are each well known in the art: a discrete logic circuit(s) having logic gates for implementing logic functions upon data signals, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) having appropriate combinational logic gates, a programmable gate array(s) (PGA), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc. 
     Of course, various changes and modifications to the illustrated embodiments described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art. These changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without diminishing its intending advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims except insofar as limited by the prior art.