Apparatus and method for spoken caller identification using signals of the advanced intelligent network

An apparatus and method for providing spoken identification of a telephone caller on all phones of a service subscriber's telephone line. The caller's identification is spoken over a regular telephone receiver so no visual display hardware is needed. Software allows the call to be handled by the subscriber in multiple ways. Voice or keypad commands allow the subscriber to take the call, play the caller a message declining the call, route the call to a voice mail system (if available), or refer the call to some other system. Software control of the apparatus allows the call routings to be optional, flexibly configured, and extended to other capabilities in the future. Software control also allows the telephone company's billing name database to be expanded beyond what is known to the local telephone company of the subscriber. Alternatively, a predefined list of expected caller's numbers can be defined by the caller and their names recorded. Adding call screening for desired calls would also be particularly useful in the cellular environment. The caller's name, or if not available his phone number, can be spoken to the subscriber using text-to-speech technology. Alternatively, the caller could be asked to state his name and the apparatus record it and then play it back to the subscriber for caller identification.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to telephone networks. More specifically, the 
present invention relates to an apparatus and method for spoken caller 
identification using signals of the Advanced Intelligent Network. 
MICROFICHE APPENDIX 
A microfiche appendix is included as part of this Specification and 
includes two microfiche that have a total of 119 frames. The microfiche 
appendix includes listings of computer programs that were designed for use 
with the Texas Instruments Multi-Serve 4000 unit. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Telephone service subscribers do not necessarily want to answer all the 
telephone calls they receive. However, in order to know what calls they 
are interested in answering, subscribers must know who is calling. 
Presently available systems display, on a special display device 
associated with a subscriber's telephone, the caller's phone number and 
billing name of the caller. This special display device is available 
integrated with a telephone in a single telephonic unit or as a device 
connected separately to an exiting telephone. 
The name of the person or entity associated with the phone number can be 
found by a reverse directory lookup of the number in the telephone 
company's billing information. On some present systems, the name and/or 
number of the caller can be displayed on the subscriber's display device. 
In cases where the caller name is displayed, the names that can be 
displayed are limited to those that are serviced by the same telephone 
company as the subscriber. The visual display approach uses a data modem 
signal that is transmitted by the central office on the subscriber's line 
between the first and second ring. This necessitates a modem to encode the 
data at the subscriber's central office Service Switching Point and a 
modem built-in with the display logic at the subscriber's receiving 
location. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The described embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus and 
method for providing spoken identification of a telephone caller on all 
phones of a service subscriber's telephone line. The caller's 
identification is spoken over a regular telephone receiver so no visual 
display hardware is needed. The software allows the call to be handled by 
the subscriber in multiple ways. Voice or keypad commands allow the 
subscriber to take the call, play the caller a message declining the call, 
route the call to a voice mail system (if available), or refer the call to 
some other system. Software control of the apparatus allows the call 
routings to be optional, flexibly configured, and extended to other 
capabilities in the future. Software control also allows the telephone 
company's billing name database to be expanded beyond what is known to the 
local telephone company of the subscriber. Alternatively, a predefined 
list of expected caller's numbers can be defined by the caller and their 
names recorded. Adding call screening for desired calls would also be 
particularly useful in the cellular environment. The caller's name, or if 
not available his phone number, can be spoken to the subscriber using 
text-to-speech technology. Alternatively, the caller could be asked to 
state his name and the apparatus record it and then play it back to the 
subscriber for caller identification.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIG. 1 illustrates an apparatus for spoken caller ID in an Advanced 
Intelligent Network (AIN) implementation of a Public Switched Telephone 
Network (PSTN)(which presently uses an out of band signalling system 
called SS#7 to provide the vehicle for the intelligence of the Advanced 
Intelligent Network), according to one embodiment of the invention. The 
invention uses the information and voice processing capabilities of an AIN 
Intelligent Peripheral and the signaling capabilities of the Common 
Channel Signaling System (SS#7 at present) network to provide the spoken 
caller ID service. The Signal System's knowledge of the caller's phone 
number and possibly the associated billing name is passed to the 
Intelligent Peripheral (IP) that connects to the network. One example of 
an Intelligent Peripheral that could be used is the TI Multi-Serve 4000 
unit available from Texas Instruments, Incorporated. Software (1129 plus) 
is loaded onto the TI Multi-Serve 4000 to allow it to perform processing 
for spoken caller ID. 
A number-to-name textual database can extend the names known to the 
apparatus beyond what is known directly by the local telephone company of 
the subscriber. The number-to-name textual database can also be 
incorporated into the intelligent peripheral or connected as a separate 
unit. Phonebook-like databases are commercially available covering most 
cities in the country. The intelligent peripheral can interactively 
collect information for the caller and/or perform some automatic level of 
call screening (e.g., accept/reject based on the time of day, query 
caller's urgency, or even ask the caller to record his name if it is not 
otherwise available). 
FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart showing the process for spoken caller ID. 
The Signaling Network recognizes a call to a subscriber (step 10), after 
which it transmits the caller's number and/or name to the Intelligent 
Peripheral (step 12). The Intelligent Peripheral obtains the caller's name 
from a related data base or, if not available, prompts the caller to state 
his/her name for recording to be replayed to the subscriber. If automatic 
call screening is not enabled (step 14), the Intelligent Peripheral will 
verbally state the name of the caller to the subscriber (assuming the 
caller's name is available in a textual format) and query the subscriber 
for how he/she wishes to handle the call. If the caller's name is not 
available for one reason or another, the Intelligent Peripheral can be 
programmed to prompt the caller to state his name so that it can be 
recorded and replayed to the subscriber (not shown). The number-to-name 
translation step may be performed by the Signaling Network and then the 
text passed to the Intelligent Peripheral or the Intelligent Peripheral 
can perform the translation directly. 
The subscriber next designates the disposition of the call (step 18), by 
telephone keypad tone (DTMF, Dual Tone Multi-Frequency signals) or by 
speaking a command. In either case, tone or voice command, the Intelligent 
Peripheral recognizes the desired response and handles the call as desired 
by the subscriber. Call handling can be simply accepting the call or 
rejecting the call. If the call is accepted, the Intelligent Peripheral 
connects the call as prescribed (step 20). If the call is not accepted, 
the Intelligent Peripheral will announce this handling to the caller (step 
22), after which the call is terminated (step 24). 
If automatic call screening is enabled (step 14), the Intelligent 
Peripheral can respond in one of several ways. If the Intelligent 
Peripheral is programmed to automatically reject one or more specific 
calling telephone numbers (selected by the subscriber) any calling 
telephone number that matches one of the rejected specific calling numbers 
will be rejected (step 26). The Intelligent Peripheral will announce this 
handling to the caller (step 28), after which the call is terminated (step 
24). If an incoming call has a telephone number that does not match a 
rejected specific calling number, and if manual screening is not invoked 
(step 30), the Intelligent Peripheral connects the call as prescribed 
(step 20). If, however, manual screening is invoked, the Intelligent 
Peripheral will verbally recite the name of the caller to subscriber 
(assuming the caller's name is available in a textual format) and query 
the subscriber for how he/she wishes to handle the call (step 16). If the 
caller's name is not available for one reason or another, the Intelligent 
Peripheral can be programmed to prompt the caller to state his name so 
that it can be recorded and replayed to the subscriber (not shown). The 
number-to-name translation step may be performed by the Signaling Network 
and then the text passed to the Intelligent Peripheral or the Intelligent 
Peripheral can perform the translation directly. 
The subscriber next designates the disposition of the call (step 18), by 
telephone keypad tone (DTMF, Dual Tone Multi-Frequency signals) or by 
speaking a command. In either case, tone or voice command, the Intelligent 
Peripheral recognizes the desired response and handles the call as desired 
by the subscriber. Call handling can be simply accepting the call or 
rejecting the call. If the call is accepted, the Intelligent Peripheral 
connects the call (step 20). If the call is not accepted, the Intelligent 
Peripheral will announce this handling to the caller (step 22), after 
which the call is terminated (step 24). Call handling (step 18) can also 
be programmed to include options beyond only accepting or rejecting the 
call. A few examples of options include the subscriber deferring the call 
to call forwarding or forwarding the call to another person or system. 
The present invention can also be implemented in the cellular telephone 
environment, as shown in FIG. 3. The cellular embodiment of the invention 
is similar in that it exhibits similar advantages but components in the 
cellular office may not fully conform to the AIN architecture. When a 
caller places a call to a mobile subscriber, the caller's switch (32) 
signals the cellular switch (34) with the caller's phone number (ANI, 
Automatic Number Identification). The two switches may connect using the 
protocols of AIN or the information may be passed in-band on the voice 
channel. The cellular switch (34) holds the call for the subscriber while 
the data for speaking the caller's identification is collected. 
The caller's identification process is initiated by the cellular switch 
(34) sending the caller ID along with the subscriber's phone number to a 
data server (36)(cellular switch 36 holds the call and passes ANI ID and 
called phone number on data link). The data server (36) determines what 
spoken identification will be made available to the subscriber. The 
subscriber can pre-record a list of names associated with phone numbers 
that are expected to originate calls to the subscriber. The data server 
(36) also uses the ANI ID to index into this list of names to fetch the 
caller's pre-recorded name. If the ANI ID matches the ID of one of the 
expected callers, the Intelligent Peripheral (38) plays the pre-recorded 
name of the caller to the subscriber. If, however, the ANI ID does not 
match any of the expected callers, then the phone number of the caller 
will be spoken to the subscriber by the Intelligent Peripheral (38). While 
the text-to-speech operation takes place in the Intelligent Peripheral 
(38) attached to the cellular switch (34), it could also take place in the 
data server (36) if it is properly equipped with voice processing 
hardware. The TI MultiServe 4000 and Media Server/Executive Server are 
examples of an Intelligent Peripheral that includes the necessary voice 
processing capabilities (the data server function could be merged into the 
Intelligent Peripheral if an Intelligent Peripheral of sufficient 
capability is utilized). 
If the AIN ID is not available from the subscriber's Telco central office 
switch (32), the data server (36) can simply play a message stating an 
"unknown caller" is calling. Alternatively, the data server (36) may 
indicate to the Intelligent Peripheral (38) that it initiate a dialog with 
the caller to record his/her name so that the name can be played to the 
subscriber for caller identification. 
When the Intelligent Peripheral (38) has received the identification of the 
caller it signals the cellular switch (34) to complete the call to the 
mobil subscriber. The Intelligent Peripheral (38) plays the message 
identifying the subscriber and prompts the subscriber to indicate the 
desired call processing. The subscriber can respond with a DTMF key pad 
tone or a voice command. Depending on the disposition directed by the 
subscriber, different action will follow. The subscriber may defer the 
call by sending it to voice mail, or if voice mail is not available, 
having the Intelligent Peripheral (38) simply play a "called party is 
unavailable" message or a custom message that the subscriber has 
previously recorded. After the message is played, the connections from the 
cellular switch (34) to the caller and the Intelligent Peripheral (38) are 
dropped. If voice mail is selected, the caller is connected to the voice 
mail system. If the subscriber elects to accept the call, the intelligent 
peripheral (38) instructs the cellular switch (34) to connect the caller 
through to the subscriber. The cellular switch (34) then drops the link to 
the intelligent peripheral (34) after this connection is made. 
The present invention is novel because it combines existing technology and 
information in a new manner to audibly identify a caller and recognize 
subscriber spoken commands to prescribe call disposition. The call 
disposition can be established by a call screening process that can simply 
involve a subscriber's immediate desire to take or not take a call or some 
parameterized process the subscriber has specified earlier (e.g., more 
sophisticated screening might involve the time of day, ability of the 
caller to provide special identification, caller specified urgency, etc.). 
Advantages over existing caller ID services include: 1) No special 
hardware need be purchased and installed by the subscriber because the 
service uses the audio receive capabilities present in all telephones. 
Consequently, the service is automatically present on all telephone 
instruments on the subscriber's line, not just specially-equipped phones; 
2) Multiple call handling options may be offered to the subscriber to act 
on the call based on the caller's phone number and/or other information 
that can be collected from the caller or information databases (versus 
just answer or not of today's visual service); 3) A personal directory of 
recorded caller names to be indexed by caller ID may be created; 4) Call 
handling options can be selected by the subscriber using a voice command; 
5) Employs an extension of today's standard AIN protocol to deliver the 
service; and 6) The known phone numbers and names of callers may be 
extended beyond just those in the service area of the subscriber's 
telephone company. 
While several implementations of preferred embodiments of the invention 
have been shown and described, various modifications and alternate 
embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art. For example, pre-AIN 
implementations of the public switched telephone network can use 
implementations based on enhanced service platforms other than an 
intelligent peripheral. These might be adjunct processors or service nodes 
that are in some manner attached to central office switches and the 
signaling network. AIN-based implementations will use standardized AIN 
protocols for communicating with the central office switches (known as 
service switching points in the AIN) and the service control point of the 
signaling network. 
A similar caller identification mechanism can also be applied to private 
branch exchanges (PBXs). Similar apparatus and software can apply to calls 
that are totally contained within these exchanges or calls that are 
originated from the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This is 
illustrated in the cellular embodiment of the invention where the call 
originates from outside the cellular network. There can be similar 
signaling, apparatus, and software within the private exchange to provide 
spoken caller identification to the PBX connected user (i.e., analogous to 
the "subscriber" in the AIN and cellular embodiments). Accordingly, it is 
intended that the invention be limited only in terms of the appended 
claims.