Patent ID: 7027566

Claim:
A method of operating a home gateway system comprising the steps of: (a) receiving an incoming call; (b) determining a telephone number associated with the incoming call; (c) determining if the telephone number belongs to a set of preferred telephone numbers; (d) when the telephone number does not belong to the set of preferred telephone numbers, requesting a caller to speak their name; (e) recording a spoken name (e1) performing a speech recognition process on the spoken name; (e2) determining if the spoken name belongs to a set of preferred callers; (e3) when the spoken name does not belong to the set of preferred callers, proceeding to step (f) (e4) when the spoken name does belong to the set of preferred callers, determining if the spoken name belongs to a set of owners; (e5) when the spoken name belongs to the set of owners, performing a speaker verification routine; (e6) when the caller has been verified, providing the caller a plurality of option; and (f) always playing the recording of the spoken name.