Telephonic communications inventions 01/08

20080025476 - Method and apparatus for line testing: A method of testing a communication line includes measuring a first voltage/current couple on the communication line, measuring a second voltage/current couple different from the first couple on the communication line, and calculating a resistance based on the first couple and the second couple.... Agent: Dicke, Billig & Czaja

20080025477 - Identifying activity in an area utilizing sound detection and comparison: Microprocessor technology is used to detect routine sounds in a substantially enclosed environment to determine normal or abnormal activity or noise within the environment (i.e., habitual behavior of an individual) A device is situated in a substantially enclosed environment with audio input device similar to a microphone and an optional... Agent: Smith Frohwein Tempel Greenlee Blaha, LLC

20080025483 - Communication system and voice message processing method for use in the system: According to one embodiment, a communication system includes a plurality of voice-mail apparatuses which record a voice message transmitted from a telephone terminal in an arbitrary mail box among a plurality of mail boxes, and reproduces the voice message recorded in the arbitrary mail box in response to a reproduction... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20080025484 - Computer integrated with traditional telephone and voip: A computer integrated with traditional telephone and VoIP includes a network module, a south bridge chip and a telecom adapter module. The network module is connected to the Internet for providing an Internet connection function to enable the computer to make or receive a VoIP call. The south bridge chip... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Ham & Berner, LLP

20080025485 - Multi-network integration and interaction system: A type of multi-network integration and interaction system includes a “VLink” network server and a CTI communication controller, and the “VLink” network server and the CTI communication controller may communicate in real-time and two-way via Internet. The “VLink” network server notifies the CTI communication controller of the service request initiated... Agent: Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch

20080025486 - Method and system for unified communication: Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method for providing Unified Communication (UC) service, which includes obtaining communication information displayed on a terminal where a mouse locates; triggering a corresponding UC service based on the communication information. The present invention also discloses a UC client. The UC client includes a... Agent: Leydig Voit & Mayer, Ltd

20080025478 - Ad ringer: A method and system are provided for playing an advertisement to a telephone subscriber prior to call completion in a telecommunications network. A subscriber telephone line is provisioned to provide an advertisement. A switch in the telecommunications network detects an off-hook condition at the subscribers telephone and interprets the digits... Agent: Merchant & Gould PC

20080025480 - Selectable audio and mixed background sound for voice messaging system: Methods, systems, computer program products, and methods of doing business by selectably mixing one or more sound files with a telephone caller's voice message, either as background for that message or embedded within the message. Or, the mixing may occur within a telephone conversation between parties. The disclosed techniques enable... Agent: Marcia L. Doubet Law Firm

20080025479 - System and method for voice-mail and e-mail synchronization: Disclosed is a unified messaging system and method for combining a voice-mail system with an e-mail system. The present invention is a hybrid event driven system that polls a universal e-mail box for receipts, with the voice-mail system being fully event driven. The present invention maintains two persistent log-ins to... Agent: Stevens Davis Miller & Mosher, LLP

20080025481 - Methods, systems, and products for providing communications services: Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for providing communications services. A communication is received from an originating party and destined for a receiving party. A profile is queried to determine whether the originating party matches an entry in a list. When a match is found, a database of pre-created text... Agent: Scott P. Zimmerman, PLLC

20080025482 - Method and system for sending short voice message: Provided is a system and method for sending a “voice message” to a recipient without any intervention of a network. A user initiates a Short Voice Message (SVM) service (or short voice messaging) function and records a voice message within a device. The user sends the recorded voice message through... Agent: The Farrell Law Firm, P.C.

20080025487 - Telemetry system: In a remote monitoring system, a supervision terminal (37) monitors the status of the communication link (32, 34, 36) between the supervision terminal and each of a plurality of remote terminals (33) connected to the supervision terminal via a data network (35). The remote terminals may be used to emulate... Agent: Whitham, Curtis & Christofferson & Cook, P.C.

20080025488 - Anonymous communications using sender based routing: Anonymous communication features in a sender based routing network are provided. A single system-defined communication address is associated with a first user and a second user in lieu of the real communication addresses of the users. A communication from the real communication address of the first user is routed to... Agent: Carr & Ferrell LLP

20080025489 - Automated group communication: Systems and methods for connecting a plurality (even a large plurality) of recipients or destinations to an originating caller across, for example, a phone network. In preferred embodiments, the phones are connected within a single private branch exchange (PBX), which can be distributed across individual nodes over large distances. The... Agent: Groover & Associates

20080025490 - Method and system for providing long distance service: A system and method of providing long distance service products to users. Post-paid debit calling cards are purchased on-line by a customer or user and the user is billed monthly, along with other service charges. The calling card account, however, is debited as it is used. Since the fee for... Agent: Merchant & Gould PC

20080025491 - Method and system for providing multimedia ring back tone service by using call-side switching center: Disclosed is a method for providing a multimedia Ring Back Tone service by using a caller-side switching center, which including the steps of: (a) receiving location information of a terminating terminal, information regarding whether the terminating terminal has joined the RBT service, and information (multimedia codec information) regarding a multimedia... Agent: Lowe Hauptman Ham & Berner, LLP

20080025492 - Methods, systems, and computer program products for specifying a particular enum service type in a communications network that utilizes a plurality of different enum service types: The subject matter described herein includes methods, systems, and computer program products for specifying an ENUM service type in a communications network that uses a plurality of different ENUM service types. According to one method, at least one ENUM service type is identified from a plurality of different ENUM service... Agent: Jenkins, Wilson, Taylor & Hunt, P. A.

20080025493 - Video and voice communication routing network: An IP-based call center is able to route video and audio calls. The call routing is skills-based, and can be configured to give preference first to representatives or agents associated with an entity, and then to representatives or agents within a network associated with that entity. If no representative is... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew, LLP

20080025494 - Acoustic shock prevention: Acoustic shock is reduced by attenuating an input signal based on tones detected through frequency domain analysis. The spectrum of the input signal is obtained. A relative energy signal includes a plurality of relative energy elements, each representing the relative energy in a corresponding frequency bin of the input signal... Agent: Brooks Kushman P.C.

20080019486 - Method and apparatus for line testing: A method of testing a communication line includes applying a voltage as a function of time on the communication line. The function includes at least one ramp and at least one plateau. The method includes measuring a current flowing via the communication line, and calculating at least one electrical property... Agent: Dicke, Billig & Czaja

20080019488 - Communication system and voice message processing method used in communication system: According to one embodiment, a communication system includes a plurality of voice mail apparatuses which include mailboxes corresponding to a plurality of telephone terminals, and record a voice message transmitted to any one of the plural telephone terminals in a mailbox corresponding to the telephone terminal and a file server... Agent: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

20080019487 - Method and system for termination blocking of message delivery service in a swtich-based telecommunication system: A method for providing a messaging service in a telecommunication system (900) includes providing a calling party with an option to leave a voice message (1010). If the calling party accepts the option, determining screening criteria for the called communication station (1018). In response to the screening criteria, the call... Agent: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

20080019489 - Entertaining or advertising hygiene apparatus: A method and apparatus are disclosed which involve an improved way to coerce use of a soap dispenser (or other hygiene device). A soap dispenser according to at least one embodiment, includes a teaching, entertaining or communication means that is fun and informative that is triggered when the soap dispenser... Agent: John M. Lynn

20080019490 - Entertaining or advertising hygiene apparatus: A method and apparatus are disclosed which involve an improved way to coerce use of a soap dispenser (or other hygiene device). A soap dispenser according to at least one embodiment, includes a teaching, entertaining or communication means that is fun or informative. The soap dispenser may also be utilized... Agent: John Lynn

20080019491 - Telephone ring activation of a wireless transmitter for remote control of a television: An apparatus and method for use with a television and a telephone line. In response to reception of a ring signal carried on the telephone line, at least one stored remote control command (e.g., “mute”) is wirelessly transmitted to the television for effectuating remote control operations of the television in... Agent: Gordon & Jacobson, P.C.

20080019492 - Controlling data rate of a facsimilie transmission: A network device to control a transmission rate of one or more fax data units transferred between a transmitting and a receiving network device. The transmission rate is controlled based on one or more control parameters. The control parameters may be generated based on comparing the configured values and the... Agent: Intel/blakely

20080019493 - Telecommunication services reporting system: A system and method of providing telecommunication services reports is disclosed. In a particular embodiment, the method includes receiving a plurality of call detail records (CDRs) from a server. The plurality of CDRs are associated with a particular telecommunications service provider and each of the plurality of CDRs includes a... Agent: Toler Schaffer, LLP

20080019494 - Telephone device: The television receiver apparatus in the prior art has such a problem that, when phone calls come in this receiver set while the user watches a television, incoming calls of all phone calls are informed and also the television watching is suspended or interrupted. A telephone device of the present... Agent: Pearne & Gordon LLP

20080019495 - Voice conference apparatus, method for confirming voice in voice conference system and program product: A voice conference apparatus includes: a communication unit that transmits and receives a first voice signal to and from another apparatus via a network; an output unit that reproduces the first voice signal received by the communication unit and outputs the reproduced first voice signal as a first voice; an... Agent: Drinker Biddle & Reath (dc)

20080019497 - Automated telephone attendant: A telephony system (100) includes a user device (110, 130) configured to enable a user of the telephony system (100) to place and receive telephone calls, and a service node (180, 185) configured to communicate with the user device (110, 130) and to thereby provide the user with an automated... Agent: Verizon Patent Management Group

20080019496 - Method and system for providing directory assistance: A method of providing directory assistance from an information provider is provided, comprising: obtaining an utterance including a request for an entity from a requester; passing said utterance through an automated speech recognition system to determine a phone number for said entity; determining if said entity is a subscriber to... Agent: Fasken Martineau Dumoulin, LLP

20080019498 - System and method for routing both toll-free and caller-paid telephone calls to call service centers: A system and method of routing both caller-paid and toll-free telephone calls includes a local exchange network and an interexchange network in communication with a call routing processor. The call routing processor receives status information on at least two call service centers and provides routing instructions to both the interexchange... Agent: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

20080019499 - Method and system for restricting and enhancing topology displays for multi-customer logical networks within a network management system: A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product are presented for management of a distributed data processing system on behalf of a plurality of management customers. A set of logical networks within the distributed data processing system and/or a set of physical networks in the distributed data processing system are... Agent: Ibm Corp (ya) C/o Yee & Associates PC

20080019500 - Shared call center systems and methods (gigapop): Embodiments of the present invention relate to shared call centers. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a shared call center that is in electrical communication with one or more client call centers. The shared call center, in embodiments, provides monitoring of agent personnel, provides customization of agent... Agent: Merchant & Gould PC

20080019501 - Method for extending ethernet over twisted pair conductors and to the telephone network and plug-in apparatus for same employing standard mechanics: An Ethernet extension device is provided for metro or last mile Ethernet service via twisted pairs as opposed to fiber optics. The Ethernet extension device is implemented as a plug-in extension for existing infrastructure (e.g., in a standard electrical wall box or Type-200™ Mechanics card) that employs lighting and power... Agent: Roylance, Abrams, Berdo & Goodman, L.L.P.

20080019502 - User interface substrate for handset device having an audio port: A substrate (56) for a handset device defines at least a portion of an audio port (274) and may include a keypad contact array (108) on the substrate (56) and a display electrode pattern (604) on the substrate (56). A display (52) is coupled to the substrate and is configured... Agent: Motorola Inc. C/o Vedder Price Kaufman & Kammholz, P.C.

20080013694 - Inventorying communication circuits: Inventorying communications circuits may be provided. Consistent with embodiments of the present invention, systems and methods are disclosed for inventorying communication circuits. A calculation may provide a facility requirement value corresponding to a required number of service pair to serve a location with a predetermined service quality. Then, it may... Agent: Merchant & Gould Bellsouth Corporation

20080013697 - Method and apparatus for retrieving voicemail messages from a client/server network using a mobile device: A method for retrieving a voicemail message from a client/server communication network using a mobile device includes: sending a voicemail retrieval request from the mobile device to the client/server communication network, generating an RSS feed at the client/server communication network, generating an audio file that corresponds to the voicemail message... Agent: Inter-tel, Inc.

20080013699 - Methods and systems for selecting a buddy from a buddy list and for placing call to a buddy: There is described a provides a method for selecting a buddy with which a user wants to connect. The buddy having a buddy identification being listed in a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations. The user using a user telephone means to which is associated identification information. The method comprises: initiating... Agent: Ogilvy Renault LLP

20080013695 - System and method for verifying central office wiring associated with line sharing: A system and method for verifying the integrity of a DSL circuit on a shared telephone line. The invention uses the amplitude modulation principles to overcome the difficulty associated with a blocking capacitor that isolates a DSLAM on the DSL circuit from the rest of the shared telephone line. A... Agent: Withers & Keys For Bell South

20080013696 - Method and apparatus for incorporating emergency 911 service into personal computer based nomadic telephony operations: A computing device operates to execute a nomadic emergency process and a telephony interface is connected with the computing device. The nomadic emergency process operates to update current location information of the computing device and connects with an emergency 911 system.... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20080013698 - Method, system and article of manufacture for bookmarking voicemail messages: A voicemail system includes a voicemail bookmarking procedure that permits users to bookmark voicemail messages during message playback. Upon receiving a bookmark request from a user, the procedure generates a bookmark pointer defining a starting point for subsequent playback of the message. The bookmark pointer can be based, in part,... Agent: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

20080013700 - Method and system for providing consumer opinions to companies: Method and system for accepting, handling and distributing opinions and feedback to any entity, company or institution from any customer or user. Opinions can be sent through various communication channels such as mobile phones, SMS messaging systems, other mobile devices, PC (internet), phones and the like. The system enables two-way... Agent: Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C.

20080013701 - Voting and multi-media actionable messaging services for mobile social networks: Provided herein are systems and methods that provide community based voting and/or actionable multi-media messaging in a social network. In an embodiment, actionable multi-media messaging is provided, in which the user receives a message comprising an actionable item that the user can act on. The actionable item can be, e.g.,... Agent: Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLPIPProsecution Department

20080013702 - Telephone call initiation through an on-line search: There are disclosed methods and apparatus for telephone call initiation through an on-line search. A search response includes at least one hit corresponding to a search request, an ad having a dial link, and instructions for triggering a multi-leg phone call with a merchant phone number associated with the dial... Agent: SocalIPLaw Group LLP

20080013703 - Telematic system with an automatic reconnection support: The system (1) according to the invention is arranged to support an automatic informing of callers (S1, S2, . . . ,SN) upon an event of an interrupt in a telecommunication line engaged with a receiving station (4) according to a telecommunication protocol. In order to carry out said automatic... Agent: Philips Intellectual Property & Standards

20080013704 - Communication system and method: A method of determining information relating to one or more users of one or more communication devices in a communication system comprising receiving a request for information, retrieving data relating to an association between communication devices and users identified in the request, obtaining presence information relating to communication devices in... Agent: Hewlett-packard Company Intellectual Property Administration

20080013705 - Web-based and telephony-based automated notification method and system: A method and apparatus for providing notification reminders via a communications system, comprising generating at least one of a web-based or telephone-based interface to an account supported by a server, creating, through the at least one of a web-based or telephone-based interface, notification reminder information comprising a notification reminder, contact... Agent: Raymond R. Moser Jr., Esq. MoserIPLaw Group

20080013706 - Personalized conference call system and method: An enhancement for an electronic calendar provides a single call-in number and, preferably a pass code established for a user/participant in any and all conference call(s) in which use of the invention is authorized by an owner/caller initiating a conference call. The call-in number accesses the computer corresponding to the... Agent: Whitham, Curtis & Christofferson, P.C.

20080013707 - System and method for providing telephony services using proxies: A system and method for a proxy service to provide telephone conferencing services and personal telephony services. Users can participate in the conference by connecting through different types of networks using a device having one or more types of communication lines connected to the proxy service. A primary user can... Agent: Joseph T. Van Leeuwen

20080013708 - System and method for providing telephony services using proxies: A system and method for a proxy service to provide telephone conferencing services and personal telephony services. Users can participate in the conference by connecting through different types of networks using a device having one or more types of communication lines connected to the proxy service. A primary user can... Agent: Joseph T. Van Leeuwen

20080013709 - Interactive learning method for a handheld communication device: An interactive learning method for a handheld communication device is provided. The handheld communication device is communicated with a communication terminal. The learning method includes the following steps: calculating a preset time interval upon receipt of a predetermined command; generating an alarm signal after passing through the preset time interval;... Agent: Birch Stewart Kolasch & Birch

20080013710 - Method and system for providing enhanced caller identification information for subscribers that interface via private trunk groups: A system and method deliver audible caller identification information when standard Caller ID information is invalid or can not be provided, even when the called party connects to the network by private trunk group facilities. In one disclosed embodiment, a trunk group trigger associated with the called communication station is... Agent: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

20080013711 - Method and apparatus for processing routing requests: The invention provides a method and apparatus for communication and provision of routing address information. The prior owner of a called telephone number is referred to herein as a “prior subscriber”. When a number is released by a prior subscriber, it is placed into a database referred to as the... Agent: J.d. Harriman Ii, Esq. Dla Piper US LLP

20080013712 - Unified communication directory service: A Universal Directory Service (UDS) stores all of a person's various communication service identifiers (i.e., home phone number, email address, cell phone number, etc.). The UDS enables a person to easily distribute any or all of his/her identifiers to others by simply distributing only one of the person's IDs. The... Agent: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

20080013713 - Key unit, method for making key top, and method for manufacturing key unit using the same: As a marking laser beam, a laser beam of wavelength 532 nm obtained by extracting by extracting second higher harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser or a laser beam of wavelength 355 nm obtained by extracting third higher harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser is used on a metal film formed on... Agent: Hedman & Costigan P.C.

20080013714 - Earset: An earset including a main housing with a microphone and an ear speaker mounted therein; a cover rotatably connected to the main housing and rotating along a first hinge axis to expose or close the ear speaker, the ear speaker being exposed with rotation of the cover and rotating along... Agent: The Farrell Law Firm, P.C.

20080008298 - Method and system for enhancing the discontinuous transmission functionality: The invention allows improving the control of transmission of the silence detection (SID) frames to prevent annoying effects in the music sent to the calling terminal instead of ringback tones. This can be achieved by disabling the discontinuous transmission functionality during the period of call establishment. There are many different... Agent: Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.

20080008295 - Method of providing advertisement via telephone mobile phone with user request: A system and method of providing advertisements to telephones and mobile phones during the set up of a call connection in a program controlled telephone exchange system includes the following steps: (1) storing advertisements corresponding to profiles for various phone users; (2) providing the advertisement feeds upon the consent of... Agent: Brooks Kushman P.C.

20080008296 - Data capture in a distributed network: Included are embodiments for capturing data associated with a communication. At least one embodiment includes a daemon appliance that includes logic configured to capture at least a portion of data associated with a communication between a first communications device and a second communications device and logic configured to determine a... Agent: Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley, LLP

20080008297 - Interactive voice communications network entertainment: A method for operating a voice-based interactive entertainment program, the method including: a) receiving a voice communication from at least one user; b) selecting output in accordance with a voice-based interactive entertainment program, programmed with a plurality of interacting autonomous virtual performers; c) presenting the output to the user; d)... Agent: Baker Botts LLP C/o Intellectual Property Department

20080008299 - Messaging system: In one aspect the invention provides a method of addressing users in a messaging architecture comprising a plurality of voice messaging systems each associated with one or more users, the method comprising, at a selected messaging system: defining at least one user group; allocating users of the messaging architecture to... Agent: Ryan, Mason & Lewis, LLP

20080008300 - Method in a communication device for processing calls: A system and method are disclosed for processing calls in a communication device (102, 104). A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a communication device having a controller (206) for managing operations of a transceiver (202) that exchanges messages with third party communication devices... Agent: Akerman Senterfitt

20080008301 - Network telephone device: A network telephone device includes a telephone host, a control module, a processing module, an audio/video output unit, and a data reader/writer. The telephone host provides general communication processes of network telephone via the information network. The control module produces recording signal and transmitting signal according to the receiving process... Agent: Ishimaru & Zahrt LLP

20080008302 - System and method for h.323 call logging: A method for call-logging is provided. The method includes monitoring packet headers transmitted from and received by a port associated with a computer device. Next, the port number of the computer device is determined. Subsequently, an identification is made as to whether a communication channel for passing data has been... Agent: Epson Research And Development Inc Intellectual Property Dept

20080008303 - Message-based expense application: A method for managing an expense report for an expense report application is provided. The expense report application is configured to update entries in an expense report based on messages received from one or more messaging channels. The method includes receiving a message sent through a messaging channel in the... Agent: Townsend And Townsend And Crew LLP

20080008304 - Implementation of collaborative telecommunications services: This invention relates to methods and apparatus for establishing the flexible connections required to serve collaborative Telestar service requests. Telestar refers to services frequently described as being Tele* services such as teleeducation, teleconsultation and telemedicine. A customer node, such as a doctor's office, is connected via a high speed link... Agent: Werner Ulrich

20080008305 - Call distribution in a direct-communication network: In one aspect, a call distribution in a direct communication network, also designated as a peer-to-peer network is provided. In doing this, the difficulty exists of integrating the call distributing functionality into the peer-to-peer network while retaining the self-organization capability and the fail-safety of existing peer-to-peer networks. To solve for... Agent: Siemens Corporation Intellectual Property Department

20080008306 - Out of band messaging for completion of response to information request: A technique that allows an advertising supported information service to hand off a call in progress to another system, such as may be provided by a third party service provider, for all or part of the call. This permits the analysis of the results of a query, playback of an... Agent: Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C.

20080008307 - Method, system and medium for plug-and-play downloading of speed dial lists: A speed dial list associated with a telephone line is received via at least one of a computer network and a telephone network. The speed dial list is stored in a database and associated with an identifier of the telephone line. An event of connecting a telephone set to the... Agent: Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

20080008308 - System and method for routing calls: A method and system of routing calls. In a particular embodiment, the method includes prompting a caller of a call for caller information with a first system. The first system has a first interface characteristic. The method further includes selecting a destination for the call based on the caller information.... Agent: Toler Schaffer, LLP

20080008309 - Method and apparatus for customer key routing: In one embodiment, a method is provided for routing calls within an automatic contact distribution system comprising assessing at least two evaluators programmed to collect information about identified sets of attributes associated with a call. The system then initiates the collection of information to enable the evaluators to assign a... Agent: Welsh & Katz, Ltd

20080008310 - Input method using standard numeric keypad: An input method using standard numeric keypad which complies with CCITT standards and comprises a plurality of CCITT standard keys is disclosed. Each CCITT standard key has a corresponding CCITT key value. The method comprises the steps of: reassigning a first CCITT key value with an actuating key value of... Agent: Troxell Law Office PLLC

20080008311 - Methods and apparatus for improving voice quality in an environment with noise: A method for improving a downlink signal received by a listener on a phone is disclosed. The method includes calculating an environment noise level of the listener and filtering and adjusting gain of the downlink signal based on the environment noise level.... Agent: Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C.

20080008312 - Intelligent provisioning of dsp channels for codec changes: A communication system in which a profile of codecs is loaded at the originating end. The originating end sends the profile of codecs to the terminating end and receives in return an indication of which codec to use. The originating end and the terminating end create a reduced profile that... Agent: Marger Johnson & Mccollom, P.C.

20080008313 - System and method for selectively activating a communication device: The invention provides a system and method for detecting activation of a communication device via passive means. For the system and method, the device comprises a casing for housing a display and a keyboard; a microprocessor controlling aspects of the keyboard and display; a passive usage sensor; and a power... Agent: Mccarthy Tetrault LLP