International Business Machines Corporation

Other

David Andrew Clarke

Nicholas David Butler

Ronald John Bowater

David Seager Renshaw

Stephen Graham Lawrence

Graham Hugh Tuttle

Steven Nicholas Bennett

Robert W Farr

A voice processing system is connected to a switch via multiple telephone lines, and provides a set of line objects, each line object being associated with one of the physical telephone lines. The line object allows a demarcation to be made between the underlying voice processing system software, and external business applications. Thus a line object supports a set of methods such as Get DTMF Tone, Play Audio, Answer Call, and End Call, to allow the external business applications to perform desired operations on a telephone line. These methods are invoked via a set of corresponding IVR action objects, which in turn are integrated into the business application. The business application itself, and its IVR actions, regard the line objects effectively as servers to provide IVR functionality. The business application may therefore run partially or completely on a separate physical machine from the IVR system itself.

Voice processing system

The present invention relates to establishing a communication channel between two communication systems having computer telephony integration (CTI). Many CTI systems are configured into incoming and outgoing lines according to the anticipated demands. Consequently, if sufficient outgoing or incoming capacity is unavailable at a given time to support a communication channel of required characteristics, the users of such a system must conventionally wait until sufficient capacity becomes available. However, the present invention determines who the intended addressee is and can instruct the CTI system associated with that addressee to instigate the establishment of a communication channel to the user who originally desired the connection. The instructions can be sent to the intended addressee using for example, another communication network, such as the Internet or other data communications network. This arrangement also allows the call to be placed in the reverse direction, where this is favourable for tariff reasons. The invention also includes the automatic selection of a telephone network carrier based on tariff data requested over a data network such as the Internet.

Communication method and system

A message interceptor is interposed in a link of a communications signalling network such as an SS7 network. The interceptor separately maintains the link level protocols on the two portions of the link with which it interfaces. Message data is transferred across between the link portions by a transfer circuit of the interceptor. In the course of this transfer, the nature of the data is checked by a selective action control circuit against selection criteria held in a store. If a selection criteria is met, the control circuit acts to suppress or modify the data.

Communications signalling network apparatus

In a display system of the type where one or more symbol tables 20 are stored in general purpose storage and include blocks of data forming symbol definitions for each of a set of symbols, and an all points addressable (APA) display buffer 30 is provided which includes on-screen APA storage 32 for data indicative of pels to be displayed on a screen and off-screen APA storage 34 for symbol definitions with buffer control logic 36 for associating symbol definitions in off-screen APA storage with locations in on-screen APA storage such that symbols are displayed at desired locations on the display screen, cache control logic 42 is provided for copying the definition of a symbol for display from the symbol table in general purpose storage to off-screen APA storage if the definition for the selected symbol is not already held in off-screen APA storage, whereby the off-screen APA storage is configured as a cache for holding definitions for selected symbols. A cache table 40 is provided in general purpose storage and comprises an entry for each symbol in the symbol set for pointing to the location in off-screen APA storage, if any, at which the corresponding symbol definition is held, each entry in the cache table also being associated with the location in the symbol table at which the corresponding symbol definition is stored.

Display system with symbol font memory

A curve generator for a display system with an arc generator has for generating an arc (10) of a circle (14) from data defining the locations of two end points P.sub.1 and P.sub.3 and an intermediate point P.sub.2 on the arc. The arc generator has an initializer (40) for calculating the angle subtended between a first vector (21), from a first of the end points, P.sub.1 to the intermediate point P.sub.2, and a second vector (32), from the second of the end points P.sub.3 to the intermediate point P.sub.2, and an arc plotter (44) for defining a succession of further vectors n1 from the first end point P.sub.1 and for calculating, for each further vector, its point of intersection P.sub.n with a counterpart vector 3n, from the second end point P.sub.3, with which it subtends the same angle, whereby a succession of further points P.sub.n are plotted on the circular arc.

Curve generation in a display system

In a digital data processing system having a resource which is shared between a plurality of users, an arbitration system comprises a plurality of resource requestors (14 to 16) each associated with a respective user, and a resource grantor (10) to which the requestors are connected in parallel via a set of common lines (11 to 13). Each resource requestor is adapted to apply a request signal on a predetermined first one (11) of the lines when the associated user requests the resource, and the resource grantor is responsive to the presence of a request signal on the first line to subsequently apply a grant signal on a predetermined second one (12) of the lines to grant the resource. Each resource requestor requesting the resource is responsive to the grant signal to apply an accept signal on a predetermined third one (13) of the lines after a delay which is different for each resource requestor and which determines the priority of the user associated with the resource requestor. The first accept signal so applied gives the resource to the associated user and prevents any other resource requestor from applying an accept signal on the third line until the resource is relinquished by the current user.

Digital data processing arbitration system

A semiconductor integrated pressure transducer in which a semiconductor substrate incorporates a hermetically sealed system comprising a first chamber communicating with a second chamber via a capillary. The first chamber contains a fluid and has at least one portion of a wall in the form of a deformable membrane separating the atmosphere within the chamber from that external to the sensor. The second chamber contains a compressible gas and has rigid walls. The capillary is partially filled with electrically conducting liquid, and the liquid physically separates the fluid in the first chamber from the gas in the second chamber. The wall of the capillary is electrically conductive at least in two separated regions such that in use, at a predetermined external atmosphere pressure, the electrically conductive liquid makes contact with both electrically conductive regions thereby completing an electrical circuit.

Growing community of inventors

Eastleigh, United Kingdom

David Andrew Clarke