Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

Mci Communications Corporation

Mci, Inc.

Kevin R Witzman

Isaac K Elliott

Louis G Gottlieb

Richard A Sostheim

Arlene M Plaza

Robert A Smout

Paul T Schultz

Kevin F James

A method and system are disclosed that enables a customer to specify when services should be provisioned on a 'just-in-time' or elastic basis. By dynamically specifying when services should be received, a customer is better able to suit such services to customer needs, thereby allowing the customer to only pay for what is actually used. Using an on-demand portal, a customer may prescribe when (or the degree to which) services should be enabled, and/or when the devices that utilize those services, or the services themselves, need to be monitored. Accordingly, the customer is given flexibility to dictate when services are required or when their services or devices require monitoring by a service provider, and the service provider is given the flexibility to tailor the amount of resources required to support and manage the customer's demands, thereby enabling more efficient use of both the customer's and service provider's resources.

Method and system for on demand elastic management of devices and services

A method and device are configured to receive voice data from a user and perform speech recognition on the received voice data. A confidence score is calculated that represents the likelihood that received voice data has been accurately recognized. A likely age range is determined associated with the user based on the confidence score.

Age determination using speech

An apparatus is provided for obtaining broadcast content disseminated by a broadcaster with which a perceiver of content is in unilateral communication. The apparatus includes a communications unit configured to receive a message from the content perceiver, the message including time information associated with the content and source information for the content. A processing device in communication with said communications unit and at least one broadcaster database is configured to obtain the time and source information included in the message and to use the time and source information to obtain identification of the content from the broadcaster database. The processing device may be in communication with at least one content provider database and is further configured to cause the identified content to be distributed from the content provider database to the perceiver. Methods and computer program products are also provided.

Apparatus, method, and computer program product for obtaining broadcast content

A device may be configured to provide a query to a user. Voice data may be received from the user responsive to the query. Voice recognition may be performed on the voice data to identify a query answer. A confidence score associated with the query answer may be calculated, wherein the confidence score represents the likelihood that the query answer has been accurately identified. A likely age range associated with the user may be determined based on the confidence score. The device to calculate the confidence score may be tuned to increase a likelihood of recognition of voice data for a particular age range of callers.

A device may include logic configured to receive voice data from a user, identify a result from the voice data, calculate a confidence score associated with the result, and determine a likely age range associated with the user based on the confidence score.

A line feed concentrator serves as a network information concentrator having its inputs connected to the outputs of plural adjunct processors. Switches and other network elements are connected to the inputs of a respective adjunct processor. The concentrator compresses data and filters it, thus providing only the type of data required by a specific downstream application. The concentrator incorporates a match/merge subsystem which provides the ability to match/merge network call record files originating at different network elements, but relating to the same call. In essence, the concentrator provides a single point for the call record data from the various network elements thereby facilitating the match/merge function.

Network information concentrator

Call records are generated from various network elements processing a call. A consolidation feed acts as a concentrator for the various records. However, since the concentrator receives the call records at different times, the invention provides a concentrator with a count of the various types of network elements which have processed the call. This allows the concentrator to match and merge the records once all the records, indicated by the final count, have been received. In order to update the count as a call progresses from network element to network element, the originating network element creates a buffer which is carried through the network, from element to element. As each element is affected, it adds a count to the buffer.

Single network record construction

Telephone network switches and other network elements are connected to the inputs of respective storage and verification elements (SAVE) which are a distinct improvement over prior art adjunct processors. The SAVE cooperates with a network information concentrator so as to provide raw data that is filtered of extraneous data so as to be useful as raw (filtered) data for downstream clients. The network information architecture described herein also operates upon input network event data to achieve event matching and database enhancement of the network event data. The end result is matched or enhanced data for downstream clients, when required. The network information architecture further cooperates with a generalized statistics engine for summarizing network event statistics or preselected types of calls, such as 800 or 900 number calls. These statistics become available, when desired, for downstream clients. The generalized statistics engine also provides alarm data, derived from statistics, for downstream clients.

Network information architecture having centralizing storage and

A telephone network has elements that generate application data field (ADF) requests to data access points, requesting routing information for telephone calls. The data access points respond with application data field (ADF) records. A request and responding record constitute an ADF message pair. Call detail records are also generated by network elements during a call. A centralizing storage and verification system (SAVE) replaces prior art adjunct processors. It includes a network data buffer followed by a formatter for the network data that formats the data blocks and identifies them by corresponding sequence numbers. A buffer is provided for the blocked data and corresponding sequence numbers. An archiving hard disk is present for storing the network data blocks and corresponding sequence numbers. An interface expedites bi-directional data communication between the SAVE and an external information concentrator. A first input of the interface is connected to an output of the network data buffer for transferring network data to the concentrator. A second input of the interface is connected to an output of the hard disk for retrieving network data when previous communication of such data to the information concentrator is incomplete, and retransmission is requested by the concentrator. Verification is made of the requested data for retransmission, thus connecting only verified retransmitted network data to the interface for retransmission to the information concentrator.

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Monument, CO, United States of America

Kevin R Witzman