Rockwell International Corporation

Willard J Torgrim

David C Nicholas

John C Kleitsch

Robert M Zuranski

An automatic call distributor (10) having a multiport switch (12) controlled by a central control processing unit (14) and an associated memory (16) for receipt of audio voice energy from answered telephonic calls through an external telephonic public switching network (22) to selectively connect the answered calls with internal telephonic units (18) coupled with the multiport switch (12) provided with a digital signal processing circuit card (30) for determining the presence of an answering machine (24) by running a pause timer and a delay timer which disables execution of the pause timer to establish a first minimum time period that an initial pause in the received voice energy from an external telephonic unit (20) must exceed to indicate the presence of a live voice in which the pause timer is disabled from timing any pauses until the end of a delay time internal, a second minimum time period which is no longer than the first minimum time period that a pause must exceed after the lapse of the delay time interval and detecting a live voice upon lapse of the first time period before the end of the initial pause or lapse of the second time period before the end of any pause after the initially measured pause.

Automatic call distribution with answer machine detection apparatus and

An answer detector receives first and second control signals from an automatic calling distribution system. The first and second control signals are latched for further use by the answer detector. An address decode circuit receives address signals from the automatic calling distribution system. Furthermore, a pulse code modulated (PCM) data stream and a clock signal is received from the automatic calling distribution system. The PCM data stream is converted from a serial format to a parallel format and held in a data latch. A processor in the answer detector in response to the first and second control signals monitors the PCM data stream for tone and voice energy. Through this analysis made by the processor, the answer detector responds to any of seven conditions: ringback tone, voice, tritone, busy tone, reorder tone, dial tone and a no response status. The processor places the proper response in an output buffer which is transmitted by an output signalling circuit back to the automatic calling distribution system.

Telephone switching system with voice detection and answer supervision

A method and apparatus for providing improved telephonic conferences is presented. A speaker is selected for each conferee from the signals of the other conferees. The peak values of the speaker signal establish a variable reference level which another conferee must first exceed in order to become the new speaker and establish a new reference level. The reference level is continuously allowed to decay so that new speakers may gain the floor when the current speaker's peak signals fall below the peak signals of another speaker. Both an analog and a digital embodiment of the invention are presented.

Growing community of inventors

Batavia, IL, United States of America

Willard J Torgrim