Method and apparatus for vocally communicating to a caller at a remote

Abstract

A telephone system is disclosed for remotely obtaining from a selected local telephone station audible synthesized speech representative of directory telephone numbers and/or names of previous callers stored digitally or alphanumerically in a data memory of a Caller ID interface unit at the local telephone station. The stored directory telephone numbers and/or names were previously sent to the local telephone station from terminating central office Stored Program Controlled Switching (SPCS) equipment responsively to the telephone line of the local telephone station having Caller ID service and/or other Custom Local Area Signalling System (CLASS) services which discloses a calling party directory telephone number and/or name to a called party. An apparatus, such as a telephone station set or a separate stand-alone unit connected to the telephone station set, and method are also disclosed for recalling the stored directory telephone numbers and/or names from the data memory of the Caller ID interface unit and converting the directory telephone numbers and/or names into a form which can be processed by a speech generator, for receiving the directory telephone numbers and/or names to the speech generator which converts logic signals of the directory telephone numbers and/or names into sounds to audible synthesized speech, and for communicating the audible speech to a calling customer at a remote telephone station, in response to a predetermined command code keyed-in on the remote telephone station keypad by the calling customer.