Multi-channel quiet calls

Abstract

A system and method for simultaneously conducting multiple telephone conversations is provided. In an embodiment, a user converses with one individual on a first channel while simultaneously transmitting audible utterances to a second individual or a second channel. The user can select the desired channel or channels and a desired phrase and an electronic representation of the selected phrase is transmitted over the selected channel(s).

1 . A method for a first user to communicate with a second user and a third user over multiple channels comprising the steps of:
 (a) communicating audibly over a first channel between the first user and the second user; and   (b) initiating a new communication over a second channel between the first user and the third user, the second channel being capable of transmitting an audible input from the third user only to the first user while being capable of transmitting audible signals corresponding to a first user's silent input from the first user to the third user, by performing the following steps:
 (1) selecting the second channel; 
 (2) selecting a phrase which can be predefined, recorded as needed, or synthetically generated on demand; 
 (3) generating an audible utterance representative of the selected phrase; and 
 (4) providing the audible utterance over the selected second channel only while communicating over the first channel simultaneously. 
   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting a second channel further includes selecting a plurality of channels, and wherein the step of providing the audible utterance over the selected second channel further includes providing the audible utterance over the plurality of selected channels. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of generating an audible utterance includes the step of obtaining an internal representation of a phrase element associated with the selected phrase and generating an audible utterance based on the internal phrase element. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting a second channel includes selecting a graphical representation of said second channel using a graphical user interface. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting a phrase includes selecting a graphical representation of said phrase using a graphical user interface. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the graphical representation of said phrase is selected from a group consisting of an icon, a symbol, a figure, a graph, a checkbox, a GUI widget, a graphics button, and a pulldown menu button. 
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said internal representation of said selected phrase is obtained from a host computer. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step generating an audible utterance includes text-to-speech processing. 
   
   
       9 . A multi-channel telecommunication system, comprising:
 (a) an audio input;   (b) a channel representation;   (c) a phrase representation which can be predefined, recorded as needed, or synthetically generated on demand;   (d) a display capable of displaying a channel representation and a phrase representation;   (e) a memory capable of storing the channel representation, phrase representation and a phrase element associated with the phrase representation, wherein the phrase element has an internal representation of an audible utterance;   (f) a processor, coupled to the audio input, display and memory, wherein the processor initiates a first control signal and a second control signal not in response to an incoming communication;   (g) an audio generator, coupled to the processor and memory, wherein the audio generator generates an audible utterance responsive to the first control signal and the phrase element; and,   (h) a channel selector, coupled to the processor and audio generator, wherein the channel selector selects a channel responsive to the second control signal and provides the audible utterance over the selected channel only while communicating over another channel and being capable of receiving an audible input over the selected channel.   
   
   
       10 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the multi-channel telecommunication system further comprises:
 (i) an audio mixer, coupled to the processor and channel selector, mixing audio received from said channel selector.   
   
   
       11 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the phrase representation and channel representation are displayed in a graphic user interface (GUI). 
   
   
       12 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the multi-channel telecommunication system further comprises:
 (i) an audio monitor, coupled to the processor of channel selector, monitoring an audio level received from said channel selector.   
   
   
       13 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the channel representation is selected from a group consisting of a text and a label. 
   
   
       14 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the internal representation is in a format selected from a group consisting of a sound file, a record or playback, a text and a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (“MIDI”) sequence. 
   
   
       15 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the internal representation is obtained from a host computer. 
   
   
       16 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the first control signal is generated in response to a user selecting the phrase representation and the second control signal is generated in response to a user selecting the channel representation. 
   
   
       17 . The multi-channel telecommunication system of  claim 9 , wherein the phrase representation and channel representation are selected from a group consisting of a button, a switch, a barcode, a label, a glyph, and Braille. 
   
   
       18 . A general purpose computing device, comprising:
 (a) a display, capable of displaying a channel representation and a phrase representation;   (b) a memory, capable of storing the channel representation, phrase representation, and a phrase element associated with the phrase representation, wherein the phrase element can be predefined, recorded as needed; or synthetically generated on demand and has an internal representation of an audible utterance;   (c) a processor, coupled to the display and memory, wherein the processor initiates to generate a first control signal responsive to selection of the channel representation and a second control signal responsive to selection of the phrase representation;   (d) an audio generator, coupled to the processor and memory, wherein the audio generator generates an audible utterance responsive to the second control signal and the phrase element; and   (e) a channel selector, coupled to the processor and audio generator, wherein the channel selector activates a channel responsive to the first control signal and provides the audible utterance over the selected channel only not in response to an incoming communication while communicating over another channel and being capable of receiving an audible input over the selected channel.   
   
   
       19 . The general purpose computing device of  claim 18 , wherein the display is a touchscreen display. 
   
   
       20 . The general purpose computing device of  claim 18 , wherein the channel representation and phrase representation are displayed in a Graphic User Interface (“GUI”). 
   
   
       21 . The general purpose computing device of  claim 18 , wherein the general purpose computing device is a personal digital assistant. 
   
   
       22 . A telecommunication infrastructure, comprising:
 (a) a first electronic device, coupled to the telecommunication infrastructure over a first channel;   (b) a second electronic device, coupled to the telecommunication infrastructure over a second channel;   (c) a third electronic device, coupled to the telecommunication infrastructure, capable of selecting the first channel or the second channel and selecting a phrase representation which can be predefined, recorded as needed, or synthetically generated on demand; and,   (d) a processing device, coupled to the telecommunication infrastructure, capable of storing:
 1) a phrase element associated with the phrase representation; and, 
 2) a software program for providing an audible utterance over the selected first or second channel only in response to a selected phrase representation while permitting the third electronic device to communicate over the unselected second or first channel and being capable of receiving an audible input over the selected channel. 
   
   
   
       23 . The telecommunication infrastructure of  claim 22 , wherein the third electronic device generates an in-band signal in response to a phrase representation selection and a channel representation selection. 
   
   
       24 . The telecommunication infrastructure of  claim 22 , wherein the third electronic device generates an out-of-band signal in response to a phrase representation selection and a channel representation selection. 
   
   
       25 . The telecommunication infrastructure of  claim 23 , wherein the signal is a Dual-Tone Multi Frequency (“DTMF”) signal. 
   
   
       26 . The telecommunication infrastructure of  claim 22 , wherein the phrase representation is selected from the group consisting of an icon, a symbol, a figure, a graph, a checkbox, a GUI widget and a graphics button. 
   
   
       27 . The telecommunication infrastructure of  claim 22 , wherein the phrase representation is selected from the group consisting of a text and a label. 
   
   
       28 . The telecommunication infrastructure of  claim 22 , wherein the processing device is a computer coupled to the Internet. 
   
   
       29 . The telecommunication infrastructure of  claim 22 , wherein the processing device is a relay between the first electronic device, the second electronic device, and the third electronic device. 
   
   
       30 . A method for a user to communicate with a plurality of recipients over a plurality of channels, comprising steps of:
 (a) communicating over a first channel with a first recipient;   (b) selecting a channel for generating an audible utterance;   (c) selecting a phrase representation which can be predefined, recorded as needed, or synthetically generated on demand; and,   (d) generating an audible utterance only over said selected channel based on said selected phrase representation while communicating over the first channel and being capable of receiving an audible input over the selected channel.   
   
   
       31 . The method of  claim 30 , wherein audio input from said plurality of channels are mixed. 
   
   
       32 . The method of  claim 30 , further including the step of:
 obtaining an internal representation of a phrase element associated with said selected phrase representation.   
   
   
       33 . The method of  claim 30 , said step of selecting a channel for generating an audible utterance includes the steps of:
 accessing a channel representation; and,   selecting a channel representation.   
   
   
       34 . The method of  claim 33 , wherein said channel representation is displayed on a graphical user interface. 
   
   
       35 . The method of  claim 30 , said step of selecting a phrase for generating an audible utterance includes the steps of:
 accessing a phrase representation; and,   selecting a phrase representation.   
   
   
       36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein said phrase representation is displayed on a graphical user interface. 
   
   
       37 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein audio input from said multiple channels are mixed. 
   
   
       38 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a graphical representation of audio on a second channel can be visually displayed to a user. 
   
   
       39 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein data for phrase elements and phrase representations is extracted from stored information on a host computer. 
   
   
       40 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the extracted data is appointment information from a calendar application. 
   
   
       41 . The method of  claim 40 , wherein text-to-speech generation or predefined audio vocabularies is used to vocalize the appointment information.