System and method for providing particularized audible alerts

Abstract

A system and method of generating at least two distinctive auditory alerts upon receiving a transmission or telephone call at a device is described. Data indicative of a first plurality of sounds corresponding to a user of a device configured to receive the transmission or telephone call is accessed, such as from a memory. The first plurality of sounds is played at the device so as to identify a received transmission or telephone call being directed to the user. A telephone number, subscriber name or identifier associated with a transmitting or calling party of the transmission or telephone call is accessed. Data indicative of a second plurality of sounds designating the transmitting or calling party based on the subscriber name, telephone number or identifier is retrieved, such as from a data structure, and the second plurality of sounds is played at the device so as to identify the transmitting or calling party.

1 - 165 . (canceled) 
     
     
         166 . A method of generating a distinctive auditory alert upon receiving a telephone call at a device, the method comprising:
 storing a first plurality of sounds indicative of a user of the device, wherein data corresponds to a sequence of phonemes associated with the user, the device configured to receive a telephone call;   storing a second plurality of sounds indicative of a calling party of the received telephone call;   receiving at the device one of a selection between  1 ) the user and  2 ) the calling party;
 playing the first plurality of sounds in a sequence so as to identify the received telephone call being directed to the user in response to the user being selected, wherein the plurality of sounds are based on a sequence of phonemes associated with the user; and 
 in response to the calling party being selected: 
 a) accessing an identifier associated with the calling party of the received telephone call; 
 b) retrieving data indicative of the second plurality of sounds designating the calling party based on the identifier; and 
 c) playing the second plurality of sounds in a sequence so as to identify the calling party. 
   
     
     
         167 . The method of  claim 166 , wherein the retrieving includes applying a transformation based on the identifier. 
     
     
         168 . The method of  claim 167 , wherein the transformation comprises rules for arranging and/or parsing the identifier, or rules assigning phonic symbols based on the identifier. 
     
     
         169 . The method of  claim 166 , wherein accessing the identifier comprises automatically retrieving the identifier associated with the calling party from a signaling portion of the telephone call. 
     
     
         170 . The method of  claim 166 , additionally comprising automatically assigning a particular second plurality of sounds to the identifier of the calling party. 
     
     
         171 . The method of  claim 170 , additionally comprising storing the assigned particular second plurality of sounds and the corresponding identifier of the calling party in a memory. 
     
     
         172 . The method of  claim 166 , additionally comprising choosing the first plurality of sounds corresponding to the user prior to accessing the data indicative of the first plurality of sounds. 
     
     
         173 . The method of  claim 172 , wherein the choosing comprises receiving a user input. 
     
     
         174 . The method of  claim 173 , wherein the choosing further comprises applying transformations based on the user input. 
     
     
         175 . The method of  claim 172 , additionally comprising storing the chosen first plurality of sounds in a memory comprising a data structure indexed by the accessed identifier. 
     
     
         176 . A method of generating a distinctive auditory alert upon receiving a telephone call at a device, the method comprising:
 receiving, at a user interface corresponding with the device, a selection between 1) a user and 2) a calling party of a telephone call;   storing data indicative of a first plurality of sounds designating a user of a device, wherein the data corresponds to a sequence of phonemes associated with the user, the device configured to receive a telephone call;   playing, using a sound generator of the device, the first plurality of sounds in a sequence so as to identify a received telephone call being directed to the user in response to the user being selected, wherein the plurality of sounds are based on the sequence of phonemes;   accessing an identifier associated with the calling party of the telephone call; and   in response to the calling party being selected:
 providing data indicative of a second plurality of sounds designating the calling party based on the accessed identifier; and 
 playing the second plurality of sounds in a sequence using the sound generator so as to identify the calling party. 
   
     
     
         177 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein providing data indicative of the second plurality of sounds comprises indexing a data structure indexed by the accessed identifier, wherein the identifier comprises a telephone number or subscriber name associated with the calling party. 
     
     
         178 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein accessing the identifier associated with the calling party accesses a caller number identification (CNID), an automatic number identification (ANI), or a calling party's number (CPN). 
     
     
         179 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein providing data indicative of a second plurality of sounds comprises a transformation process based on the accessed identifier, the transformation process comprising rules for arranging and/or parsing a telephone number associated with the calling party, or rules assigning phonic symbols based on a subscriber name associated with the calling party. 
     
     
         180 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein the data indicative of a first plurality of sounds designating the user of the device corresponds to at least one of the user's phone number, device identification number, electronic address, user account, routing information, dialed number identification service and assigned label. 
     
     
         181 . The method of  claim 176 , wherein the identifier associated with the calling party corresponds to at least one of the calling party's phone number, device identification number, electronic address, user account, routing information, automatic number identification and assigned label. 
     
     
         182 . The method of  claim 176 , additionally comprising generating a third distinctive auditory alert indicative of a communication type comprising one of voice, text, short text message, reminder, email, picture and priority. 
     
     
         183 . A method using a telephonic device, the method comprising:
 producing an acoustic representation of a message, the acoustic representation comprising acoustic symbols, the acoustic symbols representing phonemes of a language, wherein the acoustic symbols comprise combinations of sounds, single sounds, and/or silence, and wherein the acoustic symbols are produced in a temporal order consistent with the language; and   assigning the combinations of sounds or the single sounds to the acoustic symbols.   
     
     
         184 . The method of  claim 183 , additionally comprising generating, using an audible alert/ringer, an acoustic representation of a message, wherein the message comprises information regarding an incoming call. 
     
     
         185 . The method of  claim 184 , wherein the information comprises a caller ID of the incoming call or the message comprises the name of an owner of the telephonic device. 
     
     
         186 . The method of  claim 183 , wherein the assigning comprises receiving user assigned combinations of sounds or the single sounds to the acoustic symbols.