Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 21
Claim 1
Independent Claim
333 words
An apparatus for controlling voice and data communications in an office, comprising: an interface to one or more telephone devices, wherein voice communications are provided at least in part with the telephone devices; a packet bus interface to one or more computers, wherein data communications are provided at least in part with the computers over a packet bus through the packet bus interface; a wide area network interface, wherein voice and data communications to or from the apparatus are provided from or to one or more telecommunications networks via the wide area network interface; a processor, wherein the processor controls the apparatus, including the control of voice and data communications over a plurality of communication paths in the apparatus; at least one TDM bus defining a predetermined number of channels and selectively coupling voice and data communication data streams to and/or from the one or more telecommunications networks, wherein the data streams include data communication data streams from the packet bus that are protocol processed and provided to the one or more telecommunications networks via the at least one TDM bus; a multiplexing circuit selectively providing data streams to and/or from particular channels of the at least one TDM bus; a digital signal processing resource (“DSP”), wherein the DSP comprises one or more digital signal processing elements, wherein the DSP receives one or more data streams via the multiplexing circuit that are provided to and/or from the at least one TDM bus, wherein, under control of the processor, the DSP selectively taps into a first one of the one or more data streams provided by the multiplexing circuit to and/or from the at least one TDM bus, wherein the first one of the one or more data streams is directed over a first one of the communication paths in the apparatus and provides a voice communication that does not involve signal processing by the DSP while the first one of the one or more data streams is concurrently being processed by the DSP.
Claim 2
Independent Claim
333 words
An apparatus for controlling voice and data communications in an office, comprising: an interface to one or more telephone devices, wherein voice communications are provided at least in part with the telephone devices; a packet bus interface to one or more computers, wherein data communications are provided at least in part with the computers over a packet bus through the packet bus interface; a wide area network interface, wherein voice and data communications to or from the apparatus are provided from or to one or more telecommunications networks via the wide area network interface; a processor, wherein the processor controls the apparatus, including the control of voice and data communications over a plurality of communication paths in the apparatus; at least one TDM bus defining a predetermined number of channels and selectively coupling voice and data communication data streams to and/or from the one or more telecommunications networks, wherein the data streams include data communication data streams from the packet bus that are protocol processed and provided to the one or more telecommunications networks via the at least one TDM bus; a multiplexing circuit selectively providing data streams to and/or from particular channels of the at least one TDM bus; a digital signal processing resource (“DSP”), wherein the DSP comprises one or more digital signal processing elements, wherein the DSP receives one or more data streams via the multiplexing circuit that are provided to and/or from the at least one TDM bus, wherein, under control of the processor, the DSP selectively taps into a first one of the one or more data streams provided by the multiplexing circuit to and/or from the at least one TDM bus, wherein the first one of the one or more data streams is directed over a first one of the communication paths in the apparatus and provides a voice communication that does not involve signal processing by the DSP while the first one of the one or more data streams is concurrently being processed by the DSP.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
46 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein one or more packet buses are coupled to one or more computers external to the apparatus, wherein data streams from the one or more packet buses are coupled to the at least one TDM bus by the multiplexing circuit.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
21 words
The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein data streams from the one or more packet buses are processed by the DSP.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
35 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DSP processes the first one of the data streams for a call to a user, wherein the DSP converts speech in the first data stream to text.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
18 words
The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the text is directed to the user as an electronic message.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
18 words
The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the text is directed to the user as a data file.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
33 words
The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the apparatus includes an electronic mail server, wherein the text is directed to the user as an electronic mail message provided by the electronic mail server.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
19 words
The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the text is transmitted to the particular user over the packet bus.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
20 words
The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the text is transmitted to the particular user over a wide area network.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
16 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DSP performs a voice or speech recognition process.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
17 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DSP performs a facsimile or modem call detection process.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
14 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DSP performs a data compression process.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
30 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DSP performs a packetizing process, wherein the data stream is processed to be transmitted in the form of one or more packets.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
30 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a predetermined set of users are defined so that data streams for the predetermined set of users is automatically processed by the DSP.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
27 words
The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the predetermined set of users have data streams that are directed into voice mail and concurrently processed by the DSP.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
40 words
The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processing by the DSP converts the data stream into a form that can be electronically transmitted to the predetermined set of users by a wide area network or a local area network.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
41 words
The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the DSP is coupled to channels of the at least one TDM bus with the multiplexing circuit, wherein the multiplexing circuit controls the DSP so that the DSP may concurrently process the data stream.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
30 words
The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein one or more other data streams are coupled from the packet bus to the at least one TDM bus with the multiplexing circuit.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
27 words
The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the one or more other data streams are coupled from the at least one TDM bus to the telecommunications network.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
17 words
The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the DSP processes the one or more other data streams.