Bizarre Patents
User-operated amusement apparatus for kicking the user's buttocks
An apparatus including a user-operated and controlled apparatus for self-infliction of repetitive blows to the user's buttocks by a plurality of elongated arms bearing flexible extensions that rotate under the user's control.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 5930337 | Dynamic message-mailbox size variation A messaging system (100) automatically correctly resizes users' mailboxes (160-161) based on information gathered through periodic activity audits (206). The gathered information includes frequency of login to the messaging system and time of last login f... | 07/27/1999 |
| 5901218 | Telephone set capable of initiating facsimile communication without distinctive ringing upon reception of facsimile call signal A telephone set incorporated in a facsimile system using two or more telephone numbers called by respective call signals having different patterns, which are stored in a pattern data memory when the call signals are received and detected in a registering ... | 05/04/1999 |
| 5878116 | Method of locating a lost pet, person or object A method of locating a lost item via a provided telephone service, using an identification number given on both an identification card held by the owner of the item, and on an identification tag worn or attached to the item. A telephone number is given on... | 03/02/1999 |
| 5870461 | On-hold messaging system and method An on-hold messaging system is provided for use with a business telephone system having an on-hold audio input. The system includes an optical disc having one or more messages recorded thereon, an optical disc player having an audio output, and a connecti... | 02/09/1999 |
| 5825856 | Interactive voice response system for banking by telephone An interactive voice response system provides voice prompts that supply information to a user, request data from the user, and present the user with a plurality of selectable options. The user can first select one or more options by providing one or more ... | 10/20/1998 |
| 5805673 | Method and apparatus for reliable access to audio and facsimile message storage and retrieval system Reliable access to audio and facsimile message storage and retrieval systems is accomplished by employing a listening procedure to differentiate voice message clients from fax clients and, upon identifying a fax client, performing an extended listening pr... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5805772 | Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for performing high resolution N-best string hypothesization Disclosed are systems, methods and articles of manufacture for performing high resolution N-best string hypothesization during speech recognition. A received input signal, representing a speech utterance, is processed utilizing a plurality of recognition ... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5805674 | Security arrangement and method for controlling access to a protected system The security arrangement includes a computer processor unit coupled to a subscriber information memory to verify whether the user is an authorized user. The subscriber information memory stores subscriber voice information and variable security level info... | 09/08/1998 |
| 5802167 | Hands-free device for use with a cellular telephone in a car to permit hands-free operation of the cellular telephone A hands-free device is adapted for use with a cellular telephone in a car to permit hands-free operation of the cellular telephone, and includes a main terminal, a secondary terminal, and a microphone provided on one of the main and secondary terminals. T... | 09/01/1998 |
| 5796818 | Dynamic optimization of handsfree microphone gain A system and method for dynamically optimizing the analog gain for a microphone in a telephone terminal operable in handsfree mode. The system makes use of a process whereby a relatively inexpensive analog to digital converter is used to meet gain require... | 08/18/1998 |
| 5793844 | Telephone having an answering machine A telephone having an answering function includes a receiving section for receiving a voice signal, a command signal, and a receiving signal from a telephone line, and providing the voice signal, the command signal, and the receiving signal as respective ... | 08/11/1998 |
| 5793856 | Switch system for switching extension numbers A switch system for switching extension numbers, which can be changed by a subscriber having the extension number of the BBG (Basic Business Group) without the operation by a switch operator, is connected with a plurality of telephone sets (TEL) which bel... | 08/11/1998 |
| 5787152 | Computer communications device A computer peripheral device for voice and synthesized voice communication is disclosed. The device serves in place of a telephone handset, in a telephone mode of operation, and as a remote-control computer-based media center in a voice control mode of op... | 07/28/1998 |
| 5784436 | Automatic telephone recorder system incorporating a personal computer having a sound handling feature An automatic telephone recorder includes a computer equipped with a sound signal handling feature and a digital recording medium such as a disk drive. The sound signal handling feature includes an audio input, an audio output and programmable means for se... | 07/21/1998 |
| 5784457 | Multimedia communication apparatus and method with audio codec selection and audio mating when setting codes A communication apparatus having a plurality of audio CODEC and communication method thereof. When a coding mode for transmitting audio information is set, the audio CODEC corresponding to the coding mode is selected and switched. When the coding mode of ... | 07/21/1998 |
| 5781614 | Message retrieval via alternative access A multi-media messaging system (106) provides multi-media message access capability to non-subscriber message recipients (126) who lack multi-media message-reception capability. When a message originator (100) who is a subscriber requests a message to be ... | 07/14/1998 |
| 5774541 | Optically-coupled data access arrangement and transhybrid Isolation and interconnection of a telephone network of tip and ring lines and the analog ports of a modem are achieved with a transhybrid that incorporates optically-coupled isolation stages. Optical isolators directly connect to the tip and ring lines t... | 06/30/1998 |
| 5771276 | Voice templates for interactive voice mail and voice response system Method and a system for a user-customizable interactive voice mail/voice response system are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, an interactive voice mail/voice response ("IVR") system of the present invention enables a user to build and operate custom ... | 06/23/1998 |
| 5764746 | Holding party call back subscriber feature A first subscriber activates a hold call back subscriber feature in response to a second subscriber placing the first subscriber on call hold. After the activation, the first subscriber goes onhook. When the second subscriber later wishes to take the firs... | 06/09/1998 |
| 5761275 | Telephone answering machine with audio signal compression/expansion circuit An improved telephone answering machine having a codec circuit 31 for converting an audio signal input/output from/to a telephone line 3 from analog to digital or digital to analog, a DSP 32 and a memory 33 for storing the supplied digital audio signal. T... | 06/02/1998 |
| 5757906 | Method of canceling echoes and echo canceler An artificial echo signal generator generates an artificial echo signal from received voice signal data stored in a first data memory and a presumed impulse response outputted from a tap coefficient updater. The artificial echo signal is subtracted from a... | 05/26/1998 |
| 5757897 | Telephone switch call control unit There is disclosed an apparatus for providing automatic call distribution and auto-attendant capabilities to a digital telephone switch not having those capabilities. Digital interface circuitry is provided to emulate the appearance of a digital telephone... | 05/26/1998 |
| 5751791 | Network based multimedia messaging method and system A method and system is disclosed for handling multimedia messages when the intended recipient is unavailable. The telecommunication based method and system allows a party to leave a greeting message which will be furnished to a caller when the party is un... | 05/12/1998 |
| 5751760 | Controller for a telephone system with code screening of incoming calls A remotely accessible telephone control system for connection to a telephone network and method of handling telephonic communications. The system includes a detector for detecting signals on received via the network. A signal generator is responsive to co... | 05/12/1998 |
| 5751905 | Statistical acoustic processing method and apparatus for speech recognition using a toned phoneme system A method and apparatus for acoustic signal processing of speech recognition, the method comprising the following components: 1) Decompose each syllable into two phonemes of comparable length and complexity, the first one being a preme, and the second one ... | 05/12/1998 |
| 5748709 | Programmable answering machine with multiple voice boxes and caller ID A method and apparatus for programming a home answering machine having multiple storage devices for individual voice mail boxes and capable of receiving "Caller ID" data. The answering machine is programmed either by the caller or the user so that the "Ca... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5748716 | Telephonically programmable apparatus To initialize a remote control device for use in a particular installation, initialization parameters are entered relating to the relationship between user input codes and equipment to be controlled. In the preferred embodiment involving video recorder eq... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5748712 | Facsimile system of distinctive ringing type capable of automatic facsimile reception even when received call signal calls telephone number for telephone reception A facsimile system of distinctive ringing type capable of selective telephone and facsimile communications with a remote party calling one of telephone numbers used by the system such that the telephone numbers are called by respective call signals having... | 05/05/1998 |
| 5745562 | Telephone station voice announce device and method The invention provides a telephone station having a voice announce device. The telephone station includes user interface devices and a telephone station controller coupled to the user interface devices. The telephone station controller selects one of the ... | 04/28/1998 |
| 5745563 | Telephone subscriber line circuit, components and methods A subscriber line circuit for a telephone network having current controlled switches and current sources. Methods of making and using the components are also disclosed.... | 04/28/1998 |
| 5737396 | Interactive medication data telephony system Interactive medication data systems and methods are provided which include an automated system for providing information pursuant to telephonic and electronic requests from callers. The system includes a database containing information for a variety of me... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5737488 | Speech recognizer In order to recognize input speech by analyzing the input speech at a predetermined time interval, extracting feature vectors and calculating likelihood value of a reference pattern model of each category to be recognized. A first probability calculation ... | 04/07/1998 |
| 5734703 | Hybrid circuit and data communication apparatus The balancing bridge circuit is provided between a four-wire circuit and a two-wire circuit, to provide a thin-type balancing bridge circuit having satisfactory transmission characteristics and a MODEM and an exchange and a repeater of a telephone circuit... | 03/31/1998 |
| 5732130 | System and method of providing enhanced subscriber services in a multi-node telecommunications network A system and method for providing advanced voice services to subscribers of a telecommunications network are disclosed. The system comprises a local switch connected to the telecommunications network for providing two-way communication between the subscri... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5732132 | Telephone updating via network provided information A communication terminal apparatus is so adapted that when an outgoing call to the terminal of a desired party ends in failure, it is determined whether the cause of the failure is a change in the terminal number of the party's terminal. This determinatio... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5732134 | Doubletalk detection by means of spectral content A method and apparatus are described for detecting doubletalk in an acoustic echo canceller. The present invention examines the spectral characteristic of the near-end audio signal and the spectral characteristics of the far-end audio signal and determine... | 03/24/1998 |
| 5729604 | Safety switch for communication device A communication device such as a portable wireless terminal for a telephone system having a proximity sensor to automatically switch the receiving transducer from receiver mode to loudspeaker mode. The proximity sensor is positioned in the handset such th... | 03/17/1998 |
| 5724420 | Automatic call distribution with answer machine detection apparatus and method 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 swi... | 03/03/1998 |
| 5724410 | Two-way voice messaging terminal having a speech to text converter A two-way voice messaging terminal for communicating with a receiving terminal which may or may not be capable of reproducing a voice message transmitted from the voice messaging terminal. A voice message is digitally encoded and stored in a memory. A rec... | 03/03/1998 |
| 5724407 | Network based multimedia messaging method for non-CCITT compliant switches A method is disclosed for messaging multimedia calls with a non-CCITT compliant switch when the intended recipient is unavailable. The method is used in connection with a telecommunication network which has an identified multimedia server. According to th... | 03/03/1998 |
