Thomas M Ball

US Patent:

6366933, Apr 2, 2002

Filed:

Oct 27, 1995

Appl. No.:

08/549359

Inventors:

Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Frederick Douglis - Somerset NJ

Assignee:

ATT Corp. - New York NY

International Classification:

G06F 1721

US Classification:

707511, 707513

Abstract:

A system for accessing documents contained in a remote repository, which change in content from version-to-version. The system allows users to specify lists of documents of interest. Based on the lists, the system maintains an archive, which contains a copy of one version of each listed document, and material from which the other versions can be reconstructed. The system periodically compares the archive with current versions of the documents located in the repository, and updates the archive, thereby maintaining the ability to reconstruct current versions. The system also monitors access to the versions by each user. When a user calls for a current version, the system presents the current version, and indicates what parts of the current version have not been previously accessed by the user.

US Patent:

6393107, May 21, 2002

Filed:

May 25, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/318140

Inventors:

Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Michael Abraham Benedikt - Chicago IL
Peter Andrew Mataga - Naperville IL
Carlos Miguel Puchol - Naperville IL
Kenneth G. Rehor - Berwyn IL
Curtis Duane Tuckey - Chicago IL

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H04M 164

US Classification:

379 8813, 379 671, 379 8817, 379 8822, 379908

Abstract:

A sender ( ) creates a voicemail message that includes a plurality of messaging elements that include embedded instructions that define a structure of the message. Other messaging elements may include textual fragments, audio fragments that refer to audio data files that are associated with the message, and/or references to textual fragments and/or audio fragments that are stored at specified locations. The instructions may define a hierarchical menu structure which, when the message is presented to the recipient ( ) by a messaging system ( ), offers the recipient different navigational choices from which the recipient may select and thus effect the information content of what is presented. The structured message is sent by the sender to the recipient at an address on a messaging system that stores the message and is capable of interpreting and assembling the messaging elements in accordance with the embedded instruction and playing-out the message to the recipient when the recipient accesses the system and retrieves the message from storage. The structured message may also include links to a specific destination, to which the messaging system establishes a connection if the link is selected by the recipient during play-out of the message.

US Patent:

6459774, Oct 1, 2002

Filed:

May 25, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/318441

Inventors:

Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Michael Abraham Benedikt - Chicago IL
Peter Andrew Mataga - Naperville IL
Carlos Miguel Puchol - Naperville IL
Kenneth G. Rehor - Berwyn IL
Curtis Duane Tuckey - Chicago IL

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H04M 164

US Classification:

379 671, 379 8813, 379 8817, 379 8818, 379 8822, 379 8825, 379908

Abstract:

A sender ( ) creates a voicemail message that includes a plurality of messaging elements that include embedded instructions that define a structure of the message. Other messaging elements may include textual fragments, audio fragments that refer to audio data files that are associated with the message, and/or references to textual fragments and/or audio fragments that are stored at specified locations. The instructions may define a hierarchical menu structure which, when the message is presented to the recipient ( ) by a messaging system ( ), offers the recipient different navigational choices from which the recipient may select and thus effect the information content of what is presented. The structured message is sent by the sender to the recipient at an address on a messaging system that stores the message and is capable of interpreting and assembling the messaging elements in accordance with the embedded instruction and playing-out the message to the recipient when the recipient accesses the system and retrieves the message from storage. The structured message may also include links to a specific destination, to which the messaging system establishes a connection if the link is selected by the recipient during play-out of the message.

US Patent:

6596030, Jul 22, 2003

Filed:

Feb 15, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/077444

Inventors:

Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Frederick Douglis - Somerset NJ

Assignee:

ATT Corp. - New York NY

International Classification:

G06F 1700

US Classification:

715511, 715513

Abstract:

A system for accessing documents contained in a remote repository, which change in content from version-to-version. The system allows users to specify lists of documents of interest. Based on the lists, the system maintains an archive, which contains a copy of one version of each listed document, and material from which the other versions can be reconstructed. The system periodically compares the archive with current versions of the documents located in the repository, and updates the archive, thereby maintaining the ability to reconstruct current versions. The system also monitors access to the versions by each user. When a user calls for a current version, the system presents the current version, and indicates what parts of the current version have not been previously accessed by the user.

US Patent:

6600736, Jul 29, 2003

Filed:

Mar 31, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/282895

Inventors:

Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Peter John Danielsen - Naperville IL
Peter Andrew Mataga - Naperville IL
Kenneth G. Rehor - Berwyn IL

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H04L 1266

US Classification:

370352, 379 8814

Abstract:

Interactive voice response (IVR) services are provided to an end user at a telephone terminal ( ) connected to the PSTN ( ) through a telephone/IP server ( ) that serves as an interface between the PSTN and an IP network ( ) such as the Internet. A first IVR service is provided by a web server ( ) running a service logic ( ) for that service, which produces pages formatted in a phone markup language (PML) in response to an HTTP request sent over the IP network by the telephone/IP server to the web server at the URL address associated with the service. Hyperlinks to a second IVR service offered on a web server ( ) at a different URL address are embedded and associated with a specific question or statement in a PML-formatted page produced by the first service. When the end user affirmatively responds to that statement or question through a verbal or touch-tone input, the telephone/IP server translates that response as a âclickâ on the hyperlink and establishes a virtual connection to the hyperlinked URL address of the web server providing the second service. Further, information associated with the end users interaction with the first service, such as his identity, PIN, and/or zip code, is transferred to the second service by means of a cookie, URL encoding or other information transference mechanism, to provide an audio experience that seamlessly transfers the end user from the first service to the second.

US Patent:

62228471, Apr 24, 2001

Filed:

Oct 8, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/999708

Inventors:

Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Glenn R. Bruns - Naperville IL

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

H04L 1228
H04L 1256

US Classification:

370410

Abstract:

An apparatus for retrieving data from a first network site for use by a second network site utilizes a template that specifies the location of the data within a response solicited from the first network site. The template is a mark-up document having a similar format to the response and thus, it is not an application program. A marker is included within the template to determine the location of the data within the response. A matching mechanism, which may be used with any template, is utilized to compare the template with the response to determine the exact location of the data within the response. The data may be retrieved when its location within the response is ascertained. Once retrieved, the data may be used by the second network site for display in a format that is specified by the second network site. Accordingly, data is located within the response with a template and not with a scanning application program.

US Patent:

57933693, Aug 11, 1998

Filed:

Oct 3, 1994

Appl. No.:

8/317081

Inventors:

David L. Atkins - Naperville IL
Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Stephen Gregory Eick - Naperville IL
Graham John Wills - Lisle IL

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

G06F 1900

US Classification:

345339

Abstract:

Apparatus for visualizing slices of transitive closures of entities having dependence relationships with one another. A preferred embodiment visualizes slices of programs. A display in a computer system includes reduced representations of the files, procedures, and lines making up a program. The user employs a pointing device to interactively select a reduced representation as the slice point and the apparatus computes the slice and changes the color of the reduced representations in the slice. The color of the reduced representation indicates the distance of the entity represented by the reduced representation from the slice point. The display may be rearranged so that files and procedures are ordered by distance from the slice point. Other aspects of the display include scaling the size of the reduced representation of a procedure to indicate the number of lines in the procedure and filling the reduced representation of the procedure according to the number of lines belonging to the slice which are contained in the procedure. A user may select open and closed representations of procedures.

US Patent:

62403915, May 29, 2001

Filed:

May 25, 1999

Appl. No.:

9/318450

Inventors:

Thomas J. Ball - Naperville IL
Michael Abraham Benedikt - Chicago IL
Peter Andrew Mataga - Naperville IL
Carlos Miguel Puchol - Naperville IL
Kenneth G. Rehor - Berwyn IL
Curtis Duane Tuckey - Chicago IL

Assignee:

Lucent Technologies Inc. - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

G10L 1100
G10L 1300
H04M 1110

US Classification:

704270

Abstract:

The method for assembling and presenting a structured electronic message begins when the sender creates a voicemail message that includes a plurality of messaging elements that include embedded instructions that define a structure of the message. Other messaging elements may include textual fragments, audio fragments that refer to audio data files that are associated with the message, and/or references to textual fragments and/or audio fragments that are stored at specified locations. The instructions may define a hierarchical menu structure which, when the message is presented to the recipient by a messaging system, offers the recipient different navigational choices from which the recipient may select and thus effect the information content of what is presented. The structured message is sent by the sender to the recipient at an address on a messaging system that stores the message and is capable of interpreting and assembling the messaging elements in accordance with the embedded instruction and playing-out the message to the recipient when the recipient accesses the system and retrieves the message from storage. The structured message may also include links to a specific destination, to which the messaging system establishes a connection if the link is selected by the recipient during play-out of the message.